• WEBAIC's March 20th Forum on: The West Berkeley Plan &
Sustainability-Economy, Environment, and Equity
WEBAIC has been very busy, actually swamped, these last few months
doing its' best to ensure the viability of industry and artisan/artists
in West Berkeley. Responding to the Planning Department's
"increased flexibility" initiative to rezone West Berkeley's industrial
zones has been WEBAIC's main focus these past months and a newsletter
devoted entirely to this critical subject will be in your inbox very
soon. Unfortunately, the time and energy required to deal
with this initiative, our Forum, and the Planning commission's tour led
to us drop the ball a couple times. Keeping our members and
constituency informed on issues of importance to them is central to our
mission, so we offer our apologies for not putting out a newsletter
recently and also for our lack of notification to you of the Planning
Commission's West Berkeley tour. We promise to strive to do
better on our communication in the future. And of course, please
contact us at any time on any issue of concern to you.
• Planning Commission Tour of West Berkeley •
The Planning Staff created a tour of several West Berkeley businesses
and sites to convince the Planning Commission and the public of the
need to implement their version of "increased flexibility" in the
zoning. Officially a Planning Commission meeting, the stated
purpose was "to better understand the types of businesses and uses that
thrive and/or face obstacles in.West Berkeley or to grow and change. "
Although WEBAIC was invited to and did give a presentation at the
Sawtooth building, we perceived that the majority of tour sites and
other presentations poorly represented the vast majority of industrial
and atisan/art businesses who "thrive" but whose viability would be
threatened by the City's extreme, deregulated "flexibility"
proposals. The tour being largely focused on large developer's
projects and concerns, WEBAIC initiated an effort to introduce balance
to the tour. We were able to convince staff to allow two
presentations by industrial companies that were truly representative of
the majority of companies in West Berkeley. Unfortunately, staff
only budgeted ten minutes total for both Anne Saunders of body care
product manufacturer/distributor Terranova Nectarine and molded rubber
products manufacturer Daniel Baker of Polyseal Industries. WEBAIC
would like to thank both of them for presenting valuable perspectives
that would have otherwise been absent.
The tour was supposed to be one of the public's main opportunities to
weigh in on staff's "flexibility" proposals while also acting to
convince policymakers and the public of the need for them. WEBAIC
believes the tour was not successful on either count. WEBAIC
takes responsibility for a poor job of notification, but it is the
City's official responsibility to notify the public of Commission
meetings that may affect their business or property. Aside from a
small notice in the Planet and a minimal number of emails, the vast
majority of stakeholders in West Berkeley knew nothing of the
tour. Even with the lack of notice, enough people came who were
willing to ask the tough questions and critique the City's proposals at
every stop during public comment. Even Wareham Corporation's
Chris Barlow stated that the present Mixed Use Light Industrial (MULI)
zoning 'worked fine for them."
• WEBAIC's March Forum on:
The West Berkeley Plan & Sustainability - Economy, Environment, and
Equity
That maintaining a robust industrial base is a key component of a
sustainable community and society is becoming widely understood among
academics, private consultants, environmentalists, social justice
organizations, and municpal government officials across
California, That was the take-home lesson for WEBAIC members
attending the November 2007 UC conference, Industrial Land's - Whose
Lands Are They? This presentations at this conference sponsored
by UC's Center for Community Innovation were the inspiration for
WEBAIC's Forum.
WEBAIC realized that these groundbreaking analyses of industry's
contributions needed to be brought from the ivory tower into the
community. As the City has shown no interest in fulfilling
it's responsibility to provide the public with ALL information relevant
to the present zoning decision-making process, WEBAIC determined
to bring this information to the community.
Held in the big room at the West Berkeley Senior Center, the Forum was
standing room only with company owners, employees, neighbors,
developers, Planning Department and Office of Economic Development
staff, Commissioners from the Zoning Adjustments Board, the West
Berkeley Project Area Committee, the Planning and Labor Commissions,
and aides representing several Council members.
A part of what everyone heard was:
UC Professor Karen Chapple reporting that her study of West Berkeley
business showed strong resilience between 1990 and 2005 as jobs and
companies that left or went out of business were replaced by new
companies and jobs starting or locating here. Professor Chapple
also addressed the fallacies in many industrial argument assumptions
such as " the jobs are leaving anyway."
Strategic Economics' consultant Abbey Thorne-Lyman spoke on "Making the
Case for Industrial Lands." She discussed issues relating to the
geographic location of industry, gentrification pressures, and detailed
some of industry's contributions in revenue, jobs, and wages to an area
like West Berkeley.
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy's Kate O'Hara detailed what
it takes for working families to make it in the Bay Area today and how
industry plays a key role in helping accomplish this important equity
goal.
SFSU Professor Raquel Pinderhughes spoke about the Green collar job
sector and her City commissioned Green collar Jobs Report. Her
report discovered 31 companies providing green collar jobs in Berkeley
and identified that 27 of them rely on West Berkeley's industrial
zoning. One of Professor Pinderhughes' main conclusions was that
Berkeley needs to protect its industrial land if it wants to retain
it's existing green collar jobs and encourage more of this expanding
sector to locate here in the future.
WEBAIC would like to thank the Forum presenters and all those who
attended for participating in this important ongoing discussion on the
future of West Berkeley's industrial and cultural lands.
