Redwood City approves El Camino Real corridor plan

Several residents stepped forward with appreciation for the plan’s wide scope, addressing long-standing needs and charting a path for what major city thoroughfares should look like in the future. Resident Eva Markiewicz voiced support for the plan’s inclusion of protected bike lanes, which she said are integral to road designs that significantly improve safety for bicyclists as well as clarity for drivers, in addition to measures to provide affordable housing.

“I think the Redwood City corridor project is a fantastic idea,” she said. “It’s visionary and sure to lead us into a more vibrant future.”

Councilmembers voted 6-0 to approve the plan, which has been in the works for close to two years after a citizens advisory group met six times to hone the vision and the Planning Commission reviewed it last month. Councilwoman Shelly Masur recused herself from the discussion because her home is near the corridor.

For Councilman John Seybert, the plan presented city officials with an opportunity to plan ahead and update zoning and other corridor policies. He admitted that, at first, some elements proposed in the plan, such as the replacement of on-street parking with a protected bike lane, didn’t make sense to him. But he said that when he thought about how elements of the plan could address current and future needs instead of past needs, he was able to appreciate the forward-looking approach taken by those behind it.

“When you begin to look at the future, I think it does start to make a lot of sense,” he said.

Seybert cited the plan’s proposal to update the mixed-use live-work uses currently zoned for sections of the corridor to afford developers more flexibility in proposing housing projects as one way city officials could make their plans more relevant.

Though Councilwoman Janet Borgens acknowledged updates to the zoning could be necessary, she wasn’t convinced getting rid of the mixed-use live-work zoning was the best way to begin implementing the plan. She said that however the plan components take shape, she hoped city officials could retain some control over development process to ensure buildings along the corridor have varied heights.

“I really want to make sure that we have control to some degree,” she said. “I just don’t want to have a zoning that is going to create some of the very tall buildings that we’re currently seeing.”

Amid several voices in support of protected bike lanes, Councilman Jeff Gee also cautioned those implementing the plan to weigh the plan’s effects on nearby neighborhoods and businesses to ensure they aren’t bearing the burden of relocated parking. He noted several other measures already under way aimed at improving the city’s transportation — such as an effort to scope grade separations where the city’s stretch of Caltrain tracks intersects major streets. Gee emphasized the need for officials to maintain flexibility as elements of the plan are implemented.

“This vision has to be flexible to accommodate whatever comes from those studies because we will feel those impacts,” he said.

For Mayor Ian Bain, the plan’s strategies for incentivizing residential developers to include on-site affordable units was a step in the right direction for addressing the city’s need for such projects. He noted the difficulty in creating affordable housing with the in-lieu fees the city has collected from developers. Bain also expressed hope the plan’s emphasis on aesthetics would spark more productive conversations with developers about architectural designs than officials had following the release of the city’s downtown precise plan, which he said allowed “cookie-cutter” building designs to move forward.

“I’d like to figure out how we do that without giving up that control and make sure that this plays out the way we want it on the timeline we want it,” he said.

Councilmembers agreed implementing pilot programs of various plan components would be a good way of testing where strategies worked best along the corridor. Councilwoman Alicia Aguirre commended planners for creating a vision addressing the region’s two most pressing issues, housing and transportation, and pegged the city as a leader among its neighbors in charting a path toward a safe, efficient and distinctive stretch of the corridor.

“I want to see Redwood City be a leader in this, and that it’s very noticeable when you’re driving through our city,” she said.

In other business, the council reviewed possible amendments to the city’s charter set to go up for a vote at the November 2018 elections. Limiting the number of terms a resident can serve on the city’s boards and commissions to four consecutive terms, removing a requirement that the city manager reside in Redwood City and updating public noticing and budgetary procedures to modern practices were among the changes the council reviewed. An effort to review whether the city’s mayoral terms should be shortened from two years to one year was not included in the amendments because members of the committee reviewing the changes said they wanted to gather more public input on the issue.

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