The following story first appeared in the print edition of the Daily Post on Saturday. If you’re not picking up the Post in the mornings, you’re missing a lot of exclusive local stories.
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A development team that wants to build towers reaching 17 stories in height at Mollie Stone’s Market on California Avenue is trying to avoid an environmental review and accusing the city of slow-walking their application.
“The city’s review process by several departments continues to be piecemeal, with ‘interim reports’ being provided instead of a full range of comments for the applicant team to address … Communication with staff has been, and continues to be, spotty,” attorneys Genna Yarkin and Daniel Golub said in a letter to the city on Aug. 6.
Council will discuss the letter behind closed doors on Monday because Yarkin and Golub have raised the possibility of a lawsuit over the proposed development at 156 California Ave.
Redco Development LLC, in a joint venture with the owners of Mollie Stone’s, turned in plans in November 2023 to build three towers at 17 stories, 11 stories and seven stories.
The development would have a total of 382 apartments and a new market on the first floor.
The tallest tower would be 177 feet, above the city’s 50-foot height limit.
Redco Development has invoked the builder’s remedy, a provision in state law that allows developers to ignore local zoning rules in cities that were late on their state-mandated housing plans.
The poster child locally for the builder’s remedy has been a proposal at the former Sunset Magazine headquarters in Menlo Park, three towers ranging from 301 to 461 feet, taller than any building from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The builder’s remedy proposed at Mollie Stone’s is the second tallest in the area.
Yarkin and Golub are now invoking another state housing law, Assembly Bill 130, to get out of doing an environmental impact report that looks at effects on air, water, noise, historic structures, tribal resources and traffic.
In the report, developers are required to provide alternatives and ways to make the impacts less severe.
The reports are long and can slow developments down, so the state Legislature passed AB130 in hopes of making housing easier to build, and thus more affordable.
AB130 said housing developments in urban areas are now exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, as long as the property is smaller than five acres and doesn’t have any historic structures or environmental hazards.
AB130 was supported by state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park; Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto; and Assemblywoman Diane Papan, D-San Mateo.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB130 into law on June 30.
“These bills get red tape and major process hurdles out of the way,” pro-housing state Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, said in a statement at the time.
Golub said requiring the Mollie Stone’s development to complete an environmental impact report would expose the city to liability.
“As would other actions to delay or disapprove the project,” Golub said in an email on Thursday to Assistant City Attorney Albert Yang, Planning Manager Claire Raybould, Planning Director Jonathan Lait and Senior Legal Security Katherine Bello.