East Side plan gets approval in San Carlos

In a 4-1 vote, the council approved an East Side Innovation District Vision Plan, a guiding document drafted over nine months by staff in partnership with the firm Perkins&Will which aims to capture various community benefits residents would like to see developed in the area.

Councilmembers agreed to dedicate more than $500,000 to studying the Innovation District after recognizing a strong development interest growing in the area. The interest included 10 project proposals predominantly from life science developers that amounted to nearly 2 million square feet of office space being submitted for city review. 

Now complete, the plan focuses on “10 Big Moves” developers will be tasked with helping bring to life including adding more open space, developing a Green Boulevard down Industrial Road, improving Pulgas Creek, reducing traffic congestion, growing a vibrant business hub and supporting environmental initiatives such as recycled water infrastructure and toxin removal from soils. 

But councilmembers, commissioners and the public have pointed to a major hole in the plan, a lack of strong references to housing. The missing priority led Councilmember John Dugan to vote against approving the plan after failing to rally enough council support to postpone the vote while additional work was done to improve the document. 

“I do think housing remains the elephant in the room as we’re considering this plan,” Dugan said following similar comments from a number of community members during public comment including former Councilmember Mark Olbert and Sandy Nierenberg, chair of the Transportation and Circulation Commission. 

Housing solutions 

Dugan argued housing, specific mixed-use developments, should be included as one of the 10 Big Moves rather than listed under other priority goals. The plan calls for staff to consider studying the potential for housing in specific areas near the Caltrain station, Old County Road and Terminal Way. 

Though the public and city officials have long expressed concerns for housing, substantial development destined for the district have increased worries, given the thousands of jobs the projects are anticipated to bring to the city. 

Planning Manager Lisa Porras noted that the city is currently undergoing its Housing Element process, a state mandated study that requires cities to identify how they will accommodate new housing goals set by the state through a Regional Housing Needs Allocation. For its share, San Carlos will likely be expected to welcome roughly 2,700 new homes by 2030.

Al Savay, Community and Economic Development director, said that document is better suited to address housing concerns because it permits the council to make zoning changes while the vision plan does not. 

City Manager Jeff Maltbie also noted that the city had planned for an influx of development in the East Side to create about 9,000 new jobs by 2030 when creating its 2009 General Plan.

Councilmember Ron Collins, who initially was opposed to undergoing the study, praised the document and sided with staff on the housing matter. Collins argued the two documents could complement each other rather than being “mutually exclusive” and questioned assertions the vision plan would undermine the Housing Element. 

“The East Side Vision Plan has sort of become a moving target,” Collins said. “We need to keep our focus so we don’t lose sight of what we’re trying to accomplish.” 

Speaking to the original justification behind developing the plan, Parmer-Lohan agreed with Collins and noted the document was intended to assess future development impacts and equip the city with ideas for how to mitigate those effects. 

Final changes

Both councilmembers also suggested that some industrial uses and the toxins that have been embedded in the soils could make the area incompatible with housing at the moment. 

Despite warnings from City Attorney Greg Rubens that the officials should “make sure we stay in our lane,” when it comes to jurisdictional authority over requiring developers to meet environmental standards, councilmembers did largely agree that the document could take a stronger stance on environmental protections.

Their consensus resulted in the final collection of changes made to the document before its approval, including the addition of language directing staff to study how far the city can legally push for environmental protections before any projects are formally approved in the area. 

They also directed staff to consider hiring or appointing an expert to be the lead on the legal questions. Staff was also directed to study and return with information around biosafety levels. 

“This was such a heavy lift. We can’t forget that we launched this vision plan during the height of budget cutbacks and the pandemic so this was really an amazing plan to put together over the last nine months,” Vice Mayor Sara McDowell said. 

Wayfinding; new committee 

In other business, the council approved a call for bids for the development of a citywide wayfinding and gateway sign project. As drafted, a total of 136 signs will be distributed across the city, placing the city’s name in key areas in the town and guiding cars, bikes and pedestrians through streets and toward parking.

The bidding process will open on Nov. 23. The contract is expected to be awarded in January with installation completed by May of 2022. 

The council also established an Employee Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee to which Parmer-Lohan appointed McDowell as an executive councilmember and Dugan whose legal expertise she said could be a benefit to the team. 

Councilmember Adam Rak had initially recommended the council form the committee during the previous meeting in which $2,000 bonuses were approved for staff as a sign of appreciation for working through the pandemic. 

Rak argued the bonuses failed to adequately address other staffing concerns that were either driving employees to leave the city or failed to attract new employees. Ultimately, the rest of the council supported his suggestion to create a committee to dive deeper into the issues. 

sierra@smdailyjournal.com 

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