Dear Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council Members, and honorable staff,
I’m Jenny Michel, a native living in D3, a recovering homeless teacher, public transit enthusiast, commercial property manager by trade, and mom of a current 5th grader.
Personal comments:
I support the exempt public land declaration and the next step is to issue a notice of availability in furtherance of the RFP process of program H4.G.
I’ve been homeless and many of my staff super commute. These burdens are not comparable to the burdens neighbors have listed for why we should not build housing on the parking lots. We owe it to ourselves to welcome our low income workers into our downtown to live! Our son is devastated each new summer because another batch of teachers and his friends move away. It’s heartbreaking and unnecessary! He does not like the summertime for this reason. Terrible. I hate summers now too.
As a transit user and enthusiast, this is an opportunity for us to better manage the way we move ourselves across the city by biking, scootering, taking transit, and storing our 2 ton personal property pedestrian pulverizing machines.
To the staff report, here are my comments:
* I agree with the commission that it should be open to the developer to elect to provide ground level retail to help the project pencil and add new product to the downtown.
* Covered and secured electric bike parking should be prioritized over single use vehicle parking for this project.
* The majority of the staff I help hire earns $35k to $49k annually, in the 15% to 30% AMI range. Given the labor rates for retail positions, most of the housing needs are for this income level. Therefore the 100% affordable housing projects would be ideal for our needs.
* I recently attended a lunch in which the Mayor of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose spoke on their growth to date and what is forecasted. Santa Clara alone has already built about 1K units of affordable housing with another 2100 in the pipeline. We are going to foster 10% of that growth but have 24% of their population.
* Regarding Section 5, the financial terms of the land deposition, I support both options.
* Section E, for community engagement, we might want to consider a longer than 72-hour notice period, given the comments, although I understand why you are not obligated to give the public more advance notice.
A few questions from the Nov. 14th business owner meeting:
* Is another meeting planned? Based on comments, another would be recommended.
* Is there a legal obligation to provide specific parking within a certain radius or within certain parameters of a business? Since staff has addressed the CC&R obligations on page 29 of the staff report, I assume this matter is resolved. Comments on Nextdoor suggested otherwise.
* Would business flow actually be disrupted if parking lots changed? What evidence do we have to show one way or the other? Palo Alto, RWC, Sunnyvale retail centers have benefited from parking garages in my experience.
* Is the business community familiar with the UC Berkeley presentation on affordable housing downtown? What are their thoughts? (See MP City Council meeting from May 9th, 2023)
* Based on case studies, when you increase housing density at transit centers, especially in downtown retail commerce rich areas, there is always a vibrancy and economic stability increase. Why is there still a concern for economic vibrancy? What is the disconnect in public understanding?
* Only three (3) of seven (7) lots are being proposed for SLA designation. All others would be re-paved and striped, correct? Would the stalls still be compact or larger given the larger vehicle sizes? Would the root intrusion and grading be corrected in this secondary project?
Finally, I will always support upzoning our single family neighborhoods as an option to ensure the housing production we are required to produce occurs by 2031 to allow for dense apartments to be built across the city. I love that we can utilize high density bonuses near transit.
Thank you, staff, for your work. It is always a joy to read your work. I look forward to seeing you soon,
Jenny from the Coleman Place block
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Jen Michel
DRE #01900228
Cell: 650.400.8299
E-mail: restorativeeco@gmail.com
