OAKLAND — A 634-apartment and retail development that will change the city’s downtown skyline and promises to provide hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenue hit a bump in the road on the home stretch through the city’s planning process.

Facing the threat of an appeal that could prove costly and delay the project for months or more, the Planning Commission held back from approving the proposed 40-story tower at 1314 Franklin St. at its April 5 meeting to allow the developer and community groups a couple of weeks to bridge their differences.

So the proposal was continued to the next Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, when it is likely to be forwarded to the City Council for final approval.

Even those who were critical of some aspects of the developer’s work supported the proposal in general.

Carmel Partners, which is already building 330 market-rate apartments at Fourth and Madison streets in Jack London Square, is proposing a 40-story apartment tower atop a 7-story platform of retail space and two levels of parking surrounding an inner courtyard. The project would occupy an entire city block a short walk from the 12th Street BART station.

The development’s 634 apartments are more than any other of the many projects in the pipeline for Oakland. At the Planning Commission’s meeting, dozens of speakers praised the project, touting a variety of benefits it would provide.

The project would replace the Merchants Parking Garage between 13th and 14th streets, Webster and Franklin streets.

Several speakers, including the developer’s Greg Christopher, said a large residential project could deter crime and violence in an ares that becomes desolate at night and on weekends.

Lina Torio, owner of Oakland Hot Plate at 348 13th St. near the project site, welcomes the idea of more people.

“It’s the darkest corner of Oakland,” she said.

“Safety’s a concern. Having more people downtown is definitely going to help,” said Melissa Axelrod.

Axelrod and William Johnson, her partner in the restaurant Mockingbird soon to reopen at 13th Street at Broadway, both supported the development.

Others spoke of the economic benefit that housing and retail would provide. Building the project will cost more than $200 million, according to Carmel Partners. It will employ 240 to 400 people during the three-year construction.

Annual taxes from the site will increase $3.2 million over what the current garage provides. The projected 1,000 residents of the 634 apartments will spend almost $30 million for goods and services, much of it in Oakland, according to Hausrath Economic Group.

In exchange for the project exceeding by 16 percent the density limit of 545 apartments, the developer proposed either to price 5 percent of the units for very low-income residents or 10 percent for low-income tenants, Robert Merkamp, of the city’s bureau of planning, told the commission. That proposed also earned the project accolades.

“This is exactly the sort of project that Oakland needs,” said Aly Bonde, public policy director of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce.

Others, fearful of a potential economic downturn, cited the need to approve the project without delay.

But that sentiment was not unanimous. The Chinatown Coalition and the Black Arts Movement Business District called for a more concrete set of community benefit agreements. Lailan Sandra Huen of the Chinatown Coalition said that Carmel, unlike other developers her organization has worked with, did not follow through with clear commitments of set levels of affordable housing specified in a written memorandum of understanding.

Carmel Partners promised to return to the table with proposals after meeting with her organization in September and December, she said, but never has.

The project, would do a lot of good, said Eric Arnold of the Black Arts Movement. But he said he was concerned that the number of affordable apartments and amount of impact fees and anti-displacement funds were unclear.

He stressed that the commission and developer should be wary of the costs and delays fighting an appeal of a hasty approval would entail. Absent a clear community benefits agreement, the coalition of more than 60 organizations he and Huen were speaking for would have no alternative but to file an appeal of the project’s approval.

“This should not be looked at as an opportunity for community benefits; housing is a community benefit,” said Matt Regan of the Bay Area Council.