Extra

Berkeley Plaza, aka 2211 Harold Way, seems, this time, to be really really dead. At the last minute of the last business day before January 20, which is the Martin Luther King holiday, Berkeley planning director Timothy Burroughs replied in the negative to a letter from the attorney for HSR Properties seeking an extension to the use permit which had been granted by the City of Berkeley almost five years ago.

Three extensions had already been granted to two conditions on the use permit which originally imposed a 180-day deadline to submit a building permit application and pay all building-permit related fees promptly. The fees, which were due at the end of 2019, had not been paid.

The third extension is due to expire on Jan. 20, 2020, this Monday.

These conditions were originally imposed "to ensure that projects that receive approval from the City move forward in a timely manner to advance the goals of the City's Downtown Area Plan, which prioritizes transit-oriented development."

The DAP provided for three buildings of up to 180 feet in height. The other two are moving forward in construction, but Burroughs points out that "The condition of approval is designed to ensure that once a project gets approved, it gets built."

His letter can be seen here: