Community & Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to the Community Economic Committee meeting for today's date. Today is October 28. The time is now 01:31PM, and this meeting has come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda.

If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn it into myself before the item is read into record. Online speaker requests were due twenty four hours prior to this meeting, making this meeting came to order at 09:31, 01:31PM. Speaker records were due. Will no longer be accepted ten minutes after this meeting has began, making that time 01:41PM. With that, we will now proceed to take roll.

Council member Fife is excused. Absent. Absent. Council member Ramachandran? Present. Council member Unger? Here. And chair Brown?

Present.

We have three members present, one absent Fife. Before you begin, chair Brown, do you have any announcement?

Yes. So good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to community and economic development. We definitely have a full agenda with several important items to consider. So to ensure that everyone has a chance for their voices to be heard, we will limit public comment to just one minute, also ensuring that the committees that follow this one can also start on time. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Chair. Moving to our first item of the day, which is the approval for the draft minutes of the committee meeting held on 10/14/2025.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I'll entertain a motion.

So moved. Second. We have

a motion made by council member Ramachandran, seconded by council member Unger to accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting on 10/14/2025 as is on roll. Council member Fife is absent. Council member Ramachandran?

Present.

Aye. Council member Unger? Aye. And Chair Brown? Aye. Motion passes with three ayes and one absent, Fife. To accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting 10/14/2025 as is moving to item two, determination to schedule outstanding committee items. This is also known as your pending list, and you do have one speaker for this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And so on here on behalf of the administration, Winnie, are there any changes we need to make?

Through the chair, no. We have no changes.

Excellent. Thank you. I'll make a motion to move this item.

Second.

Calling in our public speakers, mister Ralph Please approach the podiums. State your name for the record. And you do have two minutes. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Ralph Kantz. Here once again to ask when you're gonna schedule an issue about house flippers in the city, how they're ripping the thing ripping the city off so bad. They are costing the city millions of dollars. Meanwhile, you're here holding me at 09:30 on a Tuesday morning about your finances, about how you're gonna raise taxes on people all over the city, and you're allowing people who don't even live in this city, these house flippers, none of them, I have yet to find one that lives in Oakland, they're stealing from the city.

They don't get permits. They do shoddy work. They do things like remove load bearing walls in a house, put a fake beam up that doesn't support the thing properly, and there's no permit. There's no inspection. What happens when there's a seven one on the on the Hayward Fault? That thing's gonna come crashing down on somebody's head. And the city is not doing what they need to do to get this enforced. It's an absolute tragedy. It's a travesty. And when you're sitting with the budget deficit you're sitting with, and you're allowing this to go on, and I keep raising this issue, I send you all the stuff, I identify some of the people.

And believe me, if I had a full time job at this, you would know, you would be amazed how many people I could identify who were flipping houses and not pulling permits. It's a massive list. It's a massive amount of money. And the city is being just it's stealing from everybody in this city. And it we're starting to add to that the list of slumlords and some of the things they're doing, like a triplex up at Maxwell Park that's been vacant for almost ten years after a fire that's owned by a notorious slumlord who was sued by the city at one point and had a huge judgment against him, and he won't fix the thing up and run it out.

It's a triplex that's empty for ten years when you have a housing crisis. And the city isn't doing anything to make sure things like that are corrected. Thank you.

That concludes your public speakers for item two. We do have a motion made by council member Brown, seconded by council member Ramachandran to accept the termination scheduled outstanding committee items as is on roll. Council member Fife is absent. Council member Ramachandran?

Aye.

Council member Unger? Aye. Chair Brown? Aye. Motion passes with three ayes.

One absent, five. To accept the termination, schedule outstanding committee items as is. Moving to item three. Adopt adopt a resolution requesting the California governor's office of land use and climate innovation grant a two year extension for the adoption of for the adoption of the updated open space conservation and recreation, which is OSCAR, element for the Oakland general plan pursuant to government code section six five three six one. And you do have two speakers for this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And so I believe for this item, there is a presentation and presenting, from building and planning. Thank you.

Yes,

sir. Hello. Yeah. I have a brief verbal report. Good afternoon, chair Brown and, members of the CED committee.

My name is Lakshmi Rajagopalan, and I'm a planner four with the strategic planning division, in planning and building. We are here to request the city council adopt a resolution pursuant to government code section six five three six one requesting that the California Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation granted two year extension for the adoption of the updated open space conservation and recreation or the OSCAR element of the Oakland General Plan. So the city is currently engaged in a comprehensive update of its general plan, and it's happening in two phases. And Phase one, was completed in 2023 and included, the updates to the housing element, safety element and a new environmental justice element. And Phase two, which is currently underway, includes comprehensive updates to the land use and transportation element, the OSCAR or the open space conservation and recreation element, the noise element and as well as the creation of a new infrastructure and capital facilities element and the estimated time line to bring these elements for adoption hearings to city council is spring twenty twenty seven.

SB fourteen twenty five, which is codified as government code section six five five six 5.5, requires all cities and counties in California to review and update their local open space element by 01/01/2026 to include actions that address equitable access to open space, climate resilience, and rewilding opportunities in correlation with the city's environmental justice element, safety element, and land use elements. And, it also, allows cities and counties to, apply to the director of the California Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, previously known as OPR, Office of Planning and Research, to request a two year extension for this deadline. So the city's EJ and Safety element that was adopted in fall twenty twenty three includes several action items that provide a strong foundation for demonstrating compliance with SB fourteen twenty five that includes ensuring equitable access to open space, considering social, economic and racial equity as well as climate resilience and contextual benefits of open space. Attachment A in your agenda packet provides the current goals, policies, action items in the EJ and safety element that comply with SB fourteen twenty five. To ensure that we are aligning the OSCAR update with the land use element update, we are requesting this extension so that we can avoid piecemeal compliance of these auto emissions across these critically integrated elements.

And this is why staff are requesting are are proposing to request a two year extension from the state LCI's office. And we also met with, staff from state LCI, and they did agree. Or in our discussions with them, they, coordinating, these element updates is a valid reason, and which is why we are requesting that the council adopt, this resolution. This concludes my report, and we are happy to answer any questions.

Excellent. Thank you. I do have, just a couple questions, but colleagues, so we can hear the public speaker first, and then I'll ask a couple questions.

Thank you. Chair, when I call your name, please approach the podium. As procedure, we will take, in person public speakers before online. If you're participating online, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. Miss Asada and Ralph Kantz.

I don't care what area of conversation you have when you look at all of Oakland, and then you have the conversation of equity of access. We don't have it. When you go into parts of Oakland and you look at the parks, it's not the same throughout the city how the parks are maintained or how well kept they are as far as bathrooms and structures within those parks. When you look at the mediums, that's open space. You look at some mediums mediums, no matter where you go, the mediums, the shrubbery, the debris, or or lack of, dumping, you don't see it.

You go in other parts, it's never kept up. Bancroft is a good example. When you look at these gardens that we have, these community gardens, you go in some gardens, well kept. Some gardens got weeds all over. Okay? Storm water areas. Right there at what was Bunch, they have oh god. Don't don't get me started on Bunch. But you have right across the street open space where asbestos and PBC signs all exposure to the children who use the skating, who use the tennis court. The public library is right next door.

And and we have nothing that's been done. Three fires over there with all of that exposure. But it all depends on what area of the city you're in. And so if you're in the rich, if you go in Unger's area, or you go in some parts of your area, Lake Merritt, you're not gonna see problems related to parks or anything else. So the big issue, equity, no matter what's going on this and it doesn't exist.

