Election Section

On Thursday, April 28, at 6 p.m., the Zoning Adjustments Board will consider a proposal by Hudson McDonald LLC to demolish the one-story strip mall (Kragen, Pet Food Express) on the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Way between Berkeley Way and University Avenue and replace it with a massive, boxy two-building complex containing 186 apartments and a few tiny retail spaces. (This project was originally proposed by Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests. Kennedy’s former affiliates Christopher J. Hudson and Evan McDonald took the project with them when they left to start their own firm: see “Reports Cite Chill Between Developer, UC Prof Backer,” August 6, 2004.) 

This proposal flouts many of the relevant policies and development standards in Berkeley’s zoning code and general plan. The zoning code allows up to three stories, the proposed design has five. The code requires 126 parking spaces, HMcD proposes to provide only 71 (56% of the requirement). The code requires 200 square feet of usable open space per unit, for a total of 37,200; by HMcD’s count, which includes arguably unusable areas, the project provides less than half that. The code requires a 15-foot setback along Berkeley Way, and a 20-foot setback from the property line of the adjacent residence; HMcD proposes to build to the sidewalk and within five feet of the fence. 

The most egregious excess is in the project’s density. Per the general plan, density for this “Avenue Commercial” area ranges from 20 to 40 units per acre, or around 1100 to 2200 square feet of lot area per unit. HMcD proposes 185 units per acre, which is just 235 square feet per unit. This is almost five times the density envisioned for the area in the general plan, 85% higher than the general plan’s vision for the densest parts of downtown, and close to the 200 square-foot maximum allowed in San Francisco’s densest neighborhoods, such as Chinatown. 

The primary rationale for setting aside these regulations and policies? The project includes 30 units of--by the state’s definition--affordable housing. By state law, that entitles HMcD to a 25% density bonus. Through creative interpretation of that law, foot-dragging on updating the zoning code with numerical density standards, and the tacit support of a majority of the City Council, Berkeley planning staff have repeatedly managed to turn that into an effective 65 to 100% height and mass bonus. 

Perhaps that’s a fair tradeoff. These affordable units would get homeless people off the street, provide better housing for poor families, and give elderly people on fixed incomes a secure place to live--right? 

Wrong. First, the rents aren’t below market rate, they’re just at the low end of the market range. According to the state’s perverse calculation of “below market rate” rents, HMcD could charge up to $863 for studios, $925 for one-bedrooms, and $1110 for two-bedrooms. In Craig’s List’s Berkeley rental listings today, I found 65 studios, 35 one-bedrooms, and 12 two-bedrooms offered for less. 

Second, the so-called affordable units aren’t reserved for genuinely low-income renters. The maximum annual household income is $34,530 for studios, $36,990 for one-bedrooms, and $44,400 for two-bedrooms. Since the average annual income for Berkeley tenant households is under $30,000, those units are rentable to the majority of apartment seekers. 

The truth is this building, like Patrick Kennedy’s projects, is for-profit, market-rate student housing with a smidgen of ill-conceived retail space tacked on to benefit from Berkeley’s more lenient regulation of mixed-use projects. Student housing’s not necessarily a bad use of the property, but it’s not something we need so desperately as to justify throwing out all of our development standards. Instead of rubber-stamping this monstrosity, the ZAB should tell HMcD to come back with a design for a much smaller building, with more and better-designed retail space, including all the parking and usable open space required by the zoning code, and that reflects the height, setback, and other suggestions made by the Design Review Committee on April 17, 2003. 

Pro-democracy activist Robert Lauriston lives in South Berkeley 

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