A new 20-story housing complex was approved by Berkeley\u2019s Zoning Adjustments Board last week and is\u00a0set to be located at 2425 Durant Ave. next to Yogurt Park.\u00a0This development, expected to be a 208-foot-tall apartment tower, is to be constructed by Collabhome and will feature 169 multifamily apartments geared toward campus students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collabhome was able to build more units than what is usually allowed due to the Density Bonus Law, which allows developers to expand the density of their property above the maximum limit allowed by a jurisdiction in exchange for meeting certain affordable housing criteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA project like this, even five years ago, would have been impossible,\u201d said Yes Duffy, Principal Architect for Yes Community Architects, the firm responsible for drafting the project. \u201cThe zoning made it illegal, so even though students wanted to live here and students wanted to move into housing, you could not build enough housing in order to take care of all our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complex will feature more than 145,000 square feet of housing and communal space, with 30% of the unit prices falling below the market rate, according to Duffy. Set to be located on a 0.22-acre land parcel, it is projected to house students in roughly three to four years if construction goes as fast as possible, according to Duffy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe housing is a human right, and we believe that we need to build more housing in all levels in order to make housing \u2026 abundant, something that everybody has the right to experience,\u201d Duffy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duffy explained that the construction of the apartment complex will be focused on meeting climate and sustainability goals as well, which he said are some of the project\u2019s main concerns. He explained features such as car-free housing and access to public transportation, which will be included in the forthcoming complex, are \u201cby far the best thing you could do. It\u2019s the easiest and most low-hanging opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the complex will be organized into a set of smaller neighborhoods, each of which will be equipped with communal amenities such as lounge and study spaces. This plan will place students in smaller social networks and provide a greater sense of community within the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duffy explained that the apartment complex will feature a prominent gathering space up front to incorporate it into the surrounding community landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that \u2026 we are able to help relieve some of the housing crisis on students so that they can thrive and contribute and be awesome, because they are the future,\u201d Duffy said. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones who are driving this ship forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new 20-story housing complex was approved by Berkeley\u2019s Zoning Adjustments Board last week and is\u00a0set to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21346,21342,21347,21344,143,145,144,5293,21345,21341,21343],"class_list":["post-28560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-zoning-adjustments-board","tag-collabhome","tag-density-bonus-law","tag-durant-avenue","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-southside","tag-yes-community-architects","tag-yes-duffy","tag-yogurt-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28560","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=28560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}