BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Redwood City Council last night (May 20) approved a development at Broadway and Woodside Road that would create 1,680 jobs and 520 apartments.

Even though the development by the Sobrato Organization will worsen the housing-jobs imbalance, Mayor Ian Bain praised the development and threw in a dig at Senate Bill 50, which would have reduced local control over development in order to allow for more housing.

“I would like to highlight that this a great example of when there is local control over projects like this. It allows for a back and forth to happen,” Bain said.

Bain said that local control ensures that large projects “fit the community.”

“If you were just allowed to build whatever you wanted, I don’t think it would have been as good a project as you wanted,” Bain said to representatives of the Sobrato Organization.

The project has been in the works since 2015. Initially it did not include any low income housing, and kept the CVS Pharmacy at its current location.

But after a few iterations, 120 subsidized apartments were included and the CVS is moving across Woodside Road.

Most of the project — 420,000 square feet — would consist of office space. Using the standard of one job for every 250 square feet, that would result in 1,680 jobs.

The project will have a total of 26,000 square feet of retail space. CVS would take up 15,000 square feet, and the remaining 11,000 square feet will be located along Woodside Road, with the intent to host local businesses, said Sobrato’s Real Estate Development Vice President Peter Tsai.

As part of the project there would be 95 low-income apartments (a family of two would have to earn $93,950 or less to be eligible), 12 very low-income apartments (a family of two would have to earn $58,650 or less) and 12 extremely low-income apartments ($35,200 or less for a family of two).

More traffic

Bain and Councilwoman Janet Borgens both commented that the biggest issue with the project will be traffic. It will put some 3,777 cars on the roads every day, a study found.

Borgens applauded Sobrato for adding stoplights at Bay Road and Fifth Avenue, which is so congested that it operates at an E, or failing grade, on an A-F scale. A stoplight will improve the situation to a B grade, according to the project’s environmental impact report.

Resident Lisa Riedle said she supports the project, but is worried about the parking for the project filling up and spilling over to the neighborhoods. But she praised Sobrato for planning to connect the CVS parking lot with the Smart and Final parking lot, to make it easier for shoppers to get around that area.

Toxic soil problem

Even though the council approved the project last night, it may take some time before construction begins. This is because the site from 1945 to 1972 was a bearings manufacturing plant, said Tsai. The harmful solvents used to clean the machinery seeped into the soil, which now needs to be replaced in order for people to be able to live on the land.

That process will take about a year, said Acting Planning Director Diana O’Dell. Once the site is safe, the CVS will be built first, followed by the housing, and finally the office space.

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A fire overnight in a building at 134 Pine St. in Redwood City has resulted in one injury, according to fire officials.

The fire was reported at 11:27 p.m. Tuesday (June 4) at the corner of Pine and Shasta streets, a block east of Harry’s Hofbrau.

When firefighters arrived, they reported seeing “heavy fire” coming from the window of the one-story building.

An ambulance rushed the victim to Stanford Hospital. The severity of the victim’s injuries wasn’t available.

Fire officials remained on the scene this morning investigating and overhauling the scene. Residents are advised to avoid the area.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Chick-fil-A, which has given money to anti-LGBTQ groups, plans to open a restaurant on Whipple Avenue in Redwood City, which is ruffling some feathers.

Merrily Robinson, a Redwood City resident, said she plans to voice her disapproval of the Planning Department’s approval of the chicken fast food eatery at Monday’s council meeting.

“I have to go make a comment and at least have the council consider that maybe not hatred should come to our town,” Robinson said. “It doesn’t matter that I’m gay, but this touches my belief that if you don’t stand up for each other, then who will be left?”

Chick-fil-A became controversial in 2011, when it was reported that the Georgia-based chain’s charitable arm donated to anti-gay marriage groups. Tax forms from 2017 show that the company donated to the Salvation Army ($150,000) and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes ($1.6 million), two organizations that have been criticized for opposing same-sex marriage and excluding LGBTQ people from leadership positions.

Out Magazine, among other outlets, reported that the Salvation Army has refused to house homeless gay couples unless they separate and denied service to transgender folks.

Chick-fil-A sent the Post a statement saying that the business is “committed to earning the respect and business of all our customers, and one day hope to serve guests in Redwood City.”

Redwood City’s Planning Department approved an architectural permit for the Chick-fil-A at 536 Whipple Ave., where a McDonald’s currently is, on Dec. 4. The restaurant is slated to open Aug. 8.

Andres Loyola, a peer support worker at the San Mateo Pride Center, said it’s troubling how the city is managing the situation.

“It’s really frustrating and a disappointment of Redwood City and the county, honestly,” Loyola said.

