The Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission is scheduled to review plans for a five-story affordable housing infill at 3265 El Camino Real. The project would create 44 new homes for public school educators on a narrow parcel near the California Avenue Caltrain station. Palo Alto-based Half Dome Capital is responsible for the development.
The 55-foot-tall building will yield around 31,060 square feet, with 26,360 square feet for housing, 2,670 square feet of open space, and 4,700 square feet for the first-floor garage. Parking will be included for 22 cars and 24 bicycles. Of the 44 units, 24 will be studios, and 20 will be one-bedrooms. The developer has signed an agreement with the Palo Alto Educators Association to ensure that the housing will be restricted as affordable to employees.
The design is by Trachtenberg Architects. Illustrations show a familiar concept from the Berkeley-based firm, with bay windows facing El Camino and balconies along the west and east facades. The ground level will include an egress pathway along the western edge of the parcel leading to the rear stairwell and bicycle parking. Private patios will be nestled on the second floor of the eastern facade, while a rooftop deck facing El Camino will provide an outdoor amenity with seating and planters for all residents.
The small 0.17-acre parcel is in an appealing part of town along El Camino Real between Lambert Avenue and Portage Avenue. Several other projects hope to add hundreds of new homes to the area. Across the street, Oxford Capital Group has filed plans for a mixed-use complex with 382 homes next to a 136-key hotel at 3400 El Camino Real, and Acclaim Companies is planning a 380-unit complex at 3150 El Camino Real. Further off El Camino, Peninsula Land & Captital has filed a five-story infill at 300 Lambert Avenue, and the Sobrato Organization has plans to transform a former Fry’s Electronics store and strip mall into a mixed-use complex at 3200 Park Boulevard.
The commission is scheduled to meet tonight, Wednesday, April 10th, at 6 PM. The event will be a hybrid meeting, with in-person attendance and online participation via Zoom. For more information about how to attend and participate, visit the city website here.
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Public school teachers only! What about teachers that work in the private sector?
Good point. All teachers count. Not all schools have housing like Stanford does for some of it’s professors. Maybe Stanford could start building more teacher housing with all the land and endowment they have.
So teachers do not have families? Or will they and their kids all live in one room? The lack of parking is interesting. Will they be riding their bikes to school in the rain on dark winter mornings, on San Antonio Road (try that sometime). Just some interesting things to think about.
If only there was a way to get 44 people who live in the same building, to and from similar destinations all at roughly the same time every weekday using only 22 cars. We will never develop such a complex concept of pooling the car trips together. I honestly think sacrificing 14 units so we can have 30 units and parking spots is much easier and a better use of resources than that. I even thought of a name for it. Carpooling. How fun! Anyways
Sector specific housing, such as teacher-only housing, is great but it should be understood as only a band-aid measure. As long as the underlying problem of there being no affordable housing for working class families continues, the need to build more and more of these types of housing will only get bigger. We need political action to upzone urban areas where people already have access to public transit and jobs.