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Segment 1

Council member Kester, Council member Kester.
Okay, Mr Clark, I think council members are assembled.
Can we begin.
We're recording.
Yep.
Good evening.
I'd like to call to order the 6 PM special meeting of the Berkeley City Council for Monday, September 16th.
2024.
Our first order of business is roll call.
I'd like to ask the city clerk to please call the roll.
Council member Kester.
Yes.
Council member Tregub.
Here.
Tregub.
Present.
Hahn.
Here.
Wengraf.
Present.
Lunaparra.
Here.
Humbert.
Present.
And Mayor Arreguin.
Present.
A quorum of the city council is present.
Thank you.
Before I proceed to our one or two items, one is an action and one's a presentation.
I have a couple of special announcements I'd like to make before we begin.
I'd like to welcome our new city manager, Paul Budenhagen.
This is his first meeting of the Berkeley City Council as serving as our city manager.
And I want to welcome you.
We look forward to working with you.
And this actually, everything's coming full circle.
Paul was involved in the negotiations of not only the North Berkeley BART project, but also the beginning of the negotiations for the Ashby project.
So it's actually fitting that we have Paul Budenhagen with us today.
And he's going to give us a little bit of an overview of this item, this action we're taking tonight.
And I want to give you an opportunity if you'd like to say anything, Mr.
City manager.
Thank you, Mr.
Mayor.
Very much appreciate your warm welcome tonight.
I'm obviously I'm thrilled to be back.
I'm super excited.
I had a great first day and it's a lovely way to cap it off.
As you say, to kind of come full circle on the Ashby BART project that you and I, and a lot of people in this, the city of Berkeley have been involved in.
So I don't want to take up a bunch of time, but just to say thank you to you.
Thank you to the council and to staff and to our BART partners as well.
Very much looking forward to this item tonight and moving forward from here.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
I'd also like to now report out the actions the city council took this afternoon.
Closed session, the city council gave authority to initiate a cross complaint in a pending action.
The action the cross defendants and other participants shall once formally commence, be disclosed to any person upon inquiry.
The city council also met to discuss the case of Fisher versus the city of Berkeley.
Federal District Court number 3233 was present.
The city council also met to discuss the case of Fisher versus the city of Berkeley.
Federal District Court number 323 CV 4280 and approved a settlement that has been signed by the plaintiffs in exchange for the plaintiff's dismissal of their lawsuit and release of all claims.
The settlement agreement will require the city of Berkeley to adopt changes to its policy relating to the ability of members of city boards and commissions to attend remotely as a reasonable accommodation.
And the city will also pay $50,000 in attorneys fees.
Those are the actions we took this afternoon closed session.
And I'd like to just read an announcement regarding our rules of decorum.
I want to welcome everyone to this special meeting of the Berkeley City Council to allow for full participation by all members of the community and to ensure that important city business is able to be conducted.
We ask that attendees in person on Zoom conduct themselves in an orderly manner and respect the rights of others participating in our meeting.
Please be aware that council rules of decorum prohibit the disruption of the orderly conduct of a council meeting.
A summary of these rules is available in the one page handout at the rear of the boardroom.
Disruptive behavior includes but is not limited to shouting, making disruptive noises, creating or participating in a physical disturbance, speaking out of turn or in violation of applicable rules, preventing or attempting to prevent others on the floor from speaking, preventing others from observing the meeting, entering into or remaining in an area of the meeting room that is not open to the public, or approaching the council dais without consent.
We want to thank you for joining us tonight.
We ask that you observe these rules so all members of our community may observe and fully participate in tonight's meeting.
So with that, I now want to proceed to our action calendar.
And item one is the Ashby-Bart transit-oriented development.
And the consideration of a resolution authorizing the city manager and city attorney to draft in advance for adoption contractual agreements with BART to effectuate transit-oriented development in accordance with the term sheet that's been negotiated with the city of Berkeley and BART.
And I'm going to open discussion of this item and then turn it over to BART staff if they have any comments and Council Member Bartlett as well before we proceed to the staff presentation.
And it was really an honor to serve as the city's lead negotiator to help reach agreement on terms for what will be a transformative project for Ashby Station and for the city of Berkeley.
And I want to highlight the significant progress and future steps for the Ashby-Bart transit-oriented development project.
After 18 intense months of collaboration between the city of Berkeley and BART, and I want to give special thanks to BART Director Latifah Simon who represented BART at the negotiating table and was really a critical partner in helping not only advance a vision for this project, but I just want to express my appreciation for a deep commitment to not just building housing at North Berkeley BART, affordable housing, but to advancing an equitable and repair to framework for a future development at BART.
So the outcome of these negotiations is a term sheet that was attached to Item 1 that outlines a transformative vision for the Ashby-Bart site, one that focuses on affordable housing, community benefits and vital infrastructure improvements.
