New UC Berkeley parking garage to add 1,000 spaces

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 1, 2008 | by Doug Oakley

Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on a $35 million parking garage at the University of California, Berkeley, that adds 1,000 underground spaces on the south side of campus.

The lot is restricted to university students and staff on weekdays but open to the public evenings and weekends.

The Underhill Parking Facility, at Channing Way and College Avenue, also has a new soccer field at ground level that will be open next month. The lot has been under construction for 21/2 years.

The garage replaces a previous one that was torn down in 1992 after it was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Although the structure was demolished, about 300 parking spaces remained until construction started on the new lot in September 2005.

When the new lot opened Nov. 19, the university at the same time converted the nearby Anna Head parking lot between Telegraph and Bowditch streets from student and staff parking to public parking seven days a week all day long.

At the time construction started, UC Berkeley's parking and transportation department warned students and employees that finding parking in the area was going to be more difficult. The school put a memo on its parking Web site encouraging faculty and students to use BART, bicycles "and other forms of transportation as much as circumstances permit."

Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who represents residents on the south side of UC Berkeley, said many neighbors protested the school's planned expansion of the parking lot.

"Most of them will say the biggest impact of the project is negative because it means 900 more people driving in their neighborhood to park there," Worthington said. "The positive part of it is that it makes it a little bit easier to find a parking space on the street in front of your house now," by freeing up spaces formerly used by students and staff.

Matt Nichols, a transportation planner with the city of Berkeley, echoed Worthington's comments. He said many of the people forced to use public transit during the time the lot was closed now might get in their cars and drive to the lot, causing more traffic congestion.

On the other hand, he said, the new lot will take pressure off city street parking.

"A lot of people were parking on the south side on the street in the two-hour zones and moving their car every two hours, and that's a bad thing," Nichols said.

Reach Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.