After a recent round of studies, Foster City officials have concluded that a proposed residential development known as Pilgrim Triton Phase C will have a manageable impact on traffic congestion, schools and utilities — three areas of concern expressed by some residents in the past.
And with respect to traffic specifically, officials claim the latest residential proposal will result in significantly fewer car trips than offices, which the city previously entitled developer Sares Regis to construct on the site.
Staff presented the findings, outlined in an addendum to the environmental impact report, at a Planning Commission meeting July 19. The commission postponed its vote on the proposal to a meeting scheduled for August because Commissioner Noemi Avram was absent. The City Council will cast its final vote on the project in August as well.
Sares Regis is proposing to construct 70 market-rate townhomes for sale in addition to a building with 22 below-market-rate units reserved for first responders and other city employees so more of them can live in town. The developer will also finish building a half-complete park located on site as part of the project. Phase C is the last major development in the Pilgrim Triton Master Plan area located south of State Route 92 near Costco.
Fourteen of the 22 workforce housing units would rented at very low-, low- and moderate-income levels and the other eight units would be rented at below-market rates that are higher than the moderate-income level. In other words, all 22 units would be restricted up to 130 percent of area median income, while market-rate rents today are closer to 175 percent to 200 percent of median income, said David Hopkins, Sares Regis’ chief operating officer, residential development.
Concerns
Bob Cushman, of the group Foster City Residents for Responsible Development, has been an outspoken critic of the latest housing proposal and its impacts. He said the previous plan to build mostly commercial space in Phase C would allow the Pilgrim Triton area to be a “self-contained and balanced economic unit,” as residents living in the other phases would work and shop in Phase C. With only residences and no commercial or retail in Phase C, he is worried about the impacts of Pilgrim Triton residents traveling off site to work and shop.
“It will make our traffic problems worse than planned. And, it will add more school children and pressure other aspects of our city infrastructure,” he wrote in an email.
Cushman is also less than thrilled with the workforce housing component, in part because it “deprives the general community of 22 affordable units.” He doubts enough first responders would be interested in renting the units and said those workers make too much money to qualify for them.
During the meeting, Chair Dan Dyckman did request staff survey just how many city employees would be interested in the workforce units.
“It would be interesting to know what we’re approving and whether it’s affordable housing or workforce housing,” he said.
Later in the meeting, one prospective renter employed by the city praised the proposal and said workforce housing would greatly improve his quality of life.
Brandon Basa said he’s been a Foster City first responder for 12 years. Basa used to commute four hours from Manteca and later moved to Livermore, which is much closer than Manteca, but increasingly congested highways meant Basas’ commute time hardly improved. He also said his wife is a teacher for the city and commutes with their 1-year-old child from Livermore.
“[Workforce housing] would solve a lot of problems, not only take cars off the road, but would solve the teacher shortage as well and I just think if you guys were to do this for us it would mean so much for your employees and would ease traffic for residents,” he said.
Traffic
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According to the traffic analysis prepared by Kittleson & Associates, the existing entitlement for Phase C, which entails 225,943 square feet of commercial space and 17 townhome units, would generate almost 3,000 more daily and peak hour car trips than the latest, 92-unit proposal.
Consulting Planner Leslie Carmichael listed a number of nearby intersections where delays would be worse with the office entitlement compared to the housing proposal. Only the State Route 92 westbound ramps in the morning would be less congested with offices in Phase C rather than housing, she said.
“The main source of the city’s worst traffic congestion problems is not local housing development, but it’s really the impact that congestion on adjacent regional highways has on our local streets,” she said. “Affordable housing is one part of a solution to address the traffic congestion issue by making it possible for people to live closer to their jobs and not have to commute long distances on the region’s highways.”
She also said the housing that has been added to the Pilgrim Triton area over the past 11 years has “not increased traffic coming in or out of the neighborhood.”
