West Berkeley Brownfield to Neighborhood Park

The City of Berkeley's Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Department is preparing a grant application to support the creation of a new park at a vacant brownfield site near Allston Way and N Valley Street. A brownfield is a property where past use has left behind contamination that can complicate reuse of the site. Historical pesticide use has resulted in soil contamination, requiring environmental cleanup before it can be converted into public open space.

The lot is approximately 15,000 square feet, similar in size to the two basketball courts at Strawberry Creek Park or about twice as large as nearby Charlie Dorr Park.

Grant opportunities like this don’t come along often, and the City is excited to have the chance to pursue funding for another new public park. The Santa Fe Trackbed to Park Conversion project, which will create a new four block park in Southwest Berkeley, was funded through a similar grant and is anticipated to open in August 2027.

To receive project updates, email echan@berkeleyca.gov or srutherford@berkeleyca.gov using the subject line: “Please add me to West Berkeley Brownfield to Neighborhood Park email list."

Community Engagement Opportunities

The project is soliciting feedback from residents and community groups on which amenities they would like to see in a potential neighborhood park on this site. 

Draft concepts and possible features for this proposed park emerged from community feedback via public meetings, an earlier survey, and neighborhood events. Refer to the Engagement Map for the project location (look for the star). 

Community feedback on the Draft Concept Options was collected via survey and in-person engagements. Community members are encouraged to review the survey outcome and attend the Preferred Concept Plan Presentation & Feedback meeting on Thursday, November 12.

Background

The City of Berkeley acquired the site in 1928. The following year, the North Lawn Bowling Green was established for community recreation. In the 1950s and 1960s, lawn bowling expanded, and a clubhouse and additional lawn bowling green (the south lawn bowling green) was constructed nearby at 2270 Acton Street, near the intersection of Acton Street and Bancroft Way.

The vision for more public open space in West Berkeley has a long history. In the early 1970s, community members advocated for converting the North Lawn Bowling Green from bowling use into a public park. Although the green was not converted to a public park, the effort helped lead to the creation of the adjacent Charlie Dorr Mini Park.

During the 1980s and 1990s, interest in lawn bowling declined, and the North Lawn Bowling Green eventually fell out of use, with lawn bowling use contained to the site at the main green at 2270 Acton. Within this timeframe, in 1986, Berkeley voters passed Measure L to protect the City’s open space, which included the original North Lawn Bowling Green. 

An environmental report from 2014 confirmed that soil at the northern green was contaminated with elevated levels of pesticides and metals. While performing mitigations to transform the site into a public park is a complicated endeavor, community members continue to advocate for transforming this vacant lot into a neighborhood park.

Today, a new grant opportunity through the Statewide Parks Program (SPP) offers a chance to advance this long-standing vision. Through the West Berkeley Brownfield to Neighborhood Park Conversion project, the City is exploring the potential for this grant to fund environmental clean up of the site and transform it into a welcoming neighborhood park. This effort supports the City’s General Plan Housing Element and Open Space & Recreation Element, which calls for expanding parks and recreational opportunities throughout Berkeley and in support of projected population growth.