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Letters to the Editor
The zoning department is biased
Dear Berkeley City Councilmembers,
On July 25, you will decide an appeal on the Landmarks Commission’s designation of 1525-29 Shattuck Ave. as a Structure of Merit.
You will no doubt receive information from the Zoning Department about this matter, but you should be sure to regard their information with great skepticism.
This is because from the outset, the Zoning Department has sought to mislead, frustrate and lose important documents of longtime Berkeley resident, Harvey Sherbeck who filed this action.
The latest document to be lost is a letter in support of Mr. Sherbeck is landmark application from Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. This letter was submitted to the Landmarks Commission along with 700 signatures from North Berkeley residents and merchants in favor of landmarking. But somehow, it has been “lost.”
Previously, on June 26, seeking information for his July submission to the Council, Mr. Sherbeck found that the entire file on this matter was “lost.”
Ten days later, after my phone calls to the Mayor’s and City Manager’s offices, the files were “found” in four hours, with the exception of the Alice Waters letter.
Prior to that, the Zoning Dept. gave Mr. Sherbeck the wrong information about when his
application had to be heard by the Landmarks Commission. If he had followed the staff advice his application would have been beyond the purview of the Commission. Fortunately, he was able to get accurate information from the Berkeley Architectural and Historical Society.
When Mr. Sherbeck first began the process, zoning staff members basically told him he had no right to request landmark status.
When BAHA enlightened him about the process, he somehow managed to find one helpful staff member.
This conduct by the Zoning Department is outrageous! They are supposedly being paid by Berkeley citizens to act in our interests. Instead, we find them sneaking in 100-foot towers, and Starbuck’s coffee shops, while local citizens are given the run-around and misinformation.
Clearly, the Zoning staff is not to be trusted in this matter.
Art Goldberg
Berkeley
