Extra

Dear Mayor Arreguin and City Councilmembers:

Following and also attached is a submission from the Southside Neighborhood Consortium supporting the Hahn/Harrison proposal at tonight's special City Council Meeting. Thanks for your consideration.

The Southside Neighborhood Consortium would like to support the Hahn/Harrison proposal on the Agenda for the City Council Meeting on 25 March, 2021. We feel that this proposal is more balanced and comports better with the process for developing a new Housing Element in order for the City of Berkeley to meet its obligations under the new RHNA requirements. We feel that the Droste proposal is too conclusory, and attempts to drive the process in a particular direction, without having had the kind of public discussion and data analysis necessary for transformative changes in the General Plan.

However, neither proposal addresses two very important planning initiatives underway, the updated Southside Environmental Impact Report and UC Berkeley’s new Long Range Development Plan. Both will have huge impacts on the city, and must be taken into account in the planning for the Housing Element.

It appears to us that the two proposals seem to be converging; however we note that the Droste proposal omits some of the key factors that need to be considered in developing the new Housing Element:  

1. UC Berkeley’s housing construction was omitted from the RHNA, and the City Council needs to appeal this omission, as UC is one of the main drivers of the housing shortage and displacement in the city. 

2. There is no mention of the need to study the amount of housing allowed under the current zoning. It may be that only minor changes to the current zoning are necessary in order to meet the RHNA requirements. 

3. Recent changes in Berkeley’s ADU regulations already allows for up to 3 units on single family lots, and 4 units in R-1A and R2, and there is no mention of that in the ‘missing middle’ discussion. 

4. There is no mention of the need to study the impact of the state density bonus on the proposed ‘missing middle’ housing proposal. 

5. There is no mention of the need to finish the JSISHL process, and implement objective design standards, solar access and density standards prior to changing the zoning. 

Finally, we feel that the two proposals come at the problem with a different orientation. The Hahn/Harrison proposal starts with data collection and then a public process based on the findings, and based on the findings, develops policy alternatives. The Droste proposal starts with a set of policy directions, and then directs the staff to find support for those. While we might support some of the policy directions at some point, there are policy directions, such as those outlined above, that might not receive due consideration if the Droste proposal is adopted. 

We thank you for your consideration of our views. 

Southside Neighborhood Consortium: 

Joan Barnett, President, Dwight Hillside Neighborhood Association George Beier, President, Willard Neighborhood Association Phil Bokovoy, President, Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods Lesley Emmington, President, Make UC A Good Neighbor Board of Directors, Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association Andrew Johnson, President, Bateman Neighborhood Association Dean Metzger, President, Berkeley Neighborhoods Council David Shiver, Stuart Street/Willard Janice Thomas, Vice President, Panoramic Hill Association