Features

Newest West Berkeley Bowl Plans Unveiled to Neighbors: By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday October 29, 2004

Architect Kava Massih unveiled the latest version of the new Berkeley Bowl planned for the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue in West Berkeley, at a meeting Tuesday night for project neighbors. 

The newest additions to the design include a level of underground parking beneath the two-story store and warehouse building and a set of alternative plans for routing vehicles into the project. 

Plans call for a 91,000-square-foot complex including a 51,000-square-foot, 40-foot-tall building and a total of 211 parking spaces. 

Because the store is planned for a site currently zoned for light industrial use and the West Berkeley Plan mandates preservation of existing industrial uses, approval of the new store requires both a zoning change and an amendment to the West Berkeley Plan. 

The Design Review Committee will be the first city body to see the new plans, which will be presented for scrutiny at their Nov. 18 meeting, said Principal Planner Alan Gatzke, who also attended the meeting in the architect’s Ninth Street offices. 

The proposal will have to negotiate parallel tracks through the Planning Commission, which must approve the plan amendment, and the Zoning Adjustments Board, he said. 

Neighbors attending the session examined six different traffic flow alternatives directing vehicles into and out of the store and asked Massih and Gatzke to record their pick as the one that blocked all access from both Heinz Avenue and Ninth Street. 

—Richard Brenneman