BERKELEY
$5.1M grant OK’d to study revitalizing pier with ferry
By Katie Lauer
klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com
The Berkeley Marina’s historic pier has remained abandoned, crumbling and fenced off for the nearly eight years since it closed amid deteriorating concrete and corroded rebar from years of weathering by San Francisco Bay’s breaking salt water waves.
Now a $5.1 million grant from local transit officials will help the city take another step to reopening and expanding the structure built directly across from the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1920s. The grant will fund critical state and federal environmental reviews of a $121 million restoration project.
In addition to tackling desperately needed pier repairs, the project will also bring a large-scale passenger ferry service to the marina — nearly a century after plans to ferry commuters by boat never materialized.
The new grant — which will fund the project’s design, environmental review and engineering work — was approved on Thursday by the 22-member Alameda County Transportation Commission that represents the region’s local governments, AC Transit and BART.
That award — funded through ACTC’s 2024 Comprehensive Investment Plan, which will allocate a total of $207 million across the county over the next five years — will be matched by city funds in order to cover the projected $10.3 million needed for this phase of preliminary reviews, according to city documents.
Once completed, the Berkeley ferry terminal will provide an alternative for commuters who otherwise use the Bay Bridge and BART’s Transbay Tube, as well as critical resources during an earthquake or other natural disaster.
The ferry terminal is proposed for construction within the first 580 feet of the repaired pier, and the existing structure will be extended another 500 feet into the bay. Additionally, a new 400-foot curved breakwater will be installed perpendicular to the pier — creating a design city staff have dubbed “the sword.”
In total, the newly constructed pier will offer 32,560 square feet of space — all of which will be open to the public for general recreation.
If all goes to plan, the final plan will be ready for council review and approval by the end of 2024, according to an update from city staff in March.
While the City Council has dedicated $40.2 million to the waterfront in the past 15 years, more than $140 million is still needed for improvements to the dock systems, restrooms, roads, parking lots and other features.
There’s currently not enough revenue flowing into the marina’s fund for the industrial boat yard, hotel and restaurants onsite to cover annual expenses or improvements of existing assets. Next year, Berkeley City Manager Dee Ridley-Williams said the annual deficit will exceed $1.4 million.
The hope is that the pier and zero-emission ferry project will help the publicly owned open space become financially self-sustainable, as well as benefit the environment.
The waterfront property’s pier wasn’t always in disrepair. Originally constructed by the Golden Gate Ferry Co. in 1926, the pier helped pedestrians and automobiles reach San Francisco before the service was discontinued in 1937 and the city acquired the structure.
For years, it thrived as a hub for recreation until 2015, when the city was forced to close the pier indefinitely to address safety concerns.
The vision to return ferry service to Berkeley was first proposed in 2016 by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which is responsible for developing and operating all ferry transportation on the San Francisco Bay — including five new ferry terminal projects in the past decade. It was later approved as part of the final “Plan Bay Area 2050” process in 2021.
Pushback has bubbled up from some residents who use the marina for recreation.
Jim McGrath, a Berkeley resident and former Parks and Waterfront commissioner, has been vocal about the pier and ferry plan, particularly with concerns that it will overrun the marina’s parking spaces with ferry passengers.
According to commission documents, Ridley-Williams assured ACTC that only 250 spaces will be reserved for weekday ferry riders — accounting for 17% of the more than 1,500 parking spaces spread across the marina. Despite the potentially daunting ridership projection of 1,910 boardings within the first year of service, many passengers may get to the marina using public transit, bicycles, family drop-offs or even a potential shuttle proposed for the area, she said.
Thursday’s approval was a smooth vote, after a bulk of the discussion happened at the commission’s May 8 Programs and Projects Committee meeting.
Commissioner Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, who is the mayor of the city of Alameda — lauded the host of benefits she’s seen from water transportation.
“It gets cars off the road, reducing vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, and these newer generations of ferries … just keep getting better,” Ashcraft said on May 8. “I can also attest that ferry commuters are the happiest commuters out there. There is no road rage, there’s no traffic jams — it’s just a win win.”
Several leaders of community organizations — ranging from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and Walk Bike Berkeley, to San Francisco’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development — also co-signed a letter of support for project on Berkeley’s waterfront, which they called a “spectacular jewel of a public space” that welcomes more than 200,000 visitors each year.
According to Berkeley Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who represents the city on ACTC, the grant would not have been possible without leveraging other matching funds, including $15 million earmarked within California’s 2022-23 budget.
