Public Comment

I write to ask that you vote to separate the park improvements from the proposed development at 600 Addison and that you urge the city to reject the development.

This seems to be some sort of replay of the terribly inappropriate proposal for the property directly adjacent to Aquatic Park on the east that was presented to the city in 2017. It poses a similar threat to the health of Aquatic Park as highly-valued bird habitat and a place of respite for Berkeley residents, and in the longer term a resilience zone for the city against sea rise. This project would require the destruction of many mature trees, and the two huge buildings would almost totally fill the existing built site and its parking lot as well as the adjacent property to the south, now benignly storing soil and wood chips.

In the past few years several new five-story apartment buildings have been built along University Avenue just a block from the park, adding several hundred new residents. This alone should be cause to protect and enhance the park, rather than allowing a huge increase in the built density of the adjacent site to the east. More than 80 mature carbon-absorbing trees would be destroyed including 10 Coast redwoods in good condition and a Coastal Live Oak, since the development covers virtually all available space. Obviously, such a large, dense development would totally change the character of the park that runs alongside it, now bordered by the lake and a tranquil, wooded space enjoyed by families, hikers, rowers, and birders. The Park saves a bit of Berkeley’s natural setting and provides an important bird habitat. It also, importantly, provides resiliency in the face of climate change and sea rise, which we need in the open areas close to the Bay such as that targeted by the proposed development.

If the Parks Commission is not already actively working with the Zoning Board to establish a formal resiliency zone in the flatlands of Berkeley nearest to the Bay shoreline, surely that should be done as soon as possible, to discourage future inappropriate building projects such as this from wasting city commissioners’ time.

In 2017, I recorded numbers of birds seen in the park over the summer. Above is a photo by Bill Woodcock taken then of some of them.