More Demolition in Emeryville's "Area of Stability"

Emeryville's Last Stand of True Family Friendly Housing in Peril

Detached Single Family Residences Make Way For Apartment Blocks in Triangle/North Emeryville Neighborhoods

Big Changes Coming to the Areas of 'Stability'

     stability

noun
1 :  the quality, state, or degree of being stable: such as   a :  the strength to stand or endure :  firmness 

2 : the quality or state of something that is not easily changed or likely to change

News Analysis
As development pressures continue to mount in Emeryville, another detached single family home faces the wreaking ball in order to make way for another techie four-plex on Ocean Avenue as was presented at a Planning Commission study session last week.  The looming demolition could represent the beginning of a gathering storm of such single family to four-plex conversions in the City's last traditional family oriented neighborhoods despite prohibitions spelled out in the General Plan against demolition in designated "areas of stability".  The Ocean Avenue development is in such a designated zone and to move it forward, the City is re-interpreting the word stability to include the ability to demolish, a expansion of developer prerogative from only two years ago.  Further, the City is now interpreting language encouraging density embedded in the General Plan to exacerbate and actually encourage the demolition of the remaining single family residences in Emeryville, a subversion of the idea of stability.

Detached Single Family Home
The first choice for actual Emeryville families but
limited to the Triangle and North Emeryville
neighborhoods. The last true family friendly 
housing and a feeder for the School District.

The 1270 Ocean Avenue four-plex development proposal (presented at the January 26th Planning Commission meeting) would dramatically increase the building height over the existing single family home as well as the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) on the property and of course it would also increase the residential density.  Those qualities are all within the bounds of Emeryville's zoning ordinance for the neighborhood (with development bonuses) and in fact the demolition and increase in density has earned the developer coveted FAR bonuses allowing for much less landscaped or open space on the site.

The City's realignment to interpret the zone of stability to mean a zone of demolition has moved the needle a far amount in just two years.  At another site (also on Ocean Avenue) the community was in an uproar when a developer bought a single family home with an eye to demolish it to build a four-plex but the City invoked the stability clause in the General Plan.  That move prompted the developer to let the home sit vacant for several years letting rot to take hold of the unmaintained structure.  The developer then made a successful argument that the home was beyond repair and he was granted permission to build his four-plex.

That was then, this is now.  Now the staff doesn't even see the idea of demolition as problematic.  At 1270 Ocean, the staff is encouraging the approval of the project but they didn't even bother to tell the Planning Commission at the January 26th meeting the proposed development falls within the zone of stability as identified by the General Plan, a designation meant until recently to curtail such demolition conversions.

Apartment Building
Despite some three bedroom units, families don't 
 want to live here.  Developers throw in children's 
play equipment but families vote with their feet.

The staff's failure to disclose to the Planning Commission decision makers the fact that 1270 Ocean Avenue falls within the zone of stability may be an omission that's more than an oversight.

'Stability' Taken to Mean 'Demolition'
Outside of Emeryville, the word 'stability' is generally used to mean 'not anticipated to change substantially' and 'the strength to stand or endure'.  Even here, the General Plan itself uses the standard definition; in its designated areas of stability in town, the General Plan states "Areas of stability are those parts of the city that are not anticipated to change significantly in character, land use or development intensity over the next 20 years [the life of the General Plan]. "

The definition of the word stability becomes more expansive in the way the staff now sees it, including demolition of the stock of single family homes in town: "Stability doesn't mean NO change" a staff member who wished anonymity told the Tattler regarding 1270 Ocean.  The salient part of 'stability' according to City Hall is not the enduring nature of the housing types but rather that the new apartment buildings fit in with the character of the neighborhood in the aggregate as is spelled out in the General Plan the staff tells us, apparently lacking a sense of irony.

The Last Developer Battleground in Emeryville
The City Hall expanded definition of stability will serve as a windfall for developers seeking avenues for profit after the 25 year Emeryville building boom.  The boom has left the older residential neighborhoods, the areas of stability, the last place left to turn a profit.  The last three large development projects in town, Anton/Nady, the Marketplace and Sherwin Williams (primarily residential developments) approved last year, together collectively represent the last of the large residential projects that will be built in our town for at least 20 years (the average lifespan of a typical commercial building being about 30 years).  Residential developers, long given the keys to Emeryville by City Council majorities over the years, now have few opportunities left here and so it is understandable they would turn to the zones of stability to eek out the last little bit from our town.

A quick back-of-the-napkin calculation shows the potential for handsome profits; home prices in these two Emeryville neighborhood zones of stability run about $500K to $600K for a fixer upper.  Tear down costs are about $30K and building costs run less than $1 million for a four-plex.  Sale price would be about $800K for the upper end market (times four) leaving about $1.5 million made over six to eight months.  After financing costs are figured in, a tidy profit remains.  That's not enough to interest the biggest developers we've been attracting up till now but plenty of mid-sized developers would gladly enter this field.  All it takes to get the party started is a re-defining of the word stability to open the floodgates to developers.  And that's something the staff at City Hall has already taken care of.