Loyola added that she finds it interesting that Chick-fil-A had no problem finding a location in Redwood City, while two gay men who tried to open up a gay bar in the city last year had trouble with finding a location.

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, who represents the northern part of the county including Daly City, said he is working to put pressure on Chick-fil-A to withdraw their application in Redwood City and not open.

“Chick-fil-A’s values don’t line up with San Mateo County’s,” Canepa said. “The way they can earn our respect is by leaving our county.”

If Redwood City were to find a way to stop Chick-fil-A from opening, they would be the second city on the mid-Peninsula to do so. In 2012, two Mountain View residents appealed the city’s approval of a Chick-fil-A at 1962 W. El Camino Real.

The council approved the appeals, which kicked the eatery out of the city. Chick-fil-A abandoned Mountain View and opened up in Sunnyvale.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Redwood City police are expected to be wearing body cameras by the end of the year, and by next summer, they will have all received training to help people in a mental health crisis.

The family of Kyle Hart, the Palo Alto teacher who was killed on Dec. 10 by Redwood City police who were responding to a report that he was trying to commit suicide, has been advocating for change within the Redwood City Police Department.

Hart, who was a teacher at Greene Middle School, was shot to death after he approached police with a knife at his home in Redwood City.

His widow, Kirstin Hart, and mother, Lori Hart, attended council meetings to ask that the city put body cameras on all officers and send them to a 40-hour crisis intervention training class. They also asked that the city place bean bag guns in every car.

Body cameras will be on every police officer by the end of the year, according to the proposed budget reviewed by the council on Monday. Lori Hart thanked the council and City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz for including the body cameras and training for officers.

“These create a basic foundation to ensure safety for officers and citizens,” Lori Hart said.

Vice Mayor Diane Howard thanked the Hart family for the solutions they have proposed and said that they may save lives.
So far, 84% of sworn police personnel have received crisis intervention training. The goal is to have all officers and dispatchers trained by next June.

In 2018, 318 people who interacted with police were taken to a mental health facility, while 334 people were transported in 2017, according to the police’s budget.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Some six months after ferry company PropSF ended its pilot program shuttling Facebook commuters into the Port of Redwood City, its CEO said yesterday that he’s trying to bring ferries back.

Facebook contracted with PropSF to ferry its employees to Redwood City, where they would board one of the social media giant’s buses to its Menlo Park headquarters.

During that pilot program, PropSF CEO James Jaber said the company “gained all sorts of knowledge and built alliances with the community.” He said he’s “ready to go” back to running the company’s small ferries in and out of the port.

Jaber said he’s working with officials at the port to bring ferry service back to Redwood City but that agreements for this type of thing move “really slowly.”

“It is being sorted out, but I don’t have a sense of when yet. I wish I did,” Jaber said.

Port spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan confirmed that PropSF stopped operating out of the port in December, but would not say whether PropSF is working with the port to bring ferry service back.

The port, along with the city, has been long flirting with ferry service. In 2014, 2016 and 2018, Google and Facebook ran ferries out of Redwood City for employees. In 2007, the port and the Water Transit Authority did an evaluation of ferry terminal locations, designs and environmental assessments.

In February, the city started a new study to see whether a ferry service ought to be operated out of the city’s port.

The majority of the money — $450,000 — will come from a grant from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority’s Measure A funds. Measure A was a half-cent sales tax approved in 2004 to fund transportation
projects in the county. The remaining $60,000 comes from the city’s budget.

The study will include a cost-benefit analysis of running a ferry program. The analysis will look at the benefits that the area would see from a ferry service, assess whether a ferry would induce development near or in the port and see how long it would take to get a return on investment.

The consultant doing the research will also conduct a “financial feasibility study” that will examine potential funding sources and capital costs.

Furthermore, the study will look at possible ferry routes, estimate operating costs, conduct a market analysis and explore potential private partnerships.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

The Redwood City Council has decided to raise sewer rates by 4.5% for each of the next three years to pay for improvements such as new pipelines.

For the typical customer, the rates will go up by $3.60 a month in August. Currently, a single family home pays $78.24 a month in sewer fees.

Starting on Aug. 1, that will go to $81.76 a month.

On July 1, 2020, the rate will rise to $85.44 a month and again on July 1, 2021 to $89.28 a month.

These rate increases, which were approved by council on June 10, are intended to raise money for the city to replace aging pipelines and rehabilitate the regional wastewater treatment plant.

The plant treats sewage from Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont, Woodside and the West Bay Sanitary District.

Even with the increases, the city will remain in the middle of the pack for sewer rates in the mid-Peninsula, according to Redwood City’s data (see chart provided by Redwood City).

On one end of the scale, Palo Altans pay $38.66 a month. On the other end, Hillsborough residents pay $257.92 a month.

