Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. good afternoon this will be the november 19th 2025 planning commission meeting uh once we have a quorum and in the meantime i will remind community members who are in the room that we have speaker cards available at the front here the white small cards you can fill those out if you'd like to speak on any item please note which item you're speaking on on the top of the card Additionally, if you parked in the garage located at 250 Franco Gala Plaza, accessed from 17th Street, please use the QR code that we keep at the front of the room next to Hanifa for the promotional parking. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay, welcome everybody.

We will start the Planning Commission meeting for today, Wednesday, November 19th. Should we start the roll call?

Commissioner Alex Randolph is absent today. We have Commissioner Owen Lee. Commissioner Maurice Robb.

Here.

Commissioner Josie Aarons. Here. The Vice Chair, Natalie Sandoval.

have a quorum thank you um and let's start with commission business and to kick us off i think we have an agenda discussion good afternoon uh catherine payne secretary to the planning commission i do want to note a couple of items you have a 2026 calendar meeting calendar available to you now it is posted on the planning commission page as well as on the landmarks page it includes your meeting dates for planning commission for 2026 as well as planning commission committee dates and landmarks board as well looks fairly similar to the calendar this year different color for each of those uh meeting types the meetings are set for us by the city sorry the city clerk really uh and so um you know there's no discussion on the calendar just a note that it is available to you at this time and For the community and the planning commission, please mark your calendars accordingly. in addition i understand we've had um we're having a little bit ah i see a planner about to arrive on an item so i understand the uh applicant for item number one which is an info item is delayed uh but the uh the case planner as well as the applicant is that correct for item number two which is a public hearing They are present, so you are welcome to adjust the schedule if you so choose. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thank you.

I'm fine with adjusting the schedule. Do we need to make a motion or anything to adjust the schedule? No, I, yeah. Okay. Then let's go ahead and adjust the schedule.

So with that, I would ask that you go through the commission business and then we will move to item number two, which is a public hearing before we come back to the information item. Thank you. Okay. Is there a director's report? No director's report. Sorry.

Through the chair. Commissioner Ahrens. Thank you. It would be wonderful to hear from the director at the end of the year. So maybe our last meeting this year, we could get a recap. I think the director has been here a couple of times this year, but it would be great. And if he's not available at the end of the year, maybe our first meeting in January.

I will relay that request to the director and the deputy.

Thank you. Thank you. Any committee reports since the last meeting? I don't think there's been any.

I don't believe there have been any committees unless any of your committee chairs would like to correct me since your last meeting.

No, I don't think so.

Okay. Any commission matters? And again, this is for commissioners to discuss. Laura Kaminsky?

Yeah, Laura Kaminski, Strategic Planning Manager. So I did just want to note I had an update from the last meeting, and I did have a discussion today with our economic development staff, because they do have access to CoStar data. So I am going to be working with them to try to get the rent information that you have requested, and it sounds like they're going to be very helpful in making that much easier than I could have done.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for that update, Laura. Any other commission matters? All right. Then we will move on. Any city attorney's report?

No city attorney's report.

All right. So we will move on. I guess, any open forum today?

We have no speakers open for.

Okay. Anything on the consent calendar? I don't believe so.

No, nothing on the consent calendar.

Okay. Then we'll move on to agenda item one on 8102 International Boulevard.

Right. And to be clear for those watching live or the tape, this is actually item number two. This is a public hearing related to 8102 International Boulevard, a proposal for sale of beer and wine at an existing grocery store. And the case planner for this is Mike Rivera, who will be making a presentation. Thank you.

