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No Upzoning Without Affordability!

Berkeley Tenants Union
Wednesday March 24, 2021 - 08:56:00 PM
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This THURSDAY at 6PM, the full city council will vote on a proposal by Mayor Arreguin and Council Members Droste, Kesarwani, and Taplin to allow fourplexes throughout the city without requiring ANY affordable housing whatsoever. Without critical amendments, their proposal will result in the demolition of affordable housing, replaced with unaffordable market-rate housing. 

No to upzoning without affordability! No to further gentrification! 

If the council truly wants to use upzoning to mitigate our affordable housing crisis, it must start by including all of the following requirements. Requiring these provisions is supported by numerous organizations, including the entire elected Rent Board, the Berkeley Tenants Union, Our Revolution East Bay, and every single candidate for ASUC External Affairs Vice President: 

  1. Demolition

    No demolition of rent controlled housing, deed-restricted below market rate housing, and housing older than July 1st, 1980 (i.e. is not prevented from being rent-controlled under Costa-Hawkins’s new construction exemption).

  2. Data Collections.

    As we proceed with zoning changes aimed at addressing historic racial inequities, it is important to ensure that we improve and not exacerbate the problem. The proposed process should include a method of capturing demographic data on any displacement that is caused or may have been caused, especially along racial lines but including all protected statuses, to the extent practicable.

  3. Affordable Housing

    a. In line with this change being aimed at generating ‘Missing Middle’ housing, the units generated by this proposal should be capped at 150% of AMI with one unit that is 80% of AMI.

    b. Lower the threshold for the Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee (AHMF) to include all new residential development

  4. AntiDisplacement and Anti-Speculation Measures

    a. Special consideration of sensitive communities within Berkeley

    b. No ministerial approval on lots that have tenants or have had tenants within 10 years

    c. Lots which have been emptied through the threat or actual use of an eviction authorized under the Ellis Act within the last 10 years be made completely ineligible from benefiting from the provisions of the upzoning

    d. Right of first refusal for any tenants displaced during construction

    e. Enhanced noticing requirement to all tenants on an application of demolition or construction on lots with tenants

    f. Additional anti-speculation measures to prevent predatory purchasing practices

  5. Generating New Rent Controlled Units

    a. As often as possible do not issue certificates of occupancy

    b. Preference for rental units over condominiums: rentals are more affordable than condos and condos are exempt from rent control

    c. Preference for addition and subdivision over demolition to incentivize the creation of new rent controlled units, including a prohibition on demolition of buildings older than July 1st, 1980 (i.e. is not prevented from being rent-controlled under Costa-Hawkins’s new construction exemption)

  6. Only Adopt With Crucial Changes to Other Policies

    Additionally, there are a number of other proposals pending before various bodies of the City, including amendments to the Demolition Ordinance and Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee Act and introduction of tenant habitability plans, that are essential to this proposal to work for our community. This proposal should not be put into force without those changes accompanying it.
As a member of BTU, your voice is needed to demand that city council mandate these provisions. You can do so by emailing the city council as well as giving public comment during the meeting. You can find a sample email/talking points and instructions for both steps below, and in our Facebook event here. 

Sincerely,
The Berkeley Tenants Union Steering Committee

Step 1: Email the City Council
The first step to stop the city council from gentrifying Berkeley with another giveaway to corporate developers and landlords is to email the city council before their Monday committee meeting. For you convenience, below is a sample email (including where to send it): 

 

To: council@cityofberkeley.info AND clerk@cityofberkeley.info 

Subject: No Upzoning Without Affordability - Say No to Gentrification! 

 

Dear Council members, 

My name is _____ and I am a member of the Berkeley Tenants Union. I am writing to demand that you do not pass the proposed upzoning item without MANDATING real affordability requirements and real tenant protections. Allowing corporate developers to build market-rate fourplexes that are unaffordable to the vast majority of tenants will not solve our affordable housing crisis, nor will it allow people who have been displaced to return to the city. Rather, it will exacerbate the crisis by accelerating gentrification. Tenants need affordable housing, not more corporate giveaways. 

