Rock climbing gym approved in Redwood City

Touchstone Climbing is eyeing a 1 1/2-acre site at 801 Willow St. near Bay and Woodside roads for its new rock climbing gym, making the center its third in the Bay Area and fourth in the state. An existing 40,000-square-foot-warehouse on-site will be renovated to accommodate the new center.

Once complete, the renovated structure will stand 20 feet tall in most areas with a 40-foot raised roof along the northwestern portion of the building facing Woodside Road, allowing space for taller wall climbing inside while respecting neighborhood privacy. The structure will also include 91 skylights to help brighten the space and make it glow from within at night.

Instead of incorporating 158 parking spots into the plan as required, the team was proposing to maintain the 99 stalls on site. Mark Melvin, the founder and CEO of Touchstone, explained it will bring in fewer visitors than a traditional gym given that more space is needed to climb safely and the number of people who can climb at once is limited.

Glenn Babbitt, the lone public speaker who addressed the item, was in support of the proposal but hoped the commission would encourage the developer to create more of an environmental connection between the property and Hoover Park. The park sits across the street from the site on Spring Street.

“If this facility is to have any synergy with Hoover Park there should be an adequate level of landscaping to kind of visually tie the two spaces together,” Babbitt said.

Commissioners seemed to agree at least partly with Babbitt by voting to approve the proposal if the development team also works with the city’s arborist to plant a few trees along Willow Street.

Aside from the one change, commissioners praised it and the developers behind it for offering to bring a community amenity to the east side of the city which has a mix of industrial uses and residential neighborhoods.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are key priorities for the company, Melvin said, noting they often welcome diverse groups to the center. Jeffery Bowling, Creative and Business Development director for Touchstone, said it has a sliding scale financial aid program to help make the fitness center more accessible for a diversity of backgrounds.

“What’s exciting about this is it’s bringing additional physical and recreational activities to an under-resourced area,” commission Chair Rick Hunter said. “It really does seem to be a core value of your company to make these kinds of things available to lower income people and people of color who might not have these opportunities so I think that’s wonderful.”

In other business, the commission helped put one of the last pins in the city’s housing element process by unanimously recommending the council approve the general plan update repealing the city’s last housing plan and replacing it with the new document.

Through the eight-year plan, the city aims to facilitate the development of more than 7,000 housing units, far exceeding the goal passed down by the state through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. The council will decide whether to certify the document Feb. 13, nearly a month after the state Department of Housing and Community Development issued a letter approving the plan.

“I’m proud of the staff for what you have done,” Hunter said. “I’m proud of Redwood City as being the place that is so serious about providing housing, especially affordable housing, and being one of the few places that wants to go above and beyond what we’re required to do by RHNA.”