Update: On Monday night, Millbrae Planning Commission heard dozens of public comments on the Millbrae station area plan, and wanted to make recommendations to City Council. Â Top issues were:
- affordable housing
- stronger goals for less driving and more car trip reduction
- traffic and auto level of service
- school funding
Many community members talked about the need to provide affordable housing so that Millbrae can retain old people, young people, and middle and lower income people.
Regarding stronger car trip reduction and less driving, transportation consultants explained from the speaker podium that this was a reasonable thing to do; the reason the driving rates in the plan were so high is that the city had not set goals; but with goals a stronger trip reduction program could happen.
Regarding LOS,  it sounded like Planning Commissioners were not familiar with latest thinking about automotive level of service and how it can work in cross purposes against the city’s economic and health goals.
Planning Commission will return on the 16th to make recommendations for Council.
Millbrae Station Area Plan before Planning Commission
Tonight, Millbrae Planning Commission will be reviewing the Millbrae Station Area Plan, with two good-sized developments.
The proposal calls for 400,000 square feet of office space (~1600 workers), about 79,000 square feet of retail space and more than 800 residential units. The proposal has parking and transportation policies assuming more than 70% of people will drive.  Safety for people walking and bicycling on El Camino Real and Millbrae Avenue is poor, as is bus circulation. The provisions for affordable housing are very weak/nonexistent.
If you like the idea of building on the parking lots at Millbrae, but want to see less driving and more affordable housing, come to the Planning Commission tonight, at Millbrae City Hall, 621 Magnolia Ave, starting at 7pm.
Brisbane Baylands – should there be housing near Bayshore Caltrain?
Later this week, November 4, Brisbane will continue its review for the Environmental Impact Report for Brisbane Baylands, with a proposed major development by the underutilized Bayshore Caltrain station.
The development would be adjacent to the San Francisco Schlage Lock development, which will have about 1700 units of housing and a grocery story.
The developer for the Brisbane Baylands would prefer a mixed use development with up to 4400 units of housing. Â The environmental review indicates that a mixed use project would also result in less driving. Â However, some residents are concerned that new residents would outnumber the town’s current population of 4400; and would prefer a development with 6million square feet of office and retail/entertainment space (over 20,000 jobs), with no housing.
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 pm
Brisbane City Hall, 50 Park Place
The biggest disservice at Millbrae Station was the Samtrans ECR busses leaving, breaking connections to BART and Caltrain. Northbound it’s not too bad (2 blocks downhill), but southbound is almost impossible and dangerous.
Is there anyone to whom it would be worth submitting comments in favor of housing at the Brisbane site?
— A priced-out ex-Brisbaner
Absolutely, Brisbane City Council – that will be powerful. http://www.ci.brisbane.ca.us/city-government/city-council/about
[…] Development Plans at Millbrae and Bayshore Caltrain Stations Reviewed This Week (GC) […]
Wow, office and commercial with no new housing? I realize Brisbane is a small town surrounded by massive cities, but this is part of why we are in this state – lots of places welcoming office buildings with open arms and nowhere to live within a reasonable distance.
Here is the bottom line: offices = revenue & housing = expenses.
Brisbane’s current population is under 5K. Simply doubling the population without a corresponding increase in local jobs is not sustainable, period. Case in point: San Jose: http://www.spur.org/events/2015-11-05/san-joses-fiscal-challenges
On the Caltrain corridor from San Francisco through Santa Clara, jobs have been increasing much faster than homes, which have been driving rapid rent increases. http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2015-02-02/county-rents-jump-again/1776425137606.html
Google is about to take care of this problem big time in Mountain View: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2015/11/9100-housing-units-google-lnkd-intu-msft-goog.html
That housing won’t be enough to accommodate employment growth in Mountain View, let alone in Cupertino and Santa Clara, which are building accommodations for tens of thousand of workers and only a few thousand residents.