Editorials

The most arresting fact so far uncovered in Richard Brenneman’s ongoing series on rental vacancies in Berkeley was this quote from Ted Burton, the city’s Economic Development Project Coordinator: “The last update I had was a year ago, and we were running about 10 percent [commercial] vacancies downtown then.” This is the reason that Berkeley observers of the hectic pace of building projects to which Berkeley has been subjected in the past four years are tempted to call the city’s planning department “The Department of Data-Free Development.” We have no current data showing that we need more commercial space, and in fact our old data shows that we don’t, but let’s just build some anyhow. 

It’s not fair, of course, to ask city employees to take all the bla me for the thoughtless building spree of the recent past. Elected officials, notably the last mayor and the current mayor, have acted as enthusiastic cheerleaders for a process which has resulted in the destruction of historic buildings, the consumption o f open space, the constriction of neighborhoods, and the proliferation of “for rent” signs in tenantless ground floor windows on all of the city’s main streets. It’s gotten so bad that when we printed an architect’s photo-shopped conceptual rendition of y et another Big Ugly Box on University Avenue, we joked about adding a “for rent by John Gordon” sign in the obligatory ground floor retail space depicted in the drawing.  

Builders, of course, love building sprees, because that’s how they make their money. But as a city we have the responsibility to delve more deeply into why proposed buildings are needed, and especially IF they are needed at all. We need more viable businesses and more affordable habitable dwellings, not more empty storefronts and office s and more over-priced studios, which is what we’ve been given by city officials, both elected and employed, so far. In addition, they’ve engaged in activities either devious or thoughtless which undermine the sensible planning which has been done, agains t all odds, by citizen commissioners in the past. 

Two cases in point: the West Berkeley Plan and the University Avenue Strategic Plan. When I was running a high-tech business in West Berkeley, in an office space converted from a small manufacturing compa ny, many property owners, including my otherwise estimable landlord, were whining that the West Berkeley Plan made such conversions overly difficult. Flash forward to 2004: Because of the foresight of the West Berkeley Plan participants, the city is not b urdened with the glut of office vacancies which now plagues San Francisco. But now formerly progressive councilpersons Breland and Bates have colluded in packing the Planning Commission with proponents of mindless retail expansion on Gilman in West Berkeley—at the same time that the city’s already developed commercial districts are experiencing devastating vacancies.  

Discussions of the University Avenue Strategic Plan, currently receiving perfunctory attention from the now-neutered Planning Commission, promise the same outcome. Planning Department staff has proferred a thinly disguised subversion of the eminently sensible goals of the Strategic Plan in the guise of implementation of the zoning contemplated by the plan. In fact, as drafted by staff, it w ould be upzoning, pure and simple, but at least the citizens aren’t fooled by it. People who track planning follies, including some who live near University Avenue, have put together a web site which shows all and tells all, planberkeley.org. It also documents what’s going on San Pablo, another target of the brainless building battalions.  

Next week’s Planning Commission meeting hosts another public hearing on the proposed zoning changes. Not waiting for input, however, city staff have put on the agenda for the same meeting commissioners’ approval of a Negative Declaration for the zoning changes. In CEQAspeak, that means that commissioners are being asked to say that the proposed changes won’t make much difference to the city. Here’s a mission for the sm art folks in the Plan Berkeley organization: Find out if this is true. We’ll look forward to seeing the results. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.