PALO ALTO — A “builder’s treatment” proposal may create housing, develop a brand new lodge and launch a wide-ranging lodging renovation at a alternative Palo Alto website, metropolis paperwork present.
Chicago-based Oxford Capital filed papers with metropolis officers that sketch out plans to create 185 new residential models, renovate three present lodge buildings and develop a brand-new lodge at 3400 El Camino Actual in Palo Alto.
An estimated 20% of the proposed new residences can be reasonably priced models.
“Particularly, 38 of the 189 models can be devoted to low-income households,” a canopy letter to the town from Oxford Capital’s authorized group said.
The housing would additionally embody townhomes, public paperwork present.
In December 2020, Oxford Capital paid $111 million for a portfolio of motels, together with the Creekside Inn the place the Palo Alto venture is proposed. The acquisition additionally included a Los Gatos lodge and three motels in San Francisco.
An Oxford affiliate paid $32.7 million for Creekside Inn, which consists of a number of older low-slung lodge buildings and a restaurant website.
The venture would demolish a number of of the lodge buildings and create a brand new lodge totaling 137 rooms and the renovation of three present lodge buildings with 63 rooms. That will produce a complete of 200 brand-new or renovated rooms.
A “builder’s treatment” strategy may pave the best way for a streamlined decision-making course of for the housing improvement — and never require a change within the basic plan to accommodate the event of latest housing.
This kind of gambit may be employed in instances when cities have but to obtain approval from the state Housing and Neighborhood Improvement Division for his or her proposed housing parts.
One space of rivalry has arisen in a number of cities over whether or not the standard approval course of — which might contain delays of months or years — takes impact if a metropolis has accepted a housing ingredient however the state company hasn’t licensed the municipality’s plans for future housing improvement.
In a letter with an strategy that was extra akin to a authorized temporary in a courtroom continuing than an introduction to the venture proposal, Chelsea Maclean and Genna Yarkin, attorneys with the San Francisco workplace of legislation agency Holland & Knight, outlined an array of causes to help the notion of the venture.
Among the many points addressed within the letter was whether or not proposals could possibly be topic to the standard planning course of if a metropolis has crafted a housing ingredient even when the state has but to approve the residential improvement program.
“The state Housing and Neighborhood Improvement Division has rejected the notion {that a} jurisdiction can “self-certify” its housing ingredient,” the Holland & Knight attorneys wrote within the letter to Palo Alto.
The letter additionally cited California courtroom precedents as a part of the justification for the “builder’s treatment” strategy for the bold housing and lodge venture. The letter additionally cited the intent of the Housing Accountability Act of 2023, or HAA.
“As courts have famous, the (California) Legislature ‘has made more and more clear’ that mandates included within the HAA ‘are to be taken significantly’ and that native companies and courts ought to interpret them with a view to giving ‘the fullest doable weight’ to the curiosity of, and the approval and provision of, housing,” the Holland & Knight attorneys said within the letter to Palo Alto.
This information group has reached out to the Palo Alto metropolis planner who’s supervising the proposed venture.
“Improvement on the property would lead to group advantages. These embody market price and reasonably priced housing, hospitality use and entry to Matadero Creek,” the Holland & Knight attorneys wrote on the letter.
