Flurry of new developments for San Mateo

The city has seen one of the highest influxes of multifamily residential development applications in the last two years in the county. Much of that is a result of Measure T, which was passed in November 2024 and amended the city’s previous five-story building limit. Now, several parts of the city, including transit-rich corridors like downtown have higher building caps that make it easier for developers to build denser and taller buildings.

Most recently, new developments totaling over 1,100 housing units have been proposed since the end of December. Three of them are on El Camino Real — one at 1700 S. El Camino Real at Borel Avenue, another at 2820 S. El Camino Real near 28th Avenue and one at 1990 S. El Camino Real at the corner of 20th Avenue and El Camino Real. The one at 1700 El Camino Real, would comprise two eight-story buildings totaling 441 units, with 188 units reserved for affordable senior housing. 

The 477 E. Hillsdale Blvd. site of the now-closed Hillsdale Inn will convert to a seven-story, 276-unit building, another proposal at 4095 Pacific Blvd. would comprise a six-story building with 202 rental units, according to current plans, and there may be a 83-unit residential building at a current office building at 2555 Flores St., just off 25th Avenue, in the near future as well. 

Rick Bonilla, San Mateo resident and former mayor, said the influx of proposals is a long time coming after years of stalled growth. 

“It’s something the city didn’t arrive at easily,” Bonilla said, citing the many applications that were rejected. “Sadly, many people lived the good life way too long, killing projects they didn’t like. … I understand people don’t like change, and I get it, but they fail to get the full context of everyone’s needs.”

Other large-scale projects have been newly submitted or amended over the past year and a half, including Hillsdale Shopping Center redevelopment, which will replace the mall with 1,670 new housing units and retail and office buildings. Two new single-family home neighborhoods are in the works — one is taking over an office park on South Amphlett Boulevard and the other will replace the office campus on Clearview Way, which houses GoPro offices. The parking lot and shopping center on Concar Drive will be redeveloped to make room for nearly 850 new housing units and commercial space. 

While the spike in applications has been a welcome change for many housing advocates, some residents want to ensure there is more thought given to necessary surrounding infrastructure to accommodate the growth — to ensure pedestrian safety, especially on El Camino Real — enhanced design and access to public spaces. 

“One challenge with a lot of these places … is that it takes up public and private space, and a lot of the area is getting cut off, so making sure people can walk through that with a public amenity, like a promenade or a nice entryway, would be good,” resident Thomas Morgan said. 

And despite a couple of new single-family home developments proposed, the majority of units are rental units, often comprising studio to two-bedroom units.

“The unit mix is always a concern,” he said. “You can live in a one-bedroom for a while, but if you want to grow and stay in San Mateo, it’s kind of hard if that’s all that’s being built.”

Just because the development applications have been submitted doesn’t mean they’ll all be constructed. Developers have been crawling out of a tough lending market for the last couple years, leaving several planned projects, like downtown’s Block 21, on hold while they wait on financing. 

About eight projects are in the preliminary application stage, with over a dozen residential applications under review, according to the city’s website.