MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR NEXT MONDAY’S IMPORTANT CITY COUNCIL SESSION

Redwood Shores needs you to urge the Redwood City Council to keep the Shores a beautiful place to live and enjoy — stay with the Westport Specific Plan!

Monday, April 24, 6:00pm
City Hall, Redwood City
Attend the City Council meeting in person at City Hall, 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City,
or Online through RedwoodCity.org

On Monday, April 24, 2023 at 6PM, City Council has scheduled a Study Session where they will consider whether to approve the numerous entitlements that speculative developer Longfellow Real Estate Partners (LFREP) seeks for its massive Redwood LIFE bayfront biolabs redevelopment plan in Redwood Shores.

The existing 980,000 square‐foot Redwood LIFE office park borders the Belmont Slough at its northern boundary, and is adjacent at its southern boundary to high density, multi‐family residences and nearby schools. It also sits on a seismically vulnerable, geotechnically problematic, flood‐prone, 45‐acre, unlined former toxic landfill.

Speculative developer LFREP plans to demolish the existing 2‐to‐3 story buildings and redevelop the campus to a massive 3.3 million square‐ foot Life Science center. The plans include 15 buildings, including 130‐foot towering high‐rises of high‐level biocontainment labs up to BSL3, a 104‐room hotel, amenity center, plus 2 parking garages—all proposed throughout 20‐25 years of noisy, dust and debris‐filled, disruptive demolition and construction that will permanently impact residents, wildlife and sensitive wetland ecosystems.

A brief recap of the proposed redevelopment plan:

• Existing 980,000 square foot office park will increase substantially, adding over 2.5 million square feet.
• Existing 2‐3 story, 53 ft maximum height buildings, which the Westport Specific Plan intentionally limited to “minimize the visual impact,” replaced with massive, looming labs up to 130 feet tall.
• Existing building setbacks reduced dramatically so the new towering buildings would not only be huge, they would be much closer.
• 20‐25 years of demolition, noise, dust, debris, hauling, deep foundational pile‐driving and construction, projected along the Belmont Slough and sensitive wetlands, permanently impacting the Shores residents and vital natural habitats.
• High‐level Biocontainment 3 Laboratories (potentially lethal airborne pathogens include Risk Group 3 Pathogens such as Anthrax, SARS, Influenza, Tuberculosis and Hantavirus).
• Vivariums where animals are bred, genetically engineered and contained for biomedical research.
• Bayfront trail segmented to protect what LFREP considers its “community” of prospective lab tenants, resulting in a fragmented trail system that will force resident nature lovers, bikers and joggers to cross traffic up to 4 times.

Redwood City Planning department has rejected the proposed Longfellow plan as incomplete ‐ TWICE! Yet, the incomplete application is allowed to proceed to a City Council Study Session.

TELL CITY COUNCIL: Stay with the Westport Specific Plan!

The 1994 Westport Specific Plan established guidelines, including building setbacks and height limits “no higher than 3 stories (53ft.), as long as they are set back 260 feet from the southwesterly property line in order to minimize the visual impact of these taller buildings. Two story buildings shall be set back at least 175ft. from the southeasterly property line.”

Therefore, the Westport Specific Plan, clearly and repeatedly emphasized its legislative intent “to minimize the visual impact of the R and D development on the existing residential developments.” The surrounding multi‐family residential neighborhoods have become denser and more established, with the additions of the Redwood Shores Branch Library, Redwood Shores Elementary School, and housing developments along Marine Parkway and Shearwater. The Westport Specific Plan should still be the guiding principle for any site development plan. In other words, the guidelines previously established are even more relevant today. Why then, should the city permit the Redwood LIFE site to expand to over three times as large, thereby shrinking the residential and bay ecosystem setbacks?

Join the overwhelming number of community members who firmly believe that the Westport Specific Plan should stand!

The Redwood City Planning Department will present speculative developer LFREP’s Redwood LIFE project and entitlements requests to the Redwood City Council, including to Swinerton Vice President and the Shores’ District 1 Representative, Mayor Jeff Gee.

The City Council Study Session meeting will be help in person and on Zoom. Volunteers will be on hand passing out signs in support of the Westport Plan. The RSCA will email more details, including the Zoom meeting link, as they become available. 

Redwood Shores needs you now more than ever to show up and strongly urge the City Council to keep The Shores a beautiful place to live and enjoy – PRIORITIZE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY OVER HIGH RISK, SPECULATIVE PROFITEERING! PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND STAY WITH THE WESTPORT SPECIFIC PLAN!