This week I’m in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, tagging along with my wife who is attending a Gardening Symposium there (I’m not going to the symposium; I’m just keeping her company during the off hours). I did run across one or two very small things just before I left Redwood City, however, so I thought I’d share those in what should turn out to be a very short post.

First off, a week or two ago I noticed that the eight-unit townhouse project that had been approved for 955 Woodside Rd. has received its building permits. Accordingly, I went by the site to see if they had actually started work, and discovered that indeed they have:

This single lot used to serve two purposes: it was home to an animal hospital, and on the left there was a dirt lot that during the holiday season was a Christmas tree lot for Honey Bear trees (who during the rest of the year appeared to store a truck or two on their part of the property). The plan now is to construct two buildings each containing four townhouse-style for-sale condominiums. One of the buildings will sit perpendicular to Woodside Road (that’s the one in the foreground of the picture above) while the other will stand parallel to Woodside Road, across the back of the property.

Being townhouse-style units, each will be three stories tall with a two-car garage on the ground floor. They will range in size from about 1,750 to 1,875 square feet, and each will have three bedrooms (all on the top floor) and two-and-a-half bathrooms (two of the units will have an additional half bath on the ground floor, just off the entry foyer). They should be comfortable in size, but as you might be able to tell from the picture above they’ll be located right next door to the Auto Pride Car Wash, so they’ll have to endure the sound of the car wash machinery during daytime hours. On the other side is a dental clinic, so the views won’t be anything to write home about. Other than that, though, the location is a good one: Safeway is just about two blocks away on Woodside Road, and of course being on Woodside Road means that these homes will have relatively easy access to Highway 280 and Highway 101.

While looking at the above property, I noticed the construction fencing blocking access to the parking lot between the long-closed 5th Quarter Pizza restaurant and Bravo Taqueria. I knew that the 5th Quarter Pizza place was slated to have some remodeling done to it (presumably to make it more attractive to a new tenant), but wasn’t sure what was going on with Bravo Taqueria. Naturally, I had to walk across the street and investigate.

As far as 5th Quarter Pizza goes, I don’t have a lot to add at the moment; they have a permit to do some mostly cosmetic remodeling, and there is a sign on the front of the building indicating that a general contractor is connected with the project. But so far I am not seeing any signs of actual activity.

Since the parking lot is shared between the two restaurant spaces, the construction fence, which stretches across the entire front of the lot, precludes folks wanting to head to Bravo Taqueria. So I wasn’t too surprised — although I was somewhat relieved — to see signs on the door of Bravo Taqueria indicating that they are currently closed for ADA renovations, and that they will reopen in the fall. Thus, for those who love the Mexican food one gets at Bravo Taqueria, know that although you’ll have to wait a while to eat there once again, that apparently is only a temporary situation.

Further down Woodside Road, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the new CVS Pharmacy being constructed at the corner of Woodside and Bay roads. Last I heard, it was slated to open in June or July of this year, and based on the progress they are making, that appears to be doable:

As you can see, from the outside at least the building is nearly complete. And given that the surrounding land has been leveled and mostly cleaned up, a parking lot should appear in the near future (if one hasn’t already). Because I can’t get very close to the building, I can’t report on the state of the interior, but given that most of the store is simply a large open box, it shouldn’t take much beyond flooring and the installation of checkout counters and equipment (and the construction of the pharmacy portion of the store, to be fair).

I don’t have any interesting photos to share, but across Woodside Road from this new pharmacy the Broadway Plaza project continues apace, with lots of digging and drilling going on in preparation for the underground garage that will eventually be constructed on the entirety of the parcel. That project is being done in phases, with the first phase consisting of the residential buildings that will sit on the end of the property closest to Chestnut Street. Thus, that half of the property is where the work is concentrated at the moment. Once our new CVS is completed, the old one on the Broadway Plaza parcel will be torn down, but we’ll need to wait and see if the contractors then start building the entire garage, or whether for now they just build the half that will sit beneath the residential buildings. Eventually, the plan is for three office buildings on the Woodside Road end of the property to go with the three residential (and a bit of retail) buildings that will be constructed on the Chestnut Street end.

Depending upon what I find when I get home, I may share some of what I saw on my trip: I think that there are some interesting comparisons to be made between the way people lived and worked back at the birth of our country (as is vividly illustrated at Colonial Williamsburg), and how we live in Redwood City today. In the mean time, Sunday is the deadline to apply for one of the open positions on Redwood City’s various boards, commissions, or committees. If you have any interest, do check out their website. I should also note that the Redwood City Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on the “request to amend the Zoning Ordinance to establish regulations for firearms and ammunition retail sale use” at its next regular meeting. That meeting will be held next Tuesday, May 2, beginning at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers (if you prefer, you can participate online or watch the recorded meeting after the fact). Lastly, the Port of Redwood City will be hosting a free drone light show on Saturday, May 6, out at the port. More than 100 lighted drones will put on a “spectacular maritime production, illuminating moving images of jellyfish, boats and many other aquatic visions 400 feet above the bay.” The show will start at 8:45 p.m., and should run for about 12-15 minutes. However, you might want to plan to get there much earlier: by 7 p.m., in fact. That is when the E-Ticket Band will be performing a 90-minute set at the place where the Port hosts its Fourth of July festivities: 459 Seaport Court.