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Tomorrow night could be the Second Coming, said Councilmember Polly Armstrong.  

“We just might be able to get out of there by 10 p.m. this time,” she said jokingly, evoking tonight’s City Council meeting. It would be the second time in the six years she has sat on the council that such an occurrence has come to pass, she said. 

Discussion of housing issues might, however, cause the meeting to go longer than Armstrong imagines. A Housing Authority meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. The housing authority is made up of the City Council plus two community members. 

Perhaps the most contentious item of the night will be a five-year plan written by the Housing Authority. Scheduled for thirty minutes, Armstrong feels the discussion will run considerably over the original time slot. 

“It took more than a half hour just to get the issue on the consent calendar,” she said.  

“Everyone has an opinion about affordable housing, and diversity issues in Berkeley. This five-year plan will open up many questions about the process to guarantee its continued existence,” Dean added.  

Adoption of the plan is the final step in a lengthy process that began in May. Proposals include designating 40 percent of any new or available public housing apartments for very low income persons and 75 percent of new Section 8 vouchers for very low-income people. Under the proposal, residents will also be able to choose whether to pay an income-based rent not to exceed 30 percent of their adjusted income, or pay a “flat rent” based on the pre-determined “rental value” of the unit. Moreover, homeownership programs will allow Section 8 voucher holders to pay mortgage under certain conditions. Pets, formerly allowed only for elderly and disabled in public housing, would be available to all residents as long as they meet Housing Authority requirements. 

Expected to draw the largest crowd at the council meeting is an issue on the Swink House, a home built in 1903 by James L. Swink, an early pioneer of Berkeley architecture and city planning. Considered an example of “Victorian Revival” architecture, the home is one of five on the last intact block of early century housing on Shattuck Avenue, which includes Chez Panisse and Cha Am, two restaurants which gave this part of Berkeley its “gourmet ghetto” nickname.  

Of a total 123 structures which existed in 1903, only 61 remain today. At issue is whether a Landmarks Commission resolution designating the 1525-1529 block on Shattuck a “structure of merit” will be upheld by the City Council. Former City Manager James Keene appealed the Landmarks Preservation Commission recommendation, saying that the historical value was diminished by a commercial addition to the building that dominates the residential building’s presence on Shattuck. 

Other plans to develop the Swink House into a hotel are currently being debated as well. 

Councilmember Betty Olds said local businesses on Shattuck Avenue have lined up against a new hotel being built in the area. “Many people think that landmarking the Swink House is a political move to keep the owners from developing it into a hotel. To build one, the Swink House would presumably have to be torn down, which landmarking would prevent.” 

In a hurried amendment to the council agenda, the council will address a crisis faced by the UC Theater on University Avenue. According to state law, the building must be retrofitted.  

A lease agreement calling for retrofitting would cost management $300,000, an amount they say they are unable to pay.  

Councilmember Dona Spring, in whose district the theater is located,, is requesting that the City Manager explore ways to assist the UC Theater to find funding sources so that the repertory movie theater will not be forced to close. 

“It’s our real landmark,” Olds said. “And it would be a shame to see it go. The question here is if all the other old theaters are in the same shape. If we find funding to maintain this theater, do we also have to find funding for every other theater in the same shape?” 

Another last-minute addition to the council agenda, also proposal by Spring asks the city manager to take “all possible legal actions” to contest the University of California Regents’ approval last week of the environmental document for the Oxford Tract, opening the door for construction of the three-story building with 200 parking spaces on university property at Oxford Street and Hearst Avenue. 

Also, questions of how to place a ceiling on cable TV prices, and whether the city should allocate up to $390,000 a year for the next eight years to purchase fire engines will be answered.  

The Housing Authority meeting begins at 7 p.m., with the City Council meeting following.  

They will be held in the Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, broadcast live on B-TV Channel 25 rebroadcast at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning and 9 a.m. Sunday morning. They are also broadcast on KPFB 89.3