Boondogle at best. $40-$50m for the land. Construction and new mobile homes for another $100m? $1.5m per unit? Is that double market? Could have had 200 affordable units for the same price.

Yup. Another costly boondoggle.

Let's get rid of truly affordable here just like they eliminated 85 affordable units when they sold off the President Hotel to create an upscale, pricey hotel -- and then asked US to fund affordable housing downtown.

But anything no matter how illogical to enrich our friendly neighborhood developers.

President hotel was private property and originally a hotel. It was never "affordable" though the rents were relatively low but only because the units were tiny. The city and county paid way too much for this property to net out only 100 units. Terrible waste

The last time Joe Simitian/ colleagues & Palo Alto leaders joined together and inserted themselves into this subject they wasted tens of millions of $ public money and then $ millions each year for maintenance for a project they should have never become involved in.

I suggest they sell the land, a developer (no non-profits) builds a larger development using their own funds, sell or rent the apartments at market rates and set aside 20% of the apartments/ condos for those still remaining at Buena Vista to rent or buy at a lower rate.

I suggest we educate our politicians on what supply and demand is.

Re The President Hotel, true but the former city manager rushed to change the regulations to facilitate its sale in the hopes of bringing in more revenue for the city government to, er, spend while ignoring all the arguments against changing the rules.

It's wonderful to end the year with this positive news for hundreds of Buena Vistans including its 70 children, nearly all low-income.

Lest people forget, had Buena Vista not been saved, it would have been the largest rapid displacement in the history of our City. A total disaster as residents would have lost their livelihoods, schools, medical care, and friends, forced to move far away. Instead, Most Palo Altans and folks at Stanford, our City and County insisted a solution must be found. In 2017 it was when Housing Authority announced it would buy the Park from the family that owned it.

Due to years of deferred maintenance, the infrastruture was in shambles and would have to be rebuilt anew - sewers, electrical grid, etc. But no gas - it will go all-electric. There are still issues to be ironed out, but this shows great progress.

As to cost of these 105 housing units, don't forget that Buena Vista includes dozens of mobile homeowners who have approximately the same legal rights as any other homeowner. They can't have their homes taken from them and forced to become renters. And Housing Authority isn't slapping up micro-units for everyone. This will be quality housing that any of us would want for anyone, accomodating up to 4-bedroom apartments or mobile homes.

Mobile home owners will purchase their new homes (they are not a freebe), so an overall per unit price for the entire property is not as speculated on by some commenters. And the common spaces for The Homework Club, the meeting, social spaces and kids play area aren't luxuries but neccesities, and generally included in below market rate developments.

Thank you City, County and Housing Authority. Thank you residents who organized, first to save your homes and now to help ensure Buena Vista is a safe, affordable, comfortable place to live. And thanks to all who worked hard to make this a reality, including the indespensible work of Supervisor Joe Simitian.

This is fantastic news. Especially that the project remains committed to allowing residents to continue their homeownership. I’d like to know details for helping residents during the displacement. It will be horribly disruptive to be displaced during the renovation. And expensive for residents who will have mortgages on their mobile homes and have to pay rent for the duration. There are also potential implications to their taxes if they aren’t living in their homes (or they don’t exist). Are these details being addressed? The renovations are badly needed but residents need to be protected from permanent displacement. This organization seems to be taking things into account, I’d just like to know the plan to do that.