Article from the March/April Loma Prietan, Newsletter of the Sierra Club
Loma Prieta Chapter

Update from the Sustainable
Land Use Committee:
Menlo Park and San Carlos
By Irvin Dawid, former chair
Recently the Sustainable Land Use (SLU)
committee has become involved in developments
in two Peninsula communities, Menlo
Park and San Carlos. Interestingly, the two
developments are at the opposite ends of the
planning stage, and therein perhaps lies an
important lesson.
In October, SLU heard from Jim Pollart
of Foster City-based O’Brien Group, developer
of a three-acre lot known as the Derry
Property opposite the Menlo Park Caltrain
Station. Mr. Pollart explained the “mixed
use” project (i.e. having residential, retail, and
office components) to the committee with a
diagram depicting the residential component
(135 for-sale homes, with a density of 40
units/acre and 4 stories or 50 ft. high) backing
up to the railroad track side of the project and
stepping down to 3 stories on the El Camino
side.
The project has garnered enormous political
opposition. A referendum petition was circulated,
and it gathered the requisite number
of signatures, so the project is halted as the
City Council deliberates whether to place the
project to a vote of the people, or rescind its
approval of the zoning change that made the
project possible.
SLU members, while expressing support
for a project that so clearly meets most, if not
all, the committee’s objectives of being transit
oriented, with an affordable component, and
meeting the minimum density requirement,
explained to Mr. Pollart that before the committee
could recommend a position, it was
necessary to “score” the project according to
“green building criteria”. This is a new requirement,
effective October, 2006, resulting from
input from the chapter’s conservation committee.
The Conservation Committee should feel
justified requiring a development be considered
sustainable or ‘green’ if the Sierra Club
is to put its imprimatur on it. Mr. Pollart has
done his part. He has submitted a “Build It
Green: Multifamily GreenPoint Checklist”
for the Derry Property project. The O’Brien
Group is the first developer to comply with
the new guideline, and we appreciate his
cooperation.
SLU will review the checklist at its February
meeting, as well as await the outcome of the
Menlo Park City Council deliberations on the
referendum petition.
Meanwhile, in San Carlos, SLU was
offered an opportunity by the chapter’s San
Carlos-Belmont Group to participate in their
December group meeting where Samtrans
(San Mateo transit agency) and a developer
discussed a project being planned on
eight vacant acres adjacent to the San Carlos
Caltrain Station. The project, which is only
at the beginning of the planning stage, clearly
meets the criteria described above, i.e. sufficient
density, transit oriented, and mixed -use.
The developer chosen by SamTrans, Foster
City-based, Legacy Partners Residential, was
given the “green guideline” criteria at the
onset, so they know what is necessary to comply
with the SLU guidelines for endorsement.
Should the Legacy project receive a SLU
endorsement in the future, it is hoped that
the Sierra Club support would help the community
understand the benefits of these types
of developments. They add to a community’s
vitality, provide housing opportunities for city
workers and their children, and most importantly
in a world facing the imminent dangers
of climate change, reduce the “carbon footprint”
of the community by allowing more
workers to live closer to their jobs and be less
auto-dependent.
Received on Fri Mar 9 13:30:57 2007