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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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Relaxing the Height Limit for Housing with Conditions
Uploaded: Feb 6, 2016
Palo Alto has a 50 foot height limit for new buildings although there are provisions for exemptions in certain circumstances.
The origin as I remember was around proposals to build a number of large office towers downtown like the one at 525 University.
So let’s put office buildings aside for the moment and discuss whether allowing taller housing structures in locations near services, shopping and transit is a good approach for the new housing that will be built in Palo Alto.
There are a number of taller housing structures downtown where I live including two apartment buildings on Forest and Gilman that most people consider very attractive. There is the President Hotel building also considered attractive.
In the future it is likely that there would be demand for another facility like Channing House. And what if the 27 University site had taller housing and was connected to the shopping center, which also had housing? And could it be a good idea to have this kind of housing near California Avenue and the Stanford Research Park?
I understand that some residents do not want more development of any kind. This blog is not for them. It is for people interested in the best way to build new housing and all of the Comp Plan alternatives before the council have a considerable amount of new housing over the next 15 years.
Would relaxing the height limit for housing with conditions on location and type be a good way to expand housing choices in Palo Alto?
Democracy.
What is it worth to you?
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