Once known as "the city of beaches," Alameda is now known for maintaining a small-town atmosphere in the midst of the metropolitan Bay Area. The city, nearly 23 square miles, consists of an island and a peninsula adjacent to Oakland International Airport. Between 1957 and 1969, the Utah Construction Co. altered the city’s beach-lined waterfront by adding 942 acres of Bay fill. The main island was part of the peninsula until a tidal canal was dug in 1902. The peninsula, once the site of dense forests, was home to the Ohlone Indians for about 4,000 years. They mysteriously disappeared before the first European settlers arrived in the Bay Area.

By 1800, the Bay Area had been sparsely settled by Spain and Mexico. Present-day Alameda, called the "Bolsa de Encinal," was part of a 44,800- acre ranch granted to Luis Maria Peralta, a professional soldier at Mission San Jose, in 1820. In 1851, Bolsa de En-cinal was sold to two American entrepreneurs, William Chipman and Gideon Aughin-baugh. The city was incorporated Dec. 27, 1884, and boomed after the tidal canal, known as the Oakland Estuary, was built. A number of marine-related industries sprouted along the narrow channel, including shipbuilding firms during World War II.

Since 1940, when the Alameda Naval Air Station moved into the city’s West End, it occupied about one-third of the main island and provided an economic foundation for local business. That changed in April 1997, when the base was closed. In the meantime, the city is leasing the area from the Navy and subleasing it to a variety of tenants, including a film studio and an environmental technology center. The city has already approved its base reuse plan to guide redevelopment of the 1,700-acre base during the next 20 to 30 years. Planned uses for the base include light industry, housing, a marina, a wildlife refuge and parks, including a shoreline trail that will run along the edge of the base.

The city - with the Bay on one side and the Oakland Airport on the other - is almost built out. In 1973, Voters established a ban on development of anything larger than a duplex, mostly to preserve the city’s distinctive Victorian homes. Most of the island consists of older residences and tree-lined streets, but several newer developments have been added or are in the works.

The closure of the base has freed up some housing stock, most of which will eventually be redeveloped. Plans call for development of the waterfront area known as the Fleet Industrial Supply Center first, followed by development of the East Housing neighborhoods on the base. Homes in the West Housing area will soon be rented out.

Harbor Bay is a 3,000-home development built on Bay fill added to Bay Farm Island. The Harbor Bay residential project is accompanied by a business park, which is already home to many high-tech companies. The business park is a five-minute ride to the Oakland Airport. Marina Village, on the main island near the Webster Tube, offers a 29-store shopping center and 578 town homes, as well as more than a dozen high-tech businesses.

---

http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/publicworks/
[Clean Water Program]

http://www.peralta.cc.ca.us/coa/coa.htm
[College of Alameda]