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4, RéckridgeNews

The Origins of RCPC; 1970-86

Newcomers to Rockridge frequently ask about the origins and purpose
of the Rockridge Community Plonning Council (RCPC), Below is a

December 2, 2000

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from The Rockridge News, july (2, 1986, Author Andrea Gabrie!
wos o Rockridge resident active in RCPC. She loter moved to Marin

history af the first (6 yeors of the community orgonization, reprinted

A Look at
Rockridge and
The Rockridge
Community
Planning Council

by Andrea Gabriel
he Rockridge community Planning

Council — RCPC — ts a acighbor-
hood organization whose purpose ts
to promote communily involvement in
neighborhood planaing and zoning, traffic
control, and area development, and to
combat community deterioration, In addi-
tion, RCPC serves as a haison between
the community and the Oakland Plan-
ning Commission. Formed in 1970 as
an organized effort to resist rezoning
for construction of a highrise apartment
complex, RCPC has thrived through active
participation and cooperation by neighbors
and merchants,

Pi to 1970, Rockridge — a com-

munity bounded by Berkeley to the
North and Northeast, Broadway to the East,
Sist Street to the South, and Telegraph
Avenue to the West — was a middle class
working community with Chabot Canyon
and Temescal Creek as recreation areas
and College Avenue a major shopping
area. Most of the homes were built as
single-lumly dwellings. With the comple-
uon of the Grove-Shaller Freeway, about
1,400 properties, mostly homes. had been
destroyed, the shopping sector was split in
half and many businesses had disappeared
The Canyon and Creek were gone, buried
under tons of cement and Fill.

In November. 1970, a group of develop-
ers calling themselves the Rockridge
Neighborhood Committee issued a report
to the Oakland City Council requesting
rezoning around the BART station area to
allow construction of an 83-unit highrise
apartment complex. Alarmed neighbors
and local groups banded together to secure
a plan for future development that reflected
the neighborhood's wishes

In January, I97L, more than 400
residents met at an Oukland Planning
Commission heanng to vore opposition to
the proposed development and to request a
rezoning moratorium and a planning study.
Later that month, various neighborhood
groups organized themselves into the
Rockridge Community Planning Council
and elected Ted Burton chairman.

With help trom the Telegraph Avenue
Neighburhooxd Association — TANG —
the grassroots movement gradually grew,
and in April a well-organized, widely
publicized meeting was held. A petition
requesting funds for a planning study
in the Rockridge Area was circulated
and a vole was taken in favor of a Build-
ing moratorium, The College Avenue
Merchants Association — CAMA — at
that time more pro-dewelopment, advocated
development and rezoning but agreed to
cooperate with RCPC

a 1972, pressure by RCPC loosened
HUD funds forthe planning study from

a reluctant Oakland City Council. In late
1973, the authers of the study, Gruen
and Gruen and Associates, suggested
five alternatives for the neighborhood: 1)
minimum growth, maximum preservation,
tiered low-rise apartments; 31 low-

rise development West of College Avenue;
3) high-rise apartment clusters around the
BART station, 5) high-rise density and
development around the BART station. The
study indicated that the Rockridge Area
could support heavy commercialization,
but that without planning, the existing
character of the neighborhood would
deterwri

In June, 1974, RCPC and merchants
came out against a proposed plan to
locate a Taco Bell where College Square

The success of RCPC has
always depended upon
concerned, motivated
people willing to
volunteer their time

county because of on employment restructuring. — Ed.

Attempts to build an
83-unit highrise
apartment near BART
lead to birth of RCPC

now stands, Earlier in the year, RCPC
had organized six sub-nenghborhoods,
elected board members from each one and
developed an effective communications
network. Neighborhood political activity
in and around Rockridge mm 1973 and
1974 caused the City Council to examine
the entire area. In an atmosphere ripe
for change, RCPC, CAMA, and the City
Planning Department worked jointly and
separately that summer lo devise a zoning
plan for Rockridge. Compromises wer
made and by September, the Planning
Department had drawn up a new zoning
policy: R-35, single-family residential,
and C-31, special commercial zone for
College Avenue. The new zoning allowed
for commercial expansion with design and
use limitations to maintain a pedestrian
onented merchant and business area within
areswential community, The new zoning
ordinance passed at the December 10
meeting of the Oakland City Council.

Ihe success of RCPC has always

depended upon concerned, motivated
people willing to volunteer their time,
money, labor and creativity to maintain
an effective neighborhood organization.
Though the late 1970s saw a relaxation in
development after the fervent and persistent
energy directed toward the rezoning plan,
renewed commercial development efforts in
the [980s have mobilized RCPC members
The expansion of Yoshi's restaurant. the
construction of Market Hall. ang the
proposed expansion of Dreyer’s Corpora

lion have renewed the aced to distriburcege

information and stimulate action on these
plans throughoul the Rockridge Area.
RCPC will continue to monitor proposed
development and strive to maintam a high
level of community involvement,