Nine mature trees will be removed to make room for this three-story office building at 385 Sherman Ave. The trees along Sherman and Ash Street will be replaced with two large oak trees relocated to the development’s plaza, city arborist Dave Dockter said. Two other oaks on the property will be replaced. New London plane trees will replace Bradford pears, which the city no longer plants, he said. The developer will also post a tree-preservation security deposit to ensure the large oaks’ future welfare and maintenance. The project, adjacent to Sarah Wallis Park, initially met with opposition over the height, among other issues. Nearby residents worked out an agreement with the developer, David Minkoff, to modify the structure.
AT A GLANCE
Where: 385 Sherman Ave.
What: A Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold, 63,746-square-foot office building with four residential units on the ground floor, replacing a one-story office building. Building height will be 45 feet, and the third story will be set back from the bottom two. The building will have two levels of underground parking.
Developer: David Minkoff
Construction: Expected to begin this month
Completion: Third quarter of 2016
This is ridiculous. We just got finished with the construction of the Cal Ave. project and now this gargantuan project. It’s annoying to local residents. Getting in a out of the Cal Ave area. We’re boxed in. Plus tearing out MORE TREES! This is NOT PALO ALTO! This is EDIFICIO ALTO! WAKE UP and STOP BUILDING!
They really need to start coordinating construction projects. Or else buy us all helicopters.
1) Oregon’s going to be gridlocked with the new construction.
2) Embarcadero is gridlocked.
3) 101 and all its access roads and surface streets to/from 101 will be bottlenecked with construction until 2017. Middlefield’s a parking lot now.
4) San Antonio’s going to tied up with new hotels.
5) Charleston’s going to become a divided highway? expressway?
Did I miss any major roads? If so, let us know so we can all flock to them.
Maybe one of our highly paid officials can tell us how to get anywhere.
@online name
Just as a heads up, any “gridlock” you experience on those roads is actually a result of drivers already flocking to them, unless you’re of the opinion that traffic is cased by too many (other) people on the road. Otherwise this is a very good location for a project of its size, as its very close to a well served Caltrain station, I don’t suppose you’d rather see it on Page Mill close to 280?
No, Robert, those are all major construction projects that have been widely covered here on Palo Alto Online and elsewhere in the media.
They are already either underway or have been given approval without regard to the projects on adjoining streets/roads.
With all those roads under construction at the same time, care to guess what will happen/is happening here?
The street trees on Ramona were cut down along the University Art
building, as Rapp has now wrapped the building in plastic. What is going
on there with the wrap? How long do we look at that crap,I mean wrap? Will new street trees be planted?
The wrap is probably to protect pedestrians and passing vehicles from the application and/or overspray of stucco and paint.
@Online Name, you missed Page Mill, to be discussed at tonight’s council meeting (it’s item 1 so they should get around to it). If buildings are not built out to zero setback, then lanes will be added until there is zero setback.
Musical, thanks. I’m a bit confused what you mean by lanes being added until there is zero setback. New lanes of traffic which will then be forced to merge to get through the underpass?
I go to the Animal Doctors (vet) office right near there. I once made the mistake of parking on Oregon instead of in their parking lot thinking it would be easier to merge back into traffic from the street.
Man, was I wrong. It took forever for there to be a long enough gap for me to open the driver’s side door with the cars whooshing by. Hazardous now, probably worse later.
Page Mill west of ECR is slated for additional lanes for I-280 commuters.
Musical, thanks. But that won’t help much with the backups on Oregon heading toward 101 which will be under construction until 2017 and which will be exacerbated by the construction on Oregon near ECR.
I only mentioned it as a #6 to your original list of gridlocks above. Although last night the county’s rationale for adding Page Mill lanes from 280 to Foothill Expy sounded reasonable, council took a dim view of using Palo Alto money to do it. Was a distant time-frame anyway.
This is what is known euphemistically as “traffic calming.”
The traffic is so horrible that you stop driving places, especially at certain hours.
Can’t these trees be protected during construction? I don’t see why they need to be removed besides it will be easier for the contractor.