When It Really Matters

SRO at City Hall (SMDJ photo)

The City Hall parking lot was filled by 6 p.m. Hundreds of Foster City residents were up in arms over the developer's proposal to raze the small shopping center and build a retail-residential complex with 150 townhomes and 250 parking spaces.

Bowing to civic pressure, the City Council killed the proposal without even taking the first step of referring it to the Planning Commission for further study.

Much as I believe property owners should be allowed a lot of leeway to maximize the value of their holdings, I couldn't support the redevelopment. Over the past 30 years a public elementary school and a private pre-school have sprung up across the street, and traffic is already a severe problem in the morning.

Traffic backs up in the morning heading north (to the left in the Developer's picture)

As I wrote to the City Council members

The intersection of Beach Park and Edgewater is one of the most congested in Foster City at 8 a.m. on a weekday, with children being dropped off and walking and biking to school. That is also the time when hundreds of residents are trying to get to work from Dolphin Bay, Sea Colony, Plum Island, and other developments, and Edgewater Blvd. is the only practical feeder route to the main exits from Foster City. Edgewater heading north is frequently stopped up for the entire length of the shopping center (to Port Royal Ave).

I cringe as drivers make hurried right turns from Beach Park to Edgewater with little kids on the sidewalk or cut through the shopping center to make a right from Edgewater to Beach Park. Pouring an additional 250 cars onto this intersection at this time (I imagine most of these projected homeowners will be working) would be a traffic and public-safety nightmare.

After the dust settles, I hope that some of the neighbors will stop complaining about every little move (painting a different color, putting up some signs) the shopping center owner proposes to improve his profitability.

Say no only when it really matters.