Okay, hello everyone.

Good afternoon.

I am calling to order the special meeting of the Berkeley City Council.

Today is Tuesday, October 28th, 2025.

Happy Halloween week to everyone.

Can you please take the role, Clerk?

Okay, Councilmember Kisserwani.

Here.

Taplin present.

Bartlett.

Here.

Trego.

Present.

Keith.

By the skid of my teeth.

Councilmember Blackabi is currently absent.

Councilmember Lunapara.

Here.

Humbert here.

And Mary Ishi.

Here.

Okay.

Or Ms.

President.

Alright, very good.

Well, we're we have one item on our special agenda tonight on our and that is the Ashby BART East Lot Transit Oriented Development Request for Proposal Framework.

And so I am going to start us off with a presentation.

Actually, I'm not starting us off.

The staff are going to start us off with a presentation.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Ishi and members of the council.

I'm pleased to introduce the topic of today's meeting, which is a study session on the Ashby East Lot RFP process.

And by the way, I'm Margot Ernst, the manager for housing and community services.

This project is a result of a nearly decade-long effort and collaboration with BART and the community to advance transit-oriented development at the North Berkeley and Ashby BART stations.

I'd like to acknowledge the efforts across departments, especially HHCS, planning, city attorney's office, and the city manager's office.

Many of the staff who have contributed are here today and will assist in answering any questions you may have, including my colleagues at the table, Director Klein, who will be participating in this afternoon's presentation, and deputy city manager White, who has provided leadership and support to this project.

I'll now introduce Kirsten Dissinger with Street Level Advisors, who is managing the project and will lead today's presentation.

Thanks, Marco.

Hello, Kirsten with Street Level Advisors.

I support HHCS's work on both BART sites and some other policy matters.

I have a background in affordable housing development policy and planning.

I'm joined today by my colleague Rick Jacobis.

I'm really happy to be here to gather your input on the E slot developer selection framework as we move toward implementation and getting housing built on the E slot.

Today I will quickly review the background on the e-slot.

The focus of the presentation today is on the E-Slot developer selection framework.

The framework is included in the staff report.

I'll explain the steps we took to create the framework and the content, the e slot project requirements, goals, and the selection process.

Is it possible to pull your mic a little bit closer to you or something?

Absolutely.

Yes, thanks.

Which will be so the design guidelines, which will be embedded in the RFP.

We'll end today's discussion with an overview of the selection process and next steps.

It's the city's intention to release an RFP and NOFA early in the new year.

The schedule will be finalized once the city has completed coordination with state HCD on compliance with the surplus land act.

My goal is to keep this brief because we're expecting a really good conversation on community input today.

This is a special moment for the city of Berkeley as we advance the third transit-oriented development project on the BART site.

The city has worked in close partnership with BART, the community, and the community to develop a vision for the Ashby BART station.

There are many parallels between the city's work at North Berkeley and Ashby.

The key principles, such as a focus on affordable housing, high-density transit-oriented development, and a consideration of public open spaces are central to the vision for both stations.

Unique to the Ashby site is that BART owns two developable parcels, the larger West Lot and the nearly two-acre east slot.