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rmm: Bob Wilson TM GRPLM Canal ec: Council Ian Bain Janet Boraens; Counal-Diane Howard Subject: Comments for Item 7A. Counal Meeang Novanber 9, 2020 - Study Semon an Ba*ont Park and County Navigabon Centel Date: Malay, November 9, 2020 5:92:57 PM I am a long term resident of Redwood City and redwood Shores. I have mostly lived and worked here since 1983. I am keenly interested in helping improve the severe housing issues we have in our City. Many of us were quite surprised recently by a $30 million proposal for the County of San Mateo to acquire the Marriott Town Suites hotel in Redwood Shores. It was approved last week with almost no notice to the community. Mike Callagy our County Manager was kind enough to contact me last week to address my concerns. That was most appreciated. This new project looks to address housing for elderly people who can no longer afford to live in the area by providing lower cost housing options. I'm still learning about this project and Mike admitted there were still many things to resolve especially how the new resource will be managed. I think Redwood City will be both helped and hurt by this acquisition. Helped, because almost 100 units will be available to those in need. Hurt, because the tax base will decline costing the City both parcel and transit taxes I estimate at between $500K and $750K. I look forward to hearing more. My question for tonight's study session is how the Town Suites acquisition will impact the new Navigation Center. I'm a bit confused on the numbers of people the new center needs to accommodate after the new Town Suites facility is on line. I think we may be addressing two different population segment needs, but perhaps in tonight's session, the County can describe how they think about current and projected needs for housing. It would help us all to have a comprehensive model we can agree on to analyze for housing needs today for all segments of our population including projections for approved and pending development. There seem to be acute housing deficits around all segments. It would help make better decisions to have agreement on a model and definitions of categories of housing and a forecast of needs. This would really improve our community's understanding of the massive housing issues we are facing. We often take a "balkanized" approach to our projects analyzing and optimizing specific projects. Our general plans and precise plans all we use in our City have proven to be outdated and no longer help as grapple with the realities we now face. So before we conclude the decision process on this project, can get get the County's view and perhaps the City's view too on our total housing picture including defects now and projected for all categories including low income needs? Bob Wilson