Councilwoman Alicia Aguirre said she’s grateful that the city is in the middle range of sewer costs, despite being responsible for half the costs for the treatment plant.

Aguirre noted that the city works to keep rate increases under double digits so residents can swallow the increase. Not all of the city’s residents pay their sewer bill to the city. Some residents of Friendly Acres and Emerald Hills are a part of other sewer districts that are controlled by the county. Those rates are controlled by the county’s Board of Supervisors.

Only a fraction of the local news stories covered by the Daily Post appear on this website. To get all the local news, including many stories you can’t find online, pick up the Post every morning at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Three men are facing charges after they were found to be in possession of over 1,000 pounds of illegal fire works, Redwood City Police said.

On Thursday (June 20), police were investigating a call to a home on the 3500 block of Hoover Street when they observed a cache of illegal fireworks.

Jesus Miguel Cuevas, 18, of Redwood City was arrested for felony probation violation, possession of dangerous fireworks over 100 pounds and sale of fireworks.

Francisco Alberto Garibay, 21, and Jesus Garibay, 22, both of South San Francisco were both cited for sale of dangerous fireworks.

According to police, the fireworks seized “represented a very real public safety hazard to the residents in the area.” All fireworks are illegal in Redwood City.

Only a fraction of the local news stories covered by the Daily Post appear on this website. To get all the local news, including many stories you can’t find online, pick up the Post every morning at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.

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BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent

A number of California cities, including Redwood City, are protesting a bill in the state Legislature that would prohibit the towing of cars with five or more unpaid parking tickets and make cities wait longer to tow vehicles that haven’t been moved in three days.

Assembly Bill 516, by Assembly members David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, is intended to protect low-income residents from the impacts of having their cars towed.

But the city of Redwood City, as well as the League of California Cities, oppose the bill, saying it would reward people who don’t pay their parking tickets.

Eliminating the threat of towing for unpaid parking tickets “will exacerbate parking scarcity by creating an environment vulnerable for exploitation,” Redwood City Mayor Ian Bain said in a letter to state lawmakers. Redwood City’s City Council last week approved sending the letter to Sen. Jerry Hill and Assembly member Kevin Mullin, whose districts include Redwood City.

No boots

In addition to the ban on towing cars with five or more unpaid parking tickets, AB516 also wouldn’t allow cars with unpaid tickets to be immobilized with a “boot.”
And in cases where towing is allowed, impounded cars could no longer be sold to cover towing and storage costs.

Another provision of AB516 is that cars parked in one place for more than 72 hours in violation of city code could no longer be towed immediately. Rather, a notice would have to be placed on the car for 10 business days, stating the deadline for moving the vehicle. If the car were still there after the 10 days, it could then be towed.

More vehicles left on the road over 72 hours

Bain, the Redwood City mayor, said in his letter that reports of vehicles left on the road for more than 72 hours have increased 10-fold over the past decade, to more than 5,000 complaints per year in 2017 — reflecting the severe parking crunch in neighborhoods.

Enforcement of the 72-hour parking limit is typically prompted by a complaint from a business or resident, he said.

“Compliance costs nothing and can simply involve moving a vehicle to a more acceptable location to avoid a tow,” Bain wrote.

The Western Center on Law & Poverty is a sponsor of AB516, and much of the bill’s rationale comes from a report by WCLP and other groups titled “Towed Into Debt.”
More than three-quarters of California residents need a car to get to work or use the car as part of their job, according to the text of AB516.

“For many Californians, their vehicle is their only shelter, their only way to get needed medical care or their most valuable asset,” the legislation states. “There is no public safety purpose when a local government uses towing as a costly and draconian method to collect small amounts of debt, and this sanction has a disproportionate impact on lower income families and people of color.”

AB516 has been amended since its introduction. A previous version called for a ban on towing vehicles parked in one place for more than 72 hours; that was changed to the proposed requirement for a 10-day notice before a car is towed.

An earlier version of AB516 also would have prohibited towing a car with registration that has been expired for six months or more. A new version of the bill keeps current law in place, allowing cars to be towed for expired registration.

Enforcement of parking rules is challenging

Despite the amendments, the League of California Cities is still opposed to AB516.

“Residential neighborhoods and major business corridors already struggle with limited parking spaces and will continue to struggle as communities densify, making parking enforcement much more essential,” the League said in a letter to lawmakers.

The League also noted that payment plans are offered to low-income people with unpaid parking tickets, with payments as low as $5 a month. A car is towed only if the payment plan has been ignored, the League said.

The Assembly passed AB516 on May 13 on a 49-11 vote. Mullin, who represents Redwood City, was one of 20 Assembly members who did not vote on it.

