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Mare
Island Lease Agreement - 2.2002
Lennar
files for
bankruptcy
at
Mare Island
6/8/09
Green Ships
Report
2008
Contact Us
Background
Mare Island
Heritage
Lennar
Frustrations
New
Potential
Impact
Proposition
1B
Mission
Short Sea Shipping (WWS January 2008)
Please
vist
GreenShips.org
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WATER IS AMERICA’S 21ST CENTURY HIGHWAY
"Lucrative cargo moving at a
snail's pace on crowded freeways might reach its destination more quickly on
the USA's original highway — the water. That's the view of some federal
transportation strategists as they study ways to accommodate the surging
growth of truck traffic without overwhelming an already challenged interstate
highway system." -- Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
BUT WE NEED
PUBLIC SUPPORT TO RESCUE OUR SHIPBUILDING HERITAGE FROM CONDO DEVELOPMENT
Three people can help us:
· Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
The governor’s support for $3.1 Billion to reduce California traffic
congestion makes shipbuilding to take trucks off the roads a priority. Tell
the governor : we need Mare Island to build the
ships in California.
Contact the governor’s office here.
· Lt Governor John
Garamendi
John Garamendi chairs the California State Lands Commission, which regulates
drydock land use that needs to be liberated for shipbuilding.
Contact John Garamendi here.
· US Congressman George
Miller
George Miller represents Vallejo/Mare Island and could support shipbuilding
and maintenance dredging to provide drydock access.
Contact George Miller here.
BACKGROUND
Santa Maria Shipowning & Trading, based in Santa Rosa, California needs
your help re-establishing shipbuilding at the former Mare Island Naval
Shipyard at Vallejo, California. Santa Maria is asking for public support so
that the California State Lands Commission will enforce legal mandates for
marine use and shipbuilding at Mare Island. Since 2003, this mandate has been
ignored by the Lennar corporation and the city of Vallejo in their efforts to
block shipbuilding. The reason is that Lennar and Vallejo support real estate
development over shipbuilding and jobs.
See:
 Shipbuilding
business to Mare Island (1/17/2006)
Sadly this comes at
a time when billions will soon be invested constructing American built ships
to relieve traffic congestion on US roads and highways:
· $250 Million allocated for new ferries in the San Francisco Bay
area.
· $3.1 Billion to reduce traffic along California freight
corridors that will require new ships.
· $2 Billion in federal loan guarantees for new US-built coastal
ships has been approved by the house and is now before the US Senate.
There are four drydocks at Mare Island that have been vacant for over ten
years. They can be mobilized to build these ships and create new economic
development in California. But without State of California intervention it
won’t happen, because:
1) Lennar imposes a shipbuilding ban to further its real estate interests
2) a majority of the Vallejo City Council opposes shipbuilding inspite of
Vallejo voters’ support to re-establish shipbuilding at Mare Island.
See:
Forum planned to
discuss attempt to build shipyard. (6/8/06)
Vallejo
voters support re-opening Mare Island to build ships (6/6/06)
With the collapse of the housing market, economic
bonanza hopes for Lennar have evaporated. The company recently reported huge
economic losses so there is no homebuilding and no shipbuilding.
FTR: Lennar posts record $513.9M 3q loss ( Yahoo Biz 9/25/07)
New US and California initiatives support new shipbuilding because ships can reduce:
· pollution
· foreign oil dependency
· trucking congestion on US roads & highways
A Mare Island shipyard can also defuse the environmental time
bomb threatening
the San Francisco Bay, if Congressman George Miller will support resumption
of maintenance dredging at Mare Island.
Santa Maria seeks the assistance of Congressman George Miller to add his
voice in support of Mare Island shipbuilding and also to authorize the US
Army Corps of Engineers to resume maintenance dredging at Mare Island. This
can free up one drydock to serve as an emergency impound for twenty world war
two-era ships that are anchored at nearby Suisun Bay. The ships, under the
jurisdiction of the US Maritime administration (MARAD), are leaking
contaminants into waterways and may be in danger of sinking.
See:
Groups sue to
force feds to remove “ghost fleet” from Suisan Bay
American Shipper (10/31/07)
Emergency drydock facilities must be established for these ships right away
as well as maintenance dredging to access mare island drydocks.
