Archive Page for former Oakland Redevelopment Agency

As of February 1, 2012, the City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency ceased to exist. The new Redevelopment Successor Agency, housed within the Public/Private Development Division, was created to wind down and complete the activities of the former Redevelopment Agency.

About

The following archival information is provided as reference.

The Oakland Redevelopment Agency, active from October 10, 1956 to February 1, 2012, managed numerous projects and programs within eight active Redevelopment Project Areas in Oakland. Some of the Agency's best-known projects were the rehabilitation of the Paramount Theatre, the Fox Theater, the Tribune Tower, Fruitvale Transit Village, the Rotunda Building, Preservation Park, City Center, the Oakland Marriott City Center, the Oakland Convention Center and the Uptown Arts & Entertainment District. The agency was also responsible for hundreds of neighborhood infrastructure, business and property improvements and helped in the development of thousands of affordable housing units.

Map of the areas of the former Oakland Redevelopment Agency

Acorn Project Area
Adjacent to downtown Oakland, the Acorn Redevelopment Area is one of the oldest redevelopment areas in the city. About half of this area is zoned commercial/industrial and half residential. The goals of the Acorn Redevelopment Area were to eliminate blight, to create new residential units for low- to moderate-income families, to rehabilitate industrial properties, and to promote development of new retail facilities. These goals have basically been achieved. Today, the primary activity in the redevelopment area is focused at the Jack London Gateway Center. The area’s major redevelopment activity occurred from the mid-1950s to the 1980s. Existing single-family houses were demolished, and traditional neighborhoods were reconfigured to create dense multi-family rental housing. Redevelopment also included the construction of I-980, a major freeway route linking I-880 to I-580 and Downtown Oakland to Highway 24.

Redevelopment Plan

Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Project Area
The Broadway/MacArthur/San Pablo Redevelopment Area comprises two distinct areas in North Oakland: the Broadway Auto Row and Telegraph Avenue between 27th Street and 42nd Street, and San Pablo Avenue between 53rd Street and 67th Street. Each area consists of an eclectic mix of residential and commercial neighborhoods with their own unique characteristics. Major transportation corridors that are poised for public and private investment dissect this redevelopment area. The MacArthur BART Station is the site of a major development effort—the MacArthur Transit Village Project - which is currently moving forward under the Successor Agency. Major goals of this project area were to eliminate blight, encourage infill development and support catalyst projects.

Central District Project Area
The Central District Project Area is an economic and transportation hub for the San Francisco-Oakland Metropolitan Area. The area includes nearly 30 office buildings totaling approximately 9.5 million square feet and three BART stations. Additionally, more than 40 AC Transit bus lines connect the Central District Project Area with other parts of Oakland and nearby communities.

The Central District's Development Objectives:

Eliminate blight by strengthening the Project Area’s role as an important office center for administrative, financial. business and government activities.
Establish the Project Area as an important cultural and entertainment center.
Re-establish residential areas for all economic levels.
Restore historically significant structures.
Facilitate economic development.
Support transit-oriented development.
Provide adequate infrastructure such as public parking, sidewalk and traffic control.

Central District Project Area Documents:

Central City East Project Area
The Central City East Redevelopment Area contains portions of the Eastlake, Fruitvale, Central East Oakland and Elmhurst neighborhoods that make up central and eastern Oakland. The goal of the redevelopment plan is to revitalize the waterfront, commercial and residential areas by eliminating blight, improving the physical and economic environment and addressing affordable housing goals. The five-year implementation plan includes funding for eight major commercial streetscape improvement projects, Façade and Tenant Improvement programs, an Opportunity Sites Program that targets redevelopment of key parcels within transit corridors.

Coliseum Project Area
Created in 1995, the Coliseum Redevelopment Area is the largest redevelopment area in Oakland – approximately 11 square miles. The general boundaries of the Coliseum Redevelopment Area are the San Leandro border to the south; 22nd Avenue to the north; International Boulevard to the east; and the Oakland Estuary, San Leandro Bay and Oakland International Airport to the west.