In the Senate, the Transportation Committee voted 9-2 on Tuesday to approve the bill. The Senate Public Safety Committee is scheduled to consider the bill on July 9.

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By the Daily Post staff

A suspected drunken driver led the CHP on a chase from Palo Alto to Redwood City, which ended when he hit a pole and crashed head-on with a Prius on Seaport Boulevard, the CHP said.

The suspected drunk driver, 19-year-old Daniel Carlos Lomberta Farias, was driving with a handgun, a high-capacity magazine and drug paraphernalia, according to the CHP.

Both Lomberta Farias and the driver he hit were taken to Stanford Hospital following the chase that ended shortly after midnight Tuesday morning.

The chase began at 11:38 p.m. Monday when a CHP officer turned on his overhead flashing lights in an attempt to pull over Lomberta Farias for a traffic violation north of the Oregon Expressway exit in Palo Alto.

Instead, Lomberta Farias headed north on 101.

In an attempt to evade the officer, he got onto the right shoulder and turned off at the Woodside Road-Seaport Boulevard exit in Redwood City, the CHP said.

Wrong turn

As he approached the bottom of the ramp, Lombera Farias made a U-turn and proceeded to drive the wrong way on Seaport Boulevard, according to the CHP.

He then hit a pole in the center median and collided head-on with a Toyota Prius headed west on Seaport, the CHP said.

After the crash, the CHP detained Lombera Farias at gunpoint without further incident.

Lomberta Farias suffered “moderate” injuries and the other driver had minor injuries, the CHP reported.

After the crash, officers said they found the gun, magazine and paraphernalia in a backpack belonging to Lomberta Farias.

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By EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

A Redwood City man was sentenced Tuesday (July 2) to eight years in prison for raping a woman who considered him a friend, a prosecutor said.

The 20-year-old woman and Juan Luis Ramirez-Ruiz, 27, were watching a movie together at his apartment on April 3, 2017. During the movie, Ramirez-Ruiz removed her clothes and raped her, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

After the assault, Ramirez-Ruiz walked the woman home, Wagstaffe said.

During Ramirez-Ruiz’s sentencing yesterday, the woman gave a powerful statement to the court, saying “you put me through hell, but you will never take away my strength,” according to the DA.

The woman reported the rape in early May 2017, and told police that Ramirez-Ruiz also assaulted her in October 2016. She said they had never been romantically involved, Wagstaffe said.

Ramirez-Ruiz pleaded no contest to forcible rape on May 1. He will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life once he is released from prison.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

A Redwood City mother has filed a lawsuit that claims law enforcement officers, who were searching her house in connection with a drug case involving her boyfriend, forced her to stand handcuffed in her front yard in nothing but an open bathrobe as her neighbors watched her exposed body.

Gabriela Naranjo, 43, contends that CHP officers, San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies and Redwood City police officers violated her and her children’s civil rights when they executed a search warrant at her Park Street home on March 28, 2017.

At 7:10 a.m., Naranjo was in the shower when police entered her home with guns drawn, frightening one of her children and the family dog who were in the living room, according to her federal lawsuit.

Police allegedly pointed their guns at the child and his dog, and told the boy to control the dog or they would shoot it. Meanwhile, officers went into the bathroom where Naranjo was showering, pointed a gun at her and told her not to move, the lawsuit states.

Naranjo asked if she could get a towel, but was told not to move until a female officer came into the room. So until Officer Amanda Meier came into the bathroom, Naranjo had to stand, nude, cold and wet in the shower.

When Meier arrived, she handcuffed Naranjo, who was still naked, and took her outside.

The officers put a bathrobe on over her shoulders, but since she was handcuffed, Naranjo could not hold it closed, nor was there a rope where the bathrobe could be tied shut. That meant that most of Naranjo’s body was still exposed.

Forced to stand outside

Naranjo and one of her children had to stand outside for 20 minutes, the lawsuit claims.

“Which to Ms. Naranjo felt like hours for her neighbors to see her naked, for her children to see her naked and for the officers to see her naked.”

Naranjo was brought back into her home, and taken to the bedroom where Meier took the handcuffs off her and told Naranjo to get dressed.

Once she was dressed, officers told Naranjo to wake up her two other children and take them outside. She was not allowed to grab a sweater, blanket or shoes for her children, the lawsuit claims.

Naranjo and her three children were put into a van, and had to wait there for at least a half hour. During that time, two of the children needed to use the restroom, but were told to wait by the police, Naranjo claims.

Warrant wasn’t for her

The search warrant that was being executed at Naranjo’s home was for her boyfriend, Jesus Bustos, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Bustos ended up being arrested that day and charged with six felonies that claimed he had illegal guns and possessed drugs he planned to sell, Wagstaffe said.