Unfortunately, the Lennar corporation prohibits servicing these ships at Mare
Island - even though the property is under the California State Lands
Commission jurisdiction.
Letter to Congressman George Miller
DON’T LET LENNAR CORPORATION REAL
ESTATE INTERESTS COME AHEAD OF THE INTERESTS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE UNITED
STATES: SANTA MARIA NEEDS YOUR HELP! PLEASE CONTACT US
Mare Island Naval Shipyard’s National Heritage
Mare Island is
located on the western edge of the City of Vallejo in southwestern Solano
County in Northern California. It is approximately 30 miles northeast of San
Francisco in the North Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, and
approximately 60 miles from Sacramento, California’s state capital. Mare
Island is approximately 3.5 miles long and one mile wide. [Map]
The shipyard was established by the Navy in 1854 and was known as Naval
Magazine, NSY Mare Island. The shipyard’s primary missions were to maintain,
overhaul, and refuel ships, including nuclear-powered ships; provide
logistical support for ships and service craft; and provide services and
materials for other Navy functions. During its tenure as the Navy’s oldest
base on the west coast, Mare Island built 512 ships and repaired hundreds
more. Those ships, both great and obscure, fought in every conflict since.
Mare Island’s first ship, the paddle-wheeled gunboat Saginaw, was launched before the Civil War, in 1859, and its last
ship, the nuclear submarine USS Drum,
was launched in 1970 when our country was divided over the Vietnam war. These
vessels also included the small ferryboat Pinafore,
which chugged between Mare Island and Vallejo for 30 years starting in the
1890's, and the battleship USS
California, the only battleship built on the West Coast.
During World War II the shipyard quickly set a record that was never broken,
building the destroyer U.S.S. Ward,
in 17 1/2 days. In addition to the Ward,
Mare Island built 17 submarines, 4 subtenders, 31 destroyer escorts, 33 small
craft, and more than 300 landing craft. In the 1960’s the decision was made to
build nuclear submarines at Mare Island. The USS Sargo was the first, with 16 more following, ending with the
launch of the USS Drum in 1970.
The 4,351 acre facility included shipyard and
hospital areas which in the mid 1950s employed 13,000 civilian workers, down
from Mare Island’s high point in World War II, when the shipyard population
reached 46,000. Drydocks, cranes, waste-handling facilities, and offices were
located at the shipyard. Activities supporting nuclear power propulsion
systems were performed in accordance with the requirements and authority of
the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a joint DOE and US Department of Navy
program responsible for all activities relating to naval nuclear propulsion.
There are 996 buildings with 10.5 million square feet of space, 4 dry docks,
20 ship berths, 2 shipbuilding ways, 3 finger piers, 21 large industrial
sites, a school, 2 day care centers, medical clinic, 3 fire stations, a golf
course, 2 athletic fields, 3 swimming pools, 9 tennis courts, riding stables...
In 1993, the Department of Defense (DoD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)
Commission recommended the closure of Mare Island NSY in the "third
round" (BRAC 3) of military closures. The operational closure of Mare
Island NSY was completed in April 1996.
GIVING Mare Island Land To Lennar Frustrates Shipbuilding, New
Jobs and Contributes to Fiscal Crisis:
At the time Vallejo City officials promised to revive shipbuilding at Mare
Island, but instead they agreed to donate over 600 acres of prime real estate
to one of the nation’s biggest homebuilders, the Lennar Corporation. Lennar
recently reported over $500 million in losses from the housing slump and has
stopped building houses on Mare Island.
The Mare Island drydocks are located on coastal lands that belong to the
State of California and administered by the California State Lands Commission
(CSLC). CSLC mandates “marine” use for the drydocks. These mandates were
enacted into California law while real estate development of the coastal and
drydock properties is specifically prohibited. However, State Lands and
Vallejo gave Lennar “temporary title” to coastal lands and the drydocks until
the California Department of Toxic Substances Control certified the drydocks
and other properties free of contaminants. At that point, the land is to be
transferred to California ownership with Vallejo as the owner’s
representative. This certification has been available for the Mare Island
drydock lands since 2006, but neither Vallejo nor State Lands has acted.
