The planned Curtis Park Village site in Sacramento is now officially a clean slate and ready for development.

Officials cheered Wednesday as an excavator smashed a sign warning of cancer-causing chemicals at the former railyard in the southwest corner of Curtis Park, marking the end of decades of remediation work.

The cleanup project clears the 72-acre site for construction in the next decade of houses, apartments, stores and offices a mile south of downtown.

Some 358,000 cubic yards of toxic dirt were hauled away and replaced at a cost of $25 million, project developer Paul Petrovich said.

That's enough to fill nearby Sacramento City College's Hughes Stadium to the brim.

"It was an incredible effort," Petrovich said. "It's kind of never saying die."

City officials also announced they have secured federal grants to build a $10 million pedestrian bridge over the Union Pacific tracks on the development's west flank, creating more "cohesion" between Curtis Park and Land Park, City Councilman Jay Schenirer said.

The bridge will be built at the end of 10th Avenue and will carry pedestrians and cyclists from Curtis Park and Curtis Park Village to an existing Regional Transit light-rail station and to the Sacramento City College campus.

"It's awesome," said city planning director David Kwong. "It's like our dream project. It's infill, remediation of a brownfield, and transit-oriented development as well."

The northern portion of Curtis Park Village will be residential, including senior housing and a park. The southern section will contain commercial enterprises, likely including a supermarket.

Petrovich built the Safeway complex in midtown at 19th and S streets, which revitalized that area.

He also built a retail complex at Freeport Boulevard and Sutterville Road, just down the street from Curtis Park Village.

Petrovich said he expects to add underground utilities and streets on the site, starting in June.

Retail development and housing could follow as early as next year. Construction on the pedestrian bridge could start in 2014 and finish the following year.

After years of wrangling between Curtis Park residents and the developer, the project is generally supported by the existing neighborhood, said Patrick Soluri, president of the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association.

"We are cautiously optimistic it will be a complement to the neighborhood, but it requires diligence on our part," Soluri said. "We hope to work with city and developer going forward."

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