Bay Area

School District Leases 2 Closed School Properties to Developer for 75 years

One property was leased for $3,000 a month, the other for $4,000 a month

Published

4 years ago

July 9, 2021

Isabelle Price

Photo courtesy of element5digital via unsplash

The Oakland Board of Education has approved the 75-year lease of two school properties to a developer without first going through a process for public input and posting the item on the public agenda only three days before the vote.

Though agenda items in general must come before the board two times before final approval, this resolution only came up once and was approved last week in a 5-2 vote. Board President Shanthi Gonzales and Boardmember Mike Hutchinson opposed the deal.

“The first time it was made public was when it was posted on the agenda 72 hours before the board meeting, and it was during a pandemic over Zoom. There has been no public engagement around these leases at all,” said Boardmember Hutchinson in an interview with the Oakland Post.

“This has been under wraps for the last six-to-eight months,” he said.

The lease of the two properties allows the schools to be torn down and replaced by town houses and other housing, including market-rate housing, commercial space and possibly a Black cultural center and some housing for teachers.

While the supporters of the deal say they are thrilled because these developments will in include some housing for teachers and school employees, representatives of both the teachers’ union and the classified workers’ union, SEIU 1021, spoke at the meeting against the development, raising concerns that the properties were leased for a small amount of money, likely unaffordable to school employees and not utilized for educational purposes.

The leases were likely considerably below market rate for the two properties, which was for 65-years, with permission for the developers to extend the agreements for an additional 10 years.

One property, the former Tilden Child Development Center, at 4551 Steele St. near Mills College, was leased for $3,000 a month. The other property, the former site of Edward Shands Adult School, at 2455 Church St. next to the mall at Eastmont Town Center, was leased for $4,000 a month. Allowing for inflation, the cost of the leases will increase by 3% per year.

According to Hutchinson, there was only one bid for the Tilden property and the Shands site was not awarded to the highest bidder.

The Oakland Post has requested videos of the last two school board meetings, as well as copies of the final leases that were modified at last week’s board meeting. The Post also requested copies of appraisals for the two properties, the public notice that the district sent to developers and copies of all the bids submitted by developers.

As of Wednesday, the Post has not received any documents from the school district.

The developer, Eagle Environmental Construction, is a Black-owned firm. According to plans, the deal now pledges that at least 50% of the units will go to teachers and other school workers.

The plans also include space to Cypress Mandela, a local job-training program, and also for a hub for the Black Cultural Zone.

However, lease opponents are skeptical whether these promises will actually come to pass.

“There is nothing in the lease itself about providing the space to the cultural zone, and there are no penalties imposed if teacher and other workforce housing, isn’t built” Hutchinson said.

“I have serious concerns about the legality of the process,” he said. “I have no issues with Eagle Environmental Construction, and I support the Black Cultural Zone. But my responsibility is to manage our public resources and there are no guarantees that the marginal benefits will ever be provided.”

At Shands, the developers plan to build 68 units of housing and other commercial space. At the site of Tilden, the developer wants to build 20 two- and three-bedroom townhouses.

“We never really got on the same page about how we are balancing the competing goals of community benefit, revenue generation and affordable housing,” Board President Gonzales said told Oaklandside.

“Why isn’t this going to be an adult education training center? Why is this going to be turned into workforce housing when we heard our workforce can‘t afford it and don’t want to live there,” said Hutchinson at the meeting, quoted in Oaklandside.

Teacher union representative Vilma Serrano, also quoted in Oaklandside, urged the district to use the properties to rebuild adult education programs. “I ask the Board to vote no… and instead to take the time next year to be able to respond to the concerns and questions raised by (teacher union) members as well as Oakland community members.”

Board member Gary Yee, quoted in Oaklandside, supported the development because “We have an opportunity to clean up the blight, to hire local contractors, (and) to hire young people from our schools,” he said. “Sure, we have an opportunity to earn a little bit of money, but the money is the last part of this. The main thing for me is to be a good partner to our neighbors.”

Isabelle Price

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.