Hoping to replicate the success of its Peninsula Station project, the San Mateo City Council has adopted a longstanding initiative to raze the old police station at 2000 S. Delaware Street and replace it with affordable housing.
The proposal, which passed unanimously during Monday night’s council meeting, means the city is on its way to building another source for below-market-rate housing for qualifying residents. Peninsula Station, which recently earned developer MidPen Housing Corporation a , opened last fall and currently has more than 1,300 applications for its 68 units, said Sandra Council, acting manager of the city’s Neighborhood Improvement and Housing program and the project manager at both Pen Station and 2000 S. Delaware.
The city, through its , purchased the site four years ago for $6.3 million. According to a staff report, the former police station there will be demolished and replaced with two buildings containing 120 housing units – 18 one-bedroom, 82 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom – plus a fitness room, community room, laundry facilities and other features.
A gated parking lot will take up the lower level of the structure, with at least 180 spaces available to residents. Another 24 guest parking spaces will be provided outside.
All told, excluding the land purchase, the total cost for the new housing project should come in at about $40 million, Council said, most of that from sources other than the city of San Mateo.
Council said there were about “eight layers of funding” to pay for the project, including low-income tax credits from the state, bank loans, affordable housing funds from the county, and some investor equity. The city is also contributing a loan of up to $1.2 million, Council said.
The city hopes development will begin in February or March of next year, and estimates it will take about 18 months to complete. “So that would be late fall, early winter of 2013 when it would be occupied,” Council said.
Other items on Monday's agenda included an amendment to the city’s sign ordinance allowing greater flexibility in posting signs for longer than 30 days in certain areas of the city, such as downtown and parts of El Camino Real. The amendment passed.
