Features

The Berkeley Planning Commission will take up three major projects when it meets Wednesday night, leading off with the joint UC-city Downtown Area Plan (DAP) process. 

City Planning and Development Director Dan Marks and UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Tom Lollini will give a presentation on the process, worked out as part of the settlement of the city’s suit against UC Berkeley over the university’s 2020 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). 

Slated as an informational presentation, the talk will focus on the planning process and timeline, followed by a question and answer session. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

As resolved in the controversial settlement, the city and university will jointly work to formulate a plan for the downtown area adjoining the UC campus, an area where the university is already the single largest landowner. 

The second major item on the agenda for the meeting is a session for gathering scoping comments for the draft environmental impact report on the proposed West Berkeley Bowl. 

The proposal by Berkeley Bowl owner Glen Yasuda calls for a new store with a warehouse on a 2.3 acre site at 920 Heinz Avenue, which currently houses vacant buildings and an asphalt business. 

The proposal has drawn fire from some West Berkeley artisans and business owners who have decried the advancement of commercial uses in the city’s dwindling supply of land zoned for light industrial and manufacturing uses. 

Mayor Bates is strongly pushing for a greater commercial presence along Ashby and University avenues and Gilman Street in West Berkeley to boost city sales tax revenues, setting the stage for a major land use battle in a city known for such conflicts. 

The third major item on Wednesday’s agenda is a public hearing on Waterfront Specific Plan and Zoning Ordinances revisions needed to build a complex of soccer and baseball fields on the southernmost parking lot at Golden Gate Fields, immediately south of the western end of Gilman Street. 

If all goes as planned, construction on the project’s first phase could begin next spring or early summer, with completion due by September. 

If the Planning Commission gives a final nod to the amendments at its July 27 meeting, the City Council could give final approval on Sept. 26. 

Slated for construction on the southernmost parking lot at Golden Gate Fields, the fields are being built as a joint effort by the cities of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, and Richmond, working in cooperation the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD), which owns the land. 

Under the memorandum of understanding formed for the project, Berkeley is the lead agency for the project and will manage the fields under EBRPD supervision, said Parks and Recreation Chair Yolanda Huang.  

Once approved, construction will begin on two specially designed artificial turf soccer fields, which can also be used for football and field hockey. That project will consume the entire $3 million currently available, with two softball fields and a regulation hardball field to follow as funds become available. 

Another major project on Wednesday’s agenda is a public hearing to adopt a tentative tract map on a 30-unit condominium project planned for 2025 Channing Way. 

The final hearing set for Wednesday will focus on proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments to clarify definitions of front-, side- and backyards, which have become an issue in part because of projects recently approved that seem questionable under the current ordinance. 

The new amendments would establish clear and enforceable rules developers must follow. Yard-related parking issues played a major role in debates over the so-called “flying cottage” at 3045 Shattuck Ave.?