The Point Is . . . Alameda Neighborhoods

I walked over to City Hall last night's to attend the City of Alameda ARRA meeting which had a presentation from SunCal on the master plan for Alameda Point. In fact, I tried to Twitter the events http://twitter.com/johnoldham as I watched them unfold but I still a little handheld challenged.

The chamber was full of interested people and was good to see the interest in the presentation.

Here are the highlights as I saw them:

Development Services Staff opened the presentation addressing some of the recent community issues being raised by other bloggers and member of the community regarding the tax increment and public land trust. What I learned in more detail is that a land trust is not feasible (not even close) and most in the audience do not understand the tax increment bond financing.

The SunCal presentation was very vanilla. Their power point and presentation was a basic review of the Master Plan document. You can get more from reading the document than what was presented. SunCal started with all the feel good stuff, sports complex, new library and new fire house.

The SunCal theme was a plan that can get built.

The two items that I did miss in the Master Plan document were the relocation of Alameda Point Collaborative and the relocation of the Flight Tower. I was not clear where they planned on moving the Collaborative.

Peter Calthorpe, from the planning design company, reviewed the housing stock, street design, and infrastructure (water, sewer, electrical). For 94501 Real Estate this was the part of most interest.

Calthorpe made the point that Alameda Point, in this plan, would reflect Alameda as a whole. He is correct that all of the elements in the plan high, medium and low density are somewhere on the Island and the plan. Overall the plan showed a true change for the West End. For the most part I think that it is a good comprehensive look at the 560 acres that need to be developed.

The one item I forgot to jot down was a density number that Calthorpe presented to show that the overall density of the project would be no different that the rest of Alameda. If someone wrote that number down I would appreciate you pass it along.

I still have questions:

Can our city infrastructure support 4,500 new homes?

What happens if the voters do not give the Alameda Point Plan a Measure A pass? What's Plan B?

How long will the entire project take to complete?

I watch a bit of the public comment, but frankly it was hard to sit through. There was small group that were against SunCal and the project and had made up their minds before the presentation started. I watched about 12 speakers and that was enough. It was good to see former City Council Member Tony Daysog make the first public comment. He spoke about transit and my personal favorite topic a light rail that runs from the Point to Fruitvale BART down Railroad Ave (aka Lincoln).

That's all for today, there will be a lot more on this topic in the coming months. You can bet on that.

 

ARRA Meeting Update

So I called DSD to confirm the SunCal presentation and then saw it was posted on the City website today. The meeting is happening this Wednesday at 7 PM. It is Item 3A.

Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment Authority Regular Meeting

Wednesday January 7, 2009
7:00 PM

Alameda City Hall, City Council Chambers
2263 Santa Clara Avenue
Alameda, CA 94501

1. ROLL CALL
   

2. CONSENT CALENDAR
   

   2-A. Approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of November 5, 2008.

   2-B. Approve the minutes of the Special Meeting of November 18, 2008.

   2-C. Approve the minutes of the Special Meeting of December 2, 2008.

   2-D. Authorize Negotiation and Execution of a Sublease Renewal for Mariusz Lewandowski dba Woodmasters at Alameda Point.

   2-E. Authorize Negotiation and Execution of a Sublease Renewal for Alameda Soccer Club at Alameda Point.

   2-F. Authorize the Sale of Four Boston Whalers to NRC for $44,500.

3. REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS
   

   3-A. Alameda Point Update - Presentation of SunCal's Draft Redevelopment Master Plan.

   3-B. VA/Navy Presentation Regarding the Navy/VA Federal-to-Federal Transfer at Former NAS Alameda.

4. ORAL REPORTS
   

   4-A. Oral report from Member Matarrese, Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) representative

   - Highlights of December 4 Alameda Point RAB Meeting.

5. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS, NON-AGENDA (PUBLIC COMMENT)
   

   (Any person may address the governing body in regard to any matter over which the governing body has jurisdiction that is not on the agenda.)

6. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE GOVERNING BODY
   

7. ADJOURNMENT

http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/archive/agenda.html?agenda=_090107_1172

New Year, New Plan for Alameda Point

Happy 2009 everyone and Welcome back to 94501 Real Estate!

Besides the weekly Alameda Real Estate inventory report, which shows inventory continuing to decline, I had a chance to take a look at the SunCal Draft Redevelopment Master Plan over the Holidays. Thanks to Lauren Do over at Blogging Bayport that outlined the report and provided some insight into the details.

For my purposes, I focused on page 40 the section titles Diverse Housing. The report reveals that the plan is to build 4,500 new housing units. This addition to the Alameda housing stock would rise to 36,301units or a 14% increase in total housing stock. Suncal expects to build the housing units in five phases and plans to have high density blocks (non-Measure A compliant), medium density blocks (non-Measure A compliant), low density attached blocks and single family residents blocks.

According to Census 2000’s 2007 ACS Update Alameda has:

Total Housing Units:       31,801

Owner-occupied:            14,561

Renter-Occupied            14,726

The high density blocks appear to be lining the corridor that is across the street from the hangers. The industrial buildings that are on Tower Avenue and Monarch Street are slated for work force housing, live work, tuck under and multi-family.

The medium density blocks of the project includes small and large townhomes plus work force housing, live work and tucks unders. For the low density the just add in duplexes and remove the tuck under. These units are in the old barracks and office quarters that are near the parade ground and surround City Hall Wst.

For any portion of the high, medium or low density parts of the project to move forward it would need voter approval, so a Measure A showdown appears to be on the horizon.

The plan outlines single family residences blocks to also including homes, duplexes and townhomes. Which is confusing because by definition it must be detached—The Census defines as: This is a 1-unit structure detached from any other house; that is, with open space on all four sides. Such structures are considered detached even if they have an adjoining shed or garage. A one-family house that contains a business is considered detached as long as the building has open space on all four sides. A duplex normally falls into this category, but townhomes share walls.

Phase 1 would be start near the Atlantic Avenue entrance go west to the Seaplane Lagoon and go North toward the Alameda Point Collaborative. The first phase has SFRs, low and medium density.

The City Council, Sitting as ARRA, will revue the plan at its next meeting. According to Save Our City website that meeting is January 7, 2009 at City Hall 7 PM. The City website does not list the meeting this week, and there is no agenda posted. I will keep you posted as soon as I find the correct information.

By the way the Save our City website has an anti-SunCal ad on their website http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SrsdbNj0k4. I will leave it to other websites to comment on the ad.

Best wishes for 2009. Here is the Alameda Real Estate Inventory Data . . .

Alameda Inventory Data

Data Pulled January 4, 2009, at 9:30 AM

Total Units                                 149

94501                                       116

94502                                       33

Single Family Residences          83

Condominiums                           38

Multi-Family                              28

Foreclosure                               13

Short Sale                                 20

Price Reductions                       51

Highest Price Listing                  $1,995,000

Lowest Listing                           $179,900