Redwood City - 9 unit residential development seeks approval

Nine (9) unit residential development reaches city council for approval tonight, 7/9/12. The property has a creek running though it.  Six (6) years and lawsuits later the project might be approved. 

San Mateo Daily Journal/Michelle Durand, 7/9/12.  "Six-year development battle comes to head."

"The original 2006 project proposal led to a November 2009 lawsuit against the city by The Friends of Cordilleras Creek and Finger Avenue Pride Committee. On May 19, 2009, the Planning Commission voted 3-2 to certify the mitigated negative declaration but voted to deny the project itself. The City Council denied the first appeal of the decision but, after revisions to the plan, it voted 6-1 that October in favor based on a less-stringent mitigated negative declaration.

Cordilleras Creek, Redwood City

 The two resident groups then sued, claiming Redwood City violated fundamental state requirements for development by approving the project without a complete look at its impacts and feasible alternatives. The city only required a mitigated negative declaration which is a lesser review. The city settled the suit by agreeing to revisit the project and sent it back to the drawing board with direction to specifically look at aesthetics, cultural resources, traffic safety, parking and overall neighborhood compatibility. 

The new plan, which was an alternative offered to the original project in the final EIR, calls for a 25-foot creek setback to meet the city’s adopted storm water control ordinance and ease concerns raised in the lawsuit about runoff and erosion. The blueprint also calls for no size increases in four of the lots, no decrease in front yard setbacks for those lots’ garages and no tree removals other than the 10 already proposed."  Read more. 

Related creek description.  "Beginning in the foothills, Cordilleras Creek flows in its natural bed before being confined to a conduit near El Camino to end in the San Francisco Bay. Like most California creeks, it slows to a trickle in rainless summer weather, but Cordilleras usually does flow year round."  Waymarking,com.

Related creek article.  "In the El Niño winter of 1998, Cordilleras Creek topped its banks, causing severe erosion and property damage. The event prompted the City Council of Redwood City to meet with property owners and watershed residents and seek a solution to flooding. Many of the residents involved in the flood strategy process expressed an interest in keeping the creek in as natural a state as possible. In support of the residents’ position, the city funded a watershed program coordinator who will work with residents to identify the needs of Cordilleras Creek and plan for natural flood control, restoration, and ongoing creek care."   Cordilleras Creek Organization/Whitney Knueppl article and picture.

Posted by Kathy Meeh