Bay Meadows works for the common good

Fact: San Mateo is growing, and we need to provide housing for our young families and those seniors who want to downsize their homes. The population is projected to increase 18 percent with employment growing 25 percent by 2020, with a growth of over 15,000 jobs.

It's simple: the rising number of people in the area, employment growth and lack of available land has created a housing crisis with costs skyrocketing beyond the level of affordability. The growth in housing just has not kept up with job growth. More and more San Mateans are forced to pay sky-high rents to live near work or relocate and commute long distances - sometimes as far away as Tracy, Modesto, or Brentwood, putting more cars on the road and more pollution in our air and water.

The Bay Meadows project is a transit-oriented development that will provide desperately needed housing designed to maximize access to public transportation.

That means a clean, family oriented community with new parks and as many as 180 new homes specifically designed so young families, first-time homebuyers or seniors on fixed incomes can purchase them. This new neighborhood will be walking distance from public transportation and a redesigned Baby Bullet Caltrain stop at the Hillsdale Station. The Bay Meadows owners will have to spend tens of millions on improvements to the City's transportation and road system - all to help keep cars off the road, lessening traffic and congestion especially on Hillsdale and El Camino Real. That's why the project has been endorsed by the Sierra Club and the Greenbelt Alliance - not usually known to support development projects.

Bay Meadows will certainly not solve all our problems. But it is an example of what we can do when we work together for the common good.

Linda Hedges

San Mateo