Wildlife Refuge – Alameda Point Environmental Report

Alameda could find itself back at square one, or at least close to it.

In September 2025, Representative Lateefah Simon informed city officials that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had decided to cancel plans for a clinic and columbarium cemetery at Alameda Point. The news became public when a letter to the VA from Congresswomen Lateefah Simon and Nancy Pelosi and Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla was released on December 12, 2025.

The congressional delegation urged the VA to reconsider its decision to terminate the project. On December 15, 2025, public officials and representatives of veterans organizations made a similar plea on the steps of Alameda’s Veterans Memorial Building.

If the VA sticks to its decision to terminate the project, it is unclear what will happen next. But two land-disposal processes are on the table.

The delegation’s letter to the VA questioned why the agency plans to turn over the land to the federal General Services Administration (GSA), which handles disposing of real estate. The congressional delegation pointed out that the land could go back to the Navy, according to the VA/Navy land transfer agreement. The letter explained that the “VA and the Navy have a binding agreement that requires VA to notify the Navy of its decision to terminate the project within 30 days of its determination, and permits the Navy to receive the property if VA makes such a decision within fifteen years of this 2014 agreement.”

This means either the GSA or the Navy will dispose of the federal land. History and current events will likely play a role in both scenarios.

The Alameda City Council, on March 19, 2013, unanimously approved a resolution affirming support for a nature reserve at Alameda Point. The resolution calls for a zoning designation of “Nature Reserve” for the runway area formerly proposed for a national wildlife refuge.

After an impasse was reached in negotiations between the Navy and the US Fish & Wildlife Service for creation of a national wildlife refuge in 2004, the property was offered to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA plans to build an outpatient clinic and columbarium on 112 acres of its land, but the remaining 511 acres of VA land will remain undeveloped. The undeveloped area is where the endangered California Least Terns come to nest from early April to mid-August every year.

The city’s nature reserve zoning designation will not have any mandatory impact on the VA, but rather is intended to convey the continuing value that the community places on wildlife conservation at Alameda Point.

March and April 2013 bird sightings on the Nature Reserve at Alameda Point.