Oak Knoll community finally nears home stretch
Huge mixed-use project agreement is in works
A plan to install a 935-home community in the hills of East Oakland is approaching its final stages of approval after more than a decade in the making, and could become one of the largest single developments in recent city history.
Under the proposed project, what used to be the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital and surrounding area would become a nearly 200-acre suburban-like development filled with town houses, single-family homes and shops.
Public parks, open space and trails would make up a third of the land, and the developer — SunCal of Orange County — said it would restore the long-neglected Rifle Range Creek, which runs through the site. The project is bounded by Interstate 580 to the west, Keller Avenue to the north and east, and Sequoyah Road to the south.
The expansive tract has been vacant since 1996, when the Navy shuttered the hospital
during a wave of military base closures across the country. The medical center, built on a 1920s-era golf course, treated wounded soldiers beginning in World War II and through the Vietnam War. Everything but a historic clubhouse on the property was demolished and cleared six years ago.
Club Knoll will be moved from one end of the site to the center, and be transformed into a community center, under the project plans.
“It has a history, it has a varied topography, plus some environmental constraints and opportunities,” said Darin Ranelletti, interim director of the city’s Planning and Building Department. “A number of elements make this project challenging and interesting.”
Development plans were introduced more than a decade ago, but shelved when Lehman Bros., SunCal’s financial partner, collapsed in 2008. The idea was resurrected in recent years after SunCal bought the property from the defunct bank.
The developer has worked with community groups since then in an effort to ease the concerns of neighbors, Ranelletti said. But many are not satisfied.
Tim Frank, director of Center for Sustainable Neighborhoods, which advocates social equity and environmental considerations in development, said the density of housing and retail was too low and “embarrassing” and will diminish demand for public transportation.
“This looks remarkably like a 1970s subdivision in a city that desperately needs something better,” he said. “Transit is attracted to density. The logical solution is to use the land more efficiently.”
And though SunCal would eventually pay almost $20 million in fees to a city affordable housing fund, all of the 935 homes would be sold at market rate, drawing the ire of some community members, who point to social benefits that emerge from mixed-income neighborhoods.
“This just doesn’t fly in the current economy,” Frank said. “It’s located in a big city that is suffering from an acute housing shortage, and I just think it’s missing the opportunity.”
Angie Tam, who lives in the nearby Toler Heights neighborhood, said she too wanted to see affordable housing built. She said her main concern is the expected influx of people whose main mode of transportation is likely to be their cars.
“We already know I-580 is congested during peak traffic,” Tam said. “Now you have 3,000 residents coming . ... People will use local streets in the flats to bypass the freeway.”
Among the possible solutions SunCal is exploring to allay fears of traffic jams is one to offer private shuttle services to residents, said company spokesman Joe Aguirre.
Some demands around transit and affordable housing will be discussed as SunCal and the city hammer out a development agreement in the coming weeks before the project is brought back to the Planning Commission, for approval to be sent to the City Council, where the project has enthusiastic support of East Oakland representative and council President Larry Reid.
SunCal said it wants to start land development by the first quarter of next year and have it ready to sell to home builders by the third quarter.
“It has a history, it has a varied topography. ... A number of elements make this project challenging and interesting.” Darin Ranelletti, interim director, Oakland Planning and Building Department