Features

Downtown Planners, Transportation Committee to Hold Joint Meeting

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 06, 2006

The committee helping formulate the new downtown plan will hold a joint meeting with the city Transportation Commission Wednesday. 

The meeting, which focuses on transportation issues to be addressed in the plan, follows by a week another joint session with the Landmarks Preservation Commission which addressed historical structures in the downtown. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee was created as a result of the settlement of a city suit over UC Berkeley’s plans for development through 2020. 

The university plans to add about a million square feet of office, museum and other space in the downtown within that period. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at the corner of Martin Luther king Jr. Way. 

Scheduled speakers include: 

• John Holtzclaw of the Sierra Club Transportation Commission speaking on transportation and land use; 

• AC Transit Project Manager Jim Cunradi and planning consultant Sam Zimmerman-Bergman of Community Design + Architecture planning consultants speaking on Bus Rapid Transit and alternative proposals for the downtown BART plaza; 

• Greg Tung of Friedman, Tung and Bottomley, a San Francisco planning firm, addressing the design of boulevards and streets to handle multiple modes of transit; 

• Dave Campbell of the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition discussing bike plans and possible improvements, and 

• A speaker talking about “City-UC Transportation Demand Management.” 

• James Patton of the Oakland Pedestrian Safety Project has been tentatively booked to talk about pedestrian issues. 

Parking will be addressed in a future session, reported Matt Taecker, the planner hired to assist in creating the downtown plan.