And it's always the under the underprivileged communities that don't get the same as the so called privilege like Montclair, Rockridge, Timisel, Diamond, Oakland Hills, so forth.

Good afternoon. Ralph Cans. I wanna talk about a little of the process that's going on right now. The staff has put together an advisory committee for the general plan update, and the general and that committee is seriously lacking in members who represent all the interests in the city that need to be considered. And in fact, there's members on that committee who have conflicts of interest that under government ethics would prevent them on serving on something like this because they work for entities that have contracts with the city.

On top of that, staff decided to select somebody on that committee who lived in moved to Oakland in November 2024 for them to give input on the general plan update. There's other people who have a long time in the city who tried to get on that committee and were not allowed. And I think this one staff comment on September 8 in a meeting, a Zoom meeting, staff said, none of us have worked here for more than five years and we have no institutional memory. Yet when they selected members for advisory committee, they made sure there was no institutional memory included on that list. Because I was one of those, and I was one of the ones explaining, I don't need to be on that committee, but there's certain interests that need to be represented on that committee, and they're not represented.

I don't believe there's anybody from the hills on that committee. The geographic distribution of the membership of that committee does not represent the geographic distribution of the city. There's a real problem with how that whole group was selected and how that whole process is going forward. They're not public meetings.

Thank you for your comment. That concludes your public speaker item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments? Okay. So I know that the so for this particular item, it's basically stating given SB fourteen twenty five, know, cities were required to implement this as of January 2026.

01/01/2026. Yeah.

2026. And so at this time, you all are requesting a two year extension. Were you able to gain insight into if other cities are, also asking for the same extension?

So yep. We I've been able to reach out to some of my colleagues, and the state just released their technical advisory or technical guidance on how cities can confirm to SB fourteen twenty five. But as far as to my knowledge, none of the cities have reached out to the state requesting an extension.

I see. And so on that note, I think in I believe in the report, it shared that the new so if this is passed, the new timeline for bringing this forward would now be 2027?

So that's the project. So the project schedule has always been where we bring the elements to adoption for final adoption in 2027, and that's taking into account the time needed for the environmental impact review process and the community engagement process too. So yes.

Excellent. And so kind of based on this new timeline, do you all feel confident that you'll be able to complete that with the with the two year extension?

Yes.

Okay. Excellent. Sounds good. Any other questions or comments? I'll entertain a motion on this one.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member chair Brown, seconded by council member Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the 11/04/2025 special city council agenda at 9AM on consent. On roll. Council member five? Aye. Thank you. Noting council member five present at 01:38PM. Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Thank you. Council member Unger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. The motion passes with four ayes to approve the recommendation of staff and afford this item to the 11/04/2025, special city council agenda on consent at 9AM.

Moving to item four, Conduct a public conduct a study session to, one, receive information or presentation and report on the Oakland for all options for how we stabilize and grow report. Options report develop as part of the general plan update phase two process and two, receive public comment and three, provide feedback to the staff on the options. And you do have six public speakers for this item.

Okay. Good afternoon again, Chair Brown and members of the CD committee. My name is Lakshmi Rajagopalan. And today, I'm joined by my colleagues, B. B. Legarder and Laura Kaminsky and, our technical consultant and our general plan update youth fellows. So we are here to, provide an informational report on the options for all report that was published in July, to get the committee's consolidated feedback. Can we have the presentation up, please? K. Top.

Yeah. Thank you. So for a quick overview, we will provide a quick background on the general plan update process and timeline and move into an overview of the key, discussion point today, the options report, followed by a discussion where you can provide your feedback. I'll hand things over to Bibi for an overview of the general plan.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Akshmi. Good afternoon, chair Brown and members of the committee. I'm Bibi Lugarder. I'm a planner two on the strategic planning team.

So while many of you are familiar with the general plan and Lakshmi did just give a a brief overview in her last last item, I'm going to provide a little bit of summary to provide context. The general plan lays out a citywide vision along with goals, policies, and implementation measures to guide long term growth, preservation, and stabilization in the city. The general plan also provides the blueprint for future land use and zoning. The general plan reflects on past challenges and accomplishments to help ensure consistent direction for future development and is also an opportunity to address racial inequities and promote inclusivity by bringing our community into the planning and decision making process. So as Lakshmi mentioned, the general plan update is happening in two phases.

Phase one covered the housing environmental justice and safety elements, and it concluded in 2023. In phase two, we are focusing on four elements, land use and transportation, open space conservation and recreation, a new infrastructure and capital facilities element, and noise. So most of these are updates to existing elements. The one new one is the infrastructure element, which will focus on keeping essential systems like water, sewage, electricity, and Internet reliable and resilient and ensuring public facilities such as schools and libraries are well maintained and equitably distributed. So building on what we heard from the community in phase one, we kicked off phase, citywide engagement for phase two in 2024, and we have continued through early summer twenty twenty five.

That first round of engagement focused on the big sorry. The big picture question, where are we going? Now we've shifted into the planning stage with which asks, how will we get there? And that's the main focus of today's discussion. So on July 30, the general plan team shared a report with big picture ideas for how Oakland could grow and stabilize over the next twenty five years.

At its core, the report seeks to refine strategies for investing in the well-being of current residents, preventing displacement, and deciding where and how new job where and how new housing jobs, parks, and transportation should develop. This report was accompanied by a survey and extensive community engagement, asking what worked, what didn't work, and what was missing from each of the options in the report. And that survey was opened from July 30 through September 24 this year. So as I mentioned, we've created three broad options or ideas to facilitate comparison discussion and refinement of the different strategies we're exploring for the general plan update. They're not final plans, but different broad ideas to help us think about Oakland's future.

It's important to understand that each op of the options is not fixed. No one needs is being asked to choose one option over the others, and so the ideas within each are flexible and can be mixed and matched. We also are asking for new ideas, themes, and strategies, and would like to hear your suggestions today. The options come from a mix of sources. These include community feedback to date, state projections for jobs and housing, existing city and community led plans, and staff analysis of potential opportunity sites, as well as actions identified in the phase one elements.

We also carried forward input from phase one, because, you know, many many ideas that were discussed in phase one impacts the elements in in phase two. So throughout the process, we've built on the community's vision and guiding principles, which were developed as part of phase one, and we are committed to advancing racial equity in both the plan and how we do the work. Community engagement has been, critical throughout the general plan update, and we are focused on creating an equitable, inclusive, and transparent community engagement program. City staff have spearheaded multiple engagement strategies to provide a variety of forums for the public, other city departments, and key regional stakeholders to understand the options and, and provide feedback. These strategies include focused outreach to priority communities with a focus on communities of color in West And East Oakland.

Walking tours, these are community led engagements in environmental justice communities, the formation of a general plan advisory committee, which provides a forum for selected members of the public, technical advisers, and ex officio members to engage on topics raised by the general plan update, focus groups, tabling in a virtual town hall, and a youth fellows program. So the youth fellows program is a strategy carried forward from phase one, and I'm going to hand it over to some of our youth fellows to explain more.

Good

afternoon, council members and committee members. My name is Brooke Tran. I've lived all over California. And after earning my master's of public policy, I'm now a resident of the Glenview neighborhood of Council District 4. I'm 24 years old and one of the youth fellows from the deeply rooted collaborative and urban strategies council, an advocacy organization based here in Oakland.

Our work has spanned outreach events, social media, research, and data analytics, all with the goal of engaging groups typically pushed to the margins of civic engagement. I approach this work with a from a deeply personal place. I was raised in an immigrant refugee household and have family who were formerly incarcerated, unhoused, and even small business owners. I understand firsthand the barriers that prevent certain communities from fully participating in public life. While my early work focused on education equity, I quickly realized that youth outcomes are shaped less by what happens inside the classroom and more so by the systems surrounding them.

