“Keep Industrial Land for Industry/Arts, No Residential Towers in MULI Industrial Zone,  

      Keep Incompatible Uses Out of Mixed Use Residential Zone, No 75’ Heights in MUR”

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Thanks to the company owners, workers, artists, artisans, and neighbors that came out last week (3/7) to speak for keeping their vibrant West Berkeley economies and neighborhoods intact.  While the City is studying proposals that they admit (in the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report –SEIR) have the real possibility of displacing industry and arts, obstructing vistas, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and greatly shadowing a large part of West Berkeley (south of University Ave.), citizens and businesses expressed their clear interest in maintaining policies that keep their neighborhoods livable and workable and don’t introduce destabilizing uses to either industrial or residential zones.

March 21 Planning Commission Public Hearing On Master Use Permits: The 3/7 Planning Commission (PC) meeting consisted of two parts: 1.)  a presentation by staff on the Master Use Permit provisions (detailed in the WB Project Supplemental Environmental Impact Report–SEIR) being studied for possible implementation, and 2.) comments by the community on these provisions and the SEIR’s adequacy.  On March 21 the Planning Commission will hold its official Public Hearing on this issue.  Once the Commission votes, City Council is slated to address the issue in May.  The Council’s deliberations and actions can be greatly influenced by the extent of public participation at the Planning Commission, even if the majority of planning commissioners aren’t responsive to the public.  WEBAIC urges everyone who cares about the workability and livability of West Berkeley (and the City) to attend the hearing on the 21rst. 

The West Berkeley Project’s Two Phases – What’s At Stake In Phase Two:  From WEBAIC’s perspective, the previous phase of the West Berkeley Project was critical to assuring that policies (industrial & arts zoning protections) providing adequate habitat for these uses were retained.  The present phase focuses on assuring that unprecedented, large-scale developments proposed on large sites don’t come with provisions undermining the West Berkeley Plan’s central goal – to maintain a mixed use West Berkeley economy through retention of its industrial and artisan / arts sectors.  This goal, and that of keeping the Mixed Use Residential zone livable, are both threatened by proposals before the Planning Commission on the 21rst.

Proposed Developments: No Need For New, Destructive Entitlements + Proposals Violate MUP Purpose:

The proposed Master Use permit is a new name for the Large Site Development Permit (LSDP) found in the West Berkeley Plan, which details the purpose of the permit: “These large sites...are of a scale where they have a major impact on the area around them, and noticeable impacts on West Berkeley as a whole. They also may require modification of the uses and development standards in a district to facilitate a feasible large scale project.”  Both proposed projects, Peerless and Fantasy, already have large amounts of industrial and residentially-zoned land.  Neither the ability to move their residences into the industrially-zoned parts of their properties or now-prohibited industrial uses into the residentially-zoned parts of their properties are required to make these projects feasible.  The provisions allowing this are a violation of the West Berkeley Plan section the MUP/LSDP is based upon.  These provisions also violate West Berkeley Plan Goals and Policies created to protect industrial/art and residential uses from intrusion of incompatible uses that could compromise their ability to maintain functional working and living environments.

We hope to see you on March 21 so we can say well into the future that, West Berkeley Works!