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The Zoning Adjustment Board gave the green light Thursday to Library Gardens—the largest development ever planned for the city center. But a ruling on the equally controversial Blood House development was postponed for two weeks while city staff analyze an independent proposal to spare a Berkeley landmark. 

By a 6-1 vote, the ZAB approved a use permit for Library Gardens, a 176-unit apartment complex with five street-level shops slated to rise at the site of the current 362-space Kittredge Street Garage, just west of the central library. 

To secure its passage, the developer, TransAction Companies, added one level of underground parking to offset some of the public parking lost by demolishing the garage. 

In January, ZAB rejected a similar proposal that did not include the extra level of parking. 

Thursday’s vote came after TransAction Senior Vice President John DeClerq assured the board that “significantly” more than half of the 130 spaces dedicated for the public will go to short-term parkers, not commuters or residents seeking monthly passes.  

DeClerq hopes to start construction in May. Any delays could cost TransAction millions, but their schedule might still be thrown off if the ZAB ruling is appealed to the city council. 

The Berkeley-Albany YMCA, which broke off negotiations in January to partner with TransAction on the underground parking, has emerged as the project’s chief critic. 

YMCA President and CEO Larry Bush refused comment on a possible appeal, but told the ZAB that TransAction’s original plan, scrapped two years ago, to build two levels of underground parking was feasible, despite TransAction’s claims otherwise.  

Bush also urged board members to follow through on any parking stipulations with the current plan because, “As we learned at the YMCA from our dealings with TransAction in the past that the stipulations are all important.” 

YMCA officials have said that in the early ‘90s, TransAction left them high and dry when it backed out on a deal to develop a downtown parcel the Y had purchased as part of its expansion. 

The ZAB also discussed the planned development at 2526 Durant Ave., even though developer Ruegg & Ellsworth pulled the 44-unit, 18-parking space project from the board’s agenda until the next meeting on March 11. 

In December, the ZAB ordered the developer to present alternative designs that would preserve a 19th-century landmarked Victorian already on the property that the original plan had marked for demolition. 

In a letter to city staff dated Jan. 9, Ruegg & Ellsworth presented four alternative plans, all of which they determined would lose money. 

However, city staff wrote to board members that an alternative proposal submitted by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) appeared to be viable, contingent on further economic and structural analysis. The BAHA plan calls for 38 units of housing, including five units in the preserved Victorian and the rest in an adjacent four-story building. Their plan provides no parking, as is encouraged by Berkeley’s Southside plan.  

The planning staff intends to provide a further review of the BAHA plan in time for the March 11 meeting. 

As a final order of business the board elected former city council candidate in District 8 and UC Berkeley graduate student Andy Katz as its new chair, succeeding Laurie Capitelli whose two-year term expired Thursday. 

Katz becomes the second UC student this year elected to chair a city commission. Leslieann Cachola was chosen to chair the Peace and Justice Commission last month. 

Katz received five votes to two for Deborah Matthews. Board member David Blake was elected Vice Chair.›