A four-story apartment project could soon
replace the County Social Services building at 100 Moffett Boulevard, and close
Stierlin Road's entrance onto Central Expressway.
On Wednesday, March 6,
the Environmental Planning Commission is set to discuss the 190-unit apartment
project proposed by Prometheus Real Estate Group. Replacing the county building
and two auto shops on Stierlin Road, it will have four stories fronting Central
Expressway and Moffett Boulevard, sloping to three- and then two-story
elevations near its residential neighbors. Prometheus proposes one- and
two-bedroom units with outdoor patios and stoops, similar to its Madera project
on Evelyn Avenue.
The proposal includes the option of turning the end of
Stierlin Road which runs through the center of the project into a public "paseo"
for bicyclists and pedestrians, making cars off-limits. But the end of the road
also happens to have an entrance onto Central Expressway. Some neighbors said
they don't want it closed for fear that it would put more cars into the
rush-hour back up on Moffett waiting to cross the Caltrain tracks and the
expressway.
"It's kind of a no-brainer to leave it," said neighbor Peter
Spitzer of the street portion of Stierlin Road that could be closed.
"Anybody who has ever tried to get to downtown at peak traffic hours
would know what I'm talking about," he said. "You often have to wait for 15
minutes to wait for the lights to cycle around twice. It's a pretty safe guess
trains will be running more frequently, too, in the future so it's only going to
get worse. That on-ramp will become even more important."
Another option
leaves the road in place but with improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians.
City planner Rebecca Shapiro said the Prometheus could also pay to have
the free right turn lane removed from Moffett onto Central to make the
intersection more pedestrian friendly. "Pedestrians would be crossing at a
location that's controlled fully by the vehicle stoplight at that intersection,"
she said.
A new publicly accessible path would also run east-west
through the project, from Moffett Boulevard to Washington Alley.
The
planning commission meets at 7 p.m. on March 6 in the City Council
chambers.
A website for the project has been set up at
100moffett.com.
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