"In projecting what it will cost to maintain services and
infrastructure for a 4-square-mile community over the next five years,
Foster City officials are anticipating nearly $131 million in capital
improvement projects.
 |
| Civic center, senior living |
| Arial land view |
| Arial water view |
 |
| Bay paddle board surfing |
The City Council met Monday to discuss a variety of improvements
such as repairs to the wastewater treatment plant it shares with San
Mateo, repaving streets, installing synthetic turf fields, constructing a
multi-million levee and more. Residents and business owners are also slated to find their water and sewer will increase in the coming fiscal year as the city seeks to fund regional as well as local upgrades.
Overall, the city’s finances are strong with an anticipated surplus, part of which will go toward increasing contributions to the capital improvement program fund, said Mayor Herb Perez.“That’s to accommodate new projects that we think are important to the community,” Mayor Herb Perez said after the meeting. 'There’s no singular thing that affects your quality of life more than the infrastructure in the city.'" Read article.
Reference. City of Foster City. Suburban Stats, population 30,567. City-Data. Wikipedia.
Note Foster City, CA photographs. Aerial land view by I. Plater from Flickr gallery. Aerial water/bridge view by MathTeacherGuy from Flickr photo sharing. Paddle Board surfing from California Windsurfing Lessons/Rentals. Mixed-use "Foster Square" photographic by Lennar homebuilder.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
12 comments:
Once again Foster City has revenue, Pacifica does not.
Foster City has a commercial tax base, Pacifica does not.
Didnt our finance director and senior planner move to Foster City? Comcast service has not been the same since.
Ann Ritzma left Pacifica to go over to Foster City
731, decades ago in Pacifica, NIMBY City leadership and their "friends" discouraged parcel owners from building their properties. Rather, the City leadership plan available to many of these parcel owners was to take the tax break, and gift the property to open space.
Larger parcel development? Delays in planning driving developers to quit, and bankruptcy was not uncommon: example, Mori Point. Mori Point is a property in a prime revenue location, right off highway 1-- transitioned to permanent GGNRA parkland.
For the long term economic, financial viability of this City, such ongoing NIMBY interference has further disadvantaged our City infrastructure.
Foster City used to be a disadvantaged shrub brush patch as well. The potential threats of sea level rise, and earthquake damage still exist; plus, the 4-square miles only of city land area is small. Yet, Foster City seems to be taking advantage of smart development, and strategically planning their city future.
Foster City is a planned development built on landfill. Part of the plan was housing with easy commuter access to jobs and business in SF, the Peninsula and SJ. Unlike Pacifica in every way from geography to leadership. Pacifica is an unplanned, total hodgepodge of neighborhoods and permanent open space with no connection to each other except for Highway 1 and no easy access to job centers or shopping. We wanted to be different and we sure are. Did we also want to be poor or did that come as a surprise, to, not just the hippies, but also the geniuses who've been unable for three decades to wrest control from our dreamy friends? This is Pacifica. It isn't sustainable. And that isn't going to change even if a few people make big bucks off what little developable space is left. More power to those people, but do the math. The old solutions are not going to save this town. The chickens have come home to roost.
And the newest proposal for the quarry turns three quarters of it into permanent open space, meaning it can never be used to create a revenue producing tax base. You shouldn't have to be a nimby to realize that this one is just more bad planning for Pacifica. If they do get it onto the ballot, please vote No!
FC is using rate increases on water and sewer, new and old bonds, and fed and state monies to pay for repair and upgrades to their infrastructure. Sound familiar? Not a lot of industry or business in FC. Houses, lots and lots of houses and apts producing not enough in tax revenue to cover regular infrastructure maintenance and provide ever more expensive city services. Plus, a little problem with keeping back the bay. Of course, they do have a plan and strong leaders and the only open space long ago became city parks as planned. Community is unified, they know they're a suburb and not a national treasure...LMAO.
2:55
Costco has one of the highest grossing stores in the region in Foster City?
Ever see the Visa Building?
Ever hear of Electronic Arts EA Sports.
You need to get out more, the world isn't flat when you leave Pacifica.
413 Please travel less and read more. You suffer from the Pacifica Effect. That's the condition where things look bigger and better when you take those little jaunts over the hill. Perfectly natural. Nice spacing on your little list, BTW, but the fact remains there isn't enough business or employers to generate sufficient revenue to pay the bills for Foster City even when added to the city's share of property tax. That is why other sources of revenue are being used to pay for infrastructure upgrades and repairs. Like most suburbs, there's not enough commercial development to consistently pay for services at today's SF Bay Area rates. Other SMC cities rob Peter to pay Paul, assess new taxes, and defer/ignore things that need fixing. Takes a lot of retail to generate significant sales tax revenue. San Mateo does well with sales tax from Hillsdale. Revenue from employers is often a wash for a city. Biggest bang for the buck? Hotels. Nevada has done well with toxic waste.
Anonymous 248 said" And the newest proposal for the quarry turns three quarters of it into permanent open space, meaning it can never be used to create a revenue producing tax base. You shouldn't have to be a nimby to realize that this one is just more bad planning for Pacifica. If they do get it onto the ballot, please vote No!"
The current new plan for the quarry is the closest possible to comprise which is the only way it will ever work. Protecting the majority of the space, with an appropriate mix of community and visitor serving areas plus apartment rentals. As long as the rentals do not escape paying an in-lieu of fee for those low cost units, then it's worth seriously considering. We need housing along a transit corridor. But we don't need to oversize the project.
But the hippies will start a campaign to make it go down in flames.
Watch it will be voted down!
Post a Comment