Preliminary plans have been floated for new affordable housing at 3073 International Boulevard in Fruitvale, Oakland. The zoning worksheet application shows interest in merging three parcels to create a multi-family project directly across from where SAHA and the Native American Health Center have started construction at 3050 International Boulevard. The Unity Council is responsible for the application.
The project description for 3073 International Boulevard is relatively brief, which is to be expected given that this is the developer’s first step. The permit requests to merge three parcels: 3073 International Boulevard, 1305 31st Avenue, and 1315 31st Avenue. Once merged, the applicant hopes to add “one new construction multi-family affordable housing building continuing across the three existing lots.” No further information is provided beyond this passage.
3073 International Boulevard, image via Google Street View
Future residents will be a quarter mile from the Fruitvale BART Station, where Unity Council is wrapping up its decades-long development of three mixed-use affordable housing buildings.
Across International Boulevard, Nibbi crews have already started on the foundation of 3050 International Boulevard. The five-story project will bring 76 apartments and a new facility for the Native American Health Center. The complex is expected to open next year.
Unity Council has yet to reply to a request for comment by YIMBY.
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I’m looking forward to this project, but I do wish there was something the city could do about prioritizing new development on the plethora of surface parking lots along International (and other places in the city). At least the buildings this development would be replacing look to be long abandoned (and it would fill in one empty lot), but sometimes it feels odd when new buildings replace existing structures that could be rehabilitated when there are so many surface parking lots in the same area.
You mean you wish the city would do something. There is a huge menu of thing they *could* do already, streamlining permits and lowering impact fees and all manner of other things. And the city could offer financing, tax abatements, etc.
The mentioned project across the street was 4 years in planning. The city needs to rubber-stamp this stuff in days, not years.
True, there are many things the city could do now to encourage more development. However, I suppose I was specifically wishing for some sort of cohesive plan to minimize the amount of surface parking in the city, as I believe these lots are eyesores and one of the primary things ruining the cityscape. The tools you mentioned could be utilized in a targeted way to get rid of these lots, I just wish someone would develop a concrete plan to do so.
Sidenote, compared to many American cities Oakland actually has a very low percentage of surface parking lots in downtown, but it’s still too much. Not sure how International and Fruitvale would stack up if they were included in the comparisons I’ve seen.
Even the worst parts of International where it seems like every place is either a parking lot or a tire shop is probably much less parked than any random American block, because all over America you wouldn’t find any streetscape that wasn’t 100% parking-fronted strip malls.
80-90% of the projects published on this site in Oakland will be built on vacant lots. Agree that more should be done to encourage this. There are a number of vacant lots on Foothill Blvd in Fruitvale that desparately need to be developed for more housing.
Not mentioned in the article: the Ghost Ship parcel is part of this project. Seems kinda important.
Re-use is always better environmentally, but this structure is definitely an eyesore and probably too expensive to rehab.
The memory of the Ghost Ship Fire. I saw the Ariel image and knew.
Nothing to say.