Community Meeting Rejects Quan/Developer Scheme

At a Laurel district meeting to discuss the proposal for plopping a six-story, 141-unit senior housing building onto the corner of MacArthur Blvd. and High Street, a clear majority of the attending residents and storeowners voiced objections.

Quan's chief of staff Richard Cowan said Quan and he would merely "present" the project to the Sept. 18 meeting, but Quan took a partisan role. Describing herself as a "facilitator," she ran interference for developer Alexis Gevorgian of AMG & Associates from Encino.

Giving a bit of history, Cowan said Quan's office told landowner Alex Hahn that his plan to build a retail strip center on the site would never be acceptable – despite the zoning of the plot (commercial C-31), the Master Plan, and the desire of the Laurel merchants to round out and support retail along MacArthur Blvd. Subsequently, AMG from southern California found the parcel and took an option on it. Did councilmember Quan help bring in a residential developer after the landowner gave up his retail plan?

When attendees questioned the six-story height in an area with nothing over two stories, and the packing of 141 small apartments onto less than one acre, AMG admitted this was the only way it could make the project pay (including a nice profit to satisfy frustrated landowner Hahn).

The AMG owner was half-informed on parking. He first said many seniors do not drive, so the complex could get by with half the parking spaces that an ordinary apartment complex would require. In response to a question, he estimated the average tenant age would be 62. When seniors in the audience replied that most 62-year-olds still drive, Gevorgian floundered for words until Quan attempted a rescue by interjecting that many seniors take public transportation rather than drive. Parking for family visitors and home care aides of the senior residents was not discussed.

When AMG was asked about the inconsistency between the statement that only six parking spaces would be earmarked for staff and retail parking, versus AMG's claim of twenty spaces at a previous community meeting, the AMG owner could only say that the details are in the application – which he did not bring to the meeting.

The parking entrance and exit on MacArthur below High St. received serious criticism. Any driver who wants to go up MacArthur or onto High St. would first need to go east under highway 580 and then back up MacArthur, a half-mile detour that would merge the driver with westbound cars exiting the freeway. Gevorgian mumbled, "The city will make a traffic study."

Quan tried to deflect the criticism by once again saying that many seniors would be walking instead of driving. Somehow she digressed to telling how when she goes to her favorite College Avenue pizzeria,

When people raised security within the building and for residents who might venture outside, Quan made a comparison to the Lincoln Court senior complex. She believes crime in that Dimond location will decrease because seniors overlooking the street would gaze out all day and call the police immediately upon witnessing a crime. Quan did not explain how that helps when the understaffed police do not respond.

Laurel business owners at the meeting were upset with AMG's admission that the original promise of 1800 square feet of retail space with outside parking had shrunk to a 1500-square-foot "commercial" space and a kiosk of a mere 300 square feet. These operations would have only five parking spaces in the project, yet they would still create an additional security problem unless the commercial and tenant parking areas are separately secured.

Even the meager commercial activities are not a binding commitment. Quan's Lincoln Court developer promised a senior health center and community retail – but neither happened.

With evident problems of excess height and density, unworkable parking and traffic layouts, freeway pollution and other issues, the obvious question is: why is residential housing proposed for this site?

How did inappropriate apartments come to outweigh the landowner's plan for retail at MacArthur and High?

Deputy planning director Gary Patton was at the meeting, and he admitted that residential construction drains more in costs and services from the City than it pays back.

If AMG is so intent on building apartments in Oakland, why aren't councilmember Quan and City officials looking for suitable residential land? However, if Quan welcomes AMG because she wants another low-income senior building in her district, she needs to address the fact that Oakland already has much more of the low-income housing in Alameda County than its fair share – and she should be candid with constituents about what she is up to.

The meeting ended with a reminder that criticisms made during the evening are not on the record. People could make their objections official at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Design Review Commission, a committee of the Planning Commission.

Councilmember Quan in her newsletter of Sept. 23 says, "Now the project enters the first step of the formal city process – Design Review. The Design Review Committee will hear about the project on September 27... This meeting will primarily deal with how the building looks."

That's not how City code defines design review. Chapter 17.136, titled Design Review Procedure, specifies:

"The purpose of these provisions is to prescribe the procedure for the review of proposals located in areas or on sites, or involving uses, which require special design treatment and consideration of relationships to the physical surroundings. This procedure shall apply to all proposals for which design review is required by the zoning regulations." (Emphasis added)

How does the proposed building relate to the physical surroundings? That covers its precedent-busting six-story height in relation to the one- and two-story buildings; the traffic layout that makes vehicle exit from the proposed building back onto High or down MacArthur impossible; the mass and shadow of a 141-unit structure; the overflow of parking onto area streets; and the introduction of a residential complex into a retail neighborhood.