City of Burlingame -Quality of Life Issues

By Donna Colson

In this document I provide questions and answers that pertain to quality of life issues that face our residents daily. My goal as a Council member is to work with our local partners as well as county and state agencies to keep Burlingame a charming and safe place to live.

Burlingame is presently updating its General Plan and I would encourage the evaluation of housing development in areas such as Rollins Road (for live/work) that would appeal to entry level workers such as the ones that I employ in my small business. As we look to develop City owned lands and as we manage the Planning process, I would like to see more affordable home ownership options and more affordable housing options for seniors and retirees. As for workforce housing, we must make sure that the AMI criteria fit the compensation ranges paid for local teachers, and city staff. The key to this work is communication, community support and developing options that fit the nature of Burlingame.

Since affordable housing development costs are similar to market rate housing. We must create policies that help pay for the affordable housing. For example, extra height or density creates value for a developer and then in return, we can request a higher percentage of affordable units. Other ideas include, tax-increment bond financing scenarios, as well as creative public finance alternatives could be used to facilitate lower interest loans, lower down payment requirements and other incentives for both first-time homebuyers and developers. During the first ten years of my career, I had the opportunity to work on several of these plans for many government agencies, pension funds and private investors. Again, the success of this work is predicated on having an excellent planning commission that can evaluate the projects relative to the zoning policies while working to ensure that the character of the development fits the charm and nature of Burlingame.

2. How would you mitigate gentrification as a result of these developments?

Burlingame enjoys a diverse housing stock and commercial real estate pool that has typically attracted a range of residents from different socio-economic backgrounds. When new housing construction occurs on undeveloped or commercial property areas, there is typically no displacement of residents (although business displacement may occur). For construction that does displace residents (even temporarily), we can work to help those tenants find temporary housing or even other permanent housing. If we are building housing on city owned property, I would support first rights of refusal to those displaced tenants.

2. Will you prioritize affordable housing on public lands? Please explain your positions.

If Burlingame commits public land to housing development, there should be benefits to a wide range of the community. Public parking would be one important element as would open space (such as small parks or green areas for public art), and the housing should match the aesthetic of Burlingame. In addition, if we can work with a developer to include affordable housing using tax credits and other public subsidies available to make the project feasible, then I would support adding affordable housing elements especially for seniors and retirees. In doing this, I would also want to include neighbors, businesses, and the schools in the conversation to understand the impact of increased traffic and density on the local infrastructure.

3. What are your views on tenant protections such as rent control and just cause evictions?

Having lived in Berkeley and San Francisco, two rent controlled cities, and having studied this topic extensively during my MBA and real estate consulting years, my personal experience and professional judgement is that there are adverse, unintended consequences that create undue pressures on the housing market when both rent control and just cause evictions are in place. My preference is to work with our leadership in San Mateo County so that we can develop a comprehensive plan for managing growth and housing on the Peninsula.

4. How would you support the creation of additional childcare centers/slots for working families?

As a full-time working mother of two, childcare is a very important issue for me. We used Burlingame's highly regarded PalCare center and also the Burlingame Park and Recreation's Village Park Preschool for both of our children. I would fully support the creation of additional childcare centers or slots for working families.

Over the past two years, I have worked with Melissa Mendoza, founder of a small Spanish immersion daycare center to help her find additional space for expansion and it has proven nearly impossible due to zoning restrictions on many properties that she might consider. I have also personally supported and toured with great interest The Avalon Academy (located in Burlingame) that works with some of our most severely disabled children to learn about their needs and requirements.

These incredible women need our support and assistance to continue and expand their work for local families in need of daycare and specialized childcare. My ideas include: working with these small businesses to obtain Conditional Use Permits that facilitate expansion, working with our local banks to provide small business loans if needed, helping them manage the governmental requirements for their services, and even helping provide more space in new office development set aside for daycare.

Personally, my family is committed to helping working parents find a safe, affordable place for their children and teenagers. My small business is a local indoor sports center and we provide very affordable camps (and scholarships for needy families) during summer and school holidays. We have a youth leadership program to keep young teens occupied in the summer and we are now working to help a local charter school set up a recreation program since they do not have a gym.

Finally, the potential redevelopment of the Burlingame Community Center affords a wonderful opportunity for our community to expand our early child learning and care options and I would fully support these efforts.

5. What efforts to improve access to reliable, affordable and frequently running transportation do you support?

Burlingame is fortunate to have a wonderful public transportation infrastructure and the public should be made better aware of how to use it. We currently have a variety of shuttle services that serve the airport, hotels, and our Broadway commercial corridor. It would be great to expand those shuttles to include Burlingame Avenue as a second commerce hub. One way to do this would be to work with SAMTRANS that sponsors a ½ C sales tax to increase shuttle and other public transportation and apply to extend our shuttle service from BART to Burlingame Avenue in addition to Broadway. I would also like to see the reinstatement of an EAST/WEST shuttle. This would be quite beneficial for seniors who live in the Burlingame Hills.

I would also focus on working with our schools and parent education programs to teach students and their families how to use public transportation more effectively. I have been involved in our local parent education work for over ten years and we have never done public transportation options information sessions at BIS or BHS. We could reach out to our local private and public schools and create a public transportation education module that helps parents gain confidence in the system (and understanding) and makes it fun for the kids to learn + smart phone apps and contests are great ways to engage students.

6. How will you promote sustainable and equitable transit-oriented communities?

Burlingame has two important commercial corridors that are within biking and walking distance of many homes. Creating housing and businesses that can easily access these corridors is one way to promote more sustainability. I opened my small business across the street from the BART station so that my employees and clients could use public transit. I would also encourage residents to shop local rather than getting in a car and heading to the mall. We are working right now on ways to promote local businesses via our Park and Recreation Foundation. These types of creative and fun ideas will help promote sustainable and equitable transit--oriented communities that reduce traffic congestion.