Plan Redwood Life

Developers often start with very big plans on purpose. This is called "anchoring." In negotiation theory, anchoring refers to setting an initial position that "anchors" the range of possible outcomes, even if that initial position is somewhat extreme. 

In essence, they ask for more than they really want or need. Then, when they make the plan smaller, people feel better about saying yes. This happens a lot in California.

Developers do this to: 

• see what people and cities will accept

• make room for cutting back 

For example, the East Palo Alto shoreline Ravenswood Business District was first proposed at 4.4 million square feet and recently, after 4 years of negotiations, reduced back to 3.3 million, a reduction of about 27%

In California, reductions between 20% to 35% are common. With that in mind see Alt plans 1 and 2 below.

Redwood Life presented as item 6E on Consent Calendar

• Staff error regarding sq. ft. and developer misdirection about 20% reduction corrected but documentation not available to public  

• Public Comment (2 minutes in person only)

• Public Comment limited to one comment per person

• Item taken off Consent Calendar

• Longfellow Representatives didn't bother to attend

• Union workers didn't attend 

• All public comments were against development

• Council voted 6-1 to pass, councilmember Marcella Padilla voted against

• Transcript with timestamps available HERE

Redwood Life presentation of alternate plans given, video of event captured, clickable timeline of events bellow: 

0:00 Consultant Describes Alt Plans 

27:45 Q & A Begins - Rules of Engagement Defined

28:00 Rules, Comments Only Allowed At Sticky Dot Stations

31:30 Q - Biosafety And 25 Years Of Construction?

32:25 Q - Why A Hotel in All Alternative Plans?

34:01 Q - Sea Level Rise Valuation & Confirmation of Private Funding: Longfellow Alt Plans Approved? 

35:37 Q - Longfellow Alt Plan Rejection, Which 3 Buildings Are Removed, Building Heights?

38:32 Q - Proximity To Slough And Artificial Light At Night?

40:40 Q - Number Of Stories, Biosafety?

42:10 Qs - # Of Employees to Parking Ratio, Raising The Site Due To SLR?

44:39 Public Commenter Voices Community Concerns

45:12 Community Amplifies & Applauds Concerns Voiced

46:13 Engagement Consultant Tries to Confiscate Mic From Public Commenter

47:10 Qs - 25 Years Of Construction; Cherry Picking Of Issues Addressed?

48:14 Community Asks For Open Engagement General Discussion

48:28 Reps Redirect Community Commenters To Sticky Dot Voting

48:39 Q - Infrastructure (Police And Fire)? 

50:10 Community Voices Resentment Against Process & Unanswered Questions

50:31 Qs - Hotel, Building On Landfill, Biosafety, Disaster Waiting to Happen, Evacuation, Added Employees?

53:50 Community Votes Overwhelmingly To Continue Discussion Instead of Sticky Dot Voting 

Standard Redwood Life presentation and poll given

• Longfellow consultants gave presentation about landfills

• Allen Chiu, REHS Solid Waste Program Lead Environmental Health Specialist IV at San Mateo County Health Environmental Health Services presented. Gave informative but generic talk about topics such as postclosure development, laws and regulations and lessons learned 

• SF Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board: Alan Friedman Water Resource Control Engineer, Keith Robertson Senior Engineering Geologist. Mr. Friedman gave presentation 

• Good information from the panel but little site specific

• Q&A chat text available to view here LINK

Redwood Life presentation given 

• Group questions subdued, participants siloed and directed to make maps in small groups

• Voiced concerns about Divide and Concur tactics ignored 

• Residents vocally and loudly requested for a larger roundtable discussion but were denied

• Groups directed to make maps of their "vision" of Redwood Life

Closed meetings. "Stakeholders" identified by city

• Participants include businesses and engaged residents  

• Q and A about project, "Tell us what you like about..."

• Participants asked to place sticky notes on themed post it boards

• Data collected and processed for future meetings

After 2 failed Redwood life plan proposals the city proposed a "city led" process to include the public in viable project alternative(s) 

• Raimi and assoc. eventually contracted for 1.5mil, Jan 2024

• City pays upfront, developer to reimburse

• Video transcript HERE

• Contract available to view HERE