Op-Ed: The Facts about the City's 'Swap' Proposal

by Tim Hoppen

The City of Alameda is considering a unique proposal that offers a multitude of benefits to the City and the community. More so than most projects put forth by the City to its residents for consideration, careful review of the details and complexities which make this proposal unique is required to fully understand all of the benefits to the City and the community as well as the traffic and environmental impact mitigation measures necessary to achieve them.

The City of Alameda’s proposal consists of exchanging 12.2 acres of excess unused land on the Chuck Corica Municipal Golf Course Complex for 12.2 acres of land owned by Harbor Bay Isle Associates (HBIA), on North Loop Road in the Harbor Bay Business Park.  HBIA, in addition to granting the City of Alameda the 12.2 acres, will also pay the City of Alameda $7.2 million in recreational improvement fees and pay for $2.5 million in infrastructure improvements to Bay Farm Island such as storm water systems, waste water (sanitary systems), primary/secondary power, improved telephone and CATV, natural gas, and fire water systems.

The monies paid by HBIA as recreational improvement fees will be used by the City to construct a new sports field complex on the North Loop Property and contribute funds to the refurbishment and redesign of the Chuck Corica Golf Complex. The City would undertake a process to determine what types of sports fields would be most appropriate to be placed on the 12 acres on North Loop Road; however, prominent in the discussions are soccer fields, baseball/softball fields and multi-use fields. 

Separately but synergistically, the City of Alameda is considering entering into a long term golf course lease with Kemper Sports who would agree to put up $3.5 million (50%) towards the $7M needed to refurbish the municipal golf complex, with the City required to come up with the other $3.5M. So at the conclusion of this proposed transaction, and from the $7.2M of recreational improvements provided by HBIA, the City of Alameda would have the $3.5 million required to match Kemper Sports’ contribution to refurbish the golf complex. The City would have a refurbished golf complex with a brand new 9-hole course for juniors and seniors and would still have sufficient funds to build the 12 acres of the new recreational field complex. There would be absolutely no cost out-of-pocket to the City.  

The Alameda City Charter prohibits the City from selling any recreational land without a two-thirds vote of the populace. However, the City is allowed to exchange recreational property for other recreational property. The excess unused land at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex can be used to exchange for other recreational land.  

The multiple economic benefits of this proposed transaction to the City are significant. First, it insures the long-term viability of the Chuck Corica Golf Complex without burdening the General Fund. As importantly, if not more so, the transaction makes a huge contribution to youth sports for the entire City of Alameda. 1) It provides a brand new 9-hole golf course. 2) It provides a sports field complex that addresses the overwhelming needs of the sports communities – soccer, softball, baseball, lacrosse, football – at absolutely no cost to the City.

For more information please visit our website. There is a Q&A about the project here. If you have any questions or concerns please email us at info@youthsports4alameda.com. Thank you.

Do you have an opinion about this deal or other Alameda-related topics? Send your to eve@patch.com.