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Uploaded: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 12:05 AM
New hotels reserving space in Palo Alto
Planning commission supports plans for new hotels at sites of Palo Alto Bowl and Ming's
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by Gennady Sheyner
Palo Alto Online Staff
Photos
 
| If Palo Alto is slogging through a recession, hotel developers apparently didn't get the memo.
Two major hotel proposals with more than 300 units between them have advanced swiftly though the city's convoluted planning process and could get the final green light from the City Council within next three months.
Meanwhile, the owner of Sheraton and Westin hotels on El Camino Real aims to build a five-story "concierge wing" just south of the Westin that would add about 40 more hotel rooms to downtown Palo Alto, swelling the overall room count from the three proposals to 350.
On Wednesday night, the Planning and Transportation Commission unanimously endorsed a proposed tentative map for a development that would replace Palo Alto Bowl on El Camino Real. The historic bowling alley, at 4329 El Camino Real in south Palo Alto, appears poised to make way for a 167-room hotel and 26 townhouses.
The commission also voted to support a proposal by owners of Ming's Chinese Cuisine & Bar on Embarcadero Road to demolish the popular restaurant and rebuild it as part of a development that also includes a hotel with 143 guest rooms. The hotel at Ming's will be situated at Embarcadero and East Bayshore roads, near the entrance to Palo Alto's baylands.
The new hotels could spell rare financial good news for the cash-strapped city, which is facing a projected "structural budget deficit" of $10 million meaning basic long-term budget cuts, not one-year reductions. Taxes from hotel stays, known as "transient occupancy taxes," are one of the few consistent revenue streams for the city.
Planning Director Curtis Williams said the city has been trying to encourage new hotel developments by modifying zoning laws to allow greater density at certain hotel-friendly locations. In 2006, the city changed its zoning code to allow developments at sites zoned "service commercial" to be three times more dense.
Commissioner Lee Lippert cited the tax factor as one of the reasons why the hotel at Palo Alto Bowl is an appropriate project that should be supported. But the commission's approval of the Palo Alto Bowl project was admittedly bittersweet, with several members and residents lamenting the demolition of the bowling alley.
Donna Berryhill, one of a handful of public speakers at Wednesday's meeting, said many of her friends were upset to learn that the bowling alley would be destroyed. Some couldn't attend the commission meeting because it's their bowling night, she said.
The alley is one of very few places in the city that allows families to spend time together, Berryhill said.
"The only other thing we can do in this city is eat, and none of us like to eat that much," Berryhill said.
The commission shared her sentiments, but praised the project's design and compliance with the city's zoning code and Comprehensive Plan. The city's Architectural Review Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the new hotel at the Palo Alto Bowl site in early November.
"It's a pretty good precedent for the kind of massing and street frontage on El Camino Real that we'd like to see," Commissioner Eduardo Martinez said. "It's unfortunate that it also carries with it a great price that we have to pay for its development."
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the Palo Alto Bowl project on Dec. 14.
The commission was less ambivalent about the Ming's proposal, which was seeking a zone change to "service commercial." Under the proposal, Ming's would be demolished and rebuilt as part of a four-story, 50-foot-tall structure that includes a hotel and a restaurant. The applicants, Wu-chung Hsiang and Vicky Ching, initially proposed a 162-room hotel, but the proposal was scaled back after earlier reviews by the planning commission and the Architectural Review Board.
Commissioners said they were concerned about insufficient parking at the Ming's proposal, which is slated to have 166 parking sports. They directed staff to work with the applicant to create a traffic-demand management program and explore off-site parking for visitors to the new hotel and restaurant.
But the commission voted 5-0, with Karen Holman abstaining and Samir Tuma absent, to support the project.
The Ming's project is scheduled to be reviewed by the Architectural Review Board in January. The council could see it as early as February.
City officials are also preparing for a dense, new five-story hotel to the Sheraton and Westin hotels in the 700 block of El Camino Real. The applicant, Clement Chen, described his proposal as a "wing addition" to the existing Westin and Sheraton hotels.
Chen indicated in his application that his company, Pacific Hotel Development Venture Inc., would seek to rezone the property to "planned community" a process that allows developers to exceed density limits in exchange for public benefits.
The process was utilized in some of the city's most controversial recent developments, including the College Terrace Centre (which includes JJ&F Food Store and almost 40,000 square feet of office space) and the Alma Plaza development.
Chen has proposed landscape and road improvements, including new crosswalks, sidewalk paving and handicap ramps at University Circle and new trees at the El Camino off-ramp to University Avenue.
