By Robert Gammon – Alameda Magazine

It’s not often that a developer offers to spend $30 million to build a new waterfront park for everyone to use – and agrees in writing to maintain that park for free. But that’s exactly what developer Tim Lewis Communities offered the city of Alameda in December: a new 8.5-acre public park and large plaza on what is now mostly a vacant parcel on the estuary. And yet the Alameda City Council declined to accept the proposal, saying it wasn’t good enough.

Huh?

In truth, the council declined to accept the park not because it wasn’t a good deal (because, of course, it was), but because the developer is also proposing to build 589 units of housing next to the new park. However, under new state laws that greatly restrict the ability of cities like Alameda to reject new housing, the council couldn’t legally turn down the 589 units. But it could decline to accept the park – so it did so.

Read the full article here.