Good afternoon.

Welcome to the community economic committee meeting for today's date.

Today is October 28th.

The time is now one thirty-one p.m.

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 24 hours prior to this meeting.

Making this meeting came to order at 9 31.

Speaker requires for due.

We're no longer be accepted 10 minutes after this meeting has begun, making that time 141 p.m.

With that, we would now proceed to take rolls.

Is excused.

Absent.

Absent.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Present.

Councilmember Unger.

And Chair Brown.

Present.

We have three members present, one absent five.

Before you begin, Chair Brown, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Um, so good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to community and economic development.

Um, we definitely have a full agenda with several important items to consider.

So to ensure that everyone um has a chance for their voices to be heard, we will limit public comment to just one minute.

Um, also ensuring that the committees that um 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 October 14th, 2025.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, I'll entertain a motion.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Ramachandran, seconded by Council Member Unger to accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting on October 14th, 2025, as is on roll.

Councilmember Fife is absent.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Motion passes with three ayes and one absent five.

To accept the draft minutes of the committee meeting October 14th, 2025, as is moving to item two.

And you do have one speaker for this item.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, and so uh on uh here on behalf of the administration, um, Winnie.

Are there any um changes we need to make?

Uh through the chair, no, we have no changes.

Excellent, thank you.

Um, I'll make a motion to move this item.

Second.

Call it in our public speakers, Mr.

Ralph Cantz.

Please approach the podium.

State your name for the record, and you do have two minutes.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Ralph Cannes.

Um, 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 9 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 the city, these house flippers.

None of them, I haven't 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 7-1 on the Hayward Fall?

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 are flipping houses and not pulling permits.

It's a massive list, it's a massive amount of money, and the city is being just stealing from everybody in this city.

And it we're starting to add to that the list of slum lords and some of the things they're doing, like a triplex up at Maxwell Park that's been vacant for almost 10 years after a fire that's owned by a notorious slum lord 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 10 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 Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Ramachandran, to accept the termination schedule outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Councilmember 5 is absent.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Councilmember Uger.

Aye.

Chair Brown.

Aye.

Motion passes with three ayes, one absent five.

Two accept determination schedule outstanding committee items as is.

Moving to item three.

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.

Um, and so I believe for this item there is a presentation and presenting, um, from building and planning.

Thank you.

So, hello.

I have a brief verbal report.

Um good afternoon, Chair Brown and uh members of the CD committee.

My name is Lakshmi Rajkopalan, and I'm a planner forward with the strategic planning division uh and planning and building.

Uh, we are here to request the city council adopt a resolution pursuant to government code section 65361, requesting that the California Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation grant a 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 uh was completed in 2023 and included uh 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 timeline to bring these elements for adoption hearings to city council is spring twenty twenty-seven.

Uh SB 1425, uh, which is codified as government code section six five six five point five uh requires all cities and counties in California to review and update their local open space element by January 1st, 2026, to include actions that address equitable access to open space, climate resilience, and rewinding opportunities in correlation with the city's environmental justice element, safety element, and land use elements.

And it also allows uh cities and counties to uh 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 uh a two-year extension for this deadline.

Uh so the city's EJ and safety element that was adopted in fall 2023, includes several action items that provide a strong foundation for demonstrating compliance with SB 1425 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, and action items in the EJ and safety element that comply with SB 1425.

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 or omissions across these uh critically integrated elements, and this is why staff are requesting or are proposing to request the two-year extension from the state LCI's office.

And um, we also met with uh staff from state LCI and they did agree or in our discussions with them, they um uh coordinating um these element updates uh is uh valid reason, and that's why we are requesting that the council adopt uh this resolution.

This concludes my report, and we are happy to answer any questions.

Excellent.

Um, thank you.

Um, I do have uh just a couple questions, but colleagues, um, 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, Mrs.

Sada and Ralph Kant.

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, uh 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 uh dumping, you don't see it.

You go in other parts, it's never kept uh Bancroft is a good example.

