Well this one snuck by really quietly but I think it’s rather important to mention. The City Council on Tuesday night sitting as the Community Improvement Commission approved a letter of intent for a property exchange. What does that all mean? Basically, that the Willie Stargell Avenue Extension project will be moving forward. One of the major hurdles for the extension was convincing the College of Alameda to give up a huge parcel of land in order to run the extension to Webster Street. The Peralta Trustees determined that they would “gift” a right-of-way to the City and the parcel that the right of way would run through would also be gifted to the City in exchange for a different parcel. Most notably, 860 Atlantic in Marina Village, for what is now an unused parcel of land running adjacent to Webster.
There is a complicated bit of narrative in the staff report explaining how the trustees were able to make this exchange to the City, which composes of the Education Code allowing for the trustees to deed a right-of-way for roadway use to an entity without needing to go through a surplus property bid and then because of the ROW deed they are able to then transfer the property the ROW runs through to the same entity they have given the ROW to.
If these landscape plans are still up to date you can see how Stargell will be rerouted and extended, the renderings on page 2 of the reader are the most clear, I found that if I rotated it clockwise it was easier for me to figure out what goes where. In the background you can make out what the existing roadway looks like underneath the reconfigured roads. If you also notice, the extension does not use all of the land that is exchanged. Of course, it would be too much to hope that it would just be left open and landscaped because according to the staff report, while there are no current plans for the remaining land, certainly they are “considering a range of uses for the site.”
So this is a step forward for the Alameda Landing project, but I’m not holding my breath that it will get constructed any time soon even after all the paperwork is shuffled around and settled. Although according to the renderings, looks like the will be giving Neptune Park a bit of a face lift as well. Neptune Park, for those that don’t know is a rather nondescript piece of land that is so inaccessible that its usefulness as an actual park is rather questionable. Hopefully with the reorientation of Stargell and the inclusion of sidewalks and a way to access it it will actually get more use than simply as a blur of green that folks whiz by on their way in and out of the tubes.
Oh and for those that might be wondering what the College will be doing with the property at 860 Atlantic, it is slated to become a lab for students according to the staff report. Mapping the property, one can see that it is the building that is the first building in the business park that is closest to the College which should make it easier for students to walk there.
