Belmont moves forward with community benefits program

The community benefits discussion also accelerated in part due to Stanford University’s plans to enter into an option-to-purchase with Notre Dame de Namur University. The 30-year agreement would have resulted in the university developing housing and academic buildings on the 46-acre site but Stanford announced it was backing out of the plan Feb. 24.

The move means the city won’t reap the same level of community benefits it initially intended on receiving, but it has still made a push toward boosting not just residential development but commercial as well. A couple of the largest already approved developments in the pipeline will be the city’s largest yet and likely house life science firms.

Assistant City Manager Kathy Kleinbaum said based on the city’s current needs, community benefits from developers should go toward recreation opportunities — such as access to sports fields and parks — child care, city operations and public infrastructure.

“Public infrastructure is a very broad bucket, which includes everything from roadway improvements, stormwater improvements, transportation or bike lanes,” Kleinbaum said.

Staff also suggested a category dedicated to the reconstruction of the Barrett Community Center, which has been in need of a significant update. Located on Belburn Drive, it offers an array of classes, child care and after-school programs and previously lived a past life as an elementary school, which the city took over in the 1980s. But the structure, built in the 1950s, is in need of extensive updates, including earthquake and fire safety standard changes.

Councilmembers unanimously approved the community benefits options.

“The ones that touch my heart the most are ones that work towards increasing the public’s ability to come together and to be with one another, so the community center is particularly of interest and public recreation opportunities also,” Councilmember Robin Pang-Maganaris said. “How do we decrease feelings of loneliness and increase connection?”