Save East 12th for the People!
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Will you donate today to help us ensure 100% affordable housing is built on the East 12th Street Remainder Parcel?
As many of you know Eastlake United for Justice and the E 12th St. Coalition has been fighting to develop affordable housing on the City-owned lot at East 12th Street.
We have until September 30 to appeal this decision and we need YOUR HELP. We have volunteers ready to make this happen, but we need to raise $1,980 for the City’s appeal fee. ANY AMOUNT HELPS. Any money raised in excess of that $1,980 will go towards continuing to push for true community-centered projects.
The City of Oakland has offered UrbanCore and later their partner EBALDC a series of sweetheart deals to develop 253 market rate units with only 90 "affordable" units and some accessible spaces for the community. On September 18th, 2019, UrbanCore went before the Planning Commission to get a re-approval for their redesigned development. The community turned out asking the Commissioners to delay their decision due to the following factors:
UrbanCore and EBALDC returned to the Planning Commission with expired approvals and a design that is substantially different than the originally approved project. Their new design has been stripped of all publicly accessible spaces. Notably a “cultural space” “which would seat approximately 230 people to accommodate the scale of performances and events envisioned by EBALDC” and a café are absent. What was touted as assets for our community is now a “lobby gallery” for the buildings’ residents. The removal of these public resources on prized public lands was done without any community consultation and we reject them. This project essentially privatizes the entire site which the community has demonstrated on numerous occasions is not what we want for the site.
Years have elapsed since the original approval and conditions at Lake Merritt have changed. Residents deserve to hear from and discuss with the developers how these changes will be considered before the project moves forward.
In December 2018, UrbanCore returned the City of Oakland to request, and was approved, for a $2.35 million-dollar loan. Recently, UrbanCore defaulted on a debt to the City of San Francisco amount for a housing development in the Fillmore and settling for an undisclosed amount. This begs the question of what will happen to the project if the developer, that has a history of being in arrears on similar projects is insolvent?
In December of last year, the City Council passed a Public Lands Policy requiring 100% affordable housing to be built on public lands like the East 12th Street parcel. The State of California's Surplus Land Act also requires the parcel be used for affordable housing. UrbanCore’s application doesn’t comply with the conditional use permits requirements, review requirements, and permit requirements because it fails to accomplish the goals of the Surplus Land Act, is in consistent with the community need of affordable, healthy, and accessible housing as required by the SLA. Additionally, the City of Oakland has surpassed its market rate construction goals by 203%, while only 19% of new construction is affordable. We do not need more market rate units on the East 12th Street Parcel.
Despite overwhelming community concerns, and even though UrbanCore's plans are significantly different from the plans previously submitted to the Commission, they approved the new design.
THANK YOU!
#PublicLandForPublicGood
#SaveE12th
As many of you know Eastlake United for Justice and the E 12th St. Coalition has been fighting to develop affordable housing on the City-owned lot at East 12th Street.
We have until September 30 to appeal this decision and we need YOUR HELP. We have volunteers ready to make this happen, but we need to raise $1,980 for the City’s appeal fee. ANY AMOUNT HELPS. Any money raised in excess of that $1,980 will go towards continuing to push for true community-centered projects.
The City of Oakland has offered UrbanCore and later their partner EBALDC a series of sweetheart deals to develop 253 market rate units with only 90 "affordable" units and some accessible spaces for the community. On September 18th, 2019, UrbanCore went before the Planning Commission to get a re-approval for their redesigned development. The community turned out asking the Commissioners to delay their decision due to the following factors:
UrbanCore and EBALDC returned to the Planning Commission with expired approvals and a design that is substantially different than the originally approved project. Their new design has been stripped of all publicly accessible spaces. Notably a “cultural space” “which would seat approximately 230 people to accommodate the scale of performances and events envisioned by EBALDC” and a café are absent. What was touted as assets for our community is now a “lobby gallery” for the buildings’ residents. The removal of these public resources on prized public lands was done without any community consultation and we reject them. This project essentially privatizes the entire site which the community has demonstrated on numerous occasions is not what we want for the site.
Years have elapsed since the original approval and conditions at Lake Merritt have changed. Residents deserve to hear from and discuss with the developers how these changes will be considered before the project moves forward.
In December 2018, UrbanCore returned the City of Oakland to request, and was approved, for a $2.35 million-dollar loan. Recently, UrbanCore defaulted on a debt to the City of San Francisco amount for a housing development in the Fillmore and settling for an undisclosed amount. This begs the question of what will happen to the project if the developer, that has a history of being in arrears on similar projects is insolvent?
In December of last year, the City Council passed a Public Lands Policy requiring 100% affordable housing to be built on public lands like the East 12th Street parcel. The State of California's Surplus Land Act also requires the parcel be used for affordable housing. UrbanCore’s application doesn’t comply with the conditional use permits requirements, review requirements, and permit requirements because it fails to accomplish the goals of the Surplus Land Act, is in consistent with the community need of affordable, healthy, and accessible housing as required by the SLA. Additionally, the City of Oakland has surpassed its market rate construction goals by 203%, while only 19% of new construction is affordable. We do not need more market rate units on the East 12th Street Parcel.
Despite overwhelming community concerns, and even though UrbanCore's plans are significantly different from the plans previously submitted to the Commission, they approved the new design.
THANK YOU!
#PublicLandForPublicGood
#SaveE12th
Co-organizers (3)
Emily Wheeler
Organizer
Oakland, CA
Gordon Douglas
Beneficiary
Jen Miller
Co-organizer