The debate over Saltworks, a proposal to build 12,000 homes on former salt ponds in Redwood City, is a harbinger of coming development fights in the age of climate change. In this October 18 Climate One debate, architect Peter Calthorpe argued that the need for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area is so great that infill development alone can’t meet demand; conservationist David Lewis countered that developing one of the region’s last unprotected wetlands is not worth the cost.
“This is not a site for housing,” said Lewis, Executive Director, Save the Bay. “We used to have 200,000 acres of tidal marsh and wetlands around the Bay. By the 1960s, when Save the Bay was founded, more than one-third of San Francisco Bay’s open water was gone from that development. And there were plans to fill in 60% of what was left.”
“This one area in Redwood City was held onto by the Cargill Salt Company because they wanted to develop it,” he added. “They have no entitlement to develop it. The city’s general plan says it should remain as open space. It’s a priority area for acquisition by the federal wildlife refuge. There are a lot of reasons why it is a challenged site – not a smart-growth site, not a transit-oriented development site.”
“Our priority, and the city’s priority, is to keep this as open space. To do more development, and create more housing and more places for jobs and employers close to Caltrain, close to transit, and not on the wrong side of the freeway where it will create traffic,” he said.
“I do have some concerns about it,” said Jack Matthews, Mayor of nearby San Mateo. Some neighboring cities had voted to oppose Saltworks, but San Mateo would leave that decision to Redwood City voters, he said. “During the EIR [the environmental impact report] process, we will certainly be commenting and requesting information about impacts that might affect the city of San Mateo.”
Matthews, an architect and former planning commissioner, said of Saltworks: “It’s too early to form an opinion. We need to get more information and have the EIR completed.” He conceded that the development, as planned, seems isolated. Asked by Climate One’s Greg Dalton if Saltworks residents will have enough shopping and work options within walking distance, Matthews replied, “I don’t see that happening as much as we’d like it to see it happen.”
Peter Calthorpe, Principal Architect, Calthorpe Associates, argued that Saltworks needs to be assessed not as a stand-alone development project but as a response to regional pressures. “The larger context is that for a very long time we’ve been building more jobs than housing—particularly in the west side of the Bay, in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula. The jobs housing balance has been so askew that we have people commuting from outside the nine-county Bay Area. We’ve been pushing housing way to the periphery.”
San Mateo County has 160,000 people, and Redwood City 40,000 people, in-commuting for work, he said. “We need an expanding transit network to even begin to get to the jobs-housing balance.” The Saltworks plan, he explained, includes three miles of transit right-of-way. Transit options would start with shuttle bus service to Caltrain, with a light-rail line and possibly a ferry terminal connection to follow.
Citing the Association of Bay Area Governments, Calthorpe said the region will need 72,000 new housing units to keep up with expected demand. There is no way to satisfy demand by only building transit-oriented development along El Camino Real, the region’s main north-south artery, he said.
Calthorpe challenged David Lewis to answer how the region can reach a jobs-housing balance without employees moving to sprawling developments in Tracy or Livermore or Gilroy, if projects such as Saltworks are not built. “When you push housing farther and farther to the periphery because you don’t want to face up to the challenge in these jobs-rich areas, the environmental footprint, carbon emissions, VMT [vehicle miles traveled], energy consumption, and land consumption—because we all know it’s lower density once it gets out there – all of that, in many cases, is on pristine habitat or farmland.”
We do it by building on already developed land and re-configuring our cities, as is being done in downtown San Mateo and Redwood City, Lewis answered. Saltworks “should have been dead on arrival in the beginning because it’s not the right place,” he said. “There are almost no other places left in the Bay Area that are undeveloped, that are restorable, and that are not already protected.”
“It’s a mistake to take the pressure off” by building Saltworks, he said.
-Justin Gerdes
Bio
Peter Calthorpe
Peter Calthorpe has practiced architecture since 1972 and founded Calthorpe Associates in 1983. After attending Antioch College, he studied architecture at Yale University. Calthorpe has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and South America and has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Washington, University of Oregon and University of North Carolina.
Calthorpe is the co-author of Sustainable Communities and author of The Next American Metropolis. He has received numerous honors and awards and has been cited by Newsweek as one of 25 "innovators on the cutting edge."
Greg Dalton
Gregory Dalton is chief operating officer at the Commonwealth Club of California and Director of The Club's Climate 1 Initiative. He previously was international editor at The Industry Standard magazine, an editor for the Associated Press in New York, and a correspondent in China and Canada for the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper.
Proficient in both Mandarin and Cantonese, he is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
David Lewis
As Executive Director of Save The Bay since 1998, David Lewis has been San Francisco Bay's top advocate for more than a decade. Under his leadership, Save The Bay stopped San Francisco International Airport's plan to pave more of the Bay for runways, and has taken on industry giants Cargill Inc., the American Chemistry Council, and serious Bay polluters. David has also testified before Congress on oil spill prevention and restoring Bay wetlands to combat the impacts of climate change. David was born and raised in the Bay Area, and prior to joining Save The Bay, he devoted 14 years to work for nuclear arms control in Washington, D.C., including in the U.S. Senate, and also worked on election campaigns across the country. He holds a B.A. in Politics and American Studies from Princeton University and is still trying to catch up to his daughters on the ski slopes.
Jack Matthews
Jack and his wife Patricia moved to San Mateo in 1973 and raised their four children there. He founded John Matthews Architects in San Mateo in 1986. Jack was awarded a Bachelor of Architecture Degree, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 1972. Studied Architecture for one year in Florence, Italy 1970-71. Corporate Member of the American Institute of Architects since 1976. President for the San Mateo County Chapter AIA 1992. Member of Board of Directors AIA California Council 1994-96. Member of AIA California Council Legislative Committee 1994-1997. Member of the AIA Committee on Historic Resources. Member of the Board of Directors for the Human Investment Project Inc. for nine years including three as President. Member of the Board of Directors for the Pacific Skyline Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Deputized as an inspector by the California State Office of Emergency Services for inspection of buildings in the City of Oakland following the November 17, 1989 earthquake and then in Southern California after the Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994. Registered Disaster Service Worker. Instructor in earthquake damage assessment. Planning Commissioner, City of San Mateo, 1995-2003. Elected to City Council for the City of San Mateo, November 2003 for a four year term. Mayor for the City of San Mateo 2007.
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