“This is such a big step forward for mobility, such a big step forward for emergency access, such a big step forward for clean transportation, and a huge step forward to revitalize our broken and beloved pier,” said Robinson, who frequents the marina to windsurf and volunteer as a lesson instructor at the Cal Sailing Club. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
$5.1M grant OK’d to study revitalizing pier with ferry
By Katie Lauer
klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com
The Berkeley Marina’s historic pier has remained abandoned, crumbling and fenced off for the nearly eight years since it closed amid deteriorating concrete and corroded rebar from years of weathering by San Francisco Bay’s breaking salt water waves.
Now a $5.1 million grant from local transit officials will help the city take another step to reopening and expanding the structure built directly across from the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1920s. The grant will fund critical state and federal environmental reviews of a $121 million restoration project.
In addition to tackling desperately needed pier repairs, the project will also bring a large-scale passenger ferry service to the marina — nearly a century after plans to ferry commuters by boat never materialized.
The new grant — which will fund the project’s design, environmental review and engineering work — was approved on Thursday by the 22-member Alameda County Transportation Commission that represents the region’s local governments, AC Transit and BART.
That award — funded through ACTC’s 2024 Comprehensive Investment Plan, which will allocate a total of $207 million across the county over the next five years — will be matched by city funds in order to cover the projected $10.3 million needed for this phase of preliminary reviews, according to city documents.
Once completed, the Berkeley ferry terminal will provide an alternative for commuters who otherwise use the Bay Bridge and BART’s Transbay Tube, as well as critical resources during an earthquake or other natural disaster.
The ferry terminal is proposed for construction within the first 580 feet of the repaired pier, and the existing structure will be extended another 500 feet into the bay. Additionally, a new 400-foot curved breakwater will be installed perpendicular to the pier — creating a design city staff have dubbed “the sword.”
In total, the newly constructed pier will offer 32,560 square feet of space — all of which will be open to the public for general recreation.
If all goes to plan, the final plan will be ready for council review and approval by the end of 2024, according to an update from city staff in March.
While the City Council has dedicated $40.2 million to the waterfront in the past 15 years, more than $140 million is still needed for improvements to the dock systems, restrooms, roads, parking lots and other features.
There’s currently not enough revenue flowing into the marina’s fund for the industrial boat yard, hotel and restaurants onsite to cover annual expenses or improvements of existing assets. Next year, Berkeley City Manager Dee Ridley-Williams said the annual deficit will exceed $1.4 million.
The hope is that the pier and zero-emission ferry project will help the publicly owned open space become financially self-sustainable, as well as benefit the environment.
The waterfront property’s pier wasn’t always in disrepair. Originally constructed by the Golden Gate Ferry Co. in 1926, the pier helped pedestrians and automobiles reach San Francisco before the service was discontinued in 1937 and the city acquired the structure.
For years, it thrived as a hub for recreation until 2015, when the city was forced to close the pier indefinitely to address safety concerns.
The vision to return ferry service to Berkeley was first proposed in 2016 by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which is responsible for developing and operating all ferry transportation on the San Francisco Bay — including five new ferry terminal projects in the past decade. It was later approved as part of the final “Plan Bay Area 2050” process in 2021.
Pushback has bubbled up from some residents who use the marina for recreation.
Jim McGrath, a Berkeley resident and former Parks and Waterfront commissioner, has been vocal about the pier and ferry plan, particularly with concerns that it will overrun the marina’s parking spaces with ferry passengers.
According to commission documents, Ridley-Williams assured ACTC that only 250 spaces will be reserved for weekday ferry riders — accounting for 17% of the more than 1,500 parking spaces spread across the marina. Despite the potentially daunting ridership projection of 1,910 boardings within the first year of service, many passengers may get to the marina using public transit, bicycles, family drop-offs or even a potential shuttle proposed for the area, she said.
Thursday’s approval was a smooth vote, after a bulk of the discussion happened at the commission’s May 8 Programs and Projects Committee meeting.
Commissioner Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, who is the mayor of the city of Alameda — lauded the host of benefits she’s seen from water transportation.
“It gets cars off the road, reducing vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, and these newer generations of ferries … just keep getting better,” Ashcraft said on May 8. “I can also attest that ferry commuters are the happiest commuters out there. There is no road rage, there’s no traffic jams — it’s just a win win.”
Several leaders of community organizations — ranging from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and Walk Bike Berkeley, to San Francisco’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development — also co-signed a letter of support for project on Berkeley’s waterfront, which they called a “spectacular jewel of a public space” that welcomes more than 200,000 visitors each year.
According to Berkeley Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who represents the city on ACTC, the grant would not have been possible without leveraging other matching funds, including $15 million earmarked within California’s 2022-23 budget.
“This is such a big step forward for mobility, such a big step forward for emergency access, such a big step forward for clean transportation, and a huge step forward to revitalize our broken and beloved pier,” said Robinson, who frequents the marina to windsurf and volunteer as a lesson instructor at the Cal Sailing Club. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
