Downtown Oakland Specific Plan Approved

| Justin A. Zucker
Oakland

Last month, the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (“DOSP”) was adopted by the Oakland City Council, with the DOSP environmental impact report being certified July 16 and the implementing Planning Code, Zoning Map, and Municipal Code amendments passing on second read July 30.  The DOSP is intended to guide development over the next twenty years, to meet the projected housing and employment needs in Oakland’s downtown.  The plan encompasses approximately 850 acres, and is generally bounded by 27th Street to the north, I-980, Brush and Market Streets to the west, Embarcadero and Jack London estuary waterfront to the south, and Lake Merritt and Channel to the east.

Approval of the DOSP is the culmination of a near decade-long process.  As previously reported, the preliminary draft DOSP was released in 2019 with the draft zoning amendments released in April 2022 and the Zoning Incentive Program released in July 2022.  The delay in adoption of the DOSP was to allow for enhanced community engagement, adapting to the evolving social and economic conditions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.  The DOSP has been designed to help prevent displacement of both people and culture, while encouraging development of downtown.

The DOSP projects the addition of approximately 18.3 million square feet of new commercial space, 1.3 million square feet of new institutional space, and 500,000 square feet of new industrial space, resulting in approximately 57,000 jobs and $41 million in impact fees to fund affordable housing and transportation improvements.  In addition, 29,000 new housing units are planned for by the DOSP, including approximately 4,000-7,000 income-restricted affordable units, that would generate approximately $480-544 million in one-time impact fees to fund affordable housing.

Some changes to the DOSP since publication of the draft include:

  • Preservation of industrial land uses closest to the West Oakland industrial area, removing the “Green Loop” and other non-industrial improvements from Howard Terminal now that the Howard Ballpark is no longer going forward.
  • Development intensity changes clustered in five small areas, including portions of the West of San Pablo Planning sub-area, specifically from Grand Avenue to 20th Street and east to Martin Luther King Jr. Way (height increases from 85 feet to 175 feet in the Final Draft Plan, 7.5 FAR to 12.0, and from 200 square feet of lot area per unit for residential density to 110 square feet of lot area per unit), as well as between 14th and 15th Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Jefferson Street (height increases from 175 feet to 275 feet in the Final Draft Plan, 12.0 FAR to 12.0/17.0, and from 110 square feet of lot area per unit for residential density to 90 square feet of lot area per unit).
  • Prohibiting demolition of the principal building at the sending site leveraged for the transfer of development rights program.
  • Requiring ten percent of the affordable housing Zoning Incentive Program benefit to be provided as an in-lieu fee rather than allowing entirely on-site benefits where projects propose at least 125 units above the base.
  • Creation of a new alcohol use special permit, relaxing controls in the non-residential districts within the plan area, removing the need for a major conditional use permit for alcohol permits.

There are too many specifics of the DOSP to include in an email update. Please contact us if you have any questions.

 

Authored by Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP Attorney, Justin A. Zucker.

The issues discussed in this update are not intended to be legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is established with the recipient. Readers should consult with legal counsel before relying on any of the information contained herein. Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP is a full service real estate law firm. We specialize in land use, development and entitlement law. We also provide a wide range of transactional services, including leasing, acquisitions and sales, formation of limited liability companies and other entities, lending/workout assistance, subdivision and condominium work.

Downtown Oakland Specific Plan: ZIP Update

| Justin A. Zucker
ZIP

As previously reported, the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (“DOSP”) is working its way to the City Council for adoption, currently anticipated in late 2022. The DOSP includes Zoning Amendments (which we’ve previously reported on) and a Zoning Incentive Program (“ZIP”). Initial details for the ZIP were released earlier this summer (which we’ve previously reported on). Below are additional details regarding the ZIP based on the economic analysis reports prepared by Hausrath Economics Group, dated August 2022 and September 16, 2022, in addition to recent community meetings on September 13 (presentation slides) and on September 19 (presentation slides).

The ZIP was developed in response to community concerns to allowing development downtown without obtaining community benefits. The ZIP allows developers to voluntarily elect to provide community benefits, in one of four forms, to increase allowed development capacity, either additional market-rate dwelling units or commercial space. The four on-site community benefits options include providing (1) affordable housing, (2) below market-rate ground floor commercial space, (3) public restrooms, or (4) streetscape, open space and flood control improvements exceeding basic city requirements. Alternatively, the ZIP includes the option to provide community benefits through payment of an in-lieu fee instead of providing on-site benefits, or some combination of on-site benefits and an in-lieu fee.

The ZIP is a voluntary program that creates additional value for a development project with the City capturing a portion of the value increase. The increase in value from the additional, higher-intensity development is calculated as the difference in value of development under the maximum intensity zoning compared to the base zoning. The value is expressed in dollars per building square foot of added development for commercial and dollars per dwelling unit added for residential.

As currently analyzed, the ZIP is structured so that a third of the additional value from the more intense development is captured in the form of a community benefit. The remaining two-thirds is split with one-third to the developer to incentivize development at increased intensity and a third to the owner to account for increased resulting land value, which in turn results in increased property taxes. During recent community meetings, there has been discussion of adjusting this formula to increase the City’s value capture share.

In creating the incentive, the ZIP considers the costs and economic variables specific to development types, i.e., change from Type III or V (mid-rise/low-rise) to the more costly Type I (high-rise) construction. Properties with large increases in density supporting high-rise development over mid-rise/low-rise projects can have lower value capture per additional dwelling unit or per additional building square foot due to higher costs involved. To account for this, the ZIP establishes three Zoning Incentive Areas that reflect similar market contexts, development patterns and potentials, parcel sizes, and existing land uses. There are three areas each for residential development (map) and commercial development (map), with R-A, R-B, and R-C zones for residential and C-A, C-B, and C-C for commercial development.

The ZIP incentive areas allow additional density ranging from 11% to 800% more density with 65% of cases more than doubling density. The large density bonus accounts for increased costs associated with change in construction typology to Type I for high-rise development.

Based on location, a commercial development could obtain an additional 100,000 sf of office space with the provision of below market ground floor commercial space totaling 6,828 sf (Zone C-A), 4,655 sf (Zone C-B), or 3,724 sf (Zone C-C).

The ZIP is available to a developer in lieu of or in addition to the State Density Bonus set forth in Government Code Section 65915, et. seq. Meaning, a project could layer the State Density Bonus on top of the ZIP to increase development intensity. In instances when the ZIP and State Density Bonus are used in tandem, the project’s ZIP development intensity is the base density not the underlying base zoning density.

The DOSP and ZIP are slated to return to the Zoning Update Committee (“ZUC”) before advancing to the Planning Commission and City Council. While previously schedule to return to the ZUC on September 29, that hearing has been cancelled to allow additional public meetings. The ZUC hearing has not yet been rescheduled. We will continue to track this significant rezoning and community planning effort as it moves forward.

Reuben, Junius, & Rose LLP has experience with entitlement projects and land use diligence throughout Oakland, and we are pleased to have worked on some of the largest housing projects approved in the city over the last several years.

 

Authored by Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP Attorney Justin A. Zucker.

The issues discussed in this update are not intended to be legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is established with the recipient.  Readers should consult with legal counsel before relying on any of the information contained herein.  Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP is a full service real estate law firm.  We specialize in land use, development and entitlement law.  We also provide a wide range of transactional services, including leasing, acquisitions and sales, formation of limited liability companies and other entities, lending/workout assistance, subdivision and condominium work.