The Brooklyn Basin developer is looking to build more housing on a nearby piece of land currently set to become a park.
Oakland-based Signature Development Group is preparing to submit a proposal to the city for the construction of 80 or 90 homes on two acres of vacant land on Embarcadero West, president Michael Ghielmetti told The Oaklandside. The homes will likely be sold, not rented.
The site, called “parcel N,” is currently part of a plan to expand the adjacent Estuary Park. Signature has an agreement with the city to clean up the land, which the developer owns, and transfer ownership of the site to Oakland for the park expansion.
Ghielmetti said changes in the housing market have prompted the developer to rethink some aspects of the Brooklyn Basin plan. The massive waterfront development has brought some 1,500 apartments and acres of parks to the area, with many more in the pipeline. The developer is now thinking of transferring some of the planned housing to part of parcel N, which is four acres total and located west of the main Brooklyn Basin area.
“A lot has changed in 18 years as it relates to parcel N,” Ghielmetti said. “The climate for financing larger apartment projects is not great and won’t be good for a while. And there haven’t been a lot of homeownership opportunities for folks.”
Smaller-scale development makes more sense than building another rental high-rise near the others, he said.
But when advocates of Estuary Park got wind of the potential change earlier this year, they were flabbergasted.
‘Tremendous fight’ looming?
For six years the city has developed a plan to improve and expand the park, currently located on seven acres of public land east of Jack London Square. The project is a centerpiece of a city effort to “create a distinctive waterfront that improves and sustains the quality of city life socially and ecologically.”
The Estuary Park draft master plan includes the addition of all four acres of parcel N, which used to house the wholesale grocer Cash & Carry. A dog park, a food truck plaza, a sports field, and boat storage are all included in the plan, based on extensive public input.
The park project is funded by Measure DD, a $198 million bond approved by voters in 2002 to improve water quality and parks in Oakland. A citizen oversight body, the Measure DD Coalition, monitors the city’s use of those funds and helps plan projects. It meets every two months.
The city said this week that the park project will be able to move ahead as Oakland waits for the developer’s application. But this news came after an initial delay and a resulting uproar.
At the March meeting of the oversight coalition, Oakland staffers announced that the city administration had instructed them to put a hold on the Estuary Park expansion plan because Signature wanted to build housing on parcel N.
“We have been directed to pause implementing this project as it is designed,” said Terri Fashing, the city’s program manager for Measure DD. Assistant City Administrator G. Harold Duffey said it sounded like the developer might not be able to remediate the site in time for the park construction.
The news infuriated coalition members, who said the city and developer should honor previous agreements, particularly if no formal proposal had been submitted yet.
“We need to have a definite line in the sand around housing,” said James Vann. “I don’t think we should be bowing down to the developer—this has to be a park. If any moves are made to make that residential, there’s going to be a tremendous fight, all the way up to the City Council.”
Members said they were concerned that housing along Embarcadero would create an “invisible park,” unnoticeable from the road.
Ghielmetti told The Oaklandside that building housing adjacent to Estuary Park would be a boon to safety there. When there are “no eyes on the park,” dangerous conditions fester, he said, mentioning the nearby Union Point Park, where violent incidents have occurred.
As part of the overall Brooklyn Basin plan, the developer agreed to create 30 acres of waterfront open space. The popular Township Commons park opened in 2020. Ghielmetti said 30 acres of parks will still be created with the removal of two acres of parcel N for housing.
At the time of the March meeting, neither city staff nor the Measure DD Coalition had details on what the developer wanted to change. The City Council last year approved 600 additional units for the Brooklyn Basin project, so people assumed the plan might be to put all of them on parcel N.
Fashing said staff was concerned that the pause could threaten the city’s ability to use Measure DD money on Estuary Park. Each round of funds comes with a deadline for spending.
Pause on Estuary Park project lifted
This week, the coalition met again. Fashing and Duffey reported that the hold is now lifted. The park project can move ahead before the money goes away, but with the knowledge that the developer may submit a housing application soon.
“We’d like to focus funds on building phases of the Estuary Park project that do not include parcel N,” Fashing said at the Monday night meeting.
“If and when there’s an application to put development on parcel N, the Planning Department will consider that proposal,” Duffey said. “It will move through the process and policymakers will make that decision.”
During a tense hourlong discussion, coalition members pressed staff for details. They argued over what exactly the developer had agreed to and what it meant for the park’s future.
“We spent $1.4 million on land that is now in dispute,” said William Threlfall.
“It’s not in dispute,” responded Duffey. He said previous “hysteria” around 600 units on parcel N was also unfounded.
The coalition said it’s spent the last two months getting “stonewalled” by the city when it sought information on parcel N. But eventually members seemed satisfied—for the moment—with staff’s promise to unearth relevant documents and set up a meeting about the site.
Ghielmetti said Signature is not trying to walk back any agreements. It’s “not uncommon” for developers to ask for amendments to large-scale projects, he said.
Such changes often come with concessions from developers. The approval of the 600 extra units last year was contingent on Signature agreeing to pay $9 million to a community land trust.
“We have to go back in and get City Council approval on this,” Ghielmetti said about parcel N. “We’ll work productively as we always have with members of the community, environmental justice groups, and labor groups, and seek to earn their support.”