Lennar Opposes Shipbuilding At Mare
Island
Since 2003, Lennar has sought to frustrate shipbuilding uses at Mare Island
with the support of Vallejo officials and acquiescence of California
State Lands officials. Two separate lease negotiations with Santa
Maria Shipowning & Trading Inc, were rejected:
2003 Lease negotiations are sabotaged when Lennar’s Tom Sheaff refuses to
sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement(NDA). The NDA is a
standard business document that would allow Santa Maria to provide Lennar
with proprietary financial information in order to lease drydock property.
Under the NDA, Lennar would promise to keep the information confidential.
Sheaff refused to sign the document and later claimed Santa Maria refused to
provide Lennar with requested financial information.
2005-2006. Negotiations are again sabotaged after over a year of delays when
Lennar insists on a gag order so the public will not learn about delaying
tactics. After the intervention of former Vallejo Community Development
Director, Al DaSilva, negotiations for a non-binding letter of intent drag on
for over a year. In the Fall of 2005, Santa Maria receives an inquiry for a
multi-ship order from Europe: ships that can be built at Mare Island. Lennar
refuses to end delays in lease negotiations. After the ship order is lost,
Lennar and Santa Maria agree on all outstanding issues so Tom Sheaff’s
negotiators are forced to invent a new obstacle. Lennar demands that Santa
Maria be prevented from disclosing terms of the agreement- including lack of
progress - to government officials, the news media and the general public.
When Santa Maria refuses, Vallejo Community Development Director, Craig
Whittom, warns the refusal to submit to Lennar’s gag order will kill the
deal. Sheaff’s negotiator makes the same threat by phone. Later, Whittom and
Lennar say lease rejection was based on a lack of financing by Santa Maria.
Santa Maria had met all Lennar financial requirements during the 2005-2006
negotiations.
See:
Lennar accused of
attempting to block shipbuilding business on M.I. (4/23/06)
As a result of the recent housing slump, Lennar has stopped building houses
on Mare Island and there is no shipbuilding. In 2006, a poll of Vallejo
voters found that 65% supported re-establishing shipbuilding at Mare Island , but most Vallejo City Council members and
officials sided with Lennar and against Santa Maria.
Vallejo
voters support to re-opening Mare Island to build cargo ships (6/6/2006)
Concessions To Lennar Contribute To Vallejo Fiscal Crisis &
City Service Cutbacks
“I am curious of why 1500+ homes are being built on Mare Island,
but no jobs being generated: but that disappointment comes from this City
Council having a different vision and goals for Vallejo, then I have and that
is OK, because that is why we have a political world. My ideas are from the
past and I am just a "good old boy" and I can live with that.”---
Former Vallejo Mayor Terry Curtola, October, 2007
In 2007, Vallejo faced a fiscal crisis. The cause - revenue shortfalls partly
caused by concessions to Lennar, which include:
· Donating 600 acres of Mare Island real
estate to Lennar without getting compensation
· Losing millions of dollars in revenue from the use of Mare
Island dredge ponds because of Lennar opposition (see Golovich analysis
below).
· Lennar’s veto of shipbuilding and other industrial uses costing
Vallejo new jobs and economic development.
· Loss of millions in Mare Island leases: City officials
negotiate for lease revenue to go to Lennar not Vallejo.
The resulting loss of revenues created a fiscal crisis in Vallejo, because
the promised economic bonanza from Lennar failed to materialize.The
result is cutbacks in services, loss of city worker jobs and the present
attempt to get rid of its unionized firefighters-all because of Lennar -type
deals.
Lennar Posted a Record $513.9M
3Q loss in 2007
HUGE NEW SHIPBUILDING
POTENTIAL FOR CALIFORNIA AND THE UNITED STATES
In February, 2007, Santa Maria president Stas Margaronis,
testified before a House of Representatives Transportation Committee looking
into supporting new US-built ships to take trucks off US roads and highways.
See:
Santa
Maria Congressional Testimony, February 15, 2007
Margaronis testified that new ‘short sea’ or coastal ships could institute a
national system of trucking by water. Ships could transport numerous
truckloads on short and long-haul routes. This could
take thousands of trucks off US roads and freeways so as to:
· Reduce truck congestion along
Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf, Great Lakes and Mississippi river corridors.
· Cut air pollution and the effects of global warming, because
ships reduce diesel fuel consumption and pollution by 50% using low-sulfur
diesel engines.