These are the social determinants of health. Housing, transit, green space, and infrastructure, all elements addressed in the general plan update. Urban planning was a historically gate kept profession where physical design served as a tool for control, using zoning and plants to segregate cities and neighborhoods by race and class. This is why our involvement as young people is essential. We don't often see ourselves involved in planning processes even though they shape our lives in very tangible and critical ways. Now we stand to inherit the built environment influenced by today's work in the twenty twenty twenty in 2025 for the general plan update of 2045. To make this all possible, our work needs to break down silos. So thank you, staff, for your collaboration and council members for your time. I'll pass it on to my colleagues.

Hi, and hello, city council members. My name is Alec. As a fellow, I've I've had the opportunity to engage with, Oakland residents through outreach events and one on one interviews. As a black and indigenous Oaklander, I'm committed to ensuring that black and brown communities and disabled communities are informed, heard, and represented. Through this work, we've built trust, fostered dialogue, and gathered valuable feedback that reflects priorities of of historically underserved communities.

Through this fellowship, we've also built an understanding of the disconnect that urban planning and Oaklanders have with one another in terms of what Oaklanders actually want to see and what their community and actually want to see in their community and what the city thinks we need to see slash want to see. Seeing what's in the books, currently isn't what changes Oaklanders have been saying that they've needed. We want to ensure that con that their concerns and needs are actually heard and set into motion by the city. As a born and raised Oaklander, specifically East Oaklander, I know what it's like feeling like your concerns in your neighborhood are seen but not heard. I want to ensure my community has to never feel that way.

I'm proud to be a part of the process that uplifts youth voices and community perspectives, and I look forward to continuing to represent my community through the general plan update. Now I'll hand it over to my colleague Vicente, who will share more about the work we do in our fellowship.

Hello. Thank you, Alec. Good morning I mean, good afternoon, council members. My name is Vicente Trujillo junior, and I am honored here to be speaking as part of the youth fellows, with deeply rooted collaborative and urban strategies. I am currently a student at the University of California studying cognitive science and data science.

And while I was born in Berkeley, I was raised in the Fruitvale District, which resides in District 5, and my experience growing up have deeply shaped my perspective on my community and access in regards to opportunity in Oakland. As my colleagues have mentioned, our work has been primarily in bringing awareness to the Oakland general plan and its proposed options in regards to land and business development. However, at my time working at USC and Deeply Rooted has opened my eyes and in many ways has inspired me to seek new solutions. Therefore, I'm personally committed to advancing a vision shaped by my experience working with Oaklanders and my experience doing these outreach events. And it's a vision that aligns with the goals of community and economic development, and that is the redevelopment of the Coliseum and the creation of a professional major league soccer based in our city, The departure of several sports the the departure of several sports teams have left a significant cultural and economic void.

And for many residents, sports has served as a as a source of pride, unity, and opportunity. However, more importantly, this initiative will provide a foundation for youth programs centered around health, academic, and mentoring mentorship, creating a pathway for youth. As someone from a low income family and historically underrepresented community Focusing on how to organically create engagement in community will lead to revenue that can be reinvested back to our youth as this should be our highest priority. Thank you.

Thank you to our youth fellows. This map on the screen is just a a brief summary of the engagement that we have done so far in phase two. I just wanna note that there's a clustering of events around, downtown. This is due to a number of virtual events that we've organized, and these were all we need an address on the map, and so those are all based at, 250 Franco Gowen Plaza. This map, will if it's not already up on our website, it will be there soon. It's interactive, and we hope that you, check it as it will be updated regularly. I'll now hand things off to Lakshmi.

So, so I'll go into a little bit more detail on the options, report itself. So, as Bibi mentioned, the options report provides three big picture ideas that all build on a shared, foundation or baseline of shared growth and improvement for all Oaklanders. And the baseline will reflect what's already planned, approved, or in progress as well as concepts that will be foundational to address such as, climate change and employment. And you will see throughout the options that are key themes that have been reflected from community input that includes walkable complete neighborhoods, providing more options for mobility, diverse housing types, equitable park access, and inclusive economic growth. So, what's shared across all options is, all options assume that jobs and housing will be added across the city, especially in downtown, near the Colosseum, and along major transit corridors and around BART stations.

So this takes into account all the growth that's been forecasted and accounted for in the Downtown Oakland specific plan that was adopted last year and also all the phase one, zoning code updates that were made and the housing and environmental justice elements. So through this, we will be seeing, modest growth in existing neighborhoods with multiunit housing types, accessory dwelling units, and neighborhood commercials added over time commercial uses added over time. For employment, the baseline supports existing job cent, important job sectors and also other existing important industries such as health care and port serving uses. And all these options also take into account the work that's happening through the port and other industries to, other jobs to transition to cleaner, industries. And the city is also working on, trying to attract growing sectors like technology, life sciences, green economy, and advanced manufacturing, all of which is grouped under r and d.

So the options report also includes, potential, like, illustrations of, projects that are currently underway. For example, this one, illustrates what the potential San Leandro Creek Greenway work that's underway and how that could look like. So, how do the options differ? So while the options all start from the baseline, the key differences are where, new housing and jobs are located, the density of new housing, how much growth is anticipated in each of these options, and the proposed transportation and park improvements, so the kinds and the locations. So option a reflects the desire of city of, the Aucklanders foremost priority to be able to reach more destinations and daily needs within a short distance from their homes.

So it spreads development new development across 18 mixed use centers that you see, depicted as these stars, purple stars. And of these, nine of them are already existing shopping centers and nine of them will be new. So for areas that already have these existing shopping streets, option a will add more, bring more housing, whereas, for the new shopping centers, or new neighborhood centers, option c, Option a would bring, for example, grocery stores, restaurants, local services that enable everyone to access healthy food services and transportation while also keeping in mind Oakland's, unique neighborhood identities. Option a also supports jobs by folk by adding jobs in these neighborhood centers, but also creating three new proposing to create three new r and d centers, and those are highlighted in red. And one in West Oakland, one in Jack London, and in the airport, Ports Airport Business Park.

And, the transportation improvements would link or improve connections between these neighborhood centers, job hubs, and regional transit with better first light last mile connections, safer streets, greener sidewalks, and crosswalks. Again, similar to what was shared in the baseline option, a also provides, potential illustrations of what, if option a was implemented could look like. So you this is, in Laurel, and it shows, housing, high density residential that's facing the street, a centrally located, gathering space slash plaza, integrating public art in, developments and, safer, street streets. This is another illustration for potential r and d district. And as you can see from here, the, live work, facility is preserved, but it also incorporates, West Oakland Link, which is the pedestrian bike pathway that's MTC led.

Option b is, connected corridors and gateways, and that reflects, Oakland does desire to support more housing and jobs close to public transit. So option b concentrates new development along major transit corridors throughout the city, which is shown as, these purple lines. And more housing and jobs would support frequent bus service at local, businesses along these corridors. And for jobs, jobs are, for employment, jobs are not only added along the corridors, but the proposed option b proposes to add two new r and d centers, one in West Oakland, the slightly larger one in in the ports airport business park area. And for parks and open space, the option b proposes to add new parks or greening at key transit gateways and smaller parks and plazas along the corridors.

This is another illustration of how a potential corridor could be redeveloped with option b. It shows, protected bike lanes and a bus only lane and a greening along these corridors. And, similar to, option a, this is another potential illustration of, how redevelopment could look along Hegenberger Road. So option c, is the Midtown Waterfront District, and it proposes it proposes aggregating Oakland's existing neighborhoods into a recognized district. So it's not a new district, but it's it's a new name.

