Politics & Government

San Carlos Transit Village: Community Pushes For Referendum

This is Part Three of a three-day series on the San Carlos Transit Village project. Read here about recent pushback from the community.

[Editor's note: To read Part One in this series, click here, and to read Part Two, click here.]

By Katherine Hafner

Since the San Carlos Transit Village project first came about almost a decade ago, citizens of San Carlos – particularly in the area of East San Carlos across from its location – have brought up major concerns they have with the project.

These concerns have recently come to a head, with leaders of the effort against the current proposal urging political action.

Ben Fuller, president of neighborhood organization Greater East San Carlos, has spearheaded the community’s effort to work with the city for suitable changes to the project.

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He said while community members are not big fans of the project, they acknowledge it will likely move forward, and instead aim to make changes they feel will address their major concerns.

“I’m not necessarily against a transit village, what is concerning is that this one is extremely large in comparison to our community,” Fuller said. “What we’re asking for is an honest conversation.”

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Citizens' main concerns center around the issues of traffic congestion, parking, view obstruction and cramped resources.

Fuller recently stated that if the current proposal for the Transit Village passes city council later this year, GESC will organize to put a referendum on the ballot to halt the development.

Fuller and members of GESC have met with members of project developer Legacy Partners and the city of San Carlos about 11 times, said both Fuller and Al Savay, community development director for San Carlos.

The primary demands Fuller said he went in with were to reduce the number of floor levels from four to three in three of the buildings, put any proposed “towers” across from the 7-Eleven on Holly Street instead of the neighborhood, and include more extrinsic benefits, like a new park for both old and new residents.

Fuller said if these and the group’s other primary demands were met, he would not pursue a referendum.

Jesse Couch, project manager for Legacy Partners, said the project developers received an email from Fuller and members of GESC a few years ago that listed roughly eight demands the group had to change the project.

Couch said the plans have been changed to match all but one of these demands – which involved shortening the height of the third building from four floors to three.

“Our plan has evolved three or four times … and it was a direct result from all the meetings we had not just with (GESC) but all of the planning commission,” Couch said.

The organization, however, has expressed discontent with the project as it now stands.  

Fuller said the effort would need to gather a little more than 2,000 signatures within 30 days to get a referendum on the ballot, which he thinks will be feasible based on support from the community so far.

“We haven’t found a fan of it (yet),” Fuller said. “You won’t give us the goods? Let’s go to an election!”

Fuller said members of GESC and other volunteers will soon likely be out in the community, in front of Starbucks and other places, trying to make people aware of the development to make their own decision on the matter.


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