Category: Parks and Open Space

Wetland contract awarded for Alameda Point

On August 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a services contract to Adanta, Inc. of Napa to expand and enhance an existing wetland on the Veterans Affairs (VA) property at Alameda Point.  The wetland project is being implemented to offset impacts to wetland areas elsewhere on the VA property where a health clinic, offices and a columbarium cemetery will be built.

“The four-year services contract, valued at up to $2,373,044, includes development, seed collection, propagation, restoration, and enhancement to ensure the wetland is completely established as a self-sustaining tidal marsh at the VA Alameda Point site,” states the Corps of Engineers August 14 news release.  “In total, 8 acres of new tidal marsh will be installed and established, as will 3.3 acres of tidal transitional habitat; and 14.8 acres of existing tidal wetland will be enhanced.”  Seed collection and preparation is scheduled to start this summer.  The work is expected to be completed in 2025.

One-third of the wetland impacts of the VA project will not be offset at Alameda Point.  The Corps of Engineers will purchase credits in the San Francisco Bay Wetland Mitigation Bank for 3.6 acres of impacts.  The mitigation bank manages a wetland restoration project in Redwood City funded by Bay Area projects that impact wetlands.  The credit purchase detail is not mentioned in the news release. Continue reading “Wetland contract awarded for Alameda Point”

New generation of Great Blue Herons born in cypress rookery

The cypress trees in the wetland near the proposed DePave Park at Alameda Point have served as a safe and secure nesting site for Great Blue Herons for many years.  This year is no exception, despite the trees having died and barely standing.  On May 7, Audubon Society bird observer Dawn Lemoine counted 13 juveniles in the nests.

The wetland around the cypress trees provides the ideal landing spot for the young herons’ first flight and subsequent adaptation to life outside the nest.  They can be seen for the first week or so after leaving the nest hanging out in the wetland preening and sunning themselves. Continue reading “New generation of Great Blue Herons born in cypress rookery”

Developer proposes changes that would cheapen waterfront area

On Monday, December 9, 2019, the Planning Board will consider approving changes to the Waterfront Park and Block 11 at Site A at Alameda Point that were previously approved in 2016 “in an effort to reduce escalating construction costs and long term maintenance costs for both the building and the park.”  The City has already granted numerous modifications to the development agreement, with good reasons.  The current request does not merit approval because it would cheapen the waterfront focal point. Continue reading “Developer proposes changes that would cheapen waterfront area”

Residential/commercial and waterfront park changes proposed at Site A

On December 9, 2019, Alameda Point Partners, the developer of 68-acre Site A at Alameda Point, will ask the Planning Board to approve changes for two areas: one residential and commercial block and part of the Waterfront Park.  The change in plans includes making the residential units smaller and adding landscaping.

The developer wants to “reduce escalating construction costs and long term maintenance costs for both the building and the park,” wrote Allen Tai, City Planner, in the staff report.  The developer wants to reduce the approved size of the residential/commercial building on Block 11 next to the Seaplane Lagoon from 453,452 square feet to 377,318 square feet, without reducing the overall number of residential units.

Continue reading “Residential/commercial and waterfront park changes proposed at Site A”

Planning for Enterprise Park Begins

The Alameda Recreation and Parks Department has recently launched a survey on what the community would like to see at the triangle park on the southeast shoreline of Alameda Point.  It is the first step in the process of creating a Master Plan.  The barely publicized survey is being conducted by students at UC Berkeley and will end on December 3. Continue reading “Planning for Enterprise Park Begins”

Soil cover being installed at future park site

The Navy made significant headway in June and July on its third and final environmental remediation soil-cover project on the Alameda Point airfield, with 7,289 truckloads of soil being hauled in from an East Bay Municipal Utility District soil-storage site in Castro Valley.  The frenzy of truck traffic through the Tube and down Main Street led to complaints of speeding trucks and running red lights, prompting the Navy to warn truck drivers that they could be removed from the job for violating traffic laws, and the City of Alameda Police Department to step up traffic enforcement.

A temporary mountain of approximately 200,000 cubic yards of stockpiled soil is visible on the western end of the airfield during a ferry ride to San Francisco from the Main Street Ferry Terminal.  Another 100,000 cubic yards of cover soil and 60,000 cubic yards of top soil for new vegetation is expected to be delivered by November.  The soil will be used to create a three-foot cover over the 60-acre cleanup site by the end of 2020. Continue reading “Soil cover being installed at future park site”

Views of wetland cleanup area to be dug up, upgraded in 2019

The Navy will implement the environmental remediation plan for Site 32 on the western end of the former airfield.  The plan calls for covering the entire 60-acre site with three free of clean soil without raising the elevation of the existing wetlands.  Thus, the existing wetlands will be excavated to a depth of three feet, and then three feet of replacement clean soil will be brought in to re-contour the wetlands.

Most of the water in the accompanying photos, taken in March 2019, is from rainwater.  However, this wetland is also low enough in elevation that it receives water via tidal pressure from the Bay. Continue reading “Views of wetland cleanup area to be dug up, upgraded in 2019”