But before I go further, I want to express my deep gratitude to the community members and activists who have passionately advocated for this project.
Your unwavering commitment to ensuring that this development serves the needs of our most vulnerable residents and addresses the harm caused by past development by BART is truly inspiring, and countless individuals have been central in shaping this vision.
And I just have to say that the term sheet that we negotiated is the outcome of many years of work, nearly 10 years of work, starting with the outline quarter plan, the joint vision and priorities document that both the city and BART approved, the work of our community advisory group, and the many meetings that we've had with the community to get here their priorities.
And all those priorities shaped the city's negotiations and I think shaped the community benefits in terms that we were able to successfully negotiate and will achieve with this project, this exciting project.
So I want to just really emphasize that what we have before us is the outcome of the vision and the priorities that we heard from the community and are really working to try to advance this reparative equitable vision for the Ashby development.
I want to thank our city staff and partners at BART for your work as well.
I think the collaboration between our respective teams has ensured that this project balances the needs of both BART and the city of Berkeley while achieving economic feasibility.
And the next steps are pivotal.
By fall this year, after hopefully BART approves the various actions as well, we aim to finalize legal agreements that will allow the city and BART to move forward with developer solicitations.
And after that point, we will identify qualified developers and invite them to submit proposals that align with our vision for a mixed-income community-centered development.
A key aspect of this project is affordable housing.
That's what we heard overwhelmingly from the South Berkeley community, really prioritizing affordable housing and trying to maximize the number of affordable housing units.
And so key to that, we are setting ambitious goals with a minimum of 35% of new housing units being affordable and a goal of 50% affordability at the Ashby Station project.
We will also ensure that the Berkeley flea market remains an integral part of the community with permanent space and amenities as part of the new development.
We're also addressing critical infrastructure needs, working with BART to improve the connectivity of the project to Adeline to create new public open space and ensure that development enhances the quality of life for residents in the area.
These next steps are pivotal.
We are hopefully after tonight going to move forward with bringing back by November, because I certainly would like to take action before I leave office, certain actions to implement the direction council is providing tonight, including the agreement.
And so this will allow for this project to move forward, for us to move to a developer solicitation and actually get shovels on the ground and get housing built soon.
The Ashby BART site is more than just housing development.
This is a critical step towards equitable growth, addressing historical harms and ensuring that Berkeley remains a place where all can thrive.
And so with that, I want to turn it over to BART.
I don't know if Director Simon is on the Zoom, but if not, I want to give BART staff an opportunity to provide any opening comments.
Good evening, Council.
I'm Shannon Dodge, Principal Property Development Officer for BART.
The Mayor, again, has done such a fantastic job of laying out the exciting potential that we have before us today at Ashby and also the tremendous collaboration that has occurred between the City and BART over these past years.
So I won't say much, but I do want to thank Mayor Arreguin for his leadership and also Director Lateefah Simon on the BART board, who wasn't able to be with us tonight, but also led this effort.
So thank you so much all of you for considering this, and we will be here to take any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much, Ms.
Dodge.
So with that, I want to give Councilmember Bartlett, who represents District 3, which is where Ashby Station is located, an opportunity to provide some introductory comments.
Just thank him for his leadership.
Every step of the way, Councilmember Bartlett has really been critical in not only helping shape the vision and priorities, but also working to help reach agreement on, I think, this really exciting agreement that we have with BART that's going to bring affordable housing, keep the flea market in South Berkeley and other critical community benefits.
Yes, thank you, Mr.
Mayor, and thank you, BART staff, thank you, City staff.
It's been a wonderful journey, wonderful being an interesting word in this case.
A very long journey with lots of twists and turns, lots of communication, lots of arguing, lots of love, lots of recriminations, lots of forgiveness, lots of moving forward.
And ultimately, with the tremendous amount of input in the community and all the elements of the community really manifested from the beginning, and this is long before the Assembly Bill passed.
This is long before the Assembly Bill passed.
This is the first time in the days, maybe eight, nine, nine and a half, ten years ago, that we first engaged this process and helped kickstart it and shaped it and really took ownership of a lot of it.
And so all of you are to be thanked and considered and hopefully feel blessed by what happens from this, because I'd like us to continue to do so.
And I think that's what we're going to do.
I think we're going to get rid of this pit, if you will, of devastation where there once was homes and businesses and culture, economic growth and vitality and good times and became a really dusty, dangerous highway, parking lot, lots of just dark corners and a lot of just a lot of defectation to spring forth to the community through the ensuing decades.
And so now, take that vision and your one frame and overlay this over it.
Public art, narrow streets with trees, gardens, a beautiful parkway like Ohlone, a beautiful parkway like the one that we're in right now.
Milling about, talking and protesting.
