Understanding Oakland’s existing land use and development context is important for developing options for future growth. A detailed analysis of existing land use conditions can be found in the Map Atlas, available on the project website here: https://www.oaklandca.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/planning-amp-building/documents/sp/gp/map-atlas_100824.pdf.
Oakland’s current land use and development patterns reflect the City’s history and evolution. The land that is now Oakland is the ancestral home of the indigenous Ohlone people. The Ohlone were stewards of the oak and redwood forests, grasslands, and marshlands that made up the coastal region of central and northern California for thousands of years. The arrival of Spanish missionaries in the 1760s and subsequent periods of Spanish colonization, Mexican settlement, and American urbanization of the Ohlone region greatly shifted the cultural and physical landscape. Despite these changes, this land continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people.
Oakland was founded in 1852, with its earliest development happening in Downtown and West Oakland. These areas have a traditional street grid and were shaped by Oakland’s role as the western endpoint of the Transcontinental Railroad. This brought shipping, manufacturing, and other industries to Oakland. Many of Oakland’s main streets, like Telegraph Avenue and International Boulevard, were once streetcar lines that connected the City to other parts of the East Bay.
Oakland’s waterfront stretches from the Port of Oakland in the north to the Oakland International Airport in the south. Much of the land along the shoreline is made of artificial land, or “fill,” that was added over time to expand the City’s footprint. Historically, the waterfront has primarily been home to industrial uses, though in recent decades, the Jack London District and Brooklyn Basin have been transformed into mixed-use neighborhoods with residential, entertainment, and employment uses. Transportation connections to the shoreline from the rest of the City are somewhat limited by railroad and highway infrastructure that runs parallel to the shoreline, and make access especially challenging for bicyclists and pedestrians. The San Francisco Bay Trail provides waterfront recreation opportunities along most stretches of the Estuary, though the trail does not presently connect all segments.
Downtown Oakland is the City’s business and civic center with a diverse mix of uses, including office and commercial uses, City, County, State, and Federal offices, entertainment and art venues, restaurants, parks, schools and universities, and both high-rise and low-rise residential. The recently adopted Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (DOSP, 2024) provides policy guidance to strengthen Downtown’s role as Oakland’s major employment center and proposes substantial new residential development to support the area’s vibrancy.
Outside Downtown and the industrial areas, Oakland’s dominant land use is residential, arranged in many diverse neighborhoods, together with neighborhood commercial uses, parks and open spaces, and public facilities such as schools and libraries. Many neighborhoods balance single- and multi-family buildings, while some are predominantly one or the other. Oakland has a significant concentration of high-density, lower mid-rise (three to five stories) residential uses around Lake Merritt, and nearly a third of Oakland’s population lives within 1.5 miles of the lake. In the Oakland hills, homes are more spread out because of the steep terrain and wildfire risk. The hills are also home to several regional parks, the Oakland Zoo, and a City-owned golf course.
Oakland has several thriving neighborhood commercial streets and centers that serve as important community amenities. Streets like College, Lakeshore, Grand, Fruitvale, Telegraph, and San Pablo avenues, and International Boulevard are home to restaurants, shops, and small businesses. There are also commercial areas throughout the City that have struggled to fill vacancies, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some commercial areas, like the 7th Street corridor in West Oakland and Seminary Point in East Oakland, are receiving targeted investment to support revitalization and growth.
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Historically, Oakland’s population has experienced notable fluctuations. Prior to 1980, Oakland experienced three decades of population decline. By the late 1990s, Oakland became an attractive target for investment and had lower rents and home prices than other parts of the Bay Area. By the early 2000s, substantial population and jobs growth without corresponding regional housing production resulted in severe constraints on housing throughout the region. Following a period of population and jobs decline due to the 2008-2009 Great Recession and foreclosure crisis—events that hit Oakland and Black homeowners particularly hard—Oakland’s population grew by almost 13 percent from 2010 to 2020, reaching a peak of over 440,000. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, population and jobs growth have experienced a slight decline.
Despite this small recent decline, various regional projections indicate that Oakland will continue to grow. Future growth projections reflect historical data, economic trends, and assumptions based on a variety of factors including birthrates, in- and out-migration trends, urbanization and climate-related migration, and expected job increases near existing assets like the Port, universities, and other sectors. Because of the uncertainties around future conditions, regional growth projections suggest a wide range of possibilities for exactly how much the City will grow. On average, however, regional projections suggest that Oakland is expected to grow by about 40 percent over the next 20 years, which would mean adding approximately 175,000 people and 90,000 jobs.[1]
Key jobs growth in Oakland will likely come from professional, scientific, and technical services (including sectors like technology, life sciences, the green economy, and advanced manufacturing, known broadly as Research and Development (R&D)); healthcare; and government (public administration). Through a combination of market changes, projects that “jump start” other development, updated land use direction in the General Plan, and other factors, Oakland might see either more or less of the region’s expected growth than the range that is reflected in illustrative forecasts. However, these projections serve as helpful parameters for understanding the range of possibilities for future development in Oakland, including the number of new residents, jobs, and associated square footage of residential and commercial development that the City might reasonably expect to see by the year 2045.
It can be helpful to imagine the growth projections as building blocks. At this stage in the GPU process, the planning team and the public must work out how to fit new building blocks into Oakland’s existing form, while also accomplishing community goals. Three possible ways to arrange the blocks are presented in the Options for How We Stabilize and Grow described in Chapter 3 – however, community input is needed to help co-create an arrangement that best represents a shared vision for Oakland’s future.
Reflection Question: Where do you think the City should plan for new homes and jobs?
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“Opportunity sites” are locations in the City with a high potential for new housing or commercial buildings over the next 20 years. When planning for the future, the City looks for groups of opportunity sites to figure out where new housing and jobs are likely to go. Opportunity sites are not the only areas of the City that may change or be impacted by the General Plan, nor do they guarantee that development will occur – these decisions are up to the property owners. However, providing policy guidance for areas with a higher likelihood of transformation is critical to ensure that growth helps achieve community goals.
The opportunity sites in Oakland were identified and refined through a combination of data-driven analysis of Citywide development potential and site-specific knowledge of existing conditions. Opportunity sites were initially identified by mapping vacant and underutilized land within the Planning Area and excluding sites with environmental constraints such as sites within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and floodplains. Underutilized properties are those where the land value exceeds the value of existing structures, providing an incentive to the owner to redevelop with new uses and/or structures that command higher rents or sale prices. For instance, an oversized parking lot that exceeds the business needs of a shopping center can be considered underutilized and redeveloped with housing or community serving uses, that would also benefit existing businesses. City-owned properties that are vacant or underutilized may also present opportunities, particularly when located near other vacant and underutilized land.
As shown in Figure 2-1, opportunity sites are clustered in West Oakland’s northern industrial areas, along E. 12th Street and San Leandro Street in the Fruitvale, San Antonio and Deep East Oakland, and throughout the Central and South Estuary shoreline.
Based on factors including the amount of existing development on the site and the current assessed value of the property, different opportunity sites are assumed to be more likely to experience redevelopment than others. These assumptions have been factored into the potential development buildout projections discussed in Chapter 4.
Figure 2-1: Opportunity Sites(PDF, 11MB)
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