Project Update (December 2021)

During the fall of 2021, input was sought from the broader Oakland community at eight in-person events with nearly 1,500 Oakland stakeholders in attendance. The online open house during the same period was visited by another 2,000 stakeholders who left nearly 500 comments. In October, Action Teams reviewed this input and made their final recommendations to the Steering Committee which is now working with staff to integrate public comments and strategies into the draft Oakland Plan which will be released in early 2022. A set of recommended changes to the Zoning Code to implement elements of the plan will be released at the same time.

New: Historic Oakland Data Explorer

An interactive map has been created that contains data from the Oakland Plan Historic Architecture Inventory. The full Historic Architecture Inventory report can be downloaded here. A helpful tutorial is included below that uses images of the map with different data displayed to highlight the features of the explorer.

Draft Vision Statement (Posted March 2021)

From mid-August to mid-October of 2020, the Oakland Plan online open house attracted ~2,500 visitors who made ~800 comments. One of the more popular questions asked "What's your vision?" and almost 80 people provided their hopes for the future of Oakland. Staff worked with the Steering Committee to review these ideas and develop the draft vision statement below. View the original comments in the archive.

Staff and the Steering Committee also used comments from the online open house to draft goal statements that can be found on the Development, Community, Mobility, and Infrastructure pages.

What is a Vision Statement?

• Provides a shared description of what the neighborhood will be like in 10 years if the plan is successful.
• Shows the community’s aspirations for the future of the neighborhood by describing desired activities or changes.
• Identifies existing characteristics or conditions that the community wants to preserve.
• Some are a single sentence, while others are more expansive and may be one or more paragraphs.

Who Are They For?

There are two main audiences for vision statements:

• The community that creates it and uses it to organize their work around a common agenda for the future; and
• Those outside the community who may choose to move to there, invest in the area, or start a business there based on the values presented in the vision.

Plans have one vision statement, multiple goals per topic area, and many policies, projects, programs, and partnerships. Only the vision statement, goals, and policies are formally adopted by the Planning Commission. The projects, programs, and partnerships are reviewed but not adopted to allow for more flexibility.

Draft Oakland Plan Vision Statement

This vision statement is evolving based on your input! We've received a number of comments on the initial statement published at the end of March and are starting to incorporate that input. The bolded sentences below reflect input that we have received so far.

Oakland is a great place to live, work, learn, and play, and a globally important center of innovation, healthcare, and education. Institutions, organizations, and businesses work with residents to overcome inequities based on discrimination to ensure Oakland is welcoming to everyone regardless of race, gender, age, ability, or identity. Students are viewed as neighbors, partners in progress, and future long-term residents. Oakland welcomes and embraces the contributions of its immigrant and newcomer community, supporting them as they build their lives in this country and this community. Buildings, open spaces, and infrastructure are carefully designed to create a place that is sustainable, healthy, attractive, and resilient. This is a community that takes pride in its history and rich cultural heritage, a pride that is evident in Oakland’s many cultural institutions, historic and new buildings of outstanding quality, and public art – and in the long history of this place as a home for new immigrants, working people, entrepreneurs, and students. The public and non-profit sectors work together to implement housing strategies that overcome long-standing issues of resident displacement due to the high demand for housing. These strategies provide the types of housing and levels of affordability needed to ensure opportunities to live close to work and school, while retaining existing residents, offering opportunities to age in place, and reducing displacement of Oakland's BIPOC community.

Want to dig in deeper? A new Vision Statement Workshop activity below allows you to dig into the intent of each part of the vision statement and provide more detailed input.