By Robert Haugh
Development plans have been unveiled for an eight-story residential project at 4590 Patrick Henry Drive.
The project seeks to utilize the State Density Bonus program and Senate Bill 330 to expedite approvals and increase the housing capacity with 15 percent of units designated as affordable.
The proposal aims to replace an existing low-rise office complex and surface parking lot near Mission College with hundreds of new homes.
The project is being spearheaded by developer Walnut Hill Group, represented by KASA Partners.
The 417,450-square-foot building would contain around 276,000 square feet of residential space, including 31 studio units, 160 one-bedrooms, and 93 two-bedrooms.
A 126,000-square-foot, three-story parking garage would also be constructed on-site, providing 324 vehicle spaces and 303 bicycle spaces.
Residential amenities are set to include a pool deck, an outdoor plaza, and a dedicated half-acre public park.
The proposed project follows the city’s adoption of the Patrick Henry Drive Specific Plan in 2022. The master plan transformed a 74-acre office district into a high-density, mixed-use neighborhood with up to 12,000 new housing units.
The area is between Patrick Henry Drive and the Calabazas Creek. The 2.8-acre development site is close to Mission College, Great America and Levi’s Stadium.
4590 Patrick Henry Drive development proposal rendering courtesy of BAR Architects
According to building codes, the builder is required to provide 1 off street parking space per unit for studio and one-bedroom units. A two-bedroom unit requires 1.5 parking spaces per unit which would bring the total number of parking spaces required to 329. They are short 5.
Developers usually provide additional parking but charge you monthly for it.
Sounds like a real plus for the area until you do a little math. 284 new units, 31% of those units have two Bedrooms. Yet only 324 automotive parking spaces.
So where does everyone else park? And that is not even counting any quest who come over to visit and enjoy the outdoor pool deck, outdoor plaza and the half acre public park.
324 parking spaces for 284 Housing units is a joke.
Trivia question. How many Home Owners in the Bay Area only have one car between everyone who lives in the home?
Fair question, my own house has 4 cars for three people.
By the way it’s good to talk about something other than our Elected Sock Puppets, currently 4 of the 5 are still not scheduled to go to trial yet, but time will tell.
I’m also still waiting for our City Attorney and City Manager to start to enforce some items that I believe need to be addressed really quickly.
You know Ethical items, boring stuff like that.
I attended a multi hour class late last year, just to learn what my local Sock Puppets could and could not do. I guess I must have fallen asleep when they talked about taking gifts as an elected official. I could have sworn they needed to publicly disclosed and agree to recuse themselves from any further action or discussion on items that involved whomever gave them the gift.
So who is giving The Indicted Sock Puppet up to $1K a day to help in his defense?
Remember even Sock Puppets need to be transparent in their actions.
So sorry to digress here, but to circle back… no way 324 parking spaces is enough for 283 new homes.
Burt Field
burt.field@gmail.com