Oakland unveils new RV parking proposal.

Mayor says move would allow mobile homes onto residential properties for more flexibility

OAKLAND >> People will be allowed to move RVs or mobile homes onto private residential properties throughout the city under a proposed change to Oakland’s zoning and building codes.

“Our old codes and zoning are no longer serving our needs,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said Tuesday during a news conference announcing the proposal she and council members Dan Kalb and Sheng Thao are backing.

The proposal would provide a “comprehensive update to zoning and building codes to promote more flexibility and innovation, so we can build housing faster and cheaper,” Schaaf said.

The proposal would mark a dramatic change for Oakland, which has banned mobile homes throughout the city, although some have been parked on public lots or city streets.

“Our old codes and zoning are no longer serving our needs,” Schaaf said.

The amendments to the city’s codes would allow people to live in RVs, mobile homes, manufactured homes and tiny houses on private properties in all residential zones if they comply with building codes.

A few cities have adopted similar regulations to allow tiny homes on wheels, including San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Luis Obispo, according to city of Oakland staff.

“We believe Oakland’s proposal is the most comprehensive in terms of supporting construction innovation and expanding the types of housing options that are available because it addresses a wide range of construction

types and housing options, including RVs, tiny homes on wheels, mobile homes (now called manufactured homes), factory-built housing, efficiency dwelling units, tiny homes on permanent foundations and alternative building materials,” said Darin Ranelletti, the mayor’s policy director for housing security.

Oakland’s planning code currently requires residential units to be built on a permanent foundation and prohibits dwellings on top of vehicle chassis or wheels unless they’re part of a city-sanctioned emergency housing program or comply with the RV pilot program authorized last year that allows only one RV vehicle on vacant land.

Under the proposal, two or more RVs or mobile homes would be allowed on a property so long as they connect to city utilities such as sewer and electricity, Ranelletti said. A single RV on a property could use off-grid alternatives, such as solar and wind power, as long as there is access to a bathroom on the property for tenants.

The units’ occupants also would have to install smoke detectors, properly store propane and adhere to other fire safety requirements.

The proposal, to be reviewed by the Planning Commission on Wednesday before eventually going to the City Council for final approval, has been in the works for two years as part of the city’s effort to encourage “innovation” in affordable housing, Schaaf said.

The city last year adopted an RV pilot program that allows a single RV on a vacant parcel with an annual permit as long as the applicant provides evidence that there is access to water, power and sewage disposal

“Despite some interest from applicants, to date no permits have been issued under the program,” according to a memo from the mayor’s office.

Adam Garrett-Clark, who leases a 10th Street lot where people have lived in an unsanctioned mobile home community for five years, said the city’s rules against density are still too restrictive.

Under the new rules, the 9,000 square-foot lot that Garrett-Clark leases for the community, which he calls Neighborship, would only be allowed to have three mobile homes.

“If they don’t change the density piece, it’ll be a deal breaker for us,” GarrettClark said of his 10th Street community, which is facing fines the city levied against it last year.

The community has been a refuge for young service workers who struggle to afford life in Oakland without piling into a house with a bunch of roommates, but Garrett-Clark said it can serve a lot of demographics.

He also wants the proposal to omit any requirement that the units be connected to city utilities, arguing that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars for a community like his to do.

“Our space has gone six years without any incident of public health risk employing a sanitation service that comes weekly and pumps out a common bathroom,” Garrett-Clark wrote in a letter to the city shared with this news organization. “We use state grey water code in our use of grey water to terminate in the soil and water for our showers and sinks in a safe way that is ultimately much better for our environment.”

The proposal wouldn’t affect tiny home or mobile home hubs set up on on public land or city streets. It applies only to private property, and city officials did not say how many property owners they expect to take advantage of the new rules.

Kalb said he knows that no single measure is going to solve the housing affordability crisis, but each one hopefully will create a patchwork of solutions to make housing more accessible to people.

Since 2011, apartment rents in the city have increased 72% and construction costs 119% to more than $600,000 per unit, according to a city memo.

A research report issued last year by consultant Urban Planning Partners recommended that Oakland update its zoning and building regulations to “increase flexibility and encourage innovative and alternative forms of construction.”

“We have a very serious housing crisis,” Kalb said.