Berkeley rejects SB35 application for Spenger’s lot development, again
The city was not swayed by the developers' appeal for a 260-unit complex with 130 affordable apartments.
The city was not swayed by the developers' appeal for a 260-unit complex with 130 affordable apartments.
The application for a housing complex on the Spenger's parking lot — which has faced opposition from Native American activists — is now in the property owners' hands.
West Berkeley Investments said Berkeley erred when it decided its project, with 130 affordable units, could not be fast-tracked under SB 35.
Tuesday brought the latest setback for what has been a controversial proposal to build 260 housing units over what is now the Spenger's parking lot on Fourth Street.
The group that wants to build 130 units of affordable housing on Fourth Street says it offered several options to address Ohlone concerns but was rebuffed.
The land on Fourth Street looks like a parking lot, but it represents what is left of the first village and funerary site of the author's ancestors and should be left alone.
Ohlone tribe members are trying to stop a development on Fourth Street. They say the site was home to their ancestors. The developer says no evidence of that has been found.
What lies beneath the Spenger's parking lot has been hotly debated in recent months as discussions proceed about what might one day be developed there.
The discovery of a second set of human remains in a Fourth Street lot long considered to sit outside the boundaries of the West Berkeley Shellmound has some people wondering if Berkeley really knows where the perimeter should be.
Update April 10: The developer of the Fourth Street site issued a statement to Berkeleyside through its publicist, in response to the original April 8 story:
Berkeley community and zoning board members had a chance Thursday to weigh in on what the environmental impact report for a large mixed-use project planned for 1900 Fourth St. should focus on.
The owners of an empty lot on Fourth Street that’s a designated city landmark related to Ohlone Indian archeological remains have applied to build a mixed-use development on the site.
After months of poking, prodding, sifting and examining soil, an archeological dig beneath the parking lot across from Spenger’s restaurant on Fourth Street found no evidence it had ever been home to a Native American shellmound.
© Berkeleyside. All Rights Reserved.