Redwood City CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER 2019 WWW.REDWOODCITY.ORG EVENTS DECEMBER 7 Hometown Holidays Courthouse Square 10 a.m. DECEMBER 15-21 Santa at the Library (multiple times and locations) www.redwoodcity.org/departments/ library/events DECEMBER 18 MEETING THE HOUSING CHALLENGE Gabriel’s Trumpets Downtown Library City Supports Housing at all Income 6:30 p.m. Levels through Policies, Programs, DECEMBER 22 Chanukah Festival Partnerships, and Projects Courthouse Square 4 p.m. In 2019, the City Council identified three top its Housing Division into the City Manager’s policy priorities: housing, transportation, and office, where it will function as a priority children and youth. Housing has emerged as initiative. Previously, the division was part of the especially challenging, as rising housing costs, low Community Development and Transportation HOLIDAY HOURS vacancy rates, and income disparity throughout Department. The Housing Division is charged City Hall will be closed: the region threaten to displace some residents, and with creating a range of housing options through November 28 & 29 (Thanksgiving) negatively impact the quality of life of many more. policies, programs, partnership, and projects. The City’s housing leadership manager will lead December 23 - January 1 Redwood City’s vision is to build a community the City’s housing division and be responsible for (Winter Break) where people of all backgrounds and income levels supporting housing stability for residents and the can thrive. Affordable housing is an important part creation of market rate and affordable housing. of that vision. City staff continue to deliver housing programs and View more events at To underscore its commitment to addressing the services, including administration of $1.3 million in www.redwoodcity.org/calendar City’s housing challenges, the City recently moved CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 URGENCY ORDINANCE CLIMATE ACTION HOMELESS PROGRAMS PASSED PLAN UPDATE & CLEANUP City provides City addresses City programs focus on new protection sea level rise, homelessness, 2 to tenants 4 flood protection 6 city cleanup 2 NOVEMBER 2019 MEETING THE HOUSING CHALLENGE Community Input City Supports Housing at all Income Sought for New Land Levels through Policies, Programs, Use Vision Downtown Partnerships, and Projects and Beyond CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 • ROEM Development, 353 Main Street, Communities are always evolving to meet 125-unit apartment building changing community needs and Redwood City federal and local grant programs to support has experienced many changes in the last several affordable housing. In FY 2018-2019, more Other market-rate housing developments that years. Beginning next spring, the City will launch than 770 Redwood City residents received are required to provide affordable housing are a Community Visioning Process to establish assistance through these programs, and 60 in the planning review process. a new land use vision for Downtown and the units of affordable housing were preserved. Almost half of the City’s residents rent Central Redwood City area. This process would Funding for homeless services and homeless their homes. To support housing security for be informed by numerous factors, including: prevention assisted more than 250 people, renters, in January of 2019 the City Council • Reviews of future land use to meet current and including families, adults, youth, and persons approved minimum rental lease terms and projected community needs, with special needs. Nearly 400 residents required relocation assistance under certain received assistance through a home sharing circumstances. This program will be evaluated • Climate adaptation planning, program, an for effectiveness in the first quarter of 2020. • Consideration of commercial and residential ombudsman City will add Additional protections were approved in densities, service, and October (see below). 453 new programs designed • City Council-adopted policies such as our affordable for victims of Additionally, last summer landlords and Climate Action Plan and Citywide Transportation Plan rwcMoves, housing units. domestic violence property managers met with City staff to and sexual abuse. share their ideas on affordable housing, address • Economic drivers and impacts associated with An economic the challenge they face, and learn about local development, development program provided opportunities programs, resources, and incentives available to • Place making, and for 33 low-income residents to start a new landlords who offer below market rents. business or maintain or expand an existing one. • Utility and infrastructure needs. To create more housing options in our Four hundred and fifty-three affordable neighborhoods, the City supports the addition The Community Visioning Process will be housing units are expected to open their doors of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and followed by environmental studies to create a in the next two years. These include: created new guidelines for their construction. new document to guide future development in Additionally, new state housing legislation these areas. • Arroyo Green, 707 Bradford Street, 117 units related to ADUs, tenant protections, and other of senior housing topics has been approved. The City will review Given the significant number of transportation- • Broadway Plaza, 1401 Broadway, 119-unit these new laws and revisit City regulations in related initiatives already underway, led both by apartment building the next year. the City and by transit entities, the first phase of • Habitat for Humanity, 612 Jefferson Avenue, the process will focus on rail planning. 20-unit for-sale townhomes For an update on the City’s housing initiatives, • Hallmark Apartments, 531 Woodside Road, go to www.redwoodcity.org/housing. There will be many ways for residents to provide 72-unit apartment building input on the new vision in the months ahead, and we hope you will participate. It is important to hear from as many people as possible as we plan Urgency Ordinance Provides for our community’s future. For more information, go to www.redwoodcity. Immediate Protection to Renters org/planning. In early October, Governor Gavin Newsom signed California Assembly Bill (AB) 1482, which provides protection to tenants statewide starting on January 1, 2020. After its passage, the City Council and City staff experienced an increase in tenant complaints about rent hikes and evictions. In response, at its October 28 meeting the City Council passed an urgency ordinance providing tenants with rent stabilization and just cause eviction protections similar to those contained in AB 1482. The City’s ordinance became effective on October 29, 2019 and will remain in effect until December 31, 2019. The statewide measure takes effect on January 1. The goal of the urgency ordinance is to keep tenants in their homes, and to reduce the impacts of displacement in our community. The ordinance limits rent increases to 9%. It also prohibits owners from terminating a tenancy without just cause if the tenant has lived in a unit for 12 months or more. Learn more about the measures and legal resources for tenants at www.redwoodcity.org/urgencyordinance. WWW.REDWOODCITY.ORG 3 On Track to Improve Transportation and Mobility Several efforts are underway to make it easier California High-Speed Rail Broadway Streetcar Study to get around Redwood City and the region. City staff are monitoring California’s high- In 2016, the City initiated a study to explore As the City launches a community visioning speed rail project, the nation’s first system of the feasibility of creating a streetcar and/ effort in the spring, we will seek input from this type. It would connect mega-regions of or urban circulator from the Caltrain station residents on how these efforts can best the state. The plan for the San Jose-to-San through the Broadway corridor, serving address community needs. Here is a snapshot Francisco segment of the system calls for areas with high employment density that of major initiatives: the high speed rail trains to share tracks with are beyond walking distance from the train Caltrain. Street-level crossings in Redwood station. These include the Stanford Redwood Caltrain Business Plan and Caltrain City would need safety improvements to City and Stanford Health Care campuses. The Electrification Project address trains passing through at 110 mph. study considered various routes, and identified Caltrain wants to increase the number of An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for three alignment alternatives that go through trains serving Redwood City from 76 to 268 this project is expected to be released in the Broadway or Broadway and Marshall Street. trains per weekday. This would require four spring of 2020. The study also includes high-level estimates train tracks in Redwood City, two more than of cost, ridership, and travel time for each it has now, to accommodate bypass trains. Dumbarton Transportation Project alternative. This scenario is now being studied, and the The Dumbarton Transportation Project is City will be asking for community input in exploring ways to improve mobility and relieve Downtown Transit Center coordination with visioning meetings. traffic congestion on the Dumbarton and The City is also in the process of re-imagining San Mateo County Bridges via a new transit its Downtown Transit Center to improve Caltrain’s electrification project is also service that would begin and end in Redwood circulation, mobility, walking, and biking underway. This will modernize their train City.