The Beer Garden
[Part of the Reimagining the Vacant Triangular Lot at Claremont & College series]
by Andrew Krulewitz
Last summer I started wondering what could be done, quickly, to prevent the vacant triangle from remaining fallow. Ideally, it would be something that benefits residents and local businesses alike, incentivizes the landowner, generates tax revenue for the city and strengthens our sense of community. As a young parent with two energetic kids, the answer was obvious: a family-friendly beer garden.
After getting some enthusiastic feedback from friends and neighbors, I took the idea to an RCPC Community Vision Plan session, where I mentioned it to another Rockridge resident who happened to know the landowners. He told them about the idea and their response was: “As long as you don’t pave the lot, we’re open to proposals.” That was all that I needed to begin exploring how it might be possible to activate the site quickly for use prior to long-term development.
First, the Alameda County Environmental Health Department pointed me to similar properties that had been repurposed, including a pop-up beer garden in the Laurel that is also located on an old gas station. With ACEHD’s help, a comparative soil analysis showed that our local lot is overall less impacted than the Laurel site, alleviating a major concern.
Next, the City of Oakland planning department kindly explained that even my temporary shipping container taproom idea would incur costly permits, so they suggested special event permits as a more practical alternative.
City of Oakland special event permits allow any one organization to schedule up to 10 three-day events in a year. A pop-up community beer garden run from a tap truck—with picnic tables, benches, planter boxes and kids’ play space—could operate every other weekend from May through September.
Unfortunately, even with just the bare minimum site improvements, the math doesn’t work. But, if we’re upgrading the space anyway, why not maximize its use for many different types of events under the same special permit structure, thus accelerating the payback of the initial investment?
That’s where you come in: What else would you want to see hosted at the corner of College and Claremont? Summer movie nights, makers markets and concerts are all ideas that have already been suggested. The plan is to form a non-profit (or partner with an existing one) to lead site improvements and manage the beer garden.This entity would act as an anchor tenant and make the site available to other community groups to sponsor their own events.
Learn more, get involved and stay up to date at: rockridgecommons.org.
