Features

In an effort to decrease the number of vacant storefronts around town, the Berkeley City Council Tuesday eased parking requirements for new businesses that open on commercial streets. 

The ordinance, passed by a vote of 7-1, with one abstention, ends restrictions that forced prospective merchants to provide off-street parking when they opened a business that provides a different use from that of the previous business. 

Also, the council narrowly rejected a proposal encouraging state lawmakers to allow cities to extend the vote to 16-year-olds and defeated another proposal to ask state regulators to form a citizen advisory group to oversee the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s cleanup of the Strawberry Creek Watershed at the lab’s Berkeley campus. 

The drive to ease parking restrictions on new businesses stems from a recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates’ Taskforce on Permitting and Development. Because many current businesses were grandfathered in before Berkeley established laws requiring businesses to supply off-street parking, potential new businesses were often saddled with the responsibility for providing customer parking in areas where no parking was readily available. 

The task force, which met last year, heard the saga of a South Berkeley pizza restaurant, Spud’s, that nearly didn’t open because of the city’s parking restrictions. By changing the building’s use from retail to a restaurant, the new owner was required to provide 12 new parking spaces even though on-street parking in the area was plentiful. 

The owner’s search to secure parking delayed the restaurant’s opening and ultimately forced him to sign a parking deal with a local church that required the restaurant not to serve alcohol. 

The new ordinance, which must still be passed a second time to become law, applies only to commercial streets. Also, in order to waive parking requirements for new businesses that require more parking under city law than their predecessors, the city must make special findings that the new business is located either near public transportation or a public parking lot. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington argued that giving the city discretion over reducing parking requirements could result in the law being applied unfairly. He also held that the proposal would merely force shoppers to park on nearby residential streets. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who chaired the mayor’s task force prior to being elected to the council, countered that the new law would not displace any more parking to neighborhoods than under the current conditions. 

Youth Voting 

Despite an impassioned plea from nine Berkeley High students, the council failed to round up five votes to pass a resolution supporting local choice for lowering the voting age to 16. The resolution failed 4-2, with three abstentions (Spring, Worthington, Anderson and Moore, yes). 

Should the state legislature ever allow cities to lower the voting age, Berkeley would spend an additional $38,800 to pay for extra ballots, voting rolls and poll workers, according to City Clerk Sara Cox. 

That is a small price to pay “for ensuring that young people have a voice,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. 

But many of his colleagues weren’t ready to go to bat for teen suffrage. 

“What keeps me from supporting this is my own memory of myself as a 16-year-old,” said Capitelli. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak opposed the notion of a proposal that effectively would give the vote to 16-year-olds in some California cities but not others. 

The defeat was a surprise to the students who said they thought that weeks of lobbying would carry the day. 

“I feel we were slightly misled,” said Berkeley High student Chris Howell. “A lot of the complaints they made tonight came out of the blue.” 

Lab Cleanup 

To the relief of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the council rejected a proposal to ask state regulators to install a citizen advisory board comprised partially of lab critics to oversee the cleanup at the Strawberry Creek Canyon site.  

Instead, the council voted 6-3 (Worthington, Spring, Anderson, no) to designate the Community Environmental Advisory Commission to act as the liaison with state regulators and to keep citizens informed about the cleanup. Also the council directed the city manager to urge Berkeley’s representatives in Congress to press for more federal money for the cleanup effort. 

Lab spokesperson Terry Powell said the lab was pleased with the vote. “Now we can focus on the cleanup,” she said, adding that the lab had 17 months to complete the job. 

Slavery Ties 

In other matters at Tuesday’s meeting, the council, without debate, voted 8-1 (Olds, no) to require city vendors to disclose whether they had any financial ties to slavery in the U.S. 

It also unanimously approved a resolution urging county lawmakers to reduce bird deaths at county wind energy plants, and another to revisit granting a contract extension for Pedal Express to deliver the city’s interoffice mail.