Bayshore condo plan approved in Redwood City

“This is a great project, and I fully support it,” Councilmember Chris Sturken said. “Thank you for your hard work making it happen.” 

The developer behind the plan, Regis Homes Bay Area, is also offering to help buyers of the BMR units with closing costs and other fees and to provide a $50,000 donation to the Redwood City Education Foundation. Another $500,000 will be paid in park fees and $300,000 in infrastructure fees. 

Homes will range in size from two- to four-bedroom units, a feature strongly supported by councilmembers. Each unit will come with a two-car garage and additional guest parking will be on-site for a total of 119 units. Another five public parking spots will also be available. 

In addition to improving the sidewalk along East Bayshore Road, a 14-foot-wide bike and pedestrian path would also be built out along the edge of the site overlooking the Smith Slough. The Bay Trail runs along the slough and between the existing trail and the new housing site would be a setback of about 22 feet of vegetation meant to protect the site from sea-level rise. The site would also be raised 5 feet to harden it against rising waterlines and a sea wall could be raised another 3 feet in the future if necessary. 

The proposal has been in the works since 2018, with the development team meeting with a variety of groups including the Cair Island Neighborhood Association. Representatives from the neighborhood association spoke out in favor of the project Monday, saying they appreciated being looped in on the process early on and they liked that the project would create an appealing site to see when entering and exiting the neighborhood. 

“We support it totally, we’re excited to see it happen,” Jim Crampton, association co-chair, said. 

Crampton and councilmembers did express concerns about traffic impacts as more development comes to the area. Councilmember Alicia Aguirre encouraged the team to consider emergency situations as they build out improvements and Councilmember Diane Howard said more thought could be put into pedestrian and bicycle safety. 

Ultimately, the council approved the proposal and the waivers and approvals it needs to move forward including a general plan and zoning map amendment, vesting tentative map, environmental report and affordable housing plan approvals and condominium and architectural permits.

“I think this is wonderful and it’s a little amount but if we keep doing little things like this we’re going to make a difference,” Howard said. “If our surrounding communities would do just a little bit we’d be able to make a real dent.” 

The project is the first of eight Gatekeeper projects to be approved. Those projects were considered at a single time given that all would need a general plan amendment and most would also need a Downtown Precise Plan amendment. 

As part of that process, the council agreed to certify an environmental impact report that reviewed increasing the maximum amount of new office development allowed downtown by 1.1 million square feet and residential space by 830 units. 

The amendments will also allow for research and development labs of biosafety level 1 and 2 to be built downtown and in buildings that also include housing while higher levels 3 and 4 will be banned from downtown.