Island life

Redwood City has one major new apartment complex about to come online (Broadway Village, with its 400 market-rate units soon to be leasing, plus its 120 affordable units that are already leasing), one large apartment building currently under construction (557 E. Bayshore’s building A, with 222 units), and at least two others likely to get underway later this year or early next year (ELCO Yards building A, 252 apartments, 36 of which would be affordable; and building D, 249 apartments, 45 of which would be affordable). The 557 E. Bayshore project was approved by the city for a second apartment building — 258 apartments — but it appears the developer has yet to even apply for the building permit for it, so it’s anybody’s guess as to when (or if) that particular building gets built. In any case, although Redwood City will clearly have a number of new options for rental housing in particular over the next couple of years, it could use even more. Thus, my interest when I saw a recent addition to the city’s online list of development projects, one consisting of 400 new housing units.

My excitement dimmed a bit when I read the description and realized that the project would straddle the border of Belmont and Redwood City, with Belmont receiving the lion’s share of the 400 total units. But our housing shortage is area-wide, and the problem cannot be solved by one city alone. Plus, if the proposed project is built, few if any of the new tenants will care which city contains their unit.

Redwood City refers to this new proposal as the “Island Parkway Project,” and cites its location as 501 Island Pkwy. But 501 Island Pkwy is just that part of the project within Redwood City’s limits: the remaining four parcels making up the overall project are located in Belmont. Belmont has assigned the project the very similar name of “Island Parkway Housing Project,” which makes sense given that three of the Belmont parcels have Island Parkway addresses (300, 301, 401) with the fourth being located at 800 Clipper Drive.

Splitting the project across city limits is fascinating, as is the sheer variety in housing types being proposed. At 800 Clipper Drive, the plan is to construct a large seven-story building containing 203 units (whether for-rent or for-sale, I’m not sure). One, 300 Island Parkway, would be developed with 76 three-story townhouses. Across the parkway, the developer plans to construct 57 single-family homes on the nearly 4-acre parcel at 301 and 401 Island Parkway. Finally, 501 Island Parkway — the parcel located in Redwood City — would receive 64 three-story townhouses. Thus, house hunters would get their pick of housing types: a unit in a large multi-family building, a three-story townhouse, or a single-family home.

For those wondering just where all of this development would actually be located, Island Parkway is the street where the Autobahn Motors Mercedes-Benz dealership and the Belmont Sports Complex (both very visible from Highway 101) are located. All of the townhouses and single-family homes would be east of the Belmont Sports Complex, with the single-family homes and the Redwood City townhouses being between Island Parkway and Belmont Slough on land that today contains three seemingly unoccupied office buildings and a large multi-level parking garage. The parcel between the sports complex and the street is currently undeveloped, as is the parcel just north of it, which is where the multi-family building would go.

With a real need for more housing occurring at the same time that demand for office space has dropped, I see the logic in demolishing the existing three- and four-story office buildings and constructing new housing in their stead. The fact that today there are a number of single-family homes and a Hyatt House hotel adjacent to the project site means that this new housing should fit right in. However, I do wish that the location for this new housing was more walkable or transit-friendly. There are no amenities in the immediate area and no transit stops anywhere close, meaning that the residents of these 400 new homes will have to resort to driving to get a cup of coffee, a quart of milk or to commute to an office. But you can’t have everything ... .

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.