Oak to Ninth: a hearing

The Oak to Ninth development is the largest project to hit Oakland in the last sixty years. It was presented to an Oakland Planning Commission hearing at city hall on Wednesday, March 15th. Having heard that this project was feared as a massive change for Oakland, I decided to attend and see what I could find out. The chamber and balconies were packed; many were standing. I was lucky to get a seat in one of the balconies from where I had a fairly good view of the proceedings.

Nearly everyone wore a pin or badge of some sort to indicate where they stood on the matter. Some, wearing business suits and dress clothes, sported large, shiny buttons reading "I support Oak to 9th." I guessed that they might be the office staffs of the developers and prospective subcontractors.

Others, wearing a range of attire from casual street clothes to the same three-piece sort, wore large paper stickers which read "Build Oakland for Everyone." These people were part of the "Community Benefits Coalition," which consisted of sixteen neighborhood, labor and environmental groups.

The project area known as "Oak to Ninth" consists of 64 acres of waterfront property which is owned by the Port of Oakland. It's being sold to Signature Properties and Reynolds & Brown who propose to build 3,100 homes on the site. The development plan also includes shops, restaurants, four thousand parking spaces, two marinas and public parks. This project has been in the works for some years; word of it was first peeped to the public in 2001.

The evening presentation of the project was made by Michael Ghielmetti, CEO of Signature Properties. He showed slides of waterfront projects in other cities which his firm had developed. It was very effective, showing before and after photos of how the firm had turned ugly, rundown, industrial waterfronts into attractive residential areas with tree-lined parks, etc. The results looked really nice; despite my reservations I was favorably impressed by the developer's presentation, and my immediate reaction was: Who could oppose something like this?

Actually, many do oppose it for reasons of health, safety, social, environmental, and economic concern, as well as a fear of overwhelming traffic congestion. However, the project was pretty much a done deal, so the "Community Benefits Coalition" has been negotiating to modify it in ways that will benefit the community. They asked that 25% of the units be made affordable to families with incomes between $10 and $50 thousand.

The developer was followed by speakers from the community coalition. One of the persons who spoke for affordable housing was an elderly Asian woman who lived near the site; she spoke in Mandarin, and her presentation was read by another person in English translation.

The next group of speakers were health professionals who expressed health and safety concerns. One of them pointed out that living in a decent neighborhood added an average of 6 years to a person's live span. Everyone had a right to live in a safe, healthy environment.

The developers proposed to build expensive housing on this attractive waterfront site. However, this was public land which was being sold to the developers at a bargain price--a discount of $30 million. So the Coalition argued that Oakland residents had a right to stipulate that the project include low cost housing.

There were also speakers from Oakland Heritage Alliance who argued for the preservation of an historical building in the area. Looking at the site from an historical perspective, they pointed out other corrections that needed to be made in the plan. They, like several other speakers, said that they'd discussed these things with the developers, but that many problems with the project still hadn't been addressed.

Following a dozen or more presentations by the community coalition and others who recommended changes in the project, there were three or four persons who spoke in rebuttal on behalf of the developers' proposal.

"Oakland needs this project," asserted a speaker from the pro-developer team. The project would bring jobs to Oakland, he said. The one who followed him, dressed in a three-piece suit and apparently also one of the developers' PR men, hammered even harder on that magic buzzword -- jobs. "Working people want jobs!" he said, dismissing the health and other concerns that had been expressed that evening. "Working people don't care about leukemia!"

Our city planning commission approved the project. The matter now goes to the city council, who'll take it up in a special session on Tuesday, March 28.

http://www.danielborgstrom.com

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FOR MORE INFO:

Community Benefits Coalition proposal
http://www.urbanstrategies.org/documents/Oakto9thCommunityBenefitsCoalitionReport-July2005.pdf

Waterfront Action
http://www.waterfrontaction.org/plans/oak9_project.htm

City of Oakland website
http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/ceda/revised/planningzoning/MajorProjectsSection/oaktoninth.html

The developers' website
http://www.oakto9th.com/site_location.html