BERKELEY — Rather than move ahead with the next phase of waterfront planning, Berkeley councilmembers heeded the advice of their local parks officials and put that process on hold to focus on studying potential upgrades to Cesar Chavez Park and allow for a parking study to be completed.
“Let’s make this right. Let’s put this part of our city — this treasure, this absolute treasure — let’s fix it and make it right,” said Councilmember Susan Wengraf during a special meeting Monday.
The Waterfront Specific Plan, which has been in the works since 2019, is meant to provide long-term guidance for how the community would like to see the area evolve over the next five decades. It also envisions a future in which the Marina Fund, meant to cover the cost of infrastructure upkeep in the area, can be self-sufficient after years of revenue deficits.
The document, once completed and approved, would create new zoning designations for one of the few parts of the city that currently doesn’t have any zoning restrictions, potentially allowing for more commercial development surrounding the marina while prohibiting construction in other green portions of the waterfront.
“We’ve heard over and over that people want to make sure this waterfront is sustained well into the future. People do all agree on how exactly we sustain it into the future but everybody agrees it needs to happen,” said Christina Erickson, deputy director of the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department.
As of Monday night, staff was nearly prepared to take the plan into its next phase by beginning an environmental review. All they needed was for the Berkeley City Council to provide direction on the level of possible development that review should take into consideration.
That direction would allow the $1.1-million project to remain on track to come back for final approval in April 2026.
But a recommendation from the city’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission was also put before the council, calling for the environmental review to be put on hold while a parking study for a new Pier Ferry project is completed in the coming months and to study improvements to Cesar Chavez Park, a 90-acre stretch of bayfront land abutting the Berkeley Marina.
Under this approach, the city isn’t expected to begin an environmental review until 2026. Staff is expected to return at a later date to request additional funding to complete the studies. Up to $250,000 would be needed to complete the Cesar Chavez conception plan.
“Doing a Waterfront Specific Plan without doing that work around Cesar Chavez Park, we really feel like we’d have an incomplete plan and that by adding it we will complete the plan even if it delays it farther,” said Scott Ferris, director of the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department.
Cesar Chavez Park was initially being studied as part of the Waterfront Specific Plan but staff decided to pull the park from the plan after residents raised strong concerns about potential changes.
Specific concerns centered around possible development of parts of the park, a possibility that staff said was never proposed given that the park sits on top of an old landfill covered by a cap that’s meant to prevent toxins from seeping into the San Francisco Bay.
With focus returning to the park, the city plans to be explicit about the conceptual plan, zeroing in on natural and recreational uses and there being no plans to develop the beloved stretch of land.
The council agreed with the commission’s recommendation and also directed staff to study the highest redevelopment scenario, which they said would provide future councils with the most decision-making flexibility.
“Looking at the higher development potential for the [environmental impact report] is strategic. It doesn’t tie us to any of those levels of development, but being able to look at each scenario will be beneficial for us and future councils,” Councilmember Terry Taplin said.
The scenario calls for allowing an additional 760,000 square feet of development around the marina, about 3.2 times what currently exists there, for a total of about 1.2 million square feet of commercial development.
The growth could bring in an estimated $4.8 million to the Marina Fund if fully built out but Councilmember Sophie Hahn noted those figures are speculative and wouldn’t occur right away.
Additional revenue is needed to help cover about $94 million of unfunded infrastructure costs on the waterfront over the next 25 years.
The Marina Fund currently operates at a deficit of $850,000. That gap could be largely filled by tax revenue from Measure Y, a parcel tax estimated to bring in $3.8 million annually to fund park improvements.
“While it is true we have to be cognizant of our financial situation, that’s not the sole motivation behind this plan,” Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani said. “We need to be fiscally prudent and we can do so in a way that makes the marina more accessible.”