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Dear Council members: <br />I like a lot of what’s proposed in Objective Standards for Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Residential Developments, <br />including: <br />New landscaping requirements <br />New open space requirements <br />New language about adhering to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, which provides a key to Engineering <br />and Transportation to get developers to pay for pedestrian and bicycle improvements <br />A modified daylight plane, which I hope will encourage developers. <br />Building facades that will make walking an enjoyable experience. <br />However, I’m alarmed by the proposed requirements: no parking minimum and a maximum of 0.5 spaces/unit. <br />This would apply to developments in zones DA and SA which cover the full distance between Georgia Way and <br />150th Street, east halfway to Bancroft near Estudillo and a few blocks west to San Leandro Blvd near Davis. <br />I ask you to to raise the minimum to 0.5/unit and the maximum to 1 space/unit. I believe that young families will <br />want cars and should be able to enjoy the benefits of living in the lively downtown we foresee, and living within <br />walking distance of Safeway or the Sprouts expected to go in at Centro Callan. <br />I am an environmentalist and, as an advocate for pedestrian and cyclists, District 5’s representative to the Bicycle <br />and Pedestrian Advisory Council. As such, I should be applauding the elimination of parking minimums. I’m <br />aware of the many studies that all boil down to “If you don’t build it, they won’t come.” But, this plan is too <br />extreme. Environmentalists should remember: <br />That one can own a car and not use it daily <br />That one might live near BART here, but might not work or go to school near BART. <br />That car owners increasingly own electric cars. Sales of electrics are now 20% of all car purchases and experts <br />predict they will be 50% in just a few years. <br />The Planning Commission and San Leandro 2050 want a “downtown” where people can bike. They forget or don’t <br />realize that East 14th is so dangerous that even the most experienced cyclists are afraid of it. That won’t change. <br />Someday it’ll be possible for cyclists to travel north and south in protected bike lanes on Bancroft. We’ll possibly <br />get another pair of protected bike lanes on San Leandro Blvd. Residents in zones DA and SA can get to those, <br />but they won’t be biking on East 14th. <br />I believe that more than just a very few people will still have cars and they’ll park them on the side streets if they <br />can’t get parking within a development. Cyclists should be using those same side streets unafraid of getting <br />“doored” by drivers exiting their cars. <br />I would like to see a “downtown” favorable to young families. Houses in San Leandro cost a million or a million <br />and a half. Many young people now don’t want to take on a large mortgage. Families may prefer living in <br />apartments or condos. Why should they be shut out from the lively downtown we foresee that’s walking distance <br />to Safeway? They will be if they can’t store their cars. <br />It’s tough being a parent without a car. With no minimum and a maximum of 0.5 spaces/unit, how will parents — <br />mostly moms — get their children to elementary school and back home with project poster boards and popsicle <br />stick picture frames? How will working parents (again, mostly moms) get them to school at 8am and themselves <br />to BART fast enough to get to work by 9? How will they get them across town to the Ballpark for little league? For <br />Aikido? To Marina Park? To the pediatricians on Doolittle, even though their office is still called Bancroft Pediatric? <br />(I’ve done that one. It takes forever and it can get very cold while waiting for the bus.) If they aren’t within walking <br />distance of Safeway, it’s the bus for them. I speak here from experience. It’s no fun mounting the steps of a bus <br />with one hand clasping the hand of a child and in the other hand a bag or two of groceries. <br />A word on process: <br />Members of the community spent hours in workshops and taking surveys. Based on their comments, staff <br />carefully calculated parking requirements that also took into consideration the number of bedrooms in a unit and <br />a development’s distance from BART. At the start of the Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner Breslin