The East Bay Regional Park District’s board of directors voted to accept ownership of 2,216 acres of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station and turn it into a community park.
The vote took place July 2, district officials said Tuesday. Transferring ownership of the land from the U.S. Navy to the park district should take roughly six months to complete.
“Park development is expected to take several years and will require significant financial resources,” district general manager Robert Doyle said. “There is no timetable on development.”
There are also plans to transfer an additional 327 acres from the Navy to the district in the future.
District officials plan to celebrate the acquisition from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The event will also mark the 75th anniversary of the fatal munitions explosion at Port Chicago that killed hundreds of servicemen and civilians, most of whom were black, on July 17, 1944.
More information about the event Saturday and the district’s plans for the park is available online at
https://www.ebparks.org/about/planning/cnws.htm.
Love this!
We are thrilled to hear this great news! A beautiful park and not tje endless shopping/business sprawl. Thank you thankyou!
Yes. Too bad they’re not just leaving all of it open though, all of what you mentioned is still coming.
not being sarcastic here… how much soil cleaning will they have to do to make it safe? how well will they check for opps…. some kids just dug up some old munitions…
Great question. Although I like the idea, it cost gazillions to clean up Ft Ord in Monterey and that was in the 90s. My question is where the Heck is the money going to come from? The federal government or a local park district? I love the idea but not the financial aspect.
The cleanup of contaminated soil is forgotten and no longer mentioned.. I know of at least 1 person who worked there who died of brain cancer, and 4 people who got brain cancer that lived near there. 4 people in 4 consecutive streets near Concord Blvd. Brain cancer was supposed to be rare. I also found a few near by streets that had higher than normal incidences of other cancers. All kinds. I sure wouldn’t want to picnic on those grounds.
Max-All cancer cases are suppose to be reported to the CDC via our COCO health department as a way of tracking clusters around the nation.
If this has not happened I would suggest notifying the Contra Costa Health Department to make sure these deaths are not linked. All cancer deaths are tracked via the local health departments and Center of Disease Control (CDC) on a national basis to investigate potential clusters.
If you do not trust the government Erin Brokovich created a website to track potential clusters nationwide but does not have the same scientific methods used by the CDC. You can visit the general map via the attached link (at the top of the page click analyze) or fill out and register to report your concerns and it will be added to the map.
https://www.communityhealthbook.com/Account/Register
People who previously expressed concern about wildfires on base should know that the probable reason we have NOT had devastating wildfires there is that the public has been refused entry. I worry that homeless will migrate to the base and will start building campfires to keep themselves warm. Look outside at this wind blowing the tree branches around, and then do some thinking about how far such winds will disperse hot embers.
Uh oh…….and your house will be toast?
You could hide out there for a month without anyone noticing.
The security is a joke
Perfect.
The East Bay Regional Park District was created in 1934, funded from property tax of $0.05 per $100. It also has been funded over time by local measures and a share of the rare statewide bond. In addition, the park district receives grants, property deals and philanthropy.
And Prop 68, a 4.1 billion dollar tax passed in 2018.
They are very well funded. Lots of MOOLA!
So, who is going to pay for the many, many millions of dollars for the contaminated soil clean up? Plus the corresponding many millions of dollars to have clean soil hauled in after the clean up. Not to mention untold litigation issues that will arise.
Sure hope EBRP didn’t assume liability for these events … Which will happen.
sooo yay land and parks and political fodder
a park will be great for that area and needed
the article then utters this political statement:
the fatal munitions explosion at Port Chicago that killed hundreds of servicemen and civilians, [most of whom were black, on July 17, 1944.]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^…
why is the above statement needed
these were servicemen protecting and
serving the citizens during this horrible accident
and some self serving dem writer has to throw
in the race card every time …why ?
