DisapPOINTment
I picked up my Alameda Journal this morning, I have to cross the street and steal it off a neighbors porch (they’ve given me the OK, so it’s not really stealing) since the Journal is only delivered to the South side of Central Avenue on my block. And read the front page article about the VA cancelling plans for housing at the base. (“Interim VA clinic proposal retracted”)
Hurray, I thought, the VA cemetery is not moving forward, it doesn’t seem like a great plan. However, this isn’t the case, in fact, the article makes it clear that the VA proposal: “a massive 579-acre land transfer at Alameda Point with the hope of one day seeing a permanent cemetery and outpatient clinic there serving Alameda County veterans,” is moving forward quickly and the environmental process (NEPA) is beginning.
My understanding about this project (and I have to admit my understanding is limited) is that the VA is hoping to use the land that was going to become a wildlife refuge/bird sanctuary, I haven’t tried to confirm that these two proposals are mutually exclusive, so hopefully someone else can fill in the missing details.
The VA proposal, which the city has no control over, seems to point the way towards a possible outcome for what happens at the Point if the city is unable to find a developer who can do the job. (Heads up, next week, 7/18, the ARRA will here a report on the outcome of the 60-day exclusive negotiating period between the city and SunCal for the base. Should be interesting.) The Navy can choose to do what it wants with the property, and if they decide to keep it themselves, the city will have no say over what happens out there. (The discussion continues to be about housing and its traffic impacts, but we should remember that the worst traffic that Alameda has ever seen is when people were working out at the base, it was the commuters that caused the back ups.)
notadave
July 11th, 2007 at 7:07 am
It is a contest between the VA and the Fish and Wildlife Service for the same land. The thinking behind the VA proposal is that the birds can still use the site if it only contains dead people. The FWS still has a proposal for the land pending with the Navy, but they are reluctant to take of the land in its current contaminated state (which they would be required to do), again, the VA isn’t so concerned about that since dead people don’t care about contamination.
Back in January there were some articles about lthe VA’s proposal, and hidden in the details was an item that the VA intended to use a portion of the land to construct “revenue generating” properties to offset the cost of developing the clinic and columbarium. Whether that is housing or commercial development wasn’t specified. Either way that is a significant amount of land that would be subject to less control than the rest of the land being developed under the PDC.
Kevis Brownson
July 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am
The whole VA thing makes no sense to me. Why, if they needed hospital space, did they give up Oak Knoll? And how is it they would be able to bury people in Alameda when I had understood it to be a function of our geography on marshland that Alamedans never had cemeteries here?