When you look at these gardens that we have, these uh community gardens, you go in some gardens, well kept.

Some gardens got weeds all over.

Okay, stormwater areas, right there at uh what was uh bunch.

Uh they have, oh god, don't get me started on bunch, but you have right across the street open space where if Estus 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 uh 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 in 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 privileged, like Montclair, Rock Ridge, Timmercell, Diamond, Oakland Hills, so forth.

Good afternoon, Ralph Cannes.

Uh I want to talk about a little 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 of 2024 for them to give input on the general plan update.

There's other people who have long time in the city who tried to get on that committee and we're not allowed.

And I think this one staff comment on September 8th 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.

Thank you for your comment.

That concludes your public speaker for item.

Excellent.

Thank you.

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 1425, um, you know, cities were required to implement uh this um as of January of 2026.

Yeah, first of 2026.

And so at this time um you all are requesting a two-year extension.

Were you able to gain insight into if other cities are um also asking for the same extension?

Um so uh, yeah.

I've been able to reach out to some of my colleagues and uh the state just released their technical advisory or technical guidance on how cities can confirm to SB 1425, but as far as uh to my knowledge, uh none of the cities have reached out to the state requesting an extension.

I see.

And so on that note, um uh 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 spring of 2027.

So that's the project.

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

So um, yes, excellent.

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

Yes, okay, excellent.

Um, sounds good.

Um, any other questions or comments?

Um, 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 councilmember Unger, to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the November is November 4th, 2025 special city council agenda at 9 a.m.

on consent.

On roll, council member five.

Aye.

Thank you.

Noting council member five present at 1 38 p.

PM.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Unger.

I and Chair Brown.

Aye.

The motion passes what four I'm to approve the recommendation of staff and afford this item to the November to 4th, 2025 special city council agenda on consent at 9 a.m.

Moving to item 4.

Conduct a public conduct a study session to what 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 to 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 against Brown and members of the CD committee.

My name is Lakshmi Rajkopalin.

And today I'm joined by my colleagues BB Legado and Laura Kominski and our technical consultant on 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 uh consolidated feedback.

Can we have the presentation up, please?

Okay, 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 uh discussion point today, the options report, followed by uh 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, Lakshmi.

Good afternoon, Chair Brown and members of the committee.

Uh I'm Bibi Lagarder.

I'm a planner two on the strategic planning team.

Um so while many of you are familiar with the general plan and Lakshmi did just give a brief overview in her 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 it's 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 fall of 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.

Um building on what we heard from the community in phase one.

We kicked off phase uh citywide engagement for phase two in fall of 2024, and we have continued through early summer 2025.

Um that first round of engagement focused on the big quiz, 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 30th, the general plan team shared a report with big picture ideas for how Oakland could grow and stabilize over the next 25 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.

Um, 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 30th through September 24th of 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 of the options is not fixed.

No one needs is being asked to choose one option over the others and said 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 impact the elements in phase two.

So throughout the process, we've built on the community's vision and guiding principles, which we 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 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 advisors, 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 Masters 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 from a deeply personal place.

I was raised in an immigrant refugee household and have family who are formally 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 plans 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 2020 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 been I've had the opportunity to engage with uh 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 community and the fable communities are informed, heard, and represented.

Through this work, um, we've built trust, uh, fostered dialogue, and gathered valuable feedback that reflects priorities of um 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 uh and actually want to see in their community and what the city thinks we need to see, slash want to see.

Um seeing within the books um currently isn't what changes Oaklanders have been saying that they've needed.

Um, we want to ensure that can that their concerns and needs are actually heard and set into motion by the city as a born and raised Oaklander, uh, 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.

Um I'm proud to be a part of the process that uplifts youth voices and community perspective, 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.

Uh, my name is Isenda Trujillo Jr.

And I am honored here to be speaking as part of the youth fellows with deeply rooted collaborative and urban strategies.

Um 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 Fruitville District, which we resides in District 5, and my experiences 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 on our city.

