supplemental notes to meeting

[Ozzie Vincent]

 

My supplemental notes on the meeting to Robert's great summary:

 

Taskforce suggestion of having perhaps the next four meetings where pro and con positions are present, then having breakout meetings starting with the fifth meeting.

 

Some of the statements made by participants included: 

          There is a lot of anger, but not hatred, being generated by the process.

          I live right across the street; I am not being represented.

          It is very clear that trickle down economics does not work; I am concerned about gentrification.

          I live in the Fruitvale area.  You need EIR, Fruitvale villages has clearly created a major neighborhood-parking problem.

          Any development needs to be an improvement.

          We need to redevelop SBNDC

          Church and Anderson refused to accept no development as an alternative at the meeting with BFM.

          We want to have a means to have direct communication with the committee.

          Salvo Island having 58 units on 4? acres.  It feels very dense, cannot imagine 300 units on same location.

          I have lived 32 yrs in neighborhood; the parking lot is dead during the week.

          70 homes were lost during the Bart eminent domain takeover; we don’t need to lose again.

 

Jeffery Ordway is the Manager of Property Development for Bart.    His job is around land use and quality of life issues.   He made the following points

--  If the land is developed, it gets property back on tax roles, as opposed to remaining a parking lot, which results in no taxes. 

-- Bart (Board of Directors) goal is to increase or grow ridership and decrease traffic congestion.   Bart would like to reduce the reliance on automobiles but not exclude automobiles.   Bart would like to see a mixture of activities (residential over commercial). 

--There is confusion about the meaning of the air rights beginning 10 feet above the ground:  what is the ground level when the parking lot is dug down?     Consequently Bart and the City of Berkeley came to a 1997 MOU, Memorandum Of Understanding that basically says they will work together on any development at Ashby Bart.

--When questioned, he claimed that building 300 units at Ashby Bart would result in 150 (50%) residents becoming Bart commuters.