Our organizations support the redevelopment plan because the reuse of Bay Meadows race track will provide many benefits to the city of San Mateo. This plan benefits the Peninsula, and even the greater Bay Area as well, by providing 1,250 homes in a mixed-use development adjacent to a Caltrain Baby Bullet stop. More houses built in already developed areas, close to offices, restaurants and other services, mean less driving. This results in a reduction in air and water pollution and is the most reasonable approach to housing the growing California population. 

The alternative is to build houses in Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus or San Benito counties, consuming productive farm and wild lands. Few in the community disagree that these lands are more appropriate for growing food or for wildlife than exurban tract sprawl housing. Infill developments like Bay Meadows II help prevent such sprawl and resource destruction.

The Bay Meadows II project is an example of a successful community planning process in which community members had extensive opportunity to help envision and control the outcome of the project plan. This planning process included five years of meetings with participation by two citizen advisory committees, the Planning Commission and the City Council. There was ample opportunity for individual communication with Commission and Council members during the process. Our organizations commend the city and community participants for their involvement in this process, and we would like to see their hard work and community dialogue result in a vibrant, new neighborhood for San Mateo.

We recognize that our work to plan and advocate for housing in San Mateo County is just beginning. Therefore, our organizations will recommit ourselves to engaging the community in dialogue. We will hold ongoing forums about land use here, including and relating both the topics of its preservation and sustainable development in San Mateo while improving our quality of life.

Our broad-based coalition supports compact, mixed-use developments like Bay Meadows that provide affordable housing choices located near public transit, designed to promote walking and biking, constructed to green-building standards that involve the maximum amount of community planning. By engaging the community on growth and development issues, we hope to portray the benefits of this type of development for the Peninsula, while holding discussion that allows for all related issues.

Please join us to participate in a community forum on growth and sustainable development in May that our coalition, as well as other local organizations, will convene as part of “Affordable Housing Week,” May 13-20, 2006. This annual Housing Leadership Council event will address environmental, social, economic, ‘quality of life’ and political implications of growth in San Mateo. We can direct and work with planners and developers to improve our quality of life here, while we address the needs of the future generations. Let us work together to set our goals and visions for our community.

Karen Maki is chair of the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club. Mark Moulton is president of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County.