So this will help bring investment further east in Oakland, building on the energy of Fruitvale Village and also bringing change to Central Estuary. And for employment, this plan this option proposes creating three new r and d centers, one in West Oakland, one in Jack London, and a larger one in the South Estuary area. A key transportation idea for this option is to add a new San Antonio Transit Station to support a future BART connection, and that's reflected, in link 21. So, yeah. So this, option c, could start.

The this San Antonio Transit Hub could start as a bus or shuttle service, connecting Downtown Brooklyn Basin and the new Escherich neighborhood and connecting BART stations with the possibility of bringing, becoming a new BART station over time, and this is consistent with the options explored in Link 21. So as Bibi mentioned, once, we receive feedback from the CED committee today, we will be, we've received, we've done over 65 community engagement events across the city. We will be synthesizing that feedback, and, highlighting, reflecting all the recommendations that came out of it into the draft land use framework. And we are hoping to publish that in early twenty twenty six, and we are hoping to bring it to council sometime in April 2026 for your feedback and then for eventual endorsement, which will then serve as the foundation for developing the elements and the policies. And in spring twenty twenty seven, we are hoping to bring it to you for final adoption.

So in conclusion, my this concludes my presentation, and we are hoping to receive consolidated feedback from the CD committee. Thank you.

Excellent. Okay. Thank you so much. We can call the public speakers.

Thank you, chair. When I call your name, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you are easily identified. As procedure, we will take public comment in person public comment before, Zoom. John Daurie Ample. Excuse me if I mispronounced your last name. EJ Sayer, Isaac Cosread, David C. Ralston, Miss Lasada, and Ralph Cans. If you heard your name, please make your way to the podium. State your name for the record, and you do have one minute.

Miss Brown, you know I'm a be here all day. There's a young lady who came too late. Can I please give her my time? Thank you.

And to the to the chair to the public speaker, please state your name for the record. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Sharifa Taylor. I work at CBE as a researcher and as a planner. I wanted to just bring to your attention, if you haven't seen it, because I know it goes to the, general planning staff, our comment letter. We submitted one CBE, and then members of the East Oakland Community Steering Committee of a b six seventeen submitted one as well.

And so the primary talking points, are that we hope that this general plan redresses the environmental and racial injustices, and the future planning inter iterations in compliance with environmental review and fair housing obligations. Second, we wanna discuss the failure to consider the environmental impact of R and D centers in EJ communities like East Oakland and West Oakland, specifically because we have similar hazards already in East Oakland, such as the Oakland Airport, the, ABNI Foundry remediation, and heavy industrial polluters. Third, please review, our letter that I mentioned at start, which we can share, again.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is John Dalrymple. I'm here for the, Alameda County Building Construction Trade Unions, about 2,000 families in Oakland. You know, one of the things about this report is that as was mentioned, it's gonna out of this is gonna gonna drive policy initiatives are gonna be derived. What our concern is that though they talk about job when the discussion about jobs and projected jobs, there's no mention of the construction trades and jobs that are gonna be enabled, they're gonna be generated out of this general plan, which we estimate between twenty and twenty five thousand, which makes it the biggest second biggest potential job growth in the city.

In lieu of not recognizing it, we're not gonna have policies, which means we're not gonna have initiatives to make sure local folks get those jobs. We're not gonna be supporting the kind of workforce preparedness programs that we have robust, but not necessarily supporting them enough in anticipation of these jobs. If we're gonna deal with racial equity, if we're ignoring the largest source of potential jobs into the middle class class, then we we can't unless we recognize it and we identify and we say it out loud, we will not have the policy. So asking you to adjust the report to reflect that increase in construction trade jobs. Thank you. And

through the chair to the public speakers, please note this is a small room, so let's keep our voice to the inside voice. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. EJ Syrum with sheet metal workers local one zero four as well as well as the Oakland based community based organization, Rising Sun Center for Opportunity. So in going off of also what John was talking about, one of the big things I want to highlight is Rising Sun is an Oakland community engagement program. And within Oakland, now, they're actually running an all women's cohort called Women Build the Bay. Out of the 27 women that are in that current cohort, 10 of them are from Oakland.

80% of that cohort is women of color. And what they're looking for right now is they're looking at opportunities to get into the middle class via those construction pathways, like what we offer at Sheet Metal Workers Local one zero four as well as other crafts. When you're when you're looking at the general plan and including those new the new jobs that are coming to Oakland, that's one of the things that we should be considering is the current cohort of women, primarily women of color, that are currently in Oakland going through training that are looking for a pathway into the middle class. We wanna offer those pathways, but unless if we have a a strong local hire goal within the general plan and we're considering those women of color that are going through those Oakland programs, that's what we need to get them. Thank you.

Please noting council member five absent at 02:13PM. Thank you.

We have a minute? Okay. Good afternoon, council members. David Ralston. I am speaking as a resident interested in a thriving, livable, equitable equitable Oakland.

I'm also speaking as somebody who served fifteen years as a city planning and urban economic analyst staff for the city, and I'm also speaking as a current chairperson for the the bicycle boost pedestrian advisory commission who's been working on the general plan. First of all, strong commendation to city staff for their efforts on this effort. What I wanna point out is as we talk about a twenty year vision for the city, a green r and r and d center, that's beautiful. We also need to think about the context of what's gonna support that what what that's gonna support that vision. In the land use framework that you guys see before you, we are about yes and.

We need we need connected neighborhoods. We need connected commercial corridors, and we also need access to the waterfront, especially for East Oakland. What I wanna highlight, though, is a base map that's included the shared value. There's a lot of things missing on that map that need to be articulated. How we map our city is also what we value, and we need to show policies that were in the EJ element, the ECAV, EONI

Thank you for your compliment. And,

we appreciate your bold leadership in this opportunity that that we have before us. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Isaac Costeried speaking as a District 2 resident, as a Parks and Rec Reation Advisory Commission member, as well as an advocate for many organizations and nonprofits across the city. Several quick comments on the plan. This is the third presentation I've been a part of of the many that they've had. And I I would echo some of the previous comments. We we need to focus on jobs and the economy, and I and I've not seen that in any of the iterations. And in that respect, I I recommend we think about playing to our strengths. We are a port city. We have been a port city for a long time, and we have something that nobody else has, an airport, a seaport, and this tremendous waterfront. The port also is not just active on the sea and on air and land.

They also have an energy utility that generates something like 8% of their revenue. Energy is going to like, the demand for energy is going to be increasingly important and needs to be thought of as part of this process. Also, I think it's important we don't spread our resources too thinly. Yes. We're always gonna be a city of neighborhoods, but we've gotta have targeted areas where we're really investing so we can compete not just with San Francisco and Emeryville, but places like Vacaville and, for that matter, Dallas. It's a worldwide competition, and this is hopefully what can help us get us there. Thank you.

Good afternoon again. Ralph Cans. Just looking at the maps you're shown, I live in East Oakland, but D P Stokeland still looks like it's not represented the way it needs to be. A big issue I brought forward to staff that they've been completely ignoring is there's nobody involved in this process speaking for the most vulnerable in this city, which is special status species, endangered species. That was the voice I was trying to bring to that advisory committee.

They don't want anything to do with it. Because I know the history of Oakland has failed in project after project to implicate mitigation measures, such as Oak Knoll, where you're supposed to say the save the Oakland Star Tulip, they didn't get saved. They got trashed. It was a complete failure. You have a complete failure at the Oakland Zoo. I can name project after project that's been a failure, and dangerous feces are getting mowed down, and there's no effort to fix that in what's going forward. Thank you.

