BY ADRIANA HERANDNEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Turning the Dumbarton Rail Corridor from East Palo Alto to Redwood City into a bus-only route could allow developers to build seven-story apartment buildings in Atherton.
“I think there’ll be a very strong amount of opposition,” said Atherton Rick DeGolia at a hearing last week.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Lewis called it a very serious issue.
If the bus route includes a stop in Atherton, it would trigger Senate Bill 79, which permits buildings up to seven stories tall within a quarter mile of transit stops.
The City/County Association of Governments for the county sent a letter to Atherton’s representatives in the Legislature — state Sen. Josh Becker and Assemblyman Marc Berman — to ensure the Dumbarton project would not trigger SB79, Lewis said.
“We just cannot put our residents at risk,” Lewis said.
SamTrans, the county bus agency, is proposing the bus-only route. SamTrans Planning Director Millie Tolleson said they don’t have any proposed stops yet. But this summer, when alternatives to the project are ready, they will have an idea for where stops will be, Tolleson said.
The rule of thumb for projects like this is to have a stop every quarter to a half mile, according to Tolleson.
The project’s cost hasn’t been disclosed.
I believe there is an overwhelming amount of public feedback and support to make these abandoned train tracks to a pedestrian and bike only corridor. San Mateo county is out of touch to the evolving needs of the community, for example, spending $580 million on express lanes on Highway 101. This half $1 billion should’ve been used on basic pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure to fill the deficit of support which was highlighted with the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury (SMCCGJ) report which confirms that cyclists’ criminal near miss incidents reports, i.e. assault and reckless driving, that endangered cyclists’ lives, have been deemed not worthy of law enforcement.
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