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Oak to Ninth site offered as ballpark location
Sfgate.com is reporting that City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente has proposed to the Oakland A's that they negotiate with Signature Properties to set aside 15 or so acres at the Oak to Ninth site for a new ballpark. Apparently, the Coliseum parking lot concept for the park is officially dead. Here's the article http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/11/BAG1AD78001.DTL
Crystal Bay Casino project dead
The Oakland Tribune reported to day that the Koi Nation did not exercise their option to buy the parking lot at Swan and Pardee near the airport. The option has now expired, effectively killing the casino project that was proposed for that site. The City Councils of Alameda, Oakland, San Leandro, and Berkeley had opposed the project, although ultimate decision-making authority rested with the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here's the Trib article http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2796380
"The Most Important Issue Facing Oakland Today"
That's what Oakland Planning Commission Chair Mark McClure said about the conversion of industrial land to residential uses at the Commission's June 1 meeting. With the increasing pressure on industrial land in Oakland to be rezoned for residential uses, the Planning Commission directed CEDA staff to prepare a report about what such land conversion means for the future of the City. The report, which was prepared by Oakland planner Margot Lederer-Prado, is an important first step to understanding the land conversion phenomena and its consequences. The report does a good job of framing the problem and asking the questions further study must address. The report was presented at the Planning Commission's June 1 meeting. Urban Strategies Council is concerned about the growing amount of land lost for economic development opportunities in the City. The Council is also concerned that this process is occuring piecemail in project-by-project General Plan amendments and rezoning applications rather than through a comprehensive planning process that treats the cumulative impacts of rezoning parcels as a singular change to Oakland's social, economic, environmental, and physical landscape. At the June 1 meeting the Council submitted to the Commission a letter asking for a study, a planning process involving the public, and a moratorium on land conversion from industrial to residential uses until the study and planning process is complete. One Commissioner, Michael Lighty, supported the moratorium. A majority of the Commission expressed concern with the piecemail process of General Plan amendments. There was a suggestion that the Commission would view such projects skeptically while the land conversion issue is studied. The Community & Economic Development Committee of the Oakland City Council will hear the Industrial Land Report at its Tuesday June 14th meeting. Redevelopment Agency staff is now recommending that $50,000 be spent to fund a study to address the issues raised in the report. There will be some discussion also about slowing the pace of rezoning or General Plan amendments during this process. The agenda for Tuesday's meeting is available at http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/meetings/4475_A__Concurrent_Meeting_of_the_Redevelopment_Agency_and_Council_Community___Economic_Development_Committee_05-06-14_Meeting_Agenda.htmThe report is available at http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/attachments/11093.pdfThe Council's moratorium letter is available at
CEDA proposes new redevelopment area in North Oakland
CEDA, Oakland's Community and Economic Development Agency (which includes the Redevelopment Agency), wants to add about twice as much area to the Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Project Area. The Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Project Area currently consists of two distinct areas in North Oakland and is comprised of 676 acres. The Broadway/MacArthur sub-area incorporates Broadway Auto Row and Telegraph Avenue between 27th and 42nd Streets. The San Pablo sub-area incorporates the portion of San Pablo Avenue from 53rd to 67th Street. The new area would fill in the area that separates the two sub-areas, taking advantage of a quickly gentrifying section of Oakland. The area that will be added to the Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Redevelopment Project Area by the proposed amendment consists of commercial, industrial, public and residential land uses. The area begins at Telegraph and 42nd street and includes one parcel to the east of Telegraph and all properties to the west of Telegraph to the Berkeley border to the north and the border of the existing San Pablo sub area to the west. In addition, the proposed amendment area includes the parcels that front the Broadway commercial corridor between 42nd and 51st Street. The area includes approximately 5,000 parcels and comprises about 880 acres. CEDA has released three RFPs on this project: one for a consultant on redevelopment services (due May 4th); one for a consultant to provide engineering services (due April 27th); and one for a consultant to conduct an environmental impact report (due May 11th). All three RFPs can be found at http://www.business2oakland.com/main/redevelopment.htm#DevelopmentOpportunities. Information about the Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Redevelopment Project Area can be found at http://www.business2oakland.com/main/broadway.htm.
