The Burlingame Voice

Jobs > Housing

The Daily Post blessed us with an article about the trees that couldn't find the forest if they had a compass, Google maps and a dozen Boy Scouts.  The headline was "Area adds far less housing than jobs:  14,900 new homes for 52,700 workers".  The thoughtful response to such a headline is a) Apples are not oranges and b) Where the heck is the water going to come from for that many people?   If you wanted to add a c) and d) go for schools and police/fire, but let's just focus on a) and b).

Unfortunately I cannot make fun of the journalist because the article has no byline.  But let's just enjoy the confusion shown by the second paragraph:

The number of new housing units, mostly apartments and condominiums, was much less than the 52,700 new jobs estimated by the California Employment Development Department to have been added in the nine-county Bay Area last year.

The next sentence begins with "the imbalance....".  Umm.  What imbalance?  Who says that is an imbalance?  Who knows how many of the new jobs went to existing Bay Area residents?  Or how many of the new arrivals found space in existing dwellings?  Is that 3.5:1 ratio a problem?  Who even knows if either of the figures are correct?  I'm not sure I have any confidence in any local agency to get within +/- 20% of the actual numbers.

Better to ask, "If we essentially created a brand new city of 15,000 homes, where is the water going to come from to service those homes?"  But that is not politically correct in today's supposedly environmentally and socially conscious mindset.  Kind of sad what passes for reporting these days.

"Housing Advocates" Please Go Away

I am thoroughly sick and tired of the so-called housing advocates trying to pressure every City decision to add more housing.  In yesterday's Daily Journal we get two more examples.  First, the piece on redeveloping a piece of Bayfront land that is sitting mostly idle is on the docket for a meeting tonight with the State Lands Commission and the city and residents

State officials received an application from H&Q Asia Pacific in 2016 to develop a new hotel and park at the site, prompting a neighbor of the property to offer an alternative proposal to preserve the land as open space.

SPHERE Institute, a public policy research firm headquartered in the area east of Highway 101 along the city’s Bayfront, expressed an interest in leading the financing campaign to preserve the wetlands which exist on the property.

Housing advocates have also called for the site to be built into a residential development.

Really?  These clowns have no idea what it would take in city time, energy and expense to support ANY housing on the Bayfront.  There is no school, no police patrol to speak of (I know, I've done a drive-along with BPD), fire/ambulance coverage takes a lot of effort and will never be great without a new station that will never happen, and the weather sucks for the most part.  Just stop already!  Then this little gem of an idea pops up in the Rec Center article in the same edition

Under the direction from councilmembers, the architect will craft new designs and bring the issue back for further consideration in June.

While design revisions were considered, housing advocates suggested developing some residential units on top of the facility as a means of combating the city’s affordability crisis.

Stop already.  It's a Rec Center, not public housing.  The whole community is wondering where the heck the parking is going to come from for the recreation part and these clowns want to add housing?  Unbelievable.  We have a huge amount of housing already "in the dirt".  That's enough until all the other support services figure out how to handle the influx that has already been approved.   Oh, and just for good measure, we are back in a drought situation regardless of how much rain we get this week. 

A Time for Leadership

Last Wednesday's Daily Journal covered the proposed office development on the parking lot next to the Avenue train station.

Burlingame officials offered largely positive reviews to plans for a large office building proposed adjacent to the downtown train station, despite concerns the project may worsen the city’s transportation struggles.  The Burlingame Planning Commission unanimously agreed to push forward the proposed redevelopment of a car lot at 250 California Drive into a four-story office building.

The revealing part of the article and the meeting was in the quotes

Before voting in favor of the proposal and making it clear he supported the developer’s interest, (commission chair Peter) Gum shared development criticism he commonly receives from residents.

“What I hear on the street is please stop building and please stop the traffic congestion,” said Gum, according to video of the Monday, Feb. 12, meeting.

Gum acknowledged though the commission is required to consider projects according to the city’s zoning code, which allows for redevelopment of the property, so he voted in favor. He also made his preference for the site clear.

“I would suggest building nothing there, or keep it significantly smaller,” said Gum.  “It overpowers the most important building we have, which is the downtown train station,” said Gum.

So even Planning commissioners who hear the concerns--and there are lots of them--and seem to agree with them, apparently feel powerless to do anything to rein in over-development.  The public is not happy.  Last weekend I got talking to someone I had never met before and who had no idea who I was nor had she ever heard of the Voice.  The first sentence out of her mouth after hearing that I also lived in Burlingame was "Can you believe that building?"  Of course, she was talking about the monster on California Dr. across from this new proposed office building.

It's time for some leadership from the City Council.  If there are no zoning code terms in place to slow things down then it's time to enact them.  I'm not talking about spot re-zoning targeting an individual project--that is clearly illegal.  We need a general change.  It needs to address height, mass, trees (or lack thereof) and water availability.  We're well into drought conditions but no one seems to think that is a problem until restrictions are imposed.  With the Summerhill project now in progress and several more well along, it's time to take a breath, take stock and slow down.  Here is the Carolan Ave. claw as a visual reminder of what is already approved.

Growth by the numbers

This Saturday, the Burlingame City Council will hold a study session where discussions regarding Burlingame's housing concerns will be on the table. According to the city's own estimates, housing projects that have been approved and some that are in the pipeline will add more than 500 units to our current housing stock. All of these units are in multi-dwelling buildings. If you have never been to one of these meetings, I guarantee you will find it interesting. It's a bit less formal than a council meeting, but not much, but you will hopefully hear the council opine in a more open environment.

The question imho, is this growth "smart growth" or just "growth to meet the state's mandatory numbers?" Another question is regarding affordable housing. Is this a response to those who claim we need it or is there some science behind it?

The session begins at 9am and will be held in the Lane Room at the Burlingame Library. The agenda is here.

The Booming Economy

In Burlingame, (and along the entire Peninsula,) commercial enterprises and multi-residential, mixed-use communities are rapidly rising toward the skies like giant beanstalks.

Typically, traffic and parking concerns are discussed and local leaders put policies in place to mitigate those concerns and studies are done to ensure there are no negative impacts.

However, one impact of rapid development that almost never gets addressed is the literal booming, banging, buzzing and blasting of said progress.

The source of the pile driving that begins each day at the crack of 8am and continues, like water torture, all day, everyday until 6pm emanates from the 802,837 square foot Burlingame Point, a massive project on the former drive-in movie site that has been in some form of development for years. The project, according to its project manager, requires at least 2000 piles to be driven. Why did no one associated with this project over the course of all those years anticipate the disruption this could cause on residents just across form the projects location and nearby hotels and businesses like Virgin America and others?

Cities have ordinances in place to regulate decibel levels on house parties and leaf blowers but pile driving, deep-well drilling, jack-hammering, earth moving, grading, grinding and the constant beep, beep, beeping of trucks backing up are not regulated in any way.

Our once quite suburbs are no longer places of relaxation in bucolic backyard hammocks, napping to the chirping of finches. We live now in a place where we realize the wake-up calls of bulldozers and backhoes.

Some might say, grin and bear it. It will come to end with the 2000^th pile driven.

Caltrain has just announce that their electrification/modernization project will begin shortly with 24 hour per day work along the railroad tracks. The 290 unit Summerhill project slated for Carolan Drive has not yet begun, the 260,000 square feet SFO Tech Center just got the thumbs up from Burlingame’s planning commission and there are many other numerous multi-story office and mixed use projects, not to mention the continuing demolition of two-bedroom homes into five-bedroom, six-bath open concept, mini-mansions that will continue to hum along well after the Burlingame Point project has been completed years from now.

I am not here to debate the merits of the current building boom.

Burlingame’s general plan allows for development that is concentrated on the east side. I am not here to debate the merits of the general plan either. When development happens in an aggressive and rapid pace in a concentrated area it becomes problematic.

My hope is that the noise from our booming economy becomes an issue that gets the same devoted attention in the environmental review process that other impacts of development get today.

My hope is that our elected officials, (who live primarily on the West side of town, away from the daily “grind,”) understand the burden on those who live on the East side of town.

I simply suggest we get ahead of the curve and address the noise issue now before we are tortured by it over and over again.

 

Horgan to Bezos: Stay Away

Every word of John Horgan's latest column in the Merc should be read, reread and politicians should commit it to memory.  Click through here for the whole thing.  I'll just give you a taste.

Jeff Bezos, please stay away.

The latest word from the boss of the Amazon octopus is that he wants to build a second headquarters in a North American metropolitan area — and the Bay Area is on his list. Bezos is proposing a massive, new complex that would employ up to 50,000 people — roughly the combined population of Millbrae and Burlingame.

Housing? There is very little available room left for it. The only way to add any significant number of dwelling units is to go up. The result is unattractive urbanization that is transforming portions of San Mateo County into San Francisco. It’s not pretty. Visit sections of the El Camino Real/Caltrain corridor and certain downtown areas for confirmation.

The construction adjacent to the Caltrain tracks in San Carlos is particularly grim and unappealing in its size and scope. Ugh.

As we pointed out earlier in the year, San Mateo County’s assessor, Mark Church, announced that a staggering 58 million square feet of future development is in the county pipeline right now, the rough equivalent of about 1,300 average-sized Safeway stores. Mull those figures for a moment.

One of the great ironies of the present situation here is that many of the same authorities who green-light big development efforts are the same fine folks who fret and fume about traffic gridlock and a lack of housing in the county.

