Officials hope for community gathering space with county center construction
Blog note: this article references grand jury reports.
Honoring the county’s role in shaping technological innovation and rich natural history are among the goals officials have discussed in scoping a design for the five- to seven-story building expected to provide space for more than 600 employees on the downtown Redwood City block around which county government buildings are clustered.
Noting the project’s location in the heart of Redwood City and the county’s role in the region’s growth in technology and business, Supervisor David Canepa emphasized its potential to shape what Silicon Valley will look like in the decades to come. Canepa said actions to improve the setting where residents go for government services are long overdue as the county campus buildings like the Hall of Justice, which was built in 1954 and houses the Board of Supervisors’ meeting chambers, county employee offices and courtrooms, have aged.
“The residents of the county, the workers who work in the building deserve a place that represents what San Mateo County is all about,” he said. “When you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a world-class building, if the county does not seize on this opportunity or if we do something that’s subpar, it does not serve the residents nor does it serve the workers.”
Across Marshall Street on the back side of the San Mateo County History Museum, the project site makes it ripe to become a destination for San Mateo County residents, said Canepa, who added the building’s innovative design could go a long way toward sending a message that residents can receive county services in a friendly environment.
Having served on a committee to review the plans alongside Canepa, Supervisor Don Horsley is also looking to an architectural design featuring natural sunlight and wood elements to represent the county’s rich natural history.
The project is one of several included in a $700 million, five-year capital plan the Board of Supervisors approved last year, including IT improvements, new facilities and projects in the county’s Parks and Public Works departments. Horsley noted plans for the new building have long been in the works, in part to absorb the relocation of several hundred administrative employees working at the county’s Health System Campus in San Mateo as a project to seismically retrofit structures there unfolds. The $100 million project will require the demolition of two buildings as part of state-mandated seismic retrofits.
Combined with pressure from the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury to reduce the number of properties the county is renting, Horsley found the decision to build a new building to be as much aspirational as it is practical. According to 2017 report on the capital improvement plan, consolidating and relocating county workers could save the county up to $42 million in rent over the next 10 years.
“We’re finally in a good position to be able to do it and … we’re also pressed to do it at the same time,” said Horsley.
By taking up half of the block bounded by Hamilton Street, Marshall Street and Middlefield Road, the project will require the relocation of the historic Lathrop House to a lot adjacent to the back of the history museum across the street. Bazan said relocation of the county’s traffic and small claims building adjacent to the Lathrop House is also being considered in the plans, though officials are still in discussions of how the county’s services can best be arranged in the new facilities.
A new 800- to 1,200-space parking garage built on top of the current surface jury parking lot is expected to provide parking for the new building. Bazan said the increasing cost of construction and a new policy to ensure the facilities are energy efficient may increase cost estimates, which stood at $86.8 million for the new building, $36.5 million for the parking structure and $900,000 for the relocation of the Lathrop House in a Feb. 27 version of the five-year capital improvement plan.
The plan also estimated the Lathrop House relocation to take place in the summer of 2018 as well as completion dates of spring of 2021 for the new building and fall of 2020 for the parking structure.
Bazan and Horsley looked to feedback from an upcoming April 24 study session with the Board of Supervisors and upcoming discussions with Redwood City officials and residents to further shape the plans. Acknowledging some may have concerns about the size of the budget for the projects, Canepa said the last thing he would want to do with an opportunity to redefine the county center for years to come is cut corners.
“This is going to take an investment,” he said. “It’s going to take resources and if we make the right decision in how we appropriate the resources, we can surely have a world-class building that reflects technology, that reflects innovation, that reflects transparency in government.”
April 9, 2018
The Daily Journal
By Anna Schuessler
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