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West Berkeley artists and artisans who fear the effects of office development in their neighborhood took a stand at the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on Wednesday. 

The commission spent nearly all of the meeting listening to residents speak about a proposed year-long moratorium on new office space in the mixed-use/light industrial zone of West Berkeley. 

Wednesday night marked the second time in the last year the Planning Commission has considered the moratorium. The commission passed the moratorium earlier in the year, but the City Council later directed it to reconsider the issue in light of the fact that the public had not been properly notified of the proposal. 

Unlike the public hearings on the moratorium held in January, the majority of the speakers were artists and representatives of west Berkeley art co-operatives. Art and artisanal studios are considered “light industry” in the West Berkeley Plan, and they are accorded special protections. 

Many artists who spoke Wednesday night said that the conversion of former industrial or artisanal buildings into offices was putting pressure on their landlords to raise rents, brought too much traffic into the neighborhood and generally destroyed the character of the community. 

Thirty-one people spoke at the public hearing Wednesday night; around two-thirds of them said they favored the moratorium. 

Sharon Siskin, a visual artist and a member of the Nexus art co-operative, set the tone for the evening when she told the commission that office development in the neighborhood is squeezing out the art community. 

“Development is rampant and impinging rapidly on our spaces at Nexus,” she said.  

“These spaces, like all the others being built in our neighborhood are most likely going to result in more commercial office spaces, more traffic and parking problems, more pollution and more restrictions on available work space for artists and craftspeople.”  

“It seems to me that without careful scrutiny of future building projects, and care for saving the spaces that already exist, that the arts – a precious resource that Berkeley can not afford to loose – will be forever lost in Berkeley.” 

Claire Cotts, a painter who has a studio in the Durkee Building at 800 Heinz St., said that between traffic problems and the increasing rents that artists must pay to compete with office space, many young people are giving up on Berkeley entirely. 

“Most artists just graduating from school are having to find places farther away, in Rodeo or somewhere,” she said. 

Peter Dayton, another Nexus artist, said that “You could turn Berkeley into Palo Alto if you want, but I think that would be a disaster.” 

A few people spoke in favor of the moratorium from the traditional manufacturing perspective. Susan Libby, the founder of Libby Labs, said that Berkeley often functioned as an “incubator space” for young industrial or technological businesses. She thought that if office development in the West Berkeley area were to continue, industry would continue to feel rent pressure and may be compelled to relocate. 

Most of the jobs at her laboratory, she said, are blue-collar jobs that pay living wages.  

“If you really want these kind of jobs in Berkeley, you need to have space for them,” she said. 

Rhiannon, the president of the Oceanview Tenants’ Association and a member of the West Berkeley Project Area Commission, said that manufacturing should be a city-wide priority. 

“Manufacturing is the only real provider of good, well-paying jobs for unskilled workers,” she said. 

Several opponents of the moratorium, among them Miriam Ng, a member of the board of directors of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, said that the recent economic downturn obviated the need for a moratorium.  

“The rules for conversion are so stringent that we should be giving a medal to people who want to convert,” she said. “You’re sending a message that you don’t want business here. When the economy changes, no one will want to come here.” 

One of the principal reasons for the proposed moratorium was a recent plan for a 500,000 square foot office building that would have been built at the 15-acre American Soils site near Aquatic Park. Charles Jones, owner of the American Soils site, said at the meeting that that deal was dead, and that he had no plans to sell his property, but that he opposed the moratorium nevertheless. 

However, he proposed a few “loopholes” that could be included in the moratorium if it does pass. He said that there should be an exemption for existing businesses that wish to expand their office space “so they don’t move away to Richmond,” and another exemption for solar-powered businesses. 

“Since the federal government will support tobacco growers but not solar businesses, we should start at the local level,” he said. 

The Planning Commission will likely vote on the proposal at its Nov. 14 meeting.