What is the Capital Improvement Program (CIP)?
The City of Oakland’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) guides the City’s decisions regarding the construction, repair and/or replacement of many of the City’s assets such as libraries, public safety facilities, recreation centers and swimming pools, and parks. Street improvements and sewer repairs, and even access ramps and bicycle paths are also part of the City’s CIP. In the City of Oakland, a new CIP Budget is developed every two years and included in the overall City Budget. When the biannual budget is adopted, the CIP for those two years is also adopted. The assets identified for repair, replacement or purchase in a budget cycle become “CIP projects”.
Projects included in a CIP are defined as any long-term investment that build, replace or improves an asset (buildings, roads, parks, sewer and drainage lines, etc.), have a useful design life of at least ten years and a minimum cost of approximately $100,000.
Why should I care about the CIP?
The CIP Budget represents a major investment in our community. It reflects the overall priorities of the City and has an enormous impact on the health and vibrancy of our community. A CIP links long-range strategic plans and goals with current resources and needs.
How does the City of Oakland select CIP Projects?
In 2018, the Oakland City Council adopted a major update to the City’s process to identify and select projects for funding, making the process more accessible to Oakland residents and also including resident feedback into the decision-making process. This led to the development of the "CIP Prioritization Model". The CIP Prioritization Model approved by the Oakland City Council scores projects on the following factors:
- Equity: Investment in underserved communities (16 points)
- Health/Safety: Improve safety and encourage healthy living (16 points)
- Existing Conditions: Renovate or replace broken or outdated City property (13 points)
- Economy: Community investment and economic prosperity (13 points)
- Environment: Improve the environment and address climate change
- Required Work: Address areas where the City may be held financially and legally responsible (10 points)
- Improvement: Build new or upgrade a city-owned property to improve level or quality of service (8 points)
- Collaboration: Combine city projects to save time and money (8 points)
- Project Readiness: Ready-to-go projects without delay (5 points)
For more information about how the City's CIP Priortization Model was developed, please go here.
Throughout summer 2020, OakDOT and Oakland Public Works will lead outreach to gather community input to help the City select the next round of CIP projects. Because the City has more demand for capital projects than it has money to pay for them, the CIP must make choices about how to rank and prioritize potential projects. Once that information is collected, the project scores will be calculated, and projects will receive an overall score using the criteria above.
Next, City staff will present the scores and recommendations to the City Council as part of the 2021-2023 Budget Development process. The Budget Development process includes a series of public meetings and hearings where the Mayor and/or Council Offices discuss the City's Budget and CIP and will ask for the public to provide comments. The City Council will review the CIP proposal, and may make changes to it based upon the feedback received at these meetings. The dates and times for those meetings have not been decided; however, the City Council must adopt its 2021-2023 Budget and CIP by June 30, 2021.
How do I get involved or stay informed?
Please check this website to learn more about the CIP, participate in surveys, or other events related to the CIP.
For any additional questions, contact Public Information Officer Sean Maher at smaher@oaklandca.gov.