The Burlingame Voice

Lots F and N Bulking Up to 5 Stories

The Daily Journal is reporting on the Planning Commission's approval of the affordable housing plan

Burlingame officials are pushing ahead a proposal to transform downtown surface parking lots into a new affordable housing development and parking garage.

The Burlingame Planning Commission approved the bold vision for city land during a meeting Monday, Dec. 10, moving the initiative before the City Council for final approval.

Following years of deliberation, revision and examination, officials agreed they were finally comfortable with the design of the proposal from Pacific West Communities to redevelop parking lots F and N.

Under the commission’s unanimous approval, councilmembers will soon consider the proposal to build 132 units in a five-story building at parking lot F, on Lorton Avenue, between Howard and Bayswater avenues. Of the units, 78 will be set aside as workforce housing and the remaining 54 will be reserved for seniors.

So now the issue is "which comes first, parking or housing"?

Water Supply Wish List

I stumbled across a really well-researched piece at the California Political Review website that merits sharing with B'gamers.  The link is here, but I will give you the author's (Ed Ring) first wish list on how to increase our water supply with the millions of acre-feet (MAF) for each item. 

Projects to Increase Supplies of Water

(1) Build the Sites Reservoir (annual yield 0.5 MAF) – $5.0 billion.

(2) Build the Temperance Flat Reservoir (annual yield 0.25 MAF) – $3.0 billion.

(3) Raise the height of the Shasta Dam (increased annual yield 0.5 MAF) – $2.0 billion.

(4) So Cal water recycling plants to potable standards with 1.0 MAF capacity – $7.5 billion.

(5) So Cal desalination plants with 1.0 MAF capacity – $15.0 billion.

(6) Desalination plants on Central and North coasts with 0.5 MAF capacity – 7.5 billion

(7) Central and Northern California water recycling plants to potable standards with 1.0 MAF capacity – $7.5 billion.

(8) Facilities to capture runoff for aquifer recharge (annual yield 0.75 MAF) – $5.0 billion.

Total – $52.5 billion.

Please do click through to read at least part of it and I will excerpt some more soon.

More El Camino Observations

It seems like I revisit the sorry shape of El Camino about this time every year.  Last year's post here drew some insightful comments and general agreement on the sorry state of affairs for our peasant path--certainly no King's Road.  Perhaps the arrival of the rain that coincides with the arrival of the Caltrans FLOODING signage gets me thinking.  Or maybe it's the completely random light at Lincoln Ave. and El Camino that stops ECR traffic for no visible reason.  And now the "Grand Boulevard"-like sections in San Mateo and Millbrae have these inscrutable double flashing yellow/red lights for pedestrian crossings.  They appear to be set for walkers with walkers as most of the time the pedestrian is long gone and the flashing red lights are still flashing.  Most drivers can't decide if a double flashing red means wait or proceed-if-clear.  To tell you the truth, I'm not sure myself so I err on the side of caution.

Rather than just complain I got out my scooper and cleared my adopted drain.  It really needed it as you can see below.  The official page for city adoption services is here. It appears someone already adopted it, but I think of it as shared-custody since I have been clearing it for more than a decade.  I was able to adopt the one on the other corner which was "medium" priority--I would hate to see how bad "high" priority is.  84 Adopters have adopted 110 of our 1,400+ drains, so you are sure to have one nearby that needs your love.



  

What's a Dwelling Unit?

I attended the November 19th City Council meeting to add my two cents to the discussion about the General Plan update that was on the agenda.  I will get into more about my comments about water supply adequacy and security later.  For now, let's just marvel at the sense of confusion about "dwelling units" that was on display that night by several council members.  The Daily Journal Austin Walsh piece about the meeting didn't quite capture it with this mention 

Though they stopped short of determining a suitable unit-per-acre ratio, some councilmembers shared an interest in reducing the amount of parking required in a development to accommodate more housing development.

Constructing parking can be expensive or consume space which could otherwise be used for housing in a development, and builders often seek reduced parking requirements in projects near transit stations to maximize their unit counts.  “I want to use parking to encourage affordability,” said Councilman Ricardo Ortiz.

