Will Berkeley's Strawberry Creek see more daylight?

Strawberry Creek begins modestly in the Berkeley-Oakland hills, flows westward through the UC Berkeley campus, where it forms the university's most prominent natural feature, and then disappears into a culvert at the west edge of campus. For the rest of its way down through the city to the Bay, the creek sees only two brief stretches of daylight.

Now, though, another stretch could become the centerpiece of a glistening new pedestrian open space in the heart of downtown Berkeley.

To build a green hotel

Last November UC Berkeley made public a proposal to build a hotel/conference-center/museum complex on the block bounded by Shattuck Avenue and Oxford, Center, and Addison Streets. The details of the project are still quite fluid.

The Sierra Club's Northern Alameda County Group sees in this major project an opportunity to include positive environmental features and ecological amenities. Since the site is adjacent to the Berkeley BART station (which handles 10,000 passengers per day) and to numerous heavily used bus lines, the Group and other environmental organizations envision closing Center Street between Oxford and Shattuck to motor vehicles, creating a pedestrian corridor leading to the UC campus. This concept in turn creates the exciting opportunity to daylight Strawberry Creek through this block for public view and enjoyment. The university and its partners can create a public open space with trees, flowers, and bushes, accessible to pedestrians and those with mobility impairments.

The city should also work with the university to optimize non-automobile transportation alternatives for the area. These might include a pedestrian tunnel from the hotel to the BART station, and promotion of BART and bus information to hotel guests. UC shuttle buses and AC transit buses that now use Center Street could be rerouted as long as transit service is not degraded.

Through use of sustainable and green-design principles such as solar access and solar energy, the university can create a beautiful public space in the most heavily used part of the city, and take a step towards revitalizing the city's downtown. The goal should be to make the hotel/conference center the greenest in the country.

On April 27 the Hotel Task Force of the Berkeley Planning Commission unanimously adopted recommendations that incorporate the above recommendations. The full commission is now considering the task force's recommendations and will hopefully forward them to the City Council.

The Sierra Club joined with Ecocity Builders to form an informal alliance of environmental and transportation groups that met weekly to strategize and to develop input. The alliance contributed to and supported the principles outlined above. On May 20 - 21 Ecocity Builders organized a trip, co-sponsored by the Sierra Club, to look at a comparable urban-creek project, the restoration of delightful San Luis Creek in the center of San Luis Obispo. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Dona Spring were among the participants, and the trip got considerable publicity.

Questions remain about the feasibility of daylighting the creek, but public enthusiasm appears to be growing.

What You Can Do

Contact Mayor Tom Bates and your city councilmember at:

2180 Milvia St.
Berkeley, CA 94704

Urge them to support the recommendations of the Hotel Task Force.

To join in the Group's efforts to make the hotel project as environmentally sound as possible, contact Helen Burke at or (510) 527-0176.

Helen Burke