City Council Workshop on JLS redevelopment raises too many questions to answer
Oakland residents made a strong showing for the City Council workshop tonight which was devoted entirely to the Jack London Square Redevelopment project. The developer led out with an update on the project by Hal Ellis and a presentation from lead architect Steve Worthington. As borne out by later comments, the council was clearly struggling to comprehend the mass of information being presented and even had to ask the developer to slow down.

The developer began with his usual claim to have attended over twenty public meetings, a hundred other meetings and numerous one on one meetings communicating the project to the community. However this was the first time that the public had ever seen the three dimensional architectural model (see right - click image for a larger view) displayed at the meeting. The model was clearly the most valuable communication tool seen in the six months since the plans were formally released to the public as part of the Draft Environmental Impact Report.

Around twenty public commenters spoke for up to three minutes each, touching on a wide range of outstanding issues. Many asked the City Council to reject the proposed design of Site G (the massive seven storey 74' parking garage destined for the Amtrak parking lot) and require something more compatible with the beautiful train station next door, while others pointed out the ominous presence of alternatives ("variants") in the proposal that would allow the developer to build large amounts of office space rather than retail, restaurant, and entertainment spaces. Other speakers asked Council to pay attention to issues regarding open space use, the design review process, and many unresolved environmental impact problems including traffic and off-street parking.

Several public speakers, notably all from the Oakland Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the project. Two were unable to give any input other than that the chamber full endorsed the project. It was surprising that in a $300M project they could not find a single area that could use some improvement from the point of view of future Oakland merchants who might occupy it. One spoke at some length about how those in opposition had sometime contradicted themselves and that clearly the project could not be redesigned around personal preferences instead of been driven by good design from the developer. Ironically the councilors later showed it wasn't just the public who were able to express contradictory opinions.^*

To round out the public comments Sanjiv Handa of East Bay News, laid to waste all the complaints by the developer about the number of meetings it had attended. He pointed out that in the 6,000 person city of Emeryville, Kaiser had held over 120 public meetings for their hospital project that was half the dollar value of the JLS redevelopment project. He raised a laugh throughout City Hall when he extrapolated that by comparison Hal should have held over a thousand public meetings by now to keep up with Kaiser.

As the City councilors weighed in with the comments two things became clear. Firstly some had done their homework on the project and some were still drowning under the volume of paper work it generated, and secondly that this was clearly not going to be a slam dunk rubber stamping exercise for the developer.

Our local District 3 representative Nancy Nadel produce a very impressive list of questions, comments and concerns for the developer and City staff to answer. Nadel demonstrated she'd read a good deal of the paperwork in detail, and had clearly been following a good deal of the input from the local community. Raising red-flags about parking, the design for sites F2 and G, environmental impacts and standards, and lack of transit enhancements she set the standard.

The rest of the council followed and in general added to and strengthened the concerns raised by Nadel and the community at large. Repeated themes in their comments included:

• Dissatisfaction with the design of the garage on Site G
  
• Desire to see variants not visualized
  
• Must not have a mostly office space alternative developed
  
• Have more discussion of transit and parking issues
  
• Require widening of the Bay Trail around the hotel at Site F3
  
• Why no residential mixed use?
  
• Need more design consideration at all times to ensure quality
  
• Thanks (often at length) to the community for their continued and hard work
  
• Require the developer to build something of quality within six years if approvals are granted
  
• Concerns about consequences of a fast food major variance
  
• Lack of linkages to downtown and neighboring communities (Chinatown)
  
• Issues with the size and complexity of the project that made it difficult to comprehend and understand
  

The Jack London District website now has a detailed list of the comments made by the city councilors.

In fact the council raised so many questions that both Planning Director Claudia Cappio and the developer elected to provide their responses in writing to the council rather than at the meeting. However Hal Ellis could not stop himself commenting on the notion that they might develop an "office park" on the site (as alluded to by several commentators, and a recent Oakland Tribune article). He stated that he was ready to entertain mitigations to ensure that didn't happen.

Jack London News would like to extend a big thank you to all those who have been involved in help shape this project to serve our community instead of just a balance sheet bottom line somewhere. As ever we encourage all our readers to get involved and even if you don't speak to please come along to any meetings that you can, or at least watch them on KTOP, our local government access cable station!

^*Danny Wan wondered why the developers own calculations showed they were building excess parking capacity, and De La Fuente chimed in with the belief that there would never been enough parking no matter how much was provided.
Posted 3/31/2004

SoNiC appeals Planning Commission decision
The South of Nimitz Improvement Council (SoNiC) announced Monday that it has filled an appeal against the actions taken March 17th by Oakland City Planning Commission. Gary Knecht of SoNiC stated, "We decided the parking issues were too important to leave to the good will of City Council". After a frantic effort SoNiC paid the $863 filing fee and submitted its appeal almost at the last minute on Monday. "[By doing this] we think we forced City staff to address some of the issues SoNiC has been unable to get anyone (except Michael Lighty) to pay attention to.", said Knecht.

The appeal contests decisions made by the planning commission regarding the environmental impact report, issuance of a permits that could allow unconstrained use of space for fast-food restaurants, design review, the development agreement, rezoning and conditions of approval. In addition to contesting specific points, the appeal also cites the wealth of feedback given by the local community over the last six months of City meetings. The full text of the appeal is available from the Jack London District website.

SoNiC would welcome contributions to help defray costs of filing the appeal. Anyone interested in making a donation should contact Gary at gary.knecht@jacklondondistrict.org.
Posted 3/30/2004

A date for your diary - March 30th
On March 30th there will be a City Council Workshop dedicated to the JLS Redevelopment. If there is one meeting you attend to find out about this project, this is the one. So come look, listen and have your say at the first City Council meeting regarding the JLS Redevelopment project.