Watching the discussion live, it was apparent to me that the basic idea that "dwelling unit" is an inadequate measure of the intensity of use of a piece of property was just starting to dawn on several council members.  That's why they "stopped short".  The General Plan update is moving in the direction of allowing 140 DU/acre in the north end of town--a proposed increase from 120 DU/acre.  Yet when presented with some photos of recent, rack-and-stack developments in Redwood City that hover around 70 DU/acre, there was sort of a stunned look on several faces.  Only then did the discussion move to the mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom units in a development.  I've been espousing using bedrooms/acre for a long time, including at the Anson Apartments and Residences under construction on Carolan Ave.  Now is the time to dump DU/acre and talk about a real metric that will guide planning in the future.  It ain't DU's.

P.S.  Check out this DJ piece about the Millbrae project near the BART station with its 444 DU's for another example of the lack of transparency.

Bad B'game Branding

Here at the Voice we celebrate the good, and call out the bad and the ugly of B'game.  Now that Black Friday is over, let me be the first to hope that NOBODY bought this piece of trash that is for sale on the Avenew.  I won't deign to mention the shop because it doesn't deserve the attention.  If you are a retail enthusiast and happen to go in there, tell them to get their act together and behave like they belong here, not like they are doing now.

Welcoming Anson Back to B'game

The unveiling of the new bust of Anson Burlingame in the downtown library Friday night was quite the affair.  More than 100 people attended to hear an excellent recap of Anson's career (delivered by Dr. George Koo and David Chai), some words about his family from family member and recently arrived Burlingame resident Lisa Lillelund along with a few politicians.  Sculptor Zhou Limin spoke about his inspiration for creating the bust and we heard a few words about the Burlingame Foundation from its president, Dr. Walter Christman.  All in all great event and a wonderful way to welcome Anson (and his descendants) back to B'game.  Here are Lisa, Dr. Koo and the unveiled bust with the US and Chinese flags of the period.  The program was also streamed to China for added viewers.

Fall Treehugger Foliage 2018

With all of the smoke and dry weather, it has not been easy finding a suitable Fall foliage picture.  The Spring picture was pretty easy (here), but the Fall one had very few great options.  Even the normally brilliant Ginkos are subdued and uneven this year.  So here is an old standby that is looking as good as ever--a Japanese Maple shot at around sunset last night.

Higher-Cost Rail - Part 145 Newsom's Dilemma

The Chron is covering yet another audit report on the ballooning costs of Jerry Brown's train to nowhere.

Pushing to break ground on California’s high-speed rail project before critical planning for the Central Valley line was in place drove up its cost by $600 million, with that “flawed decision” potentially increasing the price tag by another $1 billion, state Auditor Elaine Howle said Thursday.

And more financial problems are looming for high-speed rail. The state could lose $3.5 billion in federal grant money if the first segment of the line is not completed by December 2022 as planned, Howle warned in a report. The auditor’s office said to meet that deadline, the pace of construction must double over the next four years.

Incoming Gov. Newsom will have an early decision to make come January as he has a number of other big ticket items on his plate of promises.  And his dilemma is how to split this baby

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom has been less enthusiastic about high-speed rail than Brown, saying he would focus on completing the portion from the San Joaquin Valley to the Bay Area before deciding whether to make a push to Los Angeles.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, a critic of the rail project, said the report shows that high-speed rail is “dead in the water.”  “There will never be a completed track from the Bay Area to Los Angeles,” Patterson said. “This project cannot be revived in its current state, and this audit is further proof that the best we can hope for is a rump railroad running from Bakersfield to Madera.”

The problem is a "rump railroad" - great term which I will adopt-- is not what the original Proposition promised and thus likely illegal.  It's really time to stop pouring good money after bad and dump the rump.  Will Gavin have the guts to do it?

SF: The Perils of Letting Planners do the Planning

Here is another tale of future woe from EssEff via today's Chronicle:

A portion of downtown San Francisco will change dramatically with thousands of housing units, jobs — and even a public swimming pool — under a plan finally approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors after eight years of hearings, amendments and negotiations.

The Central SoMa plan will revamp a part of South of Market that runs from near Market Street south to Townsend Street, and from Second Street to Sixth Street. The approved plan proposes 8,800 housing units and will create a projected 31,000 jobs.

Sounds good, right?  Except for this one little bug in the ointment

Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer was the only one to express concern about the Central SoMa plan, as it does not include a public school. But, she said, the Planning Department and the San Francisco Unified School District will hold a meeting later this month to determine how to create enough public schools to accommodate the growing population.

8,800 housing units in one neighborhood, but no plans for any incremental school capacity except to "hold a meeting".  Nice work.  But please bear in mind we are not immune from the same sort of short-term thinking.  Our school capacities are not infinite as noted here three years ago and with the various projects on-going around town, parents should be wary.

Veterans Day 2018

Today is the centennial Veterans Day when major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. That is when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.  Then in 1954, at the urging of major veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day.  It's a day of remembrance as it is called in Europe, so let's do that.

I finally got down to the County Historical museum in Redwood City to see the WWII exhibit and it is highly recommended.  The theme is the war's impact on the Peninsula and there are several mentions of Burlingame residents and local places like Coyote Point.  It has been on display for about two years and is very worthwhile; you have until January or so to see it.  Here is one local airman (Allan Brown's) uniform that is on display.  Remember we shall.

The Un-American Way

I appreciate that the person who lives at the corner of Dwight and Peninsula Ave decided to leave this sign up after Tuesday's election for all to see.  Now that Prop. 10 which meant to gut long-standing landlord protections has taken a beating at the polls - 62% to 38% - we are left with this reminder of the types of people who are in favor.  This isn't the first time they have vandalized campaign signs in B'game and it probably won't be the last.  Remember this the next time it comes around, because what comes around will go around too.

It might be the same spray paint as in October of 2016.  With all of the Ring video floating around town they better be careful.

Rec Center: $58.3 Million

After the design preference was settled back in July, the costing out of the Rec Center project has been able to proceed with more certainty.  As eagle-eyed observer Lorne has noted on that July post, the new numbers going to Council are sizable--more sizable than expected just a couple of years ago.  The parameters from the Staff Report are:

The project hard costs include local prevailing wage construction costs based on a design-bid-build procurement process with competitive bidding for all sub-trades of the construction work, general contractor’s job site management costs, general contractor’s insurance and bonding costs, and general contractor’s profit. The project soft costs include allowances for engineering and design fees, construction management, permit fees, inspections, and testing. The project contingency allowance is calculated at 10% of the project hard cost and 5% of the project soft cost, and the escalation allowance is calculated at 5% per annum on the project hard cost estimated to the midpoint of construction. Construction is anticipated to be January 2020 to December 2022.

I'm having trouble copying and pasting the chart from the Staff Report, so here are the totals by line item using the parameters above, i.e. all in with contingencies and escalations and rounded off to the nearest $100K:

Playground, Multi-court, Picnic Area            $2.4 million

Building, Associated Sitework, Parking        $49.9 million

Furniture, Equipment, Technology                $2 million

Everything Else                                            $4 million

                                                                   -------------

Total                                                            $58.3 million

Many thanks to Lorne for spotting this in a timely fashion.  We'll have to wait and see if there is any value engineering to be done.  In the meantime, here is the financing plan

In November 2017, the voters of Burlingame approved Measure I, a ¼ cent sales tax measure that will generate an estimated $1.75 million to $2 million annually. At the January 27, 2018 goal- setting session, the City Council discussed the City Manager’s recommended expenditure plan for the Measure I funds, which included an annual pledge of $1 million toward debt service on the issuance of lease revenue bonds. The City Council approved the recommendation on February 20, 2018. An additional $1 million annual General Fund transfer was approved in the 2018-19 fiscal year budget, also intended to fund the debt service, to allow for a lease revenue bond issuance of approximately $30 million for the Community Center project.