2-Way Bancroft & Durant, Telegraph Parklets, Sunday Street Closures?

When the "Southside Plan" was adopted by the Berkeley City Council in September 2011 as a planning blueprint for the 28 blocks that flank Telegraph Avenue immediately south of the Cal campus, it was chiefly words on paper.

The city has already taken steps on realizing some parts of the plan – such as 24-hour business hours on Telegraph – and now more of those words could be moving closer to real-world impacts with three measures on the council agenda for April 30 that could bring significant changes to local streets:

• Turning Bancroft and Durant avenues into two-way streets
• Allowing Telegraph Avenue merchants to install "parklets" in the yellow commercial zones in front of their businesses
• Closing Telegraph and/or adjoining streets on Sundays

None of the items would be green lights to proceed with adoption. They would ask the City Manager to assess the possibilities and identify the costs.

The two Telegraph Avenue measures are co-sponsored by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilman Kriss Worthington, whose district includes the Southside. The item on making Bancroft and Durant two-way is sponsored by Bates.

Two-way Bancroft and Durant

In his agenda statement on the Bancroft and Durant measure, Bates notes that one major goal of the Southside Plan is “increase the quality, amenity and use of all non-automotive modes of transportation.”

He notes also that allowing two-way traffic on Bancroft and Durant, which are currently one-way, was identified by Berkeley Design Advocates in a Telegraph Avenue design charette last year.

"Benefits presented include a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists as well as traffic calming as a result of reduced auto-traffic speed," according to Bates. "In addition, there will be more convenient access to UC Berkeley as a result of relocating and concentrating bus traffic to Bancroft Way."

Telegraph Parklets

The parklet proposal would allow merchants to lease and be responsible for maintaining parklets in the yellow zones in front of their businesses. Parklets would meet two major goals of the Southside Plan: to promote economic development of the area and to "recognize, preserve, and enhance the unique physical character of the Southside," according to Bates and Worthington.

Their agenda item offers some background:

Parklets were first installed in the City of San Francisco in 2011 and now total 38. A parklet pilot program was adopted by the City of Oakland in 2011 and currently has two parklets, with three scheduled to be installed. Parklets are privately installed and maintained in the Cities of Oakland and San Francisco. While they are funded and maintained by neighboring businesses, residents, and community organizations, they are publicly accessible. The City of Berkeley also adopted a limited pilot for the North Shattuck area in 2012.

The San Francisco parklet program describes the purpose of parklets as the following: “A parklet repurposes part of the street into a space for people. Parklets are intended as aesthetic enhancements to the streetscape, providing an economical solution to the need for increased public open space. They provide amenities like seating, planting, bike parking, and art.”

Conversion of yellow zones into parklets would have minimal effects on current traffic as both side of the street are currently loading zones from 7 am to 6 pm. 

Sunday Closures

In an agenda item statement on the Sunday closures, Bates and Worthington say that the closures would meet three of the seven basic principles for bettering Telegraph identified by Berkeley Design Advocates in a Telegraph Avenue design charette last year:

1. Enhance Telegraph’s sense of place
2. Strengthen Telegraph as a destination
3. Make a center for music and arts. 

"One way to achieve these objectives is to close Telegraph on a regular basis and allow the avenue to be used for music festivals, arts and craft shows, and other activities that would attract more people," Bates and Worthington say.