are they trying to say it was on purpose and
not an accident but a planned event against
a certain color …dems always slamming
you and better than you yet always show their
banner of separation and never pass up on a
political slam for securing votes of any kind
through any means ..even a simple statement
supposed to bring happiness is clouded by
political posturing and disrespect to the military
IT SO DISREPECTS AT ANY CHANCE
civilians and service men working to give us
freedom.and a dem had to disrespect it ….
for what a pat on the back from a politician
The way you wrote that is quite confusing but I’d suggest you research the Port Chicago explosion before you say it’s a political statement. African American men were required to unload the dangerous ammunitions. (it was deemed too dangerous for other ethnicities to unload) I learned about this story when I was in school, now in my 40s so this has been a story that’s long been told to educate the future. This has all been proven as fact and many gave their life. So if you want to say that’s political…I guess any story you see on any subject must be political?
The tragic event of July 17, 1944 killed hundreds of people, why bring up the race issue ? A human life is a human life, race should not be a factor.
They’re stating a fact, you’re the one making race a factor. Get over yourself.
They should have kept the Elk… maybe add a few Buffalo and some Antelope too… plant some more native trees, flowers & grasses…. restore it to a pre 1800’s condition so the kids could see what it used to be like… really put the love of America the beautiful in their young hearts……
or build an Indian Casino! Yeeah! I’d go for that.
Another park in Concord,so needed,and who crowds up the park from sunrise to sunset..? Concord’s favorite people…more swell gestures from the left..
I think they should make some of it equestrian trails. There are still a few of us in Claycord that have horses and are always looking for new places to ride. There’s plenty of room for a parking lot big enough for trailers .
I agree!
A BIG +1 from me!!!
Please dont. Most of you cant control your wild beasts nor do you clean up after them. Dog owners can do it just fine so why cant you? Horses (rather the owners) pose a health and safety risk out there in the parks.
They plan for the trails in Concord Hills regional park to be multi use, so equestrians will be welcomed. On this website scroll to bottom and see the conceptual map that shows all the trails.
https://www.ebparks.org/about/planning/cnws.htm
@Hiker – Horses = Wild Beasts? I’ve seen many horses being ridden or walked in Briones RP over the years, and I’ve never observed one horse acting as a “wild beast”.
Also, and I say this as a dog owner who always picks up her dogs’ poop, I think your are overreaching to say that regarding, “Dog owners can do it (pick up poop) just fine”. I regretfully see dog poop all of the time along the Canal Trail and in Larkey Park, including within 20 feet of both poop pickup bags and trash cans in the park.
Taxes will go up and homeless will move in.
The homeless will love it!
This is another blown opportunity. We need local jobs and more housing NOT more open space. This could have totally transformed Concord,, but instead we are getting more open space. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
Contra Costa County has a certain percentage of land which must remain undeveloped, this will help meet that requirement. There will still be room for a couple business parks, and you know developers are still salivating at the thought of all the new subdivisions filled with postage stamp lots too.
Don’t worry, Lennar will build some McMansions along Willow Pass before abandoning the rest of the project.
Always so negative! The Navy is going to sell the property, and what better use can you think of? Even more housing development to clog our roads? Believe me, that would be the alternative. Open space park land can be enjoyed by all the taxpayers to use or just enjoy the beauty from the distance. Homeless wont move in because the need to be near food, water and money sources, but if they did it would mean they’re moving futher away from our backyard creeks and parks.
I love the idea of open space and a 4 year college, but not even more dense housing than the many thousand already planned!
The MORE HOUSING folks needn’t fret so much. The other TWO THIRDS of the property will be stuffed with more stack ‘n pack ticky-tacky housing, and our roads will be impassible before you know it!! This is the only bit of possibly undeveloped space the City of Concord will deign to share. YAY!!!
The Navy has already been cleaning the area given to EBRPD. There are quite a few areas that will not be accessible to the public because clean up will either not be complete or not done to standards that allow specific uses. Although, to be fair, the vast majority of the park is for conservation purposes only and will not have trails or anything else on it and much of that will not be accessible to the public. Just a small number of acres will have trails/access – can’t recall the exact number but I believe it’s less than half. Great to have the open space, though.
