![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/large-Natera_230503_017_ConstructionWorkers_04.jpg\")
Workers at a downtown Berkeley construction site. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/Catchlight Local<\/p>\nWorkers at a downtown Berkeley construction site. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/Catchlight Local<\/p>\n
Update, Feb. 23: The City Council is set to take up the three projects in which developers have sought to exempt themselves from local labor regulations. The proposed apartment buildings at 2425 and 2298 Durant Ave. and 2029 University Ave. are scheduled to be discussed during a special meeting that begins at 6 p.m. Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Original story, Nov. 18: More than two years after Berkeley leaders adopted a set of union-backed labor standards<\/a> for major construction projects, the developers behind three proposed new apartment complexes plan to use one of California\u2019s most powerful state housing laws to exempt themselves from the mandates.<\/p>\n The move has construction unions crying foul, saying it subverts the law\u2019s intent and effectively guts a host of local development ordinances that set requirements for workers\u2019 pay, health care coverage and apprenticeship programs. Two labor groups have appealed a Zoning Adjustments Board decision to approve one of the projects to the City Council. They\u2019re concerned the developers\u2019 strategy could become a playbook for dodging labor standards in Berkeley and throughout the state.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that we find ourselves here tonight witnessing the dismantling of hard-fought worker protections,\u201d Daniel Gregg, a representative from the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, told the zoning board at a hearing last Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Members that night voted to approve a 23-story complex on University Avenue in downtown Berkeley that would be exempted from requirements to provide health insurance and apprenticeships, as well as another ordinance mandating large buildings use glass designed to prevent bird collisions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Developers say Berkeley\u2019s mandates would add millions of dollars in extra costs and make their projects too expensive to build. They contend California\u2019s \u201cdensity bonus\u201d law<\/a> \u2014 which allows builders to bypass local regulations if their projects include a share of affordable apartments \u2014 is on their side.<\/p>\n \u201cOur former City Council adopted a set of standards that put enormous cost pressure on housing development in Berkeley,\u201d consultant Mark Rhoades said at the same zoning board meeting. \u201cThey set the unions up for failure.\u201d<\/p>\n The labor groups\u2019 appeal will go before the City Council in February, forcing that body to choose between letting the project proceed without the labor standards many of its members voted to impose, or take on what could be a costly legal battle to enforce Berkeley\u2019s ordinances.<\/p>\n The density bonus law is best known for allowing projects to exceed density and height caps<\/a> in exchange for including affordable apartments \u2014 it\u2019s why a 169-unit project the zoning board approved last month at 2425 Durant Ave.<\/a>, which includes 32 below market-rate units, was allowed to rise to a height of 20 stories, more than double the eight-story limit on the books for the Southside neighborhood.<\/p>\n But the law also entitles developers to claim exemptions from a long list of other local regulations that would drive up the cost of building housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Durant Avenue project from the Berkeley firm Collab Home, which is the subject of the unions\u2019 appeal, exempted itself from requirements to provide health care coverage and apprenticeships on job sites. The City Council created those requirements in a 2023 ordinance dubbed \u201cHARD HATS,\u201d or Helping Achieve Responsible Development with Healthcare and Apprenticeship Training Standards. Collab Home also seeks to bypass a mandate that projects in the Southside neighborhood pay workers a prevailing wage, a requirement the council imposed in a set of zoning changes<\/a> later that same year.<\/p>\n Another project a couple of blocks away at 2298 Durant Ave.<\/a> is using the density bonus law to claim exemptions from the health care and prevailing wage requirements as well. The 65-unit project submitted by Berkeley private equity firm Valiance Capital includes seven affordable units.<\/p>\n Walnut Creek-based Laconia Development submitted two versions of its project at 2029 University Ave.<\/a>, both of which were approved by the zoning board last week. One version has 240 units, 36 of which would be rented for below market rate, with a bigger share of studio and one-bedroom apartments; the other has larger apartments, totaling 160 units, 24 of them affordable.<\/p>\n Travis Brooks, an attorney for Laconia Development, wrote in a letter to the zoning board<\/a> that the mandates the company sought exemption from \u201care exactly the sort of costly \u2018development standards\u2019 the [density bonus law] requires local agencies to eliminate when incentives are requested.\u201d<\/p>\n The company contends the requirements would cost just over $5 million, on top of $8.4 million in other city, school and utility fees the project must also pay. Those estimates, which Rhoades presented to the zoning board, claim the health insurance requirement would cost $2.8 million, apprenticeships at the site would run $1.9 million and bird-safe glass would be $400,000 more expensive than conventional materials.<\/p>\n Rhoades, who also consulted on the 2425 Durant project, said developers can\u2019t absorb expenses that great.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially now, when construction costs are so high, financing is iffy, the economy is volatile,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s just another layer of cost that Berkeley has put on housing production.\u201d<\/p>\n Several developers and business groups opposed the HARD HATS ordinance, which applies to projects submitted since 2024, and the San Francisco Business Times reported firms sent in a flurry of housing applications<\/a> in the final weeks of 2023 to avoid being subjected to it.