Imagine that

The current center is built on an outdated model in which a large percentage of the land is given over to surface parking. Given the high cost of real estate in the Bay Area, this model no longer makes sense. Locating parking either underground or in garages internal to high-rise buildings is a more efficient use of our scarce land, and allows more people to live or work within a given footprint.

Although that large parking lot is one reason why the center has become ripe for redevelopment, there is another, more pressing reason: Caltrain. Its 2040 Business Plan calls for expanding Redwood City’s current two-track station into a four-track one, necessitating a wider right-of-way. At the same time, Redwood City is looking into elevating the tracks, for reasons of safety and improved traffic flow. This, too, would likely require a wider right-of-way. With Sequoia Station up against the tracks on one side, and the Box buildings on the other, something would have to give — and Sequoia Station is the logical choice.

So far, the proposal is a preliminary one, with only the basics included. Although there are very few renderings within the initial design documents (accessible from the city’s website), the information those documents provide allows one to imagine just how this part of the city might change.

The proposal calls for, in addition to the expanded right-of-way, three buildings along that right-of-way and another three along El Camino Real. Dividing these two rows would be an extended Franklin Street which would now end at James Street. The current entrance to the center from El Camino Real would become a new service drive, enabling trucks to unload behind the new Safeway and CVS stores, each of which would be located within one of the buildings along El Camino Real. Finally, Hamilton Street, which currently only exists on the east side of the tracks, would gain a new counterpart on the west side, running between El Camino Real and Franklin Street. Between Franklin Street and the tracks, Hamilton wouldn’t be open to vehicles, but instead would be a wide path for pedestrians and cyclists, thus providing a direct connection between this new development and downtown Redwood City.

Two of the six buildings would contain apartments. The remaining four would have retail on the ground floor and a total of 1.25 million square feet of office/life sciences spaces above. As for the apartments, depending upon what the city prefers, together the two buildings could contain as many as 625 units, in configurations ranging from studios to three bedrooms. Most would be leased at a market rate, but some 245 of them would be subsidized, with the vast majority of those being set aside for households earning at or below the very low (50% of the area median income) and low (80% of the AMI) income levels. Several of those affordable apartments would be available in each configuration, meaning that there would be a number of two- and three-bedroom units for low-income families.

The design includes a fair amount of open space, with two new public plazas totaling around 49,000 square feet in size and 4,000 square feet of play space for the child care center. Clearly, though, the 12-acre parcel would be dominated by those six buildings, five of which would extend to the maximum height allowed by Redwood City’s Downtown Precise Plan: 136 feet for buildings along the Caltrain line, and 114 feet for buildings along El Camino Real (the sixth building would be below the height limit). Parking for each would be underground, including all parking for the new Safeway and CVS stores.

As proposed, Sequoia Station would be a very different place. Try imagining that it has already been built and then picturing how you might interact with the shops, restaurants and public spaces. Functionally, for the average Redwood City resident, if anything it would be an improvement on what we have today. While we still need to consider issues such as whether this is the right mix of jobs and housing, at least retail and restaurants of the type that Sequoia Station first brought to Redwood City in the mid 1990s will apparently live on. Imagine that!

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.