New pre-application permits have been filed for a five-story residential infill at 1715 Foothill Boulevard in Oakland’s San Antonio neighborhood. The development will bring new deed-restricted housing that the developer, Chris Heller, has said will be affordable for teachers within the Oakland Unified School District.
The most recent application represents a substantial increase from initial permits for twelve units in a three-story structure. With the most recent filing, the developer hopes to add 29 homes to the vacant park-side parcel. The proposed 61-foot-tall structure will yield around 28,250 square feet. Unit types will include 20 one-bedrooms and nine two-bedrooms. The ground level will include a lobby and cafe. A rooftop deck will be included for residents facing the public park.
1715 Foothill Boulevard aerial view, illustration by Austin Sandy Architects
Writing to YIMBY, project developer Chris Heller shared that “our kids went to Oakland public schools from kindergarten through high school and we knew of multiple teachers that either had to work additional jobs after school or commute for long distances.” From 1715 Foothill Boulevard, Heller points out that future residents will be within walking distance of several schools and next to a bus stop serviced by AC Transit’s 40.
The applicant uses the State Density Bonus program for the 100% affordable project. Of the 29 units, roughly four-fifths will be affordable to low-income households, and a fifth will be priced for moderate-income households.
Austin Sandy Architects is responsible for the design, collaborating with Factory OS, a modular housing manufacturer. Illustrations show the five-story infill will be clad with white stucco, brick veneer, and cement panels.
1715 Foothill Boulevard from prior three-story project, rendering by Austin Sandy Architects
1715 Foothill Boulevard, image from project plans
The 0.24-acre parcel is located along Foothill Boulevard, facing San Antonio Park between 17th Avenue and 18th Avenue. The property is close to I-880 and a 10-minute bicycle ride from the Brooklyn Basin waterfront park. The site is also well positioned by several schools, as per the developer’s vision. Roosevelt Middle School is just a few block away on the opposite side of San Antonio Park. Garfield Elementary School is four blocks south along Foothill Boulevard, and Franklin Elementary School is roughly seven blocks to the north.
Preliminary permits will allow the developer to use Senate Bill 330 and expedite the approval process. The property last sold in 2022 for $610,000. The estimated cost and timeline for construction have not been announced.
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Great news. Foothill is a transit corridor that’s full of services and ready for more density. It’s pretty much the San Pablo Ave of East Oakland.
SB 330? So it’s a teacher ghetto under the guise of affordable housing. Teachers should be paid well enough that they don’t need low income housing. This project simply supports current institutional abuse of teachers.
This looks like a pretty nice place to live. I just looked up Oakland school teacher salaries and while they certainly aren’t super high they are similar to what someone with a similar degree would make in other industries. The core economic issue in the bay area (and most American cities) is a shortage of homes that is driving up the cost of housing. I think this is a great solution, and provides teachers lower cost alternative to facing the inflated housing market. Of course if teachers don’t like it they can always choose to find housing elsewhere.
So your solution is to not build anything and hope that teachers will start getting paid more and housing costs for teachers will magically go down? Or are you saying that this location isn’t good enough for you so therefore it should be not be built so that no one can live in it? Boomer thinking never ceases to amaze me.
At least they are providing us OUSD teachers the free entertainment of living smack-dab in the middle of the ‘Hoe-Stroll’.
This perpetuates what the affordable housing “cartel” has been doing for decades. Rather than fight to supply affordable housing in our surrounding communities, it focuses on maintaining Oakland, with all its ills, the only option for people needing affordable housing. This maintains the status quo; thereby depriving lower income residents of the better services, schools, environment, etc. they might enjoy in other cities.
Why aren’t projects like this being proposed in Pleasanton or San Ramon? This racist practice of building affordable housing only in ghettos perpetuates the systemic racist housing policies that have plagued the US for over a century. This country will never right past wrongs until it allows people with the least opportunity to enjoy more. Families trapped in Oakland “affordable housing” may have clean new housing, but its still in a crime and drug-infested city with their children at-risk attending the lowest performing schools. Oakland should put a moratorium on affordable housing development until the county/state requires other cities to develop their share.
The state is starting to and should go further in forcing wealthy communities to accept the burden of providing affordable housing as well as just more market rate housing as well. However, there are plenty of good reasons to keep building affordable housing in places like this.
First of all, there isn’t an affordable housing cartel, there is a chronic and critical shortage of available funds and public will to create affordable housing. In the face of limited resources, anyone seeking to build affordable housing, whether its a non-profit, or for profit group is going to find the lowest cost place to build that housing. Since one of the largest contributors to housing costs is land values, this approach allows the maximum number of units to be built with those limited funds.
There are plenty of good reasons to build affordable housing in neighborhoods like this that go beyond just the cost though. People that grow up in this neighborhood may not want to move away from family and friends.
Oakland has many problems, and you seem to care about people facing difficult situations. But perpetuating the myth that Oakland is a crime and drug infested hell hole doesn’t help anyone and serves to shame the people that live here.
Chris,
I live in Oakland; born and raised. I never described it as a “hell-hole”, whatever that is – that’s your language. To describe Oakland’s crime and drug issues as a “myth” is delusional. Affordable housing residents living in Oakland should have opportunities and CHOICES to live in communities that provide a better trajectory for success for their families.
The teacher angle is interesting (and excellent!), but won’t affordable housing compliance get in the way? Most affordable housing is subject to a “general use” provision that prohibits the prioritization of certain populations, even sympathetic ones like school district employees. How does the developer intend to get around that?