There’s new progress in San Carlos’s bid to add nearly two thousand units to an industrial neighborhood close to the San Mateo County city’s Caltrain Station. The Northeast Area Specific Plan would rezone a 43-acre district for new housing. Earlier this week, the city published the notice of preparation for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) and solicited public comment to inform the review.
The city planning process started in late 2022 with an announcement and the start of gathering public input. Work started on the Draft Environmental Impact Report, and San Carlos aims to publish the draft in Spring 2025. Alongside the NOP, the city will be taking public comment through August 6th. The plan will be heard by the Planning and Transporation Commission at City Hall in a public meeting scheduled for August 5th at 7 PM. For more information about how to participate, visit the project website here.
Northeast Area Specific Plan site map, illustration via City of San Carlos
At present, the rezoning plan aims to allow for a 4.5 million square foot increase of non-residential development and 1,890 residential units to be built in an area with no current housing. Land use designations will vary across the 43 acres, allowing for a minimum height of 70 to 100 feet tall and a maximum possible height of 90 to 155 feet tall. According to the notice, “additional height increases for specific land uses would be permitted by the City should bonus conditions determined by the City be met.”
Northeast Area Specific Plan roughly outlined, image via Google Satellite
Streetscape improvements will be made across the specific plan area to improve pedestrian and cyclist connections to Belmont Creek from Quarry Road and increase the setback from Belmont Creek. To facilitate more housing, a new street segment is planned to connect Quarry Road with Bragato Road.
Full build-out is expected to take around twenty years once applications begin for specific projects.
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This is super smart by San Carlos. Adding 2,000 units @ 750K a pop is ~$22M in property tax revenue per year, every year, to city coffers. It probably solves their Housing Element goal in one move. It barely impacts any existing residents with the usual traffic and noise complaints since it’s wedged between the train tracks and the freeway.
Let me pretend to be a NIMBY :
“Caltrain use is already down 70% from pre-Covid ridership, so this should not be built, because it would take years to get completed and CalTrain is in trouble NOW.”
How did I do pretending to be a NIMBY?
Satire aside, this is great, and of course should have been done 30 years ago. But it will add a lot of real value to the peninsula. The ‘dead zone’ aspect of patches of the peninsula (certainly San Carlos) will get mitigated.
👏👏