Weighing downtown San Mateo traffic, parking and housing needs, city officials gave a four-story, mixed-use building the green light to replace a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and three industrial buildings at 406 E. Third Ave. at the Planning Commission’s Tuesday meeting.
Expected to provide 25 residential units on the building’s fourth floor and 103,731 square feet of office space on the eastern edge of San Mateo’s downtown, the project has spurred discussions of its fit with downtown uses and architecture since plans were submitted with the city in March of 2018.
Michael Field, a representative of the developer Windy Hill, said the developer increased the number of residential units offered on the site from 23 to 25 and agreed to designate three units as affordable to very low-income families since the Planning Commission first reviewed the plans in July of 2018. Field said the developer also worked with the Central Neighborhood Association to make changes to the design of the building, which included reduction of the use of glass in the building’s façade.
Field estimated the developer is some four months from completing a four-story, mixed-use building under construction at a lot adjacent to the proposed project at 405 E. Fourth Ave., between South Claremont Street and South Railroad Avenue. The proposed project does not include the buildings where restaurants Saigon City and Fuji Sukiyaki currently stand. Field said parking garages for the two projects, which are both set to include two levels of underground parking, will function as one garage and will be available to the public after hours on weekday evenings and during the weekends.
Though some have advocated for the proposed project at 406 E. Third Ave. to provide more than the 176 parking spaces included in the plans, Commissioner John Ebneter acknowledged others have felt too many parking spots are planned for the transit-oriented development near the downtown San Mateo Caltrain station. The developer is expected to contribute parking in-lieu fees to cover the remainder of the 283 parking spaces required for the project, said Field.
Ebneter looked to the building to serve as a model for other public-private partnerships assisting the city in meeting multiple goals. Though he had hoped the project could provide more housing to offset the more than 100,000 square feet of office space it created, Ebneter acknowledged the project offered a better mix of uses than officials have seen in the past.
“I think it’s a great give-and-take for the developer and the city,” he said, according to a video of the meeting. “The developer gets their good office space and the city gets some more housing, I hope that that will continue to develop.”
Dino Antoniazzi, whose father owns two buildings on the same block as the project, said they supported the project but didn’t feel one of the entrances to the building’s parking garage should be on East Third Avenue. Though the East Third Avenue garage entrance would only allow cars turning right to enter and exit the garage and the developer has proposed building a median to prevent drivers from turning left into the garage, Antoniazzi was joined by other commissioners in voicing concerns about the safety of pedestrians walking to downtown.
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“With the cars coming in and out, I think with the pedestrians that are going to our stores or coming to work, it becomes a safety issue,” he said.
Though Field explained the ground-floor spaces in the proposed building might not make sense for a retail tenant, Chair Dianne Whitaker worried pedestrians walking from the Central neighborhood to downtown might not engage with the building unless there is a destination for them there.
“If there was some retail in your building, there would be a destination, a reason for the people in the Central neighborhood to come to your building and use it,” said Whitaker.
Field said the developer plans to install public art at the site’s corner of Railroad and Third avenues as a way of engaging pedestrians and also provide some screening from the Caltrain tracks.
Commissioner Ellen Mallory acknowledged she preferred more historical styles to the building’s contemporary design with glass and aluminum elements, but said she appreciated the variation in the styles for the South Claremont Street and South Railroad Avenue facades of the building. She wondered if the building’s facade facing East Third Avenue could be improved so it provides a better transition to downtown.
“It is going to be a very remarkable building and I would like it to be more transitional to our historic downtown and be a gateway,” she said.
This building doesn't seem to have a good balance of housing and office space: 25 residential units and 100,000 sq. ft. of office space. Building lots of office space but no homes for the employees is why we have so many people commuting from the east bay. And that leads to horrid traffic across the bridge and east bound in SM in the afternoons.
Wow… only 3 affordable units and a 2 unit market rate increase…. Such a deal, especially if you are Windy City Property Ventures….
Over 100,000 sq. ft. of office space and the developer gets to pay undervalued in-lieu fees for over 100 parking spots.
While the city acknowledges the problem of downtown parking, the city continues to approve in-lieu parking fees throughout downtown.
And further, isn’t this development another example of the imbalance between jobs and housing that everyone, especially on the Peninsula, seems to be trying to discourage?
Other than Diane Whitaker, who is an architect and longtime planning commissioner, Ebneter actually works for Swinerton Builders developing these kinds of commercial projects. The rest of the commissioners, as far as I can tell, don’t seem to have any background experience in real estate development.
The parking arrangement's for this project are extremely short-sighted. Even with the increased per space in lieu fee, as evidenced by the actual traffic patterns on the ground, we are not doing nearly enough to balance these competing priorities.
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(3) comments
This building doesn't seem to have a good balance of housing and office space: 25 residential units and 100,000 sq. ft. of office space. Building lots of office space but no homes for the employees is why we have so many people commuting from the east bay. And that leads to horrid traffic across the bridge and east bound in SM in the afternoons.
Wow… only 3 affordable units and a 2 unit market rate increase…. Such a deal, especially if you are Windy City Property Ventures….
Over 100,000 sq. ft. of office space and the developer gets to pay undervalued in-lieu fees for over 100 parking spots.
While the city acknowledges the problem of downtown parking, the city continues to approve in-lieu parking fees throughout downtown.
And further, isn’t this development another example of the imbalance between jobs and housing that everyone, especially on the Peninsula, seems to be trying to discourage?
Other than Diane Whitaker, who is an architect and longtime planning commissioner, Ebneter actually works for Swinerton Builders developing these kinds of commercial projects. The rest of the commissioners, as far as I can tell, don’t seem to have any background experience in real estate development.
The parking arrangement's for this project are extremely short-sighted. Even with the increased per space in lieu fee, as evidenced by the actual traffic patterns on the ground, we are not doing nearly enough to balance these competing priorities.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.