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The majority of the Berkeley City Council and the Planning Commission have approved countless new market-rate residential development projects over the past ten years, but these have included only a tiny fraction of units designated for below median income. 

The BART parking lots present an opportunity, that must NOT be lost, to dedicate these public spaces to the segment of our population that has lost housing or been priced out of housing, sometimes homes passed on for generations. 

It is past time for the city to figure out how to facilitate the work of non-profit developers of median and low income housing, as you did with the Berkeley Way project. As the Episcopal Church did with the Oxford & Cedar Street project. I once thought inclusive development projects were the best solution, but much too little low-income housing has come from the few in-lieu projects that have been built. The aggressive developer lobby has succeeded over and over again in Berkeley to ensure the highest profits for developers, without regard to our real needs. 

It is time for the council majority to defend the needs of the Berkeley community for median to low-income housing and family housing. That means zoning as recommended by Berkeley Planning staff for a maximum height of 7 stories and a maximum of 4.2 floor/areas ratio, a maximum 75 units per acre. We don’t want to see Berkeley further manhattanized. Berkeley families need affordable housing with open space for children and for everyone’s mental health. 

We need housing design that meets the most rigorous energy efficiency standards and that achieves Net Zero energy. 

Please work to represent the needs of Berkeley residents, not the interests of for-profit developers.