Features

Berkeley city councilmembers passed the second and final readings of the soft story and condominium ordinances Tuesday, as well as the city plan and zoning changes needed to construct the Gilman Street Playing Fields complex. 

The condo and ballfields measures were adopted without discussion along with other items on the consent calendar, while the soft story measure generated considerable discussion.  

The ordinance requires owners of buildings placed on a city register of structures with earthquake-vulnerable ground floors to submit engineering reports on their buildings and notify tenants and the public of their dangers. 

As adopted, the measure doesn’t mandate seismic upgrades, something that may be added later after city officials and councilmembers have more time to ponder the issue. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, the manager of a real estate firm, objected to a provision of the soft story ordinance that calls for recording notices of the structural vulnerabilities with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office, because the recording could lead insurers to cancel policies and lenders to call in loans. 

Dan Lambert, senior management analyst for the Building and Safety Department, told Capitelli the recordings were included “to notify potential buyers that engineering work needs to be done on the buildings.” 

“We looked at insurance companies and banks and they said they already look at these types of buildings already,” added Lambert, “and, is it a good thing or a bad thing if the price reflects seismic safety in this type of market?” 

When it came time for the final vote, Capitelli abstained and the rest of the council voted their approval. 

By-right housing additions 

Proposed amendments to the city’s by-right housing addition law met a rockier course. 

The original proposal by Councilmembers Wozniak and Betty Olds called for changes that would have allowed by-right additions by zoning certificates of up to 700 square feet for ground floor expansions, and required administrative use permits for all second-story additions, rather than allowing them by zoning certificates, as is currently the practice. 

With Wozniak’s concurrence, Olds reduced the ground floor by-right addition to the current 500-square-feet limit. 

But implementation proved far more complex, both because the changes would require amendments to all of the city’s current zoning districts and because the imposition of the use permit process would requirement an additional half- to three-quarters of a planning staffer’s daily time. 

As a result, the proposal was remanded to staff for further study.  

The council also: 

• Authorized the addition of six Toyota Prius hybrid cars to the city’s vehicle fleet. 

• Delayed acting on two opposing resolutions urging either the demolition or preservation of the Bevatron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a decision that is in the hands of the U.S. Department of Energy. 

• Approved the addition of a 977-square-foot three-car garage to a home at 1732-34 La Vereda Road, rejecting an appeal by neighbors of an earlier vote by the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

• Approved expansion of the new credit card payable parking stations to the North Shattuck and Southside areas, and 

• Granted a six-month lease on a building at Aquatic Park to Fix Our Ferals, which will use the structure for a sterilization program for free range wild cats to head off a sudden explosion of unwanted kittens in the springtime.  

Fire Department savings 

During the workshop session before the meeting, Fire Chief Debra Pryor informed councilmembers that her department’s flexible deployment plan, introduced as a cost savings measure in July, has saved the city about $200,000 while not causing any loss in response time for emergency calls. 

The increases in overtime during the period were attributable to the firefighters who were called up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to participate in rescue and body search efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita—$71,758 in overtime that Pryor said is slated for reimbursement by the feds. 

“Do you think you can count on that, considering what’s happened with FEMA?” quipped Councilmember Betty Olds, drawing laughter from her colleagues. 

The flexible deployment plan reduces staffing levels by one engine company per shift, temporarily reducing up to three positions per shift which would otherwise have to be filled by employees on overtime because of the current 10 vacancies in qualified firefighter positions. 

Pryor said replacements have been hired for all the vacancies, but that they can’t go on active duty until they have completed all aspects of their training. 

The plan was also helped by this season’s virtual lack of critical fire days. During the current fire season, which will end sometime next week, only one critical fire danger day was declared. 

During a more general discussion on response times to fire calls, Councilmember Max Anderson asked what impact speed humps, traffic circles and other so-called calming devices have on response times. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said each such device adds about 10 seconds to a call, so that a block with three speed humps might add a half-minute to response times needed to reach a property at the far end of a block. 

“That could be important in some cases,” Orth said.