A one-story retail building that houses Chipotle Mexican Grill just south of California Avenue in Palo Alto could be torn down for housing. Bayspring Development Partners has applied to replace the restaurant at 2675 El Camino Real, together with the adjacent lot at 450 Sheridan Avenue, with an 85-foot, eight-story building of 156 apartments, ground-floor retail and 200 parking stalls, according to plans the city received last week.
What the developer wants to build
Palo Alto Online and the Palo Alto Daily Post both report that the complex would sit on an L-shaped site formed by merging the El Camino Real and Sheridan Avenue parcels. Housing would occupy the upper five floors above three stories of podium parking, with residential lobbies on both El Camino and Sheridan, a pedestrian plaza at Sheridan Avenue and a mid-block patio. Unit mix in the plans: 86 one-bedrooms, 43 two-bedrooms and 27 studios.
Fifteen percent of the units would be affordable under the application: 16 for "low income" households at 50% or less of area median income, and eight as "workforce" units for households up to 120% of AMI. Developer Tim Walling of Redondo Beach is listed on the application, the Daily Post reported. The project is about two blocks from California Avenue and across the street from the Mayfield Soccer Complex, and roughly a half-mile walk to the California Avenue Caltrain station.
Why this site needs a council vote
Palo Alto's El Camino Real Focus Area already allows 85 feet for housing on the El Camino parcel. Bayspring is asking the City Council for a "planned home zone" so the same standards can cover the Sheridan Avenue parcel and the two lots can be developed as one project. That designation lets council members grant zoning exemptions for residential projects — and also lets them reject a proposal or demand changes. Hoodline noted the nearby Academy project at 3265 El Camino Real, a 55-unit complex for school staff, used the same process.
Most recent El Camino Focus Area proposals have clustered south of Page Mill Road, in Ventura and Barron Park. Palo Alto Online listed recent approvals there including 368 apartments at the former Fish Market site at 3150 El Camino Real, 183 units at 3781 El Camino Real and 321 units at 3606 El Camino Real. The Chipotle site is the first major proposal in that wave north of Page Mill, closer to California Avenue shops and Caltrain.
What happens next
The application is early: city planners still have to review it, and the planned-home-zone request means the council will have the final say. Palo Alto's housing element target is 6,086 units between 2023 and 2031, Hoodline reported, which is why the council created taller El Camino zoning in the first place. Chipotle has not said publicly whether it would reopen in the ground-floor retail or move elsewhere; other Chipotle locations sit at Stanford Shopping Center and in Mountain View.
For other Palo Alto fights heading to the same council, see our coverage of the proposed overnight RV parking ban and the November city council race. Statewide and local ballot fights that affect Peninsula housing are collected on our Nov. 3, 2026 election guide.