ALAMEDA — The environmental impact of building 292 apartments along the Oakland Estuary still must be determined. But one thing is certain: It will increase traffic.

The waterfront project calls for the units to be built around a parking garage on Marina Village Parkway and is one of several major housing developments in the pipeline on both the Alameda and Oakland sides of the estuary.

More cars on the road will be the inevitable result, according to Andrew Thomas, the city of Alameda’s assistant community development director.

“Traffic is bad in this town during rush hour, particularly leaving in the morning and coming home at night,” Thomas told the Planning Board on April 24, when it weighed in on the scope of an Environmental Impact Report for the future apartment building. “And these projects will make it worse.”

But Thomas also noted that most of the housing projects have not been built and so a host of other issues are also increasing traffic, including the low price of gasoline.

“There are a lot of things that effect our traffic,” he said. “Traffic has gotten worse in the last five years. It’s not because we have added so many housing units. It’s just because the regional economy is going so well.”

Along with apartments, a 2.5-acre waterfront park, an extension of the San Francisco Bay Trail and a dock that would offer water taxi service to Oakland’s Jack London Square are proposed for 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway as part of the “Alameda Shipways” project.

Currently, ramps and 50,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in four buildings are at the approximately eight-acre site near the Posey Tube and the Marina Village Shopping Center. The privately owned site was used to build and launch boats for the U.S. Navy during World War II.

“At one point, this was a wonderful facility and structure for building ships,” said Dennis Cavallari, the San Clemente-based developer behind the project. “It would be almost impossible to build it for that same purpose, nor do we think we would want to.”

The development would have 142 one-bedroom units, 138 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units. Forty units would be designated as affordable.

A 489-space parking garage would be located within the single four-story apartment building. The 3.5-story garage would have one underground level and be screened from public view by the apartments.

Cavallari said “the whole thing is a work in progress” and that much of the project and its design still must be worked out.

The approximately 2.5-acre public park would be adjacent to the apartment building, which would stretch about 450 feet on Marina Village Parkway.

Along with a kayak launch and a water taxi dock, the park would have volleyball and bocce courts, a children’s play area, and trees and lawn areas, according to the plan that the developer submitted to the city on March 15.

The Planning Board did not address the project’s design. But board members asked for its EIR to include the impact of actually not going forward with it and how the project might effect traffic outside Alameda, such as on East Bay freeways, as well as the impact of increasing its housing density.

Public speaker Karen Bey said the property might be suitable for a ferry terminal, especially since a water taxi launch was already proposed.

Thomas said he hopes to schedule a Planning Board workshop on the project in June, when the board can comment on its scale and design.

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission has already offered input on the waterfront park, according to the developer.

“Alameda Shipways” is one of several major housing developments under way along the Oakland Estuary.

The others in Alameda include Encinal Terminals, located between Alaska Basin and Fortman Marina, which calls for 589 housing units and up to 50,000 square feet of commercial space and waterfront public parks.

Also in Alameda, 380 apartments, lofts and townhouses and at least 30,000 square feet of commercial and retail space is planned for the site of the historic Del Monte warehouse on Buena Vista Avenue.

In Oakland, the Brooklyn Basin project calls for 3,100 apartments, condominiums, lofts and townhouses on 64 acres near Jack London Square.