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After repeated delays, the City Council appears ready to vote today (Tuesday) on whether to allow UC Berkeley to build a bridge 21 feet over Hearst Avenue. 

The vote on the street bridge, which has been sought by campus officials for nearly 20 years, will force the council to weigh the benefit of the $200,000 the university is offering the city for permission to build against the concerns of many North Berkeley residents. 

The council is also set to vote at the meeting on charging the university for city sewer fees. UC attorneys have insisted that, as a state institution, UC is exempt. UC Berkeley has also ignored the city’s demand to collect Berkeley’s parking tax from motorists who use university garages. On Monday, the council met in closed session to further discuss filing a lawsuit to compel the university to pay for both parking and sewers. 

Also Tuesday the council will hold public hearings on allocations to local non-profits and on an appeal to the designation of the building that formerly housed Celia’s Mexican Restaurant. If the council reverses the ‘structure of merit’ designation for the building at Addison and Fourth streets, developer Urban Housing Group Inc. will have one less obstacle to building a condominium development at the site. 

Foothill Bridge 

Two weeks ago, the council held a lengthy public hearing on the Foothill Bridge project, a proposed footbridge connecting the two halves of the Foothill Housing Complex near Hearst and La Loma avenues. UC Berkeley has argued that it would improve pedestrian safety for dorm residents and open the dormitory to disabled students. In return for the right to build over the city street, the university is offering $200,000 for future pedestrian improvement projects. 

Opponents of the project argue that air rights above Hearst Avenue are worth more than the university has offered to pay. They have suggested various compensation deals more advantageous to the city, such as leasing the air space to the university rather selling it outright, charging the determined fair market value of the air space and forcing the university to indemnify the city against a threatened lawsuit from the owner of a nearby building if the bridge is built. 

Those opposed to the project further argue that the bridge won’t solve the desired accessibility issues for wheelchair users since the housing complex is near the top of a steep hill and is not served by wheelchair accessible paths. Though the city’s disability commission favors the bridge, no students in wheelchairs have lobbied the council in favor of the project. 

Previously two councilmembers, Dona Spring and Betty Olds, said they opposed the bridge, while Gordon Wozniak, who represents Foothill students and neighbors, offered his support. 

University officials this week acknowledged that the structure, estimated to cost $1.7 million, will be paid for out of student rental fees. Additionally, the university said that the UC Regents would have to approve any decision to lease the air space for a continuing fee, pay the determined fair market value of the air space or to indemnify the city against a threatened lawsuit from the owner of a nearby building. 

Structure of Merit Appeal 

City staff is recommending that the council reverse the designation of 2040 Fourth St. (Celia’s Mexican Restaurant) as a structure of merit. In February, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 5-4 to landmark the building, citing that it is the only known Berkeley work of highly respected architect Irwin Johnson. The staff report, approved by Planning Director Dan Marks, noted that the commission didn’t identify any physical reasons why the building is a historic resource and relied on a conflicting report from a proponent of the development that Johnson had actually designed 11 other buildings in Berkeley. 

Urban Housing Group, Inc. has proposed demolishing Celia’s and nearby Brennan’s Restaurant to build approximately 200 condominiums above ground floor retail space at Fourth and Addison streets. Celia’s future remains uncertain and Brennan’s would be rebuilt on the project site. 

If Celia’s designation as a structure of merit is not reversed, Deibel will not be able to demolish the building without the approval of the Zoning Adjustment Board. 

Non-profit Funding 

At a public hearing, the council will get its first look at a proposed 9 percent cut to general fund allocations for local non-profits. The cuts are based on relative merit and mostly follow the recommendations made by city commissions. Overall, City Manager Phil Kamlarz is proposing to allocate $4.286 million to non-profits from the general fund, down from $4.720 million last year. 

The Berkeley Community Coalition, an umbrella group of non-profits, met with Mayor Tom Bates and city leaders last week urging them to restore funding with proceeds slated to go for capital projects. The coalition has also questioned whether the city should have made across-the-board cuts rather than targeting specific organizations. 

“Unless they truly evaluated every program in the city with the same methodology you can’t back these cuts up,” said Boona Cheema, executive director of Building Options for Self Sufficiency. Her group is slated to lose nearly $60,000 in city funding. 

Other allocations on the chopping block include Berkeley Youth Alternatives youth employment program, and the Berkeley Boosters Downtown Berkeley guides and BART escorts programs. The proposal also calls for cutting civic arts grant funding from $289,797 to $229, 306.  

Among programs slated for more funding next year are Rubicon, which took over Berkeley’s jobs training program, and Youth Emergency Assistance Shelters (YEAY), which is supposed to receive funding previously given to Berkeley Ecumenical Ministries Chaplaincy to the Homeless.  

Last year, the chaplaincy stopped their free clothing program due to mismanagement that resulted in their host church asking them to leave, according to a report from the Homeless Commission. YEAY Executive Director Sharon Hawkins-Leyden said the two groups were in preliminary talks to consolidate their programs.  

The council is not expected to vote on general fund allocations to community agencies until it approves the 2006 fiscal year budget in June. Councilmembers, however, are scheduled Tuesday to vote to approve the allocation of over $5 million in federal funding to local non profits. Most of the money ($4.1 million) is from federal Community Development Block Grants, a program the Bush administration has proposed eliminating next year.