Naranjo is not a co-defendant in Bustos’ criminal case, nor has she been charged criminally in either San Mateo or Santa Clara counties, according to online records.
San Mateo County Counsel John Beiers, whose office is representing the sheriff’s office, told the Post that the lawsuit does not have merit.

“The Narcotics Task Force lawfully served search warrants signed by a judge as part of a serious criminal investigation that resulted in the arrest of Ms. Naranjo’s partner on drug and gun charges. The county disputes Ms. Naranjo’s version of events at the scene.The county has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that is pending and, if necessary, will litigate it vigorously,” Beiers said.

The Post did not hear back from Redwood City officials about the lawsuit.

City: officers were protecting themselves

However, court documents filed on behalf of the city claim that officers were protecting themselves and acting lawfully.

The listed defendants in the case are: Redwood City, San Mateo County, the CHP, Detective Michael Ruybal, Officer Richard Santiago, Agent Amanda Meier, Agent Jeffrey Clements, Agent Michael Leishman, then-Redwood City police chief JR Gamez, Sheriff Carlos Bolanos and CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow.

Only a fraction of the local news stories covered by the Daily Post appear on this website. To get all the local news, including many stories you can’t find online, pick up the Post every morning at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.

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Four Redwood City police officers who were involved in the death of Ramzi Saad last August were found to be within department policy when one officer used a Taser stun gun on him multiple times and three others used their body weight to pin him face-first on the ground, according to a report released under California’s new police transparency law.

Saad, 55, was killed in the confrontation with police on Aug. 13 outside the home he shared with his mother at 523 Lanyard Drive. His was one of four deaths in the county last year involving the use of Tasers on people suffering from mental health issues.

The others included Chinedu Okobi, who was killed by San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies in October when they attempted to stop him for jaywalking, and Kyle Hart, a Palo Alto middle school English teacher who had cut his own throat and wrists. Hart was Tased and then shot by Redwood City police in December.

Civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents Okobi’s family and sued the sheriff’s office, has called for a moratorium on Tasers in the county.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe cleared officers of criminal charges in each case.

Wagstaffe wrote a letter to Redwood City police Chief Dan Mulholland in November saying that he would not pursue criminal charges against the officers who killed Saad. Wagstaffe had already told Redwood City police on Aug. 20 that he was unlikely to prosecute.

The internal review into Saad’s death, which was completed in May, determined whether the officers followed department policy. It was released under Senate Bill 1421, a new police transparency law that took effect in January. Previously, the results of such internal investigations would be secret.

While the investigations are separate, internal affairs investigators sat in on the district attorney’s inspector interviews with the involved officers and were permitted to ask questions, according to Redwood City police Deputy Chief Gary Kirby.

Similar to earlier Wagstaffe investigation

Much of the investigative summary in the internal report is a word-for-word reproduction of Wagstaffe’s letter from November.

“The statement was provided to a DA inspector, and we didn’t need to go and recreate that statement in a different way,” Kirby said. “There’s separate analysis of the information that’s presented,” with one investigation examining the law and the other department policy.

Redwood City police officers do not have body-worn cameras and the incident was not recorded on video.

Police were first called to the home shortly after 7 p.m. According to the district attorney’s letter, Saad had been in a bad mood throughout the day and refused to take his medication. He went to a neighbor’s home and told him, “My mother is dead and they’re killing us.”

The neighbor walked Saad back to his house, where Saad allegedly pushed his mother down. The neighbor then called 911.

‘They’re trying to kill me’

Officer Oscar Poveda was the first to arrive. According to Wagstaffe’s letter, Saad’s mother was still on the ground as Poveda arrived. He asked Saad what was going on and Saad replied, “They’re trying to kill me.”

Poveda attempted to calm Saad down, speaking to him calmly and asking him to sit on the curb, Wagstaffe wrote. Saad had started to calm down, but suddenly changed his demeanor and said to Poveda, “You wanna pull your gun and shoot me, don’t you?” according to Wagstaffe.

Poveda continued to try and reassure Saad, but pulled his Taser and concealed it behind his back. Saad took a swing at Poveda but missed, and Poveda deployed his Taser. Saad fell to the ground. He didn’t put his hands behind his back and Poveda Tased him again. Saad then threw a piece of fruit at Poveda, according to Wagstaffe.

The officer deployed a Taser a third time, but it’s not clear if the probes made contact that time.

Saad grabbed a brick, according to Wagstaffe, and Poveda moved in to try and physically subdue him. Poveda wrestled with Saad on the ground and handcuffed him before the other officers arrived.

As Officers Matthew Cydzik, Daniel Di Bona and Oscar Poveda arrived, Poveda walked away. The three officers all used their body weight to pin Saad face-first on the ground, with Di Bona on his legs, Cydzik’s knee between his shoulder blades, and Simmons on his midsection.