That concludes your public speakers for item four.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Colleagues, any questions or comments? Council member Unger?

Yes. I I do have some questions. How have developers actually followed our general plans in the past when we when we do them? Is this a document that we just sort of put out there? Or do they

Yeah. I can. And you can so all projects have to so we have standard conditions for approval that come out of the general plan and also our zoning code. So all projects have to comply to the standard conditions of approval. So for example, from Phase one, the environmental impact report that was done, there were several standard conditions of approval that addressed air pollution, also the kind of air filtration specifications that new construction needs to be included. So that is included as part of our standard conditions of approval.

Okay. And, you know, these are all great things that we would love to do. Oakland always struggles with capacity. Like, is there any plan to increase our capacity to be able to carry out any of these great ideas?

So capacity as staff, if

I may Staff money.

Sure. So so the general plan is a long range document, and it kinda sets the vision for how the city should continue to stabilize and grow. And what we are seeing right now is mostly like implementation of the previous general plan. And the general plan is not going we are not going to be able to implement everything all at once. So it will include an implementation program that identifies actions that are short term, short priority, medium and long term, along with not just identifying departments that are responsible, but also potential funding mechanisms.

And we understand that things will keep shifting and changing, but having these like the options are just three big picture ideas, right? So the draft land use framework will then set a foundation for the elements themselves. So the implementation program will identify the priorities of each of these actions and so the city can continue to revisit and prioritize it.

And then would it be possible to just sort of there there are some baseline things that are common between all three options. Yes. And and that may be all we can do, you know, depending on what our capacity is. Is there a way to sort of say that, like, maybe a fourth option that just says, like, can we just do the things that are common to the three different options?

Yeah. I think what we're trying to do, you know, we had our consultant that actually looked at the population projections that are projected for the City Of Oakland, as well as looking at when we're adding that population, wanting to also add jobs proportionally to that population. So we looked at like how many jobs do we have now in Oakland compared to the amount of residents in Oakland. And ideally you want to keep at least that same proportion as you're moving forward with growth of new population. And you know, we can't stop people from moving here, we need to look at how can we accommodate that.

And it's also something part of our reallocation from the state as well. So what we're trying to do is look at what are the different ways that we can have that population that's going to come to Oakland. Where are they going to go? And then also what jobs can we try to attract to Oakland and provide for those land use areas where those jobs can go and happen? And the specific example of the R and D areas is that, you know, we know by working with our consultant and economic analysis, what we've heard is that if you want to track that type of development, there needs to be a certain square footage or acreage of land that's together because, the R and D industries usually like to be in sort of a a like a park, a business park type of thing that's all in one area.

They often want to have access to the freeway. They might also want to have amenity of overlooking the water and so forth. So what we're trying to do is saying if this is a type of job sector that we want to be competitive for that other cities are getting right now and getting those tax dollars, What do we need to provide in the city of Oakland to accommodate that? And where in Oakland would be the best area? So that's what we're showing different options of where that could happen.

And then we're looking at our infrastructure element, will be part of this, which is implementing this these general plan actions, is if we need to make investment to help, like maybe the roads need improvement, we need to bring electricity to that area, other things, then, we can know that this is the area we've planned for this, and this is where we need to add our infrastructure and make improvements to make that happen.

Okay. And and I do think it's really important that we recognize the number of jobs that are gonna be created by the the creation of all of all of this plan. And I I'd like to work with your office on adding some language to this about the kinds of jobs that we wanna create, that we wanna make sure that these are, you know, if if if possible, union jobs and and prevailing wage jobs and jobs that are that are taken by people from the area rather than taking their money back out of state when they're done with the construction. So I'd love to set up a time to work with you on that.

Council Member Ramachandran?

Thank you. Just echoing that last point. Currently in the plan, is there anything about local hire?

So where we are right now, Council Member Ramachandran, Chair Brown, we are still in the, really three big picture ideas. So we haven't gotten down to the level of actions. And even the actions will not will provide some kind of direction to a city department to explore, for example, local hiring policies, for example. And the EJ element already includes some policies about jobs growth, I guess, incubator incubator kind of setup. So there are some actions in the EJ element already and that we will carry forward as part of this.

And that's the kind of direction the general plan will provide. Then that would then help or provide direction to the city department responsible for working on this to take it further.

Got it. And the different options presented, these are also part of the plan so that then next step is to tailor into one of these options there?

Yeah. These are so that's the foundation, and then these are three big picture ideas. And based on the feedback that we've received from the community, from all the boards and commissions, and you today, we will be synthesizing and identifying all the key themes to show what comes out of the feedback. So it could be a mix of so we are not saying either or. It could be a mix of all of these three or some of some features in all of these three that would be in a draft land use kind of map. And then once the council endorses it, that would then serve as the foundation for the elements and the EIR process.

Got it. And just one more question. You mentioned R and D industry and business parks as an example. Apart from construction, obviously, when it comes to building substantially more housing, are there other industries that you are targeting in this kind of broad plan right now that you think would be attractive to bring more jobs and people to Oakland?

Yeah. So we are looking at, you know, other types of green industrial jobs as well as even other types of office jobs that may be still I think one of the things to look at is, as we can see right now, as an example, in San Francisco, the AI is really becoming a huge job generator right now. And what often has been happening in the past is as office space gets more expensive in San Francisco, a number of those same companies end up coming to Oakland as well. So we want to keep looking at all potential new jobs and different shifts that can be happening over the years. This is we are working with economists as well to be helping with that information as well as our economic and development department is helping with that also.

Awesome. I think Director Gilchrist also has his hand up.

William Hill, you may unmute Yes, you very much. Thank you.

Yeah. And thank you. And Chair Brown, and may please the committee. And I regret I can't be there in person today, I have been monitoring the entire meeting. And this is a a very robust engagement along the type that we had wanted. And to just address some of the comments that I've been picking up from the committee. Yeah. We are in sort of a mid phase of review and conversation. So many of the ideas you all are offering or representing, we will have a chance to engage you between now and the final adoption. This is a good opportunity for us to be working with you all in real time.

So the suggestions you have, we will have a chance to look at in the context of the work that's been done to date. And the other thing to bear in mind with a twenty year horizon, we know how much the world can change in five years these days. So one of the things we also wanna be mindful as we adopt this plan is that it's gonna have the ability for us to address and adapt it to conditions that change with time. And some of those may be in the context of the economy, in the context of demography, in the context of resources and capacity. And again, I also want to express appreciation to the committee for realizing all of these important factors and to the community as well, the commentators that really have to formulate in this plan before it's finally adopted.

So the assurance is that we will be back. This is not the last time you see us before the 2027. We are really looking to springboard this kind of engagement to work with, the committee, to work with the community, and end up with a plan that can be managed where we can match priorities to resources and get an idea of what some of our early moves need to be. The the repeated comments about prioritizing strategies, absolutely. We've got to think about how this is gonna be implemented for it to be successful. And that's what distinguishes, you know, plans that are good in concept from plans that really deliver for their place. So thank you all very much. Wish I could be there, but this is a very, very, hopeful engagement in terms of us making the best of this opportunity. Thank you.

Excellent. Did you have any more comments? Alright. Well, first off, I wanted to make sure that I gave my appreciation to the climate fellows that were able to engage on this project. Really grateful for all of your work and also for the public speakers that showed up to just really express and give us feedback, right?

