It really is amazing that Albany is on the hook for millions in clean-up costs just so the Bulb can be given away for free to the park district. The property is worth many millions. Zoning, as long as Albany owns the place, is entirely under local control (except for BCDC's jurisdiction within 100 ft of high water, but that's not a big obstacle).
In a more rational land use world, the park district would have to buy the Bulb at some reasonable fraction of market rate, if there's really that much public value in making the Bulb 100% open space and park.
But is 100% open space really the best use? See my April 1 proposal from 2012. (http://tinyurl.com/qfkg6s5) No, that's not a serious proposal, but it does represent an upper bound on what could be done there. On a more realistic scale, some access for windsurfers and kayaks, some small-scale hotels and restaurants, and some managed short-term camping would be perfectly compatible with park and open space.
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Look south to the Berkeley Marina. Sure, it was developed as a post-industrial waterfront between 1930 and 1970, when sensibilities were a little different. But the result might be instructive to Albany waterfront planners (if that's not oxymoronic...)
Berkeley's waterfront benefits tremendously from mixed use: Parks, boat berths, restaurants, a hotel, some office space, four or five low-cost sailing or paddling clubs (all emphasizing various forms of non-motorized boating), fish boats, a public pier and more parks. They all play very well together. The value of everything is enhanced because everything is in close proximity to other things that are different. It's public, it's safe, and it offers access to the water for people of all income levels.
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Compare and contrast to the open space monoculture of the Bulb. Like most monocultures, it's inherently unstable and ultimately goes in an unintended direction.
The problem, of course, is the good people of CESP who kept Hilltop Mall out of the Meadow, kept Shellmound Street off the North Basin Strip, and fought heroically to wrest the waterfront out of private ownership and into public hands. That war is won. It's time to give up the Maginot Line and stop building battleships. The Eastshore State Park General Plan is equally obsolete.
Paul Kamen
Coalition for Diverse Activities on Water, Grass and Sand CDAWGS.org
