In January, the City Council certified the Downtown Precise Plan – our revised and updated vision for downtown. Unfortunately, the initial Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was challenged in court, and the judge ruled that there were two areas requiring additional work – potential shadows, and more work was required on the historic structures section of the plan.

Two years later, I am pleased to report that we have a new plan for downtown. Staff and consultants have spent several hundred hours updating the plan, along with countless hours from our Historic Resources Advisory Committee, and the Planning Commission.

So why is downtown important – especially for those of us that live in Redwood Shores? I typed this question into my internet search engine and received over 14.3 million responses. Some of the answers included:

• A sense of identity for a community
• A social gathering space
• A place where a community can assemble
• Local businesses are part of a community’s quality of life
• Downtown is part of a community’s history
• Downtown is a neighborhood

The list goes on and on – for 14,295,000 other reasons.

Our vision for our downtown includes all of the above and more. The vision for downtown began over a decade ago with the appointment of a citizen task force. The initial thoughts of this citizen task force helped change our downtown. The foundation for this renaissance for downtown includes the new Courthouse Square and the retail/cinema complex (with the Old Spaghetti Factory opening later this year!). More recently, several new start-up technology companies have moved in.

The key to continuing the transformation of our downtown are residents that live in this new neighborhood. Hopefully, the new plan will attract new housing development and give each of us many more lifestyle choices.

— Jeff Gee, Redwood City Councilperson