allegations<\/a> of sexual misconduct against the labor activist, institutions across Berkeley have begun to rename their landmarks and holidays in honor of the legacy of organized labor and farmworkers more broadly.<\/p>\n\u201cI believe (the resolution) creates a path for thoughtful community engagement while ensuring that we continue to honor the legacy of farmworkers and their essential contributions,\u201d said District 4 Councilmember Igor Tregub.<\/p>\n
Raising the threshold for citizen-initiated landmarking<\/p>\n
The council meeting saw back-and-forth deliberations and concerns voiced by public commenters and Denise Hall Montgomery, the chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Afterward, the council voted unanimously \u2014 with an abstention by Tregub \u2014 to raise the number of citizen petition signatures needed to start a landmarking process from 50 to 200.<\/p>\n
Why it matters: This item makes it increasingly difficult for community members to initiate the process of establishing a landmark through petitioning. Brought to the council by the city manager, this measure was put in place to combat the practice of using the landmarking process to prevent development.<\/p>\n
According to District 1 Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, one-third of the landmark applications from citizen petitions that the council has received in recent years have been the result of housing development applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these are overdue reforms to help prevent abuse of the landmarking process, encourage housing development and help conserve city resources,\u201d said District 8 Councilmember Mark Humbert. \u201cThere have been multiple recent instances where landmark initiations have come before the council (but) I believe the most basic criteria for a landmark were not met. And it was clear that the initiations only took place as a response to proposed housing development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Including condo development under the density bonus program<\/p>\n
The council voted to refer to the city manager to develop a local density bonus that is meant to reduce the cost of providing affordable housing. Modeled after the state density bonus, the resolution aims to incentivize condominium development.<\/p>\n
Why it matters: The new density bonus would allow developers to pay an affordable housing fee to Berkeley\u2019s Housing Trust Fund in order to facilitate the construction of lower-cost ownership homes, such as condominiums.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen public commenters expressed disagreement and concern about the fee, which would allow developers to bypass the city\u2019s affordable housing regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love the students, but we need economic diversity in the downtown,\u201d said Downtown Berkeley Association CEO John Caner, who is in support of the item. \u201cWe need to support our district. We need to support our restaurants and shops.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Berkeley City Council passed a resolution to continue its process of renaming city locations, events and holidays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[117636,7981,117637,16847,117638,32259,117639,16352,14328,16351,30960,12500,143,145,144,12499,23196],"class_list":{"0":"post-270710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-amory-langmo","9":"tag-berkeley-city-council","10":"tag-berkeley-fire-fighters-association","11":"tag-cesar-chavez","12":"tag-city-housing-trust-fund","13":"tag-city-of-berkeley","14":"tag-denise-hall-montgomery","15":"tag-downtown-berkeley-association","16":"tag-igor-tregub","17":"tag-john-caner","18":"tag-landmarks-preservation-commission","19":"tag-mark-humbert","20":"tag-oakland","21":"tag-oakland-headlines","22":"tag-oakland-news","23":"tag-rashi-kesarwani","24":"tag-sb-330"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270710","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=270710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}