Oakley, Knightsen

City and Unincorporated Town,

Contra Costa County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94548, 94561

A farm town, Oakley started going suburban about 25 years ago and although it still has vineyards and miles of farmland at its borders, it is now appropriate to describe it as suburb of Greater San Francisco. www.mccormacks.com

Population 35,646 and growing. Crime low, school rankings rising. Improvements have  been made to Highway 4, the main commute road, but it still irritates many. At Pittsburg, the road narrows from six to four lanes, creating a bottleneck that backs up traffic not only at peak commute hours but on weekends.

Another cause of Highway 4 congestion: Willow Pass, a steep ascent over the hills dividing the East County from the Central. The pass has been widened and lowered; it still slows traffic.

School rankings, for the most part, middling plus, about the 60^th percentile. Teens move up to Freedom High in the Liberty High School District. Freedom students are scoring about the 70^th percentile, top 30 percent in the state. The rankings indicate that demographically Oakley is moving into middle-class plus.

Click for regional or detailed map

Knightsen is a farming hamlet that sits on Oakley’s southeast corner. Knightsen has its own elementary district with two schools, one of them opened in 2008 to serve new homes around Discovery Bay.

The Oakley and Knightsen elementary districts are arguing over attendance boundaries for housing on the east side of Oakley or housing to be annexed to Oakley.

The Antioch School District bites off some of north Oakley. This district is building another elementary school in the Oakley area. www.mccormacks.com

Check with the local schools to find out which schools your children will attend.

Knightsen is what East Contra Costa was — orchards and cultivated fields spread for miles across the Delta. Many people acknowledge that more housing will be built but they want to preserve some farms.

Up until 1999, Oakley was an unincorporated town controlled by the county government. Divided by Highway 4, Oakley, with few exceptions, came across as sleepy and rundown. If you drive the main street today, the business section still looks worn out.

But looks are deceiving and changes are coming.

Unincorporated towns, as opposed to legal cities, have a hard time taking the initiative in shaping development. The planning and zoning powers reside with the county and although Contra Costa County has professional planners, these people wait on developers to submit plans and then react — a generalization with exceptions. www.mccormacks.com

In the 1980s, when developers moved into Oakley, the county processed their plans, made changes and allowed the construction of master-planned subdivisions that in many ways are indistinguishable from what is found in Antioch and Brentwood.

But Antioch and Brentwood were much more aggressive in seeking out stores and businesses — which boost local tax revenues — with the result that they got a lot and Oakley got little.

In 1999, Oakley voted to incorporate as a legal city, in control of its own planning, and able to make improvements. Among these are plans to overhaul the downtown, a job that is not going to happen overnight because typically cities try to retain the businesses they have while introducing changes.

Oakley today — a downtown that looks old and needs work surrounded by modern subdivisions, well maintained, whose residents shop in other towns, mainly Antioch and Brentwood.

Near Lone Tree Way and the Highway 4 Bypass, close to Oakley, Antioch has built a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot, a Barnes and Noble Bookstore, a Trader Joe's, large supermarkets and other stores. www.mccormacks.com

When you buy in Oakley, you in effect “buy” into the towns of the East County. The homes are located in one town, the shopping and amusements, including movie complexes, often in another. Oakley, not completely left, out has opened two new supermarkets and small stores.

The state tally in 2010 showed 11,104 residential units: 10,039 single homes, 84 single attached, 560 apartments, 421 mobiles.

New developments priced for the middle class often bring in many young families, many playmates. The schools are new and built to modern standards and parents like this.

In 2004, Oakley approved a $16.5 million bond to build two more elementary schools. One was opened in 2006, the other in 2007. See Schools.

As more homes are built, the elementary district plans to erect seven schools.

East County school districts employ different schedules. Call the individual district for the calendars. www.mccormacks.com

County chipped in $345,000 to upgrade the library at Freedom High School and open it for community use.

Some Oakley tracts are right on Delta. Fishing, boating, water sports. Wine festival. Almond Festival. Holy Ghost Festival. Quick ride up to the Sierra. The town has several ball fields, located at the schools, and a small library in the old town. Homeowners pay a tax of about $30 a year for parks and recreation. Marina.

City contracts with sheriff's office for protection. Zero homicides in 2008 and 2007, one in 2006, zero between 2005 and 2003,  one in 2002, zero in 2001. In 2006, a 14-year-girl was murdered. Police arrested a boy, age 17, whom the court later found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. See Crime.

BART station near Pittsburg helps ease the commute but Highway 4 is often congested. And so are the local streets. www.mccormacks.com

Vasco Road to Livermore and Interstate 580 has been much improved. New money will accelerate the widening of Highway 4 but this job will take years.

Chamber of commerce (925) 625-1035.

• If you are shopping for homes in Oakley, visit the other communities and drive the outskirts toward Bethel Island. Many maps are out of date and don’t show new tracts.

Keep in mind that the farm land that charms the eye may be covered with tracts in 10 years. For more information on what’s coming, contact city hall.

• The Burlington-Northern runs its trains along the east side of Oakley, the Union Pacific on the west side. Check out the noise. The cities are working with the Union Pacific to provide commute trains to the BART station at Pittsburg. www.mccormacks.com

• Oakley sponsors fishing tournaments that draw many. The town is promoting itself as a great destination for the fishing crowd.

• Many homes in East Contra Costa have seen their values erode because of the mess in sub prime loans. For housing shoppers, many units on market, owners willing to bargain.

• Developers want to build 4,500 housing units. Oakley has approved about 1,300 units. An environmental group has sued the city, arguing that valuable farm land would be lost, drinking water polluted and residents imperiled if the levees failed. Oakley officials counter that they will impose conditions to strengthen the levees and protect the quality of life. Almost assuredly Oakley will build more homes; how many remains to be seen.

• For years the YMCA ran a exercise club in Oakley and was planning to expand the facility because it was popular. In 2010, however, the Y announced it was closing the facility — the recession.

Oakley School District (Elem): www.ouesd.k12.ca.us

Liberty High School District: www.libertyuhsd.k12.ca.us

City web site: www.ci.oakley.ca.us

March 7, 2010