Greetings, commissioners. Mike Rigata, the project planner for this application. The applicant's proposal is for including the sale of beer and wine for off-site consumption at the existing grocery store, which provides a mix of goods from sizable meats, fish produce, packaged foods, and household items. The grocery store also provides a bakery, a kitchen, and a food court for the sale of prepared foods for customers. The location of beer and wine will be located to the rear of the store within the existing cooling units. The applicant proposes alcohol sales during the same business hours of the grocery store from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Sunday. The property is located in the CN3 zone, and the proposal requires a major conditional use permit because Alcohol sales for off-site premises consumption. The Planning Commission makes a decision on this application. Based on the proposal, staff believes the project would have minimal impacts on the neighborhood because the alcohol sales will take place in a small section of the grocery store and the proposal will enhance the financial viability of the market. regarding findings for public convenience or necessity the staff also believes the findings can be made because the proposal will financially aid to support the market which is located in an underserved area the proposal is a common practice in grocery stores and the area devoted to alcohol sales is incidental when compared to other areas in the market, meaning in the same market at 8201 International Boulevard. The state's Alcohol Beverage Control Agency received in the year 2024 a letter of concern from the public indicating that there are too many establishments selling alcohol along International Boulevard. A copy of that letter is attached to the staff report. In addition, the planning department received this letter a week later from the same person who submitted the letter to the state. also indicating that there are too many existing stores selling alcohol along the international boulevard the a copy of that letter was sent to the commission by email And a copy of the same letter was shared with the applicant's team. In summary, staff believes that the sale of beer and wine for offsite consumption at the existing market is a practical and compatible use that will contribute to the success of this vital neighborhood. The staff can make the findings for the major conditional use permit and recommends approval subject to the conditions attaching this staff report. including staff environmental determination. Thank you and I'll be available for questions.

Do we have a presentation from the applicant as well or no?

I don't think so.

Okay. I do believe that the applicant has something that they'd like to circulate, correct? Yes. And you're sure the applicant doesn't have a presentation? I just want to confirm. You do have a presentation or you do not? So your applicant is saying they do have a presentation.

I was not aware that the applicant was going to present. Okay.

So there will be a presentation by the applicant. They also have something they'd like to circulate to you. They'll tell you about it. And you can bring it up here and we will hand it out. And hand it to Hanifa for right now. And did you want to ask any questions of staff before you hear the presentation?

Bringing it to other commissioners? Do you have any questions before the? Okay, great. Let's go ahead with the presentation.

My name is Rena Rickles, and I represent the applicant. I'd like to thank staff for a thorough report. She put us through a lot, and it made everything that we're doing moving forward much better.

Apologies. Before you really get started, because you only have one copy of this, can you explain what it is that you submitted for the record? Thank you.

That was good. Yes, but we did, because it's hard to get our customers to come at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, is we placed petitions at all checkout stands. We started a little over two weeks ago. We have a total of 300 signatures, and our petitions also leave space for people to sign and make comments. And we think that that's superior to a form letter in 300 sheets. So there, almost everybody did make a comment. The petitions were also in Spanish and English. And what you have is the petitions that have come in since the last submittal, which is in your packet. Any questions about them? And you do have the originals, but we have copies. So that's fine. Leave the originals in the record.

Thank you. I think we all did receive emails of copies of those petitions. So thank you for sending that and bringing the copies in person as well.

Well, actually, you got all the ones taken through, I guess, last Thursday. These are the fresh ones from Thursday through yesterday. Got it. Thank you for clarifying. OK. Anything else? Okay. So shall I start introducing myself again? All right. I'm still Rena Rickles, and I still represent the market, and I have the general manager here with me, Askenia Ramirez. Again, I still want to thank staff for doing a very thorough job, making us work real hard to make it good, and also for their helpful hints as we went through this. We are here to ask for you to adopt the staff report and vote approval for the application. And my part, I'll be talking about the findings. Ascanio will be talking about the store, the family, et cetera. Like this store, this application is actually going to, if granted, is going to solve problems. It's not going to make problems. In history, I first met Ascanio in February of 2023. I saw the location for the store and what was around it and went, oh my god, really? It was a place you would walk by in a hurry. You parked on the street at risk of having your car broken into. There was a fenced-in parking lot, which basically became a huge basketball court for people throwing in garbage, throwing in bottles. I thought it was a bit of a risk. He was very positive. I said, well, what about shrinkage? He said, no. Our customers want to come back, and they all bond together, so nobody takes things from our stores. So basically, this is now a go-to place. It is a success. The neighbors like it. It has improved the entire neighborhood. The parking lot is clean. It's ample. It has 45 spaces. And you have the petitions from the customers who want it. When Asconio first wanted to open the store, he says, I really don't think I need the alcohol sales. It's a lot of money to go through for 2% of our entire floor area. And business was flourishing, but after several months, the customers said, hey, we want them here for our food. We want to take it home. We shop with our kids. We shop with our family. And we don't want to go out of the store, out of the parking lot, and go to a liquor store somewhere in the neighborhood. We feel this is just safer for us. And he's a good businessman. He said, okay. So that was basically how we got here. And we appreciate staff approval. We'd very much like to have your approval as well. And we're both available for any questions you might have.

