REIMAGINING SEQUOIA STATION
Connecting People and Places
With the redevelopment of the Sequoia Station Shopping Center, Redwood City has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine neighborhood retail, provide much-needed affordable housing, and connect residents through exemplary public realm and transportation improvements.
Redwood City’s Missing Puzzle Piece
Sequoia Station today is a frequently-used neighborhood shopping center that provides critical shopping services to Redwood City residents and access to Caltrain, but it is also outdated and car-centric. There is no easy route to walk or bike to Sequoia Station retailers, the Caltrain station, or Redwood City’s downtown entertainment district from the west.
Sequoia Station is the puzzle piece we need to connect existing neighborhoods to Downtown and the Entertainment District across the Caltrain tracks. This critical piece will convert parking lots to walkable public realm, create green open space and activated retail, and develop high impact housing and commercial space adjacent to a future modern Caltrain station.
Sequoia Station will complete the puzzle that connects people and places – Neighborhoods to Downtown.
Sequoia Station Reimagined
Connecting People Beyond Buildings
Sequoia Station’s redevelopment unlocks the opportunity to create a new level of connectivity in central Redwood City – connecting people and places through an inspirational public realm. Initial concepts for a new Sequoia Station fit into the City’s broader vision for Central Redwood City and its transit-connected future, with a focus on creating a seamless relationship between the City’s pedestrian-friendly entertainment district, a multi-modal Sequoia Station, El Camino Real, and its established neighborhoods. Critical services that residents depend on, including Safeway and CVS, will be maintained and open while Sequoia Station Shopping Center is reimagined to become the neighborhood shopping center for the future.
It would also allow Redwood City and Caltrain to plan and build for the future by providing critical land for future track expansion and electrification, as well as integrate with regional Cross Bay (Dumbarton) planning efforts to connect the Peninsula and East Bay. The redevelopment of Sequoia Station is required for this critical transportation expansion.
Community Benefits - Creating Place
Sequoia Station, which is a part of Redwood City’s Transit District planning efforts, will provide important community benefits and includes all of the City’s strategic priorities – Housing, Transportation and Children and Youth – with Equity, Inclusion and Sustainability all top of mind. The redevelopment of Sequoia Station would expand Redwood City’s downtown core by putting housing, retail, childcare, and a transit-focused job center directly on rail.
Lowe has partnered with Eden Housing to directly respond to the identified community need to provide as much affordable housing as possible at the deepest levels of affordability – a key priority within Redwood City. The project would provide important community benefits, including both market-rate housing and hundreds of much-needed affordable (very low and low income) housing units. Redwood City residents would also enjoy new walkable and family-friendly retail and entertainment, inviting public open spaces, walkable and bikeable streets that connect downtown to the neighborhoods, on-site childcare, and a vastly improved and activated shopping and parking experience. The opportunities Sequoia Station’s redevelopment unlocks are truly one-of-a-kind.
- Redevelopment unlocks critical transportation improvements
- Dedication of over 1-acre of land along the train tracks for Caltrain to implement their 2040 Business Plan track infrastructure and a future Downtown Redwood City Caltrain station
- Creation of underground, structured parking in order to eliminate car-centric surface parking lots and reduced parking ratios for office and residential uses based on shared use and proximity to transit
- Implementation of the El Camino Real Corridor Plan bike lanes and Safe Streets creating multi-modal connectivity for bikes and pedestrians
- Bike Barn – Public commuter bike storage
- Revised to include more housing – from 225 homes up to 625 homes
- 200-240 affordable homes directly on-site
- More affordable units than required by City requirements – approximately 35%
- Deeper affordability and large homes to meet needs of families
- Mixed-income community
- Premier affordable housing location on transit
- Potential for up to 900 homes in the Transit District overall
- Approximately 10,000 SF on-site childcare
- Youth and family-friendly retail, dining, and play areas such as bowling and bocce
- Creation of new community and family gathering and public open spaces, including a central plaza larger than the Courthouse Square
- Improved bikes lanes and new, walkable streets
- Critical connectivity between Sequoia Station, nearby neighborhoods and the Downtown Entertainment District
- Up to 175,000 SF of next-generation, activated neighborhood-serving retail
- Upgraded Safeway and CVS stores that will remain open throughout construction
- Outdoor dining that fronts public plaza
- Art walk
- Four blocks of transit-served office space – approximately 1.25 million SF total
- Where tenants want to locate – on transit and in Downtown
- Office development subsidizes and enables community benefits
- Un-paralleled environmental sustainability and supports transit ridership
- Planning for Redwood City’s future and fiscal stability
- Promotes transit expansion and use to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips
- Mixed-use development for a live/work/play lifestyle that minimizes dependency on cars
- Green building best practices: LEED, FitWel, GreenPoint
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The redevelopment of Sequoia Station is a transformational opportunity to collaborate between project developers (Lowe and Eden Housing), property owners (Regency, Safeway and SamTrans), Caltrain, Redwood City and the community. Multiple retail tenants, transit partners, property owners and development stakeholders are aligned in this moment to reinvent Sequoia Station and the Redwood City Transit District.
Connecting People | Activating Places | Thinking Beyond Buildings
Downtown Transit District Planning Process
At Redwood City’s January 13, 2020 City Council meeting, a Strategic Plan was adopted identifying Housing, Transportation and Children and Youth as the City’s top priorities. The City Council also directed staff to launch a community planning process to 1) update the previous Downtown Precise Plan (DTPP) through a Central Redwood City planning effort, and 2) prioritize studying a sub-district called the Transit District Area Plan. The redevelopment of Sequoia Station is central to the city’s work around the Transit District Area Plan – in fact, Sequoia Station, together with the adjacent Caltrain property, comprises the large majority of the District. Future Caltrain track and station expansion at Sequoia Station requires the demolition of structures that currently house CVS and Safeway. The redevelopment of Sequoia Station enables a win-win to expand transportation while keeping these critical service retailers.
In the Fall of 2020, the City of Redwood City launched a virtual community workshop process to gather input for the Downtown Transit District. They received hundreds of responses to their public input survey and we have modified the original proposal to further focus on this feedback and the city’s priorities.
We Are Listening
Sequoia Station will conform with the future Transit District Area Plan; therefore, the project will evolve during the Transit District Area Plan process. Throughout this city-driven process, we remain committed to proactively seeking community feedback and will continue to update our plans to reflect the needs and priorities of the community.
The latest project plans reflect community feedback in the following ways:
- Tiered buildings to have a range of heights on each block, at or below the Downtown Precise Plan, featuring a robust mixed-use plan with retail, housing, office, daycare, and public plazas
- A mixed income community: Increasing the total number of homes and integrating market rate, workforce, and affordable housing on site
- Maintaining the retail parking ratio with secure parking located underground in order to keep the ground level bike and pedestrian focused
- Maintaining the retail square footage, including keeping Safeway and CVS open through construction and relocating them into new, modernized spaces once the first phase is complete
- Working with all the onsite tenants to see how to best meet their needs.
Local and Regional Planning
Redwood City has the potential to be a regional hub that connects San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay – while maintaining its identity and the integrity of surrounding neighborhoods. Putting jobs directly on transit, enabling future rail as well as station upgrades, creating vibrant and walkable retail that connects to Downtown, and providing much needed affordable housing at Sequoia Station are all key to unlocking this opportunity.
Click on the links below for more information on how this project reflects both the local and the broader regional landscape on the Peninsula: