If you looked at an early map of Oakland, you wouldn’t see “Lake Merritt”; instead there would be a marsh known as San Antonio Slough. In 1869 a dam was built that divided this slough from the bay (except for a narrow channel), protecting the shoreline from seasonal flooding. The City began acquiring land around the lake in the 1890s, gradually turning the area into Lakeside Park.

Soon a bandstand was built, with regular concerts featured, and people rented boats by the hour (much as they do today) or took rides through the park in horse-drawn carriages. In more recent years, the annual Festival of the Lake attracted what was arguably the most diverse crowd seen at any Bay Area festival, with as many as 100,000 people of all ages gathering to enjoy a wide variety of music, art, and other entertainment.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Lake Merritt is to Oakland what Central Park is to New York or Golden Gate Park is to San Francisco, and what the Los Angeles River is becoming to that city’s people. Lake Merritt’s southern shoreline, however, has long been a problem. While greenery and a trail surround the rest of the lake, there only a narrow, dirty strip of sand runs along the water. The walking trail is interrupted. A sidewalk runs across the dam, flanked on one side by a dozen lanes of fast moving traffic. Just across this “mini freeway” are the historic Kaiser Convention Center, the Oakland Museum, and the Lake Merritt Channel, which connects the lake to the Oakland Estuary. To get to these, however, you have to negotiate a dirty, wet, malodorous tunnel under the 12-lane roadway.

The City is now looking at two competing proposals to improve that section of the lake’s edge. The first, by the Roman Catholic Church, calls for a glass and steel cathedral overlooking the water. The second, by a group of local activists, would reduce the width of the roadway and increase the amount of greenery and sand at the lake’s edge. These are two vastly different choices. Either would have a major effect on the future of this treasured public park.

Last spring, the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church came to the City with a proposal to construct a replacement for the cathedral that had stood at San Pablo Avenue and 21st Street but was torn down after being heavily damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The church’s architect, Santiago Calatrava of Zurich, suggested building on the parking lot of the City-owned Kaiser Convention Center, which offers a magnificent view of the lake. The 170-foot-tall structure would be surrounded by a three-acre grand plaza that would span the road and reach all the way to the water’s edge. City officials responded favorably to this proposal. The church had already raised $58 million toward the $80 million project.

A group of local residents became alarmed. They had recently fought off two attempts by the City to sell public land near the lake to private developers, and saw this as yet another threat to the park. They formed the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM) and drew up an alternative proposal that would increase the amount of green space next to the lake by reconfiguring the roadway and allow for better pedestrian access from the lake to the convention center, museum, and channel. They suggested that a bond act be put before the city’s voters to help fund this project, which they estimated might cost up to $60 million, and argued that federal and state funds might also be found.

Both sides have actively lobbied the mayor’s office, city council members, and staff. At the turn of the year, the City was planning to convene a committee of architects, landscape architects, and planners to examine the proposals.

The controversy is taking place at the same time that the City is starting to draw up a $500,000 master plan covering Lakeside Park and nearby public spaces. According to Kerry Jo Ricketts-Ferris, project manager for the master plan of the City’s Life Enrichment Agency, any decision the City Council makes on the cathedral or CALM proposals will take precedence over the master plan.

Advocates of the cathedral and the green space proposals argue that their plans will create valuable public space and connect Lakeside Park to the estuary. “(The cathedral plaza) is going to be really high quality publicly accessible open space,” says Norm Tuttle, attorney for the Diocese. The new cathedral, which would serve parishioners from Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, would become a signature building for the city, he contends. The plaza would be open to the public, and the cathedral building would be available for concerts, lectures, and other nonreligious events.

CALM member James Vann, an architect who helped design his group’s proposal, said his team, made up of volunteers, wants to complete the greenbelt and walking trail around the lake. The CALM design calls for pedestrian-activated traffic lights to allow people to cross the roadway more easily and get from the lakeshore to the Oakland Museum, the Convention Center, and to parklands along the channel. “We wanted to reunite those facilities,” which the road has cut off from the lake, he said.

CALM claims that the land the church wants was bought by the City as part of a 1907 bond measure and that it would be illegal to sell it without holding another election. This is contested in a report by the city attorney’s office, which states that it is “unclear” whether the bond money was actually used to buy the land at the lake’s southern shore, and that even if it was, the bonds were paid off long ago. “Once paid, bond imposed restrictions are released,” according to this report. CALM disputes those contentions, and the matter could well wind up court. The real issue extends beyond the legal arguments, however. Oaklanders care passionately about their lake and surrounding park, and have vigorously fought any and all perceived threats.

So far, there has been just one public meeting on the Diocese and CALM proposals, but the matter will have to go through extensive review by the Planning Commission and the City Council, both of which will hold public hearings before making any decisions. Which plan the City chooses—if it accepts either one—will dramatically alter the character of Lake Merritt.

Bill O’Brien, a freelancer who lives in Oakland, reports frequently on urban and environmental issues.