 Parking
About Congregation Beth El (CBE) Parking Plan...
When the project was proposed, LOCCNA recommended that the best parking solution would be sheltered parking. See Pictures of St. John's Presbyterian Church parking system (on College Ave. at Forest St) as well as the Wolfe-Mason Concept Study (commissioned by LOCCNA, June 26, 2001). We thought that St. John's was an excellent model for how a religious institution can accommodate its parking needs with minimal impact on neighbors or the natural setting. They have about 50 parking spaces under their building. To see the superb job their architect did, point your browser to "Pictures of St. John's parking system"
Temple Beth-El now has 33 on-site parking spaces for the congregation that currently includes over 500 families. Weekend activities such as bar and bat mitzvahs and weddings can attract up to 250 people. The congregation is aware that thirty-three parking spaces is inadequate for the parking needs of large events. The project created a new driveway exit on Spruce, with added red curbing to provide for visibility and safety. This removed about a dozen previous on-street parking spaces from the neighborhood.
The city of Berkeley does not impose mimimum parking quotas on religious organizations, but by way of comparison, the standards imposed by the city of Alameda for a project the size of CBE would probably require over 75 parking on-site parking spaces. That would imply that the congregation would need to use over 40 parking spaces in the neighborhood or in satellite parking lots.
Traffic
Every day school children are dropped off and picked up at the site; some people are dropped off near the site for services as well, before the driver finds a parking space some distance away. These activities lead to intervals of locally heavy traffic at and around the site. The one-way driveway leading from Oxford Street to Spruce Street, is intended for such drop off and pick up activity, but still it is tempting for many drivers to simply pull over to the side of Spruce or Oxford to drop off, rather than drive all the way around the block. We have seen awkward U-turns occuring on these very busy streets. The Temple is urging that its members be considerate, use carpools, and follow rules that have been drawn up.
Another safety concern is simply the hazard of cars and buses pulling out from the 1301 Oxford site driveway onto Spruce. Cars often go up and down Spruce at speeds exceeding 45 miles per hour. Neighbors on Spruce have experienced several accidents ocurring when residents cautiously enter Spruce and encounter this speeding traffic. CBE members face real hazards and dangers associated with the new "intersections" that the project has created.
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