Features

The City Council will meet Monday, April 11 at UC Berkeley’s foothill dorms to discuss the university’s proposal to suspend a pedestrian bridge over Hearst Avenue to connect the two halves of the residential community. 

The meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at 2700 Hearst Ave., will include a public comment period. The council is then scheduled to vote on the proposal at its regular Tuesday meeting. 

UC Berkeley contends that the bridge is necessary to safeguard dorm residents from the hazardous pedestrian intersections at Hearst and La Loma and Hearst and Highland Place and open the La Loma Dormitory on the north side of Hearst to wheelchair-using students. 

But the university needs city permission for such a change. In the face of neighborhood opposition university officials have aborted three previous attempts to win a variance from the City Council. As an incentive to approve the plan, UC Berkeley has offered the city $200,000 towards infrastructure improvements around Hearst Avenue. 

Bridge opponents argue that the bridge would be an eyesore and that the university has failed to consider less obtrusive solutions, such as a pedestrian tunnel or street-side improvements. They also contend that the dorm’s steep surroundings would still render it unpopular with disabled students. 

Additionally, New Education Development Systems, Inc., the owners of 2717 Hearst Ave.—listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places—have come out against the bridge. They say it would obstruct their bay views. 

Should the council grant the university a permit, the company will file suit to stop the project, according to a letter from its attorney Alan Seher.