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Pastor Gordon Choyce says that his non-profit Jubilee Restoration and his partners at Panoramic Interests have done everything the city has asked to get the Jubilee Courtyard Apartments built at 2700 San Pablo Avenue – but two issues, he says, keep coming back. 

“I wish you could see the original laundry list given to us as issues against this project, and then see where we are right now,” Choyce said at Thursday night’s Zoning Adjustment Board meeting. “The only two items remaining are the height and density.” 

Neighbors of the proposed development say that the five-story, 48-unit apartment building, encompassing 43,267 square feet is too big for the neighborhood, will bring too much traffic to the area and will set a precedent for too-high buildings. 

Before a full and very divided house, the ZAB put off making a decision on the project Thursday night. They heard testimony from both sides, closed the public hearing and will wait until the Sept. 14 meeting to make a judgment. 

Choyce and proponents argue, however, that what is at stake is an honest effort at addressing Berkeley’s housing crisis. 

Now on its third proposed design, the mixed-use building promises 48 studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments and 61 parking spaces. Five of the apartments – or 10 percent of the apartments – would be affordable to low-income households as spelled out by the Alameda County area median income. 

Chris Hudson, project manager for Panoramic Interests, who spoke in the place of Panoramic Interests’ President Patrick Kennedy, absent from the meeting, said that the number of low-income apartments could increase by another 10 percent if they receive a subsidy through the West Berkeley Development Fund. Hudson said they haven’t applied for the subsidy yet. 

The market-rate apartments would have a monthly rate of around $750 to $1,000 for a studio and $900 to $1,200 for a one bedroom. Two bedrooms, depending where they are in the building, would start at around $1,400 and three bedrooms would be around $1,800.  

The original 63-unit proposal, unveiled in March of last year, was scrapped after Patrick Kennedy met with angry neighbors who complained about the size. 

Kennedy and newly hired JSW Architects scaled the building down to four stories with 47 units back in November, but after more concerns from staff and the neighbors, they changed it again to shift the bulk of the building to the San Pablo Avenue facade and reduced the building to three stories where it abuts residential neighbors. 

Zoning Adjustment Board Chairperson Carolyn Weinberger argued that the zoning code in that part of the city allows a maximum of only four floors as specified by the West Berkeley Plan. 

And in order to have a five-story building, the partnership had to request a variance.  

Weinberger said that the ZAB did not have enough information to rule Thursday evening on the variance. 

Because there were so many people who wanted to speak at the meeting, Weinberger asked the two sides to rally their best speakers for an hour-long duel, with each side getting 30 minutes. 

Michael Yarne, a graduate student in City Planning at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Students for a Livable Southwest, spoke for the project and said that he’s all about promoting housing in the right places in Berkeley.  

“This is the right place,” he said. “You can’t deny there is an extreme housing shortage in Berkeley. I hear many well-intentioned Berkeleyites rant and rave about gentrification and about the loss of the unique character of Berkeley. What’s shocking is that these same people, many of them homeowners in their nice bungalows that are accruing enormous amounts of equity, will turn around and tell me, an apartment renter, that its wrong for me to advocate dense housing where it makes sense on a transit corridor that is well served and in the future will be better served.” 

Yarne was referring to steps that are being taken to improve the AC transit along the San Pablo corridor. Miriam Hawley, AC Transit Director, said that a major project is underway to upgrade the bus system along San Pablo from Richmond to Oakland.  

She said that one project underway is a system to let busses extend the life of a green light, to speed up service. There is already express bus service along the route. 

“I sent a letter to the (Zoning) Board saying higher density would make transit work better,” she said. “And people can leave their cars wherever they leave them.” 

A number of opponents, however, argued that people wouldn’t leave their cars, and air pollution and traffic congestion from the new population would choke the neighborhood. 

Michael Goldberg of the Neighborhoods for Responsible Development, a group formed in opposition to Jubilee Courtyards, said that his group is not opposed to development. Neighbors just want their neighborhood to be in harmony with its surroundings, he said. 

“We in the neighborhood do share a desire to develop affordable housing along San Pablo. The problem we’ve had is the height the density and size,” Goldberg said. 

“This will also set a precedent to encourage similar four-story development. There are nine or 10 sites along San Pablo from Dwight Way to Ashby that are available for large-scale development,” he said. “And we need to study the impact of air and traffic congestion, population density and parking problems, all of which will change the face of this area.”