Thank you. Okay.

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Ascanio Ramirez. I'm one of the partners and the current general manager for Supermercados Mi Tierra. Yeah, we came hoping to get approval for an application because of how insistent our customer base has been since we've opened for beer sales. Because as Reina had mentioned, we do have a large parking lot, we have cameras, we have permanent security from before opening until after opening, and we have lighting all throughout as soon as it gets dark so that our customers feel comfortable and safe coming to our establishment. And so as Reina had said, we initially did not even want to go through the process, but because of These are customers that have known me since I was a kid. So literally it's almost like they're scolding me as their child. I was like, can you please apply for a beer? Cause we're tired of trying to go to other places. I'm like, okay, I'll do that. And so like Rena said, this is what we got here. And this is our fifth location in Oakland. So Oakland is a city that we believe in. We always constantly invest in. And when we saw this location, we knew that, you know, a lot of people didn't believe that we're going to go through with it, but we knew that this is a place that Our customers were asking for us to open in in this corner because there was not a lot of options in terms of groceries around the location. And so we're a multi-decade business at this point. So I was born into the business. My parents started it. My sisters grew it. And now it's been sort of my turn to start to continue to grow the business. And so this location was the first location that I personally oversaw and opened. And yes, we knew that... It was going to be a challenge, especially with the environment around us. But since we've opened. Um, the neighborhood has really cleaned up. There used to be issues with graffiti with. Homeless people with, um, theft and all these kinds of things. But since we've opened, there's been such a flow of people constantly around the location that. The change has been very significant, even less graffiti and we've been taking always. measures from reopening until now to continue to make sure we can provide the safest and best experience for our customer base. And so, you know, it took us about a year to open. It's been about a year since we've been open. And through this process, we hope that you'll accept our application. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you both for your presentation. Do we have any one for open forum? Not open forum. Public comment, thank you.

No, we do not.

OK, great. So with that, I will officially close public comment and bring it back up to the commissioners for any questions or discussion.

Thank you. I'll just quickly add I'm very happy to support the application and affirm staff's findings. Thank you for sharing more about your business and investing in Oakland. And this all makes sense to me. Thank you.

Yeah, I also support this application. I did visit the store. It's a really nice grocery store. I feel like in terms of the criteria for approval, it is only like two doors. I think it's like where the milk is right now in the corner. It's very, very incidental. I do think that it would be not just convenient for customers, but also it's probably a safer place for them to get alcohol. And it's very clear that this market has a very positive impact on a neighborhood.

Agreed with all of that. Thank you for your commitment to Oakland and offering this resource. I as well feel comfortable in moving this proposal forward. Wondering if anyone wants to make a motion.

I would be happy to make the motion. So I move to affirm staff's environmental determination and approve the major conditional use permit subject to the attached findings.

A motion by Commissioner Ahrens. Second. And a second by Commissioner Robb. Roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Lee? Yes. Commissioner Robb? Yes. Commissioner Ahrens? Yes. The Vice Chair Sandoval?

Yes. Motion passes. The project is approved, subject to appeal in 10 days.

Thank you. So now back to our agenda. I think we're going to move back. It looks like we have our presenters here for what was an informational report item one. So we can invite the presenters to the podium.

Right. Information report one is a presentation by Caltrans on I-980. Did city staff have anything to say or were you intending to introduce the Caltrans or not?

Okay. Thank you for readjusting the schedule so that I could get here. I appreciate it. My name is Becky Frank. I'm a community planning branch chief at Caltrans District 4. We're just five minutes up this way. And last time we came to present was in November 6 of 2024. So I'm not sure if there's new commissioners since then. But we're back again now to tell you the status of the study right now. oh yeah there we go and uh i just keep pushing the arrow to move forward i suppose um and i believe that we've sent an active our engagement activity report number two and our evaluation memorandum number uh if not we can share that later if you would like to see that um all right so OK, now I know how to use the equipment. All right, so phase one of the study is where we are right now is going to identify a new concept and vision for transportation and land use along the entire corridor. And we got started in spring of 2024, and we're concluding in fall of 2025. And we'll have our final report up on the website either at the end of November or the beginning of December. Phase two will perform a more detailed feasibility and technical analysis of the concept and vision, and that will begin in early 2026 through late 2027. We developed an evaluation framework to ensure the vision meets equity performance measures or benchmarks, and that equity assessment was done in phase one and will be done again in phase two and on into any other future phases and implementation of the study. The study team, based on some community input and the technical advisory committee comments, which includes community-based organizations, created these study goals, and I'm just going to name off three of them, to create a community-informed transportation and project concepts to foster a more sustainable West Oakland neighborhood and to engage the community with humility to earn a meaningful and long-lasting relationship. The project area boundaries are West MacArthur Boulevard to the north, Broadway to the east, Third Street to the south, and Interstate 880 to the west. And it's quite different all along Interstate 980. West of San Pablo is near downtown, and this is a below-grade facility. That's the part that sinks down below the street level. And then the part that's east of San Pablo is elevated above grade, and the BART tracks are in the middle of that section. And we talk about west of San Pablo and east of San Pablo a lot throughout the study. Based on public input from Round 1 and our Technical Advisory Committee on Community-Based organizations input. We developed scenarios and strategies that could reconnect the corridor. And we presented those scenarios and strategies to the community in three scenarios, enhance, cover, and remove, which go anywhere from minimal to maximum intervention. Enhancing would just be improving the over and under crossings without Changing the infrastructure. Covering could be putting a deck or a cap lid over the depressed areas of the freeway, and parks can go on decks. And removing could be removing the entire facility and replacing it with a boulevard, which would free up land for development and parks and anything that the community might want. We also presented equity performance-based measures, and we showed those as being like low to moderate to high in enhanced cover to remove. There's low to moderate to high connectivity and neighborhood character that can be done in each of these scenarios. And there's low to moderate to high other community benefits and land use opportunities in each of these scenarios. We also presented to the community at a high level that enhanced cover to remove would have greater impacts in terms of cost, time, and construction. All right, now I'm going to share a bit of an engagement summary of what we have done. In the end, after this, in the fall, we will have had three rounds of engagement, last spring of 2024, summer of 2025. And then we will present the final plan and offer to give presentations in January and February of 2026 on the final plan. We engaged diverse audiences. We got community organizations. We had in-person and virtual meetings. pop-in events, and two surveys. Are you timing me at all? Okay. I timed myself earlier, and I went a little bit over 10 minutes, so I want to make sure I hit the right note here. All right. So in our round two survey, which we surveyed 1,900 people, we reported all survey comments as the people in West Oakland and the people outside of West Oakland, because we want to know what the people nearest to the freeway think. And one of the things we asked is for them to rank which of the scenarios they liked the most, and 68% of the West Oaklanders liked the idea of removing the freeway. 