“I moved here because Berkeley is supposed to be a welcoming, accepting place to thrive, but now it’s only a place to thrive only if you have $1.5 million to spend on housing,” Magofña said. Watching the region change dramatically in that time - and price many residents out - is part of what led him to help found North Berkeley Now! and East Bay for Everyone, groups that lobby for a denser cityscape that’s more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. Greg Magofña, 37, grew up in Alameda and has been living in Berkeley for about 20 years, since he started attending UC Berkeley. The idea is to really provide housing where we can, which is closer to jobs, closer to the University and reduce emissions (from activities like driving).”Ī bus stops outside the North Berkeley BART station on Friday. It’s not going to change the world, but it will make an impact in the Bay Area. “It’s a great opportunity to try to add housing to alleviate some of the housing crisis. “The region is in a housing crisis and BART has a lot of available land,” said Rachel Factor, BART’s principal planner. BART planners say the housing development falls within the state and regional needs, within transportation and environmental goals, and will bring much needed housing stock to Berkeley. It is what planners call transit-oriented development, or TOD, where residents live near transit opportunities that take them to work and school. 20 about the corridor access plan that includes the El Cerrito Plaza station.īART and its partners will be developing 2,500 units of housing, including both market-rate and affordable units, on the three stations’ parking lots. It will be gleaning more opinions until Aug. The transit agency has been gathering comments and polling residents since July 2 on its online open house website. There’s still time to weigh in on a plan to improve bike, bus and walking access to the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations once their parking lots are developed for housing and drive-to-the-train commutes become more difficult.
BART planners are soliciting input on a plan to help people navigate to the North Berkeley (above) and Ashby BART stations after they are developed into housing.
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