On Tuesday, May 21st, the Alameda Unified School District Board of Trustees will take a number of items under consideration in closed session. (Action Alameda News)

Alameda Police responded to a call for service at the Santa Clara [...]]]> It may take up to two months for the Alameda County Coroner’s office to determine what caused the death of a 38-year old Alameda woman who was found dead at her home on the 1000 block of Santa Clara Avenue last Friday.

Alameda Police responded to a call for service at the Santa Clara Avenue home of Melanie Campbell, 38 years old, at 9:40 a.m. on Friday, May 10th, and found the woman deceased.

The Coroner’s office told Action Alameda News this morning that, as yet, they are unable to determine a cause of death.

Tipsters alerted Action Alameda News to police activity at the residence, noting three squad cars, the coroner’s van and a crime scene investigation vehicle. Later that day, a police spokesperson told Action Alameda News that the death was initially suspicious because the woman seemed too young to die of natural causes. However, police reported no signs foul play, and the coroner’s office did not give priority to an autopsy of the woman as they normally do in homicide cases.

Ms. Campbell is survived by a minor child and the child’s father. A Google+ page for a Melanie Campbell living in Alameda said she worked at John Muir Medical Center and attended Yale University.

House prices in Alameda County were up in April. (East Bay Real Estate Directory)

The median sales price of existing single-family homes in Alameda County in [...]]]>

House prices in Alameda County were up in April. (East Bay Real Estate Directory)

The median sales price of existing single-family homes in Alameda County in April was $624,270 compared to $456,910 in April of 2012, and $578,310 in March of this year.

The county-wide unsold inventory index in April was 2.2, compared to 2.8 in April of 2012, suggesting a tight supply of homes for sale. The median time on market in April was 47.9 days, compared to 61.4 days in the same month last year, reflective of a faster moving market that’s driving prices up.

According to the Realtor’s association, mortgage rates dropped in April. Rates for a 30-year fixed-mortgage averaged 3.45 percent in April, down from 3.91 percent in April 2012.

The Alameda Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold a closed session meeting tomorrow to review Superintendent Kirstan Vital’s performance. Ms. Vital’s contract provides for annual pay increases of 3 percent, and $15,000 performance-based bonuses.

The meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. and [...]]]> Update 5/16/13 3:00 p.m. AUSD sends notice that meeting has been canceled.

The Alameda Unified School District Board of Trustees will hold a closed session meeting tomorrow to review Superintendent Kirstan Vital’s performance. Ms. Vital’s contract provides for annual pay increases of 3 percent, and $15,000 performance-based bonuses.

The meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. and will be held in a conference room at the district’s offices at 2060 Challenger Drive, in Marina Village.

Members of public may comment on closed session topics before the board adjourns to closed session.

BOARD OF EDUCATION AGENDA
SPECIAL MEETING May 16, 2013
6:00 PM
District Office
2060 Challenger Drive, Suite 100 Alameda, CA 94501 Ballena Bay / Harbor Bay Conference Rooms

By law, the city has to have a housing element as part of it’s General Plan. The 2007 to 2014 Housing Element was [...]]]> At Monday’s Planning Board meeting, City of Alameda Planning Department staff provided an informational report on a plan to update the City’s housing element for the 2014 to 2022 planning period.

By law, the city has to have a housing element as part of it’s General Plan. The 2007 to 2014 Housing Element was finalized and approved in July of last year. According to the staff report, the updated element must be adopted by December of 2013. Over the coming months, planning department staff will schedule a series of public hearings to receive comment on the update.

Planning Department staff expect that the current inventory of land identified for housing should be sufficient to meet the city’s housing opportunity allocation from the Association of Bay Area Governments, due to the re-zoning of several parcels last year.

Land at Alameda Point is not included in the housing element completed last year, but is expected to be included in this new element due at the end of the year.

Included in the staff report is a summary table of six sites in the current inventory that have either been entitled or are the subject of preliminary development applications. Of note is a so-called “remnant parcel” at the intersection of Webster Street and Stargell Avenue, where a commercial development with no housing is proposed, although it is zoned for 61 multifamily units. Also, the city has an incomplete application on file to increase the Boatworks project to 240 multifamily units.

The full staff report is included below.

Housing Element Update

Friday, June 14, 2013 • 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Friday, July 12, 2013 • 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Friday, August 9, 2013 • 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Dear Editor,

It is a Pandora’s Box, having livestock in backyards of Alameda. The irony is that I abhor factory farming and am a huge advocate for small farms. But we will have some residences with livestock being raised, [...]]]> (Editor Note – italics and capital letters are reflected as they appeared in the original submission.)

