Berkeley Approves Apartment Project at North BART Station

The City of Berkeley has greenlighted a 739-unit development atop the North Berkeley BART station in 10 months — one of the first large housing developments in the state approved through ministerial review.

The East Bay city gave the nod to North Berkeley Housing Partners to build the apartments on BART-owned parking lots around the station at 1750 Sacramento Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The 5.5-acre project will be co-developed by a coalition that includes San Francisco-based Bridge Housing, Oakland-based East Bay Asian Local Development, Virginia-based AvalonBay Communities, and Insight Housing, formerly known as the Berkeley Food and Housing Project.

Quick approval for the project, filed in February, was made through Assembly Bill 2011, a state law that fast-tracks housing projects on commercially zoned land by requiring city approval within 180 days, skirting a lengthy public hearing process.

“I think this is the biggest entitlement that we’ve issued in Berkeley — certainly in the time I’ve been here, and it’s hard to imagine a larger one having been entitled ever,” Jordan Klein, planning director for the city, told the Business Times.

Plans for the BART station project include 13 apartment buildings as high as eight stories on the block bound by Virginia, Acton, Delaware and Sacramento streets.

Of its 739 units, more than half would be affordable for households earning between 20 percent and 70 percent of area median income. The project would be built by each of its four partners.

Bridge Housing will build two eight-story buildings and three three-story buildings with 236 units. EBALDC will build a six-story building with 60 units.

Avalon will build an eight-story building and five three-story buildings with 358 units, plus a parking garage. Insight will build a six-story building with 85 units.

The project will include a child care center, 6,000 square feet of community-serving ground-floor uses and 48,000 square feet of public open space, according to the Business Times.

Developers are expected to break ground in the spring of 2026, depending on funding. The project would be built in phases, starting with the three affordable housing buildings and open spaces, followed by two market-rate buildings and one affordable building.

EBALDC said the development team secured more than $100 million in funding this year, including $49 million from the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities program, $26.5 million from Berkeley’s Measure O Affordable Housing Bond and Housing Trust Fund and $25 million from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, according to a LinkedIn post.

The city and Bay Area Rapid Transit also plan to redevelop the Ashby BART Station with at least 1,200 homes, nonprofit group offices and the Berkeley Flea Market. They’re now seeking developers to build the transit-oriented project on a 6.5-acre parking lot at the light rail station at 3100 Adeline Street, in South Berkeley.

— Dana Bartholomew