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Smiling and brimming with upbeat assessments, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau last week gave the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce rosy views of the future of town and gown cooperation. 

Chamber members gathered last Tuesday at the Doubletree Hotel in the Berkeley Marina to hear the pair discuss crucial issues facing the city and the university. 

The discussions, in which Bates and Birgeneau were given equal time, centered on the university’s controversial Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for 2020, economic development opportunities in the city, physical development of downtown Berkeley and the opportunities for city and university partnership in youth programs. 

“The city and the university have faced some challenges around the LRDP,” said Bates. “They (UC Berkeley) have a lot of freedom to do anything they want.” 

The LRDP’s provisions calling for more than a million square feet of development within the city limits, most in downtown Berkeley, sparked a city lawsuit against the university and a settlement calling for a joint approach to development. 

“In spite of what you may have heard from the press, discussions with the city and the mayor have been open, friendly and fair,” said Birgeneau. “We have to work hard on both sides toward a compromise.” 

While acknowledging that the university is a major factor in shaping the city, Bates defined one of the key issues for Berkeley: “Are we being justly compensated for the services we provide” to the university, including police, fire and other services funded by taxpayers, as well as for the costs of traffic congestion arising from the 40,000 commuters who come to the university daily? 

With 16,000 full-time employees, the university is Berkeley’s largest employer, Birgeneau said, and the presence of the university also attracts other businesses to the city—most recently the Yahoo center. 

Bates agreed, adding that the university also creates environmentally-friendly business. 

The mayor said he was pleased that the university has agreed to provide the city with a “heads up on new products coming down the line so we can look at available office space in the city to keep them in town.” 

Bates said he was enthusiastic about public and private partnerships that would keep new business on the property tax rolls—in contrast to university-only programs that are tax-exempt. 

Both officials also noted that plans for a university-endorsed private hotel at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street remain a possibility, as does an expanded museum complex and convention center in the same area bounded by Shattuck on the west, Oxford Street on the east, Center Street on the south and University Avenue on the north. 

If built, the hotel would remain on the tax rolls, and generate property, sales and room occupancy taxes for the city, Bates said. 

Birgeneau said the university is negotiating with the same developer who built a similar university-supported complex in Cambridge, Mass. while he served as Dean of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Both officials offered their praises of the joint planning process that will create a new Downtown Area Plan. 

“Ultimately, this plan by the citizens and staff will go to the Planning Commission,” and will be “heard to death” before its final adoption, said Bates. “I don’t think we’re going to have a problem. I hope not. I think our downtown will be so wonderful when we get through,” creating a “gateway edge of really exciting world class buildings, green buildings.” 

When it came time for questions and answers, one audience member asked the officials to comment on panhandling on Telegraph Avenue and the People’s Park Free Box. 

Bates said the panhandling issue would be best resolved by a commitment from the state and federal governments to provide adequate detox facilities,  

housing and support services for those in need. 

Birgeneau said he encountered the same problems while he was serving as president at the University of Toronto. 

“One third were not getting proper medical care, one third were drug addicts, and one third were genuinely poor and had fallen through the cracks,” he said. “There is not a simple solution.” 

When another audience member asked about a commitment from the university to buy from local merchants, Birgeneau said he was limited by the UC Board of Regents’ Strategic Sourcing Initiative, which dictates that campuses must buy in the most efficient manner. 

“The question is, how can local merchants compete?” Birgeneau said.h