49% of non-West Oaklanders liked that. They picked that as their top amongst all three. Next came enhancing, and next came covering the facility, interestingly. At mobile workshops where we presented the scenarios, people wanted us to prioritize affordable housing. They had some concerns about how something like this would be funded, concerns about inconvenience from changes. They wanted us to have more meetings and meeting notifications. They were concerned about any traffic impacts from any scenario and concerns about gentrification and lack of affordability in the neighborhood. And these are things that we will address. go into more detail in the analysis in Phase 2, these concerns that the community members had. The remove scenario was one of the most popular and we certainly will be analyzing that. No decision will be made, so the idea of covering or enhancing, you know, Removal could be a long-term project, even covering could, so we could work with all of our partners to continue to enhance over and under crossings in the meantime while we look into the feasibility of any longer-term projects. People were excited and surprised about the idea of removing the freeway, curious about where the traffic would go. They liked that this removed scenario would improve the safety, visibility, and quality of life and connect West Oakland back to the larger community. Then again, they said they liked the opportunities for land use, affordable housing, employment, and business opportunities. All right, then the consulting team did a scenario evaluation of those three scenarios. They evaluated the scenarios based on their ability to meet the study goals and objectives, the five goals that I showed you before and the several objectives under that. For each relevant goal and objective, the scenarios were classified as whether they substantially met, generally met, or did not meet those goals and objectives. And the results of that, which we can share our task six scenarios evaluation full memo with you. And it'll be an appendix to the final report. But the summary is that the enhanced scenario did not really meet the assessed goals from the goals and objectives. The cover scenario generally did. It created some new land for development. And that is for really more like park development on a cover. And the removed scenario restored the street grid and offered the most opportunities for new development, and it substantially met the goals that were assessed. And we also conducted an equity assessment, a racial equity assessment, which assessed whether the assesses and designs for racial equity in alignment with the City of Oakland's policies and according to their racial equity equity impact analysis process. We work closely with the city of Oakland, and we haven't done these in our Caltrans projects a lot, so we really appreciated working with them and doing this on this project, and we're learning about this statewide, so this is good. And it also identifies where and how community concerns are being addressed throughout the study, and we evaluated the three corridor scenarios against the study's evaluation framework that we created with the equity assessment. And in that, enhanced scenario scored the lowest with 14 passes and 20 fails. It was just a pass fail. You either are doing it or you're not in an equity assessment. The cover scenario had 20 passes and 14 fails. And the remove scenario had the highest with 22 passes and 12 fails. in the equity assessment. And you're never done with the equity assessment because areas where we may be able to improve, we can look at how to continue to improve that and build more equity into the project in phase two and on into implementation. All right. So next steps. The final report will be completed in fall of 2025 and published on our project website. And we will offer final report presentations in winter of 2026. We will continue in phase two to collaborate with our study partners, which includes the City of Oakland, Alameda, CTC, and MTC, with other interested agencies and interested parties and the general public to perform a more detailed feasibility and technical analysis of the concept and vision identified in phase one. And we will continue to have a community-led approach with lots of public engagement in engaging the community about what they would like to see done with Interstate 980. And we will also, in addition to doing some conceptual traffic analysis, determine future implementation strategies and provide next steps towards a potential project development, including cost estimates and identification of funding sources. And thank you very much. This is our project website. The public can sign up for project notices, and we will publish our final plan and launch any new public engagement and other opportunities to engage in the project in phase two.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for the presentation. I remember when this came to us about a year ago. It was really exciting to hear about. And congrats on moving along in this phase. I look forward to future updates as well. Since this is not an item for a decision, I guess I'm wondering if there is any questions or comments from the commission, if that's OK.

Right. And there may be public speakers. Do we have any public speakers signed up on the info report? All right. So you don't have any public speakers. So yes, I would support moving on to planning commission questions and comments. All right.

Bringing it back. Does anyone have any questions or comments?

um thanks for your presentation i remember the initial uh presentation um well for me i'm just looking forward to seeing what how phase two plays out um and some of the documentation what the scenario looks like and um i'm an architect so i want to see what some of the see with the drawings and that sort of stuff looks like so but thank you for your presentation very informative

Thank you for coming back. This is a very exciting project, and I appreciate the opportunity to comment on it and share our thoughts. I was disappointed I couldn't make it to your event at Preservation Park that happened recently. That's where I got married, so I have a lot of love for Preservation Park. live just outside of the project boundaries. So I've been watching also as a resident. So yeah, I want to thank you and your staff for your work and your engagement with community members and your work closely with the City of Oakland. I do have some questions which may not be able to be answered now, but maybe in the future. I'm wondering about any work that might happen around planning for affordable housing, if there are any conversations around policies around ground leasing. My understanding is that Caltrans owns the majority of the land where the freeway is and some parcels on the side. And I'm curious if there's been discussions about how that land could stay in public hands.

Phase two will further analyze certainly the ideas around removal without leaving aside the fact that enhancements and that if removal wasn't possible, even covers might be even brought back into the mix. But if land was freed up by not being needed for a freeway structure or any kind of transportation structure, then it can be made available to a city or to a private developer. Usually you offer it to a city first. Portions of the land could be relinquished to the city of Oakland. And the city of Oakland, which I think you would be involved in, if land was freed up, the city of Oakland could do a specific plan or could amend another specific plan if it was a smaller amount of land. And then lots more public engagement and involvement in what the land uses might be, there would be more opportunities there. In phase two, we'll be doing enough of a conceptual analysis of the land use opportunities to know, to give us an idea of feasibility. And so everything you said are things that can continue to be worked out. There could be some land available for a public park, and that would be left in public hands. There could be some land for affordable housing and some land for other types of range of affordability in development. And finer details get worked out in a specific plan about the type of development.

Thank you. That was helpful. My leading question is that, yes, I have a preference for as much land as possible to stay in public hands. And I think the city is working on developing, hopefully, a public lands policy and building that out. Understanding that if it's a specific area plan that needs to come out of future phases, that would be a longer term process. But dating here now and again and many times probably in the future, my preference is owned by a public entity now. And it should stay that way. OK. Thank you. And then another question about sort of any programmatic work or policy around reparations for community members whose homes were destroyed or businesses destroyed in the process of creating the freeway. Is that something that your staff have, one, been hearing from community members and have done any thinking about what a reparative policy or program could look like?

Yes, various different types of harm repair policies can be put into projects like this. And an example is that the city of Berkeley, at a former BART site, the city itself was able to create the first right to return to the new land of the people who were displaced and their descendants. And so people have done this in different cities. around California and maybe some other states. So we are looking into this and it is something that can be put into the mix in terms of how Vision 980 would play out and what people would like to see.

Great. Thank you. Also, it would be my preference to have a policy like that. And I think San Francisco has done some similar efforts in the Fillmore district around this as well. And so happy to hear that you're learning from other places that have tried different things. And I hope that can be incorporated into the implementation of whatever alternative is selected. Yes. And then I think just my last question, which maybe will be addressed in future traffic studies and analysis, is my understanding is that there's actually very little traffic that exists on this section of 980 in comparison to other freeways and that actually some surface streets in Oakland see a higher volume of traffic. per day than what 980 sees and so i'm wondering if you can you might not have the numbers but is that true and also um i guess more of a comment that you know often in projects where we have seen freeways been removed or taken down that a lot of traffic evaporation happens where the traffic is sort of dispersed and people end up taking different modes Can you confirm or do you know that sort of like the traffic volumes that exist currently on 980 and how they compare to some surface streets in Oakland?

These are things that will be looked at in Phase 2. Um, we, to set us up for success in phase two, it had been a while since we had traffic studies. And so in September, we actually did a new traffic count and we got a lot of new data and I don't have the data off the top of my head and hearing about the data at each point where it comes on and off the freeway is, is, is not the greatest thing. It's really knowing how it all flows in and out and where it may be going. And so look for that in phase two. We wouldn't have offered it as an option if it had a higher level like fatal flaw of being like interstate 80 or interstate, you know, 880. You don't necessarily think that you could remove any freeway. But this one... So it's doing a feasibility analysis is worth looking into to see if, you know, if it's, if it could be reduced in size, if it could be removed, what is the status of it and what could be done? Is it, it doesn't have as much traffic as it could, but that doesn't, you know, that doesn't mean that, Another way I've put this when people ask me is that we can show you where traffic patterns might go. And what will the community think of that? Because if it's technically possible, that's one thing. But how do the people feel about where the traffic will flow when they see that? I think that's important, too. So that's what I can say about it. Yeah. I don't have the analysis yet until phase two.

No worries. Thank you. I do have one other question slash comment. Okay.

I'm taking my notes.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

My team is here to recall what we've been hearing.

Are you working with any sort of major infrastructure projects that are looking at potentially using the freeway bed for a second BART or other like Amtrak or other sort of like rail corridor? I think we had a presentation at some point on link 21. I don't know if actually that exists anymore, but is that something that you're considering or would consider in a future phase looking at Yeah, running, you know, transit in the bed.

