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Oakland City Attorney Said Luxury Tower Deal Is Illegal
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/07/06/breaking-news-oakland-city-attorney-said-luxury-tower-deal-is-illegalOakland City Attorney Barbara Parker concluded earlier this year that the city council’s plan to sell an acre of city-owned land near Lake Merritt to the developer UrbanCore for construction of a luxury housing development is illegal under state law, according to a confidential legal opinion that was written by Parker and was obtained by the Express. But city councilmembers and city staffers have nonetheless ignored the opinion of the city’s official legal counsel and have pushed ahead with the controversial deal to build a 300-unit apartment tower. The second and final vote to enter into a contract to sell the public land to UrbanCore is scheduled for the July 7 council meeting.
As the Express first reported in April, critics of the proposed deal with UrbanCore have long contended that the process by which the city solicited bids was in violation of California’s Surplus Land Act — a law that requires municipalities to prioritize affordable housing on surplus property. And Parker, in her confidential legal opinion, came to the same conclusion.
Parker wrote in her February opinion that Oakland is required to offer the land, called the 12th Street Remainder Parcel, to local government agencies that plan to build affordable housing and to affordable housing developers before soliciting bids for the construction of market-rate housing on the site. And regardless of who develops the 12th Street Remainder Parcel, if the project contains more than ten units, a minimum of 15 percent of the units on the site must be affordable to low-income households. Neither of these legal requirements have been followed by the city council and city staffers, despite the fact that the city attorney explained the law to councilmembers five months ago in a closed session meeting.
According to the city attorney’s legal opinion, the City of Oakland transferred the 12th Street Remainder Parcel to the Oakland Redevelopment Agency in 2011. Redevelopment agencies were never subject to the requirements of the state Surplus Lands Act, therefore the Oakland Redevelopment Agency was not required to offer the site to affordable housing developers. This was traditionally how Oakland had side-stepped the Surplus Land Act’s requirements. The Redevelopment Agency then quietly solicited bids from several developers, including UrbanCore, for construction of market-rate housing in order to maximize the sale price of the land. UrbanCore proposed a 298-unit luxury apartment tower. But according to Parker’s legal memo, the dissolution of redevelopment by the state in February of 2012 meant that the 12th Street Remainder Parcel was transferred back to the city, and therefore any subsequent actions to offer the land for development would have to follow the Surplus Land Act’s requirements.
As the Express first reported in April, critics of the proposed deal with UrbanCore have long contended that the process by which the city solicited bids was in violation of California’s Surplus Land Act — a law that requires municipalities to prioritize affordable housing on surplus property. And Parker, in her confidential legal opinion, came to the same conclusion.
Parker wrote in her February opinion that Oakland is required to offer the land, called the 12th Street Remainder Parcel, to local government agencies that plan to build affordable housing and to affordable housing developers before soliciting bids for the construction of market-rate housing on the site. And regardless of who develops the 12th Street Remainder Parcel, if the project contains more than ten units, a minimum of 15 percent of the units on the site must be affordable to low-income households. Neither of these legal requirements have been followed by the city council and city staffers, despite the fact that the city attorney explained the law to councilmembers five months ago in a closed session meeting.
According to the city attorney’s legal opinion, the City of Oakland transferred the 12th Street Remainder Parcel to the Oakland Redevelopment Agency in 2011. Redevelopment agencies were never subject to the requirements of the state Surplus Lands Act, therefore the Oakland Redevelopment Agency was not required to offer the site to affordable housing developers. This was traditionally how Oakland had side-stepped the Surplus Land Act’s requirements. The Redevelopment Agency then quietly solicited bids from several developers, including UrbanCore, for construction of market-rate housing in order to maximize the sale price of the land. UrbanCore proposed a 298-unit luxury apartment tower. But according to Parker’s legal memo, the dissolution of redevelopment by the state in February of 2012 meant that the 12th Street Remainder Parcel was transferred back to the city, and therefore any subsequent actions to offer the land for development would have to follow the Surplus Land Act’s requirements.
This could have huge implications all over the state. Here in San Jose, for instance, SARA (Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency) is looking into selling a defunct hotel downtown to greedy developers when it could easily be turned into temporary housing for dozens of our thousands of homeless people.