The departure of several sports, the departure of several sports teams have left a significant culture 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 and 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.

Um this map on the screen is just a brief summary of the engagement that we have done so far in phase two.

I just want to note that there's a clustering of events around uh downtown.

This is due to a number of virtual events that we've uh organized.

Um, and these were all we need an address on the map, and so those are all based at uh 250 Franco Gawa Plaza.

This map uh will, if it's not already up on our website, it will be there soon, is interactive, and we hope that you uh check it as it will be updated regularly.

I'll now hand things off to Lakshmi.

So um, so I'll go into a little bit more detail on the options uh report itself.

So um as BB mentioned, the options report provides three big picture ideas that all build on a shared uh 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 uh 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, um, what's shared across all options is uh all options assume that our jobs and housing will be added across the city, especially in downtown, you know, near the Coliseum and along major transit corridors and around batch 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 multi-unit housing types, accessory dwelling units, and neighborhood commercials added over time, commercial uses added over time.

For employment, the baseline supports existing job uh center 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 RD.

So the options report also includes uh potential like illustrations of projects that are currently underway.

Uh, 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, uh the key differences are where uh 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 Oaklanders' 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 uh jobs by folk by adding jobs in these neighborhood centers, but also creating three new proposing to create three new RD 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 last mile connections, safer streets, greener sidewalks, and crosswalks.

Again, similar to what was shared in the baseline option, A also provides like potential illustrations of what if option A was implemented could look like.

So you this is uh in Laurel, and it shows uh housing, high density residential that's facing the street, a centrally located gathering spaceslash plaza, integrating public art in uh developments and uh safer straight streets.

This is another illustration for potential RD district, and as you can see from here, the uh live work facility is uh preserved, but it also incorporates West Oakland Link, which is the uh pedestrian bike pathway that's MTC led.

Option B is connected corridors and gateways, and that reflects uh Oakland's 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 um more housing and jobs would support frequent bus service and local businesses along these corridors, and for jobs, jobs are uh for employment, jobs are not only added along the corridors, but the proposed option B proposes to add two new RD centers, one in West Oakland, a slightly larger one in the ports and port business park area.

And for parks and open space, uh the option B proposes to add uh new parks for 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 uh protected bike lanes and a bus-only lane and a greening along these corridors.

And uh similar to option A, this is another potential illustration of uh how our redevelopment could look along Hegenburger Road.

So option C is the midtown waterfront district, and it proposes um 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 the central estuary.

And for employment, uh, this option proposes creating three new RD 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 uh future BART connection.

And that's reflected uh in Link 21.

So yeah, so this uh option C could start.

Uh the this San Antonio Transit Hub could start as a bus or shuttle service, connecting downtown Brooklyn Basin and the new estuary neighborhood and connecting botch stations with the possibility of bringing uh becoming a new botch station over time.

And this is consistent with the options explored in Link 21.

So as BB mentioned, uh, once uh we receive feedback from the CD committee today, we will be uh we've received uh we've done over 65 community engagement events across the city.

We will be synthesizing that feedback and uh highlighting uh reflecting all the recommendations that came out of it into the draft land use framework, and we are hoping to publish that in uh early 2026, 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 uh the foundation for developing the elements and the policies and uh in spring 2027, we are hoping to bring it to you for final adoption.

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

Thank you.

Excellent.

Um, okay, thank you so much.

Um 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 uh Zoom.

John Dari Ample.

Excuse me if I mispronounced your last name, EJ Sire, Isaac Cosreed, David C.

Ralston, Mrs.

Sarah, and Ralph Cannes.

If you heard your name, please make your way to the podium, state your name for the record.

You do have one minute.

Ms.

Brown, you know I'm gonna be here all day.

There's a young lady came too late.

Can I please give them a 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.

Um I wanted to just bring to your attention if you haven't seen it, because I know it goes to the um general planning staff, our comment letter.

Um, we submitted one CBE and then members of the East Oakland Community Steering Committee, the AB617 submitted one as well.