As for impacts on schools, Carmichael said studies suggest Phase C will bring 19 additional elementary students, which can be accommodated in the new school being constructed in Charter Square, and 19 high school students. The school district confirmed there’s sufficient capacity to handle them.
Water, other impacts
She also said impacts on water were studied based on consumption at comparable developments within Foster City. The study concludes that the residential proposal would consume less water than the office entitlement. And, according to a staff report, analysis revealed sufficient water supply under “both normal and drought conditions to serve the proposed project.”
There was some concern about the loss of space for small businesses if the latest proposal were to move forward, but Hopkins said they wouldn’t be able to benefit from the current entitlement anyway.
“You can’t finance new construction of office and charge below market rents. It would be Gilead, IBM or a big corporate office that would probably occupy the entire building,” he said.
Hopkins also said it’s a “sub optimal” area for retail, in part, because of a lack of visibility.
“The retail that’s there is and will always be neighborhood retail,” he said. “It will never be national retailers that depend on high-volume sales. We felt adding more retail is not the priority there; it’s taking care of the existing retail that’s there.” Sares Regis built that existing retail and Hopkins said it was challenging to find businesses to rent those spaces.
Speaking generally about the need for housing, Hopkins noted the last housing ownership unit added in Foster City was in 1999.
“This project is substituting office, which is causing a regional issue, with housing, which is a solution to a regional issue,” he said.
(650) 344-5200 ex. 102
(7) comments
It is puzzling that some people still think that building more housing on the Peninsula will increase traffic. The worst traffic congestion, by far, is caused by people commuting from east of the bay into San Mateo County. I live in the Parkside area of San Mateo, which is hard to reach between 3:30pm-6:30pm because of the bumper-to-bumper traffic going eastbound on Hwy 92 and all the approaches to 92. The solution is obviously more housing on this side of the bay.
More housing will take cars off the highways, but add them to city streets as more people drive around living here.
Tom...there are plenty of homes and rentals available on this side of the Bay right now (over a thousand rentals in all segments - apts./townhomes/homes and a thousand homes for sale from SSF to PA)...so I don't understand your logic...do you think that building more will somehow make the commuters suddenly decide to buy on this side of the Bay?
Vincent - Hikertom is not using logic. The reason commute traffic is so heavy is too many cars on the road. Why are they there? Because due to location and schedules etc., people don't find public transit easier for them - so they drive. You want to fix that? Major corporations employing thousands of people will need to STOP forcing their employees into daily commuter slavery. Working from home is a snap with current technology. The reason to not do it or allow it are as phony as could be.
Key point of staff report is that pass-through traffic cutting through FC to get to the bridge is now the largest contributor to traffic. First time I've read that in a government report.
If it wasn’t for disinformation, there would be no information at all.
In this article about housing in Foster City, the Daily Journal reported: “Hopkins noted the last housing ownership unit added in Foster City was in 1999.” The statement is dead wrong. The most obvious and recent example are the for sale units being added and now selling (slowly) at Foster Square. The statement by Hopkins was accepted as a fact and repeated later in the Planning Commission meeting by a Commissioner who should know better.
Also, the Daily Journal article misquoted Brandon Basa [sic], a proponent of the workforce housing for public employees, by saying he was a “first responder”. He is not a member of the police or fire department. He is a maintenance worker in the public works department.
And, finally, the article shows the Daily Journal writer was taken in by the claim that the addition of 92 more housing units will result in significantly fewer car trips than the large office/commercial, which the city previously entitled the developer to construct on the site. Comparing the two uses is inappropriate, unfair and misleading.
The developer never had intentions of building the office/commercial there. They knew the office/commercial was not economically feasible when it bought the property. It still isn’t. When they bought the property they took a chance that they could get the City to allow them to swap out the office/commercial for more lucrative townhomes. This is their third attempt at it. This time they are offering attractive incentives to the City
Lots of predictions that sound as though they are in possession of crystal balls
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