Smh
Could have had the Raiders stadium there,
but instead we get a park. Great, the biggest homeless camp/crime rate to hit concord
Raiders fans commit the highest amount of crime in Contra Costa. A park will be safer than having Raiders or their fans in our city.
This is not an area where anything large (whether a stadium or housing or office) could be built, which is part of the reason the Navy gave the land to the EBRPD.
So the agency who contaminated the soil is the agency tasked with cleaning the soil & we’re supposed to take their word afterward that they cleaned it?
Those warm, fuzzy, family picnics will turn into bedside hospice care 30 years later & the Navy will claim to have no idea why any of these people are dying.
True that people shouldn’t take word from Navy that it will be clean. But very few people attend the meetings or contact the city council about it.
Don’t worry, it’s not like they’re using the same contractor who faked the Hunters Point cleanup…. Oh, wait, they are.
There was an accidental release of radioactive material from the Concord Naval Weapons Station in the 1950s which was hushed up. I know about it only because my father was enlisted U.S. Army at the time, stationed at Camp Stoneman and privy to such information. This fact leads me to believe that personnel at CNWS and the Navy were storing and supplying radioactive material for military use routinely during that time, and cleanup would require special measures locating storage sites there and ridding the property of the reminents of such material. This information should not be buried, never to see the light of day. The consequences of the storage of radioactive material at the CNWS if not thoroughly removed has long-term health consequences for those using the property. If you are planning to buy a house there once they are built, you might want to sweep the property with a Geiger counter before forking over your down payment or signing anything.
It is government policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at any location. Nevertheless, if there was a radiation leak at the Concord Naval Weapon Station, it was so secret that even the US Government didn’t know about it.
@Cowellian Didn’t know about it, or aren’t admitting it? The later would seem more likely for the way the military and the government operated during the cold war. They also would be admitting fault and become libel for the damage it caused citizens of the area years later. I’ve never known the military, or the government for that matter, to admit to anything of the kind. Look at Gulf War Syndrome. They denied it for years. PTSD — they have only recently acknowleged it exists. The information also makes the site, CNWS, undesireable for housing unless extensive and expensive cleanup is completed.
The accidental release of radioactive material from CNWS wasn’t publicized. I know about it only by word of mouth overhearing my father relate the information that had come across his desk and had been discussed at his work. It was one of the few times in his life he ever mentioned anything in front of us kids about his work while in the military. During war time, he worked with top secret troop movements, but I only found that out after he passed away when I asked my mother what he had done while in the Army.
He was privy to the information about the accidental release of radioactive materials from CNWS, and he told my mother when he got home that night. They were concerned, because we lived on Concord Boulevard and were downwind of the release. At that time, certain radioactive materials in minimal quantity were known or thought to cause cancer.
It would make perfect sense to me that the government, or the military, would deny it happened and any paperwork related to it would be burried in top secret government files never to see the light of day. Perhaps even destroyed. They did not want anyone to know that they were storing and transporting radioactive materials through the area during the cold war.
Funny that you take the governments word for something like that. Makes you look suspiciously involved in a coverup, if in fact one exists. Of course, we can just ignore it and stick our heads in the sand. We won’t be around when people start getting sick because the ground is contaminated, Or, when they sue the City of Concord, the developer, or whoever … if they even live long enough to do that. Irresponsible, to say the least.
It never happened.
I’ve read (somewhere) that Seeno is pressuring Pittsburg to annex the land up to the ridge tops east of the CNWS in order to develop the land with houses that offer an unobstructed view to the west.
Yes. Seeno owns the ridgeline and wants to develop it. Basically all this park will do is make Pittsburg richer.
I attended a lot of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meetings up until about the last 2 years. I am still on their mailing list so I read the agenda and meeting minutes. The Navy did not keep a lot of records and things were dumped willy nilly.
There is no way they can find all of the hazards on the base. I would suggest staying on the trails that are established when it is open to the public.