And so the primary talking points are that we hope that this general plan redresses the environmental and racial injustices uh in the future planning inter iterations in compliance with environmental review and fair housing obligations.

Second, um, we want to discuss the failure to consider the environmental impact of RD centers in EJ communities like East Oakland and West Oakland, um, specifically because we have stimular hazards already in East Oakland, such as the Oakland Airport, the AB and I foundry remediation and heavy industrial polluters.

Uh third, please review um our letter that I mentioned at start, which we can share again.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm here for the Alameda County Building Construction Trade Unions.

About two thousand families in Oakland.

One of the things about this report is it as was mentioned, it's gonna out of this is going to uh you're gonna drive policy um initiatives are gonna be derived.

Um our concern is that though they talk about job that when the discussion about jobs and projected jobs, there's no mention of the construction trades and jobs that are gonna be enabled but that are going to be generated out of this general plan, which we estimate between 20 and 25,000, which makes it the biggest second biggest potential job growth in the city.

Um 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.

Uh, 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 it and we say it out loud, we will not have the policies.

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 Sire.

I'm with Shima Workers Local 104 as well as well as the Oakland-based community-based organization, uh 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 uh engagement program.

And within Oakland right 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.

Um, 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 Sheetmetal Workers Local 104 as well as other crafts.

Um, 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 want to offer those pathways, but unless if we have 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 not in council member five absent at 2 13 p.m.

Thank you.

We have a minute.

Okay.

Good afternoon, uh, council members.

Uh David Ralston.

I am speaking as a resident interested in the thriving, livable, equitable, equitable Oakland.

I'm also speaking as somebody who served 15 years as a city planning and urban economic analyst staff for the city, and I'm also speaking as a um current chairperson for the um bicyclist pedestrian advisory commission who's been working on the general plan.

First of all, uh strong commendation to city staff for their efforts on this effort.

Um what I want to point out is as we talk about a 20-year vision for the city, a green R and B R and D center, that's beautiful.

We also need to think about the context of what's going to support that what that's going to 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 want to highlight though is the 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 ECAP, EONI.

Thank you for putting on the map.

And um, we appreciate your bold leadership in this opportunity that we have before us.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Isaac Cross Reed speaking as a district two resident, uh, as a parks and recognition advisory commission member as well as an advocate for many organizations and nonprofits uh across the city.

Um several quick comments on the the plan.

This is the third presentation I've been a part of of the many that they've had.

And uh I I would echo some of the previous comments.

We we need to focus on jobs in 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 tremendous waterfront.

The port also is not just active on sea and on air and land they also have an energy a utility that generates something like eight percent 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 and I think it's important we don't spread our resources too thinly yes we're always going to be a city of neighborhoods but we've got to 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 Cannes.

Um just looking at the maps you're shown I live in East Oakland but DP Stokeland still looks like it's not represented the way it needs to be um 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 and 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 though save the Oakland Star tulip they didn't get saved.

They got trashed it was a complete failure.

You have a complete a failure at the Oakland Zoo.

I can name project after project there's been a failure endangered species 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 um thank you so much um colleagues any questions or comments uh council member unger.

Yes I do have some questions um 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 you can so all projects have to so uh we have standard conditions of approval that uh come out of uh the general plan and also um our zoning um 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 con standard conditions of approval that addressed uh air pollution also the kind of air filtration uh um specifications that new construction bill um needs to be included so that is included as part of our standard conditions of approval okay and you know the 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 um capacity as staff if I may read staff money so the general plan is a long range document and it kind of sets the vision for how the city should continue to stabilize and grow and what we are seeing right now is uh 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 uh not just identifying departments that are responsible but also potential funding um mechanisms and we understand that things will keep shifting and changing but having these uh like the options are just three big picture ideas, right?

So the draft land use framework will then set the 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 it would it be possible to just sort of there's 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 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?

Please.

Yeah, I think what we're 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 and you know we can't, you know, stop people from moving here, so we need to look at how can we accommodate that, and it's also something part of our alloc re-allocation 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?

