Editorials

The plans to establish Eastshore State Park, the swath of coastal greenbelt that stretches from the foot of the Bay Bridge to Marina Bay in Richmond, is taking a somewhat cohesive form. Entitled the “preferred park plan,” it is ready for the next stage after a Tuesday presentation in Berkeley. The city will be receiving it with a special meeting composed of the City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and the Waterfront Commission this Tuesday, April 30, 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way.  

The Eastshore Park Planning Team will be updating the community of local governing boards and citizens on planning efforts to date. This is the last stop in a series of five local briefings this month presented by the commission, which has already briefed Emeryville, Richmond, Albany and Oakland. The plan incorporates input from all the communities gathered during previous meetings, and was last open to Berkelian’s input at the March 21 regional workshop. 

“A brief overview will again be given covering the whole of the park,” said senior planner Deborah Chernin. “And then we’ll focus more on the details of the [Berkeley] area. Each city has their own specific issues, and this will be the last workshop before we draft the general plan,” she says. Local issues that have come to the forefront include access points, questions over sports fields, parking lots, traffic circulation and the impact on creeks. 

After the draft plan is hammered out, with the last adjustments from the Berkeley community in place, it will enter the environmental review stage. “The next step from here is for the EIR [environmental impact report] to be conducted, and then it will go to the state parks commission,” says Chernin. The EIR, and indeed the whole process of development and implementation of the park, are sponsored by a partnership of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the East Bay Regional Park District, and the California State Coastal Conservancy. 

In addition, a special meeting of the city council will be held earlier, at 5 p.m., at the same location to recieve a presentation of the city’s next biennial budget from city manager Weldon Rucker.