Because there isn’t enough empty office space in Palo Alto??? Geez….

There are empty office buildings all over town, and still, they continue to build them. Ventura is going to be a ghost town of office space. There must be big money in owning empty buildings! Someone should do an investigative report (hint hint).

And just a reminder: Developers refuse to build low-income or even affordable housing because there aren't insane profits to be made in doing so.

What is going on with the stalled construction at El Camino / Portage (the site where Foot Locker used to be) ?

More office space? Isn't the amount of office space (which translate to jobs) located in Palo Alto a major factor in why the city was assigned so much additional housing to build? This will only make our insurmountable quota problem worse.

Why would Palo Alto add to the office/jobs vs. housing imbalance? Why should we approve a very short office building right on El Camino when this is prime territory for tall housing and there is a glut of empty office space all over the Bay Area? This project makes about as much sense as leaving most of the El Camino corridor vacant or vastly underutilized at a time when the state is begging Palo Alto to build more housing units.

Will the ground floor be required to be “Retail”in all these office buildings. Many land owners were restricted from office use tenants on the ground floor and because of this zoning change less than ten years ago. It hurt many people. Just asking if the same will apply to these developers?

With close to a 30% office vacancy rate, what a smart idea to add more offices and thus make the housing / office ratio even worse so our brilliant leaders can lobby for moire market rate housing.

Go DODOs (Developer Owned Developer Operated) politicians working tirelessly to create more gridlock!

@4good That concrete shell at the old Foot Locker site has been an eyesore for 5 years now. I read somewhere that when they were drilling down for supports, they hit the 'toxic plume' at that put an immediate halt to all construction. No idea what the resolution for something like that is.

When stories like this are written, I wonder why the impact of all of these developments on people who currently live in Ventura is never mentioned. These streets are very narrow are already and quite congested. With parking on both sides of the street, only one car at a time can move through. I have not seen any ideas for dealing with all of the increased traffic that will result. And let's be honest. The reason the City says this area is suitable to more development is that it is less expensive that the privileged north Palo Alto neighborhoods. So, the wealthier people will get to keep their relatively quiet, low rise neighborhoods while the less well off will get all of the development dumped on them. I wish there was a way to even things out more so that one target neighborhood doesn't bear the brunt of all of this massive development.

@ Evergreen Park Observer
I second your comments. Your area is already clogged. Land is less expensive here in South PA, so we get all the development.

"You know what this place needs, more office space!" HahahahahahHAHA HA HA HA!

We need a moratorium on office building and change Palo Alto’s zoning to address the lack of land zoned for housing all the additional employees office zoning has created in recent decades.

Palo Alto’s zoning has become increasingly out of balance and outdated. The current ratio of land zoned between housing and commercial use was based on the now very outdated calculation of 250 sq ft per employee. However, in less than two decades, commercial property owners have been able to profit from office density increases that double, triple,and in some cases quadruple the number of employees without addressing the shortage of housing this creates in an already built out city.

Past time to revisit and update Palo Alto’s zoning to increase land available for housing and reduce that for offices so commercial property owners can help solve the need for new housing they have created. Starting with Stanford and their gradual switch since 2000 from low density research and manufacturing to high density tenants in the Research Park.