This very important meeting will include a 3D model of the project site along with plans and drawings galore so we can all get a good look at how it is shaping up. Please, please think about attending - its never too late to start exercising your right to participate and fulfill your civic duty to contribute to your own community's development.

The meeting is Tuesday March 30th, 6:00pm at the City Hall but if you've never been to a meeting there before don't panic. There is free parking available for those attending the meeeting, and many of your neighbors will be going so it will be easy for you find someone to tag along with. Contact feedback@jacklondondistrict.org information. You can read the agenda and all the attachments (see Part A, Part B and Item 5).
Posted 3/21/2004

NEWSFLASH: Planning Commission approves JLS project four to one
This evening, the Oakland Planning commissioners voted 4 to 1 to approve the Jack London Square Redevelopment Project. Its was a decision that stunned the public in attendance, as it seem to contradict the prevailing mood of the commission up until that point.

For a significant period of the meeting it appeared that three commissioners were in support of a) having all the final development plans come before the design review committee before approval, and b) allowing one more public meeting on March 31st. In the end only Commissioner Lighty was bold enough to give a resounding "No" when his name was called.

After the decision this evening the current final development plans have been approved and will not come back for any design review unless they are deemed to have changed significantly by Planning Director Cappio. The development plans will now move to the City Council for approval. The first council meeting on this will be the City Council workshop dedicated to the project on March 30th at 6:00pm in City Hall.
Posted 3/17/2004

Tree removal scheduled for Friday
Recently, our local group SoNiC inquired about the sidewalk work and tree removal currently going on at 3rd and Broadway, and received the following detailed response from Dan Gallagher, Tree Supervisor II, 510-615-5850, DGallagher@oaklandnet.com. Thank you Mr. Gallagher!

There are five Ficus macrocarpa or Indian Laurel Fig trees growing along the 3rd Street side of 233 Broadway (the Buttercup Cafe and Best Western Hotel). Three of the trees are growing in the sidewalk's public right-of-way, the other two are growing in the private parking lot.

Sam Nassif, president of the hotel management firm, Creative Hospitality Corporation, requested that the Public Works Agency repair the damaged sidewalk in front of the restaurant parking lot. The location was listed on the Streets and Sidewalks repair contract. An on-site inspection revealed that, due to the extent of the sidewalk, curb and gutter damage and the condition of the trees, it would be in everyone's best interest to remove the trees at the time of the sidewalk repair.

Each tree has specific problems associated with it.

1. The tree closest to the driveway has a considerable lean over the sidewalk and parking lot. It has a large exposed trunk wound with an internal crack exposed and it recently had a large limb failed. Immediately adjacent to the tree it a large underground electrical vault and a water meter is close by. The roots lifted and broke both the sidewalk and also damaged the exit driveway of the café and hotel.

2. The center tree has grown to a size that the trunk is past the curb edge and it has been repeatedly hit by vehicles. These vehicle collision wounds are quite evident.

3. The tree closest to Broadway has grown large buttressing roots on top of the curb. The trunk and roots would have to be cut significantly to properly repair the curb and gutter. Wounding a tree in this manner should be avoided. This tree's canopy also blocked the Hotel sign and a nearby streetlight.

All of these problems would continue to grow worse if the trees were preserved. In addition, it is likely that the sidewalk would be damaged again in the reasonable near future.

The Office of Parks and Recreation posted the Official City Trees for removal on February 10, 2004. As per the Protected Trees Ordinance, Section 12.36 of the Oakland Municipal Code, the public comment period closed on March 11, 2004 and the permit was approved on March 12, 2004. The appeal period for this City Tree Removal Permit will end on March 18, 2004. Pending receiving an appeal, the trees are scheduled to be removed beginning on Friday, March 19, 2004. This is to allow the remaining concrete work to be completed.

Two trees will be planted as replacement trees in this same location. Pistacia chinensis or Chinese Pistache have been selected as the replacement tree. These trees grow large, have a more open canopy then the Ficus trees and their leaves turn brilliant colors in autumn. This open growth habit will allow for improved streetlight illumination of the sidewalk and therefore better public safety. Also this species does not have the pervasive surface roots that the Ficus trees have. Ficus trees are no longer planted as Official city trees. It is expected that the replacement trees would be planted as soon as all of the construction work was completed.

Mr. Nassif applied to remove the two trees growing in the parking lot under a non-development tree removal permit. He cited the problems associated with the roots causing damage to both the parking lot and the sidewalk as reasons for the removal of the trees. This permit's public comment period will close on March 16, 2004 and the appeal period will end on March 23, 2004. Only the immediately adjacent property owners have the right to appeal.

Posted 3/17/2004

300 Harrison Street development may go back to design review
We have recently heard that Signature Properties has approached the City of Oakland to explore the possibility of developing an alternative project on the site. As one planning commissioner remarked, "It would have to go through the design review process all over again". Apparently there may be some issues with developing a building as tall as originally planned on the site, which may explain why soil testing that was being carried out on the site last month. Although nothing is concrete yet, this makes an early start on development at the 300 Harrison Street site seem unlikely - for now.
Posted 3/16/2004

RECYCLING
Everyone uses their recycling bins for glass, cardboard, and mixed paper, right?

Did you know that there are many other things that can be recycled right here in the Jack London District?

Jack London Mail takes styrofoam peanuts for recycling, but did you also know that they take printer cartridges for both laser and ink jet toner, along with working or not working cell phones? Whether or not your replacement cartridge came with a return label and no matter how big or small, it doesn't matter.

Household hazardous waste such as paint, cleaning chemicals, batteries, etc should NOT be put in the trash - check out the Alameda County Hazardous Waste website for dates and times to dispose of these items.
Posted 3/12/2004