GREEN LIGHT FOR OAK TO 9TH

The Oakland City Council has given a green light to the controversial Oak to 9^th development project on the city’s waterfront just south of Jack London Square.

The project, which aims to convert 64 acres of unusable maritime land into a mixed-use waterfront neighborhood, landed the approval after five years of public discussion and negotiations, as well as a final nod in late June by local affordable housing, open space and labor advocates who had previously opposed the project.

Oak to 9^th now must meet the approval of both the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the state Department of Toxic Substance Control.

If that goes as planned, construction would start late next year or early 2008, according to Michael Ghielmetti, president of Signature Properties, the Pleasanton developer that is managing the project. Port executives said escrow on the $18 million land sale is expected to close in August 2007.

Under its current plan, the project would include up to 3,100 residential units, with 465 units available to lower-income families. It also will offer 200,000 square feet of retail space and 32 acres of interconnected public parks and open spaces, with access to public transit.

The plan includes two renovated marinas, waterfront parks and a wetlands restoration, and will complete its portion of the proposed San Francisco Bay Trail, a walking/biking trail that aims to ring the Bay.

We want these parks to be vibrant and open, Ghielmetti said, not shoreline where no one goes. Think of the Marina Green, think of the park with the bow-and-arrow in San Francisco. There are people there, there are eyes looking out on it.

By contrast, the current site is a wasteland, unuseable for maritime because ships are now too large to enter the area, and cut off from the community by the 1-880 freeway. Its environmental cleanup alone, which the developers have agreed to perform, was projected as $16 million at the time of the agreement, but has now escalated to between $20 million and $30 million.

It was an area the public had no access to, said Kenneth Katzoff, outgoing president of the Port’s Board of Commissioners. It has significant environmental problems and there’s a significant cost to clean it up. And it was creating no tax revenue for the city.

The project has met with significant resistance, though, mainly from open-space and community activists.

As a result, the developers have spent several years trying to understand local concerns, meeting with thousands of community members and holding a dozen or more public hearings. Ghielmetti reportedly said the council’s 6-0 approval was proof of the importance of that level of community involvement.

This is not a new model for integrating new waterfronts back into cities, Ghielmetti said, listing Sydney, Australia, Portland, OR, Vancouver BC, San Diego and others that have served as models for this project. There are so many cities that have done this well.