Oakland

When we study a city, county, or town, we examine its zoning, its development review processes, and how often approvals face opposition through local administrative appeals or litigation. We also study the development approvals to understand how local governments apply their own law, and state law. We map the approvals to examine what the community is allowing to be built and where. The following reflects data on approvals issued in 2014-2017.

Oakland

Approvals (2014-2017)
136 multi-family housing projects entitled
14,399 units total
1,073 units (7%) were affordable units

Zoning (percentage of all zoned land)
7%: all income levels
28%: single-family

Prior Use (of land approved for new multi-family housing development)
13%: already residential (6 units demolished, 56 created at market rate)
53%: commercial
0%: agricultural
29%: vacant
5%: unknown

Median Timeframe for Approval (entitlements)
5.4 months for multi-family housing (urban cities median: 10.8 months)
6.6 months for single-family homes (urban cities median: 12.6 months)

Review Process
Oakland did not permit any projects of 5 or more units through a ministerial process (requiring no discretionary review) in 2014-2017.

Opposition to Development
One project faced litigated. This the timeframe for the entitlement process plus lawsuit completion was 14 months.
16 projects faced local administrative appeals.

Wildfire Hazard
One entitlement in Oakland (5 units) was sited in a high-risk fire zone.

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Oakland, along with Roseville and Mountain View, generally approved more housing relative to their sizes (measured by population).

Oakland's rate of entitlement rate, if we account for city size (measured per capita) was twice that of its neighbor San Francisco during our study period. It also had the third highest rate of entitlement (measured per capita) in the twenty jurisdictions we studied.

Proposals to develop multi-family housing moved comparatively fast through Oakland's review process.

Anyone proposing multi-family housing of five or more units in Oakland must move through a discretionary review process. Discretionary review involves planning review and allows a city to impose conditions of approval on some kinds of development and to reject other kinds of development proposals altogether. In this way, Oakland is similar to many cities we've studied. Discretionary review may extend approval timeframes, particularly if the proposed development complies with the City's zoning and planning requirements completely. At less than six months, Oakland's median timeframes for entitlement are the second the shortest of the jurisdictions we studied. (The only city with median timeframes shorter than Oakland approved very little housing.) Even though Oakland's local regulation may look as stringent as other nearby cities on paper, it appears more hospitable to developing apartments than its neighbors in the region--like San Francisco or San Jose.

Approved housing almost always proposed housing where there was no housing before.

The housing approvals we studied would primarily lead to housing being built where there was no housing before. This is because most of the approvals (~83%) we studied in Oakland involved proposing housing on land that was previously commercial or vacant.

More approvals faced local level challenges than challenges in court.

We found only one approval (to develop 47 units) that faced litigation. The entitlement process plus lawsuit completion timeframe for this development was 14 months.

More proposed developments (16) faced opposition through local level administrative appeals.