Hillsdale redevelopment clears planners: Shopping Center improvements to be considered by San Mateo City Council

Plans for the nearly 12-acre site currently housing the old Sears building and a surface parking lot fronting El Camino Real just north of 31st Avenue has undergone several renditions over the past few years. With the commission’s approval, Bohannon will now approach the City Council with its request at a March 7 hearing.

The plans include almost 300,000 square feet of smaller retail shops, dining and entertainment while maintaining the existing Outback Steakhouse and Bohannon Development Company offices.

Originally planning to make space for a Target, Bohannon has since moved toward a more pedestrian-friendly design with a landscaped plaza, street improvements and doing away with the surface parking lot. City officials and Bohannon representatives have expressed hopes that the new amenities will be a draw for the surrounding neighborhoods, those residing in the new Bay Meadows development and commuters stopping off at the Caltrain station across the street.

“It’s evolved greatly,” said Tricia Schimpp, a senior planner with the city. “Even though it’s not zoned transit-oriented development, it is across the street from a transit station and what they’re doing with the type of tenants that are dining, entertainment and shopping, is more in keeping with the TOD mixed uses that we’re promoting in the city [as] it does encourage pedestrian-friendly kind of activities.”

The proposal includes a central landscaped plaza surrounded by an underground fitness center, smaller retail space Bohannon hopes will attract more lifestyle brand stores, a Cineopolis Cinema fronting El Camino Real, and a bowling alley lounge.

Over the years the project has been reviewed, several residents who live near the shopping center expressed concerns about traffic, noise and parking impacts related to the renovation.

Now, some members of the public have suggested the site should incorporate residential units to help offset the region’s housing shortage and affordability crisis.

With Bohannon having already hired architects, designed the project and nearing the end of the planning phase; incorporating housing is an unlikely move at this point, as it would start the entire process over, Schimpp said.

Planning Commissioner John Ebneter, who voted against the proposal, said the city must consider the impacts of adding new jobs without any thought as to where these new workers will live.

“My biggest concern going into the meeting was the creation of 852 new jobs and without having any housing associated with it. Coupled with the fact that the vast majority of the jobs created are going to be paid less than a living wage,” Ebneter said.

Concerned about the impacts more traffic will have on the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, Ebneter said he questions whether the environmental analysis of the project was accurate. Another sticking point was Bohannon doesn’t plan to use a union general contractor, Ebneter said. So he said there are no guarantees those who construct the project will be paid prevailing wages or able to live in the communities in which they build.

Even though the project has made it a ways through the planning process, Ebneter said the current housing crisis must be considered when San Mateo plans to create more jobs.

“The bottom line is the project, to me, should be evaluated with the information that we have today on the housing and labor disconnect,” Ebneter said.

Mayor Joe Goethals said he understands the city is in the midst of a dire housing crisis but is keeping an open mind on the project while looking forward to hearing Bohannon’s presentation.

Goethals and Schimpp said considering housing on the site would bring up a whole range of other issues such as traffic and parking that would need to be studied. Ultimately, the majority of the commission felt this commercial project is a good use of the site, Schimpp said.

Goethals said he hopes Bohannon maximizes sustainability efforts in recreating this portion of the center.

The project will include some green building technologies to meet LEED Gold standards such as using graywater to flush toilets and irrigate landscape, solar panels to offset about 5 percent of the site’s electricity use and electric vehicle charging stations, according to a staff report.

Schimpp said there isn’t yet a timeline for how long construction would last should the council approve the project after its March 7 hearing.

Visit the What’s Happening in Development? page on the city’s website at cityofsanmateo.org for more information.

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