South City officials critique Oyster Point project

Worsened traffic congestion, increased school enrollment and heightened demand on municipal services were among the potential issues identified by commissioners, according to video of the Thursday, Dec. 21, meeting.

No decision was made at the meeting, as commissioners were asked as part of the California Environmental Quality Act process to offer feedback on the potential impacts brought by the project. Their comments will be folded into the many others from local residents and organizations, then addressed later in the review process.

When examining the project, officials are charged with weighing the proposal to build about 1,200 housing units adjacent to the nearly 1.5 million square feet of commercial spaces over roughly 40 acres abutting Oyster Point Marina/Park. Commissioners were also asked to compare the impacts of the housing component to the previous entitlements to build the roughly 2.25 million square feet of solely office and research and development space at the site.

By putting homes near the jobs, a traffic study in the environmental impact report shows the expected traffic congestion should be relieved as the commute patterns would shift.

But considering the lack of existing infrastructure needed to accommodate the crush of workers flocking to the wealth of biotech jobs in the area, traffic flow will remain a grind regardless of the size or scope of development, according to the report.

Such a quagmire perplexed Commissioner Sam Shihadeh, who recognized the challenges facing drivers.

“There is going to be a lot of traffic, let’s be realistic. Yes, residents will be coming the other way. But at the moment, during peak time, the streets and freeway entrances can’t accommodate existing traffic flow. So that’s a major concern,” he said.

As part of the state’s environmental review process, the report is required to generate alternative designs which could mitigate some of the challenges invited by the development. To relieve traffic, the report suggests scaling back the project by either 25 percent or 35 percent could be effective.

The report notes, however, the reduction would only offer marginal benefits in freeing up congestion, and the altered traffic flows generated by adding the housing is a substantial improvement over building the entirely commercial project.

South San Francisco officials have made it clear they are not recommending trimming the project, but are only examining the alternative designs as mandated through the environmental review process.

But Commissioner Mark Nagales suggested some tweaks to the proposal may be in order to improve the quality of life for those potentially occupying the site in the future.

“If I’m a resident who wants to travel and not drive, I don’t have that capability,” said Nagales, noting the project’s relative inaccessibility via public transportation.

Such a dilemma could be an issue for a parent of the hundreds of students expected to be living in the residential units, as there is no local campus available to accommodate families.

As a result, he suggested families would need to drive across the highway each morning, likely worsening traffic congestion and posing enrollment challenges for South San Francisco Unified School District officials.

“I think it’s a huge impact to the community,” he said. “That is something that needs to be addressed and how we are going to fix that.”

The developer has offered the school district nearly $6 million in school impact fees, but Nagales suggested that may not be enough to mitigate all the problems generated by the development.

Senior Planner Billy Gross said ultimately such concerns would need to be addressed by school officials, but noted there has been a willingness shown by the developer to help offset the burden brought by more students.

Commissioner Alex Wong echoed some of Nagales’ concerns regarding services, and also questioned whether there are concurrent plans to build more open spaces or parks, grocery stores and additional amenities addressing the needs of new families and workers in the area.

Not all feedback of the project was critical though, as some local housing advocates expressed their support for proposal to develop more places to live under an effort to relieve the prevailing affordability crunch.

“I think this is a rare opportunity for a city like South San Francisco to add to the region and make sure people can move here and we can continue to be such a dynamic community,” said Nico Nagle, of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition.

Considering the variety of perspectives offered on the project poised as one of the largest development proposals on the Peninsula, commission Chair Norm Faria encouraged all concerned parties to express their opinion during the public comment period of the environmental review process which closes next month.

“This is a really important, big project and we want to hear what everyone has to say,” he said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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