MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

It's a New Year with New Beginnings!!

We are a new idea for the Chamber - co-CEOs! And with so many new opportunities! It's both tremendously exciting and overwhelming!  With my (Polly) 16 years in City Hall (eight years on the Council and prior to that, eight years as the aide to my predecessor Council Members), I understand how City Hall works and how to address problems in our town.  I've been a resident of Berkeley for over 30 years, raising children, going through the local schools, and shopping locally - I'm a strong believer in Berkeley and its local vendors.

 With my (John) involvement in the Berkeley business community since the early 90s, I appreciate the challenges of being innovative, retaining customers, improving property and its public surrounds.  In the development and construction of the Library Gardens Apartments, I came to learn how our city officials and staff are dedicated to making their vision for this City a reality.

After a bit of recess from the 'hecticity' of the recent years, we've both returned to find that there are many great opportunities to take our City to the next level.

Because of the clear (>64%) mandate of the voters in November, the Downtown Plan can now be modified to incorporate the Measure R elements and we'll have a wonderfully new plan for development Downtown - clearly the opportunity for new beginnings. We urge the City planners to proceed rapidly to make the necessary revisions to the Downtown Plan and submit it to the Council for approval.  Then we can get on with the process of crafting the implementation measures (zoning regulations).  More residents and more business and a more vibrant downtown will follow.

The West Berkeley Project has been recommended for approval by the Planning Commission and sent to the City Council - adoption of the modifications to the West Berkeley Plan will bring new opportunities into Berkeley.  The Project is the result of years of thought and effort by our community.  The Project crafts revisions to "Master Use Permit" (MUP) for large-scale developments - defining the path to whole-city-block development and for the first time, allowing R&D as a permitted use in West Berkeley.  These changes, once codified, will certainly help in taking our City to the next level!

The Chamber's dedicated Board of Directors and the enthusiastic Ambassadors champion a very locally focused Chamber that can serve as the umbrella organization for the many member businesses, both large and small, from our several unique commercial neighborhood districts.  We are eager to focus on the quality of life in Berkeley - greener, more sustainable, exciting and uniquely local.

As we have been warmly greeted by our members, the representatives of neighborhood business districts and City staff and elected officials, we have been encouraged to hear how the community is eager to have a vigorous and vital Chamber that can speak for the business point of view. With our expertise in City Hall and the business community, we have been able to hit the ground running. We are already representing you with respect to the Downtown Plan and the West Berkeley Project.  And we've had a joint meeting with the neighborhood business organizations, the City Manager and Director of Public Works to discuss critical basic topics such as sidewalk sweeping, trash pick up and gutter clean out. It was good to find the city representatives fully engaged and interested in doing what they can in these difficult, budget-challenged, times to improve the physical business climate.

It's a very busy and challenging time - but we're glad to be aboard and look forward to meeting more of our community members every day - more new opportunities!

by Polly Armstrong and John DeClercq, CEO

The Committee on Government Affairs of the Berkeley Chamber met on January 10, 2011, with its new Co-CEOs, Polly Armstrong and John DeClercq. The purpose of the meeting was to identify the key political and economic development campaigns upon which the Chamber will focus in 2011.

Of the many potential campaigns we identified, four are of critical concern this quarter:

·      The West Berkeley Project:

o   The West Berkeley Project has been developed to amend the current zoning regulations that apply to the mixed use light industrial and manufacturing zoning districts in West Berkeley:

§  To remove unnecessary obstacles  in the zoning that have prevented efficient and smart reuse of existing buildings and to encourage  flexible manufacturing, research and development and industrial uses in a manner consistent  with contemporary definitions of these uses.

§  to facilitate and encourage the development of 3 acre or larger land holdings through a Master Use Permit process.

·      The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) second campus: 

o   LBNL is looking to locate a second campus in the East Bay, and is seeking to locate the master-planned campus in a city nearby their current facilities, specifically in Alameda, Emeryville, Richmond or Berkeley.  LBNL has issued a RFQ, seeking proposals from qualified teams by March 4.  The applications will be judged and a "short list" of qualified teams will be invited to submit a proposal for a campus that will meet their needs for the decades to come. 

o   The Berkeley Chamber will do everything it can to assist the West Berkeley applicants in order to strengthen their proposals to locate that second campus in West Berkeley, as the financial , economic development, and intellectual rewards that will accrue to Berkeley will be enormous, especially the construction jobs in the near term to construct the campus and even more significantly, the creation of long-term permanent jobs for the Berkeley community.

·      The Downtown Area Plan

o   The Downtown Area Plan was affirmed by an overwhelming majority (>64%) of the voters of Berkeley in the municipal election of November, 2010.  The Chamber sees this visionary Plan, which has the support of not only the citizens of Berkeley, but also the support of seven of nine Council members, as essential to a revitalized downtown. 

o   It is a Plan which places high value on Smart Growth - dense residential and work spaces existing alongside mass transit routes.

·      The linking of the fate of large and small businesses in Berkeley: 

o   The Chamber believes that the growth of both small and large businesses in Berkeley are inextricably linked, and the Chamber is committed to foster the continued viability and growth of both.

The Chamber will actively advocate for these positions this quarter and throughout 2011.

 Crush 2010 "STOMP", our 15th annual Food and Wine Festival, held this year at the beautiful Hotel Shattuck Plaza, was a great success. Representatives from nearly fifty local wineries, breweries, restaurants and caterers filled two ballrooms with a wide array of culinary delights and an outstanding selection of finely crafted wine and beer. Attendees were serenaded by a wonderful jazz quartet, and, later in the afternoon, brought to a rhythmic frenzy by an interactive drumming performance!

           It was wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces at the Crush Festival, and we are so grateful to our amazing community for coming out to support this great event year after year. Plans are already in the works for Crush 2011 this coming November, and we hope to see all of you there! Cheers!

Click here to see photos from Crush 2010