Oakland, CA – Tonight the full Oakland City Council will hear and take action on Oakland’s 3-year street paving plan. This 3-year paving plan is different than past paving plans as the framework prioritize streets for repaving based on equity, street condition, and traffic safety. Currently, as it stands, not many streets will be paved in Oakland’s hills, specifically in Districts 1 and 4.
This Three-Year Paving Plan is a $100M construction investment in pavement rehabilitation and preventative maintenance for Oakland roadways. The City of Oakland, Oakland City Council Public Works Committee approved the staff recommendation that 75 percent of plan dollars be prioritized for rehabilitating local streets and 25 percent prioritized for rehabilitation and preventative maintenance on major streets.
The original proposal by staff allocated a 5 percent set-aside for Oakland Councilmembers to pave roads that were left out of the three-year plan at their discretion, each of the 7 districts and 1 at-large Oakland City Council seat, would have had an approximately $470,000 each. On Tuesday, April 23rd, staff acknowledged that $1 million equates to an approximate 1 mile of newly paved roadway.
Oakland Councilmember Sheng Thao (District 4) offered an amendment that more than double District Councilmember’s discretionary fund to $1 million each and the At-Large Member to $500,000. The Thao amendment was adopted by a unanimous vote (Councilmember Gallo (District 5) was excused from this hearing).
“I appreciated what the Department of Transportation presented, I fully support using an equity framework for developing this and all of Oakland’s investments” said Thao in a statement after the hearing. “But this plan leaves a whole lot of Oaklanders out, and I am glad my colleagues agreed with me that Councilmember’s, who are in their districts every day, can help pave some of the roads that were omitted from the Departments plan.”
The Public Works Committee voted to advance the three-year plan without removing one street from the proposal but increased Council discretion acknowledging the plan, while robust, had gaps. The three-year plan will be heard by the full Council on tonight, Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at Oakland City Hall for a final vote.