Those who campaigned against a measure to keep height limits as they are in San Mateo have no plans to ask for a recount after the San Mateo County Elections Office certified the election Thursday.
Anyone can request recounts in the five calendar days after certification on Thursday, according to the San Mateo County Elections Office. Leora Tanjuatco Ross, associate director of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, a group against Measure Y, said they decided against a recount after an organization meeting on Thursday. Ross’ organization had considered a recount option over the last couple of weeks. Michael Weinhauer, a spokesman for San Mateans for Responsive Government, a group for Measure Y, previously said his group would have asked for a recount if they lost.
Ross said they didn’t ask for a recount because it would not change the divide amongst voters even if her organization won.
“It’s clear San Mateo is divided on how we want to move forward with growth. The only way forward is to work together,” she said.
The final Measure Y count was 23,029 yes votes and 22,987 no votes, a difference of 42 votes. No votes on Measure Y initially had the lead on election night, but yes votes tallied throughout the last few weeks allowed Measure Y to pass. Measure Y needed a majority to pass.
Recounts can also be expensive. Chief Elections Officer Mark Church said the estimated daily cost for one recount board is approximately $2,100. Expenses can also vary based on how much time supervisors spend directly overseeing operations or which supervisor handles duties on a particular day.
Ross said her organization will be active in the San Mateo General Plan process and favors housing at Caltrain stations for environmental reasons. Most people want affordable housing in multiple places based on their polling, but there are disagreements over implementation. Ross said they had seen an increase in homeless and people living in cars in the county since the pandemic. She said there were 800 applications for 70 units at Alma Point at Foster Square in Foster City when it opened.
“The need is absolutely overwhelming the supply we have right now,” she said.
The approval of Measure Y adds 10 more years of building height limits at 55 feet in most areas of the city but complicates building housing in San Mateo. Under Measure Y, the San Mateo City Council can propose increases in building heights and densities but can’t pass them without voter approval. Measure Y was an extension of Measure H, passed in 2004 as an extension of Measure P, which passed in 1991.
Ross said Measure Y also makes it harder for the city to meet its state housing requirements. Those requirements are mandated through the Association of Bay Area Governments in the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, process. The process for determining the next goals for all cities is currently underway, but numbers promise to be higher.
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Deputy Mayor Eric Rodriguez said in an email it’s too early to tell what the passage of Measure Y means for the city’s housing plans. The council wants to use the upcoming 2040 San Mateo General Plan to plot out long-term housing solutions. A general plan establishes a city’s long-term rules for where housing will be and the density. With San Mateo evenly split on the issue, the council wants to get broad public opinion over the next few months.
Rodriguez said the city will still end up zoning for the same amount of affordable housing moving forward, but new housing might not be confined to just near transit. The city is currently examining if it has enough capacity to add new housing units from its predefined study areas established in 2019. If it can’t, it will begin weighing new housing options outside those study areas. City staff will give an update to the council on housing in early February.
Mayor Joe Goethals wants to see greater density close to the train stations, which he believes is the best possible location for future housing.
“It’s really essential to the future of San Mateo that this general plan process be done right,” Goethals said.
Councilwoman Amourence Lee said in an email she supports a community-led general plan process focused on outreach and data to make housing decisions. She believes the council needs clarification on what people want for the city on housing.
“We are mandated to meeting our RHNA goals, and I will continue to support transit-oriented and sustainable growth to address our housing crisis and build back our economy. The alternative is untenable worsening traffic, overburdening our infrastructure and working against our climate goals,” Lee said.
Councilwoman Diane Papan said in an email Measure Y’s slim margin of victory reflects the split in San Mateo amongst residents.
“I look forward to a robust discussion of these complex issues in the general plan process,” Papan said. “We are going to do the work to bring our community together about our future.”
I am glad to see all our Council members commit to ensuring broad community outreach as the next step in our General Plan process. That means opening the community engagement back up, not working from where we were pre-Election Day. As all the City Council candidates agreed, we need to go out to where people already are, not expect them to come to us, to get truly representational perspectives on the many issues core to the General Plan. A robust and open General Plan discussion will lead to many great ideas and help foster collaboration. I look forward to Council's process recommendations and to being an active participant in these critical discussions.
COVID-19 is a game changer. One of the outcomes is working from home is working. Future housing should take this into consideration. The other is mass transportation requires mass ridership and no one wants to pack into trains and buses. We are in a desirable area because of the whether. No matter how much we build - we will not be able to overtake demand. The one thing the city has control is to streamline and lower fees for planning and building and if appropriate levy impact fees to fund infrastructure costs. We do need low cost housing for low income earners. Possibly there can be incentives for home owners to build low rent accessory dwelling units. Whatever we do, we need to do it right. A software engineer told me that a bad software program cannot be fixed because every time a fix is installed, two or more other things go wrong.
I think we know what measure Y means, it means the citizens of San Mateo will be the ones in the drivers seat on future growth in this city. Not the divisive city council and not special interests outside the city.
You'd have to be pretty out of touch to think that. What it means is that the old, wealthy, white homeowners of San Mateo have temporarily won the fight to make it harder to build apartments in our city.
Temporarily. Have you heard of RHNA and SB35? I'd suggest you google them.
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I am glad to see all our Council members commit to ensuring broad community outreach as the next step in our General Plan process. That means opening the community engagement back up, not working from where we were pre-Election Day. As all the City Council candidates agreed, we need to go out to where people already are, not expect them to come to us, to get truly representational perspectives on the many issues core to the General Plan. A robust and open General Plan discussion will lead to many great ideas and help foster collaboration. I look forward to Council's process recommendations and to being an active participant in these critical discussions.
Just wondering how measure Y lost on election night and won three weeks later. Would a Y supporter please explain?
COVID-19 is a game changer. One of the outcomes is working from home is working. Future housing should take this into consideration. The other is mass transportation requires mass ridership and no one wants to pack into trains and buses. We are in a desirable area because of the whether. No matter how much we build - we will not be able to overtake demand. The one thing the city has control is to streamline and lower fees for planning and building and if appropriate levy impact fees to fund infrastructure costs. We do need low cost housing for low income earners. Possibly there can be incentives for home owners to build low rent accessory dwelling units. Whatever we do, we need to do it right. A software engineer told me that a bad software program cannot be fixed because every time a fix is installed, two or more other things go wrong.
I think we know what measure Y means, it means the citizens of San Mateo will be the ones in the drivers seat on future growth in this city. Not the divisive city council and not special interests outside the city.
You'd have to be pretty out of touch to think that. What it means is that the old, wealthy, white homeowners of San Mateo have temporarily won the fight to make it harder to build apartments in our city.
Temporarily. Have you heard of RHNA and SB35? I'd suggest you google them.
Whatever you say Jordan, Measure Y won and R lost. We know your kind will back for another fight and we will be ready for you then too. FYI
Jordan, I am new to this site but doesn't one of the rules clear state the following,
"Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person"
Is not referring to people as wealthy and white in a disparaging manner violating that rule? Come on man, you can do better.
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