Land Use and Housing Element 31 Draft Southside Plan
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DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN LAND USE AND HOUSING I. Strategic Statement II. Existing Conditions III. Development Opportunities and Constraints IV. Objectives and Policies V. Summary of Current and Proposed Zoning Standards A JOINT PLAN BY THE CITY OF BERKELEY AND THELAND UNIVERSITY USE ANDOF C HOUSINGALIFORNIA, BELEMENTERKELEY 29 DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN I. STRATEGIC STATEMENT The Southside is one of the most dense, dynamic, and diverse areas in Berkeley. Geographically, it is a relatively small area, just 28 city blocks or 2.5% of Berkeley’s land area. However, it is home to more than 11,000 people, including nearly 9,000 UC students, and comprises 10% of the City’s population. The Southside receives tens of thousands of visitors each year and has thousands of pedestrians on its streets every day. In addition, it is home to the University of California, one of the largest employers in the City and the locus of much of the City’s cultural and intellectual life. The Southside is a true mixed-use neighborhood offering residents and visitors housing, offices, retail shops, schools, churches, social institu- tions, parks and open space, recreational facilities and parking. The neighborhood is located within walking distance of BART, and is served by seven bus lines and several shuttle services. The pedestrian scale, of the neighborhood allows one to easily walk from a residence to a grocery store, a recreational facility, a museum, the UC Berkeley campus or Downtown Berkeley. The existing conditions section that follows provides background information about the existing land uses in the Southside. The subsequent land use and housing policy recommendations attempt to address the sometimes conflicting values and needs of different community stakeholders and to facilitate the development of a cohesive blueprint for the future of the Southside. The land use objectives and policies are organized around the following goals: u Create additional housing in the Southside for both stu- dents and year-round residents, built by the University, the private sector, student cooperatives, non-profits or a co m- bination of these groups working in partnership; u Encourage the construction of infill buildings, particularly new housing and mixed-use developments, on currently underutilized sites such as surface parking lots and vacant lots; u Encourage reinvestment in deteriorating housing stock to improve the overall physical quality of the neighborhood; u Enhance the pedestrian orientation of the Southside; LAND USE AND HOUSING ELEMENT 31 DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN u Improve the Bancroft Way corridor as a physical connection and transition between the University and the Southside; u Ensure that new development complements the existing ar- chitectural character of the area; u Refine and reinforce the existing land use patterns in the Southside by acknowledging three distinct “subareas” of land uses in the area: the Residential Subarea, the Urban Mixed Use Subarea, and the Commercial Subarea. Create specific policies for each subarea. II. EXISTING CONDITIONS The Southside contains a diverse mixture of land uses including: housing, offices, retail shops, religious, cultural and social institutions, schools, parking, and recreational uses. While the physical form of the Southside has been altered over the years, particularly with University acquisition and demolition of buildings in the Southside during the 1960's, historic land use patterns are still discernible. A. Southside Land Use Patterns § The commercial shopping area is concentrated along Telegraph Avenue, Durant Avenue and Bancroft Way. Housing is located above approximately one-fifth of the retail shops. § Residential uses are located throughout the Southside and vary in scale. The smaller-scaled residential uses are primarily concentrated west of Dana Street. There are many older apartment buildings in this area and many single-family homes that have been converted to apartments and rooming houses. There are also single-family and two-family houses. Medium-scaled residential buildings are located primarily east of College Avenue, where there is a concentration of fraternities, sororities, and student cooperatives and apartment buildings, and along Telegraph Avenue where apartm ents are located above retail shops. High-rise residential buildings are located adjacent to College Avenue (eight nine- story buildings) and east of Dana Street (four nine-story buildings), all of which are UC residence halls. Map LU-2: Existing Land Uses 32 LAND USE AND HOUSING ELEMENT DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN § Religious, social and cultural institutions are located throughout the area, but most are concentrated in the area east of Ellsworth and west of College Avenue, between the distinctly residential areas and the commercial core. § Most of the offices in the Southside, many of which are institutional offices, are located in the same general area as the religious and social institutions, east of Ellsworth Street and west of College Avenue. § Parking is scattered