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of affordable housing for families, for seniors, for solo people, everyone in between.
For new people.
Nonprofit office space and retail and a permanent home for the flea market and a community investment fund run by the community to invest into the radius of that transit village to develop and cultivate new business, new commerce, new people, new ideas, new equity.
And imagine this.
The homes that were taken, the equity was robbed as well.
We have numbers on this.
The numbers are staggering.
And so now, we're doing our part to reflect a tiny bit of that value and deliver a tiny bit of that.
A pathway to affordable home ownership on the Berkeley part of that parcel.
And that's incredible.
And of course, in the surrounding area, as the transit village and the bike paths and all the beauty of it and the state-of-the-art Wi-Fi and all that business makes the area so beautiful and so attractive and so expensive.
Remember, we baked in 50% affordability area-wide.
So everyone will get to benefit in the benefits of this new community.
Very excited.
So please enjoy the presentation.
I've heard it before.
Thank you again, team, for delivering this well.
And I'm really excited about this culmination of so many hours and hours and buckets of sweat and stress to deliver this.
Because housing is forever.
Okay, thank you very much.
So with that, I want to turn it over to Jordan Klein, our director of the Planning and Development Department.
Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Councilmembers.
I'm very pleased to be before you this evening with a recommendation on a term sheet that will facilitate transit-oriented development at the Ashby BART station.
I want to start also by thanking Mayor Arreguin and also Director Simon, who have each shown a steadfast commitment to working together and leading us through this process, and especially when we felt like we were really stuck, they helped us push through and find the path forward.
I also want to again recognize Councilmember Bartlett, who has helped to make sure that we've maintained our laser focus on maximizing community benefits and economic opportunity for South Berkeley.
Thanks to all of the many community members who've been involved going back to 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic when we were conducting some of our first Zoom meetings about this project, all the way through last Thursday when we had over 80 community members come out to the Ed Roberts Center to hear about the details of this project.
Throughout, we've had really deep engagement, and as the Mayor noted, community members have been really clear with us about what their priorities are, and we have maintained those priorities as our focal points throughout this negotiation.
I want to appreciate our BART colleagues who are here with us tonight, Carly Payne, Shannon Dodge, Rachel Factor, and Henry Simons.
BART have been fantastic partners throughout this process.
They're going to be, of course, available for questions.
And then I want to take a minute to recognize the whole City team, and I know that you Council members know who's available to help respond to questions about this very complicated project.
But also, we've been working on this for three years, and to just take a moment and appreciate everybody who, as Council Member Bartlett noted, contributed to all that sweat equity to this.
So from the City Manager's Office, as has been observed, Paul was, in fact, part of our project team and over the past 22 months, LaTanya Bellow has provided essential strategic leadership and guidance to this project.
From the City Attorney's Office, Farima and her team have been involved every step of the way, and again, absolutely essential.
I want to specifically give a shout-out also to Stephen Hylas and Sarah Stephens, and also to outside Council Bill White and Preeta Prah.
From Public Works, I don't think he's here tonight, but Eric Anderson has been a fantastic partner in helping us figure out these complicated infrastructure issues, and we have Deputy Director Waheed Amiri on the call.
From the Fire Department, Chief Sprague, and also recently just-retired Fire Marshal Steve Riggs have been fantastic support throughout this project.
And we do have Deputy Fire Marshal Dori Too, who's also been a great partner, and she's with us on the call.
From Health, Housing, and Community Services, the Manager of Housing and Community Services, Margo Ernst, has been there helping us figure out the very complex details of the affordable housing structure and plan for this project, as well as other members of our team, and consultants supporting us throughout this as well.
From street-level advisors, we have Rick Jacobus, consulting on affordable housing issues.
From Amien Associates, we have Chris Sensenegg, who's here, who helped do a lot of the architectural modeling and capacity studies.
And from Century Urban, we have on the call Bryant Sparkman and Griselda Blackburn.
Century Urban played an essential role through the negotiations representing the city, evaluating our real estate position, and ensuring that we're getting a fair return on the city's property interests, and you'll hear more about their analysis during the presentation.
With all that, now I will turn it over to our steadfast and incredibly skilled and dedicated Project Manager, Principal Planner, Elisa Shen.
Thank you so much, Jordan.
Good evening, Mayor Arreguin and Council.
Elisa Shen, Principal Planner with the Planning and Development Department.
Just going to take a moment to go into presentation mode.
All right.
Okay.
Sorry for the delay.
Tonight's presentation will address background information, key elements of the term sheet, and economic analyses informing the recommended terms, the staff recommendation, and next steps in the planning process.
The city and BART, as you've heard, have been working closely for the past several years to plan for much needed housing, commercial uses, and public space on the service parking lots at North Berkeley and Ashby BART.
