The Ravenswood Business District Specific Plan, a plan for massive office development adjacent to the Bay wetlands in East Palo Alto, was approved by the City Council in December. Although we were not able to significantly reduce the size of the development allowed by the plan, Green Foothills and our partners succeeded in incorporating strong policies into the plan to protect wildlife and increase resilience to sea level rise.
Years Of Effort Led To An Improved Ravenswood Plan
Green Foothills first became aware that the city of East Palo Alto was considering tripling the size of the 2013 Ravenswood Plan in late 2020. Originally encompassing 1.4 million square feet of commercial office space at the far end of Bay Road next to Cooley Landing, the proposed revision contemplated increasing the amount of office space to as much as 4.2 million square feet, which would have been more than nine times the size of San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid.
We followed the progress of the Ravenswood Plan for several years, along with our local partners: Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge, Climate Resilient Communities, Nuestra Casa, Sequoia Audubon Society, and Sierra Club’s Bay Alive campaign. We held community workshops, helped residents organize to make their voices heard, and spoke at City Council meetings. We also met repeatedly with the city’s consultant team and provided many pages of detailed recommendations for policies that would reduce or mitigate the environmental impacts of the plan.
The end result was a Ravenswood Plan that, while it is still massive in size (3.3 million square feet of office space), includes strong environmental policies such as requirements for bird-safe design and limits on nighttime lighting, policies to address sea level rise and groundwater rise, and a framework to ensure developers provide community benefits to the city.
Next Step: Specific Development Projects
The Ravenswood Plan is only the first step in the development process. Next, individual developers will submit proposed projects to the city, which must conform to the requirements of the Ravenswood Plan. Green Foothills will monitor those project proposals to make sure they adhere to the plan requirements and do not result in significant impacts to wildlife, Bay wetlands, and other environmental issues.
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