• Pros and Cons: Summary and Documents
• Councilmember Perspective
• Chevron Station Perspective

Summary

The Chevron Station at 3048 Ashby Avenue (corner of Ashby and Domingo) is applying for city approval to convert its auto repair facility into a convenience store. The building will be redesigned, and in addition to gas, the new store will sell grocery-type items including candy, milk, soda, ice cream, coffee and prepackaged goods. The store will not sell liquor, will not prepare food, and will not change its business hours from those currently observed by the gas station and approved by the city: 6:30am — 10pm.

Public Documents

• Architectural plans (February 21, 2006) File size: 1.1MB
• Architectural plans updated (March 9, 2006) File size: 0.7MB
• Public hearing notice (March 9, 2006) File size: 0.8MB
• Preliminary Report to ZAB (March 16, 2006) File size: 0.8MB

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak's Perspective

Dear Neighbors:

The Chevron Station at 3048 Ashby Avenue (Corner of Ashby and Domingo) has applied to the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) for a Use Permit to convert its auto repair facility to a convenience store.

The ZAB will examine the application during its public meeting on March 23. It may decide to approve the application, deny the application, or approve it with certain conditions attached. You can find out more about the meeting agenda at

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/PermitStatus/Zablist.html

My role is to ensure that your perspectives about this application are accurately presented to the ZAB. To help you formulate an opinion, I would like you to have access to good information and dialog about the project. At the same time, I would like the ZAB to obtain a concise summary of neighborhood perspectives based on that information.

Historically it has been difficult to reach those objectives. Neighbors' knowledge of land use permits is often based on incomplete or inaccurate information, while the ZAB usually receives disjointed input only from residents who have the time to submit written statements and/or attend meetings.

I have asked Kitchen Democracy to help me reach those objectives. One of their initiatives is to develop this website where concerned residents can get information, discuss issues with their neighbors and make their perspectives known via on-line surveys.

This website does not in any way replace the usual public hearing process. The hearings will still take place; now we simply have another way of formulating and summarizing our opinions using this website.

I am very interested in this innovative project, and will use your discussion and survey results to help me represent your interests at the ZAB meeting. I hope you find this experiment in "Kitchen Democracy" helps you build a better Berkeley and form a better relationship with its government.

Sincerely,
Gordon Wozniak

Chevron Station Perspective

Dear Neighbors:

I am Tim Banuelos, the Architect working on the proposed modifications to the Chevron Station at 3048 Ashby Avenue (Corner of Ashby and Domingo). The owner has applied to the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) for a Use Permit to convert the auto repair facility to a convenience store. The store will not sell liquor, will not prepare food, and will not change business hours from those currently observed by the gas station (city-approved 6:30am — 10pm). The store will sell grocery-type items including candy, milk, soda, ice cream, coffee and prepackaged goods.

You can download a pdf of the current architectural plans for the modification. [1 MB]

We are interested in making these modifications in a way which benefits the neighborhood as well as the business; to this end we have been discussing these plans with you, our neighbors.

During discussions at a recent meeting concerns were raised centered mostly around parking, traffic, noise and whether cigarettes will be sold. In summary:

• The plans do not call for the addition of any new parking spaces on the property, due to limitations on available space. However, most of the current parking spaces in the gas station are normally full with cars awaiting repairs or pickup from their owner; it is anticipated that the average number of empty parking spots will increase once the conversion to convenience store is complete.
• Considerable objections were raised due to noise associated with parking between the station and the apartment building to the south. The plans have been adjusted so that those parking areas will be moved to the east end of the lot, away from the windows of the apartment building so that any associated noise will be minimized.
• In terms of traffic, it is my belief that the store's existence at the gas station is more of an extension of service to the people that purchase gas. I don't think that people will go out of their way to come to the mini-mart by car to purchase soda, milk, or candy. I do however think a person buying gas will run in to get a cup of coffee. Because of this, and the reduction of cars at the station observed by Moe due to the new pump configuration, I don't think there is going to be any significant change in parking. Any increased traffic in this area will be mainly due to more cars traveling to and from Highway 80 and to the Tunnel.
• Cigarettes are currently being sold in the gas station, and we do not have any plans to change this.

Please note that we have already adjusted our plans to meet the following neighborhood concerns:

1. Removal of the air/water station from the rear of the property to the pump area and away from the apartment building.
2. Removal of the chains that block off the rear area and replacing this with a wrought iron fence and gate.
3. No mechanical units on the roof of the building-all units will be inside the building. Any air intakes and exhausts will be to the east and west sides, perpendicular from the apartment building to minimize noise from machines.
4. The existing gum tree, thought to be needing removal in order to generate ADA-required clearances at the restrooms, is to remain.
5. There were plans for an ATM machine in the store which has since been removed.
6. The trash containers, that are currently in the rear of the gas station and are rolled out to the Domingo side of the property, are now to be located to the east side of the building, closer to the street, in a trash area that is integrated into the building and is not visible.

We would like to reiterate that we have already committed to the following:

1. Deleting of the employee parking on the west side, and as an alternative allowing parking just inside the Domingo Avenue driveway cut, adjacent to the part of the apartment building where there are no windows. These spaces are not required and are there to provide a place for employees to park so they don't take up spaces in the neighborhood.
2. We are moving the bicycle rack to the opposite side of the site, probably behind the two trees on the west side now that the employee parking have been moved. We are also reducing the number of bicycle parking spaces from 6 to 3. At the meeting the neighbors wanted the bicycle rack out further out in the driveway area along the west side, but quite frankly, it is just too unsafe out there, and eventually there would be an altercation between a bicyclist and a car with potentially disastrous results.
3. We are changing the lighting. Right now at the rear of the gas station there are the under canopy fluorescent lighting similar to what is around the other sides. the apartment building neighbors mentioned that these lights shine into their windows and are a nuisance. When the storage area addition is built at the rear, the rear lights will be removed, and replaced with wall mounted lights that will be installed at the rear and the west side of the building (some of the fluorescent lighting on the west side is coming off as well). These lights will only shine down onto the pavement and will not shine up into the apartment building windows.

All of the concerns that have been raised by neighbors have certainly been good ones, and we have all along tried to answer all concerns as they have come up during the process of the project. We continue to try to address all concerns to the best that we can as shown in the above potential mitigation steps.

I hope this all helps; please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions:
(510) 758-4161 (phone/fax)
(510) 872-9646 (cell)

Thanks,
Tim Banuelos, Architect

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