[Yes, I really enjoy Slow Horses on Apple TV. Can you tell?]

Redwood City has received a proposal for a new housing project that has some fascinating aspects. What I find most interesting is that the project, which will in part be located along Belmont Slough, is split between Redwood City and Belmont, with the majority of the project being located within Belmont’s city limits. I’ll get to that project in just a bit, but first, allow me to touch upon a couple of other items of interest.

First and foremost, on Monday I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Redwood City’s new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center. It was packed!

The above shows just the people who were in front of me; there were likely an equal number of folks behind me. All in all, there were several hundred people in attendance, in addition to the many people involved in the ceremony itself. The actual ceremony took nearly an hour: given the many aspects of this new building, we heard not only from various city representatives, but also from a veteran’s group, the 49’er Alumni Association (Steve Young gave that speech; it was really good), and others. All in all, it was a fitting ceremony for what turned out to be a rather impressive building. Although those of us in attendance were free to tour the building immediately after the ribbon was cut, I opted to remain outside; I plan to go through it on my own next week, when the place isn’t so crowded. Thus, expect to see at least one last post from me on this project at some point, with pictures of the interior and more details about the building’s construction and green credentials.

The ribbon-cutting was on Monday, and starting today (Friday) the various programs offered through the senior center were scheduled to begin taking place in the new building rather than the old. Thus, from this point on the new building should be the place to go not only for services to seniors but also to explore the exhibits honoring our local veterans and showcasing the many years the Niners had their offices and held their practices in Redwood City. As to the fate of the older senior center building — which is really showing its age — we’ll have to wait and see. I had a delightful chat with some folks with the YMCA (the old center is ultimately to be torn down to make way for our new YMCA) and was told that fundraising is going slower than hoped, and that at the earliest they hope to break ground in 2028. Assuming that is when they do indeed begin construction, the project is expected to take at least two years. So those looking forward to the new swimming pools and exercise equipment will have to wait until at least 2030.

In other news, Hassett Ace Hardware, in Woodside Plaza, will be reopening their doors next Wednesday, May 13. They’ll be open all day that day — from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — and are looking forward to greeting returning customers who have been patiently waiting for the store to be rebuilt after a car drove through the front windows. I plan to be there on Wednesday to tell them “welcome back!” and to perhaps buy an item or two: I’m one of their loyal customers who has actually put off a couple of purchases until their return.

If the Veterans Memorial/Senior Center and Hassett Hardware aren’t enough, Redwood City has yet another opening to look forward to: the new preschool at ELCO Yards will be opening soon:

This brand-new facility will be operated by LearningLinks, and will have full-time, part-time, drop-in, and extended care programs for children from ages 0-6. Their website has a wealth of information (including a great many photographs of the facility), so those of you looking for early education opportunities for your young ones would do well to spend some time investigating what LearningLinks at ELCO Yards has to offer.

Midway through this week’s walk — which took me out onto the bay, down Broadway to the Stanford project, and up Vera Avenue, among other places — I dropped in to Fireside Books & More for a chat and to check out their latest stock (I hadn’t been in for a while; I ended up leaving with four books). While chatting with Andrew and Amanda about various goings-on in Redwood City, the subject of the 1900 Broadway project — the planned seven-story office building with some ground-floor retail and an outdoor public plaza at Main Street and Broadway, where the now-empty Wells Fargo Bank building stands today — came up. I’d noticed that construction fencing went up around the property some weeks ago, but hadn’t checked on the project’s permits until my visit to the bookstore reminded me. When I looked into them, I was interested to see that the developer just recently (in March and April) applied for a couple of permits, signaling that the project is very likely to go ahead, perhaps as soon as this year. (The developer also applied for a couple of permits towards the end of last year; those are still “under consideration.”) For the record, the project itself was approved by the city in October of 2024; the developer has been working since then to both finalize plans, apply for permits, and, most importantly, line up commitments from prospective tenants in sufficient quantity as to ensure that the developer doesn’t get left with an empty building at the end of construction.

So. On to the project for which I named this post. This is a substantial project, one designed to bring a whopping 400 new homes to our area. But as I noted, the project is split between Belmont and Redwood City, with Belmont getting the lion’s share of the new homes. Sixty-four of the new homes would be in Redwood City, with the remaining 336 getting Belmont addresses. This is due to the fact that our city boundaries are extremely odd at times, zig-zagging in ways that, on the surface, make little sense.

The new homes are to occupy four good-sized parcels ranging in size from 1.5 acres to just under 4 acres (there is a smaller fifth parcel, but that one is apparently going to become a “public amenity”; today it is a parking lot for the Belmont Sports Complex & Conference Center, and likely it’ll remain so). Three of the parcels are in Belmont, while the fourth — 3.08-acres in size — is in Redwood City. That Redwood City parcel is located at 501 (and 601) Island Parkway, across the street from the Belmont Sports Complex.

The location of this project may not be familiar to many Redwood City residents. Driving north on Highway 101, when you exit at Ralston Avenue you have the option to turn left (onto Ralston), turn right (onto Marine Parkway) or proceed straight ahead, past the Autobahn Motors Mercedes-Benz dealership. That straight-ahead road is Island Parkway. Follow it past the Mercedes dealership and over the bridge that takes the road over Belmont Slough. On your left will be the sports complex’s largest field, while to your right you’ll see a parking garage and three now-empty office buildings, at least two of which were at one time occupied by Oracle. Here is a satellite image showing the immediate area, annotated with blue dashed lines outlining the four main parcels:

The Mercedes dealership and the sports complex are along the left side of the image (and the freeway is just out of the frame on the left), while the main Oracle campus is just out of the frame on the right, on the other side of Belmont Slough.

What I find fascinating is that parcels 1, 2, and 3 are in Belmont, while parcel 5 is in Redwood City (I didn’t call out parcel 4, which will not be developed; it is that undeveloped dirt lot just below parcel 2). If you explore parcels 3 and 5 today, you’ll find no indication that the property — which of course feels like one large parcel with a parking garage (to the left of the “5” label) and three office buildings — is actually divided between the two cities. But it is. The parcel labeled “5” is where the 64 new Redwood City homes would go.

Parcel 1 is slated to receive a single large seven-story building containing 203 units of housing. Parcel 2 would get 12 separate buildings, each three stories high, containing a total of 76 townhouses. On parcel 3, the developer plans to construct 57 single-family (i.e., free-standing) homes. And parcel 5 — Redwood City’s parcel — would, as I noted, be developed with 64 townhouses, organized into 13 buildings.

I spent some time walking through and around Parcels 3 and 5, taking pictures of the buildings that are there today. Here is what the building in the upper left corner of Parcel 3 looks like, viewed from the central parking lot:

And here are the two buildings that today stand along Belmont Slough, viewed from that same spot:

Note how you can see one of the “cylinders” that makes up the main part of Redwood City’s Oracle campus, peeking out from between the two buildings that are slated to be torn down for this development. That cylinder is across Belmont Slough, which runs behind the buildings as viewed from this perspective. The building on the left stands on parcel 3, and thus is in Belmont. The building on the right is on parcel 5; it is in Redwood City. Here is a closer view:

The dividing line between Belmont and Redwood City may go right through this circular planter; it certainly goes right between these two buildings.

Lest you get the impression that this development would be in the middle of an area full of office buildings, the only office buildings there today are these three (plus the parking garage). If you look back at the top portion of the aerial photo, to the left is a Hyatt House hotel, while to the right you can just make out a large number of single-family homes. These homes:

That flat green area between the homes and the Hyatt House hotel, in case you are wondering, is actually a large pond.

This proposal is very preliminary at this stage. Being split across two cities, it is somewhat complex: the developer has to get approval from Redwood City for the developments on parcel 5, and approval from Belmont for the developments on the rest. So not only will it likely be a few years before this project gets underway (assuming it ever does), it may also undergo a number of changes in the interim. But this will be yet another project to watch, and another great opportunity for those looking for a place to own (or possibly rent, depending upon whether the large building on parcel 1 will contain for-rent apartments or for-sale condominiums). Containing single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments or condos, this one project has the potential to offer a wide range of home sizes and styles in a wide range of prices. I for one will be fascinated to see how it goes.

At next Monday’s City Council meeting (May 11, beginning at 6 p.m., in the Redwood City Council Chambers at 1017 Middlefield Rd. — or online), the City Council will discuss various options for redeveloping Library Lot B (the 98-space parking lot between the library and Jefferson Avenue) to add affordable housing (between 70 – 104 units, potentially) while leaving some amount of public parking (between 74 and 100 spaces) and even some amount of commercial space for likely use by the city. This is an interesting idea, but one with a lot of potential pitfalls. Regardless, the presentation of various options plus the subsequent discussion among the councilmembers should be fascinating.

Although you can attend in person or watch live online, the meeting will be recorded for subsequent viewing at a more convenient time, if you so prefer. Note that this is scheduled to be one of the last items in the meeting, and thus will take place at a relatively late hour (in case you wanted to watch live).