Tonight, Palo Alto residents have an opportunity to take action on the topic of the May 16 forum in Palo Alto, to get unstuck on transportation climate emissions with decisions to advance car-light housing.

At an agenda item scheduled for 8:15pm, the Palo Alto City Council is considering a housing development and a pilot program to make progress on this crucial issue.

City Council is reviewing for approval:

• A housing development on El Camino Real and Page Mill near California Avenue, providing 57 homes, including 40 studios and 17 one-bedroom units and 20% of homes deed-restricted to residents earning 140 or 150% of area median income, with a preference for applicants who currently live or work locally.   The development has 68 vehicle parking stalls (less than Palo Alto’s historical requirement), and requires strong transportation demand management to encourage less driving.
• Considering this “car-light” housing development as pilot for “car-light” housing, and evaluate evaluate the effectiveness of reaching the intended tenant mix, transportation demand management (TDM) strategies, and parking use.
• Pending the evaluation of the success of the pilot, the city would create a new zoning district that would apply to about 50 parcels within .5 miles of Caltrain stations, allowing workforce housing with location-appropriate parking and strong sustainable transportation provisions.  The district would require a 1:1 ratio of parking spaces per bedroom.

This development and policy are in line with the recently approved Comprehensive Plan, the Council’s direction to implement the plan, and the city’s Sustainability/Climate Action Plan.

This type of housing – near jobs, services and transit, with a balance of parking and transit incentives to encourage less driving –  addresses many of the issues that have been barriers to lower-carbon transportation. Advancing policies to facilitate such homes could start to make a dent in transportation carbon emissions, while to helping to address the housing affordability crisis.

Community concerns have focused on car parking.  Recent data (see chart) shows that residents of multi-family housing in Palo Alto use significantly less vehicle parking than is required, and parking spaces go empty. This data suggests that the development, and a policy for car-light housing, are feasible and practical.

The area around the development has a residential permit parking program, and the new building is not in the permit parking district, so residents will not be eligible for parking permits, reducing the risk that residents will own extra cars and store them on neighborhood streets.

Do you want to see Palo Alto take the next step in creating car-light housing and pursuing policies to enable more car-light housing in the future?

Please share your thoughts with Council today: city.council@cityofpaloalto.org, or come speak in person (the agenda item is slated for 8:15, after discussion about a potential ballot measure that you might also be interested in… see next blog post).