The Burlingame Voice

Connecting the Density Dots

Sometimes connecting the dots is hard--other times it's pretty easy.  Last week's connection was pretty easy.  The Chronicle ran two pieces on density, but no one there connected the dots so let's do it here.  The front page piece was "Density" cited in canceled policies".  It noted property insurers consider two flavors of density--how closely packed together houses are and how many policies any one insurer has in an area.  Both are causing the insurance crisis in California to spiral up.  Insurers don't like the risk of a fire in one house jumping to its neighbors.  And they realize multi-family means multi-kitchen, etc.  So "you're canceled".

Two pages later there was a headline "Court rules lawmakers can override local housing limits"--to force more, you got it, density.

Limits on housing density approved by local voters can be overridden by lawmakers, a California appeals court ruled, upholding legislation that was intended to encourage construction of small apartment buildings.  The law, SB10 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, allows city and county governments to authorize new housing with up to 10 units in some urban areas, including those near transit, without conducting environmental studies.

“The housing shortage is a matter of statewide concern,” and SB10 is “reasonably related to addressing that concern,” Justice Brian Hoffstadt said in Thursday’ 3-0 ruling, which upheld a judge’s decision.Hoffstadt cited previous legislation aimed at addressing the shortage of affordable housing, starting with a 1965 law that required local governments to adopt long-term plans to promote adequate housing.

You read that right.  This has been an issue since 1965.  Why?  Because it's always going to be an issue.  You cannot outbuild the global demand to live in the Bay Area--unless you make it notably less livable vis a vis water, traffic, grid stability, crime, street parking, et al.  Those are symptoms of density.  Some stupid judge can't change that, and neither can the legislature.  If you live next to a project that is building three, four or five units on a 5,000 square foot lot and you lose your insurance coverage, will you have a cause of action?  Against whom?  The state?  Good luck with that.

And if you are thinking insurers can't or won't cancel you, think again.  No explanation required.  They could easily use housing density as the deciding factor in where to reduce their policy density.  The Law of Unintended Consequences will not be denied.

B'game History: Architect William Whifler remembered

The quarterly Burlingame Historical Society meeting held on Thursday at the Lane room in the library was another uber-local affair.  Having family members appear to describe their ancestors' contributions to our fair town is right in the sweet spot of the Society's mission.  William Whifler grew up in Burlingame, mostly at the end of Drake Ave.-- the house he designed for his German mother (next door to the family homestead) at 1544 Drake is now on the National Historic Register.  We covered the award when it happened in 2017 here.  He graduated from BHS where he met his high school sweetheart and soon-to-be-wife, joined the Navy and eventually graduated from Stanford in the burgeoning field of electronics.  He determined that "there wasn't much of a future in electronics" so he shifted to architecting and building many of his own designs.

Whifler's son, Graeme, was the featured speaker with two other siblings in attendance.  Graeme is a film director having done early rock videos for The Residents and other Ess Eff bands before shifting to the horror film genre.  The program kicked off with a montage of Whifler-designed houses in the area beautifully photographed and set to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain.  We were the first people to ever see it.  It looks like the video on his website, but without the soundtrack which added a lot.  I hope to be able to link to the full version in the future.  Early family photos followed including looking past the end of Drake into a dairy farm field that abutted the old Mills Estate.  That would be Devereaux and Ray Dr. today.  Young Whifler used to take his .22 into the fields for plinking around.  We also saw an early Eucalyptus grove that was harvested for oyster poles.  I'm not totally sure what an oyster pole is, but perhaps someone will enlighten us.

Many of Whifler's houses are gone.  His design aesthetic used large windows ("I make glass houses" and "no curtains allowed") with a Mid-century Modern theme.  Some were the victims of remuddling and the OPEC energy crisis put a crimp on the style.  But Whifler's lasting contribution to B'game is our City Hall.  I've never been a big fan of the City Hall design, but I am willing to consider that my view may be tainted by some of the shenanigans I have seen over the years in Council chambers.  It originally had a big fountain in front and that might make a good restoration project if the water nags would allow it.  Maybe hearing about Whifler will cause people to leave City Hall where it is--remember this nonsense?

In 1967, Whifler founded the architecture program at CSM where he taught the local crop of students.  You can get a good view of his work at the website dedicated to him here. 

By request, Graeme finished with a discussion of his career in film.  We did not see any of his video work for The Residents, but I found something that certainly looks like Graeme's work here.  The video he did show reminded me of why I don't watch horror movies, but Graeme seemed pleased that people tell him he gives them nightmares.  That is why the program was billed "For Adults".  Here's Johnny....I mean Graeme

Easton Euc decision: Stay in the Euc family

Listen closely and one can hear the distant echo of the Tom the Tree controversy from sixteen years ago.  Tom Jr. reached adolescence six years ago to the day here.  Now Tom Jr. will be getting some young siblings--almost like surprise babies as part of Easton Ave. is de-Eucified and re-Eucified with a different Euc species.  The DJ has some pithy quotes from our city elders about the decision to go with lemon-scented gum Euc.  Our City Arborist, Rich Holtz reiterated what our local, amateur tree expert Jennifer Pfaff recently said elsewhere on the Voice:

Holtz said the lemon-scented gum is a cousin of the eucalyptus tree but is smaller.  “There are some benefits to it, like they are very well suited to our climate, they are drought tolerant, they have low root infrastructure conflict, this particular species is aesthetically valued as a striking white bark, it tolerates pruning well and has a long-life expectancy,” Holtz said.

And the mayor weighed in with

“This is not an ordinary street,” Mayor Michael Brownrigg said. “This is a place to showcase the treescape, and so because it was set as a public space, I think we need to honor creating a special public space.”  Brownrigg said the 28-foot setback from the curb to the residents’ homes makes him believe the designers of the city intended Easton Drive to be a special place to showcase landscaping.  “To me, as soon as you have a mix of trees you just have any old street on Burlingame, which are all beautiful but it’s not special,” Brownrigg said.

I'm a fan of "theme streets" like the one I live on designated for sycamores.  We have to be vigilant because sometimes the designation is lost or forgotten in City Hall, but fortunately we have a few people with long, accurate memories around town.  Tom is looking on and is pleased.

B'game History thru Gabriel Moulin's lens

It was standing room only for the quarterly Burlingame Historical Society meeting Tuesday night in the Lane Room.  More than 100 people showed up to hear local historian Joanne Garrison describe photographer Gabriel Moulin's documentation of the early days of the Easton Addition as part of the effort to sell building lots around Hillside Dr.  The genesis of the presentation was a book of said photographs that was donated to the Society.  That kicked off Joanne's effort to take current day matching photos to show the similarities and the changes.  Over 50 minutes, she added details about the Mills, Easton and Howard families--the original land owners in B'game.

The crowd included 17 descendants of Moulin, some of whom travelled from as far away as San Diego, plus a number of local residents of the Hillside-Summit-Canyon area.  Ms. Garrison was able to locate several houses that still exist on Cortez and Cabrillo, but the sad news that an important one on Hillside is schedule for scraping and sub-dividing was the downer of the night.  As the saying goes, "You'll miss it when it's gone".

It was great to see so many people come out to learn about and appreciate B'game history.  Here are the tram tracks going up Hillside drive that carried potential buyers.

High Winds, Downed Trees

The windstorm that blew through two days ago took down a lot of trees in the County.  Per the DJ article

More than 50 trees and 62 power structures fell or were damaged and 42,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers were still without power midday Wednesday from high winds that swept through the Bay on Tuesday.

None were more dramatic than the redwoods that went down at BHS.  I was able to get a short video from a friend (not sure of the original videographer) that caught the action as one tumbling redwood took down another.  In total, four went down at BHS and Washington Park.  One Euc apparently went down on Easton and the city is worried enough about three more that they are coming down proactively.  Oddly enough, so far the 390 on El Camino Real held up under the crazy wind loads above 60 mph!  They must not be that unhealthy.  Check out the video and you may have to play around with your sound settings, but the audio is there.

