San Mateo doughnut shop development approved

The city would need to approve rezoning the property from the neighborhood commercial and residential overlay designation to the central business district. If not, the development would not be able to get city approval. There will be no parking because of its proximity to transit and no affordable housing given its small size, with fees paid instead of providing the two amenities.

Vice Chair John Ebneter worried the project would exacerbate gentrification in the North Central neighborhood and result in the long-term displacement of North Central families. He did not support the project as currently constructed and didn’t think rezoning benefited the city.

“It’s hard for me to think that the best use of this property is yet another office building. There have been other areas of downtown that have been developed as small sites and included a minimal amount of housing,” Ebneter said.

Commissioner Adam Nugent had no issues with zoning reclassification, as it matches the current intentions of the general plan. He said the project would raise the value around the site for other development and spur needed investment for the area. However, he expressed concern the site had no housing, one of the city’s greatest needs.

“To me, the elephant in the room is that this is a commercial building and provides no housing,” Nugent said.

While having commercial fees that go toward affordable housing funds was helpful, he worried an office building would create a further jobs-housing imbalance in the availability of market-rate housing. However, Nugent decided housing would not be the best use at the site given the noise levels from trains and suggested design changes to liven up the property.

Chair Margaret Williams agreed with Nugent that a commercial property was the best use for the site. She noted that the area’s crowded nature and being next to transit would make it a hard place for residential units.

“It’s a great project. We had a lot of comments on the design, but I think there’s potential for it to be a very interesting project at a really important intersection,” Williams said.

The ground floor will be for commercial areas, with office use for floors two through four. The building will be 55-feet high. The development proposes widening the sidewalk from the current 10 feet to 16 feet to increase pedestrian walking areas, bike lanes and parking areas for people to visit. It would also increase landscaping, open space areas and outdoor seating. Developers say creating a new B Street vision and an enhanced public area will create San Mateo’s own Burlingame Avenue, the downtown retail corridor of Burlingame. The site is 16,413 square feet and at the start of downtown, with commercial buildings to the north, the San Mateo Caltrain station to the east, and First Avenue to the south.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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