{"id":347001,"date":"2026-06-04T20:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T20:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:43:12","slug":"elmwood-historic-district-campaign-returns-to-berkeley-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347001\/","title":{"rendered":"Elmwood \u2018historic district\u2019 campaign returns to Berkeley commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThe Landmarks Preservation Commission deadlocked on a proposal to declare the Elmwood neighborhood\u2019s commercial strip a historic district. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

Update, June 4: The application to declare the Elmwood neighborhood\u2019s commercial strip a \u201chistoric district\u201d will go before the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a second time Thursday night. The commission meets at 6:30 p.m.<\/a> at the North Berkeley Senior Center; you can also watch and participate in the meeting via Zoom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Original story, May, 13: The Elmwood neighborhood\u2019s commercial strip could be declared a historic district if city officials approve a proposal backed by local preservationists and hundreds of residents. But to critics, the drive looks more like an attempt to thwart plans to build housing in the wealthy and exclusive neighborhood than a genuine effort to honor history.<\/p>\n

Berkeley\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission deadlocked on the historic district proposal at a meeting last week, where opponents of a separate plan to raise height limits in an effort to encourage new development along portions of College, Solano and northern Shattuck avenues<\/a> turned out to advocate for the designation. The City Council is expected to take up the rezoning proposal this summer, after it was endorsed by the Planning Commission.<\/p>\n

The historic district application described the Elmwood as \u201cone of Berkeley\u2019s most remarkable and best-preserved neighborhood shopping districts,\u201d with buildings that \u201crepresent some of the best in commercial design of the 1920s.\u201d\u00a0It was written by Anthony Bruce, the executive director of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. However, BAHA President Leila Moncharsh told Berkeleyside that Bruce did not prepare the application in his official capacity; the association did not take a position<\/a> on the effort. Bruce wrote in the application that he was representing the Elmwood Property Owners Association.<\/p>\n

Bruce proposed the city create a historic district that covers 34 properties along College and Ashby avenues, across portions of three blocks between Russell and Webster streets. More than 400 people, including 17 owners of commercial properties in the area, signed petitions supporting the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cElmwood is more than a collection of buildings \u2014 it is a complete and living historic environment where architecture, history and community life still come together,\u201d Claudia Hunka, the owner of Your Basic Bird pet supply store on College Avenue, told the landmarks commission as she introduced the proposal. \u201cApproving this designation preserves one of Berkeley\u2019s most authentic and enduring places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are a parking lot and strip mall worthy of historic status?<\/p>\n

The properties Bruce argued should be considered part of the historic district range from the Walter Ratcliff-designed Mercantile Trust Company Building<\/a>, a city landmark built in 1925 that now houses a Wells Fargo branch, to the parking lot behind it<\/a>, which opened in 1965.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City planning staff have identified the parking lot as one of a handful of properties where developers might build housing<\/a> in the Elmwood \u2014 but Bruce argued each of those sites was worthy of distinction. The parking lot, he wrote, has landscaping that \u201ccreates a parklike effect\u201d and a \u201clush entrance\u201d to the neighborhood; the 7-Eleven property<\/a>, built as a Safeway grocery store in the 1930s before it was heavily renovated in the 1970s, \u201chas significance \u2026 for introducing the concept of the strip mall to the Elmwood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeopleDozens of people attend a meeting of Berkeley\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting to support a proposal that would declare the Elmwood neighborhood\u2019s commercial strip a historic district. Credit: Nico Savidge\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