Um, 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 RD areas is that, you know, we know by working with our consultant and economic analysis that we've heard is that if you want to track that type of development, um, there needs to be a certain square footage or acreage of land that's together because um the RD industries usually like to be in sort of a like a park or 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, which will be part of this, which is implementing uh this um 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 uh 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 I do think it's really important that we cognize 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 want to create that we want to 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.

Councilmember Rami Chandrain.

Thank you.

Just echoing that last point.

Um, currently in the plan, is there anything about local hire?

So where we are right now, Councilman, Chair Brown, we are still in the really three big picture ideas.

So we haven't gotten down to the uh level of actions, and even the actions will not will provide some kind of direction to another city department to explore, for example, local hiring policies, for example.

And the EJ element already includes some policies about uh jobs growth, um, I guess uh incubator, uh incubator kind of uh 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.

So yeah, these are so there'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 out, it could be a mix of all of these three or some of some features in all of these three.

That would be in uh 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.

Um you mentioned RD industry and business parks as an example.

Um, apart from construction, obviously, when it comes to building, you know, substantially more housing.

Are there other industries that are 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?

Um, yeah, so we are looking at you know other types of uh green industrial jobs as well as you know you know, even um you know other types of office, you know, jobs that may be, you know, still yeah, I think one of the things to look at is um as we can see right now, as an example in San Francisco, the AI is really becoming uh a huge uh 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 um same companies end up coming to Oakland as well.

So we want to keep um looking at all potential um new jobs and different shifts that can be happening over the years.

Um and this is we are working with uh I can economists uh as well to be helping with that information as well as our economic and development uh department is helping with that also.

Awesome.

Um I think director Gilchrist also has his hand up.

William Mill.

Yes, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah, and thank you.

And and uh Chair Brown and may please the committee.

Uh and I regret I can't be there in person today, but I have been monitoring the entire meeting.

And this is a very robust engagement along the type that we had wanted.

Uh and to uh just address um some of the comments that I've been picking up uh 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 uh the suggestions you have, we will have a chance to look at uh in the context of the work that's been done to date.

And uh the other thing to bear in mind with a 20-year horizon, we know how much the world can change in five years these days.

So one of the things we also want to 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 might be in the context of the economy and the context of demography and the context of um 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 spring of 2027.

Uh, we are really looking to springboard this kind of engagement to work with um 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.

Uh the the repeated comments about prioritizing strategies, absolutely.

We've got to think about how this is going to 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.

Uh wish I could be there, but this is a very, very um hopeful engagement in terms of us making the best of this opportunity.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Did you have any more comments?

All right.

Well, first off, I wanted to make sure that I um uh gave my appreciation to the climate fellows that were able to um engage on this project, really grateful for all of your work, um, and also for the the public speakers that showed up to just really express um and and give us feedback, right?

Cause that's really where we are in the process.

Um, so I'm not sure if K-Top is um available, but I did want to pull up the slides again, and I wanted to pull up the the map that represents option B.

Um, and I just kind of had um 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 uh what you know what we are doing specifically to ensure that there are positive investments made in East Oakland um and in and around transit.

I I think that would be something else that I would continue to to emphasize, um also just making sure we're being mindful of um any uh, you know, so many of our local communities are taking into consideration sea level rise.

So I just wanna also put that um also on the radar.

Um in addition, um I believe that the report um shared out um you know, per scenario, what type of jobs would be added.

Um I do think that the feedback was really great around um making sure we're adding um 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, um, as we're looking at options A, B, and C, um, I feel there's much alignment between both options A and B, um, and seeing how we can uh create something um kind of that's a mix between both of those two.

Um and then lastly, um I did have a um, oh yes, and then the other thing I wanted to mention is um I guess I'm curious how we are, as we're generating this very specific plan, how are we integrating the um like for example?

