BERKELEY

CLUSTERING DEVELOPMENT

The city’s efforts focus on downtown and major transit corridors; in these areas,
four out of every five new homes have been built. A new Downtown Area Plan
would accommodate 4,000 additional homes while leaving historic resources
intact.

Berkeley has accelerated its infill building thanks in part to a flexible zoning code.
Berkeley has no residential density standards in most zoning districts. In
multi-family and commercial districts, the city regulates the sizes and shapes
of buildings but allows the market to determine unit sizes, resulting in a higher
number of living spaces per building.

Requiring Less Parking
Another tool making these high densities possible is the city’s low parking requirements along transit corridors and downtown. Generally, in downtown
mixed-use projects, the city requires only one parking space per 1,000 square feet
of residential space, or up to 25–100% less with a permit. Berkeley is well-served
by public transit and has numerous City CarShare locations, where members can
rent cars for short trips. These efforts, and the city’s walkable downtown, help
explain a recent finding by UC Berkeley Professor Betty Deakin: downtown Berkeley residents own half as many cars as the average Californian, and occupants of new housing own even fewer.

Berkeley is learning how to use infill to balance the potentially competing demands of working with residents, building needed homes, preserving historical buildings and quiet neighborhoods, and maintaining a lively and diverse cultural hub. Its recent successes offer a useful model for communities around the region.