Features

Brunner Pulls Plug on Proposed North Oakland Redevelopment By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday September 16, 2005

Bowing to pressure from a well-organized opposition, Oakland Vice Mayor Jane Brunner has withdrawn her plan to expand an existing redevelopment district to include 800 acres immediately south of the Berkeley border. 

In an e-mail to constituents sent Tuesday, Bruner said that because “response to the proposal has been mixed ... I therefore have concluded that the current proposal does not have the kind of support that it would need to be successful. I have requested city staff to withdraw their proposal for expansion of the redevelopment area.” 

City staff had prepared a proposal which said the new district would bring in $196 million in additional revenues through tax increment funding which would funnel a total of $272 million into improvements in the district. 

The funding method would have fixed the share of property taxes going to local governments and schools at the current level and required the state to make up the estimated $120 million in school funding that would have otherwise been lost. 

Much of the money would have gone toward streetscape improvements and eminent domain buyouts of so-called blighted commercial properties to make way for new development. 

But the words “eminent domain” made neighbors nervous and skeptical of the city’s promise to target only run-down commercial property. The anxiety grew after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. the City of New London, which held that local governments can seize private property for private development if the project would benefit the public. 

That ruling galvanized opposition organized by neighborhood activists Bob Brokl and his companion Alfred Crofts, who turned out in force at an Aug. 28 meeting they organized in North Oakland. 

That meeting, attending by representatives of the several legislators and Oakland City Councilmember Nancy J. Nadel, brought together an unusual alliance of property rights libertarians like Orange Count Supervisor Chris Norby, anti-corporate progressives and residents and businesspeople who feared their homes and businesses were on the line. 

Nadel said she had “heard from a lot of people ... both at community meetings and here in the office.” 

While she said many were enthusiastic about the prospect of economic development, “many others are concerned about the impact of redevelopment on the General Fund and fearful about the potential for abuse of redevelopment powers.” 

She said the lack of a strong consensus led her to pull the plug.