BERKELEY — Berkeley and BART officials agreed to exchange the city’s air rights of one property for a piece of land owned by the transportation agency, moving forward plans to develop transit-oriented housing near the Ashby BART station.
Berkeley officially relinquished rights over a 4.4-acre BART-owned parcel bounded by Adeline Street, Ashby Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in exchange for ownership of another 1.9-acre parcel bounded by Woolsey, Tremont, Adeline and Essex streets.
The agreement, approved by the Berkeley City Council on Dec. 3, will enable the development of hundreds of housing units near the Ashby BART station. Half of the first 602 homes built on the parcel, known as the West Lot, will be listed at affordable prices and at least 35% of homes built on the city’s eastern lot will be affordably priced, according to the agreement.
Berkeley is investing $26.5 million from its affordable housing fund into the projects with $18.5 million going to the West Lot development and $8 million to the East Lot.
“In close partnership with the City of Berkeley, BART is laying the ground for an inclusive and vibrant [transit-oriented development],” the transit agency’s project website states.
Advancing equity, particularly for Berkeley’s Black community after it was disproportionately harmed due to displacement during the construction of the Ashby BART Station in the 1960s and 1970s, is a key priority of the project.
Additional community benefits promised under the agreement include providing the Berkeley Flea Market a permanent home and renting out 5,000 square feet of ground floor space at 50% market rate prices or below to nonprofits, community-based organizations, or minority-owned businesses, including Berkeley Flea Market administrators.
Now that a binding agreement has been approved, the city and BART will begin seeking out developers for both properties. Development is expected to begin by 2026.
