6/14 Planning Commission presentation has dropped. There are two new items, and one returning item worth discussion.
1.
A new sign permit for Oxford Centre downtown. Looks like a PWC logo. Meh.
2.
Residential conversion for 1 Market Street. I believe
this building has been used for offices up until now. There's very little information here, but it seems like it will be a 5-unit project, with each floor an entire two-bedroom unit. The first floor will remain a commercial storefront.
The big news though is
the return of the Oakland Plan. The presentation is quite long, and I won't go into the non-zoning changes. A few zoning changes were made however. These are:
1. A small section of Central Oakland north of Louisa between Atwood and Meyran was changed from UC-E to R-MU. This is a downgrade in density/height limits, but probably for the best since UC-E continues to ban almost all residential uses, and the block is entirely residential right now. Honestly this should have been extended a few blocks further.
2. Two areas had maximum heights dropped (though not heights by right). The area zoned UC-E south of Forbes will now have a max height of 120 (as 210) and the UC-MU area around Boulevard of the Allies west of Bates will have a max height of 120 (was 185).
3. A number of bad. There will be minimal surface parking allowed with larger residential buildings zoned UC-MU (up to 10 spaces), and the requirement that garages become convertible to other uses was eliminated. In addition, affordable housing is exempted from EV parking requirements.
4. The absolutely terrible decision to ban new residential from UC-E (the core of Oakland) unless 100% affordable or less than 50% of the gross floor area of a mixed-use building remains in effect. Though at least various forms of housing for the elderly/assisted living are now included by right.