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Mr. Tevis said, "According to Cornish and Carey Commercial, somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million square feet of commercial and office space are going to be developed between the City of Menlo Park and the City of San Mateo. That's primarily to accommodate growth in employment... If there are 1,000 housing units to be developed in San Mateo County over the next three years, I'd be surprised. There is a tremendous demand for housing." He added that the proposed site is not viable for commercial use, and other offers alluded to have never been presented in a written form. Ralph Nobles, 3720 Country Club Drive, said that at first he had no great enthusiasm for the project, but as a subscriber to the Green Belt Alliance principles he felt he should support it. Dr. Nobles said after listening to the preceding testimony, he now did recommend it with enthusiasm. He said, as a former City and current County Planning Commissioner, he usually was at odds with developers, but the Mozart people, developers of the Circle Star site, were sensitive to the community, modified their development and got it approved. Dr. Nobles said, "This is the first time since I have been a Planning Commissioner that I have seen a project developer lower his density voluntarily after it had been approved by the Planning Commission, in response to the community. I am very impressed." Dr. Nobles said he was also impressed with the quality of the work that the Planning Commission had done on this project. Chris Long, 4523 Wheeler Drive, Fremont, a former Redwood City resident, associated with the contractor who does work with Classic Communities, said, "these developments do work very well in the community." He said parking had not been a problem, that people utilize the garage space quite well as well a storage areas. Mr. Long said the concerns and fears associated with the project are unfounded. He agreed with the people ITom the Green Belt Alliance and said it was important to make good use of available resources and land already under development, rather than pushing people out into the central valley and other undeveloped areas. Mr. Long said he would welcome the opportunity to move back to his old neighborhood in a new home with minimal upkeep at an affordable price. He added that the other commercial users of the neighborhood should also be responsible for their impact on parking, it was not the responsibility of only one property owner. Julio Joseph, 1011 Taft Street, said he had attended Roosevelt Elementary School and remembered the traffic problems very well. Mr. Joseph said when he was in Fifth grade they put up portable class rooms and they were terrible. He said he now had one brother at Roosevelt and one at Kennedy and the existing portables are still awful and they take up the playground area. He said it makes him feel bad to think how his brothers have to sit in those portable class rooms, and "I feel they have been cheated." Al Pacheco, 2143 Madison Avenue, spoke on behalf of his children. Mr. Pacheco said that his nine-year daughter said the proposed development "was not logical." Mr. Pacheco said he owned five homes in Redwood City, and there was a woman earlier in the evening who said she was looking for one. "I'll sell her my home as soon as they build the 26 homes on that lot. You are not listening to nobody here." REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 MAY 5,1997 MINUTES Page No. 304 PAGE 29