Features

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) is slated to reconsider a use permit for a vacant site on University Avenue that allows Toyota of Berkeley to operate an automobile sales and service facility.  

The board issued Toyota of Berkeley a use permit for 1865 University Ave., last occupied by Berkeley Tire, but a neighbor appealed that decision on discrepancies in the permit application, insisting that tires are still sold at the site. 

The City Council heard the appeal in April and referred the issue back to ZAB, which will decide, for a second time Thursday, whether to approve the use permit. 

In an applicant’s statement dated May 24, applicant Tim Southwick said he plans to use the facility primarily as a car dealership and service center—what the building was designed for in 1946—though he will also sell and service tires as an ancillary business. 

Berkeley Tire is located on the north side of University Avenue, amid other commercial buildings. 

Residential buildings are to the rear of the site along Berkeley Way, the street on which the neighbor appealing the case resides.  

The Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday at 7 p.m., at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.