Download BHS tree falling

And check out the size of the trunk and roots

Update 2/28:  PG&E reportedly repaired 200 downed power poles in San Mateo County and among the businesses that had their signs uprooted was this local landmark.

"Mill housing" for B'game teachers?

Bad ideas tend to spread here in the Bay Area especially when the time horizon for revealing the flaws is years away.  "Mill housing" was a common approach to subsidizing employees' rents especially back in Massachusetts (my home state) in the 1800's.  Now we have the idea that the B'game School District can and should build subsidized housing for teachers.  A sample of 31% of BSD employees found plenty of interest in subsidized housing.  And why not?  You can find lots of support for subsidized anything when you are using OPM.  That doesn't make it a good idea.  The Daily Journal piece doesn't get to any of the flaws--just the cheerleading:

Workforce housing could be one of Burlingame School District’s next big projects but only if community members show support for financially backing the initiative, school board trustees agreed during a meeting last week.

Three sites were identified as being potentially feasible for housing, the 0.3-acre district office site at 1825 Trousdale Drive, a 2.8-acre lot of land between Burlingame Intermediate School and Franklin Elementary and a 4.5-acre undeveloped hillside above Hoover Elementary.  But after further review, only the first two would be developable, Jennings said, noting that the hillside plot is greatly sloped and has access constraints.  (Ed:  that's an understatement). Despite the substantial lot size differences between the Trousdale and BIS sites, Jennings said both could only welcome a 22-unit project.

At the Trousdale site, Jennings said units would be incorporated into a six-story apartment building with underground parking. Initial estimates show the development could cost the district more than $17.8 million.  Alternatively, about $15 million would be needed to develop 12 townhomes and a two-floor flat stacked apartment building with 10 units at the BIS housing site. That configuration would maximize the land use while adhering to single-family zoning policies in the residential neighborhood.

Funny how endangered the concept of "single-family zoning" has become in such a short time.  You can click through to the whole article if you want to read about the various funding options--none of which are realistic.  Instead, let's ask a few basic questions.  Why isn't the giant subsidized housing project wrapped in black netting on Park Rd. enough to handle the less-tenured teachers?  I thought that was the motivation.  Or we could take the view of this resident (whom I don't know) in a letter to the DJ:

Instead, let’s focus on ensuring district employees are paid enough to live here (if they choose) at market rate. They deserve the autonomy to make their own living choices. Let’s pay them a much better rate and stay out of the housing business.

Esther Kim,  Burlingame

Good idea especially with the Inflation Production Act about to kick in and construction and/or financing costs skyrocketing.  The Fed will make those million-dollar estimates look small soon.  Does the District really want to get into the prevailing wage debate?  Are they remotely capable of managing this without more high-priced consultants on board?  Heck, the election campaign to raise the funding probably costs more than it takes to assist a lot of teachers for a couple of years.  The last time I looked at the data (in 2020) it wasn't clear that staff turnover was much worse than it's been for the prior decade.

Lastly, what new wrinkles would school-subsidized housing add to school administration?  Who are the lucky 22?  If you remove an underperforming teacher, are you also making them homeless?  Who's got the huevos to do that?  Who is doing income verification?  Does a significant other's income count?  What about summer income?  Do we think all teachers sit by the pool all summer?  Is it ever smart to do what EssEff does?  I doubt it.  How about working on student achievement and figuring out where we will put all the new students in town while staying out of the housing business. 

