WATCH DRONE VIDEO OF EAST 12TH STREET LOT: We take an aerial look at a parcel sold to developers by the city of Oakland in 2016 in a controversial deal. Click here if you’re having trouble viewing the video or gallery on your mobile device.
OAKLAND — Oakland advocates, unsatisfied with how the city has sold and leased public land in the past, are urging city officials to ensure affordable housing developments have dibs on public land.
After major community pushback for the 2016 sale of a city-owned parcel along East 12th Street near Lake Merritt for market-rate housing development — that sale was ultimately scrapped after its legality was questioned — city officials opted to create a policy that would rule over future sales and leasing of public land.
Though city officials began to work alongside anti-displacement activists to draft the policy proposal, “it became clear that there were insurmountable impasses on key issues” and the city and activists agreed to submit two separate proposals for approval by the City Council, according to a letter to city council members by the Citywide Network Public Land Policy Committee.
As of February, neither the city nor the advocates had finished their proposals. But based on earlier drafts of the city’s plan, advocates say it doesn’t do enough to address Oakland’s widespread homelessness and displacement issues.
“We want to make sure the city’s land is used in a way that actually contributes to solutions for the housing crisis, and helps prevent displacement,” said David Zisser, staff attorney for Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on poverty and racial discrimination, and co-author of the committee’s proposal. “The way we’re looking at the city staff’s proposal, some of the things that were in there actually may contribute to exacerbating gentrification and displacement.”
Zisser said the “people’s proposal” is just about done, and they hope to have it presented to the Community and Economic Development committee mid-March.
The current draft of the people’s proposal gives priority for public land sales to affordable housing developments, as required under the state’s Surplus Land Act. The proposal also calls for at least 40 percent of units at any of the developments be affordable or at least 15 percent with an in-lieu fee, according to the letter. What the committee has seen of the city’s proposal only calls for 15 percent of the units to be affordable or none with an in-lieu fee, the letter said. The Surplus Land Act also requires all properties sold by cities to developers to contain at least 15 percent affordable housing in lieu of fees.
Oakland city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said the city is still working its public lands strategy and analysis. City staff will discuss the policy when its report is complete, she said; no date has been set for when the report will be presented to the City Council.
Zisser said if the city does not give priority to affordable housing developers, public land could be sold to companies looking to develop market rate housing in “vulnerable communities that are already combating displacement and dealing with evictions and increasing rents.”
Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said she supports the affordable housing requirement in the people’s proposal, and thinks it is imperative that affordable housing developers get priority for public land. She told the Oakland Tribune that she agrees with other aspects of the plan, such as its focus on hiring local labor and providing job opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.
The people’s proposal was generated from a multi-year partnership between community members and advocacy groups, said Krishna Desai, organizer for the East 12th Coalition — the community group that challenged the city’s original decision to sell the East 12th parcel to market-rate developers.
The people’s proposal also calls for 50 percent of net proceeds of sales and leasing of public land to go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the remaining proceeds go to the Community Fund for youth programs, job training, education, homeless assistance, health services and other uses, the letter said. No proceeds would go to the Police Department.
The advocates say only 40 percent of net proceeds would go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund under the city’s proposal, and the rest would go to the city’s general fund.
Apart from affordable housing, the people’s proposal gives priority to “Oakland residents and disadvantaged workers for construction and permanent jobs,” and requires jobs to be union-friendly. The proposal also would ensure that formerly incarcerated people have employment opportunities and that undocumented workers are protected from discrimination and harassment by employers.
The people’s proposal also would establish a Community Advisory Committee of residents who would make recommendations for how the sites are used and who gets first shot at the land, evaluate proposals, provide recommendations to the City Council and monitor implementation of the policy, the letter said.
Certain requirements would be made under the people’s proposal to ensure health and environmental safety, including landscaping setbacks on sites close to industrial zoning, diesel truck routes and major roads; giving additional consideration to projects with renewable energy systems; requiring sites to maximize opportunities for solar energy; and mandating that developers install air filtration systems and pursue other ways to improve indoor air quality.
Desai and Zisser said their hope is that the city adopts the people’s proposal in full.
“What’s important is that the city reconfigure its relationship to the residents of Oakland, and the residents of Oakland get to have a say in their immediate habitat, and this becomes a collaborative process moving forward,” Desai said.