I serve on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, um, 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 um kind of uh helps to support what we want in this general plan, but then also where we're getting support of some of these other agencies, especially especially since we know that you know the finances of the city may, you know, we want to make sure we get all the support as possible.

So just kind of wanted to also put that on the radar and if you had anything you wanted to say to that.

Um so um we do have so the General Plan Advisory Committee is made up of both the technical advisory committee and a community advisory subcommittee.

And the technical advisory committee does have representatives from, for example, East Bay Park, Regional Parks District, BART, AC Transit, the Port.

So we have been in very close uh discussions and we've been reviewing their at for business park vision as well, and they are providing feedback to us.

So we are engaging with uh the key stakeholders uh who work with the city, but also within the city, like internal city departments.

But uh if there are any agencies like AC, I think ACTC is also on the GPAC.

Uh but Ava Community Energy, I can check back, and if they are missing, I we can definitely set up something and uh make sure that uh we are getting their feedback as well.

Excellent.

That sounds good.

And then I also wanted to acknowledge that um communities for a better environment um also gave comment and so really want to make sure that we engage with with them as they are doing um amazing work relative to AB617 and making sure we're centering East Oakland communities.

Um 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 um collating 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.

Um that sounds good.

And I guess lastly, um I know Councilmember Unger mentioned he wanted to be engaged in the process.

Um, what's your recommendation for all of the council members to really um be engaged on this?

Like what type of follow-up would you would you like?

So uh 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.

Uh but yeah.

Yeah, we can also have follow-up briefings with you as well to so you can also um know um yes, and 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.

Um so I believe for this item.

If there's any other questions or comments, okay.

Um so I believe for this item we would just be um the motion would be just to receive and file.

Excellent.

Um 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.

Councilmember wife is excused.

Councilmember Omachadron.

Aye.

Councilmember Onger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with three ayes, one excuse five.

Thank you.

To receive and file this in the community economic development committee.

Moving to item five, this item which has four pieces of legislation does require an 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.

Uh was that the urgency finding okay.

I'll make the motion second.

Okay.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Unger.

To approve the urgency finding.

I would now read the item unroll.

Excuse me, Councilmember Fife is excused.

Councilmember Ramachandra.

Aye.

Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with three ayes and one excuse five to approve the urgency finding.

I will now read the item into record.

Adopt the following pieces of legislation.

First legislation, a root a resolution amending and restating resolution number 90640 CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for accept and appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner under the California Department of Housing and Community Development's home key program for the Mark Twain Homes project at 3525 through 3539 Lion Avenue and the amount not to exceed 35 million and related California Environmental Quality Act Findings.

A resolution amending and restating resolution number 90642 CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for except and appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner under California Department of Housing Home Key Program for the 34th and San Pablo Affordable Housing Project at 3419 through 3431.

San Pablo Avenue and the amount not to exceed 35 million dollars, making related SQL findings and three third resolution, a resolution amending resolution restating resolution number 90643 CMS authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for, accept and 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 47 15 Telegraph Avenue for the amount not to exceed eight 8.5 million and sequel act findings and the last piece of legislation is a resolution authorizing the city of Oakland to apply for, except and appropriate funds as a local agency joint partner and the California Department of Housing and Community Development's home key for 3135 San Pablo Affordable Housing Project 31 at 3135 San Pablo and 967 32nd Street any amount not to exceed 13 million as SQL finding and you do have one speaker for this item.

Alright, um excellent.

Is there someone from staff?

Hello.

Yes, we have uh three resolutions.

There's these are um re-amended and restated resolutions to our three previous past resolutions that we we are requesting to apply and um accept funds from the home key Plus program.

We've already um applied to these three programs or uh three projects, and then the fourth resolution is uh requesting authorization to apply um to a new home key plus um for a new home key plus application, and um that that's that's really all we're just trying to apply to these to for these um to the state for these awards.

Excellent.

Um 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.

The three amended and restated resolutions.

Yes, we needed to um amend uh minor edits to from home key to home key plus and then the fourth resolution that did not come through um previous council, so that's a new resolution with the with also with the requested edits from the state.

