ALAMEDA — The effort to change a former military aircraft taxiway along San Francisco Bay into wetlands has gotten a setback after the City Council balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for the $14 million project.

Known as “DePave,” the park is proposed for the former Alameda Naval Air Station. It’s expected to feature walking paths and overlooks, where people can watch birds and harbor seals resting on floating platforms.

Last year, the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission unanimously endorsed a draft “vision plan” for the future 16-acre park. The council also has broadly supported it, at least vocally.

But last week, the council rejected calls to earmark $250,000 to pay for a master plan for building the park under the city’s operating and capital budget for fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The budget allocates $200,000 each fiscal year for the Alameda Recreation and Park Department to provide overall park improvements and to “enhance recreational activities,” according to a city report.

No specific projects are identified, however, which has left DePave advocates frustrated.

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: Jasyn De Guzman, of Hayward, nets smelt on a parcel of land that was used as a taxiway at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

Richard Bangert, a leading advocate for DePave and who monitors wildlife at the former Navy base, was among those who want the master plan funded.

The future marshlands and wetlands will help address sea-level rise resulting from climate change, Bangert said, an issue the city says is a priority.

“The city included a special section on adaptation to climate change in (its) new Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, and it’s time to put some money behind the policy,” Bangert said Friday. “They even declared a climate emergency but still seem to be operating like it’s 2014 when this wetland park idea was introduced in the (city’s proposals for the former military base under its) Town Center and Waterfront Plan.”

In October, Alameda asked the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority to help pay for the future park through a grant under Measure AA, a 20-year parcel tax that voters in nine Bay Area counties passed in June 2016 to fund habitat restoration and improve shoreline access. The tax generates approximately $25 million annually.

The authority rejected Alameda’s application for the approximately $1.1 million grant.

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: Wetlands on a parcel of land that was used as a taxiway is seen from this drone view at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

Amy Wooldridge, director of Alameda’s Recreation and Park Department, told the council she will apply for the same grant again this year.

While city money could improve the application’s chance of success, it’s not a requirement to seek a grant, Wooldridge said, and she preferred to use the money from the budget for pressing recreational needs.

“There aren’t grants to resurface tennis courts,” she said, describing such work as difficult to fund through outside sources.

Vice Mayor Malia Vella said the council can always change or amend funding to back projects such as DePave in the future.

The proposed park is located on city-owned land next to what’s known as the Seaplane Lagoon, where a new ferry terminal was recently built. Ferry service is scheduled to begin in August.

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: People walk along the shoreline on a parcel of land that was used as a taxiway at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

In a June 10 letter to the council, Igor Tregub, chair of the Sierra Club’s Northern Alameda County Group, said Alameda’s “odds of being awarded funds for actual planning are slim” without the city committing money toward the master plan.

The restoration authority guidelines, Tregub noted, call for just one out of every 10 dollars of available grant money to go toward planning; the rest is awarded to construction-ready projects.

Wooldridge acknowledged the chances of Alameda’s application would improve if it had “skin in the game,” but did not know what the financial amount should be, saying more study needs to be done.

“DePave has long been promised, but not yet been implemented,” Linda Carloni, a board member of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, told the council. “DePave represents a unique opportunity … to accommodate sea-level rise, provide habitat for wildlife and to give us a special place to teach and learn about nature, as well as for people to explore the peace of natural areas, which, of course, is a rare opportunity in the inner Bay Area.”

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: A parcel of land that was used as a taxiway is seen from this drone view at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

The wetlands project calls for removing riprap, or the rocks that were placed along the shoreline to prevent the bay from encroaching, as well as removing and crushing much of the former taxiway’s asphalt and concrete and using the material to help build three overlooks.

Some of the taxiway would remain as a bicycle and walking path if the project goes forward. Other paths made of decomposed granite or other natural materials would provide pedestrian access through the wetlands.

Over the next 50 years, the wetlands are expected to become a tidal marsh because of rising sea levels, so an elevated boardwalk eventually will be built over the concrete path.

Oakland resident Jason Bunting, 24, was riding his bicycle through the neighborhood Saturday morning.

He did not know about the park proposal, Bunting said. But he liked the idea.

“This is a great place to visit and relax,” he said. “And to see it get returned to nature will make it better.”

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: A bicyclist is seen on a parcel of land that was used as a taxiway at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

The aim is to have the future park merge with adjacent Department of Veterans Affairs property, which includes 14 acres of tidal wetlands and where an additional 11 acres of tidal lands are planned.

The VA owns 624 acres, which also includes a former Navy airstrip where endangered California least terns nest and breed.

About 80 acres has been set aside for a columbarium for the remains of former service members — it will be built in phases over the next 100 years — and 40 acres for a veterans benefits and medical center, as well as for parking and for an office to manage the nature area.

While some call the proposed park site DePave, it does not have an official name. A consultant working for the city began using the moniker because the project reflects the aims of Depave, a Portland, Oregon, nonprofit that turns old parking lots and other places into gardens and open space.

The future wetlands would stretch about 650 yards from east to west and measure about 250 yards at its widest point from north to south.

ALAMEDA, CA – JUNE 22: A parcel of land that was used as a taxiway is seen from this drone view at the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, Calif., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The city council recently balked at setting aside money to create a master plan for a $14 million project which would have torn up the concrete, replacing it with wetlands for public use. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)