And many of you helped to advance the important milestones that appear on this slide to get us where we are today.
Community input has been foundational to guide decisions and set priorities.
Since 2020, we've had over 50 meetings, including the two-year process to develop the zoning and a comprehensive joint vision and priorities for these two BART stations, which were shaped by a community advisory group, community workshops, office hours, and many stakeholder group meetings.
The city also held community meetings and stakeholder meetings about the redesign of Adeline Street at Ashby BART, as well as numerous associated planning commission and council meetings.
As you just heard over the past 18 months, the city and BART, led by Mayor Arreguin and BART Board Director Latifah Simon, negotiated the term sheet based on adopted agreements and policies informed by previous community processes, input from Equitable Black Berkeley, an initiative spearheaded by the mayor's office in partnership with Healthy Black Families, and detailed economic analyses of property ownership interests and potential community benefits.
The city and BART each retained real estate economists to estimate the value of their respective property interests based on architectural studies of potential development capacity.
They also analyzed potential community benefits while looking to maintain overall project economic feasibility.
The economic study is the basis for references in the term sheet to various numbers of housing units, bedrooms, and or square footage, and you'll hear more about that in a moment.
So the term sheet and appendices A through F were attached to the staff report as Attachment 1, Exhibit A.
The full term sheet, including another appendix, Appendix G, and Appendix E were included in Supplemental Packet No.
1.
So the term sheet provides a roadmap for future development.
It includes parameters about project requirements, process, and responsibilities for city, BART, and future developers.
If approved by the City Council, the term sheet will be turned into binding legal documents that will be brought back to Council for final approval later this year.
The term sheet will open the door for starting the developer selection process.
The existing property ownership, as you'll hear more about in a moment, of the city and BART, the site constraints, and the planned redesign of Adeline Street right-of-way make development at the BART site very complex.
The term sheet provides a roadmap for future development, as you'll hear more about in a moment, of the city and BART, the site constraints, and the planned redesign of Adeline Street right-of-way make development at the BART site very complex.
A foundational piece of the term sheet is the land for Ayride Swap.
BART owns the two parcels that you're shown in orange on the slide.
The west lot is the triangular parcel west of the east lot.
As proposed, the city will give up its air rights to the west lot in return for BART giving the city sole ownership of the east lot and agreeing to specified community benefits and other requirements.
Simplifying ownership of the parcels is critical, since it lessens the uncertainty for future developers related to securing financing for the projects.
The term sheet also requires that at least 50 percent of the first 602 new housing units developed on the west lot must be affordable to households with extremely low, very low, low, and moderate incomes.
If the west lot development exceeds 602 units, the total project must include a minimum of 35 percent affordable units, including any additional units, density bonus, or otherwise.
The east lot project must have at least 35 percent affordable units at levels specified by the term sheet, but it could have more.
The city has reserved $26.5 million of its affordable housing funding, $18.5 million for the west lot, and $8 million reserved for the east lot, which is roughly proportional to the amount of development of the first 602 parcels.
The term sheet also supports a shared priority of a permanent home for the Berkeley Flea Market.
The redesign of Adeline Street's right-of-way will result in a road diet and a new plaza that will support the Berkeley Flea Market and other public programming.
Future development on the west lot must also include at least 5,000 square feet of commercial space for community civic commercial uses, such as the flea market.
This is the conceptual redesign of Adeline Street at Ashby Bar that Council approved in November 2022, and it's part of a larger project led by Public Works and funded by the Alameda County Transportation Commission to prepare preliminary engineering for the redesign of Adeline Street from the intersection of the east lot and the Berkeley Flea Market.
The design of Adeline Street is based on the city's plan for the Oakland border, which came out of the Adeline corridor specific plan.
The term sheet also stipulates that the city will require that a portion of the revenues from the east lot development be allocated to create a reparative community benefits fund for South Berkeley.
City and BART teams have been analyzing requirements for circulation access for all modes of transportation, including emergency responders and operations and maintenance of the BART station.
There are a lot of constraints to development, including those as well as the site topography itself.
The city and BART teams have also been There are three areas where future buildings can potentially be built to connect to Adeline Street at areas A, B, and C, which are shown in the red colors on this slide.
Future developers will need to study the design and cost of constructing buildings adjacent to the BART tunnel and other infrastructure.
The term sheet identifies The city will have the opportunity to leverage the objective design standard process and the developer solicitation process to continue to emphasize the priority of connections to Adeline Street.
There is an existing traction power substation or TPSS at the Ashby BART station near the intersection of Ashby and Ashby.
The TPSS is currently being used to connect to Adeline Streets, which BART is planning to replace and expand in order to reliably provide needed levels of power to its trains.
Over the last few years, there's clearly been a high level of interest from the city and the community about the TPSS at Ashby.
