Redwood City Maple Street development moves forward

Located along Redwood Creek, the development is meant to coexist with the adjacent uses, and will include 131 market-rate townhome units within 21 separate buildings, improvements to the Bay Trail and extension of Blomquist Street from Maple Street to Redwood Creek. The project will also relocate the water tank — but not the Yacht Club building — to city-owned property along the waterfront.

According to the draft of the environmental impact report, the project would not result in any significant unavoidable environmental impacts. The draft did identify significant impacts of the project, including increased traffic, potential pollution associated with construction as well as impacts on animals and vegetation, but it also lists 22 “mitigation measures” that would reduce those environmental impacts to “less than significant.”

Those measures are part of a mitigation monitoring and reporting program, which will be included in the final environmental impact report. That program is mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act, and will be adopted by the city to enforce all mitigation measures.

The draft of the report also includes a reduced size alternative for the project, which would trim the development down to 92 units and leave the water tank, which is eligible as a local historical resource, at its current location.

Principal Planner Lisa Costa Sanders said the draft included this scaled-down alternative in an effort to reduce traffic and preserve the water tank by shifting the locations of the proposed buildings.

Commissioners Ernie Schmidt and Kevin Bondonno both said they appreciated the inclusion of the reduced development option in the draft as well as the option to keep the water tank at its current location at the Peninsula Yacht Club.

Planning Commission Chair Nancy Radcliffe said the draft doesn’t completely address traffic in the area of the development, referencing the Bair Island Aquatic Center.

“There are over 450 members in that particular organization so that brings probably more traffic than any other thing in this area and hasn’t been looked at,” she said.

Radcliffe also said she wants contributions to waterway access featured more prominently in the final report, specifically in the list of objectives.

During the public comment period, longtime Redwood City resident Kris Johnson echoed a desire to keep the water tank at its current location, and expressed concern about impacts the new development may have on the nearby homeless shelter, LifeMoves.

Sanders said the city is currently in talks with LifeMoves about relocating it.

“They do not intend to stay at that location,” she said.

The city will accept public comment on the draft through March 12 and, on March 8, the Historic Resources Advisory Committee will hold a meeting to discuss the cultural resources chapter of the draft, specifically the future of the water tank. The Planning Commission will then consider whether to recommend project entitlements at a meeting April 3, before the City Council will consider the final environmental impact report, project entitlements and a development agreement in May.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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