Planning the future of San Mateo

San Mateo has evolved into what it is today as a result of individual planning decisions the community and their elected representatives made over the decades. Today, we formally make these decisions through our city’s General Plan, a comprehensive planning document that covers everything from housing to transportation and public safety to recreation. Now you have an opportunity that comes around only once every 15-20 years to help shape our community for current and future generations by joining our Strive San Mateo General Plan 2040 update process.

After taking a pause during the pandemic, we are returning to the community for input during a series of workshops planned this month and throughout the year. We will be talking about what areas of San Mateo are ripe for change or could support future growth, particularly for new housing, and which areas we would like to preserve.

The input we have collected so far has helped us identify 10 areas of the city to study. Our city’s talented planning team is now researching and gathering community feedback on three land use alternatives that explore possible growth scenarios within those 10 study areas. Each scenario has its pros and cons as we strive to meet our state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) targets. However, the option ultimately chosen will likely be a blend of two or more of the alternatives.

One thing we have learned from community feedback and the narrow passage of Measure Y this past November, is there are a variety of differing opinions about how San Mateo should change over the next 20 years. San Mateo is a diverse community and that is one of the reasons it is such a great place to live. Of course, this diverse community is going to have diverse opinions on how to best plan for the future — that’s OK and to be expected. But rather than dwelling on this division, it is imperative for us to focus on the goals most all of us have in common: preserving our long-term sustainability, addressing housing affordability, maintaining our city’s character and enhancing our community’s quality of life.

How do we best move forward? By respecting differing opinions and actively seeking to see things from others’ perspective. If you are relatively new to the city, try to understand the quality of life elements that long-term residents hold dear and want to preserve. If you are lucky enough to be a longtime homeowner, try to understand what it may be like to be a young renter who wants to live near family in San Mateo but has little prospects of ever being able to afford a home here. Wherever you are on the spectrum of opinions, keep in mind that this process is about compromise. If you go into the process with the idea that the General Plan is going to look exactly how you think it should, chances are you will be disappointed.

We also need to ask ourselves: What type of city our grandchildren will want to call home? Because many of the General Plan changes will affect them just as much, if not more, than they might affect us in the short term. This is our General Plan through the year 2040, and it needs a long-term perspective.

Yes, a lot has changed over the last year and we are still unable to gauge the full impacts of the pandemic. The uncertainties weigh heavy on our minds, just as the dot-com crash did in the late 1990s or the Great Recession in the late 2000s. Think of all the things that have happened since the year 2000. Well, that’s about how far off 2040 is from us today. A lot is going to happen in the next 20 years, likely more cycles of booms and busts, and perhaps, unfortunately, another disaster we have no way of predicting.

We have some very important decisions to make about what we want the San Mateo of 2040 to be like. When we look back, I hope we can say San Mateo is the way it is because the forward-thinking community of 2021 came together, listened to differing perspectives with an open mind, and created a General Plan that is resilient and reflective of who we truly are.

To learn more about our General Plan 2040 process and how you can get involved visit www.StriveSanMateo.org.

Eric Rodriguez is the mayor of San Mateo.