throughout the area, in on-street and off-street locations owned by the City, the University and private parties. Parking garages are concentrated primarily in the commercial core or on the University campus outside the Southside study area, just north of Bancroft Way. B. University Ownership The University of California owns approximately 30% of the land area in the Southside (excluding streets). All of the land owned by the University in the Southside is currently in use. The University's property contains a wide variety of land uses including residence halls, academic offices, student support facilities, parking lots, and recreational and cultural facilities. Map LU-3: Property owned by the University of California LAND USE AND HOUSING ELEMENT 33 DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN C. Area Zoning Virtually all of the Southside is zoned R-4 and R-4H (multi-family residential) and C-T (commercial). The types of uses that are allowed within these zoning designations and key development standards are described below. A chart summarizing the zoning development standards for the Southside is included on the last page of this Element. The C-T zoned commercial area (commercial Telegraph) allows ground floor retail uses and housing on the upper floors. This is the only zoning district in Berkeley where new developments are not required to provide parking (except for the blocks located south of Dwight Way) and it is the only commercial district in Berkeley where office uses are not allowed on the upper floors of buildings (unless they are second floor offices directly serving the ground floor retail use). Retail and housing are the intended land uses in this zoning district. The maximum height allowed for new or expanded buildings is four stories with a fourth floor setback requirement. This district’s minimum two story height requirement for new buildings is intended to encourage housing to be built above retail shops. There are a few sites in the Southside that are zoned C-1 (general commercial), which allows buildings up to four stories. On the western boundary of the Southside study area a few sites are zoned C-2 (Downtown commercial) and C- SA, (commercial south area) which applies primarily to the South Shattuck neighborhood. The C-2 zone allows a variety of uses such as retail, office and residential uses, and allows buildings up to seven stories in height under specific conditions. The C-SA zone allows a variety of uses such as retail, office and residential uses and, under specific conditions, buildings up to five stories. Over half of the Southside is zoned R-4, multi-family residential. This zoning district allows a variety of residential uses including single-family houses, apartments, residence halls, rooming housing, fraternities and sororities. It also allows offices, hotels, schools, churches, senior housing, parks, parking lots and parking structures. Buildings may be up to six stories and 65’ in height. Parking for new buildings must be provided at the rate of one parking space for each apartment or every five residents of a rooming house or fraternity and sorority. Map LU-4: Existing Zoning 34 LAND USE AND HOUSING ELEMENT DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN The hillside zoning district (R-4H) differs from the R-4 in that the maximum building height allowed is three stories, 35’ in height. In addition, the building setbacks can be reduced with a use permit instead of a variance. An interim zoning change, effective until June 2000, states that new office uses are not allowed in the R-4H zone, nor is the conversion of existing residential uses to office uses. While the University campus is zoned R-5, high density residential, the University as a state agency is exempt under state law from complying with local zoning regulations. The University does comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and does an internal design review of all new campus developments. In addition, the University typically brings new development proposals to City commissions such as the Planning Commission, the Design Review Committee and the Landmarks Preservation Commission for input. Map LU-5: Building height allowed by current city zoning LAND USE AND HOUSING ELEMENT 35 DRAFT SOUTHSIDE PLAN D. Residential Land Use The majority of the land in the Southside, 57% (excluding streets), is used as residential housing, accommodating the more than 11,000 people who live in the neighborhood. Unlike the rest of Berkeley, the vast majority of residential buildings in the Southside are multi-family or group living buildings, which include apartments, residence halls, fraternities, sororities and rooming houses. The residential areas of the Southside are zoned R-4 and R-4H, multi-family residential and comprise a substantial portion of a ring of high-density housing located on the north, south and west edges of the university campus. The Southside contains 5,350 dwelling units (every two beds of campus housing and group living quarters is considered, for the purposes of this Plan, one housing unit). As Table LU-1 indicates, renters occupy 96% of the dwelling units in the Southside, a sharp contrast to the City as a whole, in which renters occupy only 54% of the housing units.