The TPSS is not ideal for the pedestrian environment.
BART studied this and determined that it's not feasible for them to do so and still practically maintain reliable levers of power to their trains, and BART staff are available at tonight's meeting if you have further questions about the TPSS.
The term sheet does include information about the TPSS and how the TPSS will be used in the future.
Details of the TPSS and the artistic treatments of walls and fences that might be explored are shown on this slide.
Future transit-oriented development at Ashby BART will require major investment in public infrastructure.
There's a lot of information about the TPSS and how the TPSS will be used in the future.
The TPSS will be used for public infrastructure, potential funding resources, priorities and responsibilities in event of funding shortfall and for maintenance.
In addition to state, federal and local grants, the city will pursue the formation of an enhanced public-private partnership, which will however, contribute at least a million dollars towards connection.

Segment 2

The city and Bart will each pursue separate solicitations for development at the east and the West lot, respectively.
A short list of developers will be required to make public presentations as part of the selection process for the West lot.
There'll be a selection committee that includes 4 members from Bart.
2 from the city and 1 from equitable black Berkeley.
The term sheet also identifies a number of criteria for respondents, including asking them to show how proposals address negative impacts to African American residents, businesses and cultural institutions displaced by the construction of the Ashby station.
Bart will not be part of the East city's East lot developer selection process, except insofar as to ensure that the solicitation materials are satisfied Bart's access and operations requirements and the East lot is required to have a minimum of 300 bedrooms.
The term sheet also establishes a process to develop objective design standards for the East and West slots.
Preliminary objective design standards will be developed to reflect the complexity of the site constraints as I mentioned, related to emergency responser and other site selection and infrastructure requirements.
There's going to be opportunities for the community Bart and the selected developers to provide input on those draft final will need to be adopted by council, just as they were for the North Berkeley Bart station area and compliance with the ODS may be included in restrictive covenants by the city and or as a condition of the city city's affordable housing funding.
The term sheet also sets parameters for the development capacity that is possible under any ODS to be developed and that's an appendix D and which is based on the net developable area in as defined in appendix G.
So the West slot must allow at least 600,000 gross residential square feet within buildings, no taller than 8 stories and also allow for another scenario of 750,000 gross residential square feet within buildings that can be taller than 85 feet.
But within the maximum height that will be prescribed by the ODS.
And the ODS for the East slot has the requirement of needing to allow for at least 300 bedrooms with that.
I'm going to turn the presentation over to Brian Sparkman of century urban to go into the economic analysis.
Great, thank you, Lisa, Lisa, and good evening council members and Mary again.
My name is Brian Sparkman, and I'm joined by my colleague, Griselda Blackburn this evening, and we are with a firm known as century urban.
And we're excited and pleased to be here to support the city of Berkeley on this transformational project to provide one of the largest residential housing projects in the Bay Area.
Century urban was retained by the city going back to January 2022, almost 3 years ago to advise and assist on the Ashby Bart T.
O.
D.
in order to assist with addressing solution.
For the potential relinquishment of the city's option to acquire air rights, economic analysis, land valuation in addition to transaction structuring.
And as many of, you know, in this room, the air rights matter is an issue that was created approximately 60 years ago, and it has taken significant thought leadership with our city and Bart colleagues to reach a successful resolution such that housing can be built on the as B.
T.
O.
D.
And we specialize in coming up with equitable solutions, along with negotiating these types of transactions to meet the city's goals and objectives.
And the city and Bart have worked diligently to resolve air rights issues in the context of development control, maximizing community benefits and value creation.
And an item that has become clear through this process is that the as Ashby West lot is far more complex to develop due to the Bart zone of influence.
Infrastructure complexity availability of funds for infrastructure, the Adeline street reconfiguration, art station access and the traction power station.
As a result, the infrastructure costs are anticipated to be significantly higher on the West slot than the East slot.
In addition to that, we performed a great deal of research throughout the country.
And there are no known recent development projects with bifurcate that are bifurcated by separate land and air rights ownership by public agencies.
And as a result, resolution of the city's option to acquire air rights is really sacrosanct to delivering much needed new housing.
As context to this point, the city is working in partnership with Bart and has leveraged its option.
To acquire air rights to provide land value and incremental community benefits beyond the city's allocable land value for the West line.
And the proposed exchange will enable the city and Bart to proceed with separate solicitations, negotiations, development and long term lease agreements to the benefit of both Bart and the city.
And if we can go to the next slide, please, as mentioned earlier in the presentation, the option to purchase air rights affords the city, the ability to acquire the West slot air rights and excessive 10 feet.
And with this in mind, and economic analysis was prepared to conclude the value of the slot and additional community benefits equal to the city's air rights.
Whereby 90% of the West lot in order to the benefit of the city.
