Palo Alto has postponed a public hearing on Jay Paul's massive development proposal after learning last week that the main public benefit of the proposal -- a new police station -- isn't shaking out as the city had hoped.
The city's Planning and Transportation Commission was scheduled to discuss Wednesday evening a proposal by the San Francisco developer to build two four-story commercial buildings at 395 Page Mill Road, site of AOL's Silicon Valley headquarters. Because the site is already developed to the zoning capacity, Jay Paul is applying for a "planned community" zone, which would allow it to exceed density regulations in exchange for negotiated public benefits. The chief of these is a new police building, which under Jay Paul's plan would be attached to a four-story parking garage that the police would share with the office workers.
The Jay Paul proposal had energized the City Council, which is currently planning for a 2014 infrastructure bond and which considers a new public-safety building one of its highest priorities. But at last week's meeting of the council's Infrastructure Committee, members learned that the proposed police building is far from a sure shot.
Police Chief Dennis Burns said the city's architectural consultant, Michael Ross, has been evaluating the proposed design with Jay Paul's architect and had determined that building a police station on the proposed site would not be operationally feasible. The announcement surprised the council, which minutes earlier gave tacit approval to planning staff for an accelerated timeline for reviewing the Jay Paul proposal.
Now, the city is being forced to tap the brakes. The planning commission decided not to proceed with its review of the "planned community" proposal until a later date, which has not yet been specified but which will come after the May 7 meeting of the Infrastructure Committee, according to Assistant Planning Director Aaron Aknin. At that meeting, the committee will hear a progress report form Ross about problems with the police-building proposal.
Aaron Aknon said the meeting was postponed "in order to give the City's architect and applicant's architect additional time to work together on the design of the proposed public-safety building."
The city has been considering options for a new police headquarters for well over a decade, with numerous experts and citizen committees concluding that the existing headquarters in City Hall are too small and seismically deficient.
Comments
Downtown North
on Apr 23, 2013 at 5:01 pm
on Apr 23, 2013 at 5:01 pm
The amount of City effort put into this is ridiculous.
"Already developed to the zoning capacity," means ... let me see ... how about ... "already developed to the zoning capacity?"
It's time to eliminate PC exemptions altogether. The City cannot be trusted with them.
Duveneck/St. Francis
on Apr 23, 2013 at 6:11 pm
on Apr 23, 2013 at 6:11 pm
Is there a reason we can't use existing land owned by the City for the Police building? The current site maybe combined with the downtown library. The community gardens at Embarcadero and Newell. A small section of rinconada by the fire station?
Regarding the planned infrastructur bond campaign, my advice to the Council is to stop spending ANY money on non-essential items (such as the children's theater, bike bridges and bag campaigns) and focus on using existing funds to repair our streets, keep our neighborhoods safe, repair bridges that cause flooding, etc. The other things that fall into category of wants should be privately funded.
Barron Park
on Apr 23, 2013 at 6:22 pm
on Apr 23, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Here Ye, Here Ye, to palo alto parent - Palo Alto is becoming a rather un-safe place to live. Crime against people and property seem to be rising. The PAPD are slowly solving the incidents, but they keep making excuses like low staffing, and lack of proper work space. Good Grief! However, there do seem to be plenty of cops driving the street looking to stop drivers for seemingly small infractions just to drive in ticket, and vehicle violation revenue.
Charleston Gardens
on Apr 23, 2013 at 7:44 pm
on Apr 23, 2013 at 7:44 pm
Put the new police building in the old Miki's Market.
Evergreen Park
on Apr 23, 2013 at 11:31 pm
on Apr 23, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Ok. I know this fresh news. And here I am going to tell everyone here. The supervisors may order to delete once they found out that one person did not want to hold a secret. It is complicated but it is the true:
The police officers brass actually love the land. So the land on park bouleverd is not the problem. The problem is the back of the building that caltrain would eventually do eminent domain on the extra 6 feet of the backyard adding more land for the 4th lane track. Anyway it is not a big problem. The new police building would have to be smaller and all the plans redone.
Crescent Park
on Apr 24, 2013 at 11:07 am
on Apr 24, 2013 at 11:07 am
Siting a full-sized police HQ in a residential area (Main Library, Rinconada Park) is not a good idea. Would have a huge impact on the traffic and semi-tranquility in the area. Should be located in a more commercially oriented zone.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Apr 24, 2013 at 2:07 pm
on Apr 24, 2013 at 2:07 pm
The City of Mountain View used eminent domain to take rows of homes on Mercy Street and the cross streets, to build their library & city hall.
So eminent domain may also be used for the High Speed Rail, or a 4th track on Park Blvd. That is a credible reason for this sudden change of plans that seemingly came out of the blue and even surprised council.
Duveneck/St. Francis
on Apr 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm
on Apr 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm
A lot of speculation by uninformed people. The proposed building was operationally unfeasible meaning it wouldn't have been the best design to ensure safety of personnel and storage of cars and equipment. Also it was awkwardly sited to permit efficient deployment of personnel.
Why do people look for hidden motives and agendas?
Old Palo Alto
on Apr 24, 2013 at 7:21 pm
on Apr 24, 2013 at 7:21 pm
If the police station is built on the Page Mill Road site, wouldn't that be an awkward location if there is an earthquake or large disaster? If the overpass/underpass on Oregon Expressway collapsed, the police department would be cut off from the majority of Palo Alto. Developer Jay Paul's "massive" development sounds like another monstrocity. By the way was he going to build a complete police department, or would it just be the "shell" of the building?
It's time to put the breaks on this development and all the public benefit bullshit. Wake up, PA city council!!
Crescent Park
on Apr 25, 2013 at 3:14 pm
on Apr 25, 2013 at 3:14 pm
How are they cut off? They still can get to the other side of tracks by traveling on Churchill, Embarcadero, Charleston, etc.
Nice try though.