Oakland's Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

You can explore the proposed Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for Fiscal Year 2025-2027 (FY 25-27) by clicking on the green button above or following this link. The proposed CIP outlines capital projects recommended for funding during the two-year budget cycle beginning July 1, 2025. However, final authority to approve project funding lies with the Oakland City Council, which has until June 30 to deliberate on, amend, and adopt both the capital and operating budgets. 

There are several ways to learn more and provide feedback. Budget forums will be held in all seven city council districts in the coming weeks. Dates and locations will be posted to www.oaklandca.gov/budget. You can also provide feedback by contacting your councilmember or signing up to comment at a City Council meeting. Check the Council calendar for meeting session dates. Instructions on how to comment appear on the agenda packets for each meeting. 

Oakland’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) guides the City's long-term, strategic decisions regarding the reconstruction, renovation, and replacement of City-owned assets including libraries, public safety facilities, sewers, recreation centers and parks, and streets. There are currently more than 100 capital projects in progress, a selection of which are highlighted below. 

The Oakland Department of Transportation paved 47 miles of Oakland streets and roads in FY24, and has 19 capital projects currently in construction. Nine capital projects were completed in FY24 including:

• Telegraph Avenue Complete Streets
• Crossing to Safety 

Oakland Public Works (OPW) completed 12 capital projects in FY23-24 including:

• Downtown Oakland Senior Center Improvements
• Holly Mini Park
• Main Library Improvements

There are 19 OPW capital projects currently in construction including:

• Mosswood Community Center
• East Oakland Arts Center Renovation

For the Fiscal Year 2025-27 Capital Budget cycle, we have pivoted from soliciting new capital project ideas to delivering and funding our existing list of more than 100 in-progress projects, totaling more than $350 million in unmet funding needs. To fully fund capital projects, the City relies primarily on bonds (such as Measure KK and Measure U) and grants.  Due to the City’s current fiscal challenges, the timing of the next bond sale is uncertain. Because of the limited availability of bond funding, existing grant-funded and "shovel ready" projects that can move forward expeditiously will be prioritized in the upcoming two-year budget cycle to maximize project delivery with currently available funding.

Going forward, we will also be aligning the CIP more closely with long term capital planning processes like the City of Oakland General Plan Update to find efficiencies, maximize grant funding opportunities, and deliver projects that help us meet goals identified in multiple planning and public engagement processes. The General Plan Update, in progress now, is the first that will include an Infrastructure and Capital Facilities Element (or topic), which will support and guide capital planning over a twenty-year time horizon. This is a well-timed opportunity for our community to build on participation in past CIP cycles by contributing their voices and needs to this longer-range approach to capital planning. We encourage community members to engage with the General Plan Update process by:

• Visiting the General Plan Update webpage
• Signing up for General Plan email updates
• Applying to serve on the Oakland General Plan Advisory Committee - Community Advisory Subcommittee (deadline 5/15/25)

The City develops a new CIP Budget every two years for inclusion in the overall City Budget, and the assets identified for renovation, replacement or purchase in a budget cycle become CIP Projects. Capital projects included in the CIP are any large-scale, long-term investment that builds, reconstructs, or improves an asset (e.g. buildings, roads, parks, sewer, drainage lines, etc.). According to the CIP, capital projects should have a design life of at least ten years and a minimum cost of approximately $100,000.

View the interactive map below to see our current projects and contact information for each project or program. It has filters like project type and council district that you can use when searching for projects. The map is updated annually, and the next update will be completed by May 31, 2025. 

Before proposed capital projects become official CIP projects, they undergo a prioritization process, where City staff identify assets for renovation, replacement, or purchase in the next budget cycle. When the City Council adopts the biennial budget, projects become a part of the two-year CIP. Some of these capital projects are standalone project ideas, while others are part of existing CIP programs that contain specific planning processes.

It's important to highlight that capital projects differ from maintenance projects, which are not within the CIP. Maintenance projects are typically smaller in scale/cost and refer to more urgent short-term repairs to ensure vital city assets remain operational. For urgent maintenance requests (e.g., potholes, graffiti removal, etc.), you can navigate to the City's Oak 311 service, which handles these more routine fixes. Please be advised that Oak 311 receives hundreds of requests and may not be able to respond to your concern immediately.

In 2018, the Oakland City Council adopted a new, inclusive forum for Oakland community members to incorporate their feedback and introduce new project ideas to be considered for the CIP selection process.

Along with it came a new CIP Prioritization Model that would weigh the urgency and projected impact of applicant projects to ensure effective allocation of City dollars. The CIP prioritization process approved by the Oakland City Council scores projects on the factors listed above in the figure.

City staff use the CIP prioritization process to score projects and determine their feasibility given the City's financial and operational constraints within the upcoming two-year budget. Staff present CIP recommendations to the City Council for approval each biennial budget cycle. 

It is important to note that not all projects included in the CIP will receive funding in the two year funding cycle. Being included in the CIP is a necessary first step that allows City staff to seek funding for a capital project. Some or all of the funding required to complete a capital project may be included in the two year budget—but more often than not, the City will have to seek additional funding from sources like state or federal grants. In either case, these funds are often dedicated to a specific purpose (for example paving roads) and the City may not have the ability to use them for a different purpose (for example renovating a recreation center).

The City of Oakland has more demand for capital projects than it has funds to pay for them, which is why the CIP must be intentional about how to score and prioritize potential project ideas generated internally and from public submissions. Community engagement continues to be critical for uplifting the community's real needs—as articulated by community members themselves—to determine priority capital investments. Using the City's prioritization factors (pictured above), the City assigns each project an overall score based on the criteria listed.

City staff present their recommendations to the City Council as part of the budget development process. Once the recommendations are provided to Council, Council holds public meetings to deliberate and adopt a final budget. This is another opportunity for community members to be involved in the process. The dates and times for those meetings are variable each cycle; however, the City Council must adopt its Budget and CIP by June 30 before the beginning of the fiscal year.

The CIP Budget represents a significant investment in our community. It reflects the overall priorities of the City and has an enormous impact on its health and vibrancy. CIP dollars can bring about entirely new community-envisioned changes and speed up the completion of existing projects that may face challenges because of funding shortages.