Excerpt:

City leaders are backing the construction of a health clinic and columbarium for veterans at Alameda Point, despite critics saying the project may be located too close to a colony of endangered California Least Terns.

The outpatient clinic would offer health care to approximately 7,000 local veterans, while the columbarium would provide space for the remains of 310,000 Bay Area veterans.

The U.S. Navy will transfer 549 acres at the former Alameda Naval Air Station to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the project, which could be completed by December 2014.