City of San Mateo to guide how builders give back

The two proposed developments are an office building where the Hungry Hunter restaurant was located on Concar Avenue, and a 180-room hotel at 5th Avenue and El Camino Real, near the Judd Green location.

Due to the height of these developments, developers will be required to provide some sort of public benefit to the community in accordance with Measure H, the 1991 initiative which states that buildings in San Mateo generally cannot exceed 55 feet in commercial and residential areas unless a public benefit is provided to the community by the developer.

The public benefits for the two new developments have not been determined yet as they are still in their infant planning stages, according to Senior Planner Ron Munekawa.

The study session will hopefully shed light on what the city wants to see in public benefits from developers. The initiative primarily mentions making improvements on parks, Munekawa said.

"We are attempting to identify what would be the best [public benefits] and find out what is best for the city," he said.

Up until now, there have only been two developments which required public developments for compensation for exceeding height limits.

One is the Bridgepointe Project, the redevelopment at the Fashion Island Shopping Center. The developer paid a fee which the city could use for various projects. Parks and Recreation determined the specific uses of the money -- some was used to improve Mariner's Island Park.

The other project was the 171-room addition to the Marriot Hotel on South Amphlett Boulevard. The public benefit from this project was the improvements and upgrades to Concar Park in the 19th Avenue neighborhood.

City staff hopes to receive direction from the council at Monday's study session.

"We will standardize the procedure and evaluate applications of the public benefit process and how it is brought to the public," Munekawa said.

City Manager Arne Croce said the City Council must establish more rigid guidelines for staff to follow in terms of dealing with potential developers.

"There are general height requirements, and now it is a case-by-case procedure. We need a policy for staff and neighborhood members to understand," he said.

Under the existing height policy developments should meet three main criteria, according to Munekawa.

The development itself should not be the public benefit, projects considered public benefits should be reviewed case by case to ensure compatibility with the neighborhood and surrounding areas, and the public benefit the developer provides should be close to the site and promote the neighborhood.

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