| Oakland (Special to OaklandNewsOnline.com) – Building more housing in the Bay Area, especially at transit hubs, is an important way to strengthen our communities and our future by helping our workforce and affordable housing, connecting neighborhoods, reducing congestion, growing revenue, and even our congressional seats. Early this month, alongside Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Oakland’s Housing and Community Development team (HCD), proudly introduced a resolution to re-adopt the Capital Improvement Program (CIP ), which will now be heard at the special City Council meeting on December 16, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7045825&GUID=51E7F9A8-4150-4ADC-A646-E1EC85C5F1BA&Options=&Search= |
| The CIP is the City’s plan for constructing, repairing, and replacing the City’s capital assets, including libraries, public safety facilities, sewers, recreation centers, parks, and transportation and street improvements. Subsequently, the planned issuance in the fall of 2024 was deferred. This item is intended to provide clarity and a path forward for intended and important capital improvement projects, including some revisions to prior projects, reinstating projects, authorizing a future bond issuance, and use of some non-bond funds. The proposed amendments include the opportunity to restore and move forward with essential pedestrian and bicycle safety projects, street paving, affordable housing, public safety facilities, recreation facilities and parks, and more to better serve our communities and ensure the timely delivery of planned projects. This includes improving and developing specific public safety infrastructure projects and updating funding allocation to advance a new 911 communication dispatch center, multi-departmental training facility, improved fire stations, and improvements to existing libraries. The proposal restores numerous previously adopted projects such as the Lakeshore Bike Safety, street repaving, and pro-active street repairs. The proposal restores numerous previously adopted projects, such as Lakeshore Bike Safety. The City of Oakland’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) will construct a two-way separated bike lane on Lakeshore Avenue from E 18th Street to El Embarcadero.https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/lakeshore-avenue-separated-bike-lanes-projectPro-Active Sidewalk Repair and Restore Sidewalk Reconstruction Program are among many projects named in the proposal. These projects aim to fund sidewalk crews and provide up-front costs to ensure expansion and timeliness of pro-active sidewalk repair are administered, with the ability to notice and bill property owners for their share at a more effective rate. Reduce harms and liabilities from broken sidewalks. Vehicle hazard, Speed safety, and harm prevention projects would be allocated funds to pursue solutions such as adding bollards, speed bumps, and other physical infrastructure to deter hazards, including preventing pedestrian injuries, speeding, sideshows, and vehicles crashing through storefronts. The proposal also allocates funding to improve Oakland’s abandoned auto removal mechanisms and better remove abandoned cars. Projects being restored are highlighted in Exhibit A, available here.https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=13621729&GUID=E2B87058-F1FE-483F-88B0-A32166B422DE Our item on the overall CIP is also paired with an item to further support affordable housing by including an item in collaboration with HCD to reallocate a portion of Measure U Bond funds to increase the total amount for affordable housing. One project has been cancelled, which had been previously listed to receive $10 million of Measure U funds. Therefore, this item proposes allocating the additional $10 million in Measure U Bond funds to increase the ability to support vital and needed affordable housing projects by adding those funds to the totals and ensuring that the larger overall planned funding allocation does go forward in a timely manner that will be able to be committed to project applicants in early 2025. This will also strengthen Oakland projects’ ability to compete for State funding and thus bring more resources into Oakland to support local project advancement Agenda for Special City Council meeting on 12/16/24 https://oakland.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1252620&GUID=9A2387EA-ECEB-4A2D-8B66-30B7D9331D75&Search= |