Belmont’s District 2 council candidates highlight plans

But the two District 2 candidates have limited council experience. Cathy Jordan, a 25-year Belmont resident, currently serves as vice president of the Mid-Peninsula Water District and also served on the City Council in 2014. Ken Loo has lived in Belmont for several years and is a Contra Costa County firefighter, as well as board member of the Belmont-Redwood Shores Little League.

Belmont-Stanford University plan

Stanford University entered into an option-to-purchase agreement with Belmont’s Notre Dame de Namur University several years ago, and it has been partnering with the city on developing a special zoning district to allow for a range of uses, such as academic buildings and housing facilities.

While the specific building and construction details are yet to be determined, Stanford is proposing about 50 to 200 housing units on the 46-acre site — for students as well as university employees — among other changes.

Both candidates are generally supportive of the plan and the positive impacts it will have on residents, but noted that mitigating traffic congestion is a main concern.

Jordan said Stanford’s developments will also affect how the city updates the Barrett Community Center, which is in the early planning stages of a full revamp, given its outdated building structure.

“What community benefits can we work with Stanford on to get for our community, as well as for their students who will be a part of the Belmont community?” Jordan said.

Loo said he would mostly work with Stanford to ensure it doesn’t worsen congestion.

“The biggest impact on myself and my neighbors is primarily traffic,” he said.

Parks and recreation

Loo said his motivation to run is based largely on his experiences with the city over its management of sports field access and infrastructure. He said he feels it does not properly allocate funds to the city’s sports fields, which his experience as a Little League board member further reinforced.

“We have funds, but they’re not doing the incremental infrastructure changes to the fields as we can do them,” he said, citing an incident when the Little League offered the city funds to fix lighting issues at one field.

The city replied that it does not allow a pay-to-play system, he said, meaning it wouldn’t accept outside funding and couldn’t fix the lighting until it had enough money to do so for all fields.

“If we have the funds, why don’t we do incremental changes?” Loo said.

Jordan said she is also concerned with limited sports league access and infrastructure needs as well, especially when there is inclement weather, as it results in a full shutdown of all fields — even if only one or two are impacted. But she said the city is doing a good job of implementing new changes for future seasons and is wary of a system that would allow private organizations to pay for infrastructure changes.

“If one organization can afford to put lights and another organization can’t afford to put lights, it does cause some concern with the other organizations … and it does become a fairness thing,” Jordan said.

Budget and economic development

Jordan said she is hopeful a revamped community center and the redevelopment of the Harbor Industrial Area will bring much-needed revenue to the city. Voters will also decide this November whether to increase its business license tax, which will also impact the city’s financial standing.

Such efforts are critical in the wake of unpredictable property-tax-in-lieu-of-vehicle license fee revenue, she said. The vehicle license fees are generated by cities but kept by the state and subsequently reimbursed to local jurisdictions. However, the state has oftentimes withheld, or stated it plans to withhold, the revenue, causing concern for many San Mateo County jurisdictions.

“The budget is stable right now, but it is something we need to be cautious about,” she said. “The [VLF] is not something we can count on, but it is something we need to continue to partner with our other government agencies on and work with our assemblymembers and senators to try to fight the good fight.”

The city estimates a $1.3 million surplus for the current fiscal year, which started in July.

Loo said he has unaddressed concerns about the city’s budget, particularly the fire district funds for operational costs.

“There are flaws in the numbers that I don’t necessarily agree with,” he said. “If elected in the city, I’d have the numbers clarified, the budget’s cleaned up and the public access for the records a little bit more detailed.”

While it is important to look at ways to generate revenue, he said he’d like to “clean up the books first.”

Harbor Industrial Area

Belmont has had a long-standing plan to annex and redevelop the Harbor Industrial Area, a 62-acre unincorporated site situated west of Highway 101 and east of El Camino Real that mostly contains industrial businesses, as well as the Belmont Trailer Park. According to a recent staff report, about 3.9 million square feet of new commercial development is proposed in the area, on top of the current 1.3 million square feet of nonresidential use. About 325,000 square feet, or 303 units, of new residential use is proposed.

Jordan said she thinks the redevelopment plan is a critical way to boost economic development, as the site will likely include more life science firms and retail businesses.

“We still have things that we need to pay for like pension obligations and things that keep going up, so having an opportunity to have additional revenue come into the city is something that is exciting,” she said. “I am looking forward to seeing a more vibrant area in the HIA.”

Environment and infrastructure

Loo said one of his top priorities would be to improve sidewalks and make the city as walkable as possible.

“One of the key things I want to work on is basically making it safer for our kids to walk. I’d love for my kids to be able to walk to Barrett Community Center,” Loo said.

Jordan added that she wants to improve open space and park access, not just for youth leagues but also for residents wanting to walk and ride bikes. She added that she feels confident the city can preserve its open spaces and quaint atmosphere while boosting housing production and much-needed commercial development at the same time.

Both candidates said they’d also favor a gradual, phased-in approach to all-electric mandates, rather than outright bans.

The election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.