(KRON) — City leaders published a final draft of the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan on Friday before it is presented to the City Council for approval. Community engagement in the development of DOSP involved input from thousands of Oakland residents and eight years of drafting various ideas.
Downtown Oakland is “the heart of the East Bay” and a celebrated cultural hub for art, social innovation and unique expression. Crime and safety concerns, however, have plagued the area in 2024.
The Downtown Oakland Specific Plan will ramp up public safety and preserve “dynamic culture that Oaklanders treasure,” said Mayor Sheng Thao. “This plan complements the nearer-term safety interventions the City of Oakland is implementing to support housing, arts, and business downtown. Expanded community ambassador teams, extra security at Franklin Parking Garage, and new cameras all provide a safer environment during evenings and weekends.”
If the City Council approves the plan, it will shape downtown for the next two decades, Thao said.
DOSP aims to increase housing, revitalize local businesses, enhance public safety, modernize downtown, and reconnect West Oakland with downtown.
William Gilchrist, director of Oakland’s Planning and Building Department, said, “Residents across the city often claim downtown as their ‘second neighborhood’ and its social, economic, and cultural character should affirm that claim. The Downtown Oakland Specific Plan will be a living document that responds to the changing needs, opportunities and realities facing its stakeholders.”
The DOSP will be accompanied by amendments to the Zoning Map and Planning Code that advance DOSP goals by increasing density, allowing more flexible land use within key areas, and implementing tools to protect high-valued community assets.
City officials wrote, “The DOSP is designed to prevent displacement of both people and culture, while encouraging downtown’s development in ways that assist all Oaklanders to safely and affordably access housing, transportation, recreation, healthy lifestyles and good jobs.”
