There was a lot of city planner acronym babble in that meeting. Reality is College Ave in the area being rezoned is a traffic jam from 8AM till 8PM every day. Adding additional dwelling units, with or without all extra units for affordability, on College without providing other throughfares is a non-starter. I’m sure all the streets that already have blocked throughfares will not want to open up. Berkeley needs to really look at their R2 Zones, off main streets for their living unit solutions. This would mean tearing down some of the older buildings off College and replacing them with multi-units, but this had been done for some time in the Elmwood area. So its not a new idea. There is a house on Prince that is currently being rebuilt to a triplex. A church on Benvenue was converted to six units fifteen years back or so.

CENA: Part 1) Honest question about the “workshops”: Given the realities of SB 330 (no more than five hearings), and AB 2345 (override local envelopes), local jurisdiction such as Berkeley have no power. Developers and market-forces have all the power. Therefore, aren’t these “workshops” just window dressing to placate people and calm down populations? I’d love to be educated otherwise. …

Part 2) How exactly are you preparing for & filling the rooms at these workshops & hearing?

Best, -PM