“For the most part, building in Oakland has stopped. Initially, from the downturn in the economy, then the money dried up from the banks and even our small developers and small general contractors, who were doing remodels, their projects have dried up “ was the message from the Oakland Builders’ Alliance, a local nonprofit started in 2008 by a former staffer of city councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who attended the Nov 10th rally, held on the steps of city hall.

Formed by a group of local builders, including Terra Linda CEO and Oakland Building Alliance Chair Carlos Plazola,  Joe DeCredico, a principal with Berkeley-based GDeS Architecture, and Kathy Kuhner of Dogtown Development, OBA’s November 10th rally on the steps of city hall put forth proposals that they said would result in $4.6 million in city permits and 2,000 construction jobs over the next two years. The rally attracted an audience of about 50 people, and lots of press.

Plazola told the crowd, “These initiatives are what we've come up with over the last six months. The city is helping us implement these and these are real,” but the reality is that the proposals all require either a city council vote, or adoption by the city’s Office of Economic Development

Proposed initiatives include

• finding a way to make it easier to have developers secure building permits
• expanding the Mills Act, a rehabilitation tax credit program
• offering permit extensions that allow developers more time to finance projects
• creating an amnesty program for homes and buildings that were completed without permits that would allow the owner to bring their property up to code without penalty
• creating a new policy that would not require developers to pay all city development and permitting fees upfront
• allowing contractors to self-certify small projects as long as those projects didn't include any serious safety issues.

Given that Oakland has a major budget deficit looming, it’s hard to think about the city deferring fees, even to spur jobs, but some of the proposals in the OBA call to action are really just tweaks to efficiency, something the city sorely needs in many areas of operation.

On the other hand, Plazola himself has been an object of some controversy, what with 2008 accusations of undisclosed lobbying that drew much discussion from local policy watchers--does that weaken the OBA's activities-or prove he's an activist?   What do you all think?