Features

Berkeley residents got their first official chance to weigh in on the conversion of Berkeley Unified School District’s sprawling West Campus properties last week when developers hired by the district held their first community meeting. 

The Thursday meeting was held in the cafeteria of the old Berkeley Adult School, which moved its operation to the district’s Franklin Street property last year. 

That leaves the district with a sprawling, mostly-vacant, six-and-a-half-acre 10-building site on University Avenue between Bonar and Curtis streets variously described by residents at the meeting as an “asset,” an “eyesore,” and an “armpit.” 

While most of the old Adult School buildings are largely unused, the property currently houses a day care center, a Head Start program operated by the Berkeley YMCA, a gymnasium used by community members, and an outdoor pool operated by the City of Berkeley. District officials say that the property is far larger than is needed to house its administrative offices, which it plans to move from its present Old City Hall site, as well as operations presently housed at the district’s Oregon/Russell street property. 

On Thursday night, representatives of Berkeley-based Design, Community & Environment (DCE) development planning company asked some 40 West Campus neighbors and school and city officials to give preliminary suggestions for what else they might want on the site. DCE has been hired by the school district to present a proposal for the conversion of the old Adult School. 

Included in the suggestions were: 

• Expansion of the campus parking lot to accommodate not only district staff but spillover parking from the University Avenue commercial zone. 

• A suggestion by Board Director Terry Doran that some of the excess space be used “for things the district doesn’t currently do,” such as a teacher education and staff development center or a professional library. 

• A possible hundred-member school for “problematic, special needs students.” That brought a sharp expression of concern from at least one neighbor, who did not want such students brought into the neighborhood. 

• Commercial development, including housing. An assistant to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Calvin Fong, told participants that “the mayor clearly wants development on the University Avenue part of this property because it would help both the city and the school district with their financial problems.” 

But while DCE representatives filled several poster-sized sheets full of community ideas which they said would be synthesized into their report, they provided little information about what might be possible on the site. 

DCE principal David C. Early said that his organization was waiting for a survey of BUSD staff to see what parts of the site might be used up by BUSD projects. In addition, Early said that his company had no idea yet as to how many of the buildings on the site were seismically safe and could be preserved in a new plan. 

Early also said that because state law was unclear on how to treat city zoning law over mixed education and non-education uses on school district-owned land, he would not know what part of the development might be subject to Berkeley’s zoning ordinances until actual proposals are drawn up. The zoning issue is expected to be critical because Berkeley’s creek ordinance prevents new construction near existing creeks, and Strawberry Creek runs under the West Campus parking lot. 

Meanwhile, while neighbors expressed wariness about what the district might eventually put on the property, most expressed delight that it was going to be upgraded. 

“The site has been poorly maintained,” one woman said. “We’ve got folks lighting fires and smoking crack in the walkthrough, and people are leaving human waste on the property.” 

She also complained of long-standing neglect by the district, saying that the boys’ gym was painted halfway up five years ago, with the painting never completed. She called the West Campus site in its present form “a blight on our neighborhood.” 

DCE plans three more meetings on West Campus before drawing up formal proposals and presenting them to the district in June. At the next meeting, to be held at the West Campus site on April 7, participants will be asked to put down their ideas for site uses on property maps. Early said that maps of the property would be posted on the district’s website soon, as well as notes from each meeting.?