Acclaim Companies, the Menlo Park-based builder whose seven-story apartment complex at the site of The Fish Market represents Palo Alto's most ambitious "builder's remedy" application, is now pitching a project with nearly 200 apartments near the city's border with Mountain View.

Much like its 380-apartment plan for The Fish Market site at 3150 El Camino Real, the new proposal for the property 762 San Antonio Road is invoking the builder's remedy provision, a legally murky measure that developers are now relying on to overcome zoning rules in cities that have not adopted a compliant housing plan, so long as developers earmark at least 20% of new units for lower-income residents.

Palo Alto is one such city. Even though the City Council had approved its Housing Element last May, the state Department of Housing and Community Development subsequently rejected the city's submission. Palo Alto is now making additional revisions to the document, which lays out the city's plan to add 6,086 residences by 2031.

A major component of the city's plan is to loosen zoning standards in commercial corridors, with a special focus on San Antonio Road and El Camino Real. And even builder's remedy projects are often a source of tension between builders and cities (Palo Alto is one of several cities that maintains that the builder's remedy does not apply to them), both Acclaim projects generally hew to the city's strategy of upzoning these two south Palo Alto corridors.

The Acclaim proposal for San Antonio Road would bring 198 residences to the site, according to a proposal that Acclaim and Globe Investments LLC submitted this week. This includes 112 one-bedroom apartments, 66 two-bedroom apartments and 20 studios. Forty apartments would be designated as below-market-rate units, the plans note.

The seven-story building would include two levels of parking under five levels of apartments. The building would replace three existing commercial buildings, according to the application. The site is currently occupied by Hendgehold Trucks, which sells and rents trucks.

Project plans note that the development near Leghorn Street will include a south-facing courtyard and a roof deck. The building's fa<0x00E7>ade on the San Antonio Road site will be set back 25 feet from the curb and will serve as the "focal point of the project," according to the plans.

"The facade is broken into smaller elements with the use of vertical breaks, plane changes, and increased setbacks on both the ground and upper levels," the plans state, arguing that this will create a "distinctive base, middle, and top" in the new building.

The project is one of several targeting this segment of San Antonio Road, an area that the City Council has identified as ripe for development. Other recent projects in the area include 788 San Antonio Road, a 102-apartment development that the council approved in 2020, and 800 San Antonio Road, a 76-condominium project that is currently going through the city's approval pipeline.

Overall, the city hopes to see about 2,000 new residences — or nearly a third of the city's total allocation — in the largely commercial and industrial zones along San Antonio Road, Fabian Way and East Meadow Circle. Last year, council members changed various zoning standards in this area to enable taller and denser developments. Sites on which building heights had been historically limited to 35 or 50 feet now have 60-foot height limits. By applying the State Density Bonus Law, developers can claim an additional 35 feet of height.

In revising these zoning standards, council members acknowledged that they would be transformational for San Antonio Road. To help guide the redevelopment of the area, the council is preparing to launch an area plan in the coming months — a precursor to further zone changes, development proposals and infrastructure improvements.

Some council members, including Julie Lythcott-Haims and Vicki Veenker, have been enthusiastic about the potential transformation of San Antonio Road. Lythcott-Haims supported in November a further loosening of density limits, while Veenker argued that the new zoning rules would enhance Palo Alto.

"People are worried it will have some harmful effects," Veenker said at the November meeting. "I actually think we'll be really proud when we see these new units up and around, and hopefully, it will contribute to our economic developments as new residents come and shop in our business districts."

Others, including Mayor Greer Stone, framed the upzoning effort as a necessary — if not ideal — measure to meet an aggressive mandate from the state.

"A point to keep in mind is we really have no choice here," Stone said. n