San Bruno's Mills Park development canceled

Now, that agreement between the city and developer G.W. Williams has officially been canceled as of a City Council meeting Aug. 26, however, the city was aware the project likely had no current future before that, City Manager Alex McIntyre said. 

“We all knew this project was never going to go forward, but the development agreement was just an existing document,” he said. 

The developer, who did not immediately respond to request for comment, had previously indicated to the city that they didn’t wish to move forward with the project, per the staff report. 

Changes to the county’s economy, as well as rejection of the original plan, may have made the developer less interested in pursuing the project, McIntyre said, however, he acknowledged that reasoning is speculation. 

“It was a different project, ultimately, than what they hoped for what they submitted for, the economy changed,” he said. “Who knows what variety of reasons … the developer has a change of heart.” 

With recent rezoning making it easier for developers to build along San Bruno’s El Camino Real transit corridor, the city is still hopeful that, in the future, the site will be developed and made usable for residents, McIntyre said. 

Medina said he, too, was hopeful that the property would be developed in the future, citing the yes votes he’d taken both on the revised development plan and subsequent extensions granted to the developer. 

“The amount of property in the Mills Park development is substantial and very valuable,” he said. “I’m hoping sometime the developer comes back with another project.” 

Medina originally killed the project, located at 601 to 799 El Camino Real, due to concerns around height and the proposal to include a grocery store in its ground floor.

A revised version of the project — which retained the five-story height, with two separate buildings, both with ground-floor retail opportunities and housing in the remaining floors — was passed by the City Council in 2020, but has seen little to no movement for the past five years.

Despite that inaction, San Bruno is seeing an increase in development, Medina said, and that construction is integral to the city’s continued economic well-being. 

“There are plenty of opportunities that developers are pursuing with construction,” he said. “I just hope it continues.”