Election Section

Your brief Sept. 2 item on the ZAB subcommittee on 3045 Shattuck may have misled some readers to believe that the subcommittee’s purpose is to seek a compromise between neighbors and the developer, Christina Sun. In fact its purpose is simply to work with Ms. Sun’s architect to find a more attractive, less blocky, higher-quality design that she and ZAB would both find acceptable. 

Neighbors are not a party to these discussions, and our other concerns about and suggestions for the project are not on the table. Design issues aside, our main objections regard parking and due process. 

Ms. Sun, planning staff, and ZAB continue to flout the zoning code regulations regarding the number and location of off-street parking spaces. The current proposal for the property provides the required two parking spaces for the two residential units, but locates one of them within 10 feet of the property line with the adjacent residence. Per Berkeley Zoning Code section 23E.04.050, that would be allowed only if ZAB were to find that it provided “greater privacy or improved amenity” to a neighboring residence, when here the effect is clearly the opposite. 

The current proposal provides zero parking for the commercial unit, for the simple reason that there is nowhere to put one space, let alone the two required by the Zoning Code. This is fallout from Ms. Sun’s failed attempt to expand her illegal rooming house by passing it off as a two-story single-family house (one space required) over a first-floor cafe (two spaces). The City Council nullified her permits for that project after neighbors provided evidence that she had been running a rooming house and did not intend to use the expanded residence as a single-family house. By that time, Ms. Sun had already expanded the building’s footprint, leaving just enough room for three standard nine-foot spaces. 

Since the upstairs has now been split into two units, that leaves one for the commercial space. However, per state law the first space for the commercial unit has to be five feet wider to accommodate vans with wheelchair lifts. So, as a direct result of her scofflaw behavior, Ms. Sun has nowhere to put parking for the commercial space except in the building. To date she has rejected all suggestions that she do so. 

Instead, Ms. Sun has arbitrarily redefined all but 1149 square feet of the first floor as “owner storage.” Staff in turn are pretending (with ZAB’s blessing) that such storage is not a commercial use, rounding off the 149 square feet, and exempting the remaining 1000 square feet as provided by Zoning Code section 23E.52.080.C. Staff has offered no rationale for allowing that discretionary exemption. Nor has staff explained how it could enforce the requirement that the “owner storage” not be used by whatever business occupies the commercial unit. 

The Zoning Code gives ZAB the power to resolve all of these parking issues by holding a public hearing and issuing a use permit under section 23E.52.080 reducing the parking requirement. Unfortunately, Ms. Sun adamantly refuses to apply for any use permits. More unfortunately, instead of rejecting her application on that basis, staff (again with ZAB’s blessing) is pretending that no use permits are required. Thus, after two years of effort, thousands of dollars in legal fees, and thousands of hours preparing for and attending tangential hearings, neighbors continue to be denied our right to a public hearing on the required use permits. 

Robert Lauriston represents 150 neighbors of 3045 Shattuck Ave.