OAKLAND — After activists criticized the 900-home development at the former Oak Knoll Naval Hospital site for not including any affordable housing, it may end up offering some after all.
Council members Rebecca Kaplan and Larry Reid, at a recent committee meeting, called for a resolution directing the City Administrator’s Office to seek proposals from developers interested in building affordable housing on a 5.4-acre site — dubbed the “Barcelona” parcel — within the development that Oak Knoll developer SunCal decided not to purchase and is still owned by the city.
The resolution request will go before the Community and Economic Development Committee on Dec. 5.
“Because we need thousands more affordable housing units than we have, we must expand our horizons to make more publicly owned parcels throughout our community available for affordable housing development,“ Kaplan said in a statement. “ By making the city-owned Barcelona parcel available for affordable housing, we can ensure that Oak Knoll is inclusive of all of our community, and expand affordable housing development throughout Oakland.”
Redevelopment projects like Oak Knoll are required to make 15 percent of their housing affordable to low-income households or pay impact fees that will help finance affordable housing projects elsewhere. SunCal opted for the latter and will pay $20 million over the course of several years.
SunCal officials issued the following statement to the Oakland Tribune regarding the effort to include affordable housing in the development:
“Oak Knoll is contributing approximately $20 million in fees for affordable housing and supports the city’s decision to determine how and where to use these funds to best address the needs of the city.”
SunCal officials expect the land development of Oak Knoll to start in the first quarter of 2018.
Kaplan first brought up the idea of building affordable housing on the Barcelona parcel at the Nov. 7 City Council meeting, where the development was given final approval after about 20 years. The council agreed to remove a zoning provision that would have made it so only detached houses could be built at the site, according to a news release from Kaplan’s office. Detached houses “are hard to provide on an affordable basis,” the news release said.
At an Oct. 18 Planning Commission meeting, contract consultant to the city Scott Gregory said the city-owned parcel was originally designated for 17 residential units.
