THE OAKLAND LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Bay Terraces/Lower Santa Clara Valley setting.
Oakland city has 56 square miles of land in Alameda County. Its Census reference point is in Bay Terraces/Lower Santa Clara Valley, within Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains.
Oak woodland, chaparral and grassland occupy foothills and low coastal mountains around the Central Valley. Narrow agricultural valleys interrupt this landscape of dry summers and wetter winters.
Regional context: Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ↗ · Classification at the Census reference point
Oakland and Alameda County
Oakland is associated with Alameda County in the Census boundary data. Start with the parcel’s tax bill to match the property to that jurisdiction, then confirm which government handles its land use.
Oakland by land and water
The Census records 22.1 square miles of water within Oakland, or 28.3% of its total area. It is 18.1 percentage points higher than the 10.2% recorded for Alameda County. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Oakland city has 5.4 times the land area of nearby Alameda city (10.4 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.

