overviews / summaries / key documents

• Sara Billing's history of Ashby BART development proposals, 1967-2003 (1.2MB PDF)
• 10/14/05: Caltrans grant application by City of Berkeley and South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (2MB PDF, application starts on page 7, after 12/13/05 memo to City Council from Dan Marks, Director, Planning and Development)
• notes on the grant proposal by Robert Lauriston
• Caltrans grant application form and "tips and pointers" for applicants. The "Community-Based Transportation Planning" portions are the ones relevant to the Ashby BART grant application.
• 12/13/05: video of City Council meeting; public comment on grant proposal by Jackie DeBose at 22:40, council discussion at 2:01:40 (Windows Media Player streaming video); council majority (minus Spring, who abstained, and Olds, who left) approved this resolution.
• 1/11/06: email exchange between Robert Lauriston and Ed Church
• 1/11/06: letter from Berkeley Flea Market to City Council (140KB PDF)
• 1/13/06: Transit-Oriented Development at Ashby BART by Mayor Tom Bates and Council Member Max Anderson
• 1/17/06: Citizens' Information Forum
• introductory remarks by moderator Robert Lauriston
• panelist Sam Dykes, president of the Adeline-Alcatraz Merchants Associationm and a member of the SBNDC board of directors, whose letter of support is attached to the grant application, said only a few words to the effect that he would listen and hoped to learn something
• comments by panelist Shirley Dean, former mayor of Berkeley
• speaker's notes of panelist Zelda Bronstein, former chair of Berkeley Planning Commission
• 1/20/06 open letter from Robert Lauriston to Max Anderson
• 2/7/06: City Council agenda included a proposed resolution from District 3 council representative Max Anderson. See newspaper articles and the NABART mailing list archive for discussion.
• 2/7/05: video of City Council meeting; public comment by Jackie DeBose and others starting at 12:46, council discussion at 48:55 (Windows Media Player streaming video)
• 2/10/06 statement by Ashley Berkowitz of Epic Arts (member organization of the Ashby Arts District)
• city policies and plans re Ashby BART development assembled by Ed Church, including his commentary on the General Plan (140KB PDF)
• 2/11/06: community meeting organized by Mayor Tom Bates and District 3 City Council representative Max Anderson; PowerPoint presentation by Ed Church (1.1MB PDF; note that the process outlined on page 18 of this presentation is quite different from the one outlined in the grant application); notes on meeting by Robert Lauriston; see newspaper articles for more information.
• Instructions by Ed Church for making nominations to the "SoBa Partnership/Ashby BART Task Force." This document claims that "the Berkeley City Council on December 13, 2005 authorized the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation to convene a Task Force," but in fact that resolution regards solely the Caltrans grant application, and makes no mention of a task force.
• Email (characterized by some recipients as a "loyalty oath") from Ed Church to people nominated to the task force by Robert Lauriston and Lauriston's reply. See also Flea Market attorney Osha Neumann's letter to the editor in the 4/21/06 Berkley Daily Planet.
• notes on 5/22 task force meeting by John Warren of Ashby Arts and Robert Lauriston; more notes by Ozzie Vincent
• Ashby Arts District statement of principles for development of Ashby Bart station's west-side parking lot
• 7/21/06: letter from Berkeley Flea Market to City Council (125KB PDF) opposing proposed resolution
• 7/25/06: City Council resolution (110K PDF) authorizing up to $6000 for the SBNDC task force and formally requesting that it undertake specified tasks; this was approved after changing "relocation of the flea market" to "location of the flea market"
• 9/20/06: Ashby BART task force packet (80KB PDF) for 10/3/06 public meeting
• 9/27/06: NABART mailing list post re Los Angeles city attorney opinion that strongly suggests that the Ashby BART Task Force is in violation of the Brown Act
• 10/1/06: email from Ashby BART Task Force co-chair John Selawsky announcing postponement of Oct. 3 meeting
• 10/2/06: memo (90KB PDF) from City Manager Phil Kamlarz to City Council attaching 7/31/06 report from Korve Engineering regarding the feasibility of closing Adeline Street on weekends in order to host the Flea Market (conclusion: "technically feasible" but "an expensive proposition" that "would need further study"). See the Flea Market's 1/11/06 and 7/21/06 letters above.
• 5/23/06: memo from Planning Dept. Director Dan Marks to Planning Commission (85K PDF) re possible designation of Ashby BART (among other areas) as a "FOCUS Priority Development Area." See the FOCUS site for more information.