What:  City Council Meeting to discuss what happens in the event the Vice Mayor temporarily becomes Mayor because the Mayor's office is vacant
When: October 30, 2001
Time:   7 p.m.
Place:  City Hall, 14th and Broadway, Oakland (City Council Chambers)

Background:
There is a scenario floating around in Oakland that Mayor Jerry Brown will stand for re-election in March 2002, will serve two years, then seek election to the Senate seat now held by Barbara Boxer.  Under this scenario, the Oakland City Council would appoint State Senator Don Perata to serve out Mayor Brown's remaining two year term.  Current City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente would then take State Senator Don Perata's seat in the State Senate.  State Senator Don Perata would be barred by term limits from seeking another term in the Senate when his term expires in 2004.  This is why he is reportedly interested in leap frogging into the Oakland Mayor's seat.

I asked Mayor Brown if this was true.  He said:  "What's wrong with that?  I don't have a problem with that."

Neither State Senator Don Perata nor City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente has been a friend to JLNA (to put it mildly).  In addition, my personal thought is that the people of Oakland should elect our mayor.  The mayor should not be appointed by eight city council members who may not be thinking about the people's interests as much as their own individual aspirations.

City Council Meeting Agenda
On Tuesday, October 30, 2001, the City Council will discuss an issue related to filling mayor vacancies.  The city council is not, however, scheduled to discuss the exact issue.

There is however a movement in Oakland to try to change the City Charter to change the way mayor vacancies are filled.  This movement would change the City Charter to allow the people to fill mayor vacancies by special election rather the current system of city council appointment.

The City's Charter currently states that Mayor vacancies shall be filled by the City Council appointing a person to fill a mayor vacancy.  The City Charter also states that until the city council fills the vacancy, the City's Vice Mayor (who is also selected by the City Council from among the City Council members) acts as mayor temporarily.

At the October 30th meeting, the City Council will discuss what will happen to the vice-mayor's city council seat, when the vice-mayor temporarily becomes mayor.  This, of course, is a tangential issue and not the issue that is most important to many people

What You Can Do
There will be a group of people at the October 30, 2001 meeting who will ask that the City Council put an item on the City Council agenda ASAP that would result in a March 2002 ballot initiative that would change the City Charter to require mayor vacancies be filled by election rather than City Council appointment. They would like JLNA members to come to the meeting to show support, state their opinion on the issue.

As an organization seeking 501 (c) (3) status, JLNA cannot and will not take a position on this issue.  JLNA will inform its members about the issue and leave it to individual members to take whatever action they deem appropriate.

This grassroots group is pushing to have the issue put on the March 2002 ballot to change the relevant City Charter provision.  If the measure is to appear on the March 2002 ballot, the City Council must act before the December 7, 2001 deadline for March 2002 ballot measures.

Council members Nancy Nadel (JLNA's council member representative) and Dick Spees (District 4) are trying to get the initiative on the ballot.  The remaining council members have not supported the ballot measure.

If you would like to express an opinion on the matter but cannot attend the City Council meeting, you may contact city council members as follows:

Who to Write or Call
Jane  Brunner   238-7001    jbrunner@oaklandnet.com
Danny Wan   238-7002    dwan@oaklandnet.com
Nancy Nadel 238-7003    nnadel@oaklandnet.com
Richard (Dick) Spees 238-7004 dspees@oaklandnet.com
Ignacio De La Fuente    238-7005 idelafuente@oaklandnet.com
Moses Mayne 238-7006    mmayne@oaklandnet.com
Larry E. Reid   238-7007 lreid@oaklandnet.com
Henry Chang 238-7008    hchang@oaklandnet.com

You can fax any of the council members at (510) 238-6129.

More council member contact information, and city council meeting agendas and reports, can be found at: http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/government25.html

Parking Update
JLNA President Wilda White once again asked Mayor Jerry Brown to enforce the law against parking on traditional sidewalks. Mayor Brown responded once again that the neighborhood desired parking on traditional sidewalks. When I reminded the Mayor that the great majority of the neighborhood did not favor parking on traditional sidewalks, Mayor Brown said that he would have to come to some type of meeting to hear that from the neighborhood.

I think convening a meeting for such a purpose is inefficient. I suggest that anyone who has an opinion about the issue of parking on traditional sidewalks convey that opinion to Mayor Brown via e-mail or snail mail.

The best e-mail address to reach Mayor Brown is jb@jerrybrown.org.
Mayor Brown's mailing address is:

The Honorable Jerry Brown
City of Oakland Mayor
City Hall
1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Third Floor
Oakland, CA 94612

Thank you for your interest.

-o0o-


Neighborhood Height Limits
On October 17, 2001 at 4 p.m., the Design Review Committee of the Planning Commission convened a public hearing to solicit public input about whether there should be height limits on new construction in the Jack London District. The Jack London District is the area below Fifth Street bounded by Adeline and Oak Streets.

JLNA Secretary Jane Lawhon and JLNA Zoning Committee Chair John Dalal attended the meeting on behalf of Jack London Neighborhood Association. Their mission was to show up, take good notes, submit a written report to the Design Review Committee on behalf of JLNA, and report back to JLNA members. (If you have questions about this strategy, please talk to JLNA President Wilda White). Their report follows. I think they did an excellent job.

