AgdaPkt 2021.01.25 Amended Joint SA PFA

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January 25, 2021 Bob Wilson Redwood Shores Resident Comments on Sequoia Station Study Session Agenda Item #8A Thank you council members for your service and the opportunity to comment on the possible redevelopment of Sequoia Station. I have lived and worked in Redwood City for most of the last 37 years and really love our town! We have two brand new council members. Let's all work together with them and council to get he major priorities in Redwood City addressed! Summary The priorities for our community are: housing, social & economic justice, education, dealing with climate change, transportation etc.. BUILDING MORE OFFICES ARE NOT in even on a long list of priorities we have for our community. As other community members and staff have documented, if the developer's proposal was accepted, we would have over 5 Million square feet of office space approved or proposed in Redwood City! We are suffering from a massive housing -work imbalance already. So council members, ask yourselves where would the housing come from for the more than 5,000 new workers and their families should this ill conceived new development become reality? We should be planning for almost 20,000 housing units for the future before we add any more office space. Clearly any major new development in Redwood City needs to be 100% focused on housing (especially low cost and affordable) and related retail and human services. have many objections to the developer's proposal, but will limit them today to the four categories below: 1- Post COVID Realities Once the pandemic passes, our community will certainly live and work differently. We need a few years to sort that out as businesses will recover slowing and people will need to adjust to new ways of balancing work at home and in their workplace. Both homes and workplaces likely get reconfigured. Schools will change too. Redwood City can be a beacon of innovation as it has always been. To continue to retain and attract diverse residents, work force and employers, we need to rethink how we plan development and adjust zoning to new realities. No one knows today with any reasonable certainty what will change. We need a few years to consider a post pandemic Redwood City BEFORE any mega developments requiring adjustments to existing zoning are considered. In short, we must significantly slow this project review down. 2- Financial Projections Finally we can celebrate that staff and the city are requiring a financial model! However, the study presented is fundamentally flawed. It does not provide adequate detail & back up in order to challenge assumptions and conclusions. It needs to be redone from scratch with both council and community input. The analysis currently assumes we will expand office space dramatically even though the "office cap" in the downtown plan has already been far exceeded. "Office Cap" is in quotes, since we have ignored any reasonable housing and work balance norms that were assumed in the original downtown planning and EIR guidelines. Since the model assumes more offices will be approved, and this is still a massive open decision, the model is far overstating property acquisition costs. For instance, council can (and should)