Transit Village Tour Highlights Rooflines, Views from East of OCR

Walking along the east side of the proposed Transit Village Project, members of the San Carlos planning department, commissioners, and residents of the GESC (Greater East San Carlos) neighborhood association joined the Legacy Partners development team on Wednesday for a tour of the project site.

Led by project developer Jeff Byrd, the group met at the Caltrain station and walked to various points throughout the neighborhood on the east side of Old County Road to get an idea of rooflines, grade changes, landscaping and post-development views.

Colette Meunier, a city consultant on the project explained that because of the scope of the project it’s beneficial to visit the site for a better overall perspective.

“This is a big, complex project,” explained Meunier.

“And just looking at plans on the table doesn’t have the same impact as visiting the site.”

Meunier added that because the residents in the GESC neighborhood association have been such active participants in the project, it was important to have them take the tour.

GESC board members Ben Fuller and Dimitri Vandellos were among the GESC members on the tour. The board has been vocal since the project's inception about scaling back the size of the buildings. 

“The challenge is how much we are willing to develop. The impact to the community gets reduced as the size of the project gets reduced,” Fuller said at a recent community meeting.

The project’s architect Sherry Scott provided each participant with a packet of color renderings of the neighborhood streets with Transit Village buildings dropped in to give a perspective on what homeowners will see at various points along neighborhood streets. She pointed out that the buildings, most of which have been scaled back to three stories (from the original four-story plan), do not block views of the hillside to the west of the project.

A planning commission study session will be held on Monday night.