Eventually Saad stopped fighting. The officers confirmed that he was breathing, according to Wagstaffe, but when he became non-responsive they called paramedics, who were unable to revive him.

Cardiac arrest

According to Wagstaffe’s letter, an autopsy determined that Saad died from cardiac arrest caused by physical exertion, restraint and the Taser.

While the officers were found not to be criminally liable and within the department’s policy, Redwood City police will be giving all officers new crisis intervention training and implementing body cameras by sometime next year.

Kristen Hart, the wife of Kyle Hart, the other person who died in a confrontation with Redwood City police last year, called on the Redwood City City Council to make the changes at its meeting in May.

She said her husband had been treated for anxiety and had a bad reaction to his medication, which led to the suicide attempt.

“Our officers deserve to have the best tools and resources available to them and our citizens in crisis deserve dignity and support,” Hart said.

The new training and body-worn cameras was passed by the City Council as part of its budget in June.

The legal standard evaluating officers use of force may soon change across California as well. On Monday, the state Senate passed AB392, a bill that would raise the standard for when officers use deadly force from when it is “reasonable” to when it is “necessary.”

Officers would also be evaluated on whether they attempted de-escalation techniques prior to using deadly force. Gov. Gavin Newsom still needs to sign the bill for it to become law, but he has previously said he intends to sign it.
— Bay City News

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By the Daily Post staff

Redwood City firefighters report that they have put out a brush fire under in the Emerald Hills area.

The fire was first reported at 5:17 p.m. Wednesday and was quickly elevated to a second alarm. Ten fire vehicles responded to the fire at 3640 Glenwood Ave. including three engine trucks. The fire was near Garrett Park.

At 6:04 p.m., Redwood City fire reported that they had the blaze under control, and it was completely out later in the evening.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

A patron of the Hanky Panky strip club who smashed a glass in the face of another man is facing up to a year in jail, a prosecutor said.

Kalin Vinson, 23, of San Francisco, pleaded no contest to felony assault with a deadly weapon for the July 26, 2018, fight at the Hanky Panky, 2651 El Camino Real in unincorporated Redwood City.

Vinson and the man were drinking at the strip club, and at 11:41 p.m. were seen shaking hands, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Just a minute later, Vinson smashes the glass he was holding in the man’s face, Wagstaffe said.

The man fell down, and Vinson punched the man in the face.

Why the fight started is not known, Wagstaffe said.

The physical encounter was caught on the club’s surveillance cameras.

Vinson was dragged out of the club by the bouncers, and was arrested by sheriff’s deputies shortly thereafter.

Vinson’s victim was taken to the hospital with a swollen and bloody left eye, a deep cut through his lip and several broken teeth.

Vinson is out of jail on a $100,000 bailbond and will be back in court on Aug. 27 to be sentenced, where he could receive up to a year in prison, Wagstaffe said.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

The San Mateo County District Attorney on Tuesday (July 23) cleared a parole officer of any criminal wrongdoing for shooting his parolee in Redwood City when he ran toward the officer holding a dumbbell above his head.

In fact, the parolee admitted he should have been shot, according to a report from District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

“I would have shot me too,” Aaron Womack told investigators.

The shooting took place around 1:30 a.m. on April 23 in a garage at 540 Price Ave. in Redwood City, but the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation kept the incident under wraps. The shooting only became known when the parolee was charged by Wagstaffe on May 2.

Parole Officer Marvin Abad has been Womack’s parole officer for about two years. Womack had been living in a homeless camp in the parking garage of the parole office’s building. Abad had seen Womack there before, often having to calm him down while he was yelling about something.

Parolee smashes glass door

Around 1:30 a.m. on April 23, Abad was leaving the office and heard a banging noise. Womack was striking a dumbbell against the building and smashed a glass door with it, Wagstaffe said.

Abad asked Womack what he was doing and the parolee asked the officer where he had come from. Womack did not seem to recognize Abad, according to Wagstaffe’s letter to Parole Supervisor Gregory Weber.

Abad tried to calm Womack down and reminded him that he is his parole officer. But Womack raised the dumbbell to shoulder height as if he was preparing to punch something, according to Wagstaffe. “Where did you come from?” Womack asked again.

Man shot, zapped with Taser

Abad, telling Womack to stop, backed up near the corner of the garage and pulled out his gun. The parolee was five to seven feet away from the officer, who feared for his safety, knowing Abad’s criminal history.

“Abad was hoping that Womack would ‘snap out of it’ but realized that this was not occurring. Abad fired twice from the hip, when Womack was only a few steps away, because at this point, he felt he had no other choice,” Wagstaffe wrote in his letter to Weber.

