San Pablo Ave Golden Gate Improvement Assn v. City Council Oakland

BACKGROUND

I. CloudKitchens’s Use Classified as Light Manufacturing

In September 2020, CloudKitchens applied to the City’s Planning Department for a zoning clearance to convert a wood shop into a commercial kitchen. CloudKitchens’s submission described the proposed facility as

1 Undesignated references are to the Oakland Municipal Code (OMC).

1 “[c]ompartmentalized commercial kitchens for take-out services only,” measuring roughly 14,000 square feet space. As explained on the City-issued application form, “[a] Zoning Clearance is required for all new or relocated businesses (including change of ownership) in order to verify that the type of business [being proposed] is permitted by the City’s Zoning Regulations at that location.” CloudKitchens’s facility is in a “Housing and Business Mix-1 Commercial Zone” (HBX-1 zone), which permits by right certain industrial activities classified as “Light Manufacturing.” (§ 17.65.030.) One such light manufacturing use enumerated in the OMC is “the production or assembly of: [¶] . . . [¶] (D) [b]everages (including alcoholic) and food . . . with more than ten thousand (10,000) square feet of floor area.” (§ 17.10.560, subd. (D).) Later that…