Lennar’s 155-unit “Parker Place” development was approved to rise on the west side of Shattuck Avenue at Parker Street, about one-half mile south of the Downtown Berkeley BART station, replacing the existing Honda dealership, garage and lot on the site.
As approved by Berkeley’s City Council in January of 2012, in addition to the residential units, which could either be condos or apartments, the development includes 23,000 square feet of commercial space and parking for 170 cars. And as newly proposed, Lennar would like to increase the commercial floor area of the development by 50 percent and add 116 more parking spaces.
A rundown of the most significant changes to the development as requested:
Increase commercial floor area from 20,284 to 30,216 square feet by creating a new second story. This story would be accommodated within the relatively tall existing commercial space and would not increase the overall building height; the first story would be lowered several feet below grade to allow the new story.
Allow professional (not medical) offices, gyms/health clubs, and dance/martial arts studios to be established in the commercial space. The applicant does not have any specific tenants at this time and has asked for flexibility to allow any of these uses to occupy the entire commercial space. In addition, the approved general retail use could also occupy the entire space
Increase parking from 186 to 286 spaces, by providing a second level of underground parking (91 spaces), and a second level of above-ground parking (43 spaces), creating a total of four levels of parking. According to the applicant, this change is intended to provide required parking for the additional commercial floor area, to meet the parking needs of prospective commercial tenants (including “destination retailers”), and to address neighbors’ concerns about parking impacts
Retain the entire façade along Shattuck Avenue [as rendered above] (the approved plan would have removed portions of this façade in the middle and along the top), while removing additional portions of the north, south, and west façades not shown in the approved plans.
Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing for the proposed modifications to the 2600 Shattuck/2037 Parker project this week with a recommendation from the Planning Department’s staff that the modifications be approved.
The Shattuck Street facade for the project as originally approved:
Lots of opportunity to build more on Shattuck from North Oakland through Berkeley. There are still so many underutilized lots. Keep it coming!
So the change requested is to turn this from a building with parking to a parking garage with a building on top. A place that’s a 10 minute walk to BART should not have much problem finding people who can get there without a car.
Not to mention it will be conveniently located near the new BART station. That is a joke, BTW… not so funny, though, if you live by the blighted lots.
It is still pretty funny to me, and I live by this project (and thus the ‘new BART station’).
There is more news on ‘Parker Place’:
http://www.rreef.com/news/news_7004.jsp
It is light on details, but it seems to imply Lennar will still function as the builder.
Also, from what I was told the ZAB approved the project both with and without the additional floor and parking, giving Lennar (Deutsche Asset & Wealth Managment?) the option to build either depending on the tenant they find for the retail/office space.
Why does Berkeley keep on building more parking spaces, creating more traffic congestion and more pollution? We all have to breathe this air, it is WRONG keep shoving more cars down our throats!
When South Berkeley is forced to endure more pollution in order to enable affluent “destination retailers”, then we have an environmental justice violation!
Berkeley says YES to walkable development near BART, NO NO NO to parking and pollution!!!!
they probably dont want to get in the shape SF is in, where there’s not enough parking so people spend hours circling for parking causing more congestion and pollution
If cities use smart parking charges like SF Park does, this wouldn’t be as much a problem. (of course it would work better in SF if it was implemented more places, and enforced Sundays…)
Keep your parking politics in San Francisco, thank you very much. Is this the next step, where staff from the SF Bike Coalition, Streetsblog and other groups take their jihad against cars to other cities nearby?
I told you that we were starting a movement. Our ideas are going national.
Actually what is going “national” is a backlash against such nonsense. BTW NoeValleyJim, did you ever get rid of your car so you can be “pure” when you post against other drivers?
this is a great addition to the neighborhood and a blighted stretch of shattuck. love it!
Why are you such a coward that you won’t get an alias Anon? Afraid that you will be proven wrong, as you have been so many times before?