News Digest

Max Lenail, a 21-year-old man from Palo Alto, died over the weekend while hiking in San Diego, according to his family.

Lenail died from drowning, his father Ben Lenail confirmed to the Weekly on Monday morning.

Lenail was reported missing on Friday at Mission Trails Regional Park where he had gone out for a run. On the way back home, it started to hail and a flash flood caused the river to swell onto the trail. Lenail drowned while attempting to cross the river, according to the coroner, his father said.

Hikers at the park found his body in a river a day later, San Diego police said on social media.

"He was the victim of a freak accident while hiking in the wilderness," Ben Lenail wrote in a Facebook post. "As immensely cruel as his death is, we are grateful to God for loaning him to us for 21 years."

Born March 26, 1999 in Ch?ne-Bougeries, Switzerland, Lenail moved to Palo Alto when he was 3 months old. He graduated from International School of the Peninsula (now known as Silicon Valley International School) in 2013 and Palo Alto High School, where he was a member of the Class of 2017.

—Palo Alto Weekly staff

Developer wants to built more offices in Ventura

As Palo Alto moves ahead with plans to promote more housing and community amenities in the Ventura neighborhood, developer Jay Paul is proposing another idea: encouraging more office use at3045 Park Blvd., a site that the city had once considered as a possible location for a new police station.

The developer is requesting that the council rezone the site, located on the northern border of the Ventura neighborhood, to allow other office uses. In addition, Jay Paul is proposing that the city create a new overlay district along Park Boulevard that would give additional flexibility to establish office uses on the seven properties in the area.

The Jay Paul proposal, which the council is scheduled to discuss on March 1, arrives at a time when the city is forging a new vision for the broader 60-acre area in Ventura bounded by Park Boulevard, El Camino Real, Page Mill Road and the rail corridor. The area, which includes the Portage Avenue campus that until January 2020 housed Fry's Electronics, is the subject of a coordinated area plan that a group of resident stakeholders has been putting together over the past two years.

To date, most of the residents involved in the area plan have emphasized the need to bring more affordable housing, park space and community amenities to the Ventura neighborhood and to limit office development. Despite that prevalent sentiment, Jay Paul is arguing that the design of its office project is "suited to the current direction of the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, which promotes a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, as it also encourages additional resident-friendly uses within its area."

—Gennady Sheyner

Teacher housing moves ahead in city

As Palo Alto continues to lag in its effort to build affordable housing, Santa Clara County is advancing its own plan to create an apartment complex for teachers in neighborhood that is already undergoing a dramatic transformation.

The county's plan, which the City Council will get its first look at on Monday night, would bring 110 apartments to 231 Grant Ave., across from the Palo Alto Courthouse in the California Avenue business district. Developed by nonprofits Mercy Housing and Abode Communities, which specialize in affordable housing, the apartments would be open to teachers and school district employees from participating districts in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Unlike other proposed developments in Palo Alto, the Grant Avenue development would be built on county land and, as such, does not require formal approval from the city.

To date, county staff had signaled their intent to adhere, to the extent feasible, to the development standards in the city's recently created "workforce housing" zone, according to a new report from the city's Department of Planning and Development Services. At the same time, the project exceeds several design standards. With a height of 55 feet, the apartment complex would exceed the city's 50-foot height limit. Its density of about 80 dwellings per acre is twice the number that the city typically allows in its multifamily zoning districts (RM-40). The recently created workforce zone, however, does not set limits on units per acre.

Even though it would exceed some development standards, city staff had concluded that the project is "generally consistent with the City's housing goals.

While city and county staff have been discussing the teacher housing project for nearly two years, the Monday hearing will give the council and residents their first chance to offer feedback on the preliminary plans for the proposed development.

The county plans to go through the design and environmental review processes this year, with the goal of launching construction in August 2022 and completing the project in February 2024.

—Gennady Sheyner