On a clear day, the view from Jack London Square’s waterfront is postcard-perfect: pastel house boats, sails clustered in the harbor, the bay glistening.

But some residents are concerned that will all get blotted out by a 26-story tower.

San Francisco developer Ellis Partners has secured permits for an apartment high-rise on a parcel abutting its new Water Street Market, now a parking lot at Harrison and Embarcadero streets with an unobstructed sight-line. If it’s constructed, the 293-foot-tall building would overshadow much of the bustling waterfront district.

Some residents worry it will make Jack London look like an exclusive enclave.

“The prevailing character here is old and low,” said Ben Delaney, longtime president of the neighborhood’s volunteer Jack London District Association. He and other residents are struggling to preserve the grittier elements of an area once dominated by warehouses and produce merchants.

Delaney said he’s happy to see new residents and high-end retail move in, but he doesn’t believe that an economic growth spurt requires a burst in height.

“We’re not antidevelopment,” he said. “We’re for appropriate development.”

“Appropriate,” to Delaney, means low- and mid-rise buildings that won’t disrupt the existing waterfront architecture.

So far, members of the association have found themselves largely overruled by investors and city officials who are trying to expedite an economic boom. While the players seem to agree that density is good for the area, they don’t have a unified vision of what it will look like.

“Half the community wanted height,” Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney said, adding that the proposed 26-story tower created a rift among residents before it got approval from the council and planning commission in July. McElhaney is relieved the area is attracting interest after years of resembling a ghost town.

Nonetheless, she’s prepared for more wrangling in the years ahead.

Height battles

As Oakland becomes a hotbed for development, it’s also inheriting many of the land-use battles that have plagued San Francisco. And many of them boil down to height.

After garnering a conditional use permit for the roughly 26-story site, Ellis Partners got permission to build a high-rise of about 17 stories at Broadway and the Embarcadero, again rankling neighbors who pushed for lower, bulkier buildings. Another developer, UrbanCore, spurred similar disputes when it floated plans for a 25-story edifice at 12th Street and Second Avenue, near Lake Merritt. According to the city’s strategic planning manager, Edward Manasse, that proposal remains under discussion, and Delaney said the conflict is mostly about whom the building will serve. UrbanCore didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Height limits vary from neighborhood to neighborhood in Oakland, and the city has made efforts to relax them in areas that are primed for development, such as the spine of Broadway and the Jack London Square waterfront. Having that flexibility is important for an area that’s trying to court new investment, said Ellis Partners co-founder Jim Ellis. To him, the worst thing Oakland can do right now is “unduly tax” housing developments before they happen, and thereby stymie its own growth.

But tall buildings have incited conflict in San Francisco and Oakland because they affect the landscape, providing a luxury for those who can afford to live there, seemingly at the expense of everyone else.

In San Francisco, height fights helped pass a 2014 ballot measure that requires voter approval for every new building on Port of San Francisco property that surpasses the city’s limits. No such rule exists in Oakland, though developers are encouraged to meet with community members before they get a tall building approved. Ellis Partners held meetings with Jack London Square residents during the summer before obtaining the permit for its 26-story building.

These could be the first of many battles, Delaney said, as “San Francisco’s problems migrate across the bridge.”

Jack London changes

Ellis Partners leased its first Jack London Square properties from the Port of Oakland in 2001; 14 years later, it owns most of the buildings along a nine-block commercial corridor.

During that period, the square transformed from an industrial hinterland to an up-and-coming neighborhood. New loft apartments, trendy coffee shops and artisanal restaurants sprang up, and the old produce district gradually dwindled. Now it’s likely that many of those merchants will move to San Leandro or the Army Base in West Oakland, Delaney said.

That causes anxiety for residents who want to preserve the neighborhood’s character. Plaques affixed to garbage cans bear sketches of the historic buildings; the Jack London District Association made one of them its official logo.

To Delaney and others, building height is synonymous with new wealth. Ellis Partners increased the value of its properties by securing the entitlements to build high, and some residents suspect they might just sell those rights to someone else.

“The big concern is the precedent it sets,” Delaney said.

But to McElhaney, new development could be a great equalizer.

“My thinking is, if we provide high-end residential units that an affluent family can afford, then maybe they’ll want to live there rather than in an old Victorian in West Oakland,” she said. She hopes that might relieve some of the “displacement pressure” that afflicts San Francisco.

Yet she, too, is wary of changing the square too dramatically. “We don’t want to see the waterfront become an alley of high-end condos,” McElhaney said. “That’s not going to happen.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com