Berkeley secures $850K in federal funding to design plaza, housing development for Ashby BART station | Transit

The city of Berkeley has secured $850,000 in federal funding to begin designing a new plaza at the Ashby BART station.

The new plaza would sit adjacent to a future 600-unit housing development in what is currently the station’s parking lot, per BART’s transit-oriented development plan. The new plaza will host space for the Berkeley Flea Market, at which local vendors have gathered to celebrate cultural diversity for more than 50 years in the Ashby BART west parking lot.

The funding was secured by California Representative Lateefah Simon, a transit justice advocate and former president of the BART Board of Directors.

“I helped jumpstart and plan the Ashby BART station transit-oriented development project when I served as BART Board President – and I am extremely proud to now secure nearly a million in federal funding to further the process on a new plaza that will complement the Ashby BART transit-oriented development,” said Simon in a press release.

The housing development and plaza are both part of a larger plan to reimagine the Adeline Street corridor, which is home to the Ashby BART station. In late 2020, Berkeley adopted the Adeline Corridor Specific Plan, which articulates a long-term vision for the area.

In crafting the framework for the development of the Adeline Corridor, the city of Berkeley has prioritized extending its “legacy as a culturally and economically diverse community,” according to the city’s Adeline Corridor Specific Plan.

This plan recognizes how South Berkeley is one of the most racially diverse areas of the Bay Area, partially due to discriminatory real estate practices in other parts of Berkeley. Then, construction of the Ashby BART station in the late 1960s disrupted a prominent Black neighborhood, displacing and demolishing neighboring homes and businesses.

“(South Berkeley) is one of our most diverse communities, and it’s been underinvested in and underserved for too long,” said Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii in Rep. Simon’s press release regarding the plaza funding. “Now, we’re changing that.”

In the development of the Adeline Corridor Specific Plan, residents voiced their support for the Berkeley Flea Market, which serves as a marketplace for microbusinesses and a gathering space for South Berkeley’s Black community.

The plan imagines a publicly accessible plaza with improved physical infrastructure, including public restrooms, electrical access and storage space, in order to uplift the flea market and the nearby South Berkeley Farmers Market, which currently operates nearby.

The federal funding secured by Simon would allow for the plaza’s design process to begin.

“Transforming this public space along Adeline Street into a plaza where people can live, work, and play near affordable and accessible transit will be game changing and create more vibrant, connected communities that succeed both economically and culturally,” said Simon in the press release.