Waterfront village delayed

The delay came despite confidence voiced by Mayor Jeff Ira and Councilwoman Rosanne Foust that the plan has been thoroughly examined from every angle after four years in the works.

"Four years is a lot of time to study a lot of the detail," Ira said.

The choice the council was faced with was really something beyond the technicalities that took up much of last night's discussion, he said. Essentially, Ira said it boiled down to whether the city wanted to keep its Bayfront the way it is, or to instead have an attractive urban development on the barren site.

The urban development would create 1,930 much-needed residential units.

The billion-dollar development plan would urbanize the Bayfront with a series of towers - one of which will to climb 21 stories, making it the tallest in the city. The Oracle building, at 17 stories, currently holds that title.

The 43-acre village includes 1,930 residential units, 25,000 square feet of retail space and 150,000 square feet of office space.

"We've seen several iterations of this project, and nothing's perfect," Foust said. "We could get some really good things from this."

Some speakers told the City Council last night that the project will generate too much traffic and put an enormous stress on the area's fragile environment.

"You're putting too big a project in the middle of an environmentally sensitive place," said resident Robin Smith.

The original plans unveiled more than four years ago by developer Glenborough Pauls boasted 30 towers of equal height.

Developers disagreed.

"This is not a Manhattanization of the Bayfront," said Tim Ridner, representative for developers.

Yunmi Choi can be reached by e-mail at yunmi@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 109. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.