The Coliseum Redevelopment Area includes four target areas of activity: Fruitvale BART Station area, Coliseum City/Oakland Airport Area including Coliseum BART Station area, International Boulevard Infill area and an expanded focus on neighborhood capital projects. Approximately 75 percent of the Coliseum Redevelopment Project Area consists of commercial, industrial and airport-related uses. The remainder of the area is residential.

The principal objective of the Coliseum Redevelopment Plan: Abating physical and economic blight by redeveloping vacant and underutilized properties and replacing obsolete infrastructure.

Oak Center Project Area
The Oak Center Redevelopment Area is located in the heart of West Oakland. This redevelopment area is no longer generating tax-increment funding. No new project activity is planned. Established in 1970, the primary objectives of the Oak Center Redevelopment Plan were to preserve the turn-of-the-century Victorian houses and encourage home ownership. The Oak Center Redevelopment Project is mostly complete.

Oak Knoll Project Area
The Oak Knoll project area, neglected since 1996, was severely blighted with more than 100 abandoned and decaying structures. All but a few structures, including the former hospital, have been abated and demolished. Agency staff and City officials continue to work with SunCal, Lehman Brothers, the bankruptcy court and the community to secure the property and manage vegetation.

Oak Knoll was a golf course from the 1920s until 1941, when the U.S. government took over the site at the onset of World War II and converted it into the Naval Medical Hospital Oakland. The Naval Hospital was decommissioned in 1996 and the City of Oakland designated Oak Knoll as a Redevelopment Project Area.

In 2006, SunCal Companies--operating as SunCal Oak Knoll, LLC--purchased 167 acres of Oak Knoll from the U.S. government for $100.5 million through a public auction. Of the remaining property, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency owns roughly five-and-a-half acres. In November 2008, SunCal Oak Knoll, LLC filed for bankruptcy as did many other major development projects funded by Lehman Brothers. Agency staff and City officials have maintained contact with the developer with the hope of someday resuming the entitlement and development process of this highly valued property.

Oakland Army Base Project
In West Oakland, the former Oakland Army Base served as a U.S. Army facility until it closed in 1999. In 2000, the Oakland City Council designated the Base and surrounding properties as a Redevelopment Project Area. The 1,800-acre Army Base Project Area was divided into three major sub-districts: 16th and Wood, Maritime, and Oakland Army Base (OARB). The OARB was further divided into two areas: the Gateway Development Area owned by the Oakland Redevelopment Agency and the Port Development Area owned by the Port of Oakland. Following the dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency in 2012 as a consequence of ABx1 26, the Gateway Development Area was transferred to the City by deed, and the City assumed all of the environmental obligations attached to the entire former OARB sub-district, and all of the redevelopment obligations for the Gateway Development Area.

Oakland Army Base Project History

Stanford Adeline Project Area
Located in North Oakland, Stanford/Adeline Redevelopment Area is one of the city's oldest and smallest redevelopment areas. This redevelopment area is no longer generating tax increment funding. No new project activity is planned.

While active the Stanford/Adeline area collected a small amount of tax increment, which helped to support low- and middle-income housing projects. The objectives of this redevelopment area were to provide new low-density affordably priced housing, assist rehabilitation of existing homes, create a park and recreation areas, eliminate traffic circulation problems and eliminate blight.

These objectives were accomplished between 1973 and 1987 with the construction of new homes and the reconfiguration and landscaping of Stanford Avenue. The tax increment generated in the Stanford/Adeline Redevelopment Area in 2007-2009 was allocated to the Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Fund for the development of affordable housing

West Oakland Project Area

The West Oakland Redevelopment Project Area is divided into three sub-areas:

Prescott/South Prescott
Clawson/McClymonds/Bunche
West MacArthur/ Hoover

The major goals of the Redevelopment Plan: To improve the quality of housing, increase opportunities for home ownership, mitigate and reduce conflicts between residential and industrial uses, provide streetscape improvements, improve public safety and promote economic development.

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