Housing planned at Hayward Park station in San Mateo

“This is really ripe for development, and the opportunity arose with the Joint Powers Board Caltrain SamTrans to take an underutilized land and make it into 189 apartments in an area that is really perfect for it,” Duncan said.

Sares Regis is a local private developer with an office in San Mateo and has previously worked on projects like the 160-unit LEED Platinum multifamily community at 888 N. San Mateo Drive.

Duncan said the partnership with Caltrain is because the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which owns and operates Caltrain, owns the land. Both Sares Regis and Caltrain are interested in increasing ridership and putting more people near transit to help the process. Duncan noted Caltrain is taking an asset that is minimally useful and turning it into a long-term project that will help with income and ridership.

“The parking lot that is there today is incredibly under-realized in terms of its potential,” Duncan said.

Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman also said the parking lot at Hayward Park had been underutilized for years.

We think that this development, combined with the other recent and planned developments in the station area, will drive more ridership than an underutilized parking lot,” Lieberman said in an email.

Caltrain also highlighted the development as a way to develop ridership and improve transit issues on the Peninsula. It noted studies clearly show putting housing next to transit centers results in more people using transit and fewer cars on the roads.

“Projects like this one (as well as the other recent projects in this area) are vital to combating both the housing crisis and heavy traffic congestion on 101, including the excessive carbon footprint that results from it,” Lieberman said.

The proposal calls for 189 units of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes. The address would be 401 Concar Drive and would be accessed off Concar Drive and the Hayward Park Caltrain station, which is immediately adjacent to the station. The 189 residential units will range in size from 525 square feet to 1,540 square feet. The building will have four levels devoted to housing and one level to parking. Amenities include a fitness center, club room, rooftop deck, car parking, a landscaped courtyard and leasing office. There will be 189 parking spaces provided via a covered parking garage and an uncovered off-street parking lot. The surface parking lot will be to the rear north of the project frontage and will be private. The development site is currently a 213-space surface parking lot for the Caltrain station.

There will be 16 very-low-income apartments reserve for households earning less than 50% of the area median income. Around 12 moderate-income units will be reserved for households earning less than 120% of the area median income. Sares Regis said it would be open to reserving the moderate-income units for city staff, firefighters, police, teachers or other “missing middle” people if the city wanted. The project is one mile from the Hillsdale Train Station, a mile from downtown and less than a quarter mile from the Safeway on El Camino Real.

An application was initially submitted to the Planning Commission in 2019 for a two-building option, but community and Planning Commission feedback led to changes. A planning application was submitted May 14 featuring one building.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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