Redwood City's Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing tonight - Tuesday, December 2nd at 7pm - to try to shape a community benefits program. Such a program, if enacted, would try to balance out the impact of future construction with public amenities like parks, bike lanes, additional parking, and things of that sort. Developers would be required to fund these amenities as a condition of their project's approval.
Through past workshops and forum surveys, Redwood City residents have expressed that among their top priorities are increased parks and open space, more bike and pedestrian facilities, and affordable housing. Using this information and information gathered from tonight's hearing, a January 14th workshop will try to further pin down priority areas for the benefits program. The goal is for city council to pass an ordinance establishing the program early next year.
If a community benefits program is passed, it will not apply to any of the development that has already been approved by the city. However, this doesn't mean that developments currently underway won't include some sort of community benefit. For instance, it was recently announced that downtown's Crossing/900 development - soon to be home to Box Inc. - will include about 900 parking spaces, which during evenings and weekends will be open to the public.
To voice your concerns and opinions, attend tonight's hearing - Tuesday, December 2nd, 7p.m. at City Hall (1017 Middlefield Road).
You can also leave your comments at www.redwoodcity.org/rwcForum
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