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June 2 & 9: Homes at BART
On April 6, the Planning Commission recommended a vision of Berkeley’s BART stations with allowable heights up to 12 stories (which has been identified as superior to 7* at fighting climate change).
The City Council will vote on this on June 2 and the BART board will vote on June 9 , so it’s important that our message of more housing of every type is being heard at every opportunity.
* 7 is the minimum Berkeley must zone for per AB2923 and BART's TOD guidelines. It is also staff's recommendation but keep in mind the EIR hadn't come out yet when this recommendation was written.
Before the big vote on June 2
Need help meeting with your councilmember? Fill out this quick form and we’ll try to match you up with others in your district. We’re especially looking for people who live in districts 4 and 6.
BART Access Open House
Link to the Online Open House | Link to Survey
Please participate in BART’s ongoing access study about how you get to BART. Whether you walk, bus, roll, drive, ride a bike, or get dropped off, check it out and take the survey!
May 10: Bike lanes & safety for all on Hopkins
Read Berkeleyside coverage here
At the meeting on May 10, council voted to approve the Hopkins Corridor plan along with CM Kesarwani’s supplemental referral to extend protected bike lanes to San Pablo Ave! If you want, send your councilmember a quick Thank You for voting Yes on Hopkins bike lanes (CM contact info here). If you live in district 6: your CM voted No on the plan so there’s no need to thank her.
San Pablo Ave is for People!
Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) is engaged in a multi-year, long-term planning process for San Pablo Ave. In the next couple years, Oakland and Emeryville are slated to get bus and bike lanes, but Berkeley isn’t. North Berkeley Now has joined a coalition of residents who want better infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders.
On January 27, 2022 the commission approved plans to extend bus and bike lanes into South Berkeley, citing our and the San Pablo for People coalition's organizing and hard work (see below).
Date TBD: Homes for teachers at Berkeley Adult School (BAS)
More info to come
Local affordable housing developers SAHA convened a community meeting on October 14 to chat about the upcoming publicly-funded project to build homes for BUSD staff on the BAS parking lot. Local voices are sorely needed to make sure the project maximizes homes while minimizing parking. Given the shortage of teachers as well as housing teachers can afford, this project must go forward. Keep an eye on this space to see what happens next!
Development at North Berkeley BART is not a done deal. We need to speak up not only to make sure it houses lots of people, but we need to speak up to make sure it happens at all!
There's a small but loud group who are scared of change. They think more people in their neighborhood is a bad thing and want to be able to continue to park for free wherever they want. These securely housed people are highly motivated to maintain the status quo and have the luxury to go to every meeting. We need to show up too.
In addition to showing up to meetings, you can also write letters: Learn more here
Vocabulary
CAG = Community Advisory Group
HAC = Housing Advisory Commission
TOD = Transit-Oriented Development
MOU = Memorandum of Understanding
RHNA = Regional Housing Needs Allocation
NOFA = Notice of Funding Availability
CM = Councilmember
JVP = Joint Vision & Priorities
DEIR = Draft Environmental Impact Review
EIR = Environmental Impact Review
ACTC = Alameda County Transportation Commission
IRC = Independent Redistricting Commission