Lease: Urgency Ordinance for leasing the real property at 1250-1288 9th Street, 1226 9th Street, 1249 8th Street, 1225 8th Street, 1223 8th Street, and 1221 8th Street From: Fire Chief Sprague
John Caner
Dear Mayor and Council,
I write this letter as an individual, not in my capacity as CEO or Downtown Berkeley Association or convener of Community for a Cultural Civic Center, since there is not time to review this item with either group before Council takes up this measure this evening.
While I do not oppose this urgency item (we need to support our Fire Department!), I wonder if longer term BFD might be able return to a seismically renovated Maudelle Shirek Building (a/k/a Old City Hall) and a new structure in back of building. Hence, I wonder if this West Berkeley lease could be structured for initial term of 8 to 10 years, with the City right to renew (if Civic Center location does not pan out). (As I recall the City Council lease for School Board chambers runs out in 8 years.) $121,000 monthly rent ($1,452,000 per year) could go a long ways towards helping fund renovation of this historic building. Moveover, I assume being next door to BPD, City Council, and City staff would be of significant value also.
Respectfully yours,
John Caner
2215 Roosevelt Ave.
Berkeley CA 94703
P.S. Thanks to Berkeley Scanner for their excellent reporting!
John Caner
Chief Sprague,
Thanks for your immediate and thoughtful response. Sounds like a renovated and expanded Maudelle Shirek Building (aka Old City Hall) does not meet BFD longer term needs. I know it is a long shot, but I wonder if there is a situation where City could do “musical chairs” in 8-10 years and free up other City owned property that works for BFD, with vacating department moving into a renovated/expanded MSB/OCH. I wonder if a lease term of 8 or 10 years, with BFD unilateral option to renew lease does not jeopardize your plans and keeps options open for City in 8-10 years. Seems sad that we have two historic vacant buildings decaying before our very eyes, and are faced with locking the city into a 20 year lease paying significant rent on non-city owned property.
Respectfully,
On 6/4/24, 1:06 PM, "Sprague, David A." <DSpr...@berkeleyca.gov> wrote:
John, thanks for your email. Our team did consider OCH as a landing spot as there are some benefits to maintaining a central location in close proximity to our police and city hall. However, there are a number of challenges that led us to rule it out as an option.
First, the department requires a substantial amount of parking for normal staff sized emergency vehicles and larger emergency apparatus. There is insufficient parking in/around the PSB or OCH to even come close to meet the need.
Second, the Department has a variety of needs outside of just purely office space which includes warehouse/storage and space for personnel to conduct training. Unfortunately OCH would not offer the flexibility we need to perform these functions.
Finally, while a modification to the existing zoning (R-2) may be possible through a prolonged process, in reality the types of activities that we would be conducting on/around the site would be incompatible with the residential neighborhood that abuts it. We know this from current lived experience and are trying to prevent predictable problems in the new location (we like to be good neighbors – but our presence in the wrong location makes that difficult).
Again thank you for your message and suggestion, the more eyes/ears/brains on this the better. We’ve been consumed by this issue and working every angle we can think of for almost four years.
--
Chief David Sprague
Berkeley Fire Department
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From: John Caner <john...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2024 11:00 AM
To: All Council <cou...@berkeleyca.gov>
Cc: Manager, C <CMan...@berkeleyca.gov>; Bellow, LaTanya <LBe...@berkeleyca.gov>; Sprague, David A. <DSpr...@berkeleyca.gov>; Louis, Jennifer A. <JLo...@berkeleyca.gov>; Cardwell, Anne <ACar...@berkeleyca.gov>; Hollander, Eleanor <EHoll...@berkeleyca.gov>;
Davis, Terrance <TDa...@berkeleyca.gov>; City Clerk <cl...@berkeleyca.gov>
Subject: Lease: Urgency Ordinance for leasing the real property at 1250-1288 9th Street, 1226 9th Street, 1249 8th Street, 1225 8th Street, 1223 8th Street, and 1221 8th Street From: Fire Chief Sprague
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