H2O - We'll Never Have Enough

As I watch my lawn fade to brown and read the local news, the thought occurs to me that we will never catch up to the water requirements at the rate we are going.  El Nino next year or not, there is just too much development pressure and not enough activity on the reservoir or desalinization front.  It doesn't appear that there is any reservoir capacity in the works and desal is limited to a couple spot in SoCal.

Consider this.  The Post article titled 'Arrivederci' to Pete's Harbor lists the size of that long-running project that is about to be approved as 402 condos within 10 buildings plus 308 condos in a large building wrapped around the garage.  That is 710 condos where a 320 seat restaurant used to be.

Or consider what our neighbors to the north are thinking of as reported by the DJ

The draft environmental impact report and Millbrae Station Area Specific Plan will come before the Millbrae officials Tuesday, June 30, during a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission.

The massive undertaking aims to add roughly 400,000 square feet of office space, about 79,000 square feet of retail space and more than 800 residential units split between two projects located on an 116-acre site next to the transit station off Millbrae Avenue.

Once you realize these two are just a drop in the development bucket, we could have 3 or 4 consecutive El Ninos and it probably wouldn't catch up.  The questions remain, "Is there a will on the part of B'game to be different?  And who will show the courage to hold the line?"  The alternative is more late, insufficient scrambling for the infrastructure to keep up while the well runs dry.

June 29th update:  The Post delivers a front page headline and article to buttress the point of view.

Buried deep in the article is the fact that "as of April, the city had about 2.725 new housing units somewhere in the pipeline...".  Kiss your lawn goodbye.
 

Comments

[Joanne]

That's what gets me going. We're in the worst drought in probably our lifetimes meanwhile cities all up and down the Peninsula continue to build build build!

How irresponsible!!

[Follow the money]

Jerry Brown & Co. > mandated new housing development, TOD, HSR, GBI - who does it really benefit?

Construction company owners, developers, and construction company workers, city and other government worker pensions and general budgets, people looking for freebies via affordable housing requirements in each new housing development.

November is on the horizon, vote accordingly.

[Joe]

Riding Caltrain yesterday I was reminded of the monstrosity being built just south of Sequoia Station in RWC. Seems like they are sucking way more than their share of our precious water.

[Build! Build! Build!]

Joe, haven't you seen the Mayor of Redwood City's LinkedIn profile?

Build! Build! Build!

Jeff Gee
--Mayor, City of Redwood City and Vice President, Swinerton Management & Consulting

Swinerton Management & Consulting
January 2000 – Present (15 years 6 months)|San Francisco Bay Area
Jeff Gee has over 25 years of experience leading and directing design, construction and development projects in the education sector and is a licensed Architect. As the Vice President of Educational Facilities with Swinerton, Jeff’s experience expanded to community colleges where we’ve completed over 100 projects in excess of $2 Billion.

[Joe]

The light may be going on at the SacBee:

The Public Policy Institute of California raised the what-if possibility that the drought could persist. If so, more wells will run dry, leaving the low-income rural San Joaquin Valley dependent on emergency supplies.

In Folsom, officials anticipate construction of 10,200 new houses. The homes will meet strict water efficiency regulations, as will homes in all the other developments planned in the Sacramento region, but are they right, given our new normal? Don’t ask. Folsom has among the oldest water rights in the state.

Californians can’t wait years for the law to force cooperation. We must adapt. We will – it’s what we do – but we need to realize that nature gives no one a free pass.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article31815759.html#storylink=cpy

[Up the Camino]

Did you all see this?

Millbrae officials will take another shot at reviewing the massive development plan proposed to pave the way for the construction of new office buildings and homes near the city’s rail station.

The City Council will hold a special study session Tuesday, Jan. 5, to address the Millbrae Station Area Specific Plan, which will regulate future development in the 116-acre site surrounding the Millbrae Caltrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit stations.

Two developers have already expressed interest in building housing in the 116-acre site, should the policy allowing construction ultimately be approved.

Republic Urban Properties, of San Jose, has designed a project which aims to build more than 300 residential units, as well as 164,000 square feet of office space, nearly 47,000 square feet for retail, on property owned by BART.

[Joe]

Thanks to a columnist at the SF Examiner we get these little tidbits:

San Francisco is currently experiencing its highest level of housing production since the 1960s’ Urban Renewal. According to the City Planning Department’s Housing Inventory, almost 3,500 units were built in the year 2014, and we can estimate another 3,500 homes were completed in 2015.

Thousands more units are currently midconstruction, or have been approved and are simply waiting for developers to start construction. According to the City Planning Department’s “Pipeline” data as of October 2015, there are almost 9,000 units of housing in various stages of construction and another 4,300 fully approved homes that have yet to begin construction. (This does not include the 23,000 units approved in the huge Hunters Point Shipyard, Treasure Island and Park Merced projects, which will be built in the coming years).

These numbers defy the notion that housing production has been at the anemic pace that the “build, build, build” boosters would like us to believe.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/san-franciscos-most-massive-housing-construction-era-since-urban-renewal/
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Not a word about where the water will come from was mentioned. Really Stupid!