Mayor Bates proposes elimination of design review & public hearings on Shattuck and Adeline

[Robert Lauriston]

Mayor Bates proposes allowing developers to build for-profit housing by right in "priority development areas." This would include the area covered by the current Adeline Corridor $750,000 planning project.

"By right" means developers don't have to post notices or go through public hearings on design review or use permits. They just work privately with city staff. Neighbors learn about the project when construction starts and have to go to the permit center and look at the files to find out what's up.

The main requirement for such by-right approval is that they would have to be the maximum height allowed.

Rob Wrenn's summary:

http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2016-03-25/article/44286?headline=Bates-Housing-Plan-Fails-to-Address-Berkeley-s-Affordability-Crisis--Rob-Wrenn

This is on the agenda for the April 5 city council meeting:

http://records.cityofberkeley.info/Agenda/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=178&doctype=1

The download tool isn't configured correctly, so I put Bates's memo and all attachments, as well as a related memo from Kriss Worthington proposing some modifications, here:

http://nabart.org/docs/Bates_memo_05_April_2016/

The map of priority development areas is in attachment 5.