AICP Community Planning Workshop

What You'll Learn

• The workshop pulls planners from around the country and abroad together with residents and stakeholders to identify problems and collaborate on finding potential solutions to the community's planning challenges.
• Learn about and explore options and strategies for community outreach, agency partnerships, and infrastructure financing for an Oakland Chinatown district.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and peers and develop strategies to prevent displacement.

MORE SESSION DETAILS

The 2019 Community Planning Workshop will focus on key organizational strategies necessary to establish, finance, and sustain a community benefits district in one of the last urban-infill neighborhoods in Downtown Oakland, California. This redeveloping, transit-oriented development (TOD) is at the nexus between planning and implementation. In 2018, the largest public landowner selected a master developer to build 500 housing units, 600,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of retail, and public amenities over the existing, below-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train station.

Located in the heart of Oakland Chinatown, community stakeholders aim to protect and enhance the study area's status as a thriving cultural district — while avoiding the negative externalities of redevelopment: gentrification and displacement. Although the project pipeline already includes a healthy balance of affordable and market-rate uses, the community acknowledges a need to look beyond planning and real estate solutions. Implementation of parking, open space, maintenance, and other considerations often get overlooked and unfunded. The purpose of this workshop is to engage planners and allied professionals to discuss successes and failures of community benefits districts from across the country. APA is soliciting participation from a variety of experts in planning, economic development, stakeholder engagement, and public finance. The workshop agenda comprises a neighborhood tour, breakout TED-style talks with subject-matter experts, workshop roundtable discussions, and collaboration with community stakeholders to ensure context-sensitive solutions.

Areas of focus include financing strategies, community outreach, agency partnerships, and other tools necessary to create long-term socioeconomic and financial success in context of Oakland Chinatown. This conversation is happening at the right time and the right place — just as development activity is getting off the ground. The City of Oakland, in collaboration with BART, Peralta Community College District, and a cross-spectrum of community stakeholders, worked together from 2010 to 2014 to develop a specific plan, the "Lake Merritt Station Area Plan." This vision sets forth a 25-year roadmap to add 4,900 new housing units, 4,100 new jobs, 404,000 square feet of additional retail, and 1,229,000 square feet of office. With a master developer now in place, join in this exciting workshop while the first catalyst project is taking shape.