Don't Have Community Support? Fake It!

The councilmember, the speculative landowner, and the developer pushing a five-story apartment complex at High St. and MacArthur Blvd. have been unable to garner support from Laurel district merchants and nearby residents. When 80 to 90 percent of the community rejects your proposal, how do you show the city planning commission you have support? You fake it, and a former city staffer turned "government and community liaison" will do the job, for a fee.

For a Jan. 23, 2008 hearing about the project in front of a planning commission committee, someone hired Carlos Plazola to herd in a group of phony "community" speakers. There was a representative from a builders' association. There was an official of an ethnic chamber of commerce who trots around frequently for Plazola, having spoken at hearings on the Gateway proposal on the other side of east Oakland.

Still a bit short on bodies, Plazola spoke along with his shills, labeling himself a neighborhood resident because he lives in the Fruitvale district – nowhere near the proposed building. Plazola did not identify himself as the lobbyist whose operation, Terra Linda Development, takes payment from developers to set up fake community support. For example, according to a report in the East Bay Express, Plazola brought together a developer's buddy and the head of a non-profit boxing gym for children. The developer's associate promised a new gym, in return for which pre-teen children paraded in front of the planning commission in favor of a project miles away that they clearly knew nothing about.

Plazola used to be chief of staff for citycouncilmember Ignacio De La Fuente. He left the job in 2006 under the cloud of conflict of interest when the press reported that Plazola "and three of his close friends stand to profit handsomely from vacant waterfront land they own in an area where city officials may soon allow condominium developments." (East Bay Express, July 5, 2006)

Terra Linda's other principal, Laura Blair, also spoke at the hearing. She, too, identified herself only as a resident and activist of the Sheffield Avenue Association, a street outside the Laurel, Maxwell Park, and Allendale districts around the contentious High-MacArthur proposal. Blair also comes out of City Hall, having worked in the Neighborhood Law Corps.

Plazola and Blair do not work for free. They did not disclose whether they are paid by southern California developer AMG & Associates; the speculating owner of the land, Alex Hahn; or councilmember Jean Quan, who has determined to push the project through no matter how compelling a case the Laurel community presents against this building.

At the design review committee hearing, little new was said. The developer did admit that he added token retail space even though it is something "we did not want to do." Indeed, the garage parking layout virtually ensures that the retail space will never succeed. With 115 apartments to rent, the owner will let the one to three retail slots wither.

The two commissioners on the committee confined themselves to a narrow interpretation of design review. They commented on color schemes and stucco finishes while setting aside such physical relationships and impacts as proximity to the freeway. The commissioners apparently felt they could not bear to hold the project away from the full commission, given the political heat. The project threatens a loss of scenic highway designation for 580 and the return of big-rig trucks. It also poses a terrible choice to prospective senior residents, a choice between breathing dangerous particulate pollution or staying inside hermetically sealed apartments and operating expensive air conditioning. The committee sent the proposal to the full planning commission. The date of a hearing there will depend on when the developer submits detailed plans.

Southern California Developer's Shills Exposed

While merchants and residents of the Laurel district testify in overwhelming numbers about the problems with a proposed five-story apartment block at High St. and MacArthur Blvd., someone hired Carlos Plazola's firm, Terra Linda Development Services, to round up voices in favor of the project.

Plazola fulfilled his contract at the Jan. 23 meeting of the Planning Commission's design review committee. Who were Plazola's speakers? Two local groups – Commercial & Retail Attraction & Development for the Laurel and Citizens4Oakland – did a little research. In addition to Plazola himself, who lives miles away, and his business partner Laura Blair, also not a resident of the Laurel, Maxwell Park or Allendale districts adjacent to the site, the shills were:

• Kathy Kuhner, affiliated with an informal group run by Plazola called the Oakland Builders Association. She owns Dogtown Development Company in west Oakland, on the opposite side of town. She appears regularly with Plazola at public hearings.

• Joe O'Donoghue, who first listed himself to the Commission as being with the Oakland Builders Association but then crossed out the name. Mr. O'Donoghue has worked with Plazola on other business projects. He has a reputation as a hardball political player in San Francisco on development and other issues. When SF supervisor Ed Jew came under prosecution for extortion of businesses needing city licenses, Mr. O'Donoghue sided with Jew, making an over-the-top statement that compared District Attorney Kamala Harris to Duke University rape case prosecutor Mike Nifong.

• Jay Dodson, from a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He did not reveal that he owns Mestizo Construction Services. This is beginning to sound like a broken record, but Mr. Dodson has also appeared with Plazola on several other local development issues.

• Joe Decredico, who identified himself as representing the Crestmont Homeowners' Association. An architect, he glided over the fact that the Crestmont neighborhood is located several miles away from the AMG project site, along the crest of Skyline Blvd. Like Ms. Blair, who claimed to represent a neighborhood group for Sheffield Avenue, Mr. Decredico had no right to speak for the Crestmont group. According to several of the members of both groups, they were completely unaware of the project until asked about it; to their knowledge no emails or meetings occurred where the AMG project was brought up.

Plazola does not round up his usual suspects for free. Who was his client? The logical possibilities are the southern California developer, AMG; the owner of the land, Alex Hahn and his family, who want a high price that the developer can pay only if he is allowed to break zoning law; and councilmember Jean Quan, who has promised to ram this project through despite heavy opposition from her constituents.

One way to look at this situation is, if Quan herself did not hire Plazola, she and her top staff know who did.

The day after the contentious hearing at the design review committee, a resident posted to a local email group asking councilmember Jean Quan's chief of staff, Richard Cowan, "Do you deny knowing who hired Carlos Plazola to bring his shills to the design review committee hearing yesterday? Speculative landowner Hahn? AMG?"

Quan's chief of staff never replied.

It must exasperate members of the Planning Commission when they are made to listen to shills' vague statements that do nothing to advance the dialog over the proper usage of this site. On the other hand, the commissioners' political careers in Oakland may depend to some degree on how willing they are to go along with the councilmember's wish.