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The U.S. Navy is expected to turn over land to the Veterans Administration for a veterans health clinic and columbarium at Alameda Point before the end of the year, a key step toward completing the $210 million project.

No date has been set for a groundbreaking, however, with the construction schedule hinging on congressional appropriations and the VA's future budgets, according to local veterans.

"It has taken us a long time to reach this point, but we are getting there," said Mark Raymond Chandler, who has been working with the Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission on the project for about eight years.

The outpatient clinic will offer health care for at least 9,000 local veterans, while the columbarium will be a national cemetery and eventually house the remains of about 300,000 veterans.