Moraga's Economic Development Action Committee Gets Down to Business

Moraga's met Wednesday at with members Renee Zeimer and Rich Larsen — Mary Coe was unable to attend — leading concerned citizens, members of the Chamber of Commerce and Town Council liaison Howard Harpham through a hefty agenda.

Zeimer outlined the group's focus for the coming year, proposing the drafting of a  town-wide ordinance to define and encourage new business in Moraga, as well as EDAC's intent to revitalize the largely vacant Rheem Valley Center.

Rich Larsen said ideas to identify new businesses and developers interested in Moraga are being actively sought by the committee. He called the support of broker groups essential and thanked real estate broker Dave Schnayer for being “the best thing that had happened to the EDAC.”

Schnayer, who said he has been engaged to improve center landlord Kimco’s image and relationship to the community it serves, announced that a produce market is very close to being opened in the Rheem Shopping Center.

“And a frozen yogurt shop is not too far behind,” he added. “The owner is a Moraga resident who has an interest in investing in the area.”

Town Manager Jill Keimach responded immediately, saying, “Those two shops sound perfect for Moraga.” It was not immediately clear if the two new businesses were connected to two similar-sounding businesses which had pulled permits and expressed interest in opening their doors in Rheem last year.

Hollie Lucas Alcalay, a resident recently appointed to EDAC, also spoke about the committee’s future plans.

“I’m part of the target market in Moraga," she said. "My biggest concern is that the town has completely overbuilt retail. Are we setting these businesses up for failure, if we don’t have the population to support it?”

Harpham asked her for suggestions towards solving the Rheem Center’s difficulties.

“Look at what Moraga values,” she answered, listing Saint Mary’s College, the Hacienda, and various local festivals. “Build condos in the Rheem Center for greater tax revenue than businesses will bring,” she finished.

Town Planning Director Lori Salamack said residential development and specific retail models for the Moraga Center had been studied in the past. The committee agreed with Harpham’s suggestion that they be supplied with a timeline showing if Moraga is overbuilt and why.

Roger Poynte, Managing Director of Rheem Valley Properties LLC, said, “The real problem is we don’t have enough people to support retail. The real use of the center is the question.”

He said a simple strategy needed to be developed and assigned a time component for implementation.

Harpham cautioned everyone that the people who own the Rheem Center may have ideas of their own when it comes to its future.

Allen Sayles, an architect and member of the Design Review Board invited by EDAC to attend Wednesday's session, cut even closer with his comments:

“Having been through the process of developing something commercial in Moraga, I don’t think we have an economic problem, we have a political problem in our Town Council," Sayles said. "If we could fix that, we wouldn’t need any economic development team.  The one weakness we have, we don’t even consider. If I want to start a business, I have to subject myself to months, even years of approval. I have to cater to the whim of several people — some of whom are in this room. It’s political, and it just kills development.”

Larsen countered with a description of a Walnut Creek proposal he had been working on for 15 years.

“I take issue with the negative ideas that had been expressed thus far,” he said. “But it still would be nice to have a downtown. We only need one thing, and that’s the private sector to come in and make it possible.”

Zeimer responded to Sayles’ comments by saying that his words, which some might call “brutally honest,” are exactly what the committee needed to hear.

“The success of Moraga is in putting ourselves on the map in a way that begins to create a reason to take that drive down Moraga Road and Moraga Way,” she said. “We need to support retail above and beyond the rooftops that we are developing.”

When discussion turned to a steamlined town-wide ordinance aimed at attracting business, Town Manager Keimach said staff has studied other community ordinances and added, “We have to streamline the process for retail businesses and the retail ordinance has to come from this group.”

Dale Walwark identified another concern.

“We don’t have a downtown," he said. "We don’t have one strong shopping center, we have two weak ones," attributing some of the ongoing malaise to what he perceived as the Bruzzoni family’s resentment over the in Moraga and how that has stalled discussions over the years.

While discussing the possibility of Lafayette and Orinda objecting to EDAC's vision of Moraga as a "destination," and to the increase in traffic that may mean, the committee discussed plans to appear at the May 14 .

After reviewing Keimach’s sales tax report, which showed sales tax per capita over the last ten years has been steady at approximately $50, and disposable income capture and leakage figures that reveal drug stores are the only category that rise above the equilibrium level, the committee said it will prepare a questionnaire asking for community input about gas prices and other ways to improve the economic profile of Moraga.

The next EDAC meeting will be held on May 18 at 7 p.m.