And our goal was really to ensure the city's land value and incremental community benefits are greater than or equal to the city's allocable land value for the West line.
Now, what is the city receiving from this deal? The city is receiving fee simple ownership of the slot and perpetuity valued at approximately 8.6Million.
And land ownership provides the city with the rights that would not be available if the city only had regulatory authority.
This is also a hard requirement for 50% affordable housing on the West lot under the base program.
The city is also receiving 5000 square feet of community and civic commercial ground floor space on the West lot at 50% of market rate.
With a focus on the flea market, I could will black Berkeley and other nonprofit groups.
The structure will also require the developer to fund some of the horizontal infrastructure costs and take some of this risk off the city's ledger.
And the combined value of the slot and city required community benefits are greater than just the land value.
And if we could go to the next slide, please, we believe there are really 6 key benefits to this transaction structure.
The 1st, being a streamline solicitation and negotiation for each party has ability to own land control decision making make decisions and benefit.
For future revenue and community benefits, and this is a key benefit for the city and.
We also believe this is an actionable financial execution.
And what this means is the city's option to purchase air rights is not financeable on the West slot.
And resolution of this matter produces a clear and actionable path forward for future development teams.
This is also sensible development as development teams can control entire lots, not vertically or horizontally separated along with the horizontal finance plan.
There are also meaningful community benefits in the transaction leverages.
The city's air rights to establish new and higher baseline requirements for discounted community and civic space along with affordable housing.
And in terms of the financial return, this approach yields greater value to the city, the current property rights combined with the community benefits.
And lastly, infrastructure financing increased affordable housing at should enhance competitiveness for affordable housing and sustainable community grants.
And infill infrastructure grants for future success.
And with that being said, I'd like to hand it back over to city staff.
Thank you, Brian.
The staff recommendation is for council to adopt a resolution, authorizing the city manager and city attorney to draft in advance for adoption contractual agreements with part in order to effectuate transit oriented development.
Ashby barred in accordance with the recommended term sheet.
As noted, the recommended terms provide multiple advantages to the city.
The city negotiating team believes that the terms provide the city fair consideration in exchange for the relinquishment of its air rights and advance the goals and priorities established in the joint vision and priorities and maximize community benefits.
While ensuring that the Ashby project remains economically feasible.
And with that, oh, before I do that, I will go into a few next steps.
As mentioned that staff, if approved by council tonight, then staff will draft binding legal documents, such as a real estate transfer agreement and bring them back to council for approval in November.
The city will initiate a process to get input on preliminary objective design standards in late October, early November.
And then Bart intends to issue a developer solicitation in December, which would be paired with the city issuance of a notice of funding availability for city affordable housing funding with the goal of having a development team selected by June 2025.
Other longer term milestones are outlined in appendix B of the term sheet.
And with that, I will turn it back to mayor and the council for discussion and questions.
Thank you so very much once again, thank you to the entire team.
All of our city staff are outside consultants, century, urban.
Our council and the Bart staff for all the work that's gone into this.
This action before us today, so I'm going to open up for initial questions from council, and then we can then take public comment and then bring it back for action.
So, if any counselor has a question for staff.
Please press your button and counselor on, let me know who's in the queue.
I just want to know if any councilor has a question for staff.
Please press your button and counselor on let me know who's in the queue.
Mayor council member Bartlett is the only person in the queue at this time.
Okay.
And then followed by council member.
Okay, counselor Bartlett.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
So, I'm looking at dealing with the frontage on Ashby.
So, it appears at this point, the, that the, the, as we could be a bit cut off and cordoned off and darken some looking for.
Other ways we can activate the world of the process of the project.
So, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next item.
So, the DMU zoning does require a 50 average of 50% active frontage at Ashby and MLK.
Of course, there is the possibility of an eligible project for the state density bonus to waive out of those requirements.
So, we're going to look at ways to encourage and require active uses and that support the pedestrian environment along those frontages.
So, we don't have an actual project yet.
So, that'll remain to be seen when we, when we have a developer response.
Another way is the developer solicitations can include questions related to activation and complimenting surrounding streets and neighborhood.
So, we're going to look at that as well.
So, we're looking at, for this area, we want to be able to not compete with the existing commercial uses and not.
Not have, you know, have it not be have an area that can support the commercial and retail uses from in the area.
So, that's one area that we've been looking at, and that frontage has really been focused on connections at Adeline.
Okay, and another question is this regarding the retail space.
So, as of now, we have 5000 square foot of discount space for nonprofits.
Right.
And I'm thinking about the 2000 plus people.
I know they're close to Brooklyn bowl, but I think they're going to overwhelm that supermarket.
So, I'm thinking we may need to figure out a way to to build upon the nonprofit square footage.
