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When Palo Alto received state approval last month for its housing plan, city officials hailed it as a critical milestone after more than two years of debate, revisions and frustration.
The finding by the state Department of Housing and Community Development that the city’s Housing Element is now substantially compliant with state law means that the city no longer has to worry about “builder’s remedy” applications that allow projects to effectively ignore state law. Like other cities throughout the state, Palo Alto had received a flurry of such proposals since Jan. 31, 2023, the state deadline for having a Housing Element in place.
The state approval is not, however, deterring developers who are already moving through the city’s approval process. In the past two weeks, two applicants with projects on El Camino Real reasserted their intention to proceed with projects that, if approved, would bring about 600 apartments to the Barron Park neighborhood. Both applicants have submitted formal applications, though they are taking markedly different paths toward approval.
Oxford Capital Group, which is looking to redevelop portions of the Creekside Inn, is preparing to construct four buildings, including three residential towers, with 231 dwellings at 3400 El Camino Real. The application is invoking both builder’s remedy and Senate Bill 330, which locks in development standards that were in place at the time an application is submitted.
The applicant had submitted a request that would allow the property to be subdivided on Aug. 27. If approved, the project would retain three existing hotel buildings and add a seven-story hotel, bringing the total number of rooms to 192.
“The Builder’s Remedy tool allows this thoughtful Project to proceed, and we look forward to working further with City officials to promptly advance the consideration of the Project in a manner consistent with state law,” project consultant Ted O’Hanlon wrote to the city in a letter accompanying the application.
A few blocks north of that site, Acclaim Companies is taking a different approach with its project at 3150 El Camino Real, former site of The Fish Market restaurant. Initially proposed as a builder’s remedy project, Acclaim is now instead relying on the city’s newest zoning tool: the “housing focus area” that the City Council established along El Camino, between Page Mill Road and Matadero Avenue. The new zoning district allows significantly more height and density but requires builders to dedicate at least 20% of their projects to affordable housing.
According to the latest Acclaim application, the apartment complex at 3150 El Camino Real would be 79 feet tall and include 377 apartments, a roof deck, a lounge and an underground garage with 458 stalls. The average market-rate unit will rent for $4,000, the application states. Of the 377 apartments, 76 will be offered at below-market-rate for residents making no more than 60% of the area median income, the application states.
If approved, the Acclaim project would be Palo Alto’s first to utilize the new zoning designation, which was not included in the initial Housing Element but later added in a bid top secure HCD’s approval. In designing the parameters of the new zone district, the council considered the city’s existing builder’s remedy applications and created development standards that are largely consistent with what builders had proposed. Developers in this area can, for example, request building heights of up to 85 feet, far exceeding the prior height limit of 50 feet.
“The enclosed materials represent the culmination of many months of cooperative work between the City and the Applicant to ensure that this Project is designed consistent with the El Camino Real Focus Area Plan standards and qualifies for the Streamlined Housing Development Project review Process, and we appreciate the City’s partnership in achieving this milestone,” wrote Tamsen Plume and Neva Yarkin, attorneys for Acclaim, in an Aug. 13 letter letter accompanying the application.
The focus area is one of dozens of housing programs in the city’s Housing Element, which aims to create 6,086 new dwellings by 2031. These include rezoning commercial and industrial areas around San Antonio Road to allow housing, streamlining the approval process and inviting builders to construct affordable housing on downtown parking lots. Recent applications suggest that the El Camino Real focus area, while a late addition, could be a particularly significant one as more developers show appetite for building in this area.
One builder, Sares Regis Group, is hoping to build a seven-story apartment buildings with 335 units at 3606 El Camino Real, near Kendall Ave. The development would include five stories of residential space over a two-story podium with parking stalls. It will also include two courtyards, a fitness area, a rooftop club room and a terrace, according to the application.
Sares Regis Group is also looking to build 177 apartments just south of that site, at 3781 El Camino Real. The project near Curtner Ave. would include 36 below-market-rate units, according to the application that was submitted over the summer and is now going through the city’s review process. Both Sares Regis projects are relying on builder’s remedy, according to the respective applications.
Palo Alto officials still see San Antonio Road as the city’s primary destination for future housing, with about 2,000 units slated for this area. In the next year, the council will kick off a significant planning process aimed at building a neighborhood with parks, retail and bike lanes in what has historically been a largely commercial and industrial section of the city.
Yet the uptick of applications on El Camino has prompted the council to pivot and adjust development standards to meet actual demand from local builders. During a recent candidate forum, Mayor Greer Stone characterized the recently created focus area on El Camino as the most significant housing policy that the city has created as part of the Housing Element process.
“We’re looking at expanding that,” Stone said at the Aug. 26 forum. “What that is going to allow is to get us additional affordability out of some of the market-rate developers while offering some incentives for developers to be able to build there.”
Great. Please build around San Antonio until the cows come home. I do not want any more excuses for why we have parking lots and not housing. Build 20 story buildings if you have to and drop the Trader Joe’s on the first floor. An urbanist dream and this meets everyone’s needs of developing the density to support walkable neighborhoods. Once a school goes in, kids can just walk down the street(a big source of traffic!)
I am A big fan.