Preparing for Middlefield Road improvements

Though the improvements — as well as the effort to underground utilities for the same 0.3-mile stretch of Middlefield Road between Pacific and Fifth avenues in unincorporated San Mateo County — are aimed at making the road more pedestrian-friendly, for Middlefield Road business owner Zulma Valdivia, they were initially a source of concern.

Having moved Divia Insurance Express Agency, the business she has owned for 11 years, to its current location at 3000 Middlefield Road some eight years ago, Valdivia knows many of her clients learned about her business from simply walking past it. So when she heard about a construction project that could last for months outside her offices just south of the intersection of Middlefield Road and First Avenue, she grew worried about how many clients or potential customers would walk by during construction.

“I personally was worried for like two years or three, thinking like … how am I going to be able to make payroll happen?” she said. “Those things were just really stressing me out for a while.”

But after spending the last few months updating a website for her business with members of the San Mateo Small Business Development Center, a county partner in the pilot, Valdivia said she feels more at peace with the planned changes. Though Valdivia had already created a website for her business, she learned about new templates and features that could make her website more engaging for users and are easier for her to use. Hopeful a more interactive website will attract new customers and better illustrate the different types of insurance and vehicle services her business provides, Valdivia is more confident about the future should construction pick up, adding that participating in the pilot opened her mind to new ways of doing business.

“I think at this point it feels like they are giving a lot of support,” she said, of the county officials focused on the work planned for the area.

Since June, Nicholas Calderon, a real property manager with San Mateo County, has coordinated online workshops and one-on-one sessions with business owners like Valdivia and members of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Mateo Small Business Development Center, who are providing pro bono legal and business advice and instruction for pilot participants. Working with owners of furniture stores, restaurants and a tax preparation business, among other types of businesses, Calderon is hopeful the county’s efforts will mitigate the impact of construction. Also expected to alleviate concerns some have expressed about parking constraints during and after construction is a new 40-spot parking lot at the intersection of Second Avenue and Middlefield Road, said Calderon.

“Offering these new opportunities is something we’re really excited about,” he said.

Work set to begin next winter

Jim Porter, San Mateo County’s Public Works director, said work on the road improvements and efforts to underground the road’s utilities, which will move overhead power lines, telephone lines and internet-related fiber optic materials underground, could start as early as December of 2018 and is expected to last 12 months, depending on coordination between utility providers in the area. He added that the Second Avenue parking lot is nearing completion, with the contractor expected to open the lot for use in December.

Though Calderon and the legal and business experts involved with the pilot have received positive feedback from business owners so far, Calderon is looking forward to assessing the impact of the services offered in the pilot, which he said the county hopes to eventually offer to other businesses on the corridor. Though Valdivia owns the lot where her business stands, Calderon said many business owners participating in the pilot lease space and reviewed or negotiated new leases with the help of legal experts at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Help with leases

Sushil Jacob, a senior economic justice attorney with the committee, said attorneys worked with business owners to review leases, discuss ways to negotiate better leases or discuss best employment practices in 45-minute sessions and are planning to do follow-up sessions with them before the pilot ends Dec. 31.

“There’s multiple challenges that we find in general with small businesses,” he said, adding that many don’t have their own legal counsel when they agree to lease terms and are vulnerable to landlord-friendly rental practices.

Jacob said some business owners had expired lease agreements with their landlords, meaning they could be considered holdover tenants and their leases could be terminated with just a 30-day notice. Not knowing when they might have to find a new location or not knowing the status of their leases altogether, Jacob said, put those business owners in a very precarious situation. He said many of the business owners the committee’s attorneys worked with through the pilot will be receiving ongoing services.

Meetings

Robert Shoffner, director of the San Mateo Small Business Development Center, said the pilot’s focus on helping businesses develop an online presence came out of one of the first few meetings advisors with the centers had with business owners. He said advisors found that many of the pilot participants either did not have a website or were not using online tools and social media to spread the word about their businesses. Learning one business owner was paying close to $200 a month for web services inspired instructors to develop a series of workshops focused on the impact having an online presence can have on businesses as well as the best tools to use.

According to Shoffner, one business owner said the pilot transformed the way he does business and that others were appreciative the advisors spoke Spanish and had years of experience running their own businesses. He expects the advisors to continue working with several business owners to bring their websites to life and rethink the way they approach other areas, such as their finances.

When Calderon updated the North Fair Oaks Community Council on the pilot’s progress at its Oct. 26 meeting, councilmembers cautioned county officials to proceed carefully with the construction projects. Calderon said the county would consider several options for phasing in the construction in a way that minimizes the impact, such as building temporary sidewalks and access points for pedestrians. The community council is an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors since the area is in unincorporated San Mateo County.

Chair Everardo Rodriguez said business owners who struggled to make ends meet during a previous construction project on Fifth Avenue have reminded him of the threat a construction project can pose to the narrow profit margins many of the business owners make each month.

“I’d just like to remind you that these are very small businesses,” he said. “These disruptions could jeopardize their survival.”

Exchange of ideas, some worries remain

Vice Chair Beatriz Cerrillo encouraged county officials to consider creating opportunities for local business owners to exchange ideas on what’s working for their businesses during the time of change and how they might adjust their approach if things are not going as well.

“In the end, they are particularly by themselves on Middlefield Road so they have to make sure that they are comfortable working together,” she said.

Calderon said such meetings could be included the county’s next steps if business owners show interest in convening, and added that a marketing strategy for the corridor was another idea county officials are considering as they assess the pilot’s success.

Valdivia acknowledged that while many of her concerns have been eased since she participated in the pilot, some business owners still harbor worries about the upcoming changes. She said many are feeling pressure to pay their employees more as they cope with the rising cost of living, but increasing the price of the goods they offer has presented some challenges as well, with some customers turning to competitors. So the additional changes — even though they acknowledge the benefits of an improved pedestrian experience — can be viewed as a burden to them.

Though road improvements are one source of change for the neighborhood, the many residential and office buildings going up in Redwood City and other nearby cities have come with their own changes as residents and business owners face rising rents, said Valdivia. Weighing the effect of the changes on businesses and residents, Valvidia acknowledged that only time will tell how the neighborhood adapts.

“At the end, it’s going to be nicer to kind of work here and live around here, but it is going affect the rest of the rents as well,” she said. “Let’s see what happens.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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