Martinez announces plans for revamped, revitalized waterfront
MARTINEZ - Martinez may be known for many things, but its waterfront might not immediately jump to mind. City officials are planning on changing that perception in the near future.
"A restaurant," said Mayor Brianne Zorn, for starters. "We'll have a fully remastered harbormaster office. We'll have an updated bait shop. We will have an environmental center and conference center and a café."
Looking through the glare on her laptop, Zorn can see a future the city of Martinez has talked about for a long time now. A refurbished marina, an improved waterfront, and better access to the wildlife refuge and parkland that surrounds it all.
"And it's got some ideas about, you know, what it is that we're envisioning this area to look like," she said of the plans.
The city is now finalizing a blueprint for approval by the state, and the project would - by necessity, be transformative..
"What the plan dictates is that we actually have to raise this whole area by several feet and they don't specify how we're gonna do that," Zorn said. "They just know that due to projections from sea level rise building at this elevation is not in our best interest."
"So this is Cush," said Richard, pulling the young puppy from his car in a marina parking lot. "We found her at two months old out here at the Martinez Marina in the dumpster."
Just as the Martinez Waterfront may be heading for a transition, it's currently home to a collection of people who find themselves in between places.
"Losing my job at Amazon," Richard said. "Tried to do side work as a mechanic. It's just been hard since then. I've been out here since December."
Richard was born and raised in Contra Costa County. He's among those staying here until he finds work again.
"Sometimes on the weekends, we come out here and do barbecue with each other and try to scrounge up our money to buy some food for each other," he said of those living on the waterfront. "It's a beautiful place. I know I agree with developing out here. Yes, I am worried about losing my spot, but honestly it's very underestimated out here."
The city says it's working with the county on assistance for those living here, but construction is not imminent. The improvements, and any development, could only come after massive infrastructure upgrades.
"First step is the fishing pier," Zorn said of the rebuild. "Second step is the eastern seawall and the outer sheet pile wall around the marina."
What's driving the city's additional room to maneuver on the waterfront is actually a change in how they dredge the marina on the Carquinez strait. For years, the waste was vacuumed up and simply dumped into holding ponds.
With that policy having changed a few years ago, Martinez is hoping to clean up the forming dumping areas and incorporate them with the rest of the waterfront. The scope of the project doesn't threaten to upend the area more than it needs to, though bigger things may come later down the line.
"We are one of the cities along the Carquinez strait that has been proposed for ferry service that connects us to the other cities in the region, and to the greater San Francisco Bay area by boat," Zorn said. "We're connected by rail. We could also be connected by Bart. They're all of these opportunities for us to be connected to the region."
It's an ambitious project that hopes to better connect Martinez to the water, and its past glory as a regional hub.