· Reduce foreign oil dependency, because eliminating trucking
along coastal routes by ships will result in less fuel consumption.
California Impact
Santa Maria has worked with various US ports and agencies to develop a new
California seaway relieving trucking congestion at the ports of Oakland, Los
Angeles and Long Beach and creating a possible container shipping line to
relieve congestion between Northern and Southern California along the I-5
corridor:
· Oakland to Port of Stockton: build
three ships to eliminate 150 x 3 =450 containerized truckloads along the #580
corridor eastbound + 450 empty containers going westbound back to Oakland =
eliminating 900 daily truck trips.
· LA/Long Beach ports to Port of San Diego: build ten ships to
eliminate 150 x 10 = 1,500 daily container loads along the #710; #405 and
other Southern California freeways + 1,500 empty containers returning back to
LA/Long Beach = eliminating 3,000 daily truck trips to and from LA/Long
Beach.
· LA/Long Beach to Port Hueneme (Ventura County) build three
ships to eliminate 150 x 3 =450 outbound + 450 inbound trucks = eliminating
900 daily trucks trips to and from LA/Long Beach.
· New San Francisco Bay Area ferries can eliminate millions of
car trips along Northern California roads per year.
New California and US Funding For
Shipbuilding 1-2-3
1) $2 billion in US
shipbuilding guarantees proposed. As a result of testimony by Santa Maria and many other maritime
supporters led by the Coastwise Coalition, based in Washington, DC, the House
of Representatives has passed the Short Sea Shipping Transportation
initiative to provide guarantees for building $2 billion in new shipbuilding.
This could include Mare Island shipbuilding — if Lennar/Vallejo obstacles are
lifted.
See:
HR 3221 -- maritime transportation
2) $250 million in California
funding for new Bay Area ferry system. See below—new ferries could also be
built at Mare Island.
In October the Vallejo Times Herald reported:
Hailing a new system of ferries that
will keep the Bay Area moving after a disaster, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
announced Monday he had signed a bill creating a new transportation authority
with the power to wrest the Alameda and Vallejo ferry services from local
control.
Senate Bill 976 creates the Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority
and gives it $250 million from Proposition 1B that state voters approved in
2006. The authority will return to the Legislature by 2009 with a new
region-wide ferry management plan.
In a throwback to the decades before the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge
were built in the 1930s, the bill also is expected to help re-establish ferry
commuting as a popular alternative to driving across the area's toll bridges.
"Ever since those two bridges were put up in the '30s, water transit has
been eviscerated," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said the
plan is to boost ferry ridership from the current 4 million trips a year to
12 million by 2025.
--Vallejo
Times Herald, 10/23/07
In the news:
Bay to get new ferry system
3) The maritime portion of $3.1
billion from California Proposition 1B earmarked
for traffic congestion mitigation can finance Mare Island shipbuilding. The fund is designed to
relieve traffic congestion and improve air quality along major trade
corridors, improve freight rail facilities, and enhance the movement of goods
from port to marketplace. See details below
Governor Kicks Off Strategic Growth Plan Improvements To State's
Highways, Streets, Roads
In San Diego Governor Schwarzenegger spoke at the groundbreaking of the first
project funded by Proposition
1B, kicking off Strategic Growth Plan (SGP) projects statewide to improve
California's transportation infrastructure. Governor Schwarzenegger
championed Proposition 1B, which voters passed last year. This is the first
of several events the Governor is expected to attend this week celebrating
the start of Proposition 1B-funded projects.
Learn more about the Governor's
action on legislation
And billions more in improvements are
coming to keep all of California moving.
Proposition 1B provides $20 billion to:
· Relieve congestion: $4.5 billion to
expand capacity, enhance operations, and improve travel times in
high-congestion travel corridors.
· Improve public transit: $4.0 billion for public transit, intercity
and commuter rail, and waterborne transit operations.
· Enhance sea, land, and airport infrastructure: $3.1 billion to
relieve traffic congestion and improve air quality along major trade
corridors, improve freight rail facilities, and enhance the movement of goods
from port to marketplace.
· Augment the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP):
$2.0 billion to augment funds for STIP, a five-year capital improvement
program for state and regional transportation projects.
· $1 billion to the State Air Resources Board for emission
reductions related to the movement of goods (also shown under sea, land and
airport infrastructure).
