The BART board will be meeting this Thursday 10/28, starting at 9am. The BART El Cerrito Plaza TOD will be on the agenda. More specifically, the board will be deciding on the what range of BART passenger replacement parking spaces will be built on the BART property. Staff has recommended a range of 100-250 spaces.
We hope as many people as possible will call into the meeting and speak out in favor of as low of a parking minimum as possible, ideally even lower than 100. Some talking points you can use include:
We wish for the El Cerrito BART station to become a vibrant center with mixed-income housing, commerce, and public spaces that enhance the existing neighborhood and furthers the Plaza’s potential to serve as a community-gathering hub for all.The City of El Cerrito already has thousands of on-street parking spaces within walking distance of hte station, and the city has expressed its desire to pursue an on-street managed parking program. BART should work cooperatively with the city to help establish that program.150 parking spaces would cost 12 million dollars to build, benefitting about 150 daily riders. That same 12 million dollars could go towards bike, pedestrian, and other multimodal access enhancements, benefitting thousands of daily riders.Therefore, we wish for BART to set the minimum parking space count at 0, aside from ADA passengers.
Zoom link for the meeting:
Presentation for this agenda item:
You are also encouraged to email the BART board directly at BoardOfDirectors@bart.gov, as well as board.meeting@bart.gov with subject line “Public Comments Agenda #7A”
For more of our thoughts on this issue with additional detail and talking points, please see our prior post here: