Public Comment
BART Parking Lot Development on June 2 Agenda at Berkeley City Council
On Thursday, June 2 the City Council will be voting both on zoning and on their priorities for development at both Ashby and North Berkeley BART. There will be time for public comment. The agenda for the June 2 meeting is not yet available but you can find the staff report for their April 19 work session here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/
By a 5-4 margin, with two last minute substitutes voting in the majority, the Planning Commission voted in April to recommend 12 stories at the BART sites! This action flies in the face of three years of community testimony and emails, public hearings, and advisory committee meetings. The City’s own planning staff have recommended a seven story maximum.
Priority for BART station development: 100% Below Market Affordable Housing
The City Council will be voting on what they want in a Joint Vision and Priorities (JVP) document for both sites (Ashby and North Berkeley). This document will help guide the development process from developer selection through construction. This document should call for selecting developers who will build housing for those lower income households who can’t afford rents in market rate housing and are at risk of being priced out and displaced from Berkeley. The master developer for the project should be a non-profit. City public affordable housing funds from the Measure O bond, Measure U1, from affordable housing fees (paid by market rate developers), and from any future bond measure can help leverage other state and federal funds and tax credits to build this housing.
Higher building Costs: 12 story buildings cost a lot more build per square foot than 4-6 story buildings. Non-profit affordable housing developers rely on public funds, including local funds from Berkeley’s Housing Trust Fund and other sources. Non-profits don’t build more expensive 12 story buildings, which would be a bad use of public money. Affordable housing built downtown on Oxford on the former public parking lot, and the project now under construction on the City’s Berkeley Way parking lot, are both six stories, a height that works for non-profit developers, who want to make efficient use of public funds. If a market-rate developer is chosen (building just 10% affordable units), they could receive a density bonus and other concessions which could increase the height to 16 stories or more. With just 15% affordable units, they could build to 18 stories!
Lower Land Cost on Public Land: The cost of acquiring land to build on, especially in today’s overheated housing market, adds substantially to the cost of building below market affordable units. When non-profits build affordable housing on public land, land cost can be reduced or eliminated altogether. BART has adopted a policy of discounting land cost by up to 60% below fair market value for affordable housing projects. It’s hard for the nonprofits who build affordable housing to compete with market-rate developers for expensive private sites. By prioritizing public land like BART stations for affordable housing, the city can make sure that available local affordable housing funds stretch as far as possible and produce the largest possible number of affordable units.
Use Fruitvale BART as a Model not MacArthur BART: When construction of the current phase of housing development is completed at Fruitvale BART, almost 90% of the housing built there will be affordable to people at varying income levels who can’t afford market rate housing. By contrast, only 17% of the housing units at MacArthur BART are below market affordable units. The market rate units in the MacArthur high rise building there have high rents: studios over $2500 a month; 1 bedrooms from around $2800+ to over $3300 on higher floors. It’s not just the percentage of affordable units at Fruitvale that’s higher, the total number of below market affordable units is also higher at Fruitvale despite its smaller low-rise scale. The City’s Adeline Corridor Plan calls for 100% below market affordable housing at Ashby BART. South Berkeley needs housing for families who can’t afford to pay $4000 for a high rise two-bedroom unit. The City Council should help implement the Adeline Corridor Plan zoning for affordable housing with a maximum height of seven stories. And North Berkeley should have its share of affordable housing too and North Berkeley BART as a public site is an ideal location.
Negative Environmental Impacts: 12 story and taller buildings use a lot more concrete and steel. Cement is the main component of concrete, and the manufacture of cement is very energy intensive and is responsible for an estimated 8% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Wood frame construction of four to six story buildings, with less use of concrete, has fewer negative environmental impacts. Most of the city’s non-profit built affordable buildings have rooftop solar panels that provide hot water and, in some cases electricity. Using solar to help meet a building’s energy needs is not practical with high rise buildings. Taller buildings also use more electricity per square foot than buildings of seven stories or less, and can have significant shadowing impacts on other people’s homes.
Tell the City Council:
Zone Berkeley’s BART stations for Below Market Affordable Housing. The maximum height allowed should be 7 stories as recommended by City staff. Reject the Planning Commission majority plan for unaffordable market-rate high rises at our BART stations.
Public Land should be used for Public Benefit. Non-profit affordable housing developers should be chosen to develop both our BART stations.
The City Council will be voting on both zoning and priorities for both North Berkeley BART and Ashby BART at a special meeting on Thursday, June 2.
Send an e-mail to Council soon: council@cityofberkeley.info
Please write them again if you already sent something for the April 19 council work session or prior to the Planning Commission’s April 6 vote. Emails received by Thursday, May 26 will be included in the first supplemental communications packet for the June 2 special meeting. Write “BART zoning June 2” in subject line of your email.