So link 21 is looking at what they can do to link up 21 counties. And I'm going to give you a higher level summary about what they did. That's what I understand. And they have different alignments they're looking at. And one of the alignments was potentially at one point the possibility of going through Interstate 980 corridor. And we do have BART and Link 21 on our technical advisory committee, and we do keep in touch with them. These are both projects that would be longer term and able to coordinate with each other. And whichever options we each would be deciding to go for, there are ways that they could all be coordinated. And in 2014, a group called Connect Oakland that still has a website did show trains underneath and a new boulevard in its place on top of the train track because they were aware of some things that people were talking about the potential for at that time.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Hi. I want to thank you for your presentation. I also would support keeping public lands in public ownership. Myself and other commissioners have commented in other contexts as well of the importance of having a public land policy and the use of long-term ground lease structures for things like affordable housing, which would oftentimes be used when the land is publicly owned. I wanted to ask you know I'm encouraged by the community engagement and then also the lifting up or at least identifying what the West Oakland residents comments are both the for in-person comments and in the surveys and I'm glad to see that the engagement will continue I was wondering for getting input, has there been outreach to or attempt to identify people who were displaced to get their input? Because I have seen some articles that had mentioned sort of the comments that people who were displaced made during some of these sessions. So I was wondering if there's outreach or attempt to identify those people in this process.

Yes. We definitely want to reach... We identify those folks as legacy residents. Legacy residents who lived in Oakland when the freeway was built and those that were displaced when the freeway was built. And we've identified somewhere between 30 to 50. And we do have... We have a legacy resident strategy to try to locate more legacy residents because sometimes they move to different cities. So... we are exploring and finding more ways to reach legacy residents to comment now, but also in case it turns out that there's a benefit for them to return, we need to find them. And in the Fillmore project that was mentioned, we learned from some strategies they had to try to find some legacy residents and make sure that they understood what was going on and what was available to them. So... So, yes, we are definitely doing that. And the block party that was mentioned that was at Preservation Park, that was a community group-led event rather than our own event. But I was attending there and another one of my staff and my deputy district director, and it was a lot of fun. So I think they hope to keep doing it every year. And there were many legacy residents there, and they were interviewed, and it was very interesting to hear from them.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much for your presentation. Really look forward to hearing more. Can I just confirm that you will be back or members of your team will be back for a presentation on phase two?

We're happy to coordinate with the city as to whenever it's good that we have good stuff to tell you to come back and present. That would be great. We're happy to.

That would be great. Also, another request, if possible, for the commissioners to be aware of future public events that you have and engagement opportunities. I know I heard about the one at Preservation Park as well. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go. But it would be great to hear about the ones that are hosted by the city or Caltrans as well. Just add our emails to the list. That would be wonderful. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate the report out and look forward to seeing the next one. Thanks. Thanks. All right. Moving on, getting back to the agenda. Any appeals? No appeals. Then in terms of commission business, we have approval of the minutes for November 5th. Anyone would like to make a motion for approval of the minutes?

Make a motion for approval of the minutes for November 5th. Did I say it right?

Motion by Commissioner Robb. Second. And a second by Commissioner Ahrens. We'll call vote, please.

Commissioner Lee? Yes. Commissioner Robb? Yes. Commissioner Ahrens? Yes. Vice Chair Sandoval?

Yes. Motion passes unanimously, and there's no appeal period for this, so the minutes will be posted. Thank you. Any correspondence? No correspondence to the Secretary. Or City Council actions? No, but I will mention, because it's agendized and it's incredibly meaningful to this group, that reappointment for Commissioner Rank... is made it through the rules committee and is scheduled for December 2nd. Normally we don't alert you to stuff in the future, right? But in this case, this is a commissioner who is up for reappointment. So should she be reappointed then at your next meeting, which is not on December 3rd, we've canceled that meeting, but on December 17th, she should be present. That's great to hear.

We look forward to having her back. Thank you. Okay. Well, with that, I think we can adjourn at 3.51 p.m. Thanks, everyone.