In stark distinction to transit-oriented hubs being deliberate throughout the Bay Space, Palo Alto leaders are encouraging a whole bunch of recent high-density models alongside Freeway 101 and San Antonio Highway — one of many least developed neighborhoods on the outskirts of town.
The Palo Alto Metropolis Council this previous week loosened top limits and different guidelines to approve over 1,400 new properties there, priming the realm for a building growth that might assist town meet its state-mandated aim of constructing 6,000 new properties by 2031.
Prior to now month, the council has authorised two massive housing initiatives on San Antonio Highway and have mentioned loosening guidelines within the space to construct a brand new neighborhood, all of the whereas getting pushback from some residents who're cautious of how undeveloped the realm is: retail is scarce, public transportation is nearly non-existent and it’s removed from town’s extra in style districts.
Nonetheless Palo Alto leaders have made clear that the San Antonio Highway and Transport Avenue space is the place housing can be constructed sooner or later — not its historic hubs at College and California Avenues — and elevated the allowable models per acre from 32 to 90 in a 5-1 vote on Aug. 22, with Lydia Kou dissenting and Alison Cormack recused.
For years the Palo Alto council has been hesitant of constructing housing on the Caltrain hall due to the chance of NIMBY pushback, forcing metropolis leaders to seek for appropriate housing websites within the metropolis’s outer neighborhoods the place land can also be cheaper.
Acknowledging the challenges of constructing within the space, Councilman Eric Filseth urged the council to be aggressive with growth alongside San Antonio Highway and improve the models allowable per acre. He mentioned the discussions metropolis leaders are having with property house owners within the space, neighboring cities and VTA can occur “parallel” to housing building.
“We’re going to must go aggressive right here on growth requirements,” Filseth mentioned. “The worst case is that we put a bit of little bit of housing right here and it’s not sufficient to herald all the opposite stuff we wish to occur like retail and transportation. We’ve received to have sufficient density right here that it drives the remaining.”
However whereas council members rezoned the San Antonio Highway space, in addition they tabled a proposal to show a website adjoining to the College Avenue Caltrain station into 270 flats — part of city already rife with retail, transportation and different companies.
In comparison with different main Bay Space cities, Palo Alto’s housing technique is exclusive, housing advocates say.
Berkeley, Oakland and different cities have pegged a whole bunch of recent housing models close to current transit corridors like BART to fight the housing disaster and cope with local weather change, lowering the variety of automobiles on the street by encouraging walkability and entry to transportation. San Jose is constructing the most important transit-oriented growth within the area, a scheme that may remodel the west aspect from parking tons into an city village — dwelling to 1000's and which facilities Caltrain as a key associate.
Whereas different cities are placing their current transit corridors to raised use, Palo Alto leaders are ranging from scratch on the fringe of city.
“Slightly than being attentive to group suggestions that housing close to the Caltrain stations is most fascinating and wanted, Palo Alto is as an alternative planning to shunt density to the outskirts of town,” mentioned Kelsey Banes, a Palo Alto housing advocate. “Whereas 40 models per acre is the utmost density at present deliberate close to Palo Alto’s resource-rich downtowns, manufacturing areas could be slated for 90 models per acre — concentrating density in areas with much less entry to public transit and few walkable facilities comparable to grocery shops and neighborhood-serving retail.”
Banes added that new neighborhoods alongside San Antonio Highway additionally may have “larger publicity to air pollution from automobiles and industrial makes use of,” and famous “this southeast nook of town additionally has a larger susceptibility to flooding and sea-level rise.”
For Katie Causey, group engagement supervisor for the non-profit Palo Alto Ahead, town’s determination to place housing on the south aspect is private. She grew up and lived off of Greer Park by Freeway 101 and whereas she helps town constructing new housing there, she additionally needs Palo Alto to construct extra housing in its downtown areas close to transit as properly.
“I cherished rising up in that neighborhood I used to be strolling distance to my elementary college and the Baylands, however not a lot else, and lots of that space just isn't protected for pedestrians,” Causey mentioned. “I truly moved from that neighborhood to downtown Palo Alto a couple of years in the past as a result of despite the fact that the downtown lease was dearer, it was less expensive total to reside downtown. Dwelling off 101 you mainly must personal a automobile which I couldn’t afford, the bus cease is usually a half-hour stroll away, similar to the grocery retailer. Now I reside downtown — a number of grocery shops are inside strolling distance, and I’m by the practice and a number of bus stops. It’s like a unique metropolis.”
In an interview after the council’s determination, Filseth mentioned including extra housing on San Antonio street is “by far the low- automobile miles traveled answer.” The neighborhood, he mentioned, is likely one of the few “actually underutilized areas of Palo Alto: principally older and comparatively sparser, and cheaper, than different areas comparable to College Avenue.”
“Job progress within the South Bay is now concentrated in two areas: downtown San Jose, and the North Bayshore space of Mountain View and Sunnyvale,” Filseth mentioned. “So if workforce housing and minimal regional VMT are targets, that is the logical place to densify — it’s the place the roles are going. Some transportation work is probably going wanted, however basically redevelopment right here makes an excessive amount of sense.”