Features

Planning Commissioners and interested citizens will tour West Berkeley March 1 as the commission prepares to ease new zoning rules in the city’s core industrial area. 

Dubbed the West Berkeley Increased Flexibility Tour, the event will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. 

According to the official notice issued by the city planning department, “The tour is a focused effort by the Planning Commission to better understand the types of businesses and uses that thrive and/or face obstacles in their attempts to locate in West Berkeley.” 

Major landowners and developers have called for changes in the existing zoning ordinances, which they say are overly restrictive and bar needed enterprises from locating in the area covered by the West Berkeley Plan. 

The scope of changes would affect most of the land west of San Pablo except for properties zoned R-1A and C-W. 

Anyone wanting to participate in the tour should send an e-mail by Wednesday to Melanie E. Beasley at the Planning Department, mbeasley@ci.berkeley.ca.us.