Ashby and North Berkeley BART Station Planning

Share your vision for the future of housing, open space, and community amenities at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations.

Planning is underway to re-imagine the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations as vibrant places that include housing, open space, and community amenities. Both sites are owned by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). The City of Berkeley is working with BART to develop zoning and site planning parameters for the station areas that reflect a shared community vision. After the zoning is complete, BART, as the property owner, will choose the developer and oversee the construction of any projects at their stations.

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On Wednesday, November 16, the City held the first Objective Design Standards (ODS) Community Meeting. Find the agenda and presentation for that meeting in the Past Events section below.

In early December, the City will be holding two Office Hours sessions to answer any additional questions and receive further feedback from the community on the materials covered in the first ODS Community Meeting. The Office Hours will be less formal drop-in events for interested community members.

The next step in the ODS process is to use the community’s feedback to create a Preliminary Draft of the Objective Development Standards. These will be the subject of a second community meeting to be held in January or February 2023.

Please subscribe to our mailing list to get notice of these meetings and other opportunities to engage in the ODS process.

Project Background

In September 2018, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2923, state legislation that affects zoning requirements on existing BART-owned property within 1/2 mile of stations in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties. Cities and counties had until July 1, 2022, to rezone BART's property to conform with the standards established in AB 2923.

The City of Berkeley has been working closely with BART to develop the zoning and site planning parameters that meet the requirements of AB 2923, the goals of the City and the community, and the goals of BART as the property owner. The City and BART have agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that establishes a framework for the development of the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, including a community advisory process and other community engagement; milestones and a timeline to develop zoning that complies with AB 2923; solicitation of developer(s); and further studies/planning for the two station areas.

In June 2022, the City Council adopted zoning at the North Berkeley and Ashby BART stations that comply with AB 2923. Zoning sets rules for the range of what is allowed and/or required on a particular piece of property (e.g., maximums building size/height/density, parking and open space requirements, and allowed uses).

As outlined in the original City-BART Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), the planning effort moving forward will build upon separate community engagement efforts that have been underway for several years relating to the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, and other adopted plans and policies of the City and BART.