SOURCE: Elizabeth A. Perry, Deputy Communications
Director, Office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
MARE ISLAND: LOST ECONOMIC
OPPORTUNITIES
--Stan Golovich
(former Mare Island Shipyard employee)
Prior to the 1996 closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the employees
organized an effort entitled SOS, Save Our Shipyard. They appealed to Federal
and State legislators and President Clinton with letters and emails. After
the decision to close Mare Island, the Federal Government implemented a plan
to sustain economic vitality and assure job growth opportunities with a reuse
plan that intended to sustain the industrial characteristics of Mare Island
and initiate growth opportunities with commercial business enterprises.
Numerous community meetings were held at JFK Library to give the Vallejo
community an overview of the reuse plan. In 1998, the City of Vallejo formed
a partnership with Lennar Corporation, a home builder
from Miami.
Lennar Real Estate Development
The City gave 650 acres to Lennar in exchange for some infrastructure
improvements specific to Mare Island only. The Lennar plan called for about
1200 homes to be built on Mare Island. Only about 200 of these homes have
been built and now, in the present nationwide homebuilding crisis, home
building is stalled on Mare Island.
Dredge Pond Potential
Mare Island has 500+ acres of dredge spoils impounding ponds on the Western
shore, and the continued use of these ponds to accept dredged materials from
various Bay Area sites to provide a continuous revenue stream of millions of
dollars to the City of Vallejo was promulgated by Weston Solutions. Lennar
stopped the dredge ponds reuse with a compensation
to Weston. Mare Island's 4 drydocks were also to be reused to generate
revenue to the City of Vallejo, but Lennar was given temporary title to the
properties by the City of Vallejo after the State Lands Commission gave title
to the City. These are public benefit properties by law, and Lennar has
failed to lease any of these properties for the intended uses.
Mission
Our mission is to build a coalition of support from former employees, City of
Vallejo legislators past and present, and members of the Vallejo community to
petition the State Lands Commission to rescind the entitlement held by Lennar
and allow the properties to revert to the City of Vallejo to allow direct
negotiations with businesses in the heavy marine trades such as shipbuilding
and port operations. Mare Island’s maritime heritage must be restored to
serve as a catalyst for sound and sustained economic vitality. We believe
that past councils in Vallejo made a mistake by partnering with Lennar, and
look for a new council to recognize this mistake and put it behind us for the
sake of Mare Island's proud maritime heritage.
Philadelphia Shipbuilding Success
The former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was closed just after Mare Island. The
reuse plan at Philadelphia followed a course consistent with industrial and
commercial tenant improvements, instead of following a path of new homes
construction. A shipbuilder was building ships by 2000 and today, strong
commercial planning and tenant incentives has yielded a vibrant economic
engine for the City of Philadelphia (www.navyyard.org),
with 6000 people working in a variety of enterprises, including about 1300 in
the shipbuilding trades (www.akership.com).
The Rand Corporations National Defense Resources Institute has cited the
Philadelphia example as a premier example of closed military facility reuse.
With stalled homebuilding on Mare Island, no marine industries using the
drydocks or launchways, the contrast to Philadelphia is vivid and
regrettable.
Domestic shipbuilding is on a dramatic upswing, as evidenced by the growing
ship orders at Philadelphia. After decades of military dominance of building
yards, the nation is experiencing a demand, for doubled hulled tankers to
replace thousands of single hulled vessels, as well as small container ships
to shuttle containerized goods from huge overseas cargo vessels landing at
major ports on both coasts. This year, 2 billion dollars of Federal loans
guarantee funds were proposed specifically for domestic shipbuilding.
Recently, the State of California earmarked 250 million dollars to build an
expanded fleet of ferries to service the transportation needs of the Bay Area
as well as being a primary mode of transport in the event of a significant
State emergency affecting roadways and/or bridges. Mare Island has the
infrastructure in place now to serve in both these
opportunities. 
Santa Maria Shipowning & Trading, Inc
CONTACT US
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT, PLEASE SIGN OUR
ELECTRONIC PETITION IN SUPPORT OF MARE ISLAND SHIPBUILDING
Also visit GreenShips.org for our latest
report and Initiative efforts
Last updated 11/14/09
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