Features

Downtown creek is one step closer

By Matthew Artz Daily Planet Staff
Tuesday November 19, 2002

Berkeley has taken the lead on an ambitious project that, if realized, could have downtown sporting more trout than students. 

City Council voted unanimously last week to help fund a study on the feasibility of tearing up a stretch of Center Street to allow Strawberry Creek, buried underneath the pavement of downtown for more than 100 years, to flow above ground. 

The creek, which winds mostly underground from the UC Berkeley campus to San Francisco Bay, would meander where Center Street now stands from Oxford Street to Shattuck Avenue, before dipping back underground. 

Supporters say the creek would serve as the springboard for a radically new downtown headlined by a hotel and conference center that would double as a showplace for environmental technology. 

“This is the most exciting downtown development in decades,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

But despite the unanimous vote to study the project, several council members remain skeptical that such a project is viable during a time when capital is scarce and the city is facing a growing budget deficit. 

“I voted for the conference center,” said Betty Olds, explaining her support of the study. “[But] I don’t see how the city is going to get the money for the creek.” 

Richard Register, President of EcoCity Builders and the brainchild of the project, said the city would not be responsible for much of the project’s cost, estimated between $50 million and $200 million. 

He envisions a formula in which either the university or a private developer builds the hotel and conference center as well as new housing. Revenues generated from the businesses would pay for most of the creek restoration, he said.  

In addition to unearthing the creek, the project would restore the surrounding soils and bring native plants and fish. 

“There would be trout swimming up and down Center Street. It would be quite artistic,” Register said. 

Council agreed to grant $20,000 to study the feasibility of the plan, contingent on matching donations from UC Berkeley and state agencies. University officials declined to comment on their possible participation in the study. 

The Coastal Conservancy, a state environmental group that has donated $100,000 to unearthing nearby Cordornices Creek in Albany, has expressed enthusiasm for the plan. 

“Creek restoration is one of the things we’re interested in,” said Brenda Buxton, a project manager at the conservancy. Although she would not speculate on the amount of money her group might provide, she said they have funded millions to some projects. 

Register envisions the hotel and conference center springing up at a defunct university–owned printing press on the northeast corner of Center Street, with housing and green space to its west along Center, where a Bank of America branch office parking lot currently sits. 

The bank has not committed to selling any of its property for the development, but bank spokesperson Juliet Don said pending the results of the study, the company would be willing to cooperate with the city and university on the development. 

City staff had pushed council to approve the study, but are not convinced the plan is realistic or that it would help the city. 

“We have to sit down and figure out what the real issues are and what this will get us,” said Deputy Assistant Manager Phil Kamlarz. In addition to the question of obtaining private funding, Kamlarz said there were revenue issues that would need to be resolved. 

He noted that if the university, which is tax-exempt, owns the hotel, the city would be deprived of property tax revenue from the site and might be denied hotel tax money as well. 

Also, he said, the study would have to determine if the hotel and convention center would bring new business into the city or if it would just take customers away from current Berkeley businesses like the Radisson Hotel and Hs Lordships. 

Register insisted that the success of recent downtown projects such as the Gaia Building has convinced financiers that downtown Berkeley is a viable investment and that frequent UC Berkeley events would keep the hotel occupied for much of the year.