Features

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) tops the agendas of two city panels this week, the Planning Commission and a DAPAC subcommittee. 

The first meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee’s BRT Subcommittee gathers in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

With the possibility of new bus-only lanes along Bancroft Way, Oxford Street and downtown sections of University and Shattuck avenues, BRT could literally transform the face of the city center, as well as the travel habits of an untold number of commuters. 

The second BRT-related meeting comes in the same building at the same time the following night, when the Planning Commission grapples with issue. 

Both meetings will devote part of their schedules to discussions and comments aimed at the project’s draft environmental impact Report (DEIR), which was also discussed at a joint meeting of the full DAPAC and the city’s Transportation Commission a week earlier. 

The system would also result in major changes to the flow of traffic on Telegraph Avenue, with the most controversial of the alternatives calling for closure of the street to cars and the creation of a bus-only plaza on the stretch immediately south of the street’s terminus at the UC Berkeley campus. 

Plans also call for possible closure of the one-way north-bound stretch of Shattuck between Center Street and University Avenue, and possible restrictions of other vehicles traffic on Bancroft Way between Telegraph Avenue and the Fulton Street intersection. 

While proponents and some of the opponents to the specifics of the AC Transit proposals praise BRT as a tool for fighting global warming by encouraging commuters to abandon their cars for area commutes, many neighbors have said they worry about the impacts on their streets and homes. 

BRT has won strong support from proponents of the Smart Growth movement, which calls for concentrating development on mass transit corridors, while critics have portrayed it as a tool for developers at the expense of established neighborhoods. 

PDA reconsideration 

In addition to BRT, planning commissioners will also take a second look at the proposed designation of downtown Berkeley as a Priority Development Area. 

The proposal failed to win the absolute majority required for passage during the commission’s May 23 meeting, winning four votes for passage, two opposed and one abstention, with Commissioner Susan Wengraf—who usually votes with the four proponents—absent. 

DAPAC voted 16-1-2 in favor of the measure a week later, with Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman casting the lone vote against, after Planning and Development Director Dan Marks said the designation was entirely consistent with the city’s existing plans and zoning ordinances. 

The designation is a critical step if the city wants to apply for the $2.9 billion in affordable housing bonds approved by California voters last November when they adopted Measure IC. 

The funding programs for local cities and counties is being administered by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).