OAKLAND — Activists are trying to convince city officials that the prime downtown spot where the closed Clay Street Garage sits should be used for affordable housing instead of offices.

The 29,000-square-foot garage at Clay and 14th streets was closed about a year and a half ago because of seismic safety concerns.

The structure should be demolished and the site used for an office building, the city’s transportation and economic and workforce development department officials recommended in a March report.

But housing activists hope to see it turned over to an affordable housing developer, given the city’s rising rents.

“We really need to be looking at what is the best use from a public policy standpoint and not just an economic standpoint at this site,” Jeffrey Levin of East Bay Housing Organizations said at an April committee meeting.

After housing activists pressed their point at City Council committee meetings, the council directed staff to explore how feasible it would be to build affordable or market-rate housing at the site. That report is scheduled to go before the Public Works Committee on July 10.

The city’s report on the status of the Clay Street Garage was requested by Councilmember Larry Reid. Although the site has been vacant and unusable since December 2016, staff “is not going to rush” to figure out the best use for the garage and will foster community engagement, Oakland spokesman Harry Hamilton told this newspaper.

City staff’s recommendation to develop the site into an office building is based in part on a feasibility study by Wildan Financial Services and Kimley-Horn and Associates. The city commissioned the companies to look into demolishing the building and replacing it with a mixed-use development featuring office space or a hotel, ground-floor retail and possibly public parking.

If the site were to be developed into an office complex and the garage’s parking spots not replaced, the city could stand to make about $4.3 million, according to the study.

The suggestion also is based on the “high cost of construction for public parking and the lack of capital funds to support it,” the report said.

The study also looked into the possibility of the developed site making up for the 355 public parking spots that the Clay Street Garage once provided. City officials determined the site would not need to make up for that parking because the Transportation Department has been successfully redirecting visitors to the Dalziel Garage at 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza and monthly parking permit holders to City Center West at 1250 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. When the Dalziel Garage routinely fills up, motorists are directed to City Center West.

“The cost of replacement parking on the site would cost the city millions of dollars even under the best scenario,” the report said.

It would cost the city about $4 million to replace part of the garage’s 355 parking spots with an office building.

While options for the Clay Street Garage are being considered, the city is developing a public land use policy that could alter its suggestion; the policy is scheduled to be discussed by the City Council in June.

The policy would guide all public land sales and leases, and could increase the amount of money developers must pay in impact fees and require them to enter into labor agreements and other community benefit agreements.