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Edgewood Plaza redevelopment to be scaled back

by Pam Sturner

An invitation for an informal chat over chips and salsa this summer was not quite enough to win neighbors' support for an ambitious plan to redevelop Edgewood Shopping Center.

After three meetings at El Jacalito Grill, the neighborhood's corner restaurant, to solicit community comment, City Manager Frank Benest is preparing to downsize Palo Alto's first redevelopment plan.

The centerpiece is a reduction in the amount of housing called for in the proposal. The original version had 49 units -- which later dropped to 38 -- including 26 townhouses and 12 single-family homes. In response to neighbors' criticism, Benest wants to see if the total can be reduced further without damaging the economic prospects of the redeveloped center.

Edgewood, which lies at Embarcadero Road and West Bayshore Road, has not been modified since it was built in the late 1950s. Although its shops are at nearly full occupancy, it has been declared "blighted" by the city, a legal term for an area considered ripe for redevelopment -- partly on the basis that sales-tax revenues there have declined 60 percent in the last decade.

Benest asserts that housing is needed to subsidize the retail -- a point contested by some neighbors at the summer meetings. In an indication of where neighbors' desires may collide with the bottom line, Benest warned that no plan will go forward unless it pencils out.

"If we have a plan that's not going to happen in the marketplace, we've spent a lot of money for no reason," he said.

In a somewhat unusual move, the city has also asked Ken Hayes, an architect working on the renovation of the Alma Plaza shopping center, to produce sketches of what the new center might look like.

Normally, cities don't commission sketches before approving redevelopment plans. But Palo Alto officials want to allay residents' fears that a redeveloped Edgewood will be out of keeping with the surrounding tracts of single-story Eichler homes.

Benest will present the city's revised proposal at a community workshop on a Saturday in October. The extra step will delay the project by several months: A public hearing at the City Council tentatively scheduled for November will move to January or February 2003, Benest thinks.

That is a small price to pay for gaining the community's acceptance of the project, in his view and that of Susan Arpan, the manager of economic resources planning for Palo Alto. "We're taking a time out to make sure we're hearing what people are saying," said Arpan.

Jinny Henke, a resident who expressed concern about preserving the character of the neighborhood around Edgewood, was cautiously optimistic about the change in course. She hopes it is a sign that the city won't build high-density housing on the site.

"I'm assuming (the development) isn't going to be 50 feet high now, but I'll have to see the drawings," she said.

E-mail Pam Sturner at psturner@paweekly.com