Housing advocate and Elmwood resident Theo Gordon called the application a \u201cfarce.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If it is approved, anyone who wants to demolish or modify a building in the historic district would have to go before the landmarks commission for a discretionary review \u2014 a process that could last up to a year, according to city staff, and be subject to an appeal to the City Council that would take another four to six months. Other wealthy areas, such as San Francisco\u2019s tony St. Francis Wood neighborhood<\/a> and the Baywood enclave in San Mateo<\/a>, have similarly sought historic district designations when they were eyed for new housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am asking you to reject the idea of locking our neighborhood in amber,\u201d Gordon said at the landmarks commission meeting Thursday night. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a thinly veiled plot to block housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce\u2019s application and comments from many of those in favor of the historic district also linked the designation with the push to build apartments in the neighborhood<\/a>. Some described the Elmwood as a \u201cfragile ecosystem,\u201d and its locally owned businesses as \u201cendangered species\u201d that could be lost to new development. Bruce wrote that the city\u2019s proposed zoning changes \u201cwould destroy the historic character\u201d of the area.<\/p>\n

Peter Montgomery, a member of Berkeley\u2019s Civic Arts Commission, invoked Donald Trump\u2019s demolition of the East Wing<\/a> of the White House and repainting of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a> to make his case for the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have elements in this society that are making decisions with disregard to history,\u201d Montgomery said, his voice heavy with emotion. \u201cThey are only interested in money and power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landmarks commission deadlocks on designation<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A file photo of the Elmwood neighborhood\u2019s post office. Credit: Frances Dinkelspiel\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

A consultant contracted by Berkeley\u2019s Planning Department recommended the commission approve the historic district designation, calling the Elmwood \u201can important example of neighborhood commercial development\u201d because it was the first area zoned for that use in Berkeley\u2019s landmark 1916 zoning ordinance.<\/p>\n

But the firm, Rincon Consultants, recommended tightening the district\u2019s boundaries to leave out six properties, including the bank parking lot, strip mall and a post office built in the mid-1970s that has also been identified as a potential site for new housing; Bruce\u2019s application contended<\/a> wooden elements on the post office\u2019s facade evoke the iconic architecture<\/a> of the Sea Ranch community. Those properties were all built outside what the firm defined as the area\u2019s \u201cperiod of significance,\u201d the years from 1907 to 1928 when most of the commercial strip was built. Bruce argued that period stretched into the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

Three landmarks commission members \u2014 Ellie Greene, Michael Montilla, and Molly Turner, a substitute commissioner who attended Thursday\u2019s meeting in place of Chair Denise Hall Montgomery, who was absent \u2014 were cool on the proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each criticized the idea of celebrating the area\u2019s ties to the 1916 zoning ordinance<\/a>, which made the Elmwood\u2019s residential blocks the first neighborhood in the country zoned exclusively for single-family homes. The ordinance has come under scrutiny in recent years because the single-family zoning category would go on to spread nationwide<\/a>, with cities using their zoning codes as an ostensibly race-neutral way to segregate neighborhoods \u2014 an effect they also had in Berkeley<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a part of a red-lining and a racist history in the city of Berkeley,\u201d Greene said of the 1916 ordinance. \u201cThat is not a history that I have any particular desire to maintain or uphold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other three commissioners at Thursday\u2019s meeting \u2014 Susan Orbuch, Steven Finacom and Paul Schwartz \u2014 supported the proposed historic district. While not all of the properties are notable enough to merit landmarking, Orbuch said, the historic district designation is a fitting way to recognize the \u201cplace and its fabric.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at them all together, they create something that is bigger than the sum of its parts,\u201d Orbuch said.<\/p>\n

A motion to reject the historic designation failed on a 3-3 vote; commissioners then voted to continue discussion of the proposal to their next meeting June 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Montilla appeared to be a potential swing vote in the debate, saying he is open to extending a distinction to some Elmwood properties that aren\u2019t currently landmarked, but wasn\u2019t sold on declaring the entire strip a historic district.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a lovely commercial area that is deserving of some level of protection,\u201d Montilla said. \u201cBut whether or not that protection is a historic landmarking is where I am drawing the line in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article has been updated to clarify that, although the application for the Elmwood historic district was prepared by the executive director of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, Anthony Bruce, he did so in his personal capacity and not as a representative of the association. The group did not take a position on the historic district application.<\/p>\n

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