Letter From A West Berkeley Manufacturer To The Berkeley Planning Commission And City Council:
Letter From A West Berkeley Manufacturer To The Berkeley Planning Commission And City Council:
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Letter From A West Berkeley Manufacturer
To the Berkeley Planning Commission & City Council:
The following is a letter sent to the Planning Commission and City Council from Dan Baker, the second generation President and CEO of Polyseal Industries. Polyseal is a successful and growing manufacturing company in West Berkeley’s Mixed Use Light Industrial Zone, specializing in injection, transfer, and compression molding of elastomeric (rubber) products since 1974. By providing high quality, precision products and personal service Polyseal has not only survived the effects of globalization, but thrived as a 21st century manufacturer.
As part of a local network supply chain, Polyseal relies on a number of Berkeley, Oakland, and Bay Area machine shops, and fabricators, while supplying critical components for local biotech, genetic testing, bookbinding, and transportation companies, including track fasteners for B.A.R.T.. Polyseal also does business nationally and internationally, supplying products from its Berkeley plant to the following industries (partial list): Automotive, Audio Equipment, Biomedical, Chemical Mixing, Storage & Handling, Concrete Cutting & Coring, Construction, Food & Beverage, Gas Processing & Transportation, Health Care Products, Marine Equipment, Pneumatic Controls, Satellite Technology, Sewage & Water Treatment, Smog Testing, Vibration Absorption, Wine Vat Storage.
March 6th 2012
To: Members of the Berkeley Planning Commission;
As you contemplate the proposals before you regarding the large MUP sites, I would ask that you consider the points many of us, who operate manufacturing and service businesses in Berkeley, have been making over the course of many meetings just like this one. Over and over I, and others like me who run successful manufacturing businesses here in West Berkeley, have been trying our best to make our views clear, stating them in as many ways as we could in an attempt to get ourselves understood. Unfortunately, it looks as though our protests have fallen on deaf ears based on the alarming plans I have seen considered as part of the development of the MUP sites. What are our concerns?
If the zoning changes occur as city planners propose they will negatively impact those of us who are currently running successful businesses here. They will:
Allow incompatible uses and businesses that will intrude into areas that were supposed to be set aside for industrial processes, that may create noise or other effects that might be objectionable to some other users. As residential, and retail or office use increases the people who are involved with this intruding activities will find reason to complain about the industrial business that they move next to. This has happened so often in other areas it is common knowledge.
Make it more difficult to expand the physical size of existing operations, because the cost of land will be driven by R and D and laboratory markets, not manufacturing. This has already occurred with several properties I am familiar with. We would like to expand in the area, but all suitable properties are held by speculators who think if they wait long enough the properties will increase manyfold in value. There are properties that have been vacant for decades because of this mentality.
Reduce the critical mass of interrelated businesses that need each other to maintain a healthy business network of suppliers, service providers, and customers.
Create street congestion which will impact goods transportation.
The large parcels and numerous smaller parcels that are currently vacant are not vacant due to lack of demand from businesses already meeting the zoning requirements. They have in effect, been held aside by the owners (who decided they would change zoning laws to leverage their investments) in anticipation of skyrocketing values they anticipate the city will create with the zoning changes. This has been enabled by the Mayor and city planners with the support and prodding of big developers.
The city is creating a situation where they will disrupt and displace long standing businesses (such as ours which has been in the same location for 36 years) that employ blue collar workers, citizens of Berkeley, many of which do not have the benefit of college degrees and diplomas. These are businesses that have proven themselves as successful, growing concerns. Any business that has survived this past historic recession is most likely well managed and established in its respective markets.
As an existing business owner that employs Berkeley citizens, pays real property, business property, and federal state and local payroll taxes as well as sales tax and use taxes, I had the misconceived idea that our city would protect our interests, not those of developers who are trying to flip their properties for big profit, or those of future businesses that do not exist yet, and which will probably employ people who do not and will not live here. I guess I was naïve. The city should reevaluate to whom they owe allegiance and how they protect their resident businesses and citizens.
I was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that the city of Berkeley no longer values manufacturing. Maybe you don’t either. The fact is that manufacturing and the related services that support it are critical to the economic well being of our economy. If Berkeley drives out the over 100 manufacturing business that have managed to thrive in the modest area set aside for that purpose it will lose more than most people realize. It will lose economic diversity, and the opportunity to participate in the innovation and new business development that is correlated with manufacturing. And thousands of Berkeley manufacturing jobs would be lost.
If you have paying attention the past year or so, the rest of the country has been waking up to the importance of keeping manufacturing healthy in our country. In fact the manufacturing businesses are responsible for most of the economic recovery we have seen over the past year. Every day articles are being written about the critical importance of manufacturing in the US right now. In an excerpt (included below) from a report by Stephen J. Ezell and Robert D. Atkinson for The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation there are several key points made as to the importance of maintaining a healthy manufacturing economy:
Why is Manufacturing Important?
A robust manufacturing sector is indispensible to the health of the U.S. economy. While manufacturing is not the only sector that contributes to a nation’s international competitiveness, it is impossible for large economies like the United States’ to remain competitive without a viable manufacturing sector. Manufacturing plays a critical role in the U.S. economy for five key reasons:
ν It will be extremely difficult for the United States to balance its trade account without a healthy manufacturing sector.
ν Manufacturing is a key driver of employment growth and source of high-paying jobs for individuals at many skill levels.
ν Manufacturing is the principal source of R&D and innovation activity.
ν Manufacturing and services sectors are inseparable and complementary.
ν Manufacturing is vital to U.S. national security.
Manufacturing generates significant employment spillovers in other sectors
Most economists agree that manufacturing has a large multiplier effect, with each job in manufacturing leading to the creation of from two to five additional jobs elsewhere in the economy.21 The Economic Policy Institute finds that manufacturing jobs have a robust employment multiplier of 2.90, compared to 1.63 in business services or 1.66 in transportation.22 A more recent June 2009 Milken Institute report, Manufacturing 2.0, finds that for every job created in manufacturing, 2.5 jobs are created in other sectors.23 Hans Zobel, former CEO of Festo, a German manufacturer of electrical automation technology, notes that recent research from Germany finds that a job in a modern, smart manufacturing factory supports 5.2 additional jobs throughout the economy.24 High-tech manufacturing industries have even greater multipliers. Electronic computer manufacturing has a multiplier effect of 16 jobs, meaning 15 other jobs are dependent on one job created in that industry.25
Likewise, manufacturing has a substantial impact in terms of output, with an estimated additional $1.40 in output from other sectors being generated for every $1.00 in final sales of manufactured products.26 The only other industries coming even close to this are information services; agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; and construction, each slightly over $1.00.
Berkeley should not sacrifice the last small area (only 4% of the total city land area) that is supporting a vibrant network of businesses. The high density residential projects that are being considered for the MUP sites should not be placed in the West Berkeley industrial zones. They should be built in areas already zoned for such uses. Sacrificing the long term economic diversity and strength that West Berkeley now provides, for the short term tax revenues the city hopes to get from developers and the businesses those developers have guessed will be viable for the next few years just does not make sense. And it is disservice to citizens of Berkeley.
As you consider the MUP sites please do not make decisions that will kill the successful industry that is there now.
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel Baker
President/CEO
Poly Seal Industries, Inc.
WEBAIC West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies
working together for a sustainable future