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What’s in a name? A heck of a lot, according to members of Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, who have worked since 1985 for the preservation of a stretch of coast from the Bay Bridge to Richmond. 

With park planners just months away from seeking final approval for the park, CEST members have been told that their hard earned park will be designated “a state recreation area.” 

The name change reflects the additional, and in some cases unexpected, recreational opportunities at the expense of preserving natural habitat. 

CEST members aren’t happy. 

“We have not worked all these years for a state recreation area,” said Sylvia McLaughlin of CEST during a joint meeting of the Waterfront Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission Wednesday. 

Ron Schaefer of the California Department of Parks and Recreation tried to allay the fears of McLaughlin and others. He said the designation would not affect the park plan and that either designation would protect wildlife.  

But Robert Cheasty, CEST president, said the issue is more than just semantics. 

“A ‘park’ designation will protect the rarest and most precious qualities of our shoreline.” 

“A ‘recreation’ designation allows for greater development. In an urban setting you can always add more development but can almost never reverse it,” he said. 

The Waterfront and Parks and Recreation Commissions sided with CEST. They both voted to recommend to City Council that the coastal stretch be designated a state park. 

State parks, however, still has final say on classification and it is leaning against the CEST position. “As [the plan] sits now it looks like a recreation area,” said Schaefer. 

A name change would be a bitter pill for CEST members who are already facing a plan that runs counter to several of their initial goals. When CEST started their campaign for a coastal state park 17 years ago, the aim was to preserve one of the few vestiges of undeveloped shoreline for native plants and animals. 

But when planning for the new park got under way early last year, CEST members found themselves in competition with new interest groups that had conflicting visions for the coast. 

Playing field advocates, off-leash dog walkers, windsurfers and boaters, many who already used lands included in the park plan, clamored for their stake in the 8.4 mile park. 

“We had a vision of a natural park with some recreational aspects, but not all the parking, visitor facilities, concrete promenades and baseball fields,” said Norman La Force of CEST and the Sierra Club. 

The current plan, he says, sacrifices preservation for too much recreation and development, specifically in the Berkeley Brickyard and North Basin and Albany Plateau. 

Planners have proposed making the Brickyard, the swath of land just south of the marina, into the park’s centerpiece. The plan calls for a built-up brickyard to house a parking lot, boat launch, cafe, headquarters, kayak and bike rentals, and a shoreline promenade with a viewing platform. 

The North Basin Strip, just west of Gilman Street is also slated for heavy development. A boat launch, boat house, interpretive center, food vendors and a hostel are all planned on the site. 

CEST would like to see the buildings consolidated. “We envisioned some recreational facilities, but why should there be duplicative concrete,” Cheasty said. He proposed combining the proposed interpretive center and visitor center, limiting the number of parking spaces, and forgoing the hostel, some of the food stations and concrete promenades. 

Ballfields slated for the Albany Plateau appear to be a more contentious issue. Cheasty says the fields would be too expensive to build, destroy valuable habitat and violate state park law. He wants park officials to consider buying land owned by the parent company of the nearby Golden Gate Fields racetrack and put fields there. 

Playing field advocates counter that the planned three to five fields are desperately needed and that the only land available is at the Plateau. 

CEST members have hinted at going to court to stop the fields, but Cheasty hopes a compromise can be reached. 

After nearly two decades of work for a state park, Cheasty said he is willing to meet opponents halfway. 

“We would have liked to have seen them a little earlier, but they are all potential friends,” he said. “We can be flexible.” 

So long as they don’t call it a recreation area, he said. 

Contact reporter at matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net