Features

City officials have issued a formal call for a consultant to help reshape the streetscape and traffic flow around the Berkeley BART Plaza. 

The project is a joint effort of the city, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) with the help of a grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). 

“There are a number of ideas out there, and we are seeking to engage a planner who will integrate them into one design,” said Peter Hillier, assistant city manager for transportation. 

“Redesign of the existing BART rotunda has to be part of the project,” said Hillier. “BART wants it, as do we.” 

The circular structure at the southwest corner of Center Street and University Avenue sits across the plaza from the Power Bar Building, one of two existing high-rises at the intersection. 

The plan will also incorporate a third high-rise planned at the intersection, the proposed UC Berkeley hotel and accompanying convention center and museums’ complex. 

A fourth high-rise is planned to rise nearby, the nine-story Seagate building a half-block west on Center Street. 

The city’s Request for Proposals sets a maximum expenditure of $90,000 for a design that will improve bus, taxi, paratransit, bicycle and pedestrian flow in the city center, focused on the area immediately surrounding the Downtown BART station. 

The city issued the request on March 9 and applications are due by April 12, with the City Council slated to award the contract on May 11. The final plan will be expected within the following year. 

Citing the increasing central city population density spurred by the city’s “smart growth and transportation policies” as a primary reason for the plan, the proposal also takes note of the other projects that could further increase pressures on the existing infrastructure, including: 

• AC Transit’s planned northern terminus for its Bus Rapid Transit system now in development. 

• The UC Berkeley hotel complex. 

• Potential closure of Center Street between Shattuck and Oxford Street to accommodate the daylighting of Strawberry Creek. 

• Additional downtown residential development. 

• Further intrusion of the university into the city center. 

Hillier also said the designer would look into proposals to open one of the two unidirectional lanes of Shattuck Avenue on either side of Shattuck Square to two-lane traffic. 

Designers would work with the city, BART, AC Transit, UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as a group of engineers, planning and landscape architects, safety experts and staff from the various transit agencies, to formulate a plan to send to the City Council. 

“Before now, there’s been no mechanism to bring all these concerns into focus and relate them one to another,” Hillier said. 

The proposal calls for creation of a citizen advisory committee drawn from the Downtown Berkeley Association, property owners, arts and cultural groups, business owners, street vendors, neighborhood residents and young people to assist the project and conduct a public outreach program. 

The whole process will be carried out under the supervision of the city Office of Transportation. 

Once the design is completed, the next question is funding. 

“The city has a $5 million placeholder with the state regional transportation funding,” Hillier said, “and the city is putting in a proposal for a $600,000 or so Housing Improvement Grant,” funds awarded based on the number of affordable housing units in the city. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get additional funding beyond that.”?