This is an opinion post by Barron Park Association President Art Liberman. The views expressed are his own and do not represent the views of the BPA Board or the BPA itself.
At the May 22nd hearing, Planning and Transportation Commissioners were sympathetic to the traffic concerns of residents in Barron Park and Greenacres who live along the ‘ Maybell corridor.’ But they were not swayed by the arguments that the Palo Alto Housing Corporation (PAHC) proposal on the Maybell – Clemo site would make the already difficult and dangerous situation that much worse. Will the City Council decide differently?
I argue that those who have been opposing any rezoning, consider another tack – allowing the senior housing project and the PC zoning to proceed but only with a smaller single family home cluster – five along Maybell and three along Clemo, scaled down to no more than two stories with standard 20’ setbacks. Fifteen single family homes in the PAHC proposal are too many – the homes are too narrow, too close to each other, on too small lots – and would generate a sizable amount of the total traffic.
The fifteen single family homes in the current proposal are projected to generate half of the total traffic from the project, so reducing the number of single family homes by a factor of two would reduce the traffic by 25%. This would create the least amount of traffic possible for any realistic development that anyone could envisage for that site. This would also make the single family homes and the street front appearance compatible with the surrounding single family neighborhood.
The Palo Alto Housing Corporation claims they need the market rate houses to subsidize the senior unit, but they have been tight lipped about how they came up with this number. Why fifteen? Why not eight? The Council should require PAHC to be more transparent with their financial arrangements for this project when so much City funds were loaned to them upfront. With new homes in Barron Park now selling for $2 million apiece, eight new homes should be more than adequate for a non-profit to subsidize this project.
Many people – not only neighbors – have expressed a visceral anger about the City’s hand in promoting the project. The Council provided a large amount of funds upfront that allowed PAHC to purchase the land and propose a project that would ultimately require the Council to approve a zoning change! And this was not just for building affordable housing, but also for market rate homes that could reap a profit for PAHC or a well-connected private developer.
Those of you who support this compromise plan should write to the Council : email