Ballot-Measure-B

OVER A DECADE OF FAILURE:
WHY MILITARY BASE REUSE AT THE NAVAL AIR STATION, ALAMEDA (ALAMEDA POINT)
HAS BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL

Nicholas Stephen Kosla
B.A., California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 1999

THESIS

Submitted in partial satisfaction of
the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION
at
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO

FALL
2010

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Excerpt:

In soundly rejecting Measure BSunCal's ballot measure to redevelop Alameda Point. It was defeated by a vote of 85 to 15 percent on February 2, 2010. on Feb. 2, Alameda voters sent the developer SunCal a clear message. Guy Span of The San Francisco Examiner put it very well. "What SunCal did not expect is that the poorly funded opposition ($50,000) could overcome the million dollar mailers, happy talk, TV commercials and glossy plans they put before the voters," Span stated. "Only 15,000 voters showed up at the polls but 85 percent of them told SunCal, the developer, to take a hike."

Excerpt:

The big news right now is a press conference city councilman and mayoral candidate Frank Matarrese held on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday. A few weeks back, Matarrese was the subject of a nasty four-question robocall that asked whether recipients of the call would vote for Matarrese who the call claimed, among other things, “allowing over 100,000 of our taxpayer dollars to target a female city council colleague at a time when our government services are being cut and schools are being closed for lack of funding.” (The council had no formal input in that decision.) A poll conducted by Magellan Strategies that was widely broadcast on the Web also showed Matarrese lagging behind dais-mates Doug deHaan and Marie Gilmore in the mayor’s race.

So who’s responsible? Matarrese thinks it’s SunCal. He said SunCal’s chief operating officer, Frank Faye, had threatened to sue the city if officials didn’t vote to extend SunCal’s stay on the Island, and that Faye also threatened to get involved in the election if things didn’t go SunCal’s way. Matarrese’s campaign also sent reporters press clippings showing SunCal had targeted an opponent on the Albuquerque City Council in a 2009 election. SunCal had hoped to build a new community on tens of thousands of acres there.

...

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Even the most fervent supporters of SunCal Companies’ proposal to turn Alameda’s rotting former Naval Air Station into a new, mixed-use community admit that the company was its own worst enemy in its quest to win support for its plan.

The company routinely ignored advice from city staff, politically active locals and even its own highly paid political consultants, angering Alameda voters and local policymakers, who sent them packing on July 20.

Excerpt:

Alameda, an island long resistant to growth, threw a warm embrace around an unlikely suitor last year. The Southern California developer SunCal Companies proposed to build thousands of homes, sports fields, offices and a ferry terminal on 770 acres of a decommissioned naval base.

The project promised to transform the island city, and its leaders lined up in support.

Mayor Beverly Johnson recorded a robo-call that went out to every resident on March 25, 2009: “A plan has been created that deserves our support.”

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SunCal’s top political strategist said this week that the developer didn’t follow his advice.

Although taking responsibility for SunCal’s failures has become about as common as a high-rise in Alameda, Larry Tramutola’s comments offer insight into the failed election that was really the end for the developer’s ambitions to build thousands of new homes on the island.

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Alameda Point was going to be the largest housing development that the East Bay had seen in years — certainly the biggest on this side of the hills since the 1970s. The 4,000-plus homes proposed for the former Naval Air Station would have housed about 10,000 residents. But last week, the Alameda City Council snuffed out plans for the new mini-city on the island when it voted to kill its deal with private developer SunCal. The 4-0 vote also ended an often-contentious relationship with the Orange County developer that in recent weeks even included allegations of illegal wrongdoing.

Excerpt:

Tuesday’s council meeting exposed a bitter divide over SunCal and their proposed development at Alameda Point.

Some opponents heckled SunCal’s reps and supporters throughout the six-hour hearing on denying the developer’s project, as Mayor Beverly Johnson announced that some community members wanted people who spoke to say whether they had been paid by SunCal. But others appealed for calm.