Three steps to downtown economic renaissance

One of the most dramatic downtown comeback stories is taking place in Redwood City, California.

Since a new form-based code was adopted in 2011, more downtown housing development is underway than the previous five decades combined.

All of the development in the last two years is privately constructed. From 1980 to 2010, most development required assistance from the redevelopment agency (see table). In addition to nearly 1,200 units going up or in the pipeline downtown, 1,200 more units are moving forward in neighborhoods adjacent to downtown. As of 2010, the city had a population of 76,000.

Housing demand is high in Redwood City — like the rest of Silicon Valley. Yet other municipalities in the region make development approvals expensive and time-consuming, notes Dan Zack, the Downtown Development Coordinator. “Redwood City promises quick approval, no hassle, if they meet the code,” he says. “It’s a tough code, but the developers would much rather have that certainty. Once a couple of projects went through and the code lived up to its promise, the flood gates opened up.”

Formerly ridiculed as “Deadwood City,” Redwood City has revived due to code reform, a strong investment in public spaces, and a strategy of using entertainment as a catalyzing force, says Zack, who blogs at www.plannerdan.com.

An event at the town square, created by tearing down a courthouse annex

Founded in 1852 as a port on a creek leading to San Francisco Bay, Redwood City took its name from the redwood lumber that was shipped from there to build Gold Rush-era San Francisco. Redwood City became the county seat of San Mateo County and grew into an important business and governmental center with a downtown that remained strong until the middle of the 20th century.

As with many American downtowns, Redwood City declined when nearby malls and shopping centers were built. A redevelopment plan was drawn up in the 1960s to completely demolish historic districts, impose superblocks, and pedestrianize primary streets. “Thankfully, this plan was never implemented, and Downtown Redwood City limped through the late 20th century struggling economically, but physically intact,” Zack says.

After many small steps and a few failed attempts at a turnaround, the revitalization began in earnest after 2000 in a three-step process.

Activity generators

Phase one was the creation of activity generators and great public spaces. Businesses at the time struggled to survive due to a lack of foot traffic. It was clear to city leaders that the district needed a burst of activity. An attraction was sought that could create a similar effect to an anchor store in a shopping mall: Bring in large numbers of people who could then patronize nearby businesses. A cinema fit the bill. Movies attract people fairly steadily throughout the year, and Redwood City was underserved. The City had one 12-screen cinema, and the next closest were about 10 miles away to the north and south.

The new cinema is helping to activate streets

The City’s Redevelopment Agency assembled a site and issued a Request for Proposals. A development firm with excellent local experience, and a partnership with the only local theater operator, was selected. Selecting this developer not only helped to ensure that a good building would be built, but that the existing Redwood City cinema would be closed, making the Downtown cinema the only place to see movies for miles around. A city-operated underground parking garage, ground floor retail, and dramatic streetscape improvements were important parts of the project as well.

At the opposite corner of the same intersection was another important key to Downtown’s future. The historic San Mateo County Courthouse was built in 1910 in the Beaux Arts style and featured the largest glass dome west of the Mississippi. It was hidden, however, behind a Depression era annex which not only obscured the front of the building, but sat on the site of the city’s former town square. The Redevelopment Agency, in cooperation with the county, demolished the annex, reconstructed the facade of the Courthouse, and created a new Courthouse Square designed to serve as the community’s living room. It is a simple hardscaped space that is flanked by fountains and pavilions and that has been used as an additional entertainment venue for Downtown, hosting hundreds of events every year.

Zoning reform

Phase two was the complete reconstruction of the zoning regulations and planning approval process for Downtown development. City officials knew that thousands of office workers and residents would be needed to support the retail amenities that the community desired, to nurture a vibrant streetlife, and to create healthy property values and tax receipts.

So the planning staff, with the support of New Urbanist firm Freedman Tung & Bottomley (now Freedman Tung & Sasaki), moved forward on a new form-based code designed to allow privately financed development to be profitable. After the expense of Courthouse Square and the cinema, the City’s Redevelopment Agency didn’t have any capacity left for additional tax-increment financing. If the desired development was to occur, developers needed to be able to purchase sites on their own, construct the buildings, lease them out at the going rate, and achieve the necessary profit margins.

This forced the city to deal with the traditionally sensitive subjects of height, density, parking, and architectural style. First, a plan was created with plenty of public input. The city used workshops to not only get a reading on the public’s tastes and desires, but to educate them about what makes downtowns tick. “In the end, density wasn’t an issue, because people understood the benefits that extra people would bring, and they understood that the most important factor in creating a nice place was the form of the buildings and public spaces, not a number,” notes Zack.

The final plan included features the public requested such as heights which stepped down toward single family neighborhoods and design guidelines requiring traditional architectural character in the areas with the highest concentrations of historic buildings. It also required active frontages, base-middle-top compositions to facades, and hidden parking.

The Downtown Precise Plan was adopted in early 2007 with broad community support. An unhappy property owner sued under the California Environmental Quality Act. The lawsuit alleged that the plan’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) did not adequately evaluate the impacts of the plan on historic resources and on shadows. The judge hearing the case agreed and required the plan to be repealed. The city created a new EIR for the plan, including an extensive shadow analysis. City staff also reworked the Downtown Precise Plan to reduce maximum permitted heights near historic buildings and public spaces to reduced shadow and aesthetic impacts. “Since we were modifying the plan anyway, we reorganized it to be easier to use and improved some regulations which had caused confusion,” Zack says. The new Downtown Precise Plan was adopted on January 24, 2011 and was not challenged.

Developers get busy

Phase three, private development, is now underway. Four hundred and twenty-one residential units are under construction, 280 more units have been approved, and 471 more are under review — a total of 1,172 downtown units in the two years since the Downtown Precise Plan was adopted. On top of that, 300,000 square feet of office space is under way. All projects have received Planning approvals in six months or less without opposition.

“This success has come about because developers understand that Downtown Redwood City is place where they can eliminate a lot of the uncertainty that can undermine them in other cities,” Zack says. “NIMBY battles don’t exist, because the public meetings to figure out what kind of development was right for our downtown happened before the plan was created and we are holding developers to it. The regulations in the plan are tough, and often push developers to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t do, but they are very clear, so everybody knows what they are getting into before they submit a development application.”

Downtown Redwood City is more active than it has been in decades. Retail vacancies have fallen and an eclectic dining and pub scene has materialized. The city has emerged as one of the entertainment centers of the region and the cinema is one of the busiest in the area. Summer events bring in thousands of visitors each week. “Tech startups are flocking to the district and expanding within Downtown as they grow and prosper,” Zack says. “There’s more work to be done, but the public feels great pride in what has been accomplished so far.”