Developer swaps out plans for smaller apartments with five-story builder’s remedy project in Menlo Park

 

Architects pulled a two-story apartment building proposal in Menlo Park in order to submit another, much larger plan that skirts the city’s rules using a loophole called builder’s remedy.

The preapplication was submitted by the Oakland-based Baran Studio Architecture for a single-family lot at 1305 Hoover St. Located close to downtown, the site is surrounded by one and two-story houses and apartment buildings. A use permit was approved last October for demolishing the existing one-story home and constructing a two-story apartment complex. That project was withdrawn, and another plan was submitted under builder’s remedy, this time for a much larger project .Under builder’s remedy, cities and towns that missed the Jan. 31 deadline for getting a housing element accepted by the state could be required to approve any project that has 20% of its housing units designated as affordable for low-income households or 100% deemed affordable for moderate-income households, even if the project exceeds the zoning and general plan density requirements, according to state law.Menlo Park’s housing element was resubmitted in June to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, after it had been sent back for revisions in April.

The new project for the Hoover Street site are for a five-story complex. The plans show a 50-foot tall building with a total area of nearly 25,000 square feet. The 7,000-square-foot lot has no parking spaces designated. According to the city of Menlo Park, there will be 19 units in the development.While the city is processing the application, it has not seen movement since mid-March due to a lack of essential information, according to a response to the application from Associate Planner Fahteen Khan. Baran Studios has not submitted information about materials or paid the required permit processing fees. Khan’s response said that the application does not adhere to several Menlo Park zoning regulations, including the amount of land area per dwelling unit, minimum open space, building height and parking standards.

80 Willow Road project

Menlo Park’s other builder’s remedy application is the controversial proposal for a high-rise development at 80 Willow Road in the Linfield Oaks neighborhood. Developer N17’s plans call for 800 residential units, an approximately 90,000-square-foot hotel, 8,400 square feet of retail and 280,000 square feet of office space spread over four buildings. The project’s tallest building at the corner of Middlefield Road and Willow Road would rise 328 feet high, even taller than the Statue of Liberty.

The site currently holds a sprawling complex of one-story offices originally built for Sunset Magazine’s headquarters.