By the Daily Post staff
Visitors of Cooley Landing in East Palo Alto may eventually look back toward the city and see a gaggle of office buildings instead of the current empty lots along Bay Road.
A group called Three Cities Research, headed by J. William Uhrig, owns the land east of Tara Street in East Palo Alto that used to be the Romic Environmental Technologies facility, which managed and treated hazardous waste.
Three Cities Research has proposed to build five eight-story office buildings with 1.4 million square feet of office space and one parking garage, according to planning documents.
The parking garage would have be nine stories tall, with the roof containing a “high garden,” according to planning documents. There would be 4,620 parking spaces.
Also included in one of the buildings would be about 3,500 square feet of retail space.
Because the site used to be where hazardous waste was treated, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Toxic Substances must monitor the ground’s remediation before anything can be built on it, according to planning documents.
The office buildings would also be neighbors of whatever Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, develops on a large swath of land her company Sycamore Real Estate, purchased earlier this year. It stretches from the ends of Pulgas Avenue and Tara Street to the end of Fordham Street, near the railroad tracks.
1.4 million s.f. of office and only 3,500 s.f. of retail? Where will the employees get lunch? A 4,600 space parking garage that is obscene. People have lost their minds. Are they trying to find out how much more congested and inhumane the morning and evening commutes can get along the University Avenue corridor?
While they are at it they ought to inquire how such a structure will fare in an earthquake, due to its bay proximity…
I at least would strongly urge the city to not allow yet another office park to be constructed. More housing is needed, not office space.