Residents' group: Relocate City Hall

According to its published agenda, the GESC "strongly feels that in the future City Hall and city services could be moved to GESC area to encourage more [transit-oriented development]” at the current City Hall, SamTrans building, Wheeler Plaza and other facilities like the Elks Club.

Member Tim Hillborn concedes the idea is more a general vision rather than a hard goal with any concrete push behind it at the moment. Instead, Hillborn said GESC wants residents and leaders to rethink the transit-oriented development promised by the mixed-use San Carlos Transit Village proposal — a proposal whose environmental impact report, he said, doesn’t address high-speed rail and which would in parts be further away from the train station than existing facilities.

"In several instances, Wheeler Plaza and City Hall are as close if not closer than buildings in the transit village,” Hillborn said.

As proposed, the transit village would convert a 10.53-acre strip of land within the existing Caltrain station and running parallel to the railroad corridor. Legacy’s proposal envisions eight buildings housing 280 "luxury” housing units among a mix of 407,298 square feet of residential, 23,797 square feet of office space and 14,326 square feet of "upscale” retail space. The project would include 667 parking spaces and a new SamTrans Transit Center on 4.29 acres.

But GESC members like Hillborn aren’t sold on the plan — leading to brainstorms like rethinking where the city wants its transit-oriented development.

The SamTrans building on San Carlos Avenue is probably a more realistic option than City Hall, considering the cost and effort of uprooting a building that also houses the Police Department and neighbors the library, Hillborn said.

"City Hall is a pretty nice building so I don’t really see the push there. But SamTrans is an ugly building and it is a conversation that can definitely happen,” he said.

The idea echoes one raised in 2006 when then-mayor Matt Grocott suggested the approximately $40 million idea to move City Hall and build a sports complex as an answer to housing downtown and an ongoing debate over renovating the city’s beleaguered athletic fields. Although one fellow councilmember was willing to look at the notion, it pretty much fizzled in the face of a lukewarm reception.

At the time, Grocott said moving the 2.5-acre City Hall complex would free up land for housing units and could create a pool and field on the east side. He suggested selling two properties at Wheeler Plaza between Laurel and Walnut streets on San Carlos Avenue and the one at South Plaza to fund the venture.

Mayor Randy Royce said he was unaware of GESC’s moving idea but said the hall should remain as is.

"I do think that there can be less ‘brick and mortar’ in city government, but City Hall should remain a representation of government and service for the people of San Carlos,” he said.

Info box:

Greater East San Carlos meets 6:45 p.m. to 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, April 27 at the Laureola Park Building, 503 Old County Road, San Carlos.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.