Palo Alto council members gave informal, nonbinding feedback on Nov. 9 to a proposal for 200 rental apartments in an eight-story building at 720 San Antonio Road, generally supporting more housing there but asking for substantial design changes before any formal application, Palo Alto Civic reported. The Palo Alto Daily Post covered the same prescreening.
Why it matters: No approval was granted. The concept, presented by Brian Schmidt, a vice president at High Street Residential, would include 30 below-market-rate homes, or 15%, two parking levels and a third-story courtyard, and would require rezoning from service commercial to planned home. The Daily Post said the building would reach about 89 feet.
Members asked for upper-floor stepbacks, ground-floor retail or other active uses, more bicycle parking, space for deliveries and ride-hail vehicles, on-site trash-truck turning and a look at access from Yandow Street, Palo Alto Civic reported. Council members Pat Burt and Keith Reckdahl raised concerns about the height; Julie Lythcott-Haims and George Lu said they were comfortable with it, the Daily Post reported. Burt asked what pedestrian-oriented services would exist “as we’re building this new neighborhood.” One member warned that an all-residential project could displace an existing specialty grocery before the city finishes retail guidelines for the corridor.
The Daily Post noted that the city has also received applications or proposals for other eight-story projects nearby, including 228 apartments at 762 San Antonio Road, 167 at 788, 175 at 800, plus 273 apartments at 3997 Fabian Way and 66 townhomes at 690 San Antonio Road, while an area plan for bike lanes and parks is not expected until 2028. A formal application for 720 San Antonio would start environmental review.