Womack was hit in the leg and groin but ran away. Redwood City police officers had to use Tasers on Womack four times to get him on the ground to be arrested.

Sheriff’s deputies who also responded had to help restrain Womack, Wagstaffe said.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Alfredo Gudino broke his ankle while restraining Womack, according to Wagstaffe’s letter. Womack was taken to a hospital, where he remained until May 1. On May 2, Womack appeared in court and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and two misdemeanors — resisting arrest and vandalism.

Womack told the DA’s investigators that he does not blame Abad for shooting him. “I would have shot me too … too close. I was too close to him,” Womack told investigators.

Womack is in jail in lieu of $35,000 bail and will appear in court on July 30 for a pretrial conference.

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BY JEN NOWELL
Daily Post Correspondent

Residents will get the chance tonight (July 30) to weigh in on a massive development of homes, offices and stores spanning six blocks along Main Street and El Camino in Redwood City.

Greystar Real Estate initially submitted its plans for the project back in January 2018, proposing the development of five blocks between El Camino and the train tracks. This includes the sites of the former Redwood Roller Rink, Hopkins Acura, Towne Ford, several auto repair shops, a car wash and the Main & Elm restaurant.

Since that time, the proposed project has grown to take up six blocks, which includes the majority of the development at 1601 El Camino with 39 additional apartments down the street at 1304 El Camino.

Apartments added

Greystar’s proposal has grown from 272 apartments (including 60 low-income apartments) to 291 apartments (including 97 low-income apartments), according to a report written by city Principal Planner Lindy Chan.

But while the number of homes has grown, the amount of office space proposed by Greystar has shrunk from 589,700 square feet in its original proposal to 550,143 square feet, according to project plans.

These changes could be in response to fears of adding more jobs than homes, worsening San Mateo County’s housing-jobs imbalance.
Based on the assumption of one worker for every 200 square feet of office space, the development would accommodate 2,750 employees. And assuming an average of two people would live in each of the 291 apartments, 582 people would be living in the project.
This ratio is slightly better than that of Greystar’s original proposal from last year, which had 544 people living in the project compared with 2,948 employees.

Neighborhood impact

Last year when the Post spoke with resident Kris Johnson, who in 2017 appealed another Greystar development at 1409 El Camino, he said he found it hard to believe the neighborhood could support that number of employees getting in and out of the area everyday.

“This contribution to our jobs-housing imbalance will only accelerate the gentrification and displacement in our community,” Johnson said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Mayor Ian Bain told the Post last year that he makes his concerns and expectations clear when he meets with developers, and pushes them to include low-income housing and alleviate traffic.

Additional retail space

Other changes to Greystar’s proposal include lowering the square footage of the daycare center but increasing the outdoor area, and increasing the amount of retail space, according to Chan. The proposal includes about 28,000 square feet of retail space and an 8,563-square-foot space for child care, she said.

The proposed buildings fronting El Camino would be four stories (70 feet), six stories (66 feet) and seven stories (84 feet) tall, while the remaining four buildings would each be three stories, or 48 feet, in height, according to plans submitted to the city.

Hearing tonight

The city’s planning commission meets tonight (July 30) at 7  to discuss the proposal for 1304 and 1601 El Camino Real. Greystar is looking for feedback from the commission and the public on what to include in the environmental impact report and the proposed development for the site.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Current Redwood City spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor will become Palo Alto’s new chief communications officer, City Manager Ed Shikada announced yesterday (July 30).

Horrigan-Taylor joins the Palo Alto city government’s communications team, which includes public works spokeswoman Catherine Elvert, who earned $132,452 in 2018, Communications Manager Liza Caracciolo, who made $129,440 in 2018, and police public information officer Janine De la Vega, who was hired in April at a base pay of $125,000.

Horrigan-Taylor will step into the role that was vacated by Claudia Keith, who left the city in May to move back to Southern California.

Keith had joined the city in April 2013 after seven years as the assistant vice chancellor for public affairs at CSU-Long Beach.

Keith’s total pay in 2018 was $217,853, according to government salary website Transparent California.

Horrigan-Taylor’s base salary when she starts the job on Aug. 20 will be $180,000.

In 2018, she received $165,467 in total pay from Redwood City. Horrigan-Taylor has been Redwood City’s spokeswoman since 2014.

During her time in that city she also established agreements with sewer district Silicon Valley Clean Water and the Port of Redwood City to provide communications and marketing services.

Horrigan-Taylor was formerly the director of communications and public affairs for Team San Jose, an economic development firm that manages several entertainment venues.

Before her eight years with Team San Jose, Horrigan-Taylor worked for six years as the deputy director of budget and policy for former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales.