Excellent, thank you so much.

Any um questions or comments, colleagues?

And do we have any public speakers?

Yes, we can take the public speakers.

Thank you.

Call in and our public speakers for item five, Ms.

Asada.

Okay, so these um three projects are located in Gallo Unger and Fife district.

So how are we working to create a uh a balance of using home key funds and all of the districts, particularly so far with the total that you gave of home key projects in the report?

Districts six, five, four, 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 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, or even are you even considering it at all, is my concern?

That concludes your public speakers for item five.

All right, um, thank you so much.

Um, so if there's no um questions or comments, um I'll just entertain a motion.

Second, thank you.

We have motion made by Councilmember Ramachandra, seconded by council member onger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward all pieces of legislation to the November 4, 2025 special city council agenda, and that is on consent on roll.

Councilmember five is excused, Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Councilmember Unger.

I and Chair Brown.

Aye.

The motion passes with three ayes, one excuse five to approve the recommendations of staff and to for all pieces of legislation to the November 4th special city council agenda on consent at 9 a.m.

Moving to item six adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to forgive three million in outstanding principal and six six hundred and sixty one thousand and forty-two in accrued interest owed by the East Bay Highland Farms to LP for the Highland Farms property and five million outstanding principal and one million ninety-four thousand four hundred and ninety dollars in accrued interest owed to the East Bay Capital Fund to LP for the East Lake 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 um 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.

Call in our public speakers.

How Sue.

And Ms.

Asada.

Why is being withdrawn?

Uh you don't answer me.

Please.

You don't answer me.

So you will you are recommending or somebody's recommending to forgive three million dollars.

That the East Bay Highland.

I don't know who this is.

The EBA East Bay Asian something group is supposed to have the inability to come up with this three million dollars.

And they've been managing this property, but the property has had issues related to uh maintenance related to uh repairs costs and market shifts.

So I don't understand why you doing this.

Why are you doing this?

Allowing them to do that.

Now the property issue, 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 uh people are living and they tell me they don't have proper plumbing, the pain 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 uh allow them to give three million.

If they owe three million, 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 that I this I this item will be res uh rescheduled during rules, but it will come back to CED where we will receive a presentation on it.

So, um, that's it right.

Thank you.

Moving to item seven.

Does anyone know how I pull up the PowerPoint?

I will now read the item into record.

Adopt the resolution, authorizing the city administrator to negotiate and execute a transient occupants occupancy tax chair and 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 2026 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 um Director Kenneth, and I believe there's a PowerPoint um presentation.

Excellent, thank you.

And I think I control it here.

So my name's Ashley Canett, Director of Economic and Workforce Development, and World Cup is coming.

World Cup is coming to the 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 going to be played between June 11th and July 19th of 2026.

Here in the Bay Area, the games will be played at Levi Stadium, specifically June 13th through July 1st.

And we're here today because the Oakland Roots and Soul Soccer Club is competing to be selected as a team base camp.

What that means is that they would um a team participating in World Cup would use the Roots and Soul facility as a place to practice.

Um and they would be participating in local events, watch parties, and they generate a lot of activity for the um for 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 um can experience up to 30,000 hotel room nights and between 60,000 and 80,000 visitors.

That equates to about 25 million to 33 million dollars in expenditures during the course of the tournament.

So the roots and soul, 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, etc.

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 to 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 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, we would also expect to see an increase in visitor activity, additional sales tax revenue, etc.

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 is 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 soul.

Again, we're not worse off than we were in June of 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, there are a whole host of other expenses like 24-7 security, staffing, specialized staffing, et cetera.

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 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 53083.

And the next regularly scheduled public hearing is December 2nd, 2025.

And with that, that includes my presentation, but I'd like to invite the president of Oakland Roots and Soul, Lindsay Barrens, to add a few additional comments if that's okay with the chair.

Thank you, Chair Baron 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 a billion dollars 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 million dollars of spending in that community.

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 these this visiting country.

