Veterans day

Currently underway is Redwood City’s newest hotel, a 91-room Hampton Inn rising at the corner of Veterans Boulevard and Brewster Avenue. And last November, the city’s Planning Commission approved a 95-unit (10 affordable) for-rent apartment building to be built at 590 Veterans Blvd. For completeness, I should mention the 479-unit apartment complex proposed back in 2022 to replace the Veterans Square shopping center, where Hoot Judkins has done business for years. However, that proposal seemingly never made it to the “application complete” stage, and has disappeared from the city’s list of development projects.

This all leads me to Eden Housing’s recent “notice of intent” to submit a proposal for a multifamily housing project on Veterans Boulevard. On Monday, the Redwood City Council held an informational public meeting, both to hear what Eden Housing has in mind and to give preliminary councilmember feedback on Eden’s early plans.

Eden Housing is a well-regarded Hayward-based developer, acquirer and operator of “safe, decent, affordable housing” for “very low, low and moderate-income families, seniors, veterans, people living with physical, mental or developmental disabilities, and the formerly homeless.” Its intent is to construct a five-story, 76-unit apartment building at the corner of Veterans Boulevard and Brewster Avenue (diagonally opposite the Hampton Inn hotel project) where today there stands a single-story commercial building. Seventy-five of the new building’s 76 apartments would be studios or one-bedroom units, with a lone two-bedroom apartment being for the building’s manager. The primary occupants of the 75 affordable apartments are to be seniors (55 and up), although Eden would consider other folks with disabilities as well. As for affordability, units would be designated for those earning at the extremely low level (those earning at or below 30% of San Mateo County’s median income), at the very low level (50% AMI) and at the low income level (80% AMI).  

Eden Housing is banking on the project’s location being close enough to amenities that many of the residents will not need to own vehicles. But while the project would not actually be required to include any parking, the plans currently show 38 parking spaces in a ground-level garage (two being handicapped spaces, 15 having EV chargers, and the rest being “EV ready”). Finally, there would be parking for up to 43 bicycles.

According to walkscore.com, 705 Veterans Blvd. is a “walker’s paradise,” with a score of 91. And for many that will indeed be the case. Looking at a map, Courthouse Square is about four blocks away, as is the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on the east side of the freeway (via the Highway 101 underpass). There are a handful of restaurants a short walk down Veterans Boulevard, and the Kohl’s/Sports Basement shopping center is about three blocks away. Kaiser Hospital is four or five blocks from the proposed development, while the Redwood City transit center (and Sequoia Station shopping center) is about eight blocks away. All-in-all, not bad unless a resident can’t manage more than a block or two, in which case things get somewhat trickier. Eden Housing doesn’t provide resident shuttles to shopping, churches, medical appointments and such. Then again, there are always taxis and ride-hailing services.

I’ll absolutely be rooting for this project. Although it wouldn’t give me personally any additional reasons to drive to or along Veterans Boulevard (unless I deliver meals there), in combination with the other existing and future housing projects on that street I can see a day when Veterans Boulevard is looked on less as a functional, mostly commercial street, and more as a place where more than a thousand people find themselves at home.