Palo Alto City Council OKs workforce project
57-unit, four-story apartment complex gains approval
PALO ALTO >> Since 2015, the Palo Alto City Council has approved 118 housing units; well short of its goal of adding 300 homes a year through 2030.
But on Monday, the council put a dent in that goal by voting 7-2 to approve a 57unit, four-story workforce apartment complex at 2755 El Camino Real, at the corner of Page Mill Road, one of the city’s busiest intersections.
The complex by developer Windy Hill Property Ventures will be a mix of 40 studios and 17 one-bedroom units. The council also approved a new district that will allow additional workforce housing projects within a half mile of rail stations. Councilwomen Lydia Kou and Karen Holman dissented.
The city defines workforce housing projects as those in which at least 20 percent of the units are considered affordable and available to households earning between 120 percent and 150 percent of area median income. Twelve units in Windy Hill’s project will be restricted to tenants earning between 140 percent and 150 percent of median income, which amounts to monthly rents of $3,136 to $3,360.
In voting against the project, Holman said that rent range is hardly affordable because a person earning 150 percent of median income equates to a $119,000 annual salary.
“We talk about people around here, that everybody works for tech companies and makes a grand amount of money and it’s just not true,” Holman said. “People are moving away because they kind of think Palo Alto has lost its soul . ... I think we can make changes here, change is going to happen, but I think trying to make change in such radical ways as this that don’t really provide affordable housing is not a way to go.”
The complex is intended to also serve as a test model to evaluate the effectiveness of reducing parking. The district is aiming for one vehicle per household, and Windy Hill is providing 68 parking spaces, equal to 1.2 spaces per household. Tenants will have to pay for parking spaces separately from rent, but will be given Caltrain Go Passes and VTA EcoPasses. Windy Hill will also provide a bus shelter at the intersection and contribute roughly $600,000 to the city’s affordable housing fund.
Other aspects of the new workforce housing district include restricting unit sizes to no more than 750 square feet and giving preference to renters working in Palo Alto or within a half mile of fixed rail transit platforms outside of the city.
Units in Windy Hill’s project will average 526 square feet and preference will be given to renters who work within three miles of the complex, which includes portions of Stanford and Menlo Park.
“I support this project because we don’t have housing that’s small and close enough to public transit to use it,” said Frank Engel, a Midtown resident. “This will cut down on traffic and will provide enough parking with transit incentives.”
The site is a former VTA park-and-ride lot that was sold to a private developer in 2013 after it was offered to government agencies, including the city of Palo Alto.