Planning for a Rollicking Rollins Rd.

I’m very excited by the impending housing growth in North Burlingame that will end up bringing “thousands of new homes” to the Rollins Rd. industrial section of town.  The amount of planning that went into this decision by state and county officials, the City Council, the Planning Commission and city staff is impressive.  Here are the details:

Water:   I know the decision makers have a grasp on our dire water situation because they said so back in May  calling it “alarming”.  They also know the SFPUC cannot be trusted to keep the Peninsula’s water interests front-of-mind regardless of whatever “contract” we have with them, so the negotiations with the state to gain access to Bayfront land for our new desalinization plant (instead of a park) are to be complemented.  Desalinized drinking water is about ten times as expensive as water agencies buy now due to the energy costs.  Then there is the cost of getting rid of the brine, but the free land access will help the economics.  The new water tank on Rollins will ensure reliable water for the new neighborhood.

Outflow:  In the spirit of “what goes in, must come out”, the city study on sewage treatment capacity at the Bayfront plant will probably find a need for additional capacity, but we can be sure that raising the sewer rates to pay for it will be easy as we just saw this year.  Burlingame is a welcoming community, so higher rates will be fine with the public.

Power:  The decision makers’ extensive negotiations with PG&E to get it to strengthen the Burlingame grid are to be complemented.  Not only will the grid improvements supply the new desalinization plant’s load, but it will also ensure grid stability for the rest of the city.  Generous state and federal funding for new solar panels on the new construction and some existing Rollins Rd. buildings will help; as will a brand new grid-based battery facility.  Whoever got that big grant should get a promotion.  The natural gas pipes should be fine since there won’t be any natural gas allowed.

Schools:  Given the thousands of new homes coming, it was prescient of the city council to snap up a large parcel on Rollins Rd. and sign a long-term, low-cost lease with the Burlingame School District.  This will enable BSD to build a new school serving North Burlingame Eastside students.  The parcel may be large enough to also build a BIS Annex to cut down on car traffic to BIS.  I expect that the next school bond measure to pay for it all will pass easily as Burlingame is a welcoming community.

Traffic:  As we consider the extensive traffic study conducted as part of the General Plan update, it is gratifying to see that the Broadway grade separation project is now fully funded and we are ready to start The Big B'game Dig in 2022.  As today's SF Comicle notes:

The intersection of Caltrain and Broadway in Burlingame has the ignominious distinction of being the street-level train crossing most in need of fixing in the state, based on a calculation that factors in number of accidents, disruptions to local traffic and other overall safety concerns.  The busy crossing serves demand from trains, vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, a hectic mix that has resulted in 11 car-train collisions in the past five years, a number of near misses and some fatal accidents. It has also caused considerable traffic backups: The crossing gate is currently down about an hour per day, and the city estimates that will rise to nearly three hours per day by 2040.

The project should go fast as most of them do; and be completed in time to help ease the load on Millbrae Ave. and Rollins Rd. for the new North Burlingame residents.  Luckily, the city’s negotiations with Caltrain were also successful in getting the Broadway station to reopen.  That will make a big difference for local traffic through the B'way intersection over the next 10 years.

Of course, Rollins Rd. isn't the only part of town with strong growth so all of these impending improvements will benefit the whole town.  That's why Burlingame is a welcoming community.

I admit I was initially skeptical about a huge new residential section at the north end of town.  It seemed like many of the growing pains would be intractable problems, but with a lot of diligent work everything appears to be on track.  Many people are to be complemented.

Comments

[[email protected]]

You are kidding, I hope.
If not, a New Burlingame Pueblo will have a detrimental effect on the Community of Burlingame.
Happy New Year my "Friends."

[Jennifer Pfaff]

I agree, Holly. This is AEJ (Alter Ego Joe) imagining himself on Kool-Aid...

[Paloma Ave]

I find this post one of the most insightful I have read.

Why is there a big push to turn our suburban areas into urban areas? And why are our state politicians in favor of letting this occur, even though we have told them NO?

[Bruce Dickinson]

The news is real, but good ol' Joe, being a thinking man's man had to throw a curve-ball, and do a nice tongue-in-cheek color commentary about the planning (or lack thereof) of such an grandiose housing expansion endeavor. The funny thing that Bruce Dickinson notices is how long have we discussed the issues and resultant externalities and yet, our local gov't agencies always seem to be caught by surprise. Water, traffic, parking, infrastructure, schools, etc etc always seem to be the after thoughts.

Folks the infrastructure and planning for new capacity comes BEFORE the housing, not the other way around!

[MBGA]

Joe, dude, you're doing my material.

[Joe]

Thanks for the complements, folks. This the Burlingame Voice version of a cross between Where's Waldo? and a Civics test. Can you find all 10 fictitious accomplishments?

[[email protected]]

Joe is really Bruce Dickenson.

[Joe]

Ha! You are far from the first person to think so, including some VIPs, but I assure you I am not as creative, articulate or verbose as BD :-).

Did you pass the Where's Waldo? test holyroller? Did you find all 10?

[MBGA]

Joe, all of the 27 sentences you wrote (let alone the links) are filled with an impressive amount of real, not fictitious, accomplishments if the goal is to destroy the place and Build Back Better(D).

BTW, Waldo's left the building.

[Spurinna]

Read about the HMB city council stopping their plan to switch from gas to electricity after the plan being so unpopular with the voters.

One council member said, “How about the voters telling us what they want instead of us telling them what we want?”

[[email protected]]

I AM WALDO!

[resident]

Is there an app for counting sentences MBGA?

I wish it were as simple as them trying to destroy the place but me thinks it is just pure incompetence from top to bottom. Like D.C. in miniature.

[MBGA]

It's a tragic combo of a lot of destructive factors. My point being that current pols have belief in the BuildBackBetter(D) world view. But I'll agree that incompetence is a big factor, for sure.

But it is the incompetence of the citizenry. Burlingamers, Bay Areans, and CaliPfornians want these Democrats or they wouldn't be voting for Democrats. For gosh sakes, look at the Warden Newsom recall numbers. People that vote for Democrats are incompetent to decide how to run a functioning republic. They have made it a one party state.

Here we are on this forum discussing the successor to a Jackie Speier and trying to find someone decent between one Democrat and another Democrat. It's embarrassing.

[resident]

I could handle old school Dems but this Progressive bunch are craaazzzy.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Maybe Bruce Dickinson is Joe's projection of his alter-ego!

I kid, I kid. There is no way people would or should confound our writing styles or insights ;)

Will lust leave that right there ;)

[Paloma Ave]

We would be better off if all politicians were just sent home.

Then no more damage could be done!

Just enforce the laws on the books and stop making life more difficult.

[Barking Dog]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Burlingame-s-industrial-sweet-spot-could-become-16755434.php

[ChulaVista]

The whole bike friendly concept is a joke. It is plain unsafe to bike to Broadway or the Ave. with kids. No less than ten close calls on bikes.

[Spurinna]

Notice since the Covid thing that people, especially kids, are riding on the sidewalks? Chaos.

There is even a sign between the Apple Store and the parked police car telling bike riders to keep off the sidewalk.
(The sign itself is a hazard to navigation…)

Gads.

[Paloma Ave]

Hey Chula Vista - You might be happier living in Foster City.