-oOo-

October 17, 2001 4 p.m.
Dimond Conference Room, 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Third Floor Case file# ZS 01-360
Subject: Study Session to consider research establishing maximum building height limits in the Jack London District

The Oakland Planning Commission Design Review Committee consists of Planning Commissioners Colland Jang (licensed architect), Glen Jarvis (licensed architect), and Michael Lighty (Director of Administration for the California Nurses Association). Each is a Mayor Jerry Brown appointee, although Glen Jarvis was first appointed by Elihu Harris and reappointed by Mayor Jerry Brown

The purpose of the public hearing was to get input from the public to relay to the City Council Community and Economic Development (CED) committee when the CED committee considers height limits at its November 6 meeting (10:30 a.m. Hearing Room One, City Hall).

The Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) staff report on whether there should be height limits in the Jack London District made no recommendation and instead laid out the height limit approaches of various waterfront cities.

As usual, the CEDA staff report had lots of errors. The errors were all in the direction of overstating the heights of existing Jack London District buildings. The report acknowledged that the Jack London District has two historic districts which could be impacted by a lack of height limits. The CEDA staff report also reiterated the City of Oakland’s ongoing effort to proceed as if on-site parking is excluded from the calculation of maximum permitted floor area ratio (FAR). Oakland's General Plan expressly includes on-site parking in the calculation of maximum permitted floor area ratio (FAR)

JLNA was the only neighborhood association present in the standing room only crowd. JLNA was also the only voice generally in favor of height limits. JLNA testified that it would be submitting comments in writing but pointed out that a historic preservation architect must be consulted before establishing height limits or deciding not to establish height limits within the two Jack London District historic districts. JLNA also submitted for the record JLNA’s extensive analysis of why the City of Oakland may not now redefine FAR to exclude parking. JLNA first submitted this analysis at the August 8, 2001 planning commission hearing when the City was considering adopting a new guideline to change the definition of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) to exclude on-site parking from the calculation. After JLNA submitted the FAR analysis at the August 8, 2001 hearing, the CEDA staff asked the Planning Commission to give staff until September 19, 2001 to respond in writing to JLNA's analysis. To date, the CEDA staff has not responded at all, in writing or otherwise.

Excluding JLNA, nine people, including four developers, two property owners in the area west of Broadway, and the Director of Commercial Real Estate for the Port of Oakland, spoke at the hearing. With the exception of Steve Lowe (who asked that the Estuary Policy Advisory committee be reconvened to address the threat of piecemeal development), the rest of the speakers agreed that height limits are undesirable and would "stifle creative development." Several developers echoed the sentiment that the Jack London District is a unique resource for Oakland and the region. They argued that a height limit would result in all the new buildings being built to that maximum with a loss of vibrancy and variety. Sandra Threlfall, who claims to have been active in citizens’ waterfront groups, said she was opposed to height limits except in the historic districts -- the Oakland Waterfront Warehouse District (OWWD) and the Produce Market District. Several speakers argued that FAR is a better, more flexible approach to limiting intensity of development than height limits. The property owners west of Broadway again argued that the FAR for that area is too low.

Commissioner Lighty emphasized that preserving/creating public access to the water’s edge is crucial and that the City’s scheme needs to foster excellence in architecture and urban planning. He acknowledged that he had initially thought height limits were not necessary but that the intensity of development in the historic areas has created a problem that needs serious consideration. He now views it as an "open question" whether height limits are necessary in the historic districts, i.e., the OWWD and the Produce Market District. Lighty also acknowledged that the issue of how FAR is defined (whether it includes or excludes parking) has to be resolved to give developers certainty in planning. Lighty said he was sympathetic to the view that the proposed development at 2d and Broadway is not appropriate because it is so tall (196 feet proposed).

Commissioner Jarvis agreed that open space was the highest priority for the water side of the Embarcadero and the area should be made pedestrian friendly with low scale development. Jarvis said he "did not believe in height limits except perhaps for the historic districts." He thinks Broadway should have really high buildings all the way down to the Embarcadero and establish a "spine" of tall buildings defining it as a main street. He agreed with the West Oakland business owners that the FAR between Clay and Adeline should be higher without ever acknowledging that increasing the FAR would require an amendment to the General Plan, a lengthy and expensive process.

Commissioner Jang said he agreed with Jarvis that there should be no height limits and said nothing about making any exceptions for historic districts. He also said he supported using FAR to give developers maximum flexibility and did not acknowledge, unlike Lighty, that the City is on a course headed to litigation with respect to how FAR is defined.

Leslie Gould, the Director of City Planning, emphasized that her CEDA staff was not taking recommendations from the Commissioners and that it would be up to the City Council when they heard the report to decide whether to do anything more about height limits. They may ask staff to do more research or to develop recommendations.

In her summary, Gould said that based on the 10 speakers at the October 17, 2001 4 p.m. hearing, that "the public", with the exception of JLNA and Steve Lowe, would be happy if the City dropped the whole idea of height limits.

That gives JLNA work to do.

Respectfully submitted,
M. Jane Lawhon, Secretary John Dalal, Chair, JLNA Zoning Committee