Palo Alto City Info
Quick News, FYI
- Rail / Grade Separation -- Train Tracks
- Recent News (Spring 2019)
- City-wide tunnel voted down (May 2019): story
- Next step?
- Remaining Options to Study/Consider (May 2019)
- Shorter Tunnel for Meadow/Charleston (below)
- Tunnel for CalTrain only, with freight remaining on existing tracks (relatively new idea)
- Churchill Avenue
- Viaduct
- Closure to traffic (bike/ped underpass?)
- East Meadow Drive and Charleston Road
- Tracks elevated on a Viaduct
- Trench or Tunnel at East Meadow and Charleston;
- Road Under tracks (tracks possibly raised slightly) -- called "hybrid"
- Summary of the challenges, from Palo Alto Rail Group:
- Cubberley
- Community meetings have been held
- Near the end of the process, a proposal to add 150+ housing units was added
- We need housing, but we also need public lands for schools and community/sports -- what is the right balance?
- Once public lands are gone, how do we accommodate these needs?
- Debate (May 2019): story
- Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines
- The first proposal is out. Here is a good overview: Story...
- Project overview
- Full document (124 pages, 19 MB
PDF)
- Jan 18, 2018: A meeting was held to collect feedback.
- Jan 25, 2018: The Historical Resources Board met to incorporate the feedback.
- March: The results will be presented to City Council. The council might choose one of the "tiers" mentioned here, or perhaps a mix.
- Mountain View high-rises
- Mountain View will allow 15-story buildings in North Bayshore (near Google HQ). Story...
- Housing for Teachers
- A startup called Landed, backed by Zuckerberg, will help 10,000 San Jose educators with downpayments: Story...
- Mountain View is studying
teacher housing at Cooper Park. Story...
- GroundWater & Basements
- Building a typical basement results in 20 million gallons of water being extracted, and sent down the storm drains.
- That's roughly 1000 swimming pools, or 2000 tanker trucks.
- A new technique -- "cutoff walls" -- can cut this by 100x. Story...
- It costs a bit more, but can
save significant time. Council
Meeting
- Minimum Wage is increasing
- Mountain View and Sunnyvale: min wage jumps to $15 for 2018, up from $13 in 2017, and $11 in 2016. Story...
- Palo Alto is at $13.50 for
2018, and aiming for $15 in 2019. Other
cities...
- Tech Companies
- Sunnyvale: Apple selling a campus to Applied Materials (maybe). Story... Map
- Sunnyvale: Amazon is sprouting up near Google. Room for 5000 workers. Story... Map
- Mountain View: WeWork will be leasing a new 400,000 sq ft office from LinkedIn. 6000 workers. More here...
- Google plan for 10,000 homes: Story...
- Google HQ explansion in Mountain View: Pictures & Story...
- Google in Sunnyvale: Story... Previous Map
- Microsoft renovation in Mountain View (room for 35% more employees): Story... More pics
- Also renovating in Redmond, for 8000 more
employees: Story...
- Verizon mini-towers
- Verizon was told to hide cell equipment. Story...
- AT&T's 80 mini-towers were approved with no changes. Story...
- Phase 1 (20 towers) Phase 1... Phase 1 map
- Menlo Park growing 3 times faster than planned
- They
had a 30-year growth plan. They are at 60-80% of that after
just
5 years. Story...
- Schools
- Palo
Alto is considering the Cubberley site. Story...
- Los
Altos / Mountain View is considering a site at San Antonio
Center. Story...
- Bike Bridge over 101
- The dramatic "sail" design got too expensive ($17 million), and was cancelled.
- The new design is closer to $10 million. It may
be
approved by council on Nov 27, 2017.
- Construction in 2019? Story...
- Stanford - How big will it grow? Over 20 years: Story...
- Plans to add 40 football fields worth of academic buildings (2.3 million square feet),
- and 17 hotels worth of beds (3,150 new housing units)
- Another 9,000 students/faculty/staff, over the 30,100 people today.
- Palo Altans have some concerns. Story...
- Palo Alto Comp Plan
- Adopted: Story...
- Carmageddon in Menlo Park
- Crescent Park fights gridlock. Story...
- Traffic on Willow Rd is at a standstill, and cars are fanning out into adjacent neighborhoods. Story...
- Emergency vehicles are struggling.
- Possibly caused by traffic light timing at 101 and Willow. Story...
- Unsafe Buildings
- Many older un-reinforced brick buildings have been upgraded.
- Attention is now turning to 100+ "soft-story" buildings Story...
- Rent Control
- Rents cannot be raised more than 10% -- anywhere in
California
-- due to the recent fires. Story...
- Palo Alto votes not to study rent control: Story...
- Mountain View hammering out the details: Story...
- San Jose won't limit rent control to inflation rate: Story...
- RV Housing - where is it OK?
- East Palo Alto - 60 RVs moved. Story...
- El Camino Real, near Stanford. Story... Story...
- Mountain View, on Latham. Story... Crisanto: Story... Many now moved to Shoreline Blvd.
- San Jose Story...
- Businesses Closing?
- College Terrace Market, closing after 6 months: Story...
- Spot Pizza: Story...
- Rocket Fizz candy: Story...
- AltSchool: Story...
- La Morenita: Story...
- Businesses Opening
- Verve Coffee (from Santa Cruz) Story...
- Electric Garbage Truck being tested in Palo Alto -- a 1 year pilot.
- This is the first full-size, fully automated side loader collection truck in North America. Story...
- Takes 2.5 hours to fully charge and travels 65 to 75 miles on that charge
- Sacramento previously tested a "lesser" all-electric garbage truck. Story...
- Bay Area Carpool Lanes are getting slower. The number of "extremely congested" lanes has risen 250% in 3 years. Story...
- Mountain View wants less-boxy buildings.
- The first phase at San Antonio is a boxy contemporary design, which their city council dislikes (although approved?). It also creates a "canyon effect".
- The next phase will still be boxy, but slightly softened. Next year, they'll have a larger discussion aimed at future projects. More here...
- Also
near San Antonio: WeWork will be leasing a new 400,000 sq ft office
from LinkedIn. 6000 workers. More
here...
- Palo Alto is going to study closing a portion of University Avenue to cars. This would likely be part of a "Coordinated Area Plan" for downtown. More here...
- Palo Alto shuts down the pet clinic on East Bayshore. It may re-open. More here...
- Palo Alto says "no" to marijuana shops. More here... Mountain View says "yes". More here...
- Others prohibiting
commerical sales: Campbell, Cupertino, East Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los
Altos Hills, Los Gatos (pending), Menlo Park, Milpitas, Monte Sereno,
Saratoga, Sunnyvale (pending)
- Other cities with non-medical pending approval: San Jose,
Santa
Clara. Table
- Mountain View plans for a Magical Bridge Playground. Latest... Story... Foundation
- The one in Palo Alto gets about 20,000
visitors monthly! With 60% of those travelling from other
cities.
- Speed Limit changes Story...
- School zones may be lowered to 20 mph
- Increases to 40 mph on Bayshore and Deer Creek.
- Possible increases on Charleston, Embarcadero, etc. Some sections may see limits increased from 25 mph to 30 mph, to match the 85th percentile rule (so "only" 15% of cars are speeding). Setting limits at the 85th percentile is required in order to use radar.
- What will become of Fry's? And the Ventura area? Homes? Office Space? Story...
- Fire Department Cuts:
- To address falling revenues, and save $1.5 million: Story...
- Stanford will pay $2 million less.
- Mayor Greg Scharff said he was heartened by
the fact that
none of the firefighters who opposed the staffing changes attended the
public hearing -- which began at about 11:30 p.m. Monday -- to voice
their opposition.