From: Serge Bonte
To: City Council; Ramirez, Lucas; Abe-Koga, Margaret; Matichak, Lisa; Showalter, Pat; Kamei, Ellen; Hicks, Alison; Lieber, Sally
Cc: Pancholi, Diana; Shrivastava, Aarti
Subject: re: 8/30/22 Meeting Agenda Item 6.2 Mixed-Use Development at 590 Castro Street Date: Thursday, August 25, 2022 7:39:03 PM
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Honorable Mayor and City Council Members:
I reviewed the updated material for the 8/30/22 meeting. I am glad that the developer will no longer consider office as a permitted use for parts of the ground floor.
Otherwise, the project seems largely unchanged and my previous comments (below) still stand.
I'm disappointed about the replacement of the 6 chamber of commerce parking spots, which come at the cost of encroaching on Pioneer Park and necessitating the removal of one heritage tree. Removing these 6 parking spots would save that tree and make room for more green space. Choosing parking over trees and green space seems contrary to most of the City goals.
Please reconsider.
I'm still disappointed with the angled parking proposed for Castro Street, At a minimum, make it parallel parking. At an optimum, remove it and make more space for greenspace,sidewalk, people.
Here's a rendering from the meeting packet. On that picture alone, please count the number of hazardous conflicts: on the street and on the sidewalk. Please reconsider that parking configuration on Castro and proactively protect your residents.
Sincerely,
Serge Bonte
On Thu, Apr 7, 2022 at 6:17 PM Serge Bonte wrote:
Honorable Mayor and City Council Members:
While I would have preferred
to see housing on that site, the proposed
project adheres to the
Precise Plan and is worth supporting.
I especially like:
-
The public plaza/paseo -which was contemplated in the Precise Plan- a vast improvement over the current conditions
-
"The project applicant voluntarily offering to provide public use of the first floor of the parking garage (91 parking spaces) during non office business hours (6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) and on weekends and Federal holidays (7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.).". This offer alone is a huge benefit for the City as it might delay the need and exorbitant costs of yet another public parking structure.
I have two suggestions to further improve the project. The decisions rest primarily on you, and I would imagine the developer can quickly adapt the project.
1. Get rid of the six public surface parking spaces in the back of the building and replace them with more landscaping/trees
Surface parking is the absolute worst possible land use ... especially Downtown. I am actually shocked to read that preserving these six spots will require an encroachment on Pioneer Park AND the removal of on Heritage Tree.
"As part of the proposed development project, the existing driveway is proposed to be modified to provide a compliant driveway-access width with the relocation of the existing six public parking spaces. A portion of the relocated parking spaces will encroach into a
small portion of Pioneer Park. The applicant is voluntarily proposing to fund and complete the construction of these six replacement public parking spaces. This necessitates the removal of one Heritage cherry tree in the park."
Choosing Heritage Parking over Heritage Tree and portions of a public park ,doesn't sound like any of the Council Priorities nor any of your campaign platforms. Please remove these parking spots. I am certain the City and/or the developer can find an alternative to accommodate the Chamber of Commerce parking needs. Removing these spots would
save
one heritage tree and instead of encroaching on the park, you'd be able to slightly enlarge the park via additional landscaping (and possibly more trees).
2, Get rid of angled street parking on the Castro side of that project:
The existing angled parking is convenient when parking (just need to drive in) but it's an extremely dangerous maneuver when pulling out as cars back out into traffic without much visibility. With the adoption of Vision Zero, the City should try to enhance safety any chance it gets. And here's your chance to remove a dangerous type of parking fronting that project.
My preference would to remove all that street parking as it would enhance the view of the paseo. But at minimum you should re-configure parking to be parallel. Either way, this would enhance safety on Castro and provide more space for trees/planters/people.
Sincerely,
Serge Bonte
, Mountain View