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Council Denies Seagate Appeal By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday January 21, 2005

The City Council gave the go ahead Tuesday to the Seagate Building, which when completed will rise nine stories—the third tallest building in Berkeley. 

In other matters, the council endorsed the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and assigned the city’s air rights at the Ashby BART Station along the east side of Adeline Street to a consortium of disability organizations. In addition, the council held off voting on a plan to reduce auto lanes on Marin Avenue after holding a public hearing where 42 residents split on the issue. 

Seagate developer Darrell de Tienne of Seagate Properties Inc. said he planned to start demolition work sometime between March and June. When completed, the building slated for Center Street just west of Shattuck Avenue will rise 115 feet, include theater space, a retail shop and 149 apartments. 

Despite an 8-0-1 vote (Worthington, abstain) denying the appeal to Seagate’s use permit granted by the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB), several councilmembers criticized concessions given to the developer to maximize profits. 

In a separate motion, the council voted unanimously for a Planning Commission review of city procedures allowing extra stories for including art space and affordable units. 

At issue was city staff’s rationale for applying the two bonuses to maximize the building’s height from five stories to nine and its interpretation of affordable housing law to allow the below-market units to have on average fewer bedrooms and amenities. 

“I know this is a capitalist society and there is a certain hierarchy related to wealth and class,” said Councimember Max Anderson. “But I expected in Berkeley that we would take special care that we didn’t perpetuate those kinds of policies.” 

Nevertheless Anderson voted for the building, saying he couldn’t look a constituent in the eye if he opposed a project that provides affordable housing. 

Several councilmembers said that the building’s potential to lure upper income residents to the downtown and raise revenues outweighed concerns about process. “We have to stimulate the economy to broaden the tax base and pay for those things we value,” said Councilmember Linda Maio. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, fearing the opponents of the plan might file suit against the city, requested the council delay a vote until after a public hearing. Only Councilmember Dona Spring joined Worthington’s motion. 

 

Marin Avenue 

The council postponed until Tuesday its decision on the future of Marin Avenue, home to 21,000 daily car trips and the preferred route for many in North Berkeley to reach I-80.  

With Albany already set to re-stripe the bulk of the lower portion of Marin from four lanes of car traffic to two lanes with a center turning lane and side bicycle lanes, Berkeley has proposed to follow suit on four additional blocks heading east to The Alameda. 

Among the speakers at the meeting, the majority of those who lived on Marin supported the plan, arguing that speeding cars endanger pedestrians and bicyclists. Most of the speakers from nearby side streets or the Berkeley hills opposed it for fear that it would disperse traffic onto their streets and slow commute times. 

“I hope it does divert a little traffic,” said Dale Nesbitt, a Marin Avenue resident. “How would you like it if there were 21,000 cars zipping down your street so its too dangerous to cross.” 

“I feel bad for the people on Marin, but it’s a highway,” said Howard Stone, who lives near the avenue. 

Motorists average 31 mph on Marin, six miles above the speed limit, according to a report from the traffic engineering firm Fehr and Pierce. From 2001 through 2003, there were 114 collisions on the section of the avenue encompassed by the plan, according to the report. 

Last June, Berkeley resident Thomas Bowen was killed crossing Marin at Modoc Street when the driver in the inside lane didn’t see Bowen crossing the intersection, his neighbor John Stoops told the council 

Unconvinced that the re-striping project would improve safety, Michael Katz recommend the council take targeted pedestrian initiatives instead, like new traffic signals, while Albany tried re-striping. “It would be a wonderful controlled experiment,” he said. 

If approved, the $30,000 re-striping project would be reviewed after one year. City staff has pledged to perform before and after traffic studies at nine intersections to monitor the program’s success. 

Pressed by Councilmember Laurie Capitelli whether a 20 percent increase in traffic volume on side streets would be considered a limited diversion, City Bicycle Planner Heath Maddox replied that the city had not yet set thresholds for acceptable levels of traffic diversion. 

 

Other Matters 

The council voted unanimously to reject a proposed three-story house in the Berkeley hills that would have blocked the bay views of an existing house directly to the east.  

“If you’re here first, you shouldn’t have your view blocked by a neighbor’s construction,” said Mayor Tom Bates. 

The council instructed the ZAB to require the owner of the proposed home to either reduce it by one story or move it to the back of the lot.