Honorable Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Councilmembers, and School Board members
We are very excited by the prospect of redeveloping the Cubberley site and look forward to a community wide discussion about the best uses of the site. As you consider the issue in your joint May 6th study session, we would like you to keep in mind the potential of the site for adding some much needed housing in Palo Alto. In particular, the site offers an excellent opportunity for a number of kinds of housing:
- Teacher housing--all of the master plan housing scenarios put forward by the consultant propose some number of teacher workforce units. Palo Alto Forward strongly supports this effort to provide more affordable housing options for these valued members of our community.
- Senior housing--the proposed Cubberley site promises to create a community village that would be an appealing location for subsidized, lower income senior housing or other below market rate uses.
- General "middle" housing--The inclusion of general housing in the Cubberley plans, for example through a long-term lease to a private party, might open up new funding sources that make the overall housing plans for the site viable. We would encourage the City and the School Board to keep all housing options on the table at this early stage in order to provide maximal flexibility moving forward.
Palo Alto Forward welcomes a vibrant community discussion about the best ways to enhance our community through redeveloping the Cubberley site and looks forward to participating in the future of this important project.
Warmly,
Elaine Uang
President, Palo Alto Forward
