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What started off as a discussion differentiating creeks and culverts at the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday went on to become a heated debate about the ambiguities and inaccuracies of the proposed amendments to the Creeks Ordinance. 

A majority of the residents at the meeting were in favor of a culvert-free creeks ordinance and said that culverts should be regulated separately.  

The commission decided that they had a problem with the wording of the ordinance revisions and asked the staff to come back with an updated version at the next planning meeting. 

“Ever since culverts have been included in its creeks ordinance, thousands of property owners have faced an impenetrable prohibition against the enjoyment of their right to remodel their homes or add an extra bathroom to accommodate their growing families,” said Eric Wasserman, a Berkeley resident. 

“The current revised ordinance should not regulate development near culverts and ought to unambiguously state this. To do less again will again lead to property owners rights being unfairly curtailed, injuring them and their families, and provoking another firestorm of controversy and public discord such as we are experiencing now,” Wasserman said. 

No other city includes culverts in its creeks ordinance, a fact that the city Creeks Task Force acknowledged. 

“We had been promised at the May 30 City Council meeting that culverts would be taken out of the creeks ordinance,” said Terry Mandel, a Berkeley resident. “It is unfortunate that even after that promise, residents are here today making that same request over and over again.” 

Creeks Task Force Chair Helen Burke said that although other cities did not have culverts in their creeks ordinance, Berkeley, being an older city, was different. 

Planning Chair David Stoloff said that culverts were legally required to be in the city’s creeks ordinance. 

Residents at the meeting also complained about the inaccuracy of the city system to map and measure the groundwater. 

Joan Bajsarowicz, a resident of Del Mar Avenue, said that she had received several notices from the Planning Department informing them that their property fell within the Berkeley Creeks Zoning Ordinance, but that was not the case. 

“When we informed them about their mistake, we received from the City Deputy Planning Director verification that indeed their were no creeks on our property,” Bajsarowicz said. “But the creek buffer was mapped to show properties within 40 feet of a mapped creek, and the city map buffers were extended to 40 feet to reflect ‘a level of uncertainty in our GIS mapping.’ In other words, the city maps are not accurate, or at best, they are vague approximations.” 

She added that since it was almost impossible to accurately map and measure all the groundwater that flows under our feet, unmappable groundwater should be excluded from the Berkeley Creeks Ordinance. 

Burke said getting a 100 percent accurate mapping system was difficult and would be a very expensive process. 

Former mayor Shirley Dean recommended changes to the revised creeks ordinance and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance on behalf of Neighbors on Urban Creeks. 

Besides advocating for the removal of culverted creeks from the Creeks Ordinance, NUC recommendations included asking the commission to adopt an unconditional use permit instead of a variance with respect to setbacks required for new construction. NUC also said that there was no reason not to allow owners to rebuild without a public hearing whether their property was destroyed by fire, earthquake, flood or dry rot, as long as the structure was rebuilt in its original footprint, height, and mass, and complied with current applicable building codes. 

Telegraph zoning 

The board voted 6-3 to approve the staff changes recommended on the Telegraph Avenue economic development assistance package, that a vendor parking fee be removed and the hours of operation allowed on the avenue be till 12 a.m. without a use permit and till 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday with a use permit. 

The majority of the board members recognized the need for businesses on Telegraph to stay open late to increase foot traffic in the area and to cater to students late at night.