Public Comment

Twice during the past few months, the Planet has published articles proclaiming a “new vision” for Shattuck Avenue north of Vine Street, where the Farmers’ Market is located. The promoters of this “vision,” almost exclusively realtors, developers, architects and merchants, would like you to believe they will be creating a pedestrian plaza with lots of greenspace and trees. 

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. If the plan being pushed by North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. is ratified, North Berkeley residents will be stuck with two treeless, barren, asphalt parking lots separated by a thin pedestrian walkway, bordered by small, slow-growing trees.  

Gone will be the three old Buckeye trees that currently provide shade for the Farmers’ Market and the beautiful liquid amber trees on the east side of Shattuck Avenue. The Buckeyes will have to go to create a second parking lot, a few yards west of the Long’s lot, and the liquid amber’s don’t fit the new design pattern. 

In addition, people now parking in front of the Laundromat, Black Oak Books, Lobelia, and the restaurants on Shattuck Avenue will find that side lane closed to create a 50-foot wide sidewalk, both for the so-called “promenade”and more outdoor restaurant seating. There will be no access to the Long’s parking lot from the south. 

Most off-street parking is to be jammed into a second lot just east of the triangular Shattuck Commons building. The original intent was to close this part of Shattuck to traffic entirely, but the Fire Department objected, so traffic will have to pass through this busy lot as cars pull in and back out. 

Those who frequent the area know the Long’s lot often creates traffic problems on Rose Street. The new lot, will greatly intensify those problems, yet the project promoters adamantly refuse to do a traffic study, or an environmental impact report.  

The promoters also intend to build a kiosk, near where Shattuck curves, just to the west of Long’s. What’s to be sold there is yet to be determined, but one function of the kiosk is to store the benches that are to line the walkway. Why do the benches have to be stored? It is feared that some of the many homeless people who sleep in nearby Live Oak park would find permanent benches inviting. 

With so many obvious drawbacks, why is this plan being pushed with such urgency? There have been no calls from the nearby community for any change in the present street configuration. 

Developer David Stoloff, who lives in the neighborhood and has an office less than a block from the proposed project is spearheading the reconfiguration drive, along with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, whose real estate brokerage, Red Oak Realty is a few blocks away on Solano Ave. Both have built small condominium projects in North Berkeley in recent years. In addition, Stoloff is Mayor Tom Bates’ appointee to the Planning Commission.  

Stoloff claims he merely wants to improve the area which he walks through almost every day, as do I. He is bothered by Shattuck Avenue dividing at the curve and thinks the area can be improved. He and his associates believe their pedestrian walkway will attract more people to the Vine-Rose part of Shattuck, and induce them to carry their take-out food north, rather than congregate in the Vine-Cedar block. 

If that is truly the case, there are better, less complicated ways to create more greenspace in the area than the drastic plan that Stoloff’s “non-profit” has put forth. Why eliminate the parking in front of the businesses on the east side of Shattuck? Why force most of the parking on to the Rose Street end? Why is a 50-foot sidewalk necessary? 

After attending two meetings of Stoloff’s North Shattuck Plaza, Inc., I think I have some answers. When I suggested that removing all the parking in front of Black Oak, the Laundromat, etc., would have a negative impact on all those stores, one steering committee member said, “We’ll just have to get different businesses there.” Further attempts to modify the parking removal were either ignored or shouted down. That tells me that contrary to their claims, North Shattuck Plaza group really isn’t interested in improving conditions for locally owned businesses.  

At another point, former Councilmember Mim Hawley, also a steering committee member said, “We should build some housing above those stores.” Anyone looking at the shops from across the street can plainly see that they would have to be demolished before anything could be built above them. 

That, I believe, is the real goal of North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. The pedestrian walkway is only a stalking horse for a major high-rise condominium development at the corner of Vine and Shattuck, that will obliterate the locally-owned businesses there now. Imagine what condos in the Gourmet Ghetto a half block from the Cheeseboard and Chez Panisse would sell for. Never mind that it would forever change the character of the neighborhood, and make it unaffordable for those who live there now. 

That’s probably why they are so attached to a 50-foot sidewalk. At some point in the planning process for a new high-rise, the developer will claim the 50-foot sidewalk is too wide. He’ll then propose incorporating 20-feet or so of sidewalk into the new development. Skeptics should note that something similar happened about 16 years ago when the apartment building at the corner of Rose Street and Shattuck Avenue was built. The developer, in collusion with planning department officials, was given five feet of public property along Shattuck Avenue to incorporate into the building. 

Other members of Stoloff’s steering committee besides Capitelli and Hawley include Laszlo Tokes, the owner of Walnut Square, located directly across Vine Street from where the new condos would rise, Margo Lowe, owner of the expensive jewelry store next to Chez Panisse, Judith Bloom, a CPA, Lloyd Lee, an attorney, Helene Vilett, an architect, and Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association. I doubt that any of these people actually live in the area, nor were any area residents consulted when the plan was formulated. I happened upon a meeting by accident. 

The North Shattuck Plaza group is holding a “public meeting” on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. I suspect it will be little more than a “dog and pony show.” This group is not particularly interested in real public input. However, it is important that people who care about North Berkeley show up and state their objections to this disastrous, and unaesthetic plan.  

People interested in preserving the area as it is, or presenting an alternative, less intrusive, more neighborhood-oriented plan could link up at the meeting and set up a truly democratic, resident-oriented planning process. Interestingly, the flier the North Shattuck group distributed at the recent Spice of Life Festival does not show the second parking lot. Instead, the diagram, labels the new parking area as the “Farmers’ Market.” The Farmers’ Market operates four hours a week. For the other 164 hours it will be a parking lot. That’s developer speak at its finest, gleaned from the Karl Rove playbook.  

It’s also important that city councilmembers be contacted, because shortly after the election, I expect this group to approach the council for approval of their plan, despite the fact that the public has had very little time to consider it.  

Art Goldberg has been a north Berkeley resident for 30 years.