Oakley to sell building to Skipolini’s

By Chris Campos Correspondent

OAKLEY The city decided to get out of the pizza business Tuesday night. But it will deliver the dough it made to the city’s General Fund.

Acting as the landlord of

3070 Main St. the City Council voted unanimously to sell the property to the current lessee, Skipolini’s Pizza, for $641,714. The Oakley Redevelopment Agency built the building in 2013 to attract business to its budding downtown core. It was home to two previous failed restaurants, Carpaccio’s and Buon Appetito, which struggled to survive at the location. Skipolini’s moved in during the fall of 2020 with a favorable lease from the city running through May 2035.

“I see this as an awesome opportunity for Oakley,” former City Council member Sue Higgins said at the time.

Also, as consideration for terminating the lease early as a result of the sale, the buyer, Kent Ipsen, indicated he would offer almost half of the remain- ing lease payments as part of the sale, which equals $62,500. The family-owned restaurant chain has six other locations in Northern California with one in Reno, as well. The firm expected to invest $600,000 to $750,000 in building improvements at the site when it moved in.

City Manager Josh McMurray told the Council that managing the property had put a strain on city staff in an area outside their expertise and urged the sale.

In other actions Tuesday night, the Council: Heard a presentation from see Oakley page 18

BRENTWOOD

The Brentwood City Council didn’t have to dig deep to find support for their extension of a ban on oil and gas drilling in Brentwood during their March 28 meeting.

The Council’s unanimous vote was preceded by more than 30 minutes of public comment from residents as well as a speaker from Kern County who expressed support for a Council that prioritized community health and safety over profits — something he said differs from his own county’s approach.

The goal of the ordinance would be to temporarily halt oil and gas drilling from occurring 3,200 feet from “sensitive receptor” areas. A sensitive receptor area is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as an area whose occupants are more susceptible to harm from pollutants.

Examples include hospitals, schools and nursing homes.

“I was raised in the Midwest in Oklahoma. Right next to a field that had been used, stripped and abandoned by the industry,” Mayor Joel Bryant said of his own concerns over drilling. “It can have some devastating long-lasting or even permanent effects.”

“There’s a reason they call some of these abandoned areas ‘brownfields,’” Bryant agreed. “Because nothing can ever grow there again.”

The agenda item was a continuation of one that came before the council in April of last year. At that time, the council enacted see Drilling page 18

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