• UC plans to develop in downtown core
• Mayor forms task force
• Berkeley goes on fact finding field trip
• Recommendation highlights from task force report
• Planning moves to next stage

UC Berkeley has announced plans to develop in the downtown core

In late 2003, the UC Berkeley campus announced plans to develop a hotel, conference center, and museum complex on property they own or are seeking to buy in Berkeley’s downtown core adjoining the emerging arts district.

The general area proposed for the downtown core development is between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue and Center Street and University Avenue. In this photograph below, Oxford Street is at the top of the picture, Shattuck Avenue is in the foreground, Center Street intersects through the middle and University is farther to the left, not visible.

In the first phase of development, the hotel and conference center portion of the plan would likely be constructed with private financing. The museum complex would follow in a second phase and would be supported by campus fundraising efforts. The project would fill a longstanding campus need for conference and meeting space. It also would offer new quarters for the university's world-class Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. (The art museum is now housed in seismically problematic building on Bancroft Way.) In addition, the project would provide a new and more publicly accessible facility for UC Berkeley's Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology collection, now tucked into cramped campus quarters in Kroeber Hall.

The Berkeley Art Museum needs a new building

The hotel proposal calls for 175 to 200 beds and approximately 10,000 to 20,000 square feet of conference space and underground parking. The museum complex would measure as much as 165,000 square feet. A banking center, on the portion of the site owned by Bank of America, would require about 5,000 square feet.

The project site is a transit hub served by the downtown Berkeley BART station and several AC transit lines. Approximately 10,000 people traverse Center Street each day. The project site includes the current site of UC Printing Services and a campus parking structure.

City of Berkeley citizens make recommendations, mayor forms task force

In December 2003 the City Council approved a recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates that directed the City of Berkeley Planning Commission to “examine the potential hotel and Conference Center in Downtown Berkeley and to report back to the Council no later than May, 2004, with preliminary recommendations.”

Included on the Task Force were members of AC Transit, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, Berkeley Convention and Visitors Bureau, Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, City Commissions of Civic Arts, Design Review, Planning, Public Works, and Transportation, Downtown Berkeley Association, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, Ecocity Builders, Livable Berkeley, Sierra Club, Urban Creeks Council, local architects, and landscape architects.

The task force meetings featured lively discussions with active participation by interested members of the public along with task force members. The recommendations leaned heavily towards “green” building and design, closing Center Street to traffic, and the creation of a pedestrian environment with a daylighted Strawberry Creek included, if deemed feasible.

Berkeley goes on fact-finding field trip

Ecocity Builders, with sponsorship from Tom Bates and the Sierra Club, organized an overnight field trip to San Luis Obispo so that Task Force members, City officials and community members wanting to participate could visit a successful downtown revitalization project featuring a local creek as centerpiece. 44 people, including Mayor Bates and the Director of Public Works, explored SLOs hospitality, which included presentations and meetings with San Luis Obispo’s Mayor, Vice Mayor and the President of the Chamber of Commerce. The trip was featured in articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Berkeley Daily Planet.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates listens to David Romero, Mayor of San Luis Obispo, describe the history of San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza and creek restoration.

Vice Mayor Ken Schwartz addresses Berkeley Field Trip members in San Luis Obispo.

The UC/Hotel Task Force report was unanimously accepted by the City Council and passed on to the University. Highlights from the report are included here.

Recommendation highlights from the UC Hotel Task Force Report

1. Create a public pedestrian-oriented open space or plaza on Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street.
2. Create an overall master plan for the two-block area bordered by University Avenue, Oxford Street, Center Street, and Shattuck Avenue.
3. Maintain the highest standards of design for the entire project and its surroundings.
4. Provide public amenities and community access.
5. Conserve, adaptively re-use, and respect the area’s historic resources.
6. Design, construct, and operate the projects according to green building principles.
7. Emphasize alternative and public transit instead of automobile access, and provide only limited on-site parking.
8. Assure labor peace and equity.
9. Maximize net economic benefits for the City and for neighboring businesses.

The entire report is available to download on the City of Berkeley website [download report –15.8MB].

Fast forward to today—planning moves to next stage

After the Hotel Task Force made its report, a conflict arose over the University’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). A lawsuit was filed by the City in protest to the LRDP, and in the end, a settlement was reached, where, among several other agreements, the City and University made a decision to hammer out a new Downtown Area Plan that would help manage the needs of both the campus and City.

Because the City of Berkeley already has a ratified Downtown Area Plan and General Plan, another lawsuit has been filed by some Berkeley citizens bringing the legality of the new City/UC planning process into question.

At this time, however, the new downtown planning process is still in motion. Berkeley City Councilmembers are currently selecting citizen representatives to participate in the process.

Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza are hoping to influence the decision making process, with their central focus being the core downtown area as a green centerpiece and anchor for the larger downtown area. We support the recommendations that were adopted by the 2004 UC Hotel Task Force, with emphasis on an “ecological demonstration project” as described in the Berkeley General Plan, that becomes a showcase for cutting edge green development and design with nature.