Public Comment

Before Significant Community Benefits can be proposed for any new development in Berkeley, it is essential that a rigorous financial analysis be made by an independent entity of the costs and the profit the developer will realize in the construction and then the sale or ongoing rental income from the units. Without such analysis and a just assessment of the detriments caused by the project, there is no basis for an assessment of the capacity of the developer first to mitigate those detriments and then to provide Berkeley with benefits of significant value to the community. 

We now have a surfeit of $3,000-$5,000 p/month rentals. Berkeley's most crucial need in 2015 is for affordable housing, both for low income and middle income residents, in inclusionary residential buildings. As Mayor DeBlasio noted in his Berkeley conversation with Robert Reich, New York City requires 30% affordable units in all new developments, to ensure that low-income housing is available in all parts of the city. This is an admirable requirement and one that I'm sure most Berkeleyans would support, as a way to sustain our ethnically, economically, culturally diverse population. 

It is also essential that all developers of multi-unit residential buildings to be required to strive for net zero energy in their project design, as the state of California will require in just four years. Berkeley already has numerous large residential buildings under construction which will not come near meeting this soon-to-be-required standard. That is to say, we are seeing the city fill up with projects that will be a drain on our water and energy resources when we should be requiring much greater energy efficiency and water conservation and graywater systems in all new buildings. 

There is no way to mitigate the detriments that would result from the 2211 Harold Way project—the demolition of Habitot, valued by Berkeley families in its convenient location, and the Shattuck Cinemas, patronized by 275,00 to 300,000 people a year. The 2211 Harold Way project is hugely out of scale with the graceful, mostly 2-story buildings in Berkeley's historic district. The increased traffic congestion and disruption of downtown business, apart from the loss of Habitot and the Shattuck Cinemas, will be devastating during the two- to four-year construction period when sidewalks and streets will need to be closed for this absurdly large project. And it's doubtful the noise and pollution can be mitigated, as required by the location in the Berkeley High school zone. The spraying of huge amounts of water on construction projects is the usual way to control dust and other types of air pollution. Most of us think that an inappropriate solution, especially during a drought. How then will the dust and air pollution be mitigated? 

I find that people who don't go downtown much like to talk about the need to "revitalize" downtown. They don't realize that the Arts District and especially the Shattuck Cinemas have accomplished the revitalization of downtown in recent years. People come from all over northern California to attend the excellent array of films at the Cinemas and enjoy our downtown restaurants. What we need now is not more people downtown but much better public transit, a serious plan to reduce greenhouse gases, and an improved physical and social infrastructure to accommodate those already here. And of course we need affordable housing in all parts of our city.