City Council Denies Appeals to Stop University Development Project

By Bay City News—

The Albany City Council voted unanimously this week to deny two appeals of a commercial development project by the University of California at Berkeley that includes senior housing and a grocery store.
 
The project, which was approved 4-0 by the city's planning commission in December, includes 175 units of senior housing, a Sprout's Farmers Market and two other retailers on 6.3 acres of university-owned land along San Pablo Avenue at Monroe Street, near the University Village student-housing complex.
 
Two appeals were filed on the project, one by Albany Housing Advocates and Amber Whitson and one by Albany resident Ed Fields, according to a report by city planning staff.
 
After the council's vote Wednesday night, Albany Mayor Peggy Thomsen said the city is eager for the project to go forward.
 
Thomsen said in a statement, "The city has been reviewing the proposed project for over seven years, working hard to ensure the project meets the needs of our community and blends with our small town ambience while furthering economic sustainability within our region."
 
She said the development "will serve as a southern gateway to Albany, providing local services within walking distance for our community and new housing to further enhance our urban village by the Bay."
 
The project site is adjacent to another site known as the Gill Tract, another plot of university-owned land that's used by students and faculty of the College of Natural Resources for agricultural research.
 
The Gill Tract has been the site of protests the past two years by Occupy the Farm activists who say the tract should be used for sustainable community farming. Activists fear that the university will also develop that land but the university has said it doesn't have any development plans for that site and will continue to use it for agricultural research.
 
Albany officials said the development team has agreed to include improvements such as pedestrian and bicycle accessibility, green building designs and integrating the project with the surrounding area.
 
The university has indicated that it will use some of the funds it receives from developing the site to continue doing agricultural research at the Gill Tract, according to city officials.