Dear Mayor Ramos and City Council,
Mountain View YIMBY recommends that Council approve the project known as Castro Commons, including approving the vacation of a portion of Fairmont Avenue.
The project has had a long history, starting as a 16 unit project in 2015 that would have replaced Gateway Park. It has since become the 140 stacked flat condo project it is today, with a paseo to maintain neighborhood connectivity and ground-floor retail to retain commercial opportunity. This was the product of extensive outreach to many members of the community and voluntary review by Design Review Consultation, a rarity given streamlining reform in state housing law.
This project intends to meet the city’s desires for homeownership for a variety of incomes, with 11 units for extremely/very low-income families (annual income <$100k for a 4-person family) and 11 for low/moderate-income ones (<$234k). Condominium projects are rare in the city in part from state construction defect law, as the city is aware with its support of AB1903; renting the units out for 10 years allows the project to overcome this barrier in order to remain attractive to finance as-is. Regardless of income, these new homes would mean new families who can support our Downtown, which is still adapting to post-pandemic trends.
The project is choosing to limit the power of the density bonus by not using all of their concessions, in an area where the zoning hasn’t been touched since 2004. The density is close to what SB79 would allow, if the project was just three blocks north (100 du/ac min.). On the POPA concession, we recognize it is hard for the developer to provide a park, separate from the paseo, of meaningful size even if combined with Gateway Park, a park already underused given El Camino Real’s noise and pollution. As such, we believe the park land settlement is a reasonable compromise to avoid prolonged litigation, given the Sheetz decision and Housing Element work to reform the park land dedication.
While vacating city property is uncommon, it is not without precedent. The ARLO Apartments (formerly Elan) at the corner across involved sale of a city parking lot. In any case, the developer is following the city’s procedures and has agreed to pay a fair price for the street.
Castro Commons is a good project located in the gateway to our Downtown, one that has gone through extensive community outreach. We urge support of the staff recommendation.
Thank you for your consideration.
David Watson, on behalf of Mountain View YIMBY