According to her LinkedIn page, Horrigan-Taylor has also worked on various political campaigns, including the re-election of Gonzales and as the campaign manager for school board member Dan Cunningham in the Dublin school district.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

Redwood City Planning Commissioners are worried a massive six-city block development will worsen the housing-jobs imbalance, and they want to see some alternative plans that balance the project’s homes with the jobs it will create.

Commission members expressed alarm Tuesday over a development of homes, offices and stores that Greystar Real Estate wants to build at 1601 El Camino Real, just north of the Woodside Road-El Camino interchange.

“If we are creating somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 more jobs with this development, but only 200 or so units, we’ll get a lot more commuter traffic coming in,” said resident Stephanie McDonald. McDonald asked the city’s consultants preparing an environmental impact report on the project look at whether the development would create the need for more affordable housing.

Commission Vice Chair Ernie Schmidt said the commission received a handfull of emails about the project, and most expressed concerns about housing and traffic.

Commissioner Rick Hunter said he’d like the environmental report to say how many more homes would need to be built to offset the new employees the project would have.

Greystar is proposing to build 550,143-square-feet of office space, bringing in 2,750 employees, based on the assumption of one worker for every 200 square feet of office space. The proposal also includes plans for 291 apartments, 97 of which will be subsidized.

Assuming two people live in each apartment, 582 people would be living in the new development.

Under that proposal, the ratio of housed residents to jobs would be 582 to 2,750, or 1 to 4.7.

Commissioner Bill Shoe asked that the environmental report offer some alternatives that would increase the housing, even if that means the city would have to change the property’s zoning.

The proposed buildings fronting El Camino would be four stories (70 feet), six stories (66 feet) and seven stories (84 feet) tall, while the remaining four buildings would each be three stories, or 48 feet, in height, according to plans submitted to the city.

Residents can write to the city until Aug. 9 with suggestions as to what ought to be included in the environmental impact report. Emails can be sent to lchan@redwoodcity.org.

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BY JEN NOWELL
Daily Post Correspondent

Stanford is proposing a nine-story, 227,700-square-foot medical office building on Broadway in Redwood City, which, if built, would make it the tallest building in the neighborhood.

The proposal includes demolishing the existing buildings at 500 and 510 Broadway near Douglas Avenue and replacing them with a 147-foot building with underground parking, plus an additional two-story parking garage.

The project would include 1,107 parking spaces in total.

The proposal is part of the Stanford in Redwood City Precise Plan, which was approved by Redwood City Council in 2013.

City officials will be reviewing the project solely for its conformance to the precise plan. Currently, there aren’t any public meetings scheduled with the city and Stanford to discuss the application.

This is the second phase of the project. The first buildings of phase one opened in March, with completion of this phase targeted for the fall.

The first phase included the construction of four office buildings, a cafe and outdoor promenade, a child care center, a parking garage, and an employee wellness center.

Under the approved plan for the 35-acre site, formerly the Mid-Point Technology Park, a building can reach heights of 120 feet if it is set back more than 100 feet from Broadway and more than 200 feet from Highway 101, which backs the project site.

However, a building can exceed the height limit by up to 30 feet, if the city agrees to it. This means the building could be up to 150 feet in height — the proposed building is just over 147 feet tall.

The precise plan allows up to 1.5 million square of office space to be built which includes up to 228,000 square feet for a medical clinic, and up to 152,000 square feet of research and development space.

The campus will accommodate about 2,700 employees, making it the third-largest employer in Redwood City.

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BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

A redeveloped Sequoia Station shopping center in Redwood City could be up to 12 stories tall and have up to 2,500 apartments, according to the city’s zoning plan for the area.

As the Post first reported Aug. 2, Lowe Enterprises of Los Angeles — a developer of housing, hotels and resorts nationwide — is working on plans to redevelop the shopping center at El Camino Real and Jefferson Avenue that would incorporate the existing Safeway and CVS.

Sequoia Station is on the periphery of the area zoned “Mixed Use Downtown,” which allows for up to 12 stories. The city’s zoning plan, called a general plan, suggests that most buildings not in the center of downtown would likely be around eight stories.

A maximum of 500,000 square feet is allowable for office space and another 100,000 square feet of retail is allowable at the site, according to the general plan.

No formal application has been filed with the city’s planning department yet, but Lowe has already had preliminary discussions with the city about redeveloping the site, city spokeswoman Jeanne Sullivan Billeci told the Post.

It appears, based on county filings, that Florida-based Regency Centers still owns the land at Sequoia Station. It was unclear yesterday whether Lowe has been hired by Regency to develop Sequoia Station or if Lowe has optioned the shopping center, being able to buy the land once a project is approved there.

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