In 1994, Los Gados 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 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 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've very appreciative of your time.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Ramachandrin.

Thank you.

As when as a co-sponsor of this item, I just want to 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.

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.

It's a really exciting possibility to have tens of thousands of people 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 the kind of capping it at that 300,000.

And we certainly hope it's going to 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.

Um so I know a lot of work's been done on this, and 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.

Uh Councilmember Unger.

I I just want to thank you for doing the work to de-risk this uh substantially for the city of Oakland rather than just making it be a grant.

Appreciate it.

Yep, likewise.

Um, really appreciative um of the leadership of our EWD team and my colle colleagues.

I know originally it was Councilmember Ramachandran and Councilmember Gaio that were we're seeking to bring this forth.

Um, and just super grateful to um I think my learning and my understanding of how great like the the FIFA World Cup is um has really um helped build momentum for me.

Um, and so I'm super excited and I I'm hopeful that Oakland um will be selected.

Um and so as for the details of the the legislation, I think one uh piece that I was interested in is um just uh and I know I had discussed this, um, which is uh making sure that the council actually can receive uh informational report, um, you know, come fall 2026 on the status of this.

And so I wanted to, if it's all right, I wanted to read on the record um the um addition to the resolution that I wanted to add.

It says um that if FIFA designates the roots and soul training facility in Alameda as team uh 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.

Um hopefully this date is correct, um, October 31st, 2026.

Um, well, it should come to CED.

So October 20th, 2026.

So that would just be my only um addition to this item.

So um happy to make the motion to move it forward.

Point of clarification is that to CED or to city council?

Uh CED first.

Thank you.

Yeah, second.

Oh, C D be October 13th, 2026.

13th.

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.

Joss Jasmine, Josephine Guzman, Ms.

Asada, and Lindsay Barrens.

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 Stoll.

The chamber has continued to collaborate with roots and seoul um 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 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This would bring positive international attention to market Oakland as a boosting economic activity across Oakland, and we encourage your support for this proposal as we take another step uh 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 supports uh arts, culture, and attractions, police fire services.

So you are taking money that's intended for services that could be used that if you want to talk about the art and soul program that uh festival we haven't been here able to have for two years, or you want to talk about the JS 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 seem 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 uh increase 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 gonna 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, take have to take a hit so that they can play soccer and get the benefits of it.

And you got a uh I think it's Instagram video going on saying 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 watching that.

Did the chair can you please uh restate your motion with the amendments to CED, not to council, am I correct?

Yes, to CED October the 13th, 2026.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Ramachandran to approve as amended the recommendations of the staff to forward this item to the November 4th special city council agenda on consent with the amendment with the amendments as follows.

Sorry, uh can I make a friendly amendment to sending it to the December meeting?

Because the November 4th 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 exactly the sorry, the December 2nd regularly scheduled meeting, please.

Okay, yeah, happy happy to have it at the the best, you know, 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 council member brown, seconded by councilmember Ramachandran to approve as a method recommendations of staff for this item to the December 2nd City Council agenda on consent with the amendments as follows as a public hearing, excuse me, with the amendments as follows to the resolution out of the information report on the outcome of the TOT sharing agreement to be shared on the October 13th community and economic development committee meeting on 2026.

Excuse me.

On roll council member Fife is excused, Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Council Member Onger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

The motion passes with three ayes, one excuse to approve as amended the recommendations of staff and afforded it until the December 2nd 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, Mr.

Sada.

If you can we stop using the term BIPOT, 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 uh management over two thousand pieces of property in this city, and you have never had a report from the Oakland Housing Authority.

They are in charge of public housing, and they're in charge of what is has in the past been called Section 8.

We don't know what the hell they're doing.

But that's your 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 have all you supposedly have Omar former accountable on the police commission.

Have them come here and tell us what they're doing with HUD, Section 8, and the properties that they manage in this city.

That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

All right.

Um, thank you so much, um, colleagues, members, members of the public.

This meeting is adjourned.