Because that's really where we are in the process. So I'm not sure if KTOP is available, but I did want to pull up the slides again and I wanted to pull up the map that represents option B. And I just kind of had I know we had the opportunity to kind of have a discussion prior, but I wanted to really kind of uplift some of the things that even some of our public speakers mentioned around, you know, what, you know, what we are doing specifically to ensure that there are positive investments made in East Oakland in in and around transit. I I think that would be something else that I would continue to to emphasize. Also, just making sure we're being mindful of, any, you know, so many of our local communities are taking into consideration sea level rise.

So I just wanna also put that, also on the radar. In in addition, I believe that the report, shared out, you know, per scenario what type of jobs would be added. I do think that the feedback was really great around, making sure we're adding specifics of what types of jobs we're really looking to add on. So I would love to see that as a part of the report. And I feel like in really in this moment, as we're looking at options a, b, and c, I feel there's much alignment between both options A and B and seeing how we can create something kind of that's a mix between both of those two.

And then lastly, I did have a Oh, yes. And then the other thing I wanted to mention is, I guess I'm curious how we are As we're generating this very specific plan, how are we integrating the, like for example, I serve on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, as well as the AVA Community Energy Board and a handful of other boards and commissions. And there's various projects that are being worked on and being funded. And so I guess I'm curious how can we, like, develop a plan that, kind of, helps to support what we want in this general plan, but then also where we're getting support of some of other agencies, especially especially since we know that, you know, the finances of the city may, you know we wanna make sure we get all the support as possible. So just kinda wanted to also put that on the radar and if you had anything you wanted to say to that.

So we do have so the general plan advisory committee is made up of both the technical advisory committee and our community advisory subcommittee. And the technical advisory committee does have representatives from, for example, the East Bay Park Regional Parks District, BART, AC Transit, the port. So we have been in very close discussions, we've been reviewing their Atwood Business Park vision as well, and they are providing feedback to us. So we are engaging with the key stakeholders who work with the city, but also within the city, like internal city departments. But if there are any agencies like a c I think ACTC is also on the g pack.

But AVAR Community Energy, I can check back. And if they are missing, I we can definitely set up something and make sure that, we are getting their feedback as well.

Excellent. That sounds good. And then I also wanted to acknowledge that, Communities for a Better Environment, also gave comment, and so really wanna make sure that we engage with with them as they are doing amazing work relative to a b six one seven and making sure we're centering East Oakland communities.

Just to respond to that comment. So we did receive their comment letter, and we are like, as I mentioned, we are reviewing everyone's feedback, and we will be collecting all of that feedback so that the community can also have a chance to see how the feedback has been incorporated into the next step in the process. So that's also currently underway.

Excellent. That sounds good. And I guess, lastly, I know council member Unger mentioned he wanted to be engaged in the process. What's your recommendation for all of the council members to really, be engaged on this? Like, what type of follow-up would you would you like?

So, so we are doing citywide engagement, so we are also we try to reach out like, we do reach out to council member like your staff to share any materials that have been published so that we can share it through your offices as well. But yeah.

Yeah. We can also have follow-up briefings with you as well too. So you can also, know yeah. So we're still finished finishing up with collating all the information we've gotten from the the public because we did get a lot. And that also will be published as well, but we can have follow-up briefings to talk about that.

Excellent. That sounds good. Perfect. Thank you. So I believe for this item if there's any other questions or comments? Okay. So I believe for this item, we would just be, the motion would be just to receive and file. Excellent. Do we do I have a second? Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Unger to receive and file this in the Community and Economic Development Committee on roll. Council member Fife is excused. Council member Omachandra? Aye. Council member Anger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. This motion passes with three ayes. One excused, Fife. Thank you. To receive and file this in the Community and Economic Development Committee. Moving to item five. This item, has four pieces of legislation, does require a urgency vote for all four pieces of legislation as it was placed on as a title change on a three day agenda. I just need a motion.

Was that the urgency finding? Okay. I'll make the motion. Second. K.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Brown, seconded by council member Unger to approve the urgency finding. I would now read the item unroll. Excuse me. Council member Fife is excused. Council member Avachandran? Aye. Council member Unger? Aye. And chair Brown?

Aye. This motion passes with three ayes and one excused. Fife to approve the urgency finding, and I will now read the item into record. Adopt the following pieces of legislation. First legislation, a route a resolution amending a restating resolution number 90640 CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for, accept, and appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner under California Department of Housing and Community Development's HomeKey program for the Mark Twain Homes project at 3525 through 3539 Lyon Avenue in the amount not to exceed $35,000,000 and related California Environmental Quality Act findings.

Resolution two, a resolution amending and restating resolution number nine zero six four two CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for, accept, appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner on the California Department of Housing Homekey program for the 34th And San Pablo affordable housing project at 3419 Through 3431 San Pablo Avenue in the amount not to exceed $35,000,000 making related CEQA findings. And three, third resolution, a resolution amending restating resolution number 90643, CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for, accept, appropriate, a local agency joint partner under the California Department of Housing and Community Development's home key for the Maya affordable housing project at 400715 Telegraph Avenue for an amount not to exceed $8,500,000 and Sequel Act findings. And the last piece of legislation is a resolution authorizing the City of Oakland to apply for, accept, and appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner under California Department of Housing and Community Development's Home Key for 3135 San Pablo Affordable Housing Project at 3135 San Pablo and 967 32nd Street, any amount not to exceed $13,000,000 as equal finding. And you do have one speaker for this item.

All right. Excellent. Is there someone from

staff? Hello.

Yes, we have, three resolutions. There's these are reamended and restated resolutions to our three previous past resolutions, that we we are requesting to apply and, accept funds from the Homekey Plus program. We've already, applied to these three program or, three projects. And then the fourth resolution is requesting authorization to apply, to a new HomeKey Plus, for a new Homekey Plus application. And, that that's that's really all. We're just trying to apply to these to for these, to the state for these awards.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I believe with clarity, it there was an error in the original resolution that it did not state home key plus, and so that is what we're seeking to fix this go around.

Correct? Three amended and restated resolutions. Yes. We needed to amend, minor edits to from home key to home key plus. And then the fourth resolution, that did not come through, previous counsel, so that's a new resolution with the with also with the requested edits from the state.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Any, questions or comments, colleagues? And do we have any public speakers? Yes. We can take the public speakers. Thank you. Thank you.

Calling on our public speakers for item five. Miss Asada.

Okay. So these three projects are located in Gallo, Unger, and Fife's district. So how are we working to create a, a balance of using home key funds in all of the districts, particularly so far with the total that you gave of home key projects in the report, District 654, and two have only had one project that's been completed. The other thing is that this is supposed to be acquisition and rehabilitation of hotel, motels, and other structures to provide permanent housing for a variety of individuals or groups. So are we dealing with families, veterans, mental health individuals, substance abusers, seniors, and youth?

And all those different categories of people that have need for housing, are we considering that the process is giving all of them an equal opportunity to be considered? Are are you even considering it at all is my concern.

That concludes your public speaker's item five. Alright.

Thank you so much. So if there's no, questions or comments, I'll just entertain a motion.

Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Ramachandra, seconded by council member Anger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward all pieces of legislation to the 11/04/2025 special city council agenda, and that is on consent on roll. Council member Fife is excused. Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Council member Anger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. The motion passes with three ayes, one excused five, to approve the recommendations of staff and to for all pieces of legislation to the November 4 special city council agenda on consent at 9AM.

Moving to item six. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to forgive $3,000,000 in outstanding principal and 661,042 in accrued interest owed by the East Bay Highland Farms two l p for the Highland Farms property and 5,000,000 outstanding principal and $1,094,490 in accrued interest owed to the East Bay Capital Fund two LP for the Eastlake property to preserve long term affordability until 2073 and to facilitate property sale and the new owner. And you do have two speakers for this item.