If the city council truly wants to use upzoning to mitigate our affordable housing crisis, it must start by fully including all of the following provisions as binding instructions to the Planning Commission: 

  1. Demolition

    No demolition of rent controlled housing, deed-restricted below market rate housing, and housing older than July 1st, 1980 (i.e. is not prevented from being rent-controlled under Costa-Hawkins’s new construction exemption).

  2. Data Collections.

    As we proceed with zoning changes aimed at addressing historic racial inequities, it is important to ensure that we improve and not exacerbate the problem. The proposed process should include a method of capturing demographic data on any displacement that is caused or may have been caused, especially along racial lines but including all protected statuses, to the extent practicable.

  3. Affordable Housing

    a. In line with this change being aimed at generating ‘Missing Middle’ housing, the units generated by this proposal should be capped at 150% of AMI with one unit that is 80% of AMI.

    b. Lower the threshold for the Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee (AHMF) to include all new residential development

  4. Ant-Displacement and Anti-Speculation Measures

    a. Special consideration of sensitive communities within Berkeley

    b. No ministerial approval on lots that have tenants or have had tenants within 10 years

    c. Lots which have been emptied through the threat or actual use of an eviction authorized under the Ellis Act within the last 10 years be made completely ineligible from benefiting from the provisions of the upzoning

    d. Right of first refusal for any tenants displaced during construction

    e. Enhanced noticing requirement to all tenants on an application of demolition or construction on lots with tenants

    f. Additional anti-speculation measures to prevent predatory purchasing practices

  5. Generating New Rent Controlled Units

    a. As often as possible do not issue certificates of occupancy

    b. Preference for rental units over condominiums: rentals are more affordable than condos and condos are exempt from rent control

    c. Preference for addition and subdivision over demolition to incentivize the creation of new rent controlled units, including a prohibition on demolition of buildings older than July 1st, 1980 (i.e. is not prevented from being rent-controlled under Costa-Hawkins’s new construction exemption)

  6. Only Adopt With Crucial Changes to Other Policies

    Additionally, there are a number of other proposals pending before various bodies of the City, including amendments to the Demolition Ordinance and Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee Act and introduction of tenant habitability plans, that are essential to this proposal to work for our community. This proposal should not be put into force without those changes accompanying it.
This position is supported by numerous organizations, including the entire elected Rent Board, the Berkeley Tenants Union, Our Revolution East Bay, and every single candidate for ASUC External Affairs Vice President. 

If you refuse to mandate all of these requirements, corporate developers will demolish rent-controlled duplexes and triplexes and other older affordable housing and replace them with unaffordable, market-rate fourplexes. Far from making the city more affordable, such a corporate giveaway will increase median rents in Berkeley. 

I urge you to include all of these crucial requirements in the proposal. By doing so, we can work together to truly make Berkeley more affordable. 
Step 2: Give Public Comment at the Meeting
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND THE MEETING LIVE TO GIVE PUBLIC COMMENT, YOU CAN ALSO SEND A WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT THAT WILL BE READ ALOUD! SEE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION. 

We also need you to give public comment during the meeting to ensure all of these requirements are included! The Zoom URL for the meeting is zoom.us/j/82133233284. To join by phone, dial 1-669-900-6833 and enter Meeting ID 879 6348 0871 . To give public comment, "raise your hand" (*9 on a phone) and wait to be recognized by the Chair. Please see step 1 for sample talking points and the Zoom log-in information. 

If you are unable to give verbal public comment during the meeting, you may instead submit written public comment by emailing clerk@cityofberkeley.info with the subject line "PUBLIC COMMENT ITEM #1." (Please note this is separate from and in addition to Step 1. Please do both steps 1 and 2.)