Cleanup of contaminated groundwater between Alameda Point’s Seaplane Lagoon and Main Street is about to begin. The Navy will present its plan for doing so at this evening’s Restoration Advisory Board meeting. The meeting will convene at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall West, 950 West Mall Square.
At this meeting, the Navy will also review the longterm and costly maintenance plan for the soil cover over the underground dump at the northwestern tip of Alameda Point: an area to become city property and eventually part of a regional park.
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, city leaders gathered to break ground at Estuary Park, eight acres of land that will become a sports haven on the city’s West End. This project includes a youth baseball field, a synthetic regulation-size athletic field, as well as restrooms, a concession building and group picnic areas.
Alameda Landing is about to enter its final phase of development. A 2006 plan that called for all commercial on the 41-acre waterfront parcel behind Target is being replaced with a new plan. It includes an additional 375 housing units, a 124-room hotel, restaurants and a small amount of commercial space. An eight-acre waterfront park and promenade remain as the centerpiece.
Three thousand tons of sand was added to the nesting grounds for the least terns at Alameda Point in late February and early March. In the weeks that followed, volunteers from St. George Spirits and the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts came out to help make the site ready for the arrival of the terns in mid-April.
Part one
Members of the City Council and interested community members braved strong winds and torrential downpours to get a first-hand look at what the future holds for the city’s northern waterfront. The caravan-style tour wended its way to Alameda Marina, Encinal Terminal, Alameda Landing and North Housing at Estuary Park.
The Navy’s cleanup program has not only removed toxic substances from below ground, it has dramatically improved some of the above-ground environment by creating new native grassland and wetlands. January rains filled the Navy’s new seasonal wetland on the northwest shoreline corner of Alameda Point and fostered growth of newly planted native grass seed on the surrounding soil.
Long-disused parking lot may become retail, apartments
“This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for,” the real estate agent representing the seller of the property at 1435 Webster St. promised prospects. “Large vacant corner commercial lot (the long-shuttered parking lot at Taylor Avenue and Webster Street). Available for current or future development.”
The Planning Board and the public will have a chance to review and comment on three key elements of Site A at the board’s Monday, Feb. 22 meeting: Block 8, Block 11 and the parks.
Block 8 Plans
Block 8, which contains 128 apartments for low-income families and seniors, would stand on the north side of Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway (today’s West Atlantic Avenue). The senior building’s main entrance to senior housing would be immediately across the street from the A-7B Corsair II jet at today’s East Gate.
City Council is asking Alameda residents for their input on a concept to make Central Avenue, between Main Street/Pacific Avenue and Sherman Street/Encinal Avenue, safer at the Feb. 24 City Council meeting. City staff’s goal is to make Central Avenue safer for Alamedans traveling by car, bicycle or on foot.
City staff has already created a design proposal and is requesting the Council’s approval at the Feb. 24 meeting. However, the council wants input from the community before they approve the plan.
Wharves, shoreline to be made available to Alameda
The City Council is set to approve a resolution that would allow the city to accept phase two of the conveyance agreement that the city negotiated with the United States Navy. Phase two comprises 183.44 acres of land at Alameda Point: nine parcels with 29.83 acres of uplands and two parcels with 153.61 acres of submerged land.
