Features

Zoning Meetings Turn Monthly, Kashani Condos Back on Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday January 21, 2009 - 07:43:00 PM

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board— which will now meet only one Thursday of the month instead of two because of the scarcity of new projects in the city’s Planning and Development Department—is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to approve real-estate developer Ali Kashani’s five-story mixed-use project, a proposal to build 98 condos, 7,770 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 114 parking spaces on a 43,210 square-foot lot. 

At a Dec. 11 meeting last year, the board held a public hearing on the project and, after hearing Berkeley resident Steve Wollmer’s objection to the wording of its proposed permit’s handling of affordable housing units, continued it to Thursday to allow city planners additional time to provide revised density bonus calculations and inclusionary housing units. 

Additionally, a staff report put together by the city’s planner Aaron Sage, who is overseeing the proposed project, states that Kashani has withdrawn his request for a concession under the state’s density bonus law to not provide any inclusionary units on the fifth floor. 

The location for this meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m., has changed from the Old City Hall to the North Berkeley Senior Center at 1901 Hearst Ave.