Subscribe to Open Town Hall

Open Town Hall is an online forum for civic engagement. Read what others are saying about important Berkeley topics, then post your own statement. Elected officials will read the statements and incorporate them into their decision process.

When you post your first statement, you will be asked for your name and home address. This confidential information is only used to identify statements from residents in and near Berkeley - so that users know which statements are from local residents.

Open Town Hall is run by Peak Democracy, a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and build public trust in government. The company will keep your information confidential per their strict privacy policy.

As with any public comment process, participation in Open Town Hall is voluntary; Elected officials will consider input from this forum along with all other channels for participation. However you choose to participate, thanks for helping us build a better Berkeley.

Should the City Council amend West Berkeley zoning to allow conversion of warehouse and/or wholesale spaces to other uses including research and development (R&D)?

Participation

Who is listening?

118,983 people have read Open Town Hall

Who is listening?

11,529 people have read Open Town Hall here in Berkeley

Who is listening?

To date, 1,168 people have read this topic

Who is giving feedback?

281 people wrote or supported statements. That's 14.1 hours of public comment @ three minutes per statement.

Introduction

The city’s industrial businesses are located exclusively in West Berkeley. The current zoning for West Berkeley, adopted in 1992, has protected several uses including manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale activities, arts and craft and recycling in the hopes of preserving certain kinds of jobs. Since adoption, there has been a significant decrease in manufacturing jobs and no offsetting increase in employment in other sectors.

The Berkeley City Council is now considering several changes to the West Berkeley Zoning Code. One of the proposals would allow warehouse and wholesale uses to be converted to other uses including research and development.

This change would allow additional research and development activity in West Berkeley and would generate job creation and economic activity thus expanding the tax base and job opportunities for our community.

One concern is that new and expanded uses may increase property values, ultimately threatening currently protected artisan and blue collar manufacturing uses.

For more information on this proposal and a full staff report on all of the proposed zoning changes, download Amendments to West Berkeley Plan and Zoning Requirements (17.8 MB PDF file).

Please take the time to include any additional thoughts or ideas in the ‘elaborate’ section when you post your position.

As a response to many of you who had targeted questions about the West Berkeley Project Proposal, please go to Councilmember Capitelli’s West Berkeley Project: Questions and Answers.

All Statements

Yes	218	>
No	31	>
Neutral	2	>
Maybe	30	>

All Statements (281) >

Outcome

Approved

March 22, 2011