Laserfiche WebLink
From: Jeremy Smith <br />To: GRP -City Council <br />Subject: Sequoia Station Redevlopment- important & problematic <br />Date: Monday, February 8, 20212:28:26 PM <br />CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when <br />opening attachments or clicking links, especially from unknown senders. <br />Hi Councilmembers, <br />I'm just submitting my oral comment as written. I do not envy you! The transportation piece <br />seems really important and there are so many unanswered questions about why we can't <br />include more housing instead of office. <br />Hello, I'm Jeremy Smith, a lifelong and current resident of Redwood City. First, I'd like to <br />thank staff for their work during a very trying time and council for their willingness to hear <br />the diversity of opinions from the public. <br />This proposal has a considerable problem. It has a problem because we - as a region - <br />have made it so difficult to build housing while making it easy to build sprawling offices and <br />parking lots along the bayfront. This, to the point where adding more jobs is difficult for the <br />system to handle. <br />The City should meaningfully look into how to make it easier to build housing - specifically <br />in the place of office - so we can work towards improving the jobs/homes imbalance that <br />makes it so expensive to live here. But it's not just Redwood City, and it's not just this <br />project. We as a region - one known for welcoming immigrants of all kinds, need to be <br />building more housing. That includes San Carlos, that includes Atherton, that includes <br />Menlo Park and all of our historically more exclusionary neighbors. <br />Now, if there is a place for dense development where people are prioritized over cars, <br />where people can live close to jobs, services, amenities, and transit.... this is the place. The <br />project as proposed should be much denser - to the point where the construction methods <br />for buildings taller than 6 stories actually make sense economically. How much taller would <br />the housing need to be for it to actually be economically feasible? <br />Getting this project right, and taking advantage of the opportunity to expand our train station <br />is critical. This new 4 tracked station will help Caltrain be able to meet its goals of more <br />reliable and equitable service and for us to reduce a major source of pollutants and <br />emissions poisoning our planet and neighbors....... Thank you <br />