What a view, too

Their program started out by providing food, clothing and other essential services, and has grown over the past 35 years to encompass a school serving both children and adults, a youth center, immigration counseling, and more. More recently, St. Francis Center has shifted its focus toward acquiring housing and turning it into homes for those earning at the low, very low, and extremely-low income levels, to the point where today it operates 193 apartments in North Fair Oaks and downtown Redwood City.

It is to that end that Jay Paul Company would make its donation. In an earlier version of their project proposal it had offered to give $28.1 million, which would have translated into 50 apartments for those earning at the extremely-low income level.

Now, though, it increased that figure to a whopping $36.1 million, thereby enabling St. Francis Center to quickly add to their pool some 64 apartments targeted to extremely-low income families.

Eight million dollars is a very generous increase, and one that will clearly help a lot of local families. Although the overall community benefits package associated with the Harbor View project did increase, it did not increase by $8 million. Rather, it was upped by $1.5 million, to a total of $56,650,000. So, what decreased? In short, the recently proposed ice rink.

In late 2019, Jay Paul Company proposed adding a “Commons” building to their project plan, one that would contain a public café, a number of meeting rooms, and multiple outdoor spaces that could be used for a variety of public purposes. A year and a half later, in May 2021, it presented an updated proposal to Redwood City’s Architectural Advisory Committee in which the Commons building was replaced by a roughly defined area where a future project benefiting the community would be built. At the time, Jay Paul Company suggested that future project — which was to be designed and built independently from the rest of the Harbor View project — could be a two-story ice rink building.

Apparently, an ice rink appears not to have been high on the Redwood City Council’s list of priorities, at least relative to other needs. At the council’s direction, Jay Paul Company “eliminated the donation of a long-term ground lease of land for the Malibu Ice Center,” which was valued at $19.5 million, and replaced it with a $13 million cash donation to the city for the construction of new parks and open space, as well as for capital improvements to existing recreational facilities and open space.

The Harbor View project’s community benefits package included one other line item related to a future ice rink — a $150,000 endowment for “ice skating diversity, equity and inclusion,” but with the elimination of the rink that item was simply retitled “Parks & Recreation DEI Endowment”; the amount remained the same. Other elements of the Harbor View project’s community benefits package, including $5.8 million in funds for various transportation initiatives, $750,000 for YMCA child care and family services, and $550,000 for a first-time home buyer’s loan program, remain unchanged and bring the package total to more than $56.5 million.

All told, the package is an impressive one. According to Jay Paul Company, it is the largest community benefit package ever proposed in the history of Redwood City. That’s notable, especially given that although this is one of the larger projects proposed for Redwood City, it is not the largest. Whether it is enough to sway the members of the City Council, the Planning Commission, and, of course, the public, though, is yet to be seen, but at least now we all have correct information on which to make informed decisions.

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.