San Mateo County government center building plans move ahead in Redwood City

Slated to replace the historic Lathrop House on a block bounded by Hamilton Street, Marshall Street and Middlefield Road, the County Office Building 3, or COB3, project could be complete as early as the summer of 2021 and will become home to some 300 employees currently working at the San Mateo Medical Center in San Mateo as well as hundreds of other county employees currently working across the street from the site in the Hall of Justice, explained Sam Lin, assistant director of the county’s Project Development Unit, in an project update at supervisors’ Tuesday meeting.

Designed to allow natural light and air into the building and equipped with sunshades, COB3’s design is expected to save energy and meet the county’s zero net energy, green building and sustainable environment policies, said Lin. A system collecting rain from the building’s roof will facilitate reuse of rainwater in the building for non-potable purposes, he added.

Originally projected to cost $86 million in early 2017, COB3’s cost estimates were updated in August of 2018 to $152 million to accommodate additional square footage, construction of a public promenade along Hamilton Street and features ensuring the building met Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification standards.

Lin noted plans to relocate the Lathrop House to a lot adjacent to the back of the San Mateo County History Museum across the street are solidifying as planners are targeting the weekend of April 27 and April 28 to move the historic home a block west. Lin estimated the building where the traffic and small claims courts have been situated at 500 County Center will be demolished in mid-May to make way for the construction projects. The traffic court has been relocated at the South San Francisco courthouse at 1050 Mission Road and court officials expect those services to move to the Hall of Justice once the construction projects are complete.

A 19-month effort to construct a seven-level parking structure is also set to begin in May, noted Lin, who added county officials are still exploring whether Redwood City officials will use a level of the structure for its employees. Deborah Bazan, director of the county’s Project Development Unit, said county officials are monitoring parking levels as construction takes shape and plan to communicate early and often with county employees to ensure they understand what parking options are available to them throughout the construction effort.

She said a parking lot designated for jurors will be closed in May, at which point jurors will be directed to use overflow parking available at Sequoia Station or within the existing parking garage. Bazan added officials could also consider a stacked parking model at the existing parking structure, which they have implemented at the San Mateo Medical Center as upgrades take shape there.

Alongside COB3 and the new parking structure, officials have been monitoring projects to build a new Cordilleras Mental Health Facility, replace the aging San Mateo County animal shelter at Coyote Point and upgrade the San Mateo Medical Center campus and the South San Francisco Health Campus, among other projects. Bazan noted a new 36,000-square-foot Public Safety Regional Operations Center under construction since May is set to open at 501 Winslow St. in four months and house more than 50 dispatchers and six call takers as well as the Office of Emergency Services and the volunteer-based Emergency Services Bureau.

In other business, supervisors approved a $500,000 grant from Measure K funds to Millbrae to replace its former community center, which was destroyed in July of 2016 by fire. Millbrae officials have been shaping plans to build a new facility to be built at 477 Lincoln Circle while the city operated a temporary community center out of modular buildings for the past two years. Though officials in the November election proposed a bond measure aimed at raising funds for the project estimated to cost more than $30 million, the measure fell short of the supermajority required to pass.

County officials also approved a three-year contract with the Human Services bargaining unit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 829. Including a 4 percent cost of living adjustment effective March 24 and other cost of living and equity increases planned for the three-year term as well as longevity pay, the tentative agreement reached last week and ratified by the 900-member unit followed a nearly identical agreement reached by the union’s 10 other bargaining units in February. Having started negotiations in July, the entire 1,700-member union was previously at an impasse with county officials over a previously-proposed three-year contract, which union members didn’t feel kept pace with the region’s rising cost of living.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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