Back in December, Berkeley's Zoning Adjustments Board issued a use permit for a proposed housing project at 2274 Shattuck, site of the former UA Regal Theater. A short two-block walk from Downtown Berkeley BART, this project would provide 227 affordable-by-design units, as well as 23 subsidized units which would be affordable to those with very low incomes. The developers would also preserve the lobby of the art deco theater, using the front space for a Venetian café open to the public and the rest of the lobby as the lobby for the apartment building.

What currently stands at the site is a lobby with art deco charm and a dilapidated multiplex that was completely redone in the 1970s (East Bay YIMBY toured the site a few weeks back, so we had a chance to see for ourselves!). The original theater is gone and the concrete of the multiplex is literally crumbling. Because the concrete isn't reinforced, the building is actually quite unsafe in an earthquake. It strains the imagination to think that anyone would want to preserve the multiplex, let alone come up with the financing to do so.

And yet there's a faction of people ("Save UA Theater") who think that the original theater is somehow hiding under the curtains of the multiplex (it's not) and filed an appeal of the ZAB decision to issue the use permit. They are under the mistaken impression that the original theater, now long gone, could be saved by rejecting this housing project. They do not trust the developers' plans to rehabilitate the lobby and preserve the pieces worth preserving.

City Council will be meeting to hear the use permit appeal on Tuesday, April 22nd at 6 pm. The Save UA Theater folks (many of whom are not in the area) are flooding council with emails -- let's make sure council also hears from people who support this badly-needed (and beautiful!) housing project.