San Carlos apartment to be razed for workforce housing

“Why would you invest in the improvements just to knock everything down?” Sandoval, 67, asked Tuesday.

Kate Comfort Harr, executive director of the nonprofit HIP Housing that owns the apartment, said the possible demolition is rare but the need for housing means more units may be razed on the Peninsula for new development.

“It is pretty unusual,” she said. “In the future it may become more prevalent.”

Harr cited the difficulty of finding sites for affordable housing and the costs of such construction.

People living at the San Carlos apartment will be relocated to new housing and can return to live at the Cherry Street property when 24-26 units of workforce housing are completed, she said.

Their rents will be the same as though they had not left, Harr said.

San Carlos Councilman Mark Olbert said the loss of the six-unit apartment if the workforce development goes forward is significant.

“It’s tough tradeoff,” Olbert said. “That’s very disruptive to people’s lives.”

The councilman cited the additional housing the new development will bring and praised HIP Housing’s flexibility for making it possible for San Carlos to pursue workforce housing.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Olbert said.

Lack of affordable housing means most people have to commute to work in San Mateo County, he said, which requires long drives and adds to traffic congestion.

People having coffee at Peet’s may not think about where workers reside, but the lack of housing here is a crucial issue, Olbert added.

The two-tenths of an acre HIP Housing owns — and an adjoining one-tenth of an acre the city of San Carlos seeks to acquire — would be combined for the Cherry Street development.

The city has started eminent domain proceedings on the adjoining property at 1232 Cherry St. That site was known as the “Eye Doctor Building,” according to its owner Belmont resident Louis Vella. Discussions with the city continue on the possible sale, Vella has said.

Wendy Chavez, 36, has lived at the adjoining six-unit apartment for five years. The two-bedroom apartment rents for $1,400 a month, she said. Her sister, who lives in Sunnyvale, pays $2,300 for a one-bedroom, Chavez said.

HIP Housing director Harr said 16 people live in the apartments, which were built in the 1960s.

The nonprofit bought the 1244 Cherry St. property in 1995 for $675,000.

The Cherry Street land has long been looked at for workforce housing, Harr said.

“We’ve been talking about this for more than 10 years,” she said. “It’s not a hasty decision.”

ryan@smdailyjournal.com

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