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A second-year UC Berkeley undergraduate took his seat Wednesday night as Berkeley’s youngest-ever planning commissioner. 

Appointed by Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, Joseph Fireman is the first student ever named as a sitting member of the panel. 

“Six students have served as commissioner for one night, and one served for two nights, but he is the first to serve as a full-time commissioner,” Worthington told planning commissioners when he introduced his appointment. 

“I appointed him because when I sat down with him and asked very detailed questions, he gave me stunningly detailed and considerate answers,” Worthington said. 

Fireman replaces Rob Wrenn. 

Also joining the panel for the first time was Helen Burke, appointed by Councilmember Linda Maio to fill the seat vacated by Zelda Bronstein. 

Burke, who graduated UC Berkeley with a degree in planning, served 17 years with the Environmental Protection Agency. A member of the Sierra Club, she has been active in the movement to daylight the city’s creeks. 

“I’m glad to be getting back to my planning roots,” she told her fellow commissioners. 

During a meeting that lasted less than an hour, commissioners enacted three sets of minor wording changes to clarify existing zoning laws and delayed acting on a fourth at the request of current Planning Manager Mark Rhoades. 

The commission also agreed to vote on the zoning overlay to the University Avenue Plan on Oct. 12 without a preceding public hearing. 

On that same date commissioners will hold a public workshop on proposed zoning ordinance amendments on parking requirements raised by the Mayor’s Permitting Task Force. 

The most controversial item on the agenda wasn’t up for formal action. 

After the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) spent four grueling years hammering out proposed amendments in the city’s landmark ordinance and zoning ordinance mandated by the Permit Streamlining Act, the fate of their work now rests in the hands of the planners. 

Carrie Olson, landmarks chair during the revisions, Becky O’Malley, former commissioner, and preservation activists John English and John McBride urged planning commissioners to adopt the proposals. O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet. 

“These represent a really complex package, a very delicately balanced compromise,” English said of the proposals. 

“Let’s take a look at what we’ve got,” said McBride, who attended most of the sessions of the LPC subcommittee that drafted the proposals. “It would be really great to see it move forward. It satisfies what the state requires to bring about prompt handling, and the zoning amendments really do matter to make it truly effective.” 

The Planning Commission indicated a strong desire to hold both a public workshop and public hearings before enacting any revision, and Rhoades said the earliest possible date for either would be Oct. 27. 

While Rhoades suggested conducting a hearing before the workshop, commissioners seemed more inclined to do the reverse.