Belmont draws nearer to final long-range plans

The draft environmental review released June 30 sought to estimate the effects of several proposed changes, including the city’s first General Plan update in 35 years. The report also covers new rules setting development standards for a more centralized downtown, as well as zoning for stretches of El Camino Real and areas east of Highway 101 where new development is expected in the coming years. The plan updates are also accompanied by a climate action plan aimed at reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Community Development Director Carlos de Melo said city officials are hoping to get as much feedback from the public on the draft environmental assessment as possible before Friday’s deadline for the public comment period.

“We are looking to listen tonight,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We are looking to hear what the public has to say about the draft [environmental impact report].”

He said city officials would spend September incorporating feedback gathered from residents as they draft final plan documents, which would go up for review at fall Planning Commission and City Council meetings, some three years after work on the plan updates began.

Resident Kevin Burke expressed concern the proposed changes would make way for more jobs in the city than housing units. Burke said he and other renters have felt rising rents in Belmont would only get worse as neighboring Peninsula cities adopt plans similarly favoring office space over housing units. 

“It’s really not clear where those extra people are going to live and commute from,” he said, of the potential for the plans to add employees.

Having seen friends and family members move away from the city as the cost of living has risen, he encouraged city officials to require additional affordable housing units in the plans as a way of keeping renters in Belmont.

Diane Bailey, a resident of the city’s Sterling Downs neighborhood, said she supported the increase in downtown density included in the plans, adding she has often opted to visit nearby cities’ downtowns because she felt Belmont’s center lacked a true downtown.

“We would like to see more density downtown and I think this plan’s a great start,” she said.

She said she hoped city officials would consider increasing the density even further to accommodate more housing units at a mix of affordability levels above downtown retail stores.

“We do need to our part to alleviate the housing crunch,” Bailey said.

Mary Morrissey Parden, a board member of the Belmont Chamber of Commerce, said she hoped the plans, especially those outlining a vision for the city’s downtown, would loosen development standards and allow for more aesthetic diversity in downtown structures.

Annette Garcia, who started skating in Belmont as a child, asked city officials to consider making provisions for specific types of recreation, such as ice skating, in the plans. From years of experience as a skating instructor, Garcia said she learned skating offers a rich extracurricular activity for many students who don’t identify with other sports.

“I know recreation is an important part of planning a city,” she said. “If you don’t have recreation for people of all ages, you have unhappy people.”

Though Planning Commissioners withheld comments on the draft environmental assessment Tuesday, they are slated to provide feedback in the fall when the documents come back for adoption, at which time additional public hearings will be held.

Visit belmont-2035generalplan.com/home for more information on the efforts to update Belmont’s long-range plans. Email cdemelo@belmont.gov to submit written comments on the draft environmental assessment before Friday, Aug. 18.

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