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With only City Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s two appointments yet to be named, the panel responsible for helping to formulate a new downtown plan is almost in place. 

Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Dona Spring, Darryl Moore and Max Anderson announced their appointments Monday, with Bates picking Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) Executive Director Will Travis to serve as chair of the 21-member panel. 

Travis also served on the staff of the California Coastal Commission and was a consultant on the master plan for the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

Bates’ other pick is Juliet Lamont, an outspoken advocate of daylighting the city’s buried creeks. She holds a doctorate in environmental planning from UC Berkeley. Among her other involvements, she recently served as vice chair of the Sierra Club executive committee. 

Each of Berkeley’s nine councilmembers has two appointments to the committee, and the Planning Commission has three. 

The panel is the result of the settlement of the city’s suit challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan for 2025. The group is charged with preparing a draft plan no later than November 2007, when it will then disband. 

Councilmember Spring appointed another Sierra Club activist, Wendy Alfsen, who also served on the Planning Commission’s UC Hotel Task Force, which formulated suggested guidelines for a hotel the university is planning for the northeast corner of the intersection of University Avenue and Center Street. 

Alfsen lives a half-bloc k outside the committee’s planning area and is active in the McKinley Addison Allston Grant Neighborhood Association (MAAGNA), Spring said. 

Her other appointment, Lisa Stephens, has lived in the planning area since 1990 and served on the group that prepa red the city’s existing downtown plan in 1990. She also served as Spring’s representative on the Parks and Recreation Commission from 1993 to 2001 and, like Lamont, is a creek daylighting proponent, Spring said. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore appointed Berke ley High School Lead Safety Officer Billy Keys, who has also served on the school’s site committee. Moore’s other appointment, Maria Guadalupe Gallegos-Diaz, is director of Chicano/Latino Affairs at UC Berkeley. She also serves on the board of the Chicana/Latina Foundation. 

Councilmember Max Anderson appointed former City Councilmember Carole Kennerly, who currently works for the Alameda County Health Department. 

“She has a wealth of experience,” Anderson said. 

His other appointment, Planning Commissio ner Rob Wrenn, also serves on the Transportation Commission and served on the UC Hotel Task Force as well. 

With the addition of Wrenn, the panel now has five planning commissioners, potentially a problem under the Brown Act, which would consider the meet ings when all five were present to be legally meetings of that commission. 

The others are Planning Commission Chair Harry Pollack, who was previously appointed by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, and members Gene Poschman, Helen Burke, another Sierra Club a ctivist, and Susan Wengraf, Councilmember Olds’ aide, who were chosen by a vote of the planning commission against the wishes of Pollack and Wengraf. 

Wozniak’s other choice was University of California journalism faculty member Linda Schacht. 

Councilmem ber Laurie Capitelli’s choices were former Councilmember Mim Hawley and Zoning Commissioner Raudell Wilson, the chair of the Downtown Berkeley Association. Betty Olds picked retired University of California planning executive and Livable Berkeley board member Dorothy Walker and Jenny Wenk of the Downtown Berkeley YMCA. Linda Maio named Victoria Eisen, a planning consultant who has worked for the Association of Bay Area Governments and Winston Burton of BOSS, a social service non-profit. 

Worthington said Monday that he’s still interviewing candidates, and asked that anyone interested contact him at his office in City Hall. 

Four candidates are scheduled for interviews today (Tuesday), Worthington said, “and I’m looking for more to find just the right comb ination. It’s very hard to find someone who’s familiar with planning, land use, landmark, housing and the other issues the committee will be dealing with. I’m happy to talk to anyone who wants to serve.” 

Cisco DeVries, chief of staff for Mayor Bates, said Monday that “it won’t cause any calamity” if Worthington misses the 5 p.m. deadline. “I’m sure we’ll survive,” he added.?