Berkeley High parking garage development is back on the table

Plans to build a three-story parking garage for Berkeley High staff on a Milvia Street lot across from the school could be scrapped, if district officials can work with the city to find other options for teacher parking. Credit: Supriya Yelimeli Credit: Supriya Yelimeli

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is revisiting a controversial plan to construct a parking garage on Milvia Street for Berkeley High School staff, after strong community pushback stalled the project a few years back.

BUSD Assistant Superintendent John Calise, who oversees facilities, shared details of a new plan on Wednesday while updating the school board on projects funded by Measure G, a $380 million school construction bond passed by voters in 2020. One of the projects originally included in the measure was a parking garage on Milvia Street, with a rooftop tennis court. Construction was supposed to begin in November 2023, but was paused following concerns raised by BUSD community members, transit advocates, school board directors, and city councilmembers.

“I spoke extensively about this three years ago and had believed that this issue had been resolved, so it’s very disappointing to see it resurfacing,” BUSD parent Douglas Legg said during public comment.

Legg and others opposed to the plan say a garage is a poor use of taxpayer money, due to the existence of city-owned and private parking lots nearby with enough vacant spaces to accommodate district staff. They argue the parking development also undermines the city’s long term sustainability goals to reduce carbon emissions, and that the Measure G funds would be better spent on projects that directly benefit students.

The structure currently being recommended for the Milvia Street property, according to Calise, includes 110 parking spaces on two floors, along with a gym, and three additional stories for classrooms, at an estimated cost of $110 to $160 million. The tennis courts are now being proposed for a different location in nearby Moellering Field.

Calise said the final scope and cost of the project would be up to the school board to decide. Removing the parking lot component would reduce the price by $20 million, he said.

“The board can give direction on what to commit to, and that includes pulling pieces out,” Calise said Wednesday evening. “If the board did not want to include a gym, tell me, ‘John, figure out what it’s going to take to do it without the gym.’ If the board didn’t even want to have a conversation around the replacement parking, you can do that.”

While strongly opposed by some, others say the parking development is necessary. Calise noted some Berkeley High teachers have had to move their cars every two hours to avoid ticketing on nearby residential streets, disrupting their workday and impacting their availability to students. In 2024, the city addressed the issue by providing about 200 street parking permits to educators, although it could only offer 144 spaces and BUSD staff had to pay for the permits.

He said future construction work around Berkeley High could displace teachers and exceed the neighborhood’s parking capacity, forcing them back to having to move their cars during the school day to avoid tickets. The Milvia Street lot could replace the street-parking permit program altogether and allow the district to avoid going backwards on progress made on the parking issue, he said.

Activists oppose building of a parking garage

About half a dozen local community activists tuned into Wednesday’s school board meeting to voice their opposition to the parking structure, citing its high cost and environmental concerns.

“The issue is not about building new parking spots. The issue here is about spending money on car storage instead of money for student classroom space,” Liza Lutzker, a member of Walk Bike Berkley, said during public comment.

Berkeley school board member Ana Vasudeo and city councilmember Shoshana O’Keefe, who is also a computer science teacher at Berkeley High and spoke in a personal capacity during public comment, were among those who suggested reopening discussions with city leaders about using Berkeley parking garages for school staff parking.

“It’s a fact that there are hundreds of parking spaces at the city-owned garage just one block from campus,” O’Keefe said. “I’m not authorized to speak for the city, but I have it on good authority that the city would be very willing to rent those spaces to (BUSD).”

The proposal is part of a larger Berkeley High School Capacity and Expansion Project, created in 2023, which aims to “address a myriad of issues” at the school. The project calls for adding the long-awaited tennis courts, about 30 new classrooms to reduce crowding, new office and conference spaces, a career and technical education lab, student and staff bathrooms with gender-neutral facilities, and possibly parking.

In 2017, a plan to construct tennis courts for Berkeley High was scrapped after an analysis of the project determined that it would cost $11 million — more than double the amount expected. Though voters later approved the 2020 bond measure to fund the project, it stalled again due to community opposition. An alternative proposal for courts at Moellering Field also faced backlash over concerns it would create competition among student sports teams for practice space.

According to board documents, the BUSD facilities department on Wednesday asked that Measure G funds be allocated to the Moellering Field project “for design only.” Construction will rely on the school board authorizing a new general obligation bond, estimated for 2028, and the community’s support, according to the documents.

“While the current plans do show changes to Moellering Field, we are committed to listening and studying alternative options,” the board documents state. To start, a virtual listening session is planned for December, with an in-person meeting to follow in January.

Berkeley High parking garage development is back on the table

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