Millbrae officials put the finishing touches on approving a transformative housing, commercial and hotel proposal on BART land adjacent to the city’s train station.
A majority of the Millbrae City Council voted in favor of the variety of measures tied to the Gateway at Millbrae Station proposal, with Mayor Gina Papan and Councilman Wayne Lee occasionally dissenting.
Their opposition ultimately was again insufficient to block the massive project though, as councilmembers Reuben Holober, Anne Oliva and Ann Schneider ratified their initial approval of the 150,000 square feet of offices, nearly 30,000 square feet of retail space, 400 new housing units and a hotel abutting the city’s train station. Of the housing units, 80 are proposed in a standalone project to be constructed nearby and reserved for military veterans.
Before the approval was consummated, Papan and Lee took their last crack at attempting to sweeten the deal by seeking compromises from developer Republic Family of Companies.
Despite the hours of deliberations over the matter, Lee maintained the concerns he has held regarding the project being ushered through the approval process too quickly.
“We are rushing this through … we need to properly plan,” said Lee, citing fears regarding school enrollment growth generated by the development, as well as strain on city infrastructure and concerns over affordable housing.
Lee sought givebacks from Michael Van Every, Republic Family of Companies CEO and president of development, who largely turned down the attempts to ramp up the affordable housing component.
“This deal is the threshold. We can’t go any further,” said Van Every, who at the meeting last month prior to receiving initial approval offered additional affordable units at the request of Holober.
The approval granted at the most recent meeting affirms the tentative construction map, development agreement and other documents pre-empting groundbreaking, which Van Every said his company would like to start as soon as possible.
The project is still subject to design review and additional planning, which is where some of the detailed issues raised at the April 10 meeting will be addressed. Beyond affordability and infrastructure concerns, officials vetted terms of the shuttle access, landscaping, open space and more.
Regarding site access, Papan said she favored city officials authorizing a forthcoming traffic study. She claimed officials should select the company to do the study, for fear of a firm hired by the developer publishing favorable results.
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“I think the interest of the developer will be too controlling of the outcome,” she said.
Van Every was unwilling to accept such terms though, and ultimately he was backed by a majority of the councilmembers. The two sides settled on allowing officials to co-sign the firm ultimately selected to do the study.
Papan was not dead set on seeking givebacks from the developer though, suggesting she believed the city and other nearby builders could contribute to a safety wall that needs to be constructed on El Camino Real.
“It is inappropriate for one developer to be responsible for this,” Papan said of the wall still needing to be approved by Caltrans, which oversees construction on El Camino Real. Van Every said his company would contribute $75,000 to the project, and the rest of the cost could be split with other parties.
One of the builders who may face the additional cost is Vince Muzzi, who is proposing 444 housing units, more than 290,000 square feet of offices and approximately 13,200 square feet of retail space in one nine-story and two 10-story towers at the city’s rail stop.
As was the case for the Gateway at Millbrae Station project, Millbrae officials granted their initial approval for Muzzi’s development with an eye on hammering out final details later. The issue is slated to return at a subsequent meeting.
Throughout the deliberation process regarding development near the train station, Lee has been the most staunch critic, citing fears the projects have not been adequately examined.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t build this, I’m saying we should properly plan to support all the new residents,” he said of the Gateway project.
Yet despite the concerns, the final sound heard following the vote was applause from the development team celebrating their approval.
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(7) comments
Good news. 100 more projects like this on the Peninsula would make a serious dent in the housing shortage.
It will help solve the housing problems, but create new infrastructure problems in the city.
Great news! Millbrae is moving forward (finally).
Also applause from all the people who are happy to have new places to live! this will be great for Millbrae and the region. Great Job City Council!!!!!
Fantastic news! Glad to see (most of) the City Council doing something good for the community.
If California had added 210,000 new housing units each year over the past three decades (as opposed to 120,000), California’s population would be much greater than it is today. We estimate that around 7 million additional people would be living in California. In some areas, particularly the Bay Area, population increases would be dramatic. For example, San Francisco’s population would be more than twice as large (1.7 million people versus around 800,000). California Legislative Analyst's Office Report......A new report out from the Legislative Analyst's Office shows that the groundwork for the housing shortage was laid a long time ago, and it's going to be hard work undoing it.
In order to keep housing prices in check, California overall would have had to build more (70,000 to 110,000 additional units each year), build denser, and build especially in the coastal areas (including San Francisco andLos Angeles) and central cities....... California also should have been doing this for decades already. Because it didn't, "the state probably would have to build as many as 100,000 additional units annually—almost exclusively in its coastal communities—to seriously mitigate its problems with housing affordability." And that's in addition to the 100,000 to 140,000 units that the Golden State is already planning to build................
If the state had done all that, California's housing prices still would have continued to grow and would still be higher than the rest of the country's now, but the disparity between them would have been less gaping. If California had done all that, the report says, the 2010 state median housing price would have been a solid 80 percent higher than the US median, instead of 200 percent higher, which is what actually happened.
This is gentrification, they only approve these high density projects because it's near the train station, it's only making money for the town and BART. I agree with Vincent, this is just increasing the demand for more people to an already crowded area. I already take Millbrae BART from transfers via Caltrain, this will cause more traffic and higher prices for public transit. We don't want to build anymore office buildings, this will make the housing crisis worse. It's giving these developers more real estate, since they're getting lots of money being in a prime location.
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