Oakland to select a Vice Mayor and consider Community Strategy

On the agenda Tuesday night (March 20) is a resolution to select a Vice Mayor.  Council Member Desley Brooks currently holds the position.  The City Council is required by Charter to select a Vice Mayor each January – so this action comes two months later than required. 

Another item on the agenda Tuesday night, receive a report and approve recommendations on Alternative Land Use and Transportation Scenarios. California's Senate Bill 375 (Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act) requires that each region in the stale develop a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) as part of its Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).

Broadly defined the SCS covers five Alternative Scenarios for land use and two transportation scenarios for testing to evaluate how the region can achieve the 15% green house gas reduction target and other performance targets related to the environment, economy, and social equity.

Scenarios 1 and 2 are "unconstrained," i.e. they assume very strong employment growth and unprecedented funding to support housing affordability. Scenarios 3, 4, and 5 are "constrained," i.e. they are based on a more realistic assessment of economic growth, financial feasibility, and reasonable planning strategies. A brief description is provided for each scenario:

1. Initial Vision Scenario: Accommodates 97 percent of new households within the existing urban footprint. Priority Development Areas and Growth Opportunity Areas contain about 70 percent of the total growth.

2. Core Concentration Unconstrained Scenario: Provides a more concentrated development pattern in locations with frequent transit service and within a short transit commute of major job centers.

3. Focused Growth Scenario: Recognizes the potential of Priority Development Areas and Growth Opportunity Areas across, the region with an emphasis on housing and job growth along major transit corridors.

4. Core Concentration Growth Scenario: Concentrates housing and job growth at selected

Priority Development Areas in the Inner Bay Area'along the region's core transit
network.

5. Outer Bay Area Growth Scenario: Projects higher levels of growth in the Outer Bay Area and is closer to previous development trends than the previous two (constrained) scenarios.

Each of the five land use scenarios has been paired with one of two transportation networks – the Transportation 2035 Network and the Core Capacity Transit Network.

1. Transportation 2035 Network: The transit and roadway network and investment strategy contained in the current Regional Transportation Plan, Transportation 2035, maintains the transit network adopted in 2009 and keeps investments in maintenance and expansion at similar levels.

2. Core Capacity Transit Network: Reduces roadway expansion and boosts core transit

service and frequency (this benefits Oakland).

The Initial Vision and Outward Growth Scenarios are paired with the Transportation 2035 Network, and the Core Concentration, Focused Growth and Constrained Core Concentration Scenarios are paired with the Core Capacity Transit Network.