Report on the First Two Meetings for the View Corridor Study

Two preliminary meetings for the View Corridor study took place recently attended by representatives of CALM, Oakland Heritage Alliance, Oakland Builders Alliance, and a representative from the City’s Landmarks Board. Both meetings were conducted by Laura Kaminski, a planner with the City of Oakland.

The first meeting took place on site along Lakeshore Avenue during which all possible views the Tribune Tower and City Hall were considered. As the first step, this inventory of views does not attempt to eliminate views or make final decisions. It was a modest kick-off allowing us to meet and to photograph and document the views.

The second meeting took place at City offices on February 10th. Ms. Kaminski had made considerable progress on the study and it was apparent to all of us that the City is taking the study seriously.

The 14th Street Corridor Will Be Included in the View Corridor Study

We reviewed several documents including aerial photos and parcel maps with the corridors plotted across them. The photos and maps clearly show the corridors as they traverse parcels in downtown Oakland. We then reviewed a preliminary inventory of views based on the Lakeshore walk which includes eight separate view points in a series of 24 photographs. The commentary for the inventory discusses the factors which contribute to the uniqueness of a given view, the positive/negative aspects of each view, and the quality of each view taking into account whether views are partial or full views of the building being view, i.e., Tribune Tower or City Hall.

We also reviewed preliminary building height limits within the identified view corridors the Central Business District. The preliminary heights were obtained using methodologies similar to Portland and Austin’s height calculation formulas. Both of those cities designated view corridors and building heights using triangulation methods to calculate maximum heights of new buildings while retaining desired views of existing ones.

The high quality of the planning work was evident and everyone was generally pleased with the progress. There was discussion about whether to expand the study more broadly to all parts of Lake Merritt or to the greater central business district. The consensus was, however, because of the on-going budget constraints, especially the spending cuts approved by the City
Council on February 16, and that this is a new type of planning for the City, the limited study is a better approach and will achieve a desired result more quickly.

The first public draft of the study will be presented at the next Landmarks Board meeting on March 8 and then at the Zoning Update Committee on March 18.

Notes on the View Corridor Study

The City of Oakland will soon begin a view corridor study in order to preserve scenic views of downtown. This is occurring at the direction of the City Council in July, 2009. During the downtown rezoning at that time, there was wide spread community support for a view corridor study. Much of that support came from a growing awareness that views of downtown from Lake Merritt were being lost behind the slow but persistent development of high-rise buildings at the edge of Lake Merritt. This was especially true for views of City Hall and the Tribune Tower which could easily be lost forever with the addition of only two or three more high-rises.

Even though view corridors are new to Oakland, they are well known elsewhere. And, because a number of cities, such as Cincinnati,OH (whose study has a number of sections), Austin, TX, and even Sacramento, have conducted them, Oakland won’t need to start from scratch. I think the study that Seattle did for the Space Needle is pretty interesting, too. A review of these studies of other cities is helpful to quickly understand what a view corridor study entails and how such a study is undertaken. Some of the views at Lake Merritt can be seen on Flickr

There are some interesting themes across the studies that are worth mentioning. First, cities often start view studies with a common sense of agreement among constituencies – government, preservation, and development - that preserving views of historic buildings, architecturally-significant structures, and natural features, is worthwhile and has tangible positive benefits for a city. At the same time, the studies typically demonstrate an explicit understanding of the need to strike a balance between view preservation and the development goals of a city.

A second striking feature is how seriously cities approached the task of conducting a view corridor study. Each undertook open processes to ensure that objective criteria were used. From there, they identified and analyzed views, cataloguing the strengths and weakness of specific views, and then producing final reports and recommendations. The use of such objective standards and a public process resulted in high-quality and credible policy and implementation documents. There is a lot that Oakland can learn from the efforts of other cities in this regard.

For example, cities typically conducted an inventory of all possible scenic views with no attempt to eliminate views at the beginning. Views were later evaluated using a set of criteria such as: quality of the object being viewed (historic, or otherwise); the characteristics of the view point (pedestrian oriented, or otherwise); the amenities available at view point (benches, pedestrian, or otherwise); whether a view is seasonal, or year-round (or otherwise), etc. These characteristics were assigned values and final judgments were made whether or not to preserve specific views.

In practice, initial inventories collected baseline information on many more views than were finally selected. For example, Cincinnati began with 93 views, of which 48 were given high ratings. (Note: Cincinnati is older and larger than Oakland, and the topography is hilly with a large river running next to downtown. These features in Cincinnati create views not available within Oakland’s topography.) Likewise, the study for the Space Needle in Seattle began with an initial inventory of 86 separate views. That city eventually designated 10 views for preservation.

We should expect Oakland’s study to unfold in a similar manner, beginning with an inventory of all possible views from Lakeshore Avenue and perhaps other areas at the perimeter of Lake Merritt. While some of the most dramatic views of City Hall and the Tribune Tower are from the park land and walkways along Lakeshore Avenue, there might be other less obvious views to consider. As to finishing the study, no timeline is available yet for the Lake Merritt portion. CALM has suggested that the study might be concluded and forwarded to the City Council for final adoption on or before July, 2010. Keeping to this time table will fulfill the City Council's wish in 2009 to finish the view corridor study in one year.

Next Up - View Corridor Study

Happy New Year everybody and welcome back to Rezone Lake Merritt. As you might recall, when rezoning in the Central Business District last year, the Oakland City Council directed City staff conduct a view corridor study. The study will identify significant views of historic and architecturally significant buildings and determine how views of those buildings might be affected by new-rise development projects. The Council singled out the Tribune Tower and City Hall for special emphasis. You can read more about this on page four, item 12, of the 2009 Rezoning Ordinance. CALM anticipates that a number of well-known and popular view corridors will be designated for preservation, especially between Lakeshore Avenue and the downtown.

The view corridor study will begin soon and CALM will be an active participant. We'll provide details of any meetings, along with reports and graphics as they occur and by way of the "Rezone the Lake" emails from John Klein, similar to last year, and through posts in this blog. The blog will be refomatted slightly soon, also, and will therefore look a little different next time. At that time, in the next week or so, there will be more detailed information regarding the view corridor study.

Please let me know if you'd like to be removed from this email list, or if you know of others who might like to be added to the email list.

On behalf of CALM,
John