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Plans by the historic Claremont Hotel to add 90 additional guest rooms have ignited a reaction from neighborhood groups concerned about increased traffic. 

“The Berkeley neighbors and Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association are going to come out strong about any projects that will impact the traffic patterns in this area,” said Elizabeth Kibbey, a Claremont resident. 

Doris Willingham, president of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association, said she has received e-mails from “total strangers who are greatly upset” by the plans. 

She said timeshare residences at the hotel and a parking garage, discussed during a recent meeting held in the hotel, would result in additional density and traffic in the area around the Claremont, an area which already is congested. 

“The basic problem we have is that the hotel is in Oakland and the impact is being felt in Berkeley,” said Willingham. 

The hotel’s plans are “very preliminary,” said Vice President and General Manager Ted Axe, who invited community leaders to the hotel last week to discuss those plans. 

He said the 279-room Claremont Resort and Spa has not yet filed for a permit, or initiated an environmental impact report, or received full permission for the expansion from the hotel’s owner, KSL Recreation Corporation. 

“Before we move forward,” he said, “it’s important we get feedback from the community.” 

He added that such a dialogue would allow neighborhood concerns to be incorporated into the design. 

Axe said the hotel expansion of 90 rooms would be tucked into the hillside in front of the terrace bar, “but we want to preserve any views of neighbors as well as guests.” 

He said the hotel also is considering a future addition of 75 units that could be time share residences. The hotel plans to build a garage, but he said the size is as yet undetermined. 

“It could substantially improve the parking conditions in the whole area,” he said. 

Joan Collignon, legislative aide to Berkeley City Councilmember Polly Armstrong, said the impact is felt more in Berkeley because the section of Tunnel Road between Domingo and the hotel is in Berkeley, as well as the part of Claremont between Tunnel Road and Stonewall Road. 

Jane Brunner, North Oakland’s city councilmember, said the impact will be felt by both cities. During Brunner’s monthly town meeting Saturday morning at Peralta Elementary School on Alcatraz Avenue, Axe will be present to answer questions, and Berkeley residents may attend. 

She said issues of the hotel’s design plan and the parking arrangements must be considered. 

“I have to see a study,” Brunner said. “How many cars? What times of day? Are we talking 35 cars over an eight-hour period or 150 cars? We need some concrete information, and we’ll take a very close study.” 

Brunner anticipates the traffic will come up Ashby, down Tunnel and up Claremont, and if most of the traffic is headed in the same direction it could be a significant problem. 

At the planning department of the City of Oakland, Major Planner Claudia Cappio said the hotel has talked to her department. The hotel, she said, discussed utilizing the space that holds the existing parking lot near the health club off of Claremont Avenue, and the hotel would build a structure and do a level of parking using the structure’s roof for a new tennis court. 

Cappio said the area where the tennis courts are now located would become another area – the future 75 units – for expansion of up to three buildings. 

“These would be called time share units designed for people who stay a little bit longer, “she said. “But if they’re unoccupied by those people they would be used by hotel guests.” 

She cautioned that the hotel’s plan is conceptual now, that feasibility is what they’re seeking at the present time. 

“A neighborhood response is very important to them,” Cappio said.