Final size of long-awaited Jean Sweeney park unclear
ALAMEDA >> What the actual size of Jean Sweeney Open Space Park, the city’s newest and biggest park, eventually will be remains unknown, despite the City Council taking up the issue on Tuesday.
The park, on former railroad property in west Alameda, features grassy fields and children’s play spots. It currently totals about 25 acres.
But during a recent public presentation at a committee meeting, city officials displayed a map that seemed to indicate an adjacent 2.45 acres that campaigners for the Sweeney park expected would be included in the park, was no longer part of it.
That left supporters questioning what was going on. Some council members were wondering the same thing.
“Changes to the park need to come to the council so that the public can be heard,” Councilwoman Trish Herrera Spencer said Tuesday. Along with Councilman Tony Daysog, Spencer asked for an update on the park during the council meeting.
Dorothy Freeman, a longtime campaigner for the park — which is bordered by Constitution Way, Atlantic Avenue and Sherman Street — said supporters were caught off guard when they learned about possible changes to its borders.
Councilman John Knox White said during Tuesday’s meeting that the council is still reviewing acquiring the property during closed sessions and that it was better not to discuss it publicly until legal issues are resolved.
The city announced plans in September 2018 to use eminent domain to secure the 2.45 acres owned by Union Pacific Railroad for roughly $1 million. The city manager did not explain why negotiations to purchase the parcel are taking so long.
Most council members agreed with White, voting 3-2 to not get into details about the park’s boundaries.
Daysog and Spencer cast the lone no votes on whether to discuss the park’s parameters. Daysog said people remain curious about the park’s future.
“I think this is what this is really all about,” he said.
The city still wants the additional acres, said Amy Wooldridge, director of the Alameda Recreation and Park Department.
On Tuesday, Alameda officials noted that they cannot make a pitch for grant money to develop the additional property until the city owns it, which they say may have led to confusion among residents as to its future.
The park is named after Jean Sweeney, a community activist who died in November 2011. The site, which the Alameda Belt Line had stopped using in 1988, was scheduled to be sold for $18 million to a developer. Sweeney fought to preserve the parcel as open space, and she unearthed the 1924 purchase contract that allowed Alameda to buy back the property for $30,000 plus any additional money Alameda Belt Line had spent on improvements.
The railroad fought the city in court, but decided not to appeal after judges ruled in Alameda’s favor. The city ended up paying less than $1 million for the park in October 2012.
The initial phase of the park opened in December 2018.