THE BERKELEY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Bay Terraces/Lower Santa Clara Valley setting.
Berkeley city has 10.4 square miles of land in Alameda County. Its Census reference point is in Bay Terraces/Lower Santa Clara Valley, within Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains.
Oak woodland, chaparral and grassland occupy foothills and low coastal mountains around the Central Valley. Narrow agricultural valleys interrupt this landscape of dry summers and wetter winters.
Regional context: Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ↗ · Classification at the Census reference point
Berkeley and Alameda County
Berkeley is associated with Alameda County in the Census boundary data. Start with the parcel’s tax bill to match the property to that jurisdiction, then confirm which government handles its land use.
Berkeley by land and water
The Census records 7.23 square miles of water within Berkeley, or 40.9% of its total area. It is 30.7 percentage points higher than the 10.2% recorded for Alameda County. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Berkeley city has 8.2 times the land area of nearby Emeryville city (1.27 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.