The Late Great Single Family Residence

"Stability"
This is how the City of Emeryville defines
a stable neighborhood.

Single family detached residences are by far the most popular type of housing for families.  Among other advantages, the private backyards associated with this kind of housing permits young children to play unattended, parents the time to do the myriad things that need attending to besides their children.  This kind of housing is abundant in the suburbs and it's the primary reason young parents often decamp for the leafy hinterlands.  Emeryville's housing stock at this point is only a small fraction detached single family (and it's all in the zones of stability), but the two zones of stability are the biggest feeder areas as a percentage for children attending the Emery Unified School District.
But after developing the rest of our town, it is here, the last low density places left in Emeryville where developers now turn to extract their profits.   The word 'stability' is meant to stop this from happening regardless any new interpretation by City Hall.

With a staff willing to overtly turn the meaning of the word stability on its head to facilitate the remake of these last traditional neighborhoods in town, some might find it curious that the General Plan uses the word stability to describe what should be done with the single family home neighborhoods when it presumably would be easier to facilitate the demolition of these last homes in Emeryville without that word in the Plan.  Why is the word stability used for the North Emeryville residential neighborhood and the Triangle neighborhood in our General Plan?

The idea of the zones of stability rose up when during the public vetting process for the formulation of the new general plan in 2009, residents were alarmed that the staff was pushing such an increase in density for our town (compared to our former general plan).  The allowable huge building height increases and residential density increases over the old plan were a cause of concern for the residents.  The zones of stability were added to mollify criticism because at that time, most Emeryville residents lived in these zones.  Now after so many new apartment projects having been built outside the zones of stability, this is no longer the case it's helpful to know.

1270 Ocean Avenue
The little home on the right with the gardens and
large backyard will become a three story wall.

The final irony is that unless the new building replacing the former single family residence has at least 10 units, the project need not be constrained by Emeryville's family friendly housing ordinance.  Thus, 1270 Ocean Avenue at four units (eight if the ground floor bedrooms with their own baths and separate entrances are subsequently rented out via Airbnb) will not be built as a 'family friendly' project.

1270 Ocean Avenue, while certainly not the first demolition of a single family home in a zone of stability since the new General Plan was certified, will add to the precedent being built up that will prove harder to resist if a resistance were ever to be mounted.

Amend the General Plan
The drive for home demolition in East Emeryville is further buttressed by a provision in the code that makes density like a one way check valve; it can only go up, never down.  A tear down of a duplex say could only happen if the developer built at least a replacement if not a triplex or more.  And that means over time the zones of stability will be completely made over and Emeryville's last single family residences will cease to exist.
A fix for the bad optics for Emeryville, its oft repeated claims of being a family friendly town running at cross purposes with language that encourages demolition of the most family friendly housing in town, would be to amend the General Plan.  The most obvious amendment would be to eliminate the zones of stability altogether to remove the hypocrisy.  Another amendment could be to keep the zones of stability but remove the language that encourages developers to demolish these family homes.  The City of Emeryville is probably most comfortable leaving be the mutually exclusive provisions ensconced in the General Plan.  It's the path of least resistant even if it is so easily construed as hypocritical.

Map from Emeryville's General Plan
1270 Ocean Avenue is located between Ocean and Peabody Lane; the zone of stability

No Family Friendly Housing For 3900 Adeline Site

Measure J School Rebuild Left In Lurch

Council Says 'NO' To Family Housing,

NO To Measure J

After tirelessly campaigning for Measure J, the November 2nd school bond vote, the city council voted a big NO Tuesday night to providing support  for the new school by denying family housing.  The 3-2 vote was the first 'post J' test of the council's new focus on providing family friendly housing in Emeryville's drive to increase enrollment by more than 700 kids.   The proposed loft development at 3900 Adeline Street was the site of the contested council vote.

The site was approved for a new loft development by the council last year after they OK'ed the tear down of the existing red brick historic structure there.

The developer subsequently asked the city for a two year extension on the contract to start demolition for the loft project and the council entered into a discussion Tuesday of whether to leverage the extension request by asking for more family appropriate housing at the site.

What counts as family housing in Emeryville

The developer, Oakland based Madison Park corporation, responded to the council's request to accommodate families by committing to change 20 of the planned studio apartments to one bedroom units.  The project would go from 41 studio units to 21 and one bedroom units would be bumped up by 20; from 36 to 56.

