City gets grant to pay for Fry’s redevelopment plan
Proposal could include new housing, retail and school for Palo Alto neighborhood
The Palo Alto City Council has approved a grant to help finance a plan for one of the city’s few parcels large enough to sustain significant redevelopment.
A 39-acre tract near the California Avenue train station that includes the 12.5acre Fry’s Electronics site, owned by the Sobrato Organization, could be redeveloped when Sobrato’s lease expires at the end of 2019.
The so-called North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan will largely be funded with a $638,000 grant from the Valley Transportation Authority in conjunction with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. That plan likely could call for multifamily residences, a new school and additional neighborhood services.
The last such redevelopment plan of its type was approved in 1999 for a 50acre tract south of downtown that the Palo Alto Medical Foundation had vacated.
The grant required a local matching fund of at least 11.47 percent, which is being covered with a $112,000 contribution from Sobrato. The developer is also contributing $138,000 toward an environmental analysis of the project area.
Meanwhile, city staff said it will conduct its own studies for the project, such as traffic analysis. The total cost of $888,000 will pay for a consultant to conduct all pre-construction work, which is expected to last through the end of 2019.
“The city will have to put in funds if this process takes longer than we expect or we head in another direction,” planning director Hillary Gitelman said.
Gitelman, when pressed by Councilwoman Karen Holman, said there’s no guarantee that the plan will prohibit additional office space or that Sobrato won’t pull out of the project.
A member of the Ventura Neighborhood Association said the group wants to work with the city to improve the area, but is concerned about any traffic congestion or parking shortages that new development might bring, citing a plan a few years ago by Jay Paul Co. to add 11,000 square feet of commercial space to the site that was rejected because of traffic impacts.
“This could triple that size on the Fry’s site,” said Becky Saunders, the neighborhood association’s moderator. “If one Jay Paul project was too much, it really makes no sense to put three Jay Pauls on the Fry’s site.
“Don’t create dense office complexes, but encourage neighborhoods of homes and community-serving businesses and parks. … We are here to build a better, stronger Palo Alto, not a better Sobrato, with all due respect.”
The project area’s boundaries run from Page Mill Road to the edge of the Fry’s site and from Alma Street to below Ash Street, though not as far as El Camino Real. Gitelman said the boundary could move south from Fry’s to Lambert Avenue, but the city needs to confer with the two transit agencies to see whether the grant would allow it.
Holman suggested the boundary should extend to portions of El Camino to align with plans for pedestrian/bike improvements and that the city should study the historical significance of the area, noting that the Fry’s building was once a tomato cannery that dated back to the 1920s.
“It’s got great possibilities for shared residential use,” she said. The Fry’s site is zoned for multifamily housing and could be redeveloped to provide roughly 360 residential units under current zoning, according to the city.
Bob Moss, a resident who said he worked in the Fry’s building in the 1950s, also wanted to see the structure preserved, as well as maintained for residential-serving retail. The building consists of roughly 250,000 square feet of office, research and development, retail and warehouse space.
Moss also pointed out the plan area lacks transit lines and there are no schools within walking distance.
“What I haven’t heard mentioned (by staff) is the number of kids and what impact on schools are going to be,” Councilwoman Liz Kniss said.
Councilman Adrian Fine said he hopes the project would include new park sites because Ventura lacks them and “this is one of our last opportunities to expand it.”
Councilman Cory Wolbach said it’s too early for the council to “dictate the details,” but expressed support to plan for additional retail, affordable and market-rate housing, parks and better connectivity.
“As we’re wrapping up the Comprehensive Plan (Update), staff opportunity is going to open up to work on this. … There will be a little bit more bandwidth to focus on this project,” Wolbach said. “(Tonight) is about starting a collaborative process.”
Gitelman said the next step is to sign an agreement with VTA after conferring on boundary changes, then bring back the project for three future council meetings.
A consultant and working group are expected to be in place by April 2018 and the project is anticipated to be completed 18 months after that, which is a condition of the grant agreement.