Bolsover property going, going, gone

City Council voted yesterday to sell the 2400 block of Bolsover (between Kelvin and Morningside - we can't Street View it yet, but here's the Google Map) in Rice Village to Lamesa Village Ltd., a mixed use developer, for $1.5 million. Many residents expressed practical concerns about traffic and parking, but some were also bothered by the city selling public land for private profit.

Lamesa Village Ltd. plans to build a development called Sonoma, which will include 225 high rise condos, and 125,000 sq. ft. of retail and office space on the block. They'll also be closing this block of Bolsover to turn it into a pedestrian plaza. In exchange, Lamesa has promised better maintenance and more public parking on Kelvin and Morningside. Sounds like a deal? Not to some nearby residents. Ronald Stein, a 30-year Rice Village tenant, told the Chronicle that traffic only worsened when the city sold part of Amherst to the Village Arcade developer in 1993. Resident Julie Dokell, when she spoke to KTRK, seemed more concerned by the principle of the matter: "We can't turn everything over to developers."

The city and the developer - and, apparently, many potential residents - are gung-ho about Sonoma. Most of the units are already reserved for the development that won't break ground until the fall. The mayor also supported the deal (probably due in part to the potential for development and better street maintenance in Rice Village, but also to the nice chunk of change the city got out of it): "There is a preference right now for many people to live in high rise structures. That's not all bad. That can be good for the city." We guess, but we still miss the T Spot.