<\/p>\n If developers had to comply with the mandates, Rhoades predicted, \u201cWe would probably stop building housing in Berkeley again<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Construction unions say developers are abusing law<\/p>\n Staff in Berkeley\u2019s Planning Division agreed that the law entitled Laconia, as well as the developers of the Durant Avenue projects, to the exemptions they requested. Members of the zoning board concurred and found they wouldn\u2019t have legal grounds to reject<\/a> the project \u2014 though several said they were reluctant to approve it.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hands just are tied due to the way the state has phrased this,\u201d Zoning Adjustments Board Chair Kimberly Gaffney said shortly before voting to approve the University Avenue project. \u201cIt does make it very hard for us to deny [the project].\u201d<\/p>\n (Architect Yes Duffy, who sits on the zoning board, designed and submitted the project at 2425 Durant; he was not present at the Oct. 9 meeting where it was approved, according to minutes from the meeting<\/a>.)<\/p>\n But construction unions argue the density bonus law was meant to address limitations on the physical size and shape of projects \u2014 not the regulations that affect how they are built \u2014 and\u00a0 say developers can afford to comply with Berkeley\u2019s mandates. They contend the requirements ensure construction workers do a dangerous job without risking devastating medical bills and get training to bring more people into the field.<\/p>\n In their appeal of the zoning board\u2019s decision<\/a> to approve the 2425 Durant Ave. project, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County and the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council ask the City Council to reject the project, approve it without granting the concessions sought by Laconia, or send the proposal back to the zoning board.<\/p>\n \u201cThe requested concessions are an attempted misuse of the [density bonus law] to avoid important labor standards that the city enacted to protect public health and safety,\u201d attorneys Jolene Kramer and Andrea Matsuoka wrote.<\/p>\n State Sen. Jesse Arregu\u00edn backed the unions\u2019 appeal in a letter<\/a> to the City Council last week, saying he is concerned by the precedent the Durant Avenue project would set, \u201cAnd the impact it would have on the application of various critical labor policies the Council has adopted over the years including prevailing wage requirements and the HARD HATS Ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n Arregu\u00edn led the charge for the ordinance<\/a> when he was mayor of Berkeley, announcing the legislation at a press conference flanked by construction union leaders in 2022. He launched his campaign for state Senate a few months later, and unions in the building trades were among his biggest donors<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI never anticipated that the ordinance\u2019s seminal requirements could be circumvented through use of the [density bonus law],\u201d Arregu\u00edn wrote in his letter.<\/p>\n Rhoades said the concessions developers are entitled to under the law are not limited to physical zoning restrictions, and have been used \u201cup and down the state\u201d to exempt projects from local fees and mandates.<\/p>\n Rejecting the Durant Avenue project, or even just its exemptions, could open the city up to a lawsuit from Collab Home. Brooks\u2019 letter to the zoning board about the University Avenue project reminded the city, none too subtly, that failing to grant its exceptions \u201cwould result in an actionable violation of state housing law,\u201d and that Laconia could sue to reverse the city\u2019s decision and recover attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether the City Council has the appetite for that kind of fight.<\/p>\n Berkeley lost a similar lawsuit<\/a> brought by a Yes-In-My-Backyard advocacy group over its attempt to block a housing development nearly a decade ago. More recently, the City Council backed away from an ordinance<\/a> prohibiting landlords from using rent-setting algorithms earlier this year after one of the companies targeted by the legislation sued to block it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andreas Cluver, secretary-treasurer of the Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council, told Berkeleyside the law isn\u2019t clear about whether developers are entitled to the exemptions they have sought from Berkeley\u2019s mandates, and the solution may have to come from Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at is really a legislative loophole that allows developers to circumvent these really important labor standards,\u201d Cluver said. \u201cObviously we need to change state law at some point to close the loophole.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Arregu\u00edn plans to write any legislation to address the unions\u2019 concerns about the density bonus law, spokesperson Stefan Elgstrand wrote in an email, \u201cIt is too early in the process to say what bills he plans on introducing.\u201d<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Workers at a downtown Berkeley construction site. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/Catchlight Local Update, Feb. 23: The City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2633,2465,2466,1011,36193,143,145,144,5293,32263,32260],"class_list":{"0":"post-190391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-downtown-berkeley","9":"tag-home-highlight","10":"tag-home-lead","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-jesse-arreguin","13":"tag-oakland","14":"tag-oakland-headlines","15":"tag-oakland-news","16":"tag-southside","17":"tag-southside-plan","18":"tag-zoning-adjustments-board"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2025-11-13-at-10.16.54-AM.png\")
An architect\u2019s rendering of a 23-story housing development proposed for 2029 University Ave. Laconia Development wants to exempt the project from local labor standards and a requirement to use bird-safe glass. Credit: Stackhouse De La Pe\u00f1a Trachtenberg Architects
\nBerkeley\u2019s mandates would cost millions, developer says<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-3.10.31-PM.png\")
A rendering shows private equity firm Valiance Capital\u2019s proposal for a 65-unit apartment building at 2298 Durant Ave. Credit: Studio KDA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_1317-1200x917.jpg\")
Mayor Jesse Arregu\u00edn speaks at a 2022 press conference with construction union leaders to introduce an ordinance creating new requirements for developers to provide health insurance and apprenticeship programs for workers. Credit: Nico Savidge\/Berkeleyside
\nWill City Council risk a lawsuit to uphold labor standards?<\/p>\n