Iceland Blogs

 This Thursday, May 3rd, Berkeley Iceland once again goes before the Berkeley Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC). This time, instead of providing for protection of the building, the LPC will be evaluating Sports Basement's "Structural Alteration Permit". In this case, the alteration is the replacement of the berms on the North and South sites of Berkeley Iceland with a parking lot. The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) certified the Sports Basement EIR, the first step to "rehabilitating" Berkeley Iceland, which provided for removal of the berms with mitigation actions that are woefully insufficient - pictures and a "green" wall that won't do anything to modify significant impact of the mass of the building in its neighborhood.

While the LPC will be taking comments from the public on this, the City staff is recommending approval of the permit based on the conditions in the EIR. At a minimum, we need to push the LPC to hold out for significant mitigations which the LPC recommended in their comments to the EIR. Sports Basement needs to ensure that the significant impact they are having on the neighborhood is reduced as much as feasible, and that goes beyond just pictures and wall treatments.

When: Thursday, May 3 2012
Where: North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Avenue
Link: LPC May 3, 2012 Agenda

    I've gone over the Final EIR document from Sports Basement (available at http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=65488 near the bottom of the page) with a pretty cursory review (it is 170 pages with lots of new pictures and diagrams). I've put together my observations on the document as I went though it which I've attached. I know I've probably missed a bunch, but I think these are the key points.

 Tonight, the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Sports Basement project to restructure Berkeley Iceland as a giant sporting goods store goes before the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB). The purpose of an EIR is to identify all the impacts a project will make on a specific set of environmental measures. The EIR prepared for this project is far from complete and should not be certified at this meeting. 

The impacts and mitigations which need to be addressed include:

• The aesthetics of the site impacted by the removal of the berms for the creation of the parking lots on the North and South sides of the buildings. The California Environmental Quality Act includes the consideration of the impact of the proposed plan on the visual and aesthetic nature of the site - the Environmental Review Checklist under the Aesthetics section specifically asks: "[Would the project] Substantially degrade the existing visual character or quality of the site and its surroundings?" Amazingly, the initial study says that exposing a 25+ foot wall over 200 feet long in a residential neighborhood without mitigation will have no impact. Arguments that it increases the setback and the project would clean up the building, which is the responsibility of the current owners regardless of the project, are insufficient and do not address the significant impact it will have when the mass of the building is exposed.

The efforts to collect signatures for the petition for the City of Berkeley to Adopt Policies for the Restoration of Berkeley Iceland as a Recreation and Community Center will kick off on Saturday, March 31. By coincidence, this is the same date FIVE YEARS AGO that the current owners closed the doors.

 A quick note about the status of the Petition to set Policies for the Restoration of Berkeley Iceland. We are in a waiting period while our petition is reviewed by the Berkeley City Attorney who creates the official Title and Summary. This action must be done within 15 days of the notice we delivered to the City Clerk, meaning this should be ready by the end of this week. We will send out a note with the official wording when we have it.

For too long those of us working to get Berkeley Iceland back as a community recreation center have had to fight against actions which would work against this goal. Since Berkeley Iceland closed almost 5 (!) years ago we have fought against: