It’s about to get easier for developers in Berkeley to build small apartment buildings.
The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously on June 26 to overturn a single-family zoning policy dating back to 1916, allowing three-story buildings with up to eight units to be built on a typical 5,000-square-foot lot, KQED reported.
The so-called “middle housing” ordinance sets a density cap of 70 units per acre across residential zones, preserves current height limits of 35 feet and keeps lot coverage at 60 percent, according to SFGate. The high fire-risk hills neighborhoods remain exempt as the city studies evacuation routes.
The move comes four years after former City Council member Lori Droste first introduced a resolution to end exclusionary zoning in the city. Council member Rashi Kesarwani, who has taken up the mantle with the current proposal, said it would open up Berkeley to young people, families and middle-income residents.
“We are actually trying to create more starter-home opportunities for middle-class workers, for people of color, for people who have historically not had an opportunity to own a home and build multigenerational wealth,” Kesarwani said, per KQED. “That is actually at the root of what I believe we are striving for with this entire ordinance.”
Students and renters spoke in support of the proposal before the city council, while the opposition was largely composed of longtime Berkeley homeowners who were worried the changes would actually push away working families.
Berkeley became the first city in the country to adopt single-family zoning in 1916. At the time, the legislation was designed to protect property values from the creeping in of lower-cost housing. Ordinance co-author City Council member Ben Bartlett said striking the century-old rule is “the equity issue of our time” and emphasized that the housing shortage is partially man-made as a result of the longstanding law.
“We cannot keep deluding ourselves that we don’t have a scarcity problem,” Bartlett said, per KQED. “You have to realize land is the foundation of wealth. And yet it remains out of reach due to the same scarcity that we prescribed, that we invented in our zoning code here.”
The city of Berkeley is on the hook to build 8,934 new housing units by 2031 as part of its Regional Housing Needs Allocation.
The City Council will consider the ordinance for final approval on July 8. If finalized, the changes will take effect Nov. 1.
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