Category: Livable Berkeley

After five years of slow progress working with the City of Berkeley, the developer that’s proposing a mixed-use housing and retail project on the site of the Spenger’s parking lot has invoked the new California law, SB35. SB35 allows developers to by-pass local approval when projects are submitted with 50% of the units priced below market. If the project can be constructed without negatively impacting significant archeological resources, then Livable Berkeley believes this project could bring significant market rate and affordable housing to West Berkeley along with shopping in a transit-oriented location. Please let the Berkeley City Council know what you think. Read More

On the evening of March 15th, a meeting about possible housing development at North Berkeley BART proceeded in an atmosphere of civility, with opinions respectfully discussed. The event featured presentations by City Councilwoman Linda Maio, Mayor Jesse Arreguín, BART Director Rebecca Saltzman, and BART’s Chief Planning and Development OfficerVal Menotti. The event drew an impressive turnout of more than 300 people. The informational event gave neighbors the opprotunity to ask questions, get answers, and give feedback. Read more here. Livable Berkely thinks the next step should be additional City and BART sponsored meetings for planning housing at North Berkeley BART (as well as Ashby BART) for inclusion in the City’s General Plan. What do you think about housing at North Berkeley BART?

Crime casts a shadow over all the great things happening in the City of Berkeley. The City is currently in the middle of a public safety officer hiring crisis, while crime is growing at an alarming rate. As of December 2017, the Berkeley Police Department was down to only 160 safety officers – which is 20 officers short of the department’s 181 target. Read Emilie Raguso’s excellent article about the department’s hiring challenges here. While safety officer numbers have been steadily dropping, violent crime is rising annually. Violent crime increased by 12%, 18% and 20%, in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.  Read more about the growing crime issue here. Livable Berkeley believes that public safety is an essential quality of great communities, and we find these trends unacceptable. Let the Council know that they need to solve the police hiring and retention issue as a priority and control the crime problem in our city.

Berkeley Honda finally reopened its doors March 23rd at its new Shattuck Avenue location in the former home of Any Mountain Sports. Read more here. Livable Berkeley is pleased with the outcome, but the process of relocating this important tax generating business took far too long. Livable Berkeley believes that significant tax generators and a healthy tax base are crucial for having the financial resources to do generous, interesting and innovative things in a city. Let the Council know that they did the right thing by retaining Berkeley Honda and encourage them to move the process along more quickly the next time a significant tax generator requires local assistance to stay in town.

The City of Berkeley has taken a step forward in communicating where public dollars are spent. In response to the passage of Measure T1, a $100 million bond to improve existing infrastructure in Berkeley, the City’s staff created the T1 story map. This website shows a map view of projects funded with T1 bond money and provides a short description of how the projects will improve our city. The projects range from community center upgrades, to irrigation modernization, to a citywide needs assessment for public restrooms. If you are a Gilman Fields user you may have already seen that the artificial turf has been replaced as part of these planned improvements. Livable Berkeley supports this step towards transparency and is excited to see many of these projects come to fruition. As some of the bigger projects progress, like the pier renovation design, Livable Berkeley will be sure to keep you informed and provide you with an opportunity to give your input.

Livable Berkeley is holding another informal get-together at Comal in Downtown Berkeley. Meet members and learn about our mission to make the Berkeley community “livable” by promoting policies that create positive change in housing, transportation, environmental stewardship and more.
Creating a sustainable, equitable, and vibrant Berkeley requires many diverse perspectives. Livable Berkeley believes that through collaboration and teamwork, we can meet this challenge head-on.

Through the advocacy of Livable Berkeley and other civic organizations, the City launched Peak Democracy’s online civic engagement platform under the brand, Berkeley Considers. Over 150 cities in North America use this tool to hear from citizens on policy issues, budgeting and other critical local issues. Check out Peak Democracy’s website and see how other cities use this great citizen engagement tool, and compare that to how we use it in the City of Berkeley (link). We think it’s great that the City launched Berkeley Considers, but we want the City to use is for Berkeley’s most material issues. Email the Council with your ideas about what issues the City should post on Berkeley Considers, or other ways we might use Berkeley Considers to promote citizen engagement and better decision making. See More

A recent tweet by Mayor Jesse Arreguin noting that it’s time to build housing in the parking lot at North Berkeley BART, triggered a hailstorm of comments on NextDoor and Berkeleyside. EBFE (East Bay for Everyone, an active pro housing group) jumped in with comments and recommendations for what they believed to be the right direction for new housing on this BART parking lot, including a 30+ story high rise. Other commenters demonized anyone who wanted housing there. Livable Berkeley believes that near transit locations are the right places for dense, well-massed housing, and that it’s possible to integrate that housing into existing neighborhoods. Others agree. Check out this thoughtfully written opinion piece on Berkeleyside: Housing at North Berkeley BART  Read More

Skip the traffic jams! Tideline Ferry now provides small ferry commuter service between Berkeley and San Francisco. Tideline departs from K dock in the Berkeley Marina and arrives at pier 1-1/2 in 20 minutes! Give this uncongested alternative to the Berkeley/San Francisco commute a try. Email the Council to support transportation alternatives. Read More

Bike sharing is taking off in the East Bay. Berkeley now has five locations for Ford GoBike, making it easier to take short trips and to get to BART. Email the council to support bike sharing.  Read More

New bike and bus lanes are now complete on Bancroft Way, facilitating safe two- way bike transit along the edge of the UC campus. We’d like to see more bike friendly streets in Berkeley. Email the Council to articulate your support for bike friendly streets.  Read More

Thursday, March 29 5:30 – 7:00

Livable Berkeley will be holding an informal get together at Comal in Downtown Berkeley. Meet members and learn more about our mission to make the Berkeley community more “livable” by promoting policies that create positive change in housing, transportation, environmental stewardship and more.

