BERKELEY — A growing number of residents are urging officials to ease the throttle on the city’s frenetic pace of development in the wake of last week’s balcony collapse that killed six young people and injured seven more.
“I think this is a cautionary tale,” said Pam Webster, a former member of the city’s Rent Stabilization Board. “We, the public, should be demanding that they slow down and put a moratorium on the construction that’s coming down the pike” and seek “more scrutiny of the quality of construction.”
The June 16 collapse of the fifth-floor balcony at the Library Gardens apartment complex at 2020 Kittredge St. killed Olivia Burke, Eimear Walsh, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster and Lorcán Miller, all 21 and from Ireland, and Ashley Donohoe, 22, of Rohnert Park. The five deceased Irish students were in the United States under J-1 visas under a U.S. Department of State-sponsored program that allows young people to work or study in the United States.
On Tuesday, Berkeley spokesman Matthai Chakko said city inspectors had noted that the ends of the balcony’s deck joists protruding from the building’s exterior wall “appeared to be severely dry rotted.”
The accident, in a building completed in 2007, or just eight years ago, has added an international dimension to what had been a mostly local and regional debate about housing and development.
“Lots of people around the world send their kids here to go to school,” said Carrie Olson, a former member of the city’s Design Review Committee. “If we’re going to have the private sector provide the housing, we need to double down, make sure that it’s safe.”
Added Webster, “When these families send their children here on this adventure, there is a prayer, an expectation, that their children will be safe — especially when the building is located in our historic downtown, where older buildings have withstood earthquakes.”
On Friday a small group of residents held a vigil in front of City Hall, holding up signs advocating a moratorium on building, better safety measures, more inspections.
“We need more transparency in the whole process — from planning to construction,” said Janette Reid, one of the group. Another, Margot Smith, said, “We are asking the city to declare a moratorium on building, until they get their act together — in the Planning Department, the Inspection Department, permits — the whole bit.”
An Op-Ed published Sunday in the online news site Berkeley Daily Planet urges a moratorium on approvals of large residential or hotel developments until the city can determine what caused the accident.
Mayor Tom Bates, widely perceived as a booster of downtown development, called the tragedy “a wake-up call” at a June 16 news conference, promising the city will “closely monitor” the dozen-odd buildings currently under construction in Berkeley. Bates did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week about the growing public outcry to slow down development.
The city website’s Current Zoning Applications page, available at bit.ly/1HbZNCf, lists several other multistory mixed-use and residential projects in the pipeline, including 2121 Harold Way, an 18-story, 302-apartment project near the downtown BART station.
John Caner, executive director of the Downtown Berkeley Association, cautioned against a rush to judgment on whether the city is proceeding too fast with development and that city regulators can’t keep up with the pace.
Caner said Library Gardens was not built at a time of frenzied development but rather after a wave of development of the late 1990s and early 2000s had slowed.
“I don’t think there was a big rush of buildings at that time,” Caner said.
“Clearly it’s (the June 16 accident) reason for pause,” Caner said, “but I’d question whether it has to do with too many projects. We need to look at everything: construction, engineering, maintenance and design, but it’s an issue not just for Berkeley but for the entire Bay Area and the entire country.”
Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760. Follow him at Twitter.com/tomlochner.
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