West Oakland Train Station moves closer to approval
Last night, the Community and Economic Development Committee of the Oakland City Council heard the development proposal for the 16th and Wood Street Train Station project. This is a mixed-use development that includes 1500+ residential units (approx. 90 of which will be affordable), some commercial and retail use, open space, and the re-use of the historic train station. The CED Committee forwaded the proposal to the Rules Committee with an eye towards possibly having a second public hearing on the matter at the next CED Committee meeting on April 26th. The full Council will consider the proposa on May 3rd. The proposal now includes affordable housing and the preservation of nearly the entire train station (including the important baggage wing, where the Pullman Porters worked and organized their union). These were key demands of the Train Station Coalition.
East Oakland getting closer to "Weed & Seed"
The Trib is reporting today that East Oakland may get "weed & seed" funding from the federal government. This program is designed to help urban neighborhoods with high crime rates. It is unclear from the article what use the community will be able to make of the funding. However, San Jose was an early recipient of this program and ended up leveraging the funding into what is now called the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative. SNI is a collaboration between the city and redevelopment agency to leverage tax increment financing with other municipal, state, and federal funding support across neighborhoods in order to revitalize distressed areas of San Jose. Trib article: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2647238SNI website: http://www.strongneighborhoods.org/
New way to improve Oakland schools? Put a ballpark on them?
Oakland State School Administrator Randy Ward is planning to lease or sell valuable school district property near downtown Oakland to developers. One potential use might be a ballpark for the A's. The Oakland Tribune is reporting today that one of the potential bidders for the Oakland Unified School District Headquarters redevelopment project is KUD of Santa Monica. KUD sent Naoko Ezawa, who was on the design team of San Francisco's Pac Bell Ball Park (now SBC Park). The Trib and the San Francisco Chronicle have been reporting over the past few weeks that new Oakland A's owner Lewis Wolff wants to build a new baseball-only ballpark. Wolff has been talking about using the Coliseum parking lot as the site, but has not ruled out moving the team. San Jose, Portland (Oregon), and Las Vegas are interested in the team. The same Trib article from today also notes that former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb, who famously clashed with Mayor Jerry Brown over the Uptown site, is attending the Broad Foundation's Academy for Urban Superintendents. The Trib has reported recently on Bobb's current training to be an urban superintendent in the Broad Academy program. Today's article speculates that Bobb might be preparing to come back to Oakland to work on OUSD's redevelopment activity. Bobb wanted the Uptown site for a ballpark, but Brown wanted housing and the mayor won. (EDW Note: The Uptown project received a major subsidy from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, and community pressure forced the Mayor, the ORA, and the developer to include affordable housing in the project.) The OUSD released an RFP to solicit development proposals for the so-called Channel Area site, which abuts Laney College and Peralta Park and includes the OUSD administration headquarters. Proposals are due on May 31 and EDW is keeping an eye on this project. We will report more on this project soon. Today's Trib article, referenced above, can be found at http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2647916The OUSD RFP for the Channel Area site can be found at http://webportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/news/Final%20OUSD%20Development%20RFP%20022805.doc(Try http://webportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/index.aspx if the above link fails.)
West Oakland Train Station
The major residential and commercial development project proposed for the West Oakland Train Station site -- known officially as the Wood Street Project -- was recommended for approval by the Oakland Planning Commission on March 16th. It next goes before the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee of the City Council on Tuesday April 12th. The Train Station Coalition has already won two victories in the process: (1) the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Baggage Wing of the Train Station not be demolished and (2) the developers of the Project have agreed to add affordable housing. Both of these victories are contingent on funding from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, but they are important victories nonetheless considering the developers have until now steadfastly refused to consider either alternative as acceptable. A complete staff report with attachments detailing the project as recommended by the Planning Commission is available on the CED Committee's agenda, available at http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/council/agendas-calendars.cfm. Click on "On-Line Meeting Agendas" and search for the CED Committee meeting on April 12, 2005.
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