In other words, they give the OK to commercial and other enterprises which generate traffic and then they complain about the traffic _ and a lack of available dwellings to house employees of those new outfits locally. The policy-makers have created their own emergency.

 

John goes on to wax nostalgic and a bit angry about what all of this is doing to the Peninsula of old "it was relatively quiet, safe, uncluttered, attractive and intimate."  And after a wet winter, the memories of the five dry ones just vaporize from people's heads.  In speaking with a B'game city council member this week, when asked what I would like to see happen here I said, "stop all major new development, digest what we have already approved, and fix the infrastructure and school capacity before resuming.  If we did that in B'game we would have a chance to be different than the mess that is being created around us."  I'm not holding my breath though.

The Grand Plan. Part 4. More density

Tonight,at a study session, the City Council will look at plans for two downtown surface parking lots that are slated to be transformed into high density housing and a five story parking garage. The public is welcome. Meeting begins at 5:30 in conference room A at Burlingame City Hall. If you re concerned as I am, you will attend.

The Grand Plan. Part 3. This is what it will look like

I managed to give you a sense of the many projects that are in the pipeline here in Burlingame. Some of which are quite large in scale—a few hundred housing units here and few hundred more there. Totaling an addition of over 10,000 more residents.

To give you a better sense, there is nothing like a picture to tell the story. Here are just a few...(taken from the city's own website.)

And an announcement of an upcoming meeting regarding a large residential development on Myrtle Rd. A meeting many of you may want to attend.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Note: These are just a few projects being discussed or approved. I could not find images of the proposal on the former Post Office Site

Above: 920 Lorton

Above: 225 California Dr at Highland

Above: 556 El Camino Real

Above: 1600 Trousdale

Above: Ariel view: Former Hyatt Cinema site, Bayshore Blvd.

Above: 1491-93 Oak Grove

Above: 988 Howard Ave.

Above: 1433 Floribunda

Above: Douglas Ave.

Above: Next to current Peninsula Hospital

Above and left: High density housing on Lot F with associated 5 story parking garage. Note: This project not yet approved.

Below: Upcoming meeting regarding project on Myrtle Rd and Bayswater

The Grand Plan - Part 2 76 Station

Russ did a great job working from memory on the various projects that are already approved or in the works directly below this post.  Here is another one that was approved so long ago that I forgot about it until I saw the fencing go up this week--the 76 station at the corner of B'way and El Camino.  Gas stations where you can actually get your car serviced are starting to become rare.

There goes the neighborhood

Back in the late 90’s I helped a candidate run for Burlingame City Council. The slogan for the campaign was, “You’ll miss it when it’s gone.” Referring to how Burlingame was rapidly losing its character. Every candidate for city council since seems to say they care about Burlingame's charm and character and that they want to protect it. With the exception of the candidate who so boldly stood behind the message, (and myself) it seems the message is simply lip service.

Cities don’t change overnight; their character is lost over decades. It’s been 20 years since the “you’ll miss it when it’s gone" phrase was coined and yet today it’s more evident than ever that the pace of the erosion of Burlingame's character has increased.

I watched as the pre fab components were delivered by giant crane yesterday for a home on Trenton Way. The photos illustrate, in part what I am talking about. Decades ago many were concerned about Mediterranean McMansions dominating our neighborhoods. Perhaps they were called that because McDonald’s typical architecture at the time was of Spanish influence. Today, take a look at any number of McDonald’s remodels. They are postmodern in style. Perhaps we just need to look to McDonalds to see what Burlingame is trending toward?

For the record, I like postmodern architecture, but we have to examine whether our neighborhoods can support it. The planning department has a tool called "neighborhood consistency" yet they rarely use it to argue that the architectural style simply does not fit into the character of the neighborhood. I made this argument before the commission suggesting that not everyone has the right to add a second story. Especially if that request is the only house on the block that will have a second story. Approving it sets the stage for changing the consistency of the street.

Some might argue that Burlingame’s charm is its eclectic housing stock. If you use that argument I believe you have to, pardon the pun, dig a little deeper. You have to compare the stock of the street, compare heights, widths, rooflines, etc. On streets the have not yet been disturbed by new construction, a rare fined, you will notice that while the architecture from one house to the next might be different, the mass and bulk, the set backs, the roof heights are similar.

It’s not up to me to decide on who can build what or how it can be built. I have expressed my opinion before the city council and as part of the city council that one simple way to begin is to examine the Floor Area Ratio to determine if houses are being built too large for their respective lot size. In the last 20 years there has been no political will to examine the issue in any real way.

Clearly I have felt that this discussion should have taken place long ago. However it is now that I once again remind our city leaders that it is time to put in place real policies that truly do protect Burlingame’s character or else, we will all miss it when it is gone.