By: Darwin BondGraham
Date: June 2, 2015
Related Staff: David Zisser, Samuel P. Tepperman-Gelfant
Attorneys representing Eastlake United for Justice delivered a letter to Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker today warning that they are ready to sue the city to stop construction of a luxury condo tower on city-owned land near Lake Merritt.
According to the attorneys — David Zisser and Sam Tepperman-Gelfant of the nonprofit public interest law firm Public Advocates, Mike Rawson of the Public Interest Law Project, and Dan Siegel of Siegel & Yee — federal, state, and local laws require local governments to offer public lands first to affordable housing developers before offering the land for market-rate development.
The attorneys reviewed public records related to the city’s effort to sell the land to UrbanCore and have concluded that “the City has not complied with many of these requirements.”
The letter concludes: “If the City takes any of these actions without first ensuring full legal compliance, we may ask a court to enforce unfulfilled legal obligations and enjoin the transfer of the parcel.”
