All around the Bay, cities are struggling to protect their communities from sea level rise, and in many cases, former wetlands are being restored at public expense in order to achieve these protections. By contrast, East Palo Alto is blessed with the biodiverse wetlands of Ravenswood Open Space Preserve and the Don Edwards Refuge’s Faber/Laumeister tracts along the city’s eastern edge.
The development proposals that stimulated the RBD Specific Plan Update would shift substantial new development to the shoreline, putting those wetlands at risk, constraining options for sea level rise resilience, and upending the community’s vision for the area.
What's happening
The City of East Palo Alto is updating its Specific Plan for the Ravenswood Business District/Four Corners area (RBD) and considering nearly quadrupling the allowed office space to as much as 4.15 million new square feet.
For this small, 2.4 square mile city, that expansion would cause tremendous local impacts. By the City’s own analysis, traffic could increase on Bay Road by 72 - 82 percent, newly produced jobs would not be accessible to most East Palo Alto residents, and a full quarter of the city’s current residents would be threatened by displacement due to housing competition from new office workers.
Proposals put forth by three major developers in the RBD would install eight-story buildings and massive parking garages directly abutting the Bay Trail and East Palo Alto’s wetlands. In addition to bird collisions, those tall buildings would produce shadowing, artificial light, noise, and human activity that harm wildlife and critical wetlands habitat: destroying, rather than embracing the rich ecosystem and natural climate resilience the wetlands provide and diminishing the natural open space benefits available to residents as well as visitors.
These healthy, intact wetlands help protect against sea level rise, serve as a carbon exchange engine, and filter the Bay’s waters, while also serving as habitat for endangered species such as the salt marsh harvest mouse and the Ridgway’s rail. Importantly, they also provide much needed local views and access to open space and the Bay Trail. For residents, benefits are many: It is well documented that access to natural open space is important for human physical and mental health, reduced violence, and academic and professional performance, and open space along the bay edge is critical for building resilience for vulnerable homes as flooding increases.
Latest developments
The East Palo Alto City Council eliminated the 4.15 million square foot maximum build-out scenario for the RBD Specific Plan Update on November 18, 2021. But the City is still looking at substantially more growth than the current development limit of 1.4 million sf. The Council selected a 3.35 msf option and a 2.8 msf option for further study through the CEQA review process.
The City Council also agreed to do more public outreach and engagement and directed staff to seek additional housing potential and consider strategies for allocating growth capacity among the interested developers.
Next steps: early in 2022, the City will kick off the CEQA Environmental Impact analysis process and begin developing policies and programs for the Specific Plan Update.