Features

Oakland developer Alan Dones told Peralta Community College trustees Tuesday night that he “came to be a partner, not an adversary,” and was withdrawing his controversial proposal for an agreement to develop Peralta-Laney College lands. 

Following Dones’ dramatic announcement, members of the Peralta Trustee Board audience—many of whom had come out to vocally oppose the proposed agreement—broke into spontaneous applause. 

Several meeting participants, including members of Oakland’s black business and political community, had come with the intention of supporting the Dones proposal. Dones is African-American, and support for his proposal on the trustee board had been divided along racial lines. 

The proposal had appeared on the agenda without Chancellor Elihu Harris’ recommendation of approval. 

Board Vice President Linda Handy, a supporter of the Dones project, asked the trustees to accept the project withdrawal with the understanding it would be reconsidered once the board completes its strategic plan at the end of the year. The resolution was passed unanimously. 

Trustees Nicky Gonzalez Yuen and Cy Gulassa, vocal opponents of the Dones proposal, had argued in earlier meetings that the development of the strategic plan should precede any district development plans. 

With four of its members retiring, the outgoing Peralta Board of Trustees authorized contract negotiations between Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris and Dones at the board’s final meeting last November. The proposed contract would have given Dones and his Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) exclusive one-year rights to come up with a long-term lease and joint development plan for the Peralta administration buildings and the Laney College student-faculty parking lot. 

The plot sits on what may soon become prime development land once the City of Oakland makes bond-authorized improvements to the Lake Merritt Channel, which runs between the Peralta and Laney properties. 

Concerns about commercial development of Laney properties escalated last February after a Laney College meeting in which Dones indicated that he wanted to include land on East 10th Street that had already been set aside to construct Laney’s new Art Building. The Peralta Federation of Teachers also actively opposed the Dones proposal, bringing with them the clout of Alameda County’s powerful labor coalitions. 

In his statement to trustees during the public comment period before the board began considering agenda items, a contrite Dones said that he made his decision “because the process has pretty much degraded, and in light of the chancellor’s stated opposition to my plan.” 

Dones said he was also “offering my assistance as the district moves forward with the strategic plan, and after administrators and faculty and students get the chance to weigh in on this matter, I will be more than happy—should the board desire it—to resubmit my proposal at a later time.” 

Opponents of the Dones plan were quick to praise the developer for withdrawing his proposal before the vote and offering an olive branch of peace. 

Trustee Cy Gulassa said, “I have always felt Mr. Dones was a man of great integrity and responsibility, and in my talks with labor representatives, they all say that they hold you in high regard. I hope that we can work together in the future as partners.” 

Evelyn Lord, president of the Laney Faculty Senate that had passed several resolutions against the Dones plan, offered “thanks and appreciation to Mr. Dones for having the integrity to step forward tonight and make this announcement. I look forward to perhaps working with him in the future on campus projects.” 

Sharon Cornu, executive director of the Alameda Central Labor Council, said, “I suspect at some future point my organization will be back here to support some project Mr. Dones is working on.” 

And while Dones and development proposal opponents were talking peace, supporters of the Dones proposal got off a few parting shots in what had been a bitter and often racially divided lobbying campaign. 

Local business leader Geoffrey Pete, chairman of the Oakland Black Caucus, complained that African-Americans have been left out of Peralta’s ongoing multi-million dollar Vista College building project in Berkeley despite support for the Vista project by African-American business and political leaders. 

“Where is the outrage at that?” he said. “Or is outrage reserved against African-American developers only? Let’s make sure that the causal reason that cost SUDA this contract isn’t the same one that has left African-Americans out of the Vista project.” 

(Pete is the cousin of the author of this story.) 

Chancellor Harris announced for the first time that he opposed the Dones proposal and criticized what he called “misinformation” about the plan. 

“There was a lot of hoopla in the community that this was a proposal to sell Peralta and Laney land,” Harris said. “That was incorrect. The sale of the land was never in the proposal. It was a joint-use agreement.” 

›