![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9069-678x381.jpg\" "\\"9069\\"\/")
\nThis rendering shows plans for Palo Alto’s Mollie Stone’s market, one of the large developments proposed near a Caltrain station. <\/p>\n
\nThis rendering shows plans for Palo Alto’s Mollie Stone’s market, one of the large developments proposed near a Caltrain station. <\/p>\n
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Neighbors are trying to stop two developments in Palo Alto that are using a new state law that allow taller apartment buildings near Caltrain stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved here to live in Palo Alto, not Manhattan,\u201d resident Dan Mahoney said in an email to council on Friday.<\/p>\n
The city received nine applications for a total of 341 apartments using Senate Bill 79, which requires cities to allow seven-story buildings with a quarter-mile of Caltrain stations and six stories within a half-mile.<\/p>\n
Residents like Mahoney are upset about two projects in particular: a six-story building at 2497 High St. and a four-story building at 340 Palo Alto Ave. Neighbors of the High Street project are worried about having only two parking spaces for 19 apartments in the already crowded Ventura neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cA building of this height will cast longer shadows on to nearby homes, yards and gardens,\u201d said resident Gary Holl, who lives at 200 Colorado Ave.<\/p>\n
The development was proposed by Wei Wu Cheng, 55, of Burlingame, during a two-week window before Palo Alto City Council\u2019s limits on SB79 took effect on July 16.<\/p>\n
Realtor Celeste Johnson said the development \u201cwill ruin the current residential character of the neighborhood and will definitely adversely impact home values.\u201d Resident Ilya Veygman is taking the opposite position from her neighbors after one of them encouraged her to try to stop the development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIgnore the haters and build, build, build,\u201d Veygman said in an email to council.<\/p>\n
Building near the creek<\/p>\n
Neighbors of the Palo Alto Avenue project don\u2019t like how six new condos would get built near the San Francisquito Creek.<\/p>\n
\u201cA project of this scale raises serious concerns about exacerbating flood risk for neighboring properties,\u201d resident Sophia Xu said in an email to council.<\/p>\n
Neighbors are also concerned about the building\u2019s height, losing old oak trees