Oakland inclusionary zoning debate reveals costs and benefits

PITTSBURGH — Walnut Capital’s late-in-the-game request to eliminate the requirement that it provide 16 apartments that meet standards of affordability at its 159-unit Caroline project now under construction on McKee Place in central Oakland was bound to generate plenty of pushback from the community and proponents of inclusionary zoning in the city.

That it did in a hearing on Thursday before the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment, in which the development firm’s lawyer, Jonathan Kamin, made clear the request was at least partly motivated by Walnut Capital’s involvement in a lawsuit by the Builders Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh against the city of Pittsburgh over the inclusionary zoning issue over all.

The association had, in its lawsuit filed in 2022, challenged Pittsburgh’s IZ policy. A federal court had dismissed the lawsuit in November, but in order for future lawsuits to be filed, developers have to exhaust all options to try to get around the policy, including Walnut Capital’s asking for an exemption on the project. The project is already well under construction and expected to be completed and open as a student housing project in fall 2027.