El Cerrito station ready for housing
BART chooses building team for affordable units; parking will suffer
A plan to build housing on 8 acres of asphalt surrounding the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station passed a significant milestone Thursday, as the transit agency’s board of directors picked a development team to build the project.
The BART Board of Directors on Thursday selected Holliday Development and Related California to construct 780 units of housing on the site, which may also include a new public library. The project would be about 49% below market rate, with 37% of the units affordable to families of four making less than $ 104,000 a year.
While the BART board has chosen a builder, the details still need to be sorted out, including the issue that will almost certainly elicit protests from commuters who drive to the station: parking.
There are 740 parking spaces at the station, and those spots, in preCOVID times, generally filled up by 8: 45 a. m. Monday through Thursday, according to El Cerrito resident and BART board member
Rebecca Saltzman. The request for proposal for the project asked prospective developers to present plans that include 250 spots.
Saltzman said that the project is popular among her neighbors, with the caveat that any plan will
have to deal with the realities of commuter parking. She said that she is confident the parking issue can be settled, given that there is ample street parking as well as a large parking lot at the nearby El Cerrito Plaza shopping center.
“Everyone in El Cerrito seems fine with the height and the density and the housing, but you have some people in the hills and in Kensington who are very concerned about parking,” Saltzman said of the nearby community. “We are going to have to look at all the options. I’m confident we can figure it out.”
Right now walking is the main mode of travel to the BART station, with 38% of riders arriving on foot. The percentage of commuters driving to the station has declined 20% between 2008 and 2015, from 42% to 34%, according to BART staff. The average driver lives 1.4 miles away and the average BART pedestrian coming to the station walks about half a mile.
The El Cerrito project is part of BART’s ambitious plan to develop 20,000 units on its property by 2040, a goal that the board established in 2016. BART owns more than 250 acres of land at 27 stations in four counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo. About 3,000 units have been completed on BART property, with another 1,200 under construction. The current pipeline includes about 6,200 housing units and 1.8 million square feet of office
“We have been working with the city since 2018 — it’s nice to be moving into the development stage.” Abby ThorneLyman, BART manager of transitoriented development
space.
The El Cerrito property is larger than the typical BART parking lot, which averages 5 acres.
The project would likely be built at Factory OS, the modular housing factory on Mare Island in Vallejo. Rick Holliday, the founder of Holliday Development, is a partner in Factory OS, which is also building units for the San Leandro and Coliseum BART properties.
Holliday Development project manager Jamie Hiteshew said he was gratified that the BART board went along with the staff recommendation and chose his team. He said the vote marks the start of a community discussion that will focus both on the parking issue and the library, which he is hopeful will be included in the final scheme.
He said the fact that the units will be constructed at Factory OS will allow a higher level of affordability than if they were to be built with traditional woodframe construction. Modular construction is about 20% less expensive than conventional building methods.
He said “integration into the existing neighborhood” and creating public open spaces would be the key to a successful development.
The development will follow the San Pablo Avenue general zoning plan, which means the project’s environmental review process will be streamlined. Heights will be capped at 85 feet.
“We have been working with the city since 2018 — it’s nice to be moving into the development stage,” said Abby ThorneLyman,
BART’s manager of transitoriented development.
“It will move quickly once we make critical decisions about the library and the level of replacement parking for BART customers,” she said.
The project will help BART reach its goal of making 35% of all its housing developments affordable, she added.