Plaza BART Pop-Up
- Livable El Cerrito
- Nov 7
- 4 min read
With construction expected to start soon on the first apartment building in the planned development on parking lots at El Cerrito Plaza BART, the transit agency held a pop-up meeting where project experts answered questions about it.
Breaking Ground This Year
They said construction should start by the end of the year on a six-story affordable housing building at 515 Richmond St., in the parking lot on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Richmond Street.
Joleysha Cotton, a representative of developer Related Companies, said the project is fully funded and the developer is now waiting to close on the construction loan. That could happen this month but may take until the end of this year, Cotton said.
Staging Construction
Once construction starts, the entire parking lot on the northwest corner of Richmond Street and Central Avenue will be closed, eliminating about 200 parking spaces.
Construction will be staged from the parking lot, according to Kevin Markarian, an architect for the project’s designer, Pyatok Architects.
“The goal is to use the parking lot as much as possible,” he said.
About 15 Months to Complete
Construction should be completed in about 15 months, with modular components being constructed off-site. Stacking the mods to finish the building will require a crane, Markarian said.
Markarian is an El Cerrito resident who lives about a mile from the site and uses the Plaza BART station for his daily commute.
He said he doesn’t expect the work to cause traffic jams or a parking shortage.
“I think the hardest part is school traffic between 7:45 and 8:15,” he said.
Closing the lot will eliminate about 200 parking spaces, he said, but the BART lots are no longer completely full, as they were before Covid.
Jarrett Mullen, El Cerrito’s sustainable transportation manager, said there could be intermittent disruptions for utility work and replacing sidewalks.
70 Affordable Apartments
The building at 515 Richmond St. will consist of 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartments for low, very-low, and extremely-low-income family households. The 70-unit project will have 29 parking spaces, including one for a shared car, and a secure bike storage room with space for 106 bikes.
It is one of six apartment buildings containing a total of 743 apartments that have been approved by the city. The apartments will be built on what are now BART parking lots, eliminating about 740 parking spaces.
Questions From BART Riders
About two dozen BART riders coming out of the station stopped to discuss the plans for the Plaza Station area. Here are some of their questions:
Q: Will the plan for this area eliminate free parking?
A: The current thinking is to charge for long-term parking and possibly not for shorter term parking, Mullen said.
The city is developing a parking management action plan for the area. With a consultant, Mullen has been working on collecting data on existing conditions around the BART station. He has prepared an administrative draft which is not yet available to the public. In early 2026 “a couple of options” will be made public and discussion will follow, he said.
Q: When will BART build its garage for use by BART riders?
A: BART has obtained grant funding for 145 parking spaces for its riders, said BART reps Rachel Factor and Matt Lewis. The garage will be on the first two levels of a planned market-rate apartment building. The developer has not yet obtained funding for that building.
Q: Will the new building use solar?
A: Yes, Markarian said, the roof will be covered with solar panels. The building will be all-electric.
Q: Plans for the broader project show a new bike station and I don’t see bike lockers. Are the bike lockers being removed?
A: There will be new bike lockers as well as a bike station, Mullen said.
Q: Will you improve the greenway, maybe widen it and make separate lanes? At a park in Alameda, they have two-way bike lanes and a separated pedestrian path.
A: The greenway will be “like the rest of the greenway in El Cerrito,” Mullen said.
Q: Are there any plans for new bus routes on El Cerrito corridors?A: “It’s an aspiration but funding is the perennial hurdle,” Mullen said.
Q: Who will have first access to spots in the future BART parking garage spaces?
A: That hasn’t been decided, but the current thinking is it will be mostly daily fee parking. At this time, 16 spaces for disabled people are included, BART reps said.
Q: I live just outside the residential parking permit zone around the station. How far will we extend the parking permit zone? Will we have some input with the continuing development?
A: The resident left before receiving an answer.
Comments From BART Riders
Celeste Martinez and Richard Klaja said they live near Plaza station and BART is a necessity for their commutes to San Francisco. They have to ride BART because there is virtually no parking near their offices, they said. As things stand now, it’s easy to find parking – including free parking on the street.
What if BART Ridership Rebounds?
Martinez is concerned that if BART ridership rebounds in the future, there won’t be enough parking at the station.
“The housing is great,” she said. “The five-year timeline (for development) helps. I’m excited about having the library at the station. The ratio (of parking to housing) is the concerning part. Ideally, you’d have all the parking and all the housing.”
“Flipped from Transit to Housing”
Cassandra Duggan, a BART commuter and Kensington resident, told BART reps she’d like to send a message to decision makers at BART.
“BART has flipped its mandate from transit to housing,” she said. “Its biggest mandate should be ridership. The loss of parking will decrease ridership. I bet if you survey ridership of the residents once this building is full, about 10% of them will be using BART.”
Bikeability and Landscaping
Carrie Schulman, who lives near the station, said she mostly takes BART on weekends.
“My biggest concern is the bikeability around the station – the greenway, a bike route to the library, and the landscaping,” Schulman said. “I’m okay with temporary obstructions. I’m very focused on the long game.”
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