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Developers propose affordable housing, lab, offices on Ravenswood land

Original post made on Feb 1, 2022

The Ravenswood City School District hopes to finalize long-term lease agreements to develop two of its sites and use the revenue to fund recent raises for teachers.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Monday, January 24, 2022, 9:12 AM

Comments (2)

Posted by Ron Snow
a resident of Menlo Park
on Feb 1, 2022 at 7:21 pm

Ron Snow is a registered user.

Yes we need affordable housing; and yes, we also need more green space and available outdoor sports for the future population served by the District.

I think a 90 year lease is irresponsible. No mention of number of units, but for a developer to get a return on a $50M to $60M investment, they are typically looking at a high rate of return: $150M, $200M or higher. That does not equate to ‘affordable housing’ rents, which for a median household income of $57k, a max monthly rent of $1,400. Doing just raw math, that means if 50 affordable housing units were built on this parcel for families in that median income, a total property annual income of only $855K ; in other words, it would take over 60 years to even get close to a break even. That raw calculation does not include all of the annual costs associated with the property - maintenance, cost of money, major repairs, and the life expectancy of the buildings. The numbers just don't add up!

This location is not a good location for affordable housing nor homeless shelter: It is not close to retail, no public transit, and next to the pollution of Hwy 101. What will be the impact of all the hundreds of traffic trips per day from the new residents, delivery trucks, service vehicles, etc on the Suburban Park neighborhood?

It seems that it would be much better for the school district to have school property be used for the betterment of the district youth. The district’s service area is already deprived of green space, trees, and outdoor sports fields for family and students. Making this a sports field keeps with the district’s fiduciary responsibility of servicing youth. Thousands of youth would benefit from this property being green space with a sports field over the coming decades. And, in 10 or 20 years, having this property as green space retains the option and flexibility for the district to then make decisions that best benefit the school district at that point in time.

See FloodPark.org/school


Posted by stopgoliath.org
a resident of Menlo Park
on Apr 1, 2022 at 9:20 pm

stopgoliath.org is a registered user.

So the accomplishments of Ravenswood School District for 2022 is to divert HOW MUCH of our land and money, to their developer donors?

For 2022:
(1) Ravenswood is converting OUR public lands, into their private developer projects;

(2) Ravenswood is seeking a $110M bond -with 100% of OUR taxpayer money, and the bond is drafted to devote those monies exclusively to their private developer projects (sorry, teachers!); and

(3) Their private developers are large campaign donors to this Ravenswood Board.

http://www.stopgoliath.org - end the corruption of mission.


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