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7. �61°�3� 6 January 12, 2021 Redwood City City Council 1017 Middlefield Rd. Redwood City, CA 94063 SENT VIA EMAIL RE: Support for Pian — Sequoia Station Project Dear Mayor Howard and Members of the City Council, The Bay Area Council is a public policy advocacy organization working to support civic and business leaders in solving our region's most challenging issues. This letter is written in support of the plan for the Sequoia Station project in Redwood City for its potential to create hundreds of housing units near transit. California is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis that will worsen without significant intervention. The California Department of Housing and Community Development estimates that the state must build 180,000 new units of housing annually by 2025 to meet projected population growth - over 100,000 more units than we are currently creating. This shortage will disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color that are being priced out of Bay Area communities from the lack of affordable housing options. To combat this, every county and city must do its part to produce more housing units to keep up with the growing population. This project will also serve to meet the region's RHNA goals. The Sequoia Station project proposes to create between 500 — 625 new housing units in Redwood City, of which 200-225 will be affordable. We recommend that the maximum number of housing units that are financially feasible are realized through this project to make the largest impact on our housing crisis. While we recognize this project is in a relatively conceptual stage, we support the creation of new housing and believe it is critically important to construct housing at transit hubs and adjacent to job centers — reducing sprawl, getting people out of cars and onto transit, and shrinking our carbon footprint. This project is located in the heart of Downtown Redwood City, directly adjacent to the Redwood City Caltrain station. The project will redevelop an outdated retail center and provide much needed housing, office, and renovated retail space with better walking and biking access. In addition, it will provide critical land for an expanded Caltrain right-of-way to meet its 2040 transit goals, and serve as the terminus to the Dumbarton line connecting to the East Bay. Although local in scope, it has a major regional impact from both a housing and transportation standpoint. This site is an excellent candidate for dense, mixed-use development directly adjacent to transit to grow the supply of housing and reduce dependence on cars. We look forward to reviewing details of the project when it is further resolved and encourage you to support transit -oriented development of this nature. Sincerely, Matt Regan Senior Vice President, Bay Area Council 212