Dear Editor,

It is a Pandora’s Box, having livestock in backyards of Alameda. The irony is that I abhor factory farming and am a huge advocate for small farms. But we will have some residences with livestock being raised, bred and slaughtered without oversight or concern for neighbors, the environment, or the animals.

Let’s consider that people who have livestock in their backyards, will be, for the most part, on the honor system. I don’t think the city has the resources to make inspections, issue citations, etc. I say this because when I called to ask what the law was pertaining to chicken’s, I had a difficult time getting a return call. When I finally spoke to someone, he literally whined to me about how short staffed they are and all the responsibilities he had. I wasn’t asking him to do anything but answer a question.

I know they all work hard and do the best they can but it made me feel bad for bothering them. So what will it be like when people need help with noncompliant neighbors? That said, whatever laws we enact or use, whether from the city or state, are going to be kind of irrelevant. With all due respect to Alamedans, there are some people who aren’t going to abide by any law. It’s possible that they don’t even know what the laws are. Will we send out a mailer to every residence in a language they can read? (My landlord doesn’t speak English.) My neighbor had a rooster and could not have cared less about the noise. I tried to make the best of it for a year before I had no choice but to call the city and complain. I felt bad having to do that and was really amazed that he would not have realized it was disturbing the peace.

What about animal waste and rodent issues? What about environmental and contamination issues? What about how they are housed and slaughtered? What can renters do when a backyard farm at their residence infringes on their rights? I’m expected to comply with all rules and regulations for the safety, care and cleanliness of the premises and for the benefit and comfort of other tenants or neighbors. A renter also has the right to quiet enjoyment.

I came home one day to witness, in the FRONT YARD, my landlord slowly slitting the throat of a live chicken so he could save the blood in a container for some reason. (We do not have chickens. Maybe he bought it from the neighbor.) Truth is, I don’t have a problem with this in principle, because I’ve seen what happens in slaughterhouses and it could never be as horrible. Although state laws says “the animal must be rendered insensible to pain by a captive bolt, gunshot, electrical or chemical means, or any other means that is rapid and effective before being cut, shackled, hoisted, thrown, or cast, with the exception of poultry which may be shackled”, unfortunately, it’s not adhered to.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I was shocked and stood there for a moment. The landlord laughed because he saw that it bothered me even though I tried to hide it. Are we going to address this or just use state law? How will the law be enforced? I actually think that people should see, first-hand, how the animals they eat are raised and killed. But I don’t eat chicken and wish he had done it somewhere else.

– Holly Rose, Alameda

The Alameda Unified School District shared cost estimates for rehabilitating buildings on the Alameda High School campus.

The impacted buildings are the so-called East Building, which used to house [...]]]>

The Alameda Unified School District shared cost estimates for rehabilitating buildings on the Alameda High School campus.

The impacted buildings are the so-called East Building, which used to house the Adult Education school, and the East Wing and West Wing of the main Alameda High School building, which also houses the Kofman Auditorium. In all, these buildings afford some 75,000 square feet of space; the district’s administrative offices were housed in the East Wing until earlier this year, when they were relocated to 2060 Challenger Drive in Marina Village.

The estimates range from a low of $20.2 million, a bottom-end estimate of what it would take to rehabilitate the structures to a “collapse prevention” level that would not support student and teacher use of the buildings, to a high of $27.2 million, representing a top-end estimate of what it might cost to bring the structures up to Field Act Standards to support student use.

These estimates don’t include staffing costs related to design work, testing, engineering, abatement and similar costs, estimated to run at 25 percent to 30 percent of the project cost; these costs could add another $8 million or so to the highest estimated provided.

Also, the estimates do not include tenant improvement costs, such as interior work to support particular uses such as classrooms.

The data was presented last Thursday at a stakeholders meeting organized by the district to gather community input on if, how, and how much, to rehabilitate the structures.

A fifth and final meeting is scheduled for May 21st at 6:30 p.m. in the Alameda High School Cafeteria.

The full summary page of cost estimates is included below:

Summary of Estimates to Rehabilitate Alameda High School Building by bayfarm

Andrew Simpson of the Artemis racing team was killed yesterday after the team’s catamaran capsized in San Francisco Bay.

On May 13th, the Planning Board will entertain a design review of 253 homes planned for Alameda Landing. (Action Alameda News)