And then there were 5

The flood of submissions caused some of the DTPP development limits — or caps — to quickly be reached. Because the DTPP environmental analysis only covered development up to those preset limits, subsequent project proposals then faced the prospect of creating environmental impact reports specific to each. So many additional project proposals came in after the caps were reached that city leaders, recognizing that considering each project’s impacts in isolation would make it hard to understand the overall impacts if all (or a large number) of the projects were actually built, opted to consider increasing the DTPP caps.

Rather than picking a new set of numbers out of the air, the city in 2020 set up a “Gatekeeper process” to consider proposals in hand that seemed likely to be built if approved. The Redwood City Council heard presentations on each of the projects being proposed, after which it finalized the set of Gatekeeper projects. It then used that set to calculate a new set of development caps and generated a new EIR based on those projects.

Eight projects ended up being initiated as part of the Gatekeeper process, although one was later withdrawn from consideration. Of the remaining seven, two are located outside of downtown (which was expanded somewhat during the process). One of those — the 56-unit townhouse project planned for 505 E. Bayshore Road — was approved in June of 2023. Just this week, one of the larger downtown office projects, which includes ground-floor retail plus an associated affordable housing project along Woodside Road, was approved by the City Council.

This week’s approval of the project planned for the old Wells Fargo Bank building site at 1900 Broadway leaves five Gatekeeper projects yet to be approved — or even considered. All five are still marked “Application Deemed Incomplete,” meaning the city does not consider any of them ready for consideration by either the Planning Commission or the City Council.

Two of the five remaining Gatekeeper projects are primarily housing developments. The first is a 479-unit for-rent apartment complex planned for the Veterans Square strip center at 1205 Veterans Blvd. The proposed pair of six-story buildings would house those apartments, some — 70, I believe — to be deed-restricted for below-market rates. The building at the corner of Veterans Boulevard and Maple Street would also contain 5,600 square feet of retail space and a 5,300-square-foot child care center.

Next, there’s the development proposing to replace the American Legion Post 105 building at 651 El Camino Real with an eight-story, 300-unit apartment building (68 affordable units). This building would also contain an American Legion “event assembly space,” so Post 105 would still have a home.

The third Gatekeeper project, planned for Bradford Street — at 750 Bradford and 603 Jefferson — is proposed by The Sobrato Organization in partnership with the Redwood City School District. It would replace today’s school district office building with a large structure containing 165,500 square feet of office space and 108 for-rent apartments (22 affordable) for RCSD staff.

Fourth among the five Gatekeeper projects is Tishman Speyer’s seven-story, roughly 180,000-square-foot office building planned for downtown Redwood City’s Chase Bank site. This building would feature almost 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and would be accompanied by an off-site affordable housing project at 609 Price Ave., near the DMV, offering 90 for-rent apartments.

Lastly is the project I suspect might actually get reviewed first: a 296,000-square-foot office project planned for 901 El Camino Real, across from Sequoia High School. Appropriate for its location, this building would contain a 6,500-square-foot teen center. Over on Shasta Street — currently home to a mini-storage facility — the developer would build 100 affordable for-rent apartments.

Development within Redwood City took off like a rocket with the creation of the city’s Downtown Precise Plan, and that rocket looks to continue its ascent thanks in large part to the Gatekeeper process — assuming the economy behaves. Look for Redwood City to change almost as much over the next decade as it did over the last.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.