Oh, do the chair for the city administrator's office, staff like to withdraw this item, and we'll reschedule it at rules on Thursday.

Okay. Sounds good. So we'll take the public speakers.

Once again, noting that this item is withdrawn from this agenda. Calling our public speakers, Hau Tzu and miss Lusada.

Is there any explanation of why it's being withdrawn? You don't answer me, please. You don't answer me. So you will you are recommending or somebody's recommending to forgive $3,000,000 that the East Bay Highland don't know who this is. The EBA, East Bay Asian something, group is supposed to have the inability to come up with this $3,000,000.

And they've been managing this property, but the property has had issues related to maintenance, related to repairs, costs, and market shifts. So I don't understand why you're doing this. Why are you doing this? Allowing them to do now the property issue, it seems I'm hearing this too much, that property is not being maintained. Property is not being taken care of.

And I walk down the street sometimes, and there's some property where people are living, and they tell me they don't have proper plumbing. The paint is peeling, blah blah blah, whatever. So we have we have homes for people, but we're not taking care of them. They're not livable spaces. And I'm seeing this a lot, but I don't understand why we have to, allow them to forgive 3,000,000. If they owe 3,000,000, they gotta pay like everybody else. You're gonna let property owners not pay their mortgage, and you're gonna pay it for them? Mm-mm.

Della Loon Luna? You may unmute yourself. Did you fill out a speaker request?

I did not.

Okay. Thank you. That concludes your public speakers for item six. Yep.

And so my understanding is is that I this this item will be re rescheduled during rules, but it will come back to CED where we will receive a presentation on it. So so, that's it.

You. Moving to item seven.

Does anyone know how I pull up the PowerPoint?

I will now read the item into record. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a transient occupant occupancy tax sharing agreement with the Oakland Pro Soccer LLC, DBA Oakland Roots and Soul, and the amount not to exceed $300,000 to support the attraction of the World Cup team and the Oakland Roots and Soccer and Seoul Soccer Club training facility during the twenty twenty six FIFA World Cup tournament, and you do have three speakers for this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And so for this item, we'll hear from, director Kennett, And I believe there is a PowerPoint presentation.

Excellent. Thank you. And I think I control it here. So my name is Ashley Canet, director of economic and workforce development, and World Cup is coming. World Cup is coming to Canada, Mexico, The United States. And within The United States, there are several cities, and the Bay Area is one of them. This is a big deal. The games are gonna be played between June 11 and 07/19/2026. Here in the Bay Area, the games will be played at Levi's Stadium, specifically June 13 through July 1. And we're here today because the Oakland Roots Soul soccer club, is competing to be selected as a team base camp.

What that means is that they would, a team participating in World Cup would use the Roots and Soul facility as a place to practice. And they would be participating in local events, watch parties, and they generate a lot of activity for the the area. So the main benefit to the host community and surrounding area is the visitor activity and the associated economic impact generated by the team and all of the fans in that activity. What FIFA estimates is that host cities, and there's a lot of experience behind all of this, FIFA estimates that host cities can experience up to 30,000 hotel room nights and between 60,080 visitors. That equates to about $25,000,000 to $33,000,000 in expenditures during the course of the tournament.

So the Roots and Seoul, in order to be competitive, to be selected as a team base camp or have additional have several have significant costs that they carry estimated at around $700,000, I think even a little bit higher. And this is due to a higher standard around security, staffing, field conditions, facility conditions, etcetera. So the proposed resolution enables the roots and soul to share up to a maximum of $300,000 from the incremental transient occupancy tax that we expect to see generated here in the city of Oakland. Just by the way, the city of Alameda has already approved a similar resolution. Importantly, the proposal does not impact the portion of the TOT that goes to support arts and culture.

We're just looking at the base 11%. So the 3% measure C surcharge is untouched in all of this. I'll also note that we're using June 2025 as our baseline. So even though the games start around halfway through June, the teams often show up around or do show up around two weeks in advance. And just for ease of quantification and measurement of the impact, June 2026 relative to June 2025 is a good way of measuring that delta.

So adoption of this item improves the competitiveness of the Roots and Soul Proposal by allowing them to finalize their financial plan and then really demonstrate the readiness to be be a host facility. So this item is structured as a win win in that if a World Cup team selects the Roots And Soul facility as a base camp and if we see that surge in transient occupancy tax that FIFA seat says that other host cities have seen in the past, then we will have net new revenues to share back with the roots and soul. And then beyond TOT, would also expect to see an increase in visitor activity, additional sales tax revenue, etcetera. And just by the way, Visit Oakland is really leaning into this partnership along with the Bay Area host committee and really thinking about how to wrap around this event with packages and other really exciting opportunities for visitors. So from an analysis perspective, we took a look at the number of premium rooms in Oakland.

We hear from FIFA that the fan base tends to be attracted by the more premium rooms. So we've looked at the number of the base number of rooms in Oakland, the baseline occupancy in June 2025, which was around 65%, and then the opportunity at a range of room rates. And we identified 300,000 as a reasonable not to exceed amount. If the surge in TOT that we're describing and anticipating does not materialize and we do not see TOT revenues above our June 2025 baseline amount, then we will not provide any share back. So the city will not be worse off than we were this past June.

If we do see an increment above the baseline, but that increment is less than 300,000, all of that would go to the Roots and Seoul. Again, we're not worse off than we were in June 2025. If we see increment well above the $300,000 then the Roots and Soul will get the $300,000 and the city keeps the rest. So this is really an incentive an incentive package. The money is not expected to necessarily go towards facility upgrades.

As I described before, are a whole host of other expenses like twenty fourseven secondurity, staffing, specialized staffing, etcetera. So based on this analysis, staff recommends an allocation of TOT to the roots and soul in an amount not to exceed $300,000 I believe there's a strong possibility of upside to the city, both in terms of incremental TOT, again relative to June 2025, but also additional economic benefit to the city in the form of increased spending at restaurants and shops and increased visibility of the city on the international stage. This is Oakland is going to be on the on the world stage here during this period of time. If as a body you recommend this item for approval to the city council, please just note that it would need to be considered at a regularly scheduled public hearing that's consistent with government code section fifty three zero eight three, and the next regularly scheduled public hearing is 12/02/2025. And with that, that concludes my presentation, but I'd like to invite the president of Oakland Roots and Soul, Lindsay Barron, to add a few additional comments if that's okay with the chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, chair Brown and members, and especially to the staff who we've been working with. The World Cup is the largest event in the world, and it's very exciting that it's coming to The United States, Mexico, and Canada. And it's even more exciting that there are going to be games played in the South Bay. There are going to be hundreds of thousands of visitors to our community and over $1,000,000,000 of economic activity. And we want to make sure that that gets shared with Oakland and the East Bay.

And a very concrete way that we can do that is by sharing our training facility with a national team. And when a national team comes to a community during the World Cup, all of the players come, all of the staff comes, all of the journalists come, and all of the fans of that team come. And that's why FIFA has seen in other countries that host committee host communities where teams base themselves for training see 30,000 hotel room nights and 60 to 80,000 visitors, and well upwards of $20,000,000 of spending in that community. If if we are able to host a team here in Oakland and Alameda, then every hotel will be filled, every restaurant will be filled, every cultural institution in our community will have visitors from this visiting country. In 1994, Los Gatos hosted Brazil, and that community still, years later, speaks glowingly of that experience as a little Rio for a month.

