ECR. el camino real master plan. settings and opportunities. The City of San Mateo SMWM. Adopted by the San Mateo City Council September 18, 2001

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1 ECR el camino real master plan settings and opportunities Adopted by the San Mateo City Council September 18, 2001 The City of San Mateo SMWM

3 el camino real master plan settings and opportunities 1 executive summary page 01 2 history of el camino page 05 3 land use page 11 4 market analysis page 21 5 policies and regulations page 29 6 urban design framework page 37 7 mobility and access page 55 8 potential and opportunities page 65

5 executive summary

6 SETTINGS AND OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is the first in a series of reports that will, together with larger scale plans, form the El Camino Real Master Plan. This first report defines the issues and opportunities on El Camino and sets the stage for the public workshops and meetings that will develop the design concepts for El Camino. The study area for the El Camino project extends from the 92 Interchange on the northern edge, to the Belmont border in the south. This three-mile section provides a strong retail-commercial base that can be viewed as three sub-areas, centering around 25th Avenue, Hillsdale Shopping Center, and Bel-Mateo. The report begins by exploring the evolution of El Camino as the historic corridor that spread Spanish Colonialism throughout North and South America. San Mateo was one of the last legs in northern California, "guarding" the northern edge of Spanish Colonialism in America. The evolution of San Mateo is intimately tied to changes that have occurred along El Camino. Starting as a small mid-point settlement between the San Jose and San Francisco Missions, San Mateo grew into a small town with a train stop downtown along the Southern Pacific Railroad. The suburban expansion and the building of the regional freeway system ultimately altered these forms as San Mateo grew into one of the largest suburbs along the San Francisco Peninsula. The individual sub-areas along El Camino are further defined by distinct districts that function independently from each other. Each of these districts is presented in terms of how the public interacts with the built form as well as the predominant type of (commercial) land use. The study area is also defined through the "generators" that draw people into the area from the immediate neighborhoods and the surrounding suburban communities. The primary sources of these regional-generators are the Hillsdale Shopping Center and the Bay Meadows race track, while 25th Avenue and the Bel- Mateo commercial nodes function more as neighborhood shopping districts. The market analysis describes an economically healthy El Camino, pointing to excellent transportation access, low vacancies, strong rents and signs of investment within the study area. The analysis also details some of the commercial functions that the corridor performs, from office space to business and support services to regional shopping. The analysis describes this economic health within the study area as being able to support new development along El Camino, but there are development factors in today's market, such as the minimum parcel size required and government policies such as stringent parking requirements, that pose challenges to growth and redevelopment within the study area. The policies and regulations section explores how these requirements affect physical form. El Camino is regulated through multiple jurisdictions including Caltrans, SamTrans, and the City of San Mateo. The City's policies reflect a concern for the physical form of the street, regulating the parking requirement, height standards, front property set-backs, and overall street image. These issues and their associated policies are in contrast to the many regional and state policies that concentrate on the capability of El Camino to carry traffic and goods throughout the Peninsula. The urban design framework provides a visual summary of the physical environment along El Camino. Documenting the street right-of-way and its myriad components, the urban design analysis illustrates how El Camino functions as a physical divider within San Mateo, while also being the working backbone of the community as it is the only north-south link. The physical character of the street is marked by the variety and generally low scale of the architecture which weakly defines the street. A visual catalogue of the various types of buildings found on El Camino addresses how the buildings and their associated parking relate to the street pointing to the predominance of parking and 1 El Camino Real Master Plan SMWM

7 SETTINGS AND OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY auto-oriented building typologies within the study area. The character of the street is also strongly defined by a generally poor pedestrian environment marked by minimal sidewalk areas and neglected street furniture. The transportation analysis explores the way people move along El Camino through a variety of modes: automobile, transit and pedestrian, as well as examining the way the parking is used in the area. The traffic figures show the larger volumes in the north of the study area near the 92 ramps, with the volumes decreasing somewhat to the south. A small increase is found near the underpass at Hillsdale, but the traffic counts also show that only a small amount of the overall traffic is passing under Hillsdale and travelling the entire stretch of the corridor. This suggests that a significant amount of the traffic generated on El Camino in this area is due to local destinations in the study area as opposed to through traffic. This report closes with an introduction of some of the potential and opportunities that are present along El Camino. This final section is designed to jump-start the thinking process as the committee moves forward into exploring the Master Plan for El Camino. 2 El Camino Real Master Plan SMWM

8 SETTINGS AND OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EL CAMINO REAL COMMITTEE: EL CAMINO TECHNICAL COMMITTEE: Mike Berube...Committee Chair Pauline Turski...Vice Chair Larry Atkinson Scott Bottari Stephen Brothers Chris Carstens Georgette Guerra Karen Herrel Sue Lempert Dave Lyons Art Mangold Celiane Milner Carol Moore Frances R. Nelson Charles Perry Barbara St. Martin Maxine Terner...Alternate Robert Webster...Alternate CITY STAFF: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT: planning division Mary Gallagher...Chief of Planning Aarti Shrivastava...Associate Planner DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS: Darla Reams...City Engineer Gary Heap...Associate Engineer CONSULTANT TEAM: SMWM design & management Karen Alschuler...Principal-in-Charge Evan Rose...Project Manager David Schellinger...Urban Designer JAY WOOD CLAIBORNE URBAN REVITALIZATION AND URBAN DESIGN design & policy : Jay Claiborne...Principal MUNDIE AND ASSOCIATES economic & market analysis Suzanne Lampert...Vice President OPTRANS Transportation Analysis: Larry Patterson...Principal 3 El Camino Real Master Plan SMWM

el camino real master plan

el camino real master plan Adopted by the San Mateo City Council September 18, 2001 The City of San Mateo SMWM el camino real master plan 0 executive summary page 001 1 issues and opportunities page 005