Right 5000 and increase that amount or apply attendant greater square footage for for for enterprise to service the community there because it's a lot of people.
Yeah, thank you council member Bartlett.
Some of our modeling considered as much as 12 or 13,000 square feet of non residential space.
In the West law project, so, yeah, I think we.
We expect that developer teams may come in and propose well, in excess of the 5000 square feet.
I think it's going to be certainly 1 of the components of the developer proposals.
That we're going to be really looking carefully at how, what kind of non residential and civic uses are they going to be bringing? How are they going to compliment and support.
The surrounding community and as you note, all of the new residents.
Thank you that's good to know and the community fund my last question.
The.
So, there is a, there is an emergent framework around the community fund that.
Leverages the accounts appears to be a small amount small number of the 150.
I think you're seeding it, but leveraging that to build upon it.
Right.
Yeah, the term sheet admits that the city will dedicate.
At least 150,000 dollars of its revenues from the East lot project to seed.
This community fund, I know we've been in communication with.
Other community stakeholders about the idea of trying to leverage investment capital from the project to.
Generate more potential revenue with different creative ideas that are also linked to business incubation that can kind of create a.
A mutually supportive kind of circular fund, and that's something the staff will definitely take a look at.
That's wonderful.
Thank you.
And then, and of course, there's a lot of a lot of communication around developer choice and and nonprofit developers.
It's not and I, for 1, of course, we all know the Bendix been committed to bring in new people, people that have been outside of the system to share our bounty of our city.
So, new developers, women, people of color, things like that.
So, I know we have we have multiple.
Sort of touch points, but in the 2 sites, right? Can you give it just a quick little overview of how how they might how the community might approach getting a shot to develop these things with the big people? Sure.
Well, 1st of all, I want to emphasize, I think both we and Bart are going to be seeking to cast a really wide net.
Uh, we would love to see a lot of developers of various sizes and locally owned minority owned women owned.
Developers competing for these sites, um, what we saw at North Berkeley is that, uh.
A variety of different developers came together and formed a team that and that was ultimately and actually a bunch of the applicants were made up of teams of different, smaller and larger nonprofit and for profit developers.
I think we could see that same thing, certainly for the West lot, which is larger and for the East slot.
1 of the great benefits of this project is that it affords the city the opportunity to be more thoughtful with some of the issues that you raised.
And so I think the staff, we plan to come back to engage council more to get more direction from you about how that solicitation might work.
No more questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Very excited.
Thank you.
Council member trigger.
Thank you.
Um, on the.
Both of my questions have to do with the affordable housing split.
I'm very excited about that factoid that at least 50% of the 1st, 600 to new housing units on the West lot.
Would be affordable to households with extremely low, very low, low and moderate incomes and I'll have more to say about that in my comments.
I'm particularly excited about the 1st and the 4th of those categories.
But can you remind me if there is a split right now being devised between extremely low, very low, low and moderate? Or is that something that would be to be prescriptive at this stage? Okay, so the information that's in the term should really comes out of the joint vision and priorities and it is prescriptive for 35% of the affordable housing.
So, what is required for the 35% is that at least 20% of that 35%, which are a total of 7% must be affordable to households earning less than 30% of area median income or extremely low income and then the remaining 80% of the 35% have to prioritize affordability levels that are very low income or households earning up to 50% AMI and low income households earning up to 80% of AMI.
And some moderate income up to 120% of AMI can be included provided that the rents are still below market rate and they aren't city subsidized and the overall average affordability for the 1st, 35% is still 60% of AMI are below.
So, at that level, it is prescribed, but then for the additional increment about 35% of 50, that really is going to depend on.
Um, the, the financing and the financing of the prospective developers.
So there is some flexibility there.
I think you and same question for the slot project.
That must be at least 35% affordable.
Can you just clarify? Um.
What affordability grates we are talking about the same apply same same mix.
Yes.
So, it would be the 20% extremely low the balance being, um, yeah, 20% of the 35%.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you.
And they are the next in the queue is anyone else.
Council member Humbert and then myself.
Okay, that's number.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr.
Mayor and council member.
Hold on.
I have a number of comments to make.
I'll save those until after public comment.
I do have a couple.
Questions, um, and I've written them out because it's pretty, it's complex stuff.
Given the desired unit counts, we're looking at it.
I guess my question is, why are we setting the minimum density in the term sheet at only 75 dwelling units per acre with a total acreage on the East and West parcels of 6.3.
And a 75 unit per acre standard, we don't even hit.
We don't even hit the 1.9 acre East parcel, which equates to about 5500 units and this doesn't seem consistent with the vision for at least 600 units on the West parcel.
Plus at least 300.
I guess that's bedrooms on the East parcel.
And this inconsistency seems to be reinforced by the objective design standard provisions, which call for 248 units on the 1.9 acre.
So, I'm just wondering, as a council member, why not raise this minimum density to reflect the expected unit counts on both parcels.
Thank you, council member.
That is a great observation.
The minimum densities that are that are referenced in the term sheet are reflective of assembly bill 2923 and the zoning.
So, that's a great observation.
The other factor for the project is really the number of units and that that are that are the goal for the sites as well as, you know, Bart's goal as the lead in the solicitation for the site.
So there will definitely as the discussion has gone so far be a desire for developers to maximize housing on the site as well as the other JVP.
So, those those density standards are artifacts of that that statute.
Is that right? Okay.
Thank you.
Interesting.
Also, there's language regarding the objective development standards.
On PDF page, 41 of the supplemental and the languages notwithstanding anything to the contrary here in or appendix D, the West slot developer may invoke waivers.
And I'm not clear on how we can establish incentives or other exceptions to the extent permitted by law, but excuse me, but only with respect to a zoning requirements other than those set forth in or modified by the.
Yes, and I think I understand this and it concerns me because if there is an errant standard that would prevent the density that we want.
It would be a violation of the state's density bonus law, which is to establish a set of development standards that would somehow exempt from the waivers and concessions that would that is somehow exempt from the waivers and concessions allowed by state state density bonus law.
So, that's that's the question and I think I understand it and Eric helped me with this, but.
I think it's important to understand the language as tricky as it sounds born out of our experience with the North Berkeley project in the sense that there are.
Things that are coming that come up when you, as you refine a detailed design for which a developer might need to avail themselves of waivers or concessions so we tried to craft this very specifically in the sense that.
We have a project that is eligible for the state density bonus that we mentioned recognize there are certain things in the zoning, such as the requirement for commercial square footage along Adeline and Ashby that may need to be flexible depending on what the developer is proposing so we have tried to identify a set of things for which in the case of project is eligible for the state density bonus that we are naming that could be considered for waivers and concessions.
However, we are also identifying in the ODS process that has to be able to meet a certain capacity of square footage that there are certain things like ultimate height potentially as long as the square footage is satisfied by which the ODS will be the last word.
Okay, and we feel comfortable that we can do that under state law.
Okay, thank you, I appreciate that that's all I have in terms of questions.
Thanks.
Yes, in in so far as Bart is using its role as a property owner to to set forth these requirements.
Okay.
Okay, thank you.
I appreciate that.
That's all I have in terms of questions.
Thanks.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks to Mr.
Klein you did the thinking and you didn't get thanks.
So and and also Alyssa who is very modest, but has done a really amazing job and just been incredible walk in an intellectual our house.
So, thank you so much and to the whole team.
This is truly a colossal undertaking and I'm really impressed with where we are now.
But this is our time for questions.
So I'll save other things for later as, you know, I did bring up this issue of my concern for the Ashby Avenue frontage and I wanted to just share with my colleagues what the concern is because.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to answer all of your questions.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to answer all of your questions.
I'm not sure if what you say was well, we can deal with it later there's going to be other opportunities, but I just wanted to share in North Berkeley well, it's downtown in the north side of downtown UC Berkeley built a very handsome building that belongs in some nice office park in New Jersey or something not in our downtown in terms of the style, but handsome nevertheless at the corner of Shattuck and Hearst.
And the entire the Hearst space of that building runs an entire block.
It goes all the way to Walnut.
A walnut tease in there doesn't go through, but it's an entire block.
And that entire run of a very handsome building.
Has no articulation, no entrances.
No shops, there's not even a shop at the corner.
And, you know, in this case, it faces.
Residential, but in the case of Ashby, it's going to be facing small shops and a theater.
And my concern is that we will, we have the potential by not specifying that there has to be some kind of activation.
It could be.
A row of stoops townhouse type entrances to residential.
It could be.
Retail, whatever it is, I urge my colleagues to go take a look at that face on Hearst.
It's actually very nicely maintained and it's well designed.
It's a, it's a very high end building and they've done a nice landscaping.
It is essentially a nicely done graveyard.
But it is a graveyard nevertheless, and I'm very concerned that in the 10,000 things that on this team had to pay attention to that.
This has been overlooked and I don't.
I don't blame anything other than the overwhelm of this project, but.
I'm just concerned that, you know, for all the thought and all that's been said and done, I think what happens at ground level and how these buildings meet the community and meet their surroundings ultimately is is actually what determines whether the community feels that the development was a success.
So, I'm just going to really highlight here.
I think that there is a reason why we're bringing this up and I think that if it was in the terms of zoning, it can be traded away.
But let's just be clear that was in the terms of this agreement.
It couldn't be.
So I think we missed an opportunity here.
But I do appreciate that you're saying that there are future opportunities and I'll just say to my colleagues that I will be bringing this up over and over again.

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