Oakland civic leaders hope that a proposed new zoning code might help downtown turn the corner. Let's hope they are right.
Downtown Oakland is not a great place. It's a district of empty and underused buildings. Surface parking is readily available. The streets are largely deserted, and somewhat threatening, after dark. It doesn't have to be this way. Downtown Oakland has the "bones" that excite planners: A nice street grid, historic structures and interesting architecture, a potentially spectacular lake and park, a BART station, numerous government and civic institutions. One developer is already taking advantage of these assets for the Uptown Oakland project.
While the Uptown Oakland project provides a step forward, downtown Oakland in general has suffered for decades from a lack of private investment. One of the culprits is the central business district zoning. Dating from the 1960s, the existing code divides downtown into 12 different zones and imposes all manner of restrictions of uses, lot-coverage and building heights. The code is exactly the sort of thing that cities – especially suburbs – adopted during the 1960s and 1970s. For the past 20 years, a new generation of planners has been trying to undo the harm created by the earlier generation's good intentions.
Oakland adopted a new general plan 11 years ago, but it has still not rewritten all of the zoning to comply with the plan. That's unforgivable and probably illegal (you may credit Jerry Brown's administration for the lapse), but the city is trying to make things right now. The general plan's Land Use and Transportation Element, according to a city staff report, "envisions a downtown with 24-hour pedestrian activity, active retail nodes, a strong high-rise office center, urban-density residential neighborhoods, and significant cultural and recreational amenities."
Sounds like a city to me. The proposed zoning aims to achieve this vision by allowing densities of up to 300 housing units per acre, encouraging mixed-use projects, raising height limits and doing away with what has been something of an ad-hoc review process for practically anything proposed downtown.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the new zoning on Wednesday night.
Chip Johnson, the Chronicle's fine Oakland columnist, endorses the zoning. But as Johnson notes, the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM) has many objections. This recent op-ed by a CALM member is indicative.
If you have some time, go directly to the staff report and read up for yourself.
I'm not advocating one way or the other on the zoning proposal. I'd simply like to see downtown Oakland come close to its potential as a great urban place.
– Paul Shigley
