PROPOSED BERKELEY FERRY SERVICE RESOLUTION

Whereas the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority (WTA) was established by the State Legislature to plan future and expand existing ferry services, connections, terminals; and

Whereas, WTA has recently completed a two year long comprehensive study and presented findings to the Berkeley Design Advocates that indicate improved ways to deliver a cost effective, convenient and environmentally responsive ferry system which include a Berkeley ferry terminal conservatively projected to serve approximately 3,000 passengers a day; and

Whereas, the proposed system will use state of the art ferry boats with low-emissions engines and new low-wake hull design that have no significant negative impacts on natural aquatic habitats;

Whereas, a new ferry terminal located at the Berkeley/Albany boarder is an important public transportation and economic development opportunity for the City, County and the State; and

Whereas, water transit services were vitally important in the original settlement pattern of Berkeley and were also proven to be highly successful in providing fast convenient public transit services; and

Whereas, the Bay Bridge, Richmond Bridge and BART trans bay tunnels are massive structures that are especially vulnerable to interruption in service due to major earthquake, terrorist attack, other natural or man made disasters, construction retrofitting projects or incidental mechanical failures; and

Whereas, ferry terminal siting and public ease of access are of critical importance to the success of the system and an Berkeley ferry terminal located in the vicinity of the foot of Gilman Street offers a clearly advantageous nexus point for connecting to existing high volume bus services running along San Pablo, Solano and University Avenues and for future ferrry shuttle bus routes; and

Whereas, large underutilized areas exists at the foot of Gilman Street in Berkeley and a portion of these could be readily transformed into a landscaped parking facility that would serve commuters, as well as provide shared-use parking after commute hours for others and greatly benefit nearby West Berkeley and Albany businesses as well as visitors to the future Eastshore State Park; and

Whereas, future ferry service to a Berkeley terminal also will provide easy access to other proposed ferry service venues including excursion terminals at other State Parks and National Parks and will offer a clean, efficient and highly pleasurable means of transportation for people from throughout the Bay Area who desire to visit Berkeley or East Shore State Park without using an automobile; and

Whereas, the City and Berkeley has a tradition of progressive transportation policies and demonstrated leadership with transit-based planning and design initiatives, such as: barrier free sidewalks and pedestrian paths and bridges, resistance to new freeways, undergrounding BART, diverters to protect residential streets, slow streets, bicycle lanes, residential preferential parking, transit first policies, The Commute Store, and incentives for van and carpools, to name a few; and

Be it Hereby Resolved that Berkeley Design Advocates strongly urges City of Berkeley officials to positively endorse WTA's 2002 Implementation and Operations Plan and also request that WTA conduct further site-specific studies for a Berkeley Ferry Terminal at the Gilman Street location.

BerkeleyDesign Advocates - Sept 2002