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Community - Faith and Fury Surround Creek
Two acres of land in the Berkeley Hills are the eye of a stormy conflict involving a creek, a congregation, and a community. Neighbors worry that landowner Temple Beth El's plans to build new facilities may compromise the future of an oak grove, a community garden and Codornices Creek.
When Temple Beth El purchased the property from the East Bay Chinese Alliance Church in 1996, it began making plans to build a new two-story building, parking lot, and driveway to accommodate its growing congregation. What the Temple didn't plan on was community opposition. Neighbors argue that the scale of the project is inappropriate for the neighborhood, that the Temple's parking lot would destroy the oak grove and community garden, and that the increased runoff from all of the new pavement would end up in Codornices Creek.
"It's the largest creek in Berkeley and the closest to having a functioning ecosystem," says John Nacherud, with the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA).
Harry Pollack, president of the Congregation Beth El board of directors, says the creek on the site "is in terrible shape" and that anything the Congregation does will "only make it better." While the Temple has held several meetings to discuss the situation with the neighborhood, and hired the reputable Waterways Restoration Institute (WRI) to analyze how to stabilize the open section of creek, the conflict - like the creek's ravine - only seems to be deepening.
The solution, in terms of site planning, isn't all that obvious. Two small buildings and the old Chinese church sit on the south part of the site while the north side hosts the community garden, live oaks, and historic Berryman Path, each of which has passionate advocates. Through the middle of it all runs Codornices Creek - partly above and partly below ground in a culvert. A waterfall and plunge pool have formed where the creek spills out of its culvert, resulting in downcutting and undermining of the creek's bed and banks.
Nacherud's group points out that the city of Berkeley has an ordinance that prohibits building within 30 feet of a creek, plus it signed an agreement with three neighboring cities to restore its creeks whenever possible. LOCCNA says Berkeley should live up to that pledge by requiring the Temple to daylight the underground stretch instead of putting a parking lot on top of it.
At a March meeting, WRI's Drew Goetting presented several alternatives for stabilizing the creek. All of the alternatives would grade the creek's banks back to a more gentle slope. Three alternatives recommend daylighting the underground section in order to create a more gradual downhill gradient and thus reduce the downcutting and bank erosion. "The culverts at the top and bottom of the site are like two points on a line," says Goetting. "If we daylight the underground section, we'll have more distance between those points in which to create a gentler gradient, which would also more closely resemble the historical conditions," says Goetting.
How will the dilemma be resolved? Since the Temple has shown no willingness to scale back its plans or to open the creek, says LOCCNA, the group will go before the Berkeley City Council with its own alternative proposal. It is also looking for funding to buy the land back from the Temple.
Contact: Jon Nackerud (510) 524-2640; WRI: (510) 848-2211
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