Norman Weiss,  Daily Californian, May 23, 1997

Residents Protest Court Site Proposals: County Board Has Final Say

While the Berkeley City Council considered possible sites for an Alameda courthouse at an advisory meeting Tuesday night, residents packed the chambers to oppose having the courthouse in Berkeley.

Councilmember Dona Spring presided over the meeting, which was attended by a majority of liberal councilmembers. Moderate councilmembers Diane Woolley and Betty Olds did not attend the meeting.

At the meeting, the councilmembers discussed the two sites recommended in a recently released environmental impact report.

One proposal would put the new courthouse on the site of Hink's Parking Garage in the area west of the Berkeley Public Library between Kittredge Street and Bancroft Way at Milvia Street.

The second proposal would put the new courthouse on the southeast corner of Addison Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, demolishing a city landmark and several low-income apartment housing complexes.

Although most of the residents turned up to oppose the Addison Street site, some said they wondered why a big county courthouse needed to be built in the dense downtown area.

"You don't have a clue about what you're creating," said L A Wood, an area resident. "You have no concept of the traffic, you have no concept of how it will it be congested. We (already) get a lot of people from out of town. We already have the University of California."

The meeting was strictly advisory, as the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will ultimately determine the fate of the courthouse. But the recommendations of the council are expected to weigh heavily in the Alameda County Board of Supervisors' final decision.Some residents criticized the construction plans of the building, saying they do not adequately assess the detrimental effects it will have on the area.

"The EIR fails to evaluate the full environmental impact to the area," said Michael Freund, an environmental attorney.

Holding signs describing the zoning ordinances the project would violate, other members of the crowd cheered as residents expressed their concern of having the county courthouse in Berkeley.

Some said that the proposed four-story building will ruin the small town feel of Berkeley.

"Most of the people that I've talked to believe this is a small town still," said resident John McCloskey. "I admire your ambition. It sounds like a downtown Oakland or a UC Berkeley project."

While most speakers opposed constructing the courthouse on the Addison site, Barbara Rylander, who lives across the street from the Hinks site, asked the council to consider the disadvantages of having a jail near Berkeley High School.

"We will be completely surrounded by this building," she said. "Young people would see prisoners coming out of a bus in shackles."

Even though he was opposed to the Addison site, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that there are still possible benefits to building a courthouse downtown. He said that the Hink's site would be dramatically smaller and would offer construction jobs for residents.The City Council will present its recommendation to the county Board of Supervisors at their next meeting on June 3.