The City Council on Tuesday could decide which developer group will have exclusive negotiation rights to transform the city’s share of the Coliseum site. That vote is part of a packed agenda at a meeting that begins at 1:30 p.m. You can view the full agenda here.
Winter shelters: With more wet, cold weather expected, the City Council will decide how to distribute about $300,000—including $140,000 from Alameda County—available for winter relief efforts. Human Services Department Director Sara Bedford is recommending giving $100,000 to St. Mary’s Center to expand senior housing services and provide hotel vouchers, $133,000 to St. Vincent de Paul in West Oakland to add a second room of shelter beds, and $67,000 to the East Oakland Community Project to add 10 shelter beds, with the priority going to people living in East Oakland encampments.
Coliseum site: Since July, city staff have been in discussions with two groups interested in developing the city’s half-share of the Coliseum property. Now, councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Noel Gallo are calling for a vote to pick one of the developers for an exclusive negotiating agreement. The contenders are the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and the Stewart Property Group, LLC. However, Economic and Workforce Development Director Alexa Jeffress is asking that council follow its original plan and wait until January to decide so city staff can complete a six-month negotiation process and deliver their recommendation to council, as City Council directed them to do in July. Whoever the city ultimately picks, they would have to work with the Oakland A’s, who purchased the county’s share of the land in 2019.
Oak Knoll development: The Oak Knoll project—900 new housing units, commercial space, and more in the East Oakland hills—was years in the making when City Council approved it in 2017. The massive redevelopment will take another step forward on Tuesday. when the council is slated to vote on several items, including establishing a community facilities district that will provide funding for maintenance of new parks, open space, trails, bridges and lighting. The site is located above Interstate 580, between Sequoyah Road and Keller Avenue. In September, the final piece of the 100-year-old clubhouse was moved to make room for hundreds of homes planned for the 183-acre mixed use development on the former Oak Knoll Naval Hospital site.
Sinkhole settlement: The city is expected to pay an Oakland resident $400,000 to settle a lawsuit she filed alleging a storm drain maintained by the city broke and damaged her home. Michelle Williams claimed the broken pipe created a large sinkhole which lowered the west side of her house. In a closed session hearing on Oct. 21, the City Council voted 6-0 to authorize the settlement.
Fire Department discrimination complaint: The City Attorney’s Office is recommending City Council also approve a settlement of $130,000 to resolve a claim Trinette Gist Skinner filed with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in August 2020. Gist Skinner, a fire division manager, claimed she was denied work opportunities in the fire department based on her gender, that the fire chief sexually harassed her at a lunch meeting, and that she was terminated as retaliation for lodging complaints against the department.
