High anxiety

Although the DTPP permits buildings to attain 12 stories on certain parcels, to date the highest building in Redwood City is the blue and white Indigo Apartments complex, with towers rising the allowable 10 stories. Although the most recent plans to redevelop the Sequoia Station Shopping Center showed buildings up to 12 stories tall (portions of the Sequoia Station property fall within a 12-story zone), with the recent sale to Hunter Properties we’ll have to wait and see what the center’s new owner (along with Safeway), has in mind.

When the previous owner, Lowe, published their preliminary plans for the Sequoia Station property, I heard protests from people who thought that 12-story buildings were well out of character for Redwood City. Imagine, then, what those same people must be thinking, when faced with the city’s most recently proposed development project: a high-density housing development containing two towers, one 20 stories tall and the other a whopping 28 stories — 310 feet to the top of the parapet — in height.

Twenty stories seems bad enough, but 28? I did some quick checking, and if Wikipedia is to be believed, that one tower would make this development just a tad taller than the tallest building in San Jose (not to mention, I believe, any other Bay Area city other than San Francisco or Oakland). San Jose’s tallest commercial building is 300 feet in height, and it has a 28-story residential building that tops out at 298 feet. Everything else in that city is 22 stories (286 feet) in height or less.

To be fair, this proposed Redwood City project is in the very preliminary stages, and is expected to undergo many changes over the coming months. And those dizzying heights do have a benefit: they enable the project to contain 378 residential units, a bit more than 2,800 square feet of retail space and space for 164 cars, all on three parcels that, combined, are just over two acres in size (The parcels are 910 and 1000 Marshall St., plus 1800 Broadway. All sit within an eight-story zone inside the Precise Plan Area).

The residential units would be for seniors, with support for independent living, assisted living and memory care. Unlike some other residential projects recently submitted to Redwood City, the units would be offered at market rate, and not subsidized for those with lower than average incomes. Apparently, though, by exclusively targeting seniors and by relying on SB 330 — the California Housing Crisis Act of 2019 — the developer may not only be able to increase the project’s density, and add 63 units to the 315 otherwise allowed, it may also be able to bypass Redwood City’s height limits.

So, does downtown Redwood City have a 28-story tower in its future? Probably not. Between now and October, when R&M Properties intends to file a final project application with the city, it intends to evolve the project based in part on feedback from the community. And I expect that it’ll receive a great deal of feedback and pressure to reduce the project’s height. Then again, reducing the heights of the two towers would negatively affect the project’s economics, potentially making the project infeasible. Add in the fact that Redwood City needs more housing to meet its state-mandated goals, and there’s always a chance. Personally, I suspect that 28 stories might simply be a negotiating tactic, with the developer planning to settle for something between 12 and 28 stories. Time to make some popcorn: the show has just begun.

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.