The application has yet to be reviewed by any city boards or the council.
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| Comments
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Posted by Resident, a resident of another community, on Nov 19, 2009 at 7:28 am Perhaps the new hotel at the PA Bowl site could be made to have a bowling alley instead of a restaurant on its ground floor, the restaurant could be on the 2nd floor!
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Posted by Too Much Traffic, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:36 am Has the city done traffic studies for these projects yet? I think they may create too much traffic. Also will the employers be required to build housing in Palo Alto for the employees that will be working at these establishments. That seems only fair if you are going to demand it of Stanford.
Should karen holman still be sitting on the P&T Commission, since she will soon be on the city council and will have to vote on these developments, it seems ethically wrong for her to be on the P&T commission now.
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Posted by pa resident, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:48 am About time the council pushes hotels through as they are a great concentrated source of revenue. Funny how a recession focuses the mind.
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Posted by Too Much Traffic, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:53 am PA resident--the problem with building more hotels is that they will generate more automobile traffic on our streets. we are constantly whining about too much traffic in the city , yet we are encouraging it by building more hotels. The council needs to decide what they want and stop talking out of both sides of their mouths
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Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:58 am Do we actually have demand for another 350 rooms in Palo Alto. Have the number of people actually wanting to overnight here got to the stage of 350 x 365 that warrants this increase. Or are we just giving them more choice and there will be 350 empty rooms available on any one night?
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Posted by Concerned, a resident of the Southgate neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 4:07 pm Regarding traffic.... most of people staying in hotels arrive by cab or other transportation. And, if going to a restaurant locals would be driving anyway.
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Posted by Long-time resident, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 5:36 pm Fifty-foot tall structures near the Baylands?
Excess hotel rooms that will create ghost hotels?
Filling such hotel capacity will surely take approval of Stanford Hospital's expansion plans.
One domino falls, then the next, then the next ...
In ten years Palo Alto will be just a memory ... gobbled up by huge hotels, and hospitals, subsidized housing, and traffic diverted from the freeways by metering lights.
After living here for almost 40 years, I don't know how much more "change" I can take!
The "improvements," such as changing traffic lanes on Middlefield, are killing us.
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Posted by Darwin, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 5:43 pm Concerned you wrote "Regarding traffic.... most of people staying in hotels arrive by cab or other transportation."
Umm is that a statistic you can back up? Nearly every time I travel and stay in a hotel my mode of transporation is a rental car.
Furthermore, isn't the "cab or other transporation" going to be using the city streets as well?
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Posted by Voter, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 5:44 pm By the way, I sure hope that the comments we send you are read by City Council members.
Perhaps you ought to forward comments on City matters to them.
If they don't respond, maybe we should have other Council members.
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Posted by About Time!, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:34 pm Finally, sensible decisions from the planning commission designed to provide hotel housing for local businesses, which provides much needed cash for our strapped city. Putting the hotels near destination locations for visitors reduces traffic.
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Posted by donna berryhill, a resident of Mountain View, on Nov 19, 2009 at 10:21 pm I am the Berryhill that was quoted in the article above. I would like to clarify what I actually said to the Board Members at the meeting on Wednesday night. I did not say, " none of us 'like' to eat that much", I said, "none of us NEED to eat THAT much."
The mis-quote disturbed me because it changed the meaning of what I said. Plus, we all know that everyone likes to eat!
Hopefully the Board Members did not hear me wrong when I told them the only thing left for families to do together will be to go out and eat. It seems it would be healthier to bowl a few games than to eat a few burgers.
There will be a final meeting on December 14th, this time the City Council will meet and the vote will be cast. I hope folks will come out that night and say something to show their support for good old fashioned family style recreation!
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Posted by Al, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:12 pm About the Hotel Taxes:
A 100-room hotel, with an average room rate of $100, that is booked an average of 50% of the year, will generate around $200,000 in TOT. A 200-room hotel, with an average rate of $150 a night, that is booked 75% of the year will bring in about $900,000.
This is essentially "free money" for the City, as it will have to do very little once the hotel is running but collect the tax. Not to mention the likelihood that hotel guests will spend their money in Palo Alto, thereby increasing other fees and taxes which will flow to the City's general fund.
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Posted by Too much traffic, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2009 at 2:37 pm Al- new hotels will generate too much traffic. They need to gurantee no new net car trips in the city and build housing for the workers. The city and our embarcadero road- based council member can not have it both ways-- wanting tax revenue and constantly whining about traffic
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