Dive Brief:

• In Berkeley, California, a petition drive is seeking to make the rigorous "Green Pathways" development process and its extensive requirements mandatory for anything above 60 feet in the downtown district, which may kill a hotel proposal.
• The Pathways route requires, among many other things, that buildings achieve LEED Platinum status, and it is now optional for developers who want to trade environmental accommodations for fast-track approvals.
• On the firing line is a 180-foot-high hotel that needs to be built with a 10-foot setback to get enough rooms to make it feasible, but the Pathways would make it include 15-foot setbacks.

Dive Insight:

There also is a 17-story apartment building being planned that Pathways would affect. One city council member who is on board with the restrictions says the petition campaign is not about stopping development. It is, Jesse Arreguín says, only a way to compel developers to give the downtown area more benefits in return for being permitted.