A Small Yet Important Victory in San Leandro

Members of Labor, Congregations Organizing for Renewal, other residents, Urban Habitat and representatives from many of our allies, including EBASE, TALC, EBHO, and UC-Berkeley's Center for Community Innovation packed San Leandro City Council chambers so full that there was standing room only by the time the meeting began.

Due in large part to a big turn-out on Monday night, the San Leandro City Council has agreed to consider amending the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) for the Transit Oriented Development near the San Leandro BART Station. The ENA is the first step in the largest development anticipated in San Leandro’s downtown and the amendment would lay out a clear public process by which the Master Developer would be required to have open meetings with community, labor and other stakeholders at least four times before it brings an application for the project.

This is the critical stage- when architects are hired and designs are drawn up and inserting a clear and transparent public process at such an early stage in the project development process would be a major shift in how development occurs in San Leandro and across the Bay Area.

The meetings would cover such topics as: