The West Oakland Redevelopment Project Area includes all of West Oakland except for previous West Oakland redevelopment areas of Acorn and Oak Tree. On July 25, 2000, The City Council approved Resolution No. 75903 CMS designating this area as a "Redevelopment Survey Area" for the purpose of considering it as a potential redevelopment site.
From an email from Bruce Beasely, Chair of the South Prescott Neighborhood Association to the Oakland Redevelopment Agency in response to the circulation of the Administrative Draft of the Preliminary Redevelopment Plan for the Proposed West Oakland Project Area:
"I have been a West Oakland activist and resident for forty years. I have participated in four failed attempts to Redevelopment prior to this one. It was the failure to sufficiently deal with eminent domain that was the reason the previous efforts failed to gain community support. In the ocmmunity meeting about the current redevelopment plan that I attended eminent domain was the issue that created fear and concern.
Without removing the use of eminent domain from owner occupied dwellings and artists live-work [sic]. there is no chance that the community will support redevelopment. West Oakland has particular issues that make eminent domain particularly sensitive. The mixed use nature of West Oakland makes the residential community fearful of displacement by the business community, the business community fears displacement or unlivable restrictions from the residential community, and the residents of South Prescott fear that a whole consortium of factions want to remove them to put in high density development around the BART station. While some of these fears may seem exaggerated to some, they are all grounded in reality." [6/17/01, in a group of emails attached to the end of the document "Oakland City Planning Commission Staff Report: West Oakland Redevelopment Project, July 11, 2001" available at the Oakland History Room]
