SamTrans is in the early planning stages of redeveloping its San Carlos headquarters and the city, facing a massive housing goal over the next decade, is asking the agency to consider adding housing units into future plans.
Built in 1979, the agency’s San Carlos building was initially a 150,000-square-foot bank sitting on a 1 acre lot at 1250 San Carlos Ave. before SamTrans acquired the building in 1990.
“The building is extremely costly to maintain due to its age and isn’t well-suited for the demands of a modern office building. We are looking to build a modern, environmentally sustainable building that not only will meet our current workforce needs but will be able to accommodate anticipated future staff growth,” according to a statement from SamTrans spokesperson Dan Lieberman.
During a special meeting Friday, four of five San Carlos councilmembers voted in support of sending a letter to SamTrans asking that planners consider adding housing to their redevelopment efforts. Mayor Sara McDowel was absent from the meeting but Vice Mayor Adam Rak noted her support for the measure as well.
In the letter addressed to Jessica Epstein, the transportation district’s manager of Government and Community Affairs, McDowell noted the state expects the city to pave the way for at least 2,735 new homes to be built by 2030. The goal, known as the Regional Needs Housing Allocation, was set as part of the state’s Housing Element process.
She went on to note the site sits in the heart of the city’s downtown, the most recent focus of a Specific Plan meant to act as a policy document guiding the future evolution of the area. A key objective is to make the downtown area more lively, walkable and bike friendly and the agency would be assisting the city in achieving both its RHNA goal downtown improvements by adding housing to its plan, McDowell argued.
“SamTrans and the city of San Carlos have worked together as successful partners for many years and we sincerely appreciate your desire to further invest in the City and continue as valued members of the San Carlos community. In the spirit of continuing this collaboration, the City Council would like to express its desire that SamTrans consider adding housing as a component of its redevelopment plans,” according to McDowell’s letter.
The city’s most recent goal is far more ambitious than the 600 new homes asked of the city in the previous cycle, McDowell said. Despite issuing permits for more than 600 new units since 2015, the city still missed its previous goal because not enough shares of those units were priced for very-low, low and moderate income levels.
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This cycle, planning staff intend to achieve and potentially surpass the state’s most recent ask by boosting density and heights in areas already zoned for residential use and along transit corridors like El Camino Real where SamTrans buses pass through.
“I hope that SamTrans will join us in prioritizing more housing and consider it as an essential component of its own redevelopment plans. Please know that both the City Council and City staff are here to assist you as your plans move forward and that we eagerly anticipate the changes you are undertaking in the heart of San Carlos,” according to the letter.
Incorporating housing into the agency’s development plans is not a new concept and not new to San Carlos. Construction on the San Carlos Transit Village, a joint effort with developer Prometheus Real Estate Group, was completed in recent years and brought 240 units of housing and ground floor retail to the city as part of a larger project to upgrade the station’s parking lot into a multimodal transit center.
It’s too early to say whether adding housing to what Lieberman described as a “small lot” but the issue is not off the table yet.
“We look forward to working with the City of San Carlos and engaging with the community about the exciting prospect of redeveloping this outdated building, located on a very small parcel of land,” Lieberman said. “Housing is of course a serious need in our community and we will look at whether it is feasible.”
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(1) comment
"A key objective is to make the downtown area more lively, walkable and bike friendly" - it already is and has been like that for the past 2 decades despite the city cramming high density housing in every nook and cranny they can. They are very limited in what they can scam and get away with in most of the neighborhood because its surrounded by so much county open space thank heavens. And we still have that horrible Black Mountain project on Alameda for 14 cluster housing units - Olbert pushed for that instead of making it another park. Black Mountain just sold another project in San Carlos for 55 Million....
"the city still missed its previous goal because not enough shares of those units were priced for very-low, low and moderate income levels." - because that is not and has never been the demographic in San Carlos. Its always been consistently middle class with so little space to expand new properties. They have already ruined the vibe of downtown and most locals dont even mess with it. Keep it up San Carlos - corporate greed and "modernization" will kill the spirit of the city
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