The Land Use Committee held its March meeting on March 22nd via Zoom (CCA presentation recording here), with a quorum of members present.

CCA Oakland Campus Redevelopment Project
Marc Babsin of the Emerald Fund, along with John Clawson of Equity Community Builders, presented an update on the plans for redeveloping the California College of Art’s Oakland campus, located along the east side of Broadway just north of Shops at the
Ridge. Mr. Babsin said that plans for the project have not changed significantly from the last presentation to the community, in the Fall of 2020. However, he also said that Oakland planning staff asked that they add a “variant” proposal that again included a 19-
story residential tower.* He emphasized, however, that the developers still intend to build their more recent proposal, with a maximum height of eight stories (90 feet). The aim of adding a tower option was to include information about it in the Environmental Impact Report being prepared, in case the City Council decided it wanted a larger project.

Questions were once again raised about the project’s proposed parking ratio – 1 parking space for every two units. Some expressed concern about excess cars spilling out onto neighborhood on-street spaces. Mr. Babsin said that instituting residential permit parking, with project residents ineligible for permits, could address that concern. Mr. Babsin said, however, that he felt the parking would be adequate, given the project’s urban setting.

While the project has not changed, Mr. Babsin said that economic conditions are even more unfavorable now than they were last Fall. Housing and office prices have dropped by as much as 20%, while building costs have held steady, making the project unfinanceable, at least for the moment. Nevertheless, project plans for the largest of the three current options still include 10% moderate income units. (The remaining 90% would be market rate.)

Rather than adopt an historic area zoning overlay, as originally proposed, the plans now call for establishing permanent design guidelines for the area. These would apply even if the current project is not built.

* – The staff report for the upcoming Oakland Design Review committee meeting indicates 23 stories and a 200 feet height, but Mr. Babsin said that the project was identical to that proposed in 2019.

The Future of College Ave. Retail
The chair commented briefly on progress in talking to leaders in other neighborhood business districts in Oakland. The results thus far indicate optimism that local businesses will recover from the pandemic-induced slump. District leaders were generally opposed to loosening zoning for neighborhood commercial (CN-1) districts. Further consultations are planned.

Frosted Glass Storefronts
At the request of some College Ave. businesses, the committee discussed a recent trend, especially among exercise studios, to block storefront windows with frosted glass so that passers-by wouldn’t see the activity inside. Some committee members felt this detracted from the attractiveness of the commercial district, as it made the storefronts uninteresting to passing pedestrians. Other members felt that since exercise studios attracted people to the Avenue, it was worth any loss in visual interest.

A motion was made recommending that the Board of Directors write to the Planning Department to express concern that allowing opaque storefronts ran counter to the purpose of CN-1 zoning. The committee voted 5-3 (committee members Farmer, Garcia,
and Mehta voting no) to approve the recommendation.

Current Housing Legislation affecting Rockridge
This item was continued to the April committee meeting.