Excerpt:

A few months ago we polled City Council members in an effort to determine whether a proposal to redevelop 68 acres of Alameda Point into homes, retail outlets, parks and a transit hub had enough council votes to pass. While most of the council appeared open to the proposal, one member, Vice Mayor Frank Matarrese, said he’d only sign off under one condition: That the city take 800 homes off the table elsewhere to offset the traffic and other impacts of the ones proposed to be built at the Point.

During the final moments of this past Monday’s Planning Board meeting, City Planner Andrew Thomas announced a plan that would do just that. He’s proposing the city take homes off the table for 37 acres of the North Housing parcel – Navy land that sits just north of the housing now occupied by members of the Coast Guard.

The change would remove 806 homes from the housing element of the city’s general plan – essentially, its housing development blueprint – offering council members the opportunity to substitute 800 units at Alameda Point’s Site A in their stead. Proponents of the Site A development project need to win assent from four members of the council to move the project forward; both Matarrese and Mayor Trish Spencer ran on promises to slow growth.