Three developers have taken advantage of two-week gap in housing law

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer

Three developers have taken advantage of a two-week window in Palo Alto to propose taller and denser buildings near Caltrain stations using a new and controversial state law.

Developers have invoked Senate Bill 79 to build more apartments downtown, on California Avenue and along El Camino Real.

Erica Stauffer of Altitude Development has proposed a 39-unit, six-story building at 414 California Ave., reaching 72 feet in height where Bank of the West used to be.

The building would have underground parking and restaurant space on the first floor, Stauffer said in her application on Monday.
Stauffer is using SB79 to update an application from June 2025, adding two apartments and subsidizing six apartments instead of seven. All of the studios and three-bedroom apartments were removed from the plans in favor of one or two bedrooms.

Developer Marton Jojarth wants to replace a two-story apartment building with a six-story building at 525 Hamilton Ave.
Jojarth’s building would have 21 apartments, five parking spaces, a rooftop garden and ground-floor retail space, plans show.
Jojarth is on the city’s Architectural Review Board. He filed the application on Monday for property owner Ilona Maria Farkas.

Developer Kevin Chow of Bayhill Ventures applied on July 1, the day that SB79 took effect, to redevelop the Coronet Motel at 2455 El Camino Real.

Chow wants to build 76 apartments in a six-story building, reaching 65 feet in height.

SB79 allows buildings up to 75 feet within a quarter-mile of Caltrain stations and up to 65 feet within a half-mile in cities with more than 35,000 residents. 

Chow’s property is within a half-mile of the California Avenue station, so he’s going as tall as he can.

SB79 gave cities some flexibility to protect historic resources and to limit height and density to half of the law’s standards until January 2032.

Palo Alto City Council took this route, but the limits won’t apply until July 15. That’s because council didn’t vote to limit SB79 until June 15, and the rule takes effect after 30 days.

During council’s June 15 discussion, Planning Director Jonathan Lait said he didn’t know how many applications the city would get.

Councilman Pat Burt wanted to pass an emergency rule to limit SB79 immediately and close the two-week window.

But Mayor Vicki Veenker, Vice Mayor Greer Stone and Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims said they couldn’t justify an emergency.

Jeremy Levine, executive director of the pro-housing group Palo Alto Forward, is celebrating SB79.

“In that window, hundreds of new homes will be proposed on our commercial corridors as a result of this decision, demonstrating the benefits to our community of growth in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods,” Levine said in a June 29 newsletter.