And we're very excited to be able to lend our training facility to this effort. It is not without substantial expense. The $700,000 that was quoted is the loss that we would receive after receiving other other amounts of income. So we've are very grateful that we were able to work together to come up with a creative way in which only if there is upside to the TOT base is that shared with the Oakland Roots. And I will just note that, the the catalog of home bases has become available to the teams that are qualified for the World Cup.

And we've already had some outreach from some very competitive teams. And given the quality of our training facility, we think we should be able to attract a very high profile team that would bring with it a very enthusiastic fan base to share our community with. So thank you for your consideration of this. We're very appreciative of your time.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Council member Ramachandran?

Thank you. As one, as a cosponsor of this item, I just wanna share how excited I am about the possibility of this happening. When I first spoke to the roots a few months ago, it was something that seemed like could very much likely happen. Like, we think we're in the running to over the course of the weeks. It's just been more and more positive energy building.

A very real chance, like president Barron's just said, that a competitive team will be here. I think it's really exciting. It's a really exciting possibility to have tens of thousands of people, you know, call Oakland home for a month, get to experience all the great things that we know we have as a city, but we can, you know, put us on the world stage. So I'm grateful for the roots for really pushing this opportunity for EWD and collaborating and getting all of the things together. Just want to highlight that, you know, this is not giving $300,000 from the general fund to the roots.

This is like director Kennett said, providing a share of TOT if and when we're selected as a home base and if and when we generate that much amount of money and kind of capping it at that 300,000. And we certainly hope it's gonna be substantially more that the city gets, which we probably will. I think one of the big benefits of this is to our hotel industry, which has definitely been struggling, since the pandemic, along with a lot of others. But, having that many hotel nights would be huge. And, of course, the question is, well, won't they go to Alameda too?

Yeah. But Alameda doesn't have enough hotels for 80,000 people, So you're also gonna have people that really stay in Oakland. So I know a lot of work's been been done on this, I think this is a really exciting possibility, and looking forward to supporting in ways that the city can to, you know, showcase what we have to the world.

Councilmember Unger?

I I just wanna thank you for doing the work to derisk this substantially for the city of Oakland rather than just making it be a grant. Appreciate it.

Yep. Likewise. I'm really appreciative of the leadership of our EWD team and my colleagues. I know originally it was council member Ramachandran and council member Gayo that were seeking to bring this forth. And just super grateful to, I think, my learning and my understanding of how great, like, the FIFA World Cup is has really helped build momentum for me.

And so I'm super excited, I I'm hopeful that Oakland will be selected. And so as for the details of the legislation, I think one piece that I was interested in is just and I know I had discussed this, which is making sure that the council actually can receive a informational report, you know, come fall twenty twenty six on on the status of this. And so I wanted to if it's alright, I wanted to read on the record the addition to the resolution that I wanted to add. It says that if FIFA designates the Roots and Soul training facility in Alameda as team base camp, the city administrator shall return to city council with an informational report on the outcome of the TOT sharing agreement by no later than October hopefully, this date is correct. 10/31/2026.

Well, it should come to CED. So 10/20/2026. So that would just be my only, addition to this item. So, happy to make the motion to move it forward.

Point of clarification, is that to CED or to City Council?

CED first. Thank you. Yeah. Second.

OCED be 10/13/2026.

Thirteenth? Okay. Sounds good.

Moving to our public speakers. When I call your name, please approach the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. Jos Jocephine Guzman, Miss Asada, and Lindsey Barends.

Hi. Good afternoon, chair Brown and members of the CED committee. My name is Josephine Guzman, and I serve as the public policy manager for the Oakland Metro Chamber. We're just here to express our strong support for this proposed TOT agreement with the Oakland Roots and Stowe. The chamber has continued to collaborate with Roots and Stowe, on various workforce, business, and community engagement initiatives.

And this agreement just represents a more strategic investment in Oakland's economy and global visibility as we prepare for this twenty twenty six FIFA World Cup. This would bring positive international attention to market Oakland as boosting economic activity across Oakland, and we encourage your support for this proposal as we take another step, towards strengthening Oakland's economic resilience and vibrancy. Thank you.

So you're correct. It's not coming from the general fund, but it is coming from the funds that are usually used for central city services. A portion of it supports arts, culture, and attractions, police fire services. So you are taking money that's intended for services that could be used that if you wanna talk about the art and soul program, that festival we haven't been able to have for two years, or you wanna talk about the jazz museum that could have come from that fund that we haven't had for over five or six years. Yeah.

But you take in money that something that is a part of what we need is not gonna get it. So don't make it seems like it's it's not gonna be a problem as far as giving money. Now I don't understand. This is gonna be for facility and field upgrades that they're gonna have to benefit after the fact. So we're helping them, increase the the beautification and use of their field and upgrades.

But we don't we don't have the ability to say, we're gonna get this proposal. So it's after we get the proposal that we start giving them the money, or we're give them the money before we know that the proposal is gonna happen. I'm not for this. I'm not for anything that says other services that we drastically need have to not get it have to take a hit so that they can play soccer and get the benefits of it. And you got a a a I think it's Instagram video going on, said don't go to Oakland. It's the second highest crime city in The United States. So I don't know who's gonna come here if they're watching that.

To the chair, can you please, restate your motion with the amendments to CED not to counsel. Am I correct?

Yes. To CED, 10/13/2026.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Brown, seconded by council member Ramachandran to approve as amended the recommendation of the staff to forward this item to the November 4 special city council agenda on consent with the with the amendments as follows, adding a

Sorry.

Can I make a friendly amendment to sending it to the December meeting? Because the November 4 meeting is a special meeting, and I believe there's we have to we can't have this heard on the special meeting. Director, I don't know if you wanted to elaborate.

So That's exact sorry. The December 2 regularly scheduled meeting, please.

Okay.

Yeah. Happy to have it at the best council meeting, but my amendment had to do with the report. So it should be two separate dates that are kind of there, if that makes sense.

Thank you. We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Ramachandran, to approve as of the of staff and forward this item to the December 2 City Council agenda on consent with the amendments as follows as a public hearing, excuse me, with the amendments as follows, to the resolution adding information to report on the outcome of the TOT sharing agreement to be shared on the October 13 Community and Economic Development Committee meeting on 2026. Excuse me. On roll, council member Fife is excused. Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Council member Unger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye.

The motion passes with three ayes, one excused. To approve as amended the recommendations of staff, no four decide until the December 2 city council agenda on consent with the amendment stated on record as a public hearing with the amendment stated on record. Excuse me. And moving to open forum. We have one speaker for open forum, miss Asada.

I'm gonna ask you again. We stop using the term bipod. Stop using the term people of color, women of color. We are not having the same experience. Okay? White people don't have to have the right to have a separate category, people of no color, and we the people of color. Okay? And by the way, y'all got a lot of white people that's passing. I got family members that's passing for white. So you don't know who the hell is white or non color.

Stop that. You have not been able to say what the Oakland Housing Authority is doing or not doing. They have management over 2,000 pieces of property in this city, and you have never had a report from the Oakland Housing Authority. They are are in charge of public housing, and they import in charge of what is had in the past been called section eight. We don't know what the hell they doing.

But that's you you are responsible for them. You just appointed a member to their board. Oh, but you can get rid of Omar Former, and you got board members for the housing authority, and you don't know what they're doing. You can't hold them accountable, but you held you supposedly held Omar Former account accountable on the police commission. Have them come here and tell us what they're doing with HUD section eight and the properties that they manage in this city.

That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

Alright. Thank you so much, colleagues, member of the members of the public. This meeting is adjourned.

Cool. Thanks. Which which news? Oh, really?