Honorable Mayor Combs and Councilmembers:
The Parkline Project has long been defined as comprising 1,091,600 SF of
new Office/R&D, including a 40,000 SF commercial amenity building, and
excluding SRIs remaining 3 buildings that were not considered part of the
Project. The Variant version would add 800 much-needed housing units; that
was the Project studied in the Draft EIR and Final EIR.
Then in August, Lane Partners presented a Revised Proposal Project that
reduced the Office/R&D SF by 380,000 SF (see attached). Our citys
consultants studied the impacts of the Revised Project with a cap of
713,270 SF of new Office/R&D and provided Supplemental memos
that showed proportionally fewer negative impacts. For example, the prior
Housing Needs Assessment for the Project Variant showed it would cause the
current housing shortage to worsen by a net 1,472 units. The Revised
Project, capped at 713,270 SF of Office/R&D, would reduce the project’s net
housing deficit by 800 units, from 1,472 units to only 672 units. In other
words, the Revised Projects reduction in Office space is the equivalent of
building 800 new homes. Traffic would also be reduced in proportion to the
reduction in the size of the projects Office/R&D space.
Thus, this Revised Proposal appears to be an improvement over the prior
proposal. Nevertheless it would add office space when there is a vacancy
rate of nearly 32% on the peninsula. It worsens an existing housing
shortage, and increases traffic congestion to "oversaturated" levels.
Approving the Revised Project may be a tradeoff the Council is willing to
make.
Unfortunately, the wording in the various approval documents allows the
Office/R&D SF to increase significantly -- in other words, to return to
nearly the size of the previously proposed Project (to 1 million SF rather
than the previous Projects 1.09 million SF). Thus, the associated severe
impacts on the housing shortage and traffic congestion actually would
increase to nearly the levels identified before August, and would still be
a burden to the city.
Given the dire consequences of increasing the housing shortage and
worsening traffic congestion, I urge you to direct the city attorney and
staff to review all approval documents and remove any and all wording that
negates Lanes August 2025 proposal to cap the new Office/R&D at 713,270
SF.
If in the future Lane comes forward with a proposal for more housing on the
site - without adding any more Office/R&D - I encourage you to consider it
as expeditiously as possible, but not without the same full scrutiny that
every other major project must undergo.
Our community is counting on you to hold the line at the proffered
development cap for new Office/R&D space, and approve documents that would
not allow exceeding this cap for the Revised Project.
Respectfully submitted,
Patti Fry
