Extra

Two Downtown Plan Chapters Lead Agenda

By Richard Brenneman
Monday February 02, 2009 - 08:13:00 PM

Berkeley planning commissioners will be back at work on the new Downtown Area Plan Wednesday night, this time looking at access and streetscapes and open space. 

The commission has saddled itself with a series of special meetings as they rush to meet the deadline to send their revisions of the plan to the City Council. 

Councilmembers will make a final pick from two competing versions, one drafted over the course of nearly two years by Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee and the second being the commission’s own revisions of the DAPAC draft. 

The council must pass the final version by noon on May 26 or the city will lose some of the UC Berkeley funds designed to offset impacts of the university’s downtown building plans. 

Commissioners are scheduled to finish their revisions of the plan by March 25, if they follow a schedule drafted by downtown planner Matt Taecker. 

The panel will adopt any last minute changes at their April 15 meeting, when they are also scheduled to review the plan’s environmental impact report. 

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

The chapter and the agenda are available at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/.