Council member Jennifer West asked the developer if the intent was to increase the building's mass to account for the 20 larger units and she was informed that the proposed building would remain the same size but the one bedroom units would be small, the same size as the former studio units.  After acknowledging that Emeryville had changed and now the school district needed support in the form of family friendly housing, Mayor Nora Davis volunteered that these hard bargained units would be acceptable for single parent/one child families.  Countering, Ms West said the units could hardly be called "family friendly".

The vote for asking the developer to provide real family housing in exchange for the two year construction extension was Davis, Bukowski, Brinkman- NO; and West, Atkin- YES.

Readers may wish to read more about the demolition of the historic building by going to the November 12 Tattler story.

The school project, passed by Emeryville voters will be a nearly $400 million new facility after financing and requires an additional 700+ Emeryville students to make the whole thing viable according to the school district.  In the last twenty years, Emeryville's student population has actually decreased owing to the lack of family housing in town compelling some residents to advocate for turning the student decline around to give the new school a chance at success by building family friendly housing.  The city council has recently announced a new vision for the city that includes families but so far it's amounted to nothing other than words, adding not a single family housing unit.

2nd Chance For 3900 Adeline Street

First Test Of New Paradigm Of Family Friendly Housing

Loft Developer Reneges On Housing Contract,

Emeryville Gets 2nd Bite 
At The Apple

The bad economy has granted Emeryville a rare second chance to correct a past mistake and support our new voter approved school rebuild project by making a place for families instead of another loft/condo project.  The city received notice from the development firm Madison Park that they want to renegotiate their contract to tear down an architecturally significant and historically significant building at 3900 Adeline Street in order to build a new loft/condo building and the council will decide the matter at the November 16th meeting at City Hall.

The Oakland based firm Madison Park says it wants to delay work on the approved demolition and rebuilding for a year and is asking the city to keep open all the rights it secured in January 2009 when the council voted OK to the development proposal.

A lot has happened in this town since the council granted approval for 3900 Adeline and Council member Jennifer West told the Tattler she expects the city to consider changing the terms of the contract if possible, to reconfigure the development to make it family friendly to support the $95 million school rebuild bond the voters just passed.  "We need to look at this in light of the need to bring more children to the [school] district" Ms West said.  The developer, Madison Park would be free to reject the new terms and simply begin work as previously agreed.

The Tattler has called on the city to move with all speed to deliver family friendly housing in the wake of Measure J and Ms West agreed this 3900 Adeline Street site would be a good place to start.

3900 Adeline was a particularly contentious development proposal when it came before the council on January 20, 2009.  The red brick building was identified as "architecturally significant" under Article 67 of the city's own preservation ordinance and was also designated as "historically significant" by Oakland's Cultural Heritage Survey (since a little bit of the building extends into that town).  Further, preservationists pointed to the city's general plan which "strongly"calls for the adaptive reuse of historic buildings such as 3900 Adeline.

Before the 2009 council vote to allow the building to be torn down and replaced by the loft/condo proposal,  residents also complained the developer was demanding a variance of the zoning ordinance which calls for a maximum building height of 30 feet in that part of the Triangle neighborhood.  The loft/condo approved project tops out at 49 feet.

The proposed project is another so called "podium" style building with parking below and a gated community above,  a housing type that city planners agree that turns its back on the greater community and makes for an alienating street-scape and disconnected citizenry.

The council voted 4-1 (Fricke dissenting) on January 20, 2009 to let Madison Park proceed with no sound findings of community benefit to offset the violation of the preservation ordinance or the zoning ordinance.

The school rebuild, as mandated by the voter approved Measure J states Emeryville needs to attract more than 700 new students to the district to make the new school viable and successful. The $95 million school bond is to be bolstered by a $25 million grant from the city's Capital Improvement Program.  After interest, the whole school rebuild is expected to be nearly $400 million.  There are only a few years to bring in the new families to ensure the success of the resident's substantial financial investment in the school. 

Emeryville residents that would like to see their new $400 million dollar investment in the schools protected by making sure the school district gets enough students, should attend:

7:15 PM Tuesday November 16

City Hall

Terrible Legacy For Family Housing

Lofts & Condos

Emeryville Not Family Friendly:

$400 Million At Risk

Opinion

In the wake of Tuesday's Measure J school bond passage, now suddenly the lack of family friendly housing in Emeryville becomes an emergency.  Emeryville residents are going to put up nearly $400 million for less than 500 Emeryville students unless we can build more housing suitable for families to support that massive investment.  By their own calculations, Measure J proponents agree the school district needs at least 1200 students to successfully support the new school the measure provides for.  During the campaign, which was long on hyperbole and short on actual information, Measure J proponents made only the vaguest suggestions about how they will deliver an additional 700 Emeryville children to the district.

Reality Bites

And yet the inconvenient truth is that the city council has not been providing housing for families in Emeryville.  Below is the actual legacy as delivered by council members Nora Davis, Ken Bukowski, Dick Kassis (former member), and Ruth Atkin.