Creating a sustainable, equitable, and vibrant Berkeley requires many diverse perspectives. Livable Berkeley believes that through collaboration and teamwork, we can meet this challenge head-on. If you support our mission and are interested in becoming a member please visit our website or Facebook page. Thank you for your continued support in creating a more livable community.

We’re happy to report that WETA will very shortly start work on a ferry terminal at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) says that the ferry may also call at the Berkeley Marina, pending permits for construction of a terminal there.

Livable Berkeley founded Sunday Streets! We’re happy to report that WETA will very shortly start work on a ferry terminal at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) says that the ferry may also call at the Berkeley Marina, pending permits for construction…

We’re happy to report that WETA will very shortly start work on a ferry terminal at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) says that the ferry may also call at the Berkeley Marina, pending permits for construction…

Livable Berkeley founded Sunday Streets! We’re happy to report that WETA will very shortly start work on a ferry terminal at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) says that the ferry may also call at the Berkeley Marina, pending permits for construction… Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

Livable Berkeley urges members of the Berkeley City Council to vote NO on Consent Item 16 on the July 12th, 2016 agenda. The following are selected excerpts from the proposed resolution and background materials, with responses indicating how the text of the item is incorrect and/or would undermine the intended purpose of the State legislation.

Excerpts from the resolution are shown in Italics; responses are shown in bold typeface:

 However, it is still not clear whether the new by-right law would pre-empt cities from applying higher affordability requirements than those imposed by the state. In addition, the Trailer Bill does not require by-right projects to meet any construction labor standards and would prohibit the ability of local governments to impose their own labor, environmental or social equity benefits for by-right projects.

This is out of date and incorrect. The City Council agenda materials for this item contain a discussion of the most recent version of the bill. This discussion indicates that the most recent version of the bill would require projects to meet the full range of “objective zoning standards” and “objective design standards” at the local level to qualify for streamlined approval.  Local affordable housing requirements, green building standards, and parking minimums/maximums are all examples of objective standards that would NOT be pre-empted by the legislation.

Governor Jerry Brown introduced a Budget Trailer Bill proposal for “By-Right Housing Approvals” which pre-empts local land use policies and housing development requirements to allow multi-unit development approvals as-of-right if a proposed development includes 10% for low income households or 5% for very low income households;

This is out of date and misleading. As currently proposed, the bill would not “pre-empt” local land use policies with respect to affordable housing requirements. The description of the revised bill explicitly states: “The new definition clarifies that an inclusionary housing ordinance is an ‘objective zoning standard.’”

The affordable housing requirements in the Trailer Bill are significantly below Berkeley’s existing inclusionary option to the Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee which is 10% of total market rate units in the project to be set aside at 50% AMI. This inclusionary option will soon be increased to 20% total market rate units set aside for low and very- low income households.

This is very misleading. As discussed above, the most recent version of the proposed bill would NOT force Berkeley to allow projects with less affordable housing than currently required. It would merely guarantee that because Berkeley’s affordable housing requirements are higher than those included in the bill, projects in Berkeley that meet the other objective standards would benefit from streamlined approvals.

Displacement of residents from Berkeley through real estate speculation is a continuing crisis;

The most recent version of the requires 1-to-1 replacement of any affordable units that are displaced by a proposed development that seeks streamlined approval:

“Unless development replaces units at a level of affordability equal to or greater than the level of a previous affordability restriction, the development may not be on any property that is (A) a parcel on which rental dwelling units are, or have been within past 5 years, subject to a recorded covenant that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of lower or very low income; (B) subject to any other form of rent or price control; or (C) occupied by lower or very low income households.”

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley hereby urges the California State Legislature to offer the following amendments to the By-Right Housing Approvals Trailer Bill:

A. Clarify that the Trailer Bill does not take away the right of cities to adopt higher inclusionary standards, and those requirements would still be applicable to by-right projects.

The most recent version of the bill already includes clarifications that local inclusionary requirements are “objective standards” that must be met for projects to qualify for streamlined approvals.

B. An amendment which states that the By-Right Approvals pre-emption shall not apply to jurisdictions whose “performance” of housing production for very low, low and moderate-income residents constitutes at least 25% of its total housing production, as documented in the most recent Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) cycle and as documented in a current annual Housing Element Progress Report;

Livable Berkeley supports City of Berkeley efforts to revise development permitting regulations and advocates for streamlining and simplifying the permit process for new projects.

Chair: David Early email David