Millbrae BART station development skids to halt

Local governments are killing growth with such huge permit fees. Turning into Oakland and SF in terms of fairness. They want political correctness in the terms of our money for their soul!! kalifornia

Housing prices are a function of supply and demand. Instead of focusing on building "affordable" housing, just build housing. With BART & Caltrain at the same station, this is the perfect place to build. Just do it.

Perhaps this developer is taking his cues from San Mateo City Council's recent huge giveaway to developers there - they let $5 million in impact fees slide.

Yeah right, The city is saying "We're not sure you're going to build the affordable housing, so we're imposing conditions that might make it impossible to build anything at all" How about instead of being an adversary to affordable housing the City of Millbrae and Staff starts being an ally!?! Follow your own housing element, issue the impact fee waivers and get this show on the road. This is shameful

Affordable housing is anything but affordable.

The city of Millbrae needs to take advantage of its strategic location: proximity to San Francisco and also the to the Silicon Valley via the the Millbrae transit hub, which is the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi. The best way to really take advantage of this is to establish this through transit oriented housing. Opposing new housing is in effect opposing its associated gentrification, which will in effect will suppress potential increases in Millbrae real estate values.

A big political problem is that 100% of these units are rentals. The development sits on Bart owned and leased land. That is horrible for Millbrae as a city for a few reasons. A nearly 20% population growth in a city, all within a single location. All of these more than 4000 new potential residence within the site plan, will all be people who do not own or have a significant fiscal investment in the city other than a rental deposit and a rental residency agreement with the company running the rentals. The current percentage of people living in rentals versus personally owned homes in Millbrae is around 40% to 60%. This will change to nearly 50:50 with just this site (Rent control fights will likely be just around the corner if this happens). The site is directly in the path of the central access to Millbrae from Highway 101 having a negative impact on getting in and out of the city for the existing residents, not to mention it's impact on foot traffic and bicyclist going through the area. There are no planned parks within the development for the new residents. The city will get a financial bolus of property taxes in the beginning to help cover most of the costs associated with the development, however with a single land owner and prop 13, the change in property tax will be limited to a slow crawl, while multiple individually owned units turning over at the average 6% per year would generate a much more substantial tax growth to keep up with the rising costs surrounding a high density housing unit that will degrade over time. 100% rentals will also I will argue degrade much much faster than that which is owned and managed by a large group of homeowner associated private owners. This is going to be a city slum within 20 years. It will eventually, likely cost the city more than it will be making in property taxes from it. It's a really really bad deal for the existing residents of Millbrae. It will dramatically shift politics and culture for the city as well as bring in long term headache. If all they did was force Bart to sell the property to the developer and require the developer to sell the units instead of buy the units, well then at least the majority of risks would be attenuated.

This is a severely flawed development for Millbrae. The total site plan will lead to more than 4000 new residents who are all 100% renters. While there is nothing wrong with being a renter per se. This is nearly 20% growth in the population of Millbrae in a single site and a major shift in the owner to renter ratio for the city. It changes Millbrae from nearly 60% to 40% homeowners to renter residents, to a nearly 50:50 of owners to renters, and with voting age within renters household being a greater percent per household than that of homeowners who have more underage children, Rent control and a fight for its implementation are very very likely to follow.
It is a reality that renters are less financially vested in both the home they live in and the community around them. They will also be much more likely to vote for Parcel taxes that are placed on the existing home owners around them. Politically it will dramatically change Millbrae and severely impact the existing residents. It is not a win for the current population of Millbrae as a whole. Particularly the existing property owners.
In addition, a 100% rental complex is more likely to degrade much faster than a mixed ownership (Homeowner's association) maintained complex. Single property owner under the current plan with prop 13 will however simultaneously lock in all 100% of units into low property tax growth, while individual unit ownership would instead with long term, generate much better sustainable growth in property taxes (with even the average 6% annual turnover, this in 20 years will be Millions of dollars in difference for the city).
Eventually with low property tax growth and high potential for fast degradation of the complex, this development will likely be a bigger liability than benefit for the city of Millbrae in the long term.
The site of this property also will impact local traffic severely, as it is within the single major access point from 101 into and out of Millbrae. It will negatively affect pedestrian and bicycle traffic to a very serious degree around the development which is the major corridor. There are also no planned parks designed to be within the development at all. None. There is no police sub-station planned around the high density area either.
This development has a huge potential for strong negative impact on the existing residents of Millbrae. It does not provide major long term benefits to the city and potential for major long term problems.
If all the developer and Bart did was to have Bart sell the land to the Developer and require the developer to sell the units instead of rent them, then the majority of these problems would be attenuated. Some things like traffic, parks, law enforcement and other direct impacts around the area will still need the mentioned fees to help mitigate the other major issues.
Changing the lease to a sale would most assuredly change the conversation and palatability, but the fees are still needed.

No taxpayers' money should be used period. If a developer cannot make money without it, its a bad plan.

Waste of taxpayers money, the project is just too expensive and creates bad impact to the Bart site.

This proposal is not asking for funds from the City of Millbrea, in fact it is contributing millions in impact fees for the entire project, and every year will generate $1.2 Million in surplus tax revenue to the Millbrea General Fund beyond what is projected to cost to service the project. What the proposal IS asking for - and which is included in Millbrea's housing element - is the waiver of development fees on the Affordable Housing component of the project. This is a common practice and necessary in qualifying for the use of San Mateo County Measure K funds. The anti-renter rhetoric in these comments is mis-placed and mis-informed. People need places to live, and just because housing prices are out of reach to buy, does not make these people any less deserving to be your neighbors and members of the community. This proposal is sorely needed and when it comes into fruition I am sure many Millbrae homeowners will benefit from the added shopping and public spaces, bike and pedestrian pathways and overall much better station experience generated by this project.

The underlying issue is that Millbrae is not a long term fiscally viable city.
Even in an unsustainably strong economy, like the current one, Millbrae only survives with continued long term delays and denials of crumbling streets and sewer infrastructure while they require bond issues to support public pensions.
Millbrae will be close to formal bankruptcy during the next recession.
This reality is causing them to reach for the unreasonable on projects like this one.
Unfortunately, it is very likely too late.

A large complicated project like this is a stepwise process during which many interlocking and interdependent agreements are made between multiple interests. The City of Millbrae through its Plan Department has set out many of its own requirements for Millbrae's benefit, all of which have costs carried by the builder. The concept of an affordable component is an integral part of the project and a requirement having been agreed on by all parties including Millbrae. This sort of thing is made possible by BART who is contributing the land, grants from other public agencies and a major contribution from the builder. Funds for affordable housing from San Mateo County through Prop K are available, but rightfully require that the local municipality also be a contributor. The City of Millbrae and its citizens will be the greatest and most direct public beneficiary of the Gateway project. It is only right that the City of Millbrae should contribute its fair share.