The following is the tale of the tape for loft and condo development, the type Emeryville has garnered it's reputation on:

All lofts and condominiums built 1993 - 2007.  Student enrollment at the school district is from 1999-2007. 

      Project                             Year Built   Units   Students @ Emery

1. Horton St Lofts                1993         15               0
2. Powell St Lofts                1994          10              0
3. Temescal Lofts                1994          4               0
4. Emeryville Warehouse      1999        141             0
5. Doyle Dollar Lofts            2000         20              0 
6. Bakery Lofts                    2002          20             0
7. Terraces Condos              2002        101             3
8. Oliver Lofts                     2002         50              3
9. Andante Condos               2004         95              0
10. Elevation 22 Condos         2004         71              0
11. City Limits Condos            2005         31             0
12. Liquid Sugar Condos         2005         55              2
13. Bay St Condos                  2006         95              0
14. Blue Star Corner               2006          6              0
15. Key Route Lofts                2006         22             0
16. Ocean Ave Lofts               2006           6             0

Totals                                                        742           8

For years now the city council have engaged in a lot of overheated rhetoric about how they're going to deliver family friendly housing to our town but they can't seem to get past the sticking point of getting up the nerve to say "NO" to a developer, any developer that approaches them with another non-family friendly project.  History has shown they will be incapable of bringing family friendly housing to support the resident's new $400 million dollar investment in the schools.
It's time for a new paradigm with new leaders at the helm.  This crew in charge; the School Board and the City Council, helped usher in the Measure J school rebuild and now we the residents are going to have to pay for it so we should at least insist they provide the housing necessary to give the thing a chance at success.   Now, we're going to need to cut loose anyone that stands in the way of providing family friendly housing in Emeryville.  Now it's a $400 million emergency.

Measure J False Demographics Revealed

School Rebuild

Nearly $400 Million, 7 Year Project Based On A

 Puff Of Air

Opinion
The people that support Measure J, including the School Board and the City Council have lied to Emeryville residents about the most basic tenet of the controversial school rebuild program:  They say the school district is going to attract 1200 Emeryville students, the number needed to have a successful school;  we say there's no way to bring that number of students to the district.

The whole endeavour is predicated on how the city will bring more than 700 new Emeryville students up from the less than 500 that now attend our schools.  The people driving the school rebuild have turned to paid demographers to show how it'll be done.  These demographers have revealed that they used the Emeryville general plan to justify their claims of increased enrollment at the school, and in fact the general plan does show a large influx of families moving to town over the next 12 years.

Two Big Problems
The problems here are glaring and twofold: The first is that general plan is not a mandate, rather an idea, a suggestion for development direction and the second, more problematic issue is that there is no place to put that many families here even if there were the political will to build enough housing for them, never mind the dire economy.

In Emeryville, the general plan historically has never served as an impediment to developers with development plans contrary to it.  Quite the reverse, our general plan is consistently revised to suit whatever developer is challenging the plan at any given time.  The decision makers have never shown the will to enforce the general plan, instead they have served as custodians for the wishes of large developers in town.  It has been a problem of ideology; the council members have not shown capacity for saying "no" to any well connected large development corporation.  Building family friendly housing is unfortunately not something developers want to do as their first choice.

More prosaically though, even if the decision makers in town could suddenly have a conversion of conscience and start enforcing the general plan, we'd have to see a massive building program of family friendly housing begin in this economy.  If that could happen, then the question would become: where do you put the new families?
It's a question of simple geography.  After a boom of 15 years of condo and loft building in town, all decidedly anti-family friendly incidentally, there's no space left to speak of to locate families in Emeryville.  The available land is mostly gone.  If the Measure J backers are positing that we would increase density and achieve the necessary housing by tearing down 10 - 15 year-old loft buildings after seizing them by eminent domain, they are clearly delusional.

Not Rational
Measure J backers have thrown in another way by which we might attract more Emeryville families even without a decent place for them to live; by making the schools so good, families will be clamouring to move to Emeryville to get their kids into them.  The argument is that these families will be willing to live in hovels if needs be, they'll be willing to stack up entire families in one bedroom condos just to get their children enrolled in our district.
While we feel this is a wonderful goal and a beautiful sentiment, it clearly isn't a dependable or even a rational basis for justifying such an expensive project.  We feel there should be decent places for families to live to properly support such a large investment as Measure J demands.

This whole Measure J project doesn't pencil out.  There is no way to achieve the numbers of students needed to make the thing cost effective and successful.  It is jarring to say the least that such a large endeavour is based on the flimsiest of metrics, cooked up by seeming dilettantes.  Indeed, something went terribly wrong with Measure J.  We think the decision makers should come back to Emeryville voters with a way to support the schools that is based on rationality and reason.