Feds probe West Oakland development for racial bias on pollution

A warehouse on the former Oakland Army Base shown in 2009 was among the buildings slated for a redevelopment project that’s now being investigated. A warehouse on the former Oakland Army Base shown in 2009 was among the buildings slated for a redevelopment project that’s now being investigated. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Feds probe West Oakland development for racial bias on pollution 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency have opened an investigation into whether the approval process behind an industrial development in West Oakland was racially discriminatory because of high levels of air pollution that are expected to seep into the surrounding community.

Oakland officials approved the Northeast Gateway development, a 256,000-square-foot warehouse for processing and transporting cargo, in October. Dozens of truck docks and truck trailer parking stalls will be included on the site of the former Oakland Army Base near the bayfront at Maritime Street and West Grand Avenue when it opens this fall.

The investigation will focus on whether the construction approvals — and the broader public participation process for developing the former Army base — discriminated against black, Latino and Asian American residents in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act, according to a letter sent Tuesday by the federal agencies to Mayor Libby Schaaf and Michael Colbruno, a port commissioner.

The letter doesn’t specify how the process may have been discriminatory. But the investigation was requested in April by the San Francisco law firm Earthjustice and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, a community group. Their complaint alleged that city and port officials pushed through expanded freight activities at the Army base without analyzing or trying to mitigate negative health and environmental impacts.

“Even as the community was saying this isn’t what we want and we don’t want more truck traffic, the city was pursuing that avenue,” said Adenike Adeyeye, a senior researcher and policy analyst at the law firm. “Being exposed to a lot of exhaust from trucks affects people’s entire systems — heart, lungs, brain — and can have devastating impacts.”

Mike Zampa, a spokesman for the port, said his agency will cooperate with the investigation and is working to reduce diesel fuel emissions.

Claudia Cappio, an assistant city administrator, said Oakland takes the review “extremely seriously” and will cooperate, as well.

“We fully recognize the disproportionate industrial impacts on the West Oakland community,” Cappio said. She said the area has gone through a typical public vetting process, and as evidence she cited an environmental impact review from 2002, and a 2012 addendum.

At a groundbreaking ceremony last year, Schaaf and Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents West Oakland, hailed the development as an engine of economic opportunity in the neighborhood.

Oakland officials have long known that air pollution and associated health problems are higher in low-income, minority neighborhoods because of poor housing conditions and proximity to industrial plants. Black children under age 5 in Alameda County are six times as likely as white children to be hospitalized for asthma emergencies, according to a city report published in March that looked at public health data.

Schaaf and Colbruno have 30 days to respond in writing to the federal agencies.

The federal probe comes just weeks after an Alameda County civil grand jury slammed the Oakland City Council for failing to abide by state and local laws governing open meetings, saying that officials engaged in “backroom dealing” as they negotiated with developers over public land sales.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov