Millbrae residents staunchly opposed a development proposal near the city’s train station, claiming the sweeping commercial and residential project is incongruent with the community’s character.
The Millbrae City Council initially reviewed Tuesday, Jan. 23, plans to redevelop property adjacent to the Millbrae Caltrain and BART station into 444 housing units, more than 290,000 square feet of offices and approximately 13,200 square feet of retail spaces in one nine-story and two 10-story towers.
While officials have shown a general receptiveness to the Serra Station proposal, the dozens of residents who packed City Hall held a different opinion — claiming the development would wreck their quality of life.
“I feel it will have a negative impact on our home,” said Sharon Mahoney, the first resident in a long line of speakers who expressed their opposition to the project proposed by developer Vincent Muzzi.
No decision was made at the meeting, as officials are stretching their deliberations over multiple meetings to grant sufficient time for analyzing the development initially proposed roughly four years ago. The matter is set to return for further examination next month.
With a vote looming, residents encouraged officials to send Muzzi back to the drawing board for an amended proposal, as some suggested they would favor a development comprised entirely of workspaces.
Those with concerns with housing cited fears of worsened traffic congestion, compounded neighborhood parking problems, the threat of school overcrowding, strained public safety services and other issues commonly cited by development foes.
“Please make a decision for the citizens of Millbrae,” said resident Gary Chang, whose opposition was received with the same audience applause that followed each critic’s perspective on the development. Similar issues were raised by the hundreds of residents who emailed officials or signed a petition taking issue with the development.
While the backlash was notable, a few came forward and advocated for the merits of the project — particularly the residential component which they claimed would help offset the region’s job and housing imbalance.
“We do not have enough housing to support the people here … think about the great public resource that can help this region,” said Paul Leone, a housing advocate and development accountant for MidPen Housing.
Representatives hired by Muzzi also praised the project, claiming it would help establish Millbrae as a destination offering world-class workspaces, a thriving shopping center and hundreds of new homes at a central transportation hub.
“We are creating something beautiful, personal and something we are quite proud of,” said Paul Woolford, of architecture and engineering firm HOK, which was hired by Muzzi to design the project’s commercial building.
Serra Station is adjacent to the Gateway at Millbrae Station proposal, comprised of 300 housing units, roughly 47,000 square feet of retail space, more than 160,000 square feet of office space, as well as a separate development with 80 affordable units prioritized for military veterans. Plans also include a 116-room, extended-stay hotel to be operated by Marriott. The City Council is expected to take its first crack at reviewing that project next month.
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Groundwork for the projects was laid by officials approving the Millbrae Station Area Specific Plan, which loosens development regulations in the 116 acres adjacent to the station, near the intersection of Millbrae Avenue and El Camino Real.
While much of the discussion at the meeting was reserved for public comment, officials offered some feedback on lingering terms of a development agreement still needing to be resolved.
Assuring convenient car and bike access, adequate parking arrangements, prevailing wage guarantees during construction, affordable housing and a willingness to work with residents to address their quality of life concerns were among the issues raised by councilmembers.
Regarding project design, some councilmembers called for more retail space in an effort to broaden the city’s tax base.
“With the footprint of this project, I think there is the potential for a bit more retail,” said Councilman Reuben Holober.
To the opposition raised by residents, Holober noted the mounting pressure from the state Legislature to assure municipalities approve housing projects proposed in a fashion similar to the Serra Station design.
To that end, Mayor Gina Papan called on city staff to closely monitor state law developments which may affect the city’s authority in approving the project.
In defense of his project, Muzzi suggested the development would offer Millbrae a variety of community and financial benefits and that many of the concerns raised by residents were misplaced.
“We are paying our fair share and if someone thinks we are not, they are mistaken,” he said. “We are not shorting the school district and we are not shorting the city.”
The proposal is tentatively set to return before the City Council during a Tuesday, Feb. 27, meeting.
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(13) comments
This project just looks too ugly, it's more of an office project than residential. And this isn't about NIMBY, I don't live there. There's lots of us that take the BART and the tickets are going to go up, because too much people are going to fill up the train. Also they knew that 10 story buildings are going to facing backlash, they should downsize the project in half if they really care about the local community. These high density projects are an eye sore.
Ridiculous, but unsurprising. This is exactly where we should be building. NIMBYism continues to run amok on the Peninsula. The state needs to take local control away from these selfish people as fast as possible.
John Morris commented on Redwood City Harbor View office complex getting another look...........We need more housing, not more office space. Christ.
John don't be a hypocrite...these two projects include nearly 400,000 sq. ft. of office space....
So decreasing highway traffic will give us more local traffic as those new people will need to drive to the stores, schools, and jobs that aren't near public transportation.
This is a good example of why the state needs to intervene to require that cities allow transit oriented housing.
Sounds like all developers here. I sure don't want my family living on someone's lap next door. Sounds like Millbrae has a cool group of residents.
Ah, yes. People disagree with your opinion, so they must be greedy developers! Flawless logic, Mr. Ball.
What I can't believe is that they think that more work-spaces will equal less traffic. The best thing for the bay area housing crisis would be to prevent more jobs from moving in. Most of them don't pay enough to accrue the needed amount for rent/down payment + mortgage so folks are trapped with most of their money going to housing. We need jobs to move out so that living here isn't a necessity for folks. Plus you can cram a lot more office workers in a space than you can residents so you'd get three times the traffic most likely. Houses/Apartments/Etc. aren't the problem, too many jobs that don't pay a decent amount to thrive on are. And right next to a transit center, that's less folks using a car to commute hopefully as well.
I expected nothing less from Millbrae than this kind of NIMBY non-sense. Millbrae's City Council is well practiced in shooting itself in the foot. Unfortunately the remainder of the Peninsula has to feel the effects of their incompetence. It's also unfortunate thgat they have the largest inter-modal terminal west of Chicago and not a clue of how to capitalize on it. It's humiliating actually. The state should intervene.
This is exactly where we should be building new housing to minimize traffic. Millbrae built a giant transit center that costs $20 million a year and has had very disappointing BART ridership. It's nuts to oppose a new project that would add more BART riders and make better use of the transit system.
For the opponents of this project, where do they expect their kids to be able to live when they graduate high school or college? Because the answer isn't Millbrae when rents are $3100 a month. We need to build more housing as the population grows or they'll end up displaced out to Gilroy or Brentwood or further.
It would be nice to see real elevations of these developments and not use oblique or birds-eye photos, which tend to minimize the size of the projects visually...It would also be nice to see what it looks like when you put the Serra Station and the Gateway at Millbrae Station proposal, which is also being proposed and adjacent to it, into a combined picture....that way you would at least get a sense of what the actual overall development would be like.
9 stories are you crazy? Fight fight this Millbrae!
Next to a BART & Caltrain station, this is the perfect place to build desperately needed housing. Don't let a couple of dozen grumpy old NIMBYs hold up construction. Building housing close to jobs and public transportation reduces traffic congestion. The alternative is for people to clog the freeways driving long distances to work.
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