City Wants Feedback on Downtown Precise Plan

Submitted to Patch by Pamela Estes, Redwood City Council-appointed Community Task Force member.

In May of 2012, the Redwood City Council considered amending the Downtown Precise Plan, which was adopted in January of 2011.

The Plan dictated that only retail businesses be allowed on the ground floor of Broadway between El Camino Real and Main Street. Some of the cross-streets to Broadway were also zoned "retail only" on the ground floor. This area is what some refer to as the "downtown retail corridor."

The proposed change was to allow a mix of office space and retail on the ground floor in this area.

This idea was met with strong opposition from downtown retail businesses and residents who believe that every great downtown needs a ground floor retail corridor, and to allow office space on the ground floor in the retail corridor would make it difficult to retain the existing downtown retail businesses, and make it even more difficult to attract new retail businesses. 

The City Council chose not to make the proposed change, for which many are grateful. Instead, the Council appointed a community task force to work with others to develop a plan to attract and retain retail businesses within the Downtown Precise Plan boundaries.

(If you are interested in more details, you can find the City Council minutes from the May 21, 2012 meeting under "Special City Council Meeting Minutes, May 21, 2012, Minute Book No. 64, Pages 129-135" online here.)

Among other things, the community task force - made up of a group of interested retailers, residents, building owners and Redwood City fans - has prepared a Redwood City Downtown Visitor Survey.

With the survey, we hope to gain valuable information from as many people as possible about how and when they frequent downtown, and use that information to brainstorm how we can continue to improve our downtown. The best results are achieved when everyone provides input, and we’d like to hear from you.

The survey takes about three minutes to complete, and we'd love to get your response by March 31. 

Click here or paste the link to your browser in order to respond to the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Redwood_City_Downtown_Survey

Please share the survey with your friends and family and share the link via social media.

The members of the Community Task Force include:

• Jeff Badstubner - V.P., Sequoia Realty Services
• Shirley Bunger - resident, brand and marketing consultant
• Steve Divney - associate, Colliers International 
• Mike Kastrop - resident, principal architect, The Kastrop Group, Inc. Architects
• Stephanie Kolkka - resident, owner, Brick Monkey and Kolkka Furniture
• Lori Lochtefeld - owner, Fox Theatre and principal, Lacewell Realty, Inc. 
• Dayna Marr - resident, owner, Pickled, Active Aggie, Peacebank Yoga
• Brett Weber - Senior V.P., Colliers International

Also on RedwoodCity-Woodside Patch:

• The Billionaires Among Us
• Illegal Mattress Dumping Plagues Peninsula
• Caltrain Strikes Empty Car on San Bruno Tracks
• Redwood City-Based Evernote's Customer Accounts Hacked
• City Wants Feedback on Downtown Precise Plan

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