Letter to the City of San Bruno from Dennis Sammut of Artichoke Joes.
In a letter dated May 23rd 2014 Mr. Sammut writes about Ordinance 1284:
To the Honorable Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and Members of the City Council:
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As you know, I am a strong supporter of revitalizing our decaying downtown area. Since the city has scheduled a public “Study Session” on the San Bruno Transit Corridors Plan (TCP) next Thursday, May 29, I thought this might be an opportune moment to share my thoughts with you.
I’m sure you agree that we have a rare opportunity to put our city back on the track to prosperity. The businesses that have opened new offices here – including Google, YouTube, Walmart.Com, Stella and Dot, and Responsys – employ thousands of well-paid staff and executives. Many of them are potential local apartment dwellers, home buyers, customers, and consumers. But we need to provide them with good local options for places to live, dine, and shop. Otherwise, they’ll look elsewhere.
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I support what you are planning to do, but I am concerned that the plan as it now stands may not provide adequate parking and may not be raising the downtown building height limit enough.
In my opinion, parking is the main issue. Many planners have been trained to encourage so-called “transit villages,” where residential and commercial complexes are built near mass transit lines and are thus deemed capable of doing without adequate parking for private cars. I fear that the San Bruno plan leans in this direction, and I urge you to consider carefully whether the “transit village” approach will really work. Or will it drive away – no pun intended – potential apartment and home buyers and renters who do not want to forego the convenience and safety of having their own cars? Will the lack of adequate parking lead to traffic jams and parking-place frenzy on the part of those who choose to keep their automobiles?
If you study what has happened in other cities that have tried to limit parking facilities for new buildings, I think you will find that it has hurt them. Please be sure that the San Bruno TCP provides for sufficient parking.
The other key issue is increasing the building height limit sufficiently to make the downtown area appealing to investors. This strategy has served other cities well, and it can work here in San Bruno. But the document you sent out announcing the upcoming Study Session seems to show more concern about political backlash against taller buildings than about the adequacy of the proposed increases.
I am afraid that the proposed height limits risk falling between two stools: insufficient to attract investors but enough to stir up political opposition anyway. My opinion is that no matter what you propose, you will always have to deal with NIMBY’s (“Not in my backyard”), so you might as well be sure that you are advocating a height limit sufficient to attract investors.
I would be happy to discuss any of these points, or related matters, if you think it worthwhile.
You can call me at 650-589-8812 and ask for Dennis Sammut or you can leave your name and phone number.
/s/ Dennis Sammut