Berkeley needs to pass Missing Middle Housing now!

Berkeley is the city that started single family zoning, and now it's time for Berkeley to undo that infamous legacy. As Mayor Arreguín acknowledged in BNHCA’s forum on exclusionary zoning, Berkeley established single-family zoning “with racist intent”. We now have a chance to undo the sins of our past, and we need to do so with urgency.

Berkeley’s Housing Element commits the city to changing zoning and development standards to promote a mix of housing types and sizes, and city council further called for the elimination of exclusionary housing policies, allowing Missing Middle Housing to be built throughout the city. Missing Middle housing – duplexes, triplexes/fourplexes, courtyard apartments and other small-scale multi-family housing types – was a common feature of housing development in Berkeley up until the 1970s. Restoration of these housing options in all neighborhoods is one part of solving our housing crisis. It will also promote greater economic, racial, ethnic, and age-based integration throughout the city. Berkeley's Missing Middle Housing proposal would all but eliminate single-family zoning in the city that started it, which is a Really Big Deal.

We're now at the final step: the City Council vote on July 23rd, at a special City Council meeting at 3:30 pm. City staff has been studying the proposal for over three years (in a process originally intended to wrap up in two), and Planning Commission held a widely-attended public hearing and passed recommendations to council back in November of last year. Unfortunately, some are calling for the proposal passed by Planning Commission to be weakened (that is, to add restrictions on the housing that could be built) or even for the city council vote to be deferred yet again, a delay tactic that could jeopardize the entire effort.

Please send a message to City Council calling for them to pass the Missing Middle Housing proposal from Planning Commission, without delay.
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