For the last year and a half, representatives of the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay (JCC) have periodically held joint meetings with representatives of RCPC and neighbors most immediately impacted by developments on the Dreyer’s site at College Avenue and Chabot Road. The JCC began occupying the site three years ago. It will not take full possession of the site until the end of 2024 and plans to start renovation construction in January 2025.
There is now pending before the Oakland Planning Department a preliminary application for conditional use permits and a request for determination regarding the level of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review required. With respect to CEQA compliance, the JCC is seeking a categorical exemption. Traffic and noise consultant reports are being conducted. The proposed
project may come up for public review at the Oakland Planning Commission early this summer.
The JCC has long had a North Berkeley campus with a range of programmatic activities that will be maintained. The uses on the Dreyer’s site are intended to facilitate additional programmatic activities and to provide office space for the JCC and other nonprofit Jewish organizations. Presently, there are nine Jewish organizations in buildings not still being used by employees of Nestle, the
international corporation which owns Dreyer’s. The primary JCC use now is for administrative offices. Current non-office activities at the Dreyer’s location include a weekly Mahjong group, occasional limited-attendance meetings, two small transitional residential programs for young adults, and tours of the exterior elements of the site with donors.
The JCC intends to maintain the commercial retail stores on College Avenue. After renovations, the anticipation is that 15-20 Jewish nonprofit organizations will have office space onsite, with some providing social and educational services, including a pre-school for up to 120 kids. There also will be a summer camp; family engagement activities; health and wellness activities and adult education
classes; indoor gathering space for community celebrations, holidays, and refuge during emergencies; outdoor gathering space for work, meeting, and recreation (but not for sports like swimming or soccer); artist studio space and maker’s space; and a small café to serve the internal campus.
The Dreyer’s site physically is a mishmash of buildings, including the large office building with retail space on College Avenue, the former Yoshi’s restaurant and jazz club, and several individual houses and small multi-unit apartment buildings. Some of the
residential buildings were converted legally to office use by Nestle, but others may not have been. However, as part of the City of Oakland’s action last October to amend the General Plan and enact implementing zoning amendments, and unbeknownst then
to the JCC and RCPC, the entire Dreyer’s site was rezoned to CN-1 (Neighborhood Commercial, favoring pedestrian comparison shopping). Housing, office, and assembly uses are allowable within this zoning classification as permissible, conditional, or grandfathered.
Major proposed renovations are the establishment of a main ground floor entrance to the College Avenue office building from the parking lot off Chabot Road; the re-landscaping of the area between the Chabot Road and Claremont Avenue parking lots, primarily as outside space for kids’ programs; and the demolition of an auxiliary building connected to the former Yoshi’s space. To create the new entrance, the exterior staircase to the second floor of the office building will be demolished.
The Chabot parking lot will continue to have reserved parking spaces for College Avenue retail stores and will be used for drop-offs and pickups for pre-school and camp programs, while the Claremont parking lot will be set aside for staff parking during business hours. The former Yoshi’s space will be used for religious holiday and other assembly events for up to 250 people.
Possible traffic mitigation measures discussed so far have included limiting entering and exiting the Chabot parking lot only from College Avenue and using the Claremont parking lot as the main parking lot for larger events held after business hours and on weekends and holidays.