North End tsunami still coming hard and fast

We noted that a Density Tsunami Approaches eighteen months ago here.  One of the elements was the old Peninsula Museum of Art space at 1766 ECR on the north end.  The original, approved plan fell through and a new developer is back with an eight-story all residential proposal that is getting positive vibrations from the Planning Commission according to the Daily Journal piece:

A proposed eight-story north Burlingame apartment building with 311 units received a mostly positive review from the city’s Planning Commission this week, advancing the plans to replace a vacant building at 1766 El Camino Real.  The project would include 37 studio units, 137 one-bedroom units, 120 two-bedroom units and 17 three-bedroom units.  The (22) affordable units would be provided in exchange for the building’s density exceeding that otherwise allowed by the city, per the state’s density bonus law. The law in this case allows the developer to add 72 units on top of the maximum allowed by local zoning.

That seems like a deal.  I'll do the math here.  That mixture equals 465 bedrooms and a bunch of baths.  Then we read

The 504,000-square-foot project would occupy a 1.7-acre parcel, with a partially below ground two-story parking garage providing 319 spots.

Just by chance I was talking to a neighbor of the Summerhill development now known as the Anson Apartments on Carolan who recalled how the neighbors were told there would be no overflow parking problems.  Well, that hasn't played out too well.  The single-family neighborhood around Toyon, Linden, Azalea, etc is apparently learning differently to their distress.

But it's not just parking.  One wonders if the parents and future parents of kids at Franklin school are paying attention?  Is BSD paying attention to this and all the other projects moving forward in Buildingame?  Does anyone know of a portable classroom company I can buy stock in?  Let's all keep these hulking monsters in mind when we are told to skip a few showers and stop watering our lawns.  I choose not to participate in the Collective Amnesia.  Here's a rendering of the proposed building that some seem to think is Eichler-esque.

Say Goodbye to an Old Friend

I haven't railed about any home demolitions lately since it doesn't seem to do much good.  My little patch of B'game at least requires a home historical evaluation before the claw arrives.  There is a bit of movement in that direction elsewhere in town as noted here.  And there has been at least one successful move (on Oak Grove).

Long-timers in town will recall the ruckus years ago over a nice old house on Carmelita on a big lot that was going to be demo'ed.  There was enough space on one side of the lot to add a new house and that calmed folks down.  Now a resident in the Easton Addition has passed along this photo of its demise.  Say goodbye to an old friend.

 

Hoover: When an Island Isn't.

I happened to drive past the nicely upgraded Hoover School recently.  As the elementary kids start thinking about returning to class, pedestrian (and vehicle) safety will be on people's minds.  Hoover has a bit of a past in this regard which you can read about here from two and a half years ago.

What caught my eye as year 3 is about to start at Hoover were the tire tracks on the roundabout island right in front.  It seems odd to me that there would be an island that is so easy to drive over.  What's the point really?  Does it engender some false sense of security?  Is it a challenge for thrill-seekers?  Or is it just a poor design?  Seems like if you are going to put in an island, it should really be an island instead of a little sand bar.

Easton Project, Yes -- Nada on El Camino

If the size of the sign is indicative of the size of the project, the Easton Addition sewer and drainage project will be huuuuuge.  Phase 1 which the city site shows as completed was about a mile of pipe.  Phase 2 which is under construction is about a half a mile 

Project Scope: The work shall consist of constructing approximately 2,600 LF of new 6-inch and 8-inch sanitary sewer pipe and 15-inch storm drain pipe throughout the City using open cut, pipe bursting, and pipe reaming in the public right-of-way, along easement areas, and in private properties. Other related work includes installation and replacement of manholes, cleanouts and laterals by pipe bursting or open cut, rehabilitation of manholes, temporary bypass pumping, connecting all laterals, and other related miscellaneous work.

Phase 3 is out to bid for another 0.6 of a mile.  Here is the sign that catches the eye

I just can't help but contrast this work to the non-work not happening on our State highway, El Camino Real.  The "Flooded" signs have reappeared and may very well be with us all winter.  When I downloaded the photo below, I happened to name it the same way as one I took FIVE YEARS ago.  Unbelievable that we can blow billions on a medium-speed train to no where, but for decades we can't get decent drainage on El Camino.

Incoming Mayor Michael Brownrigg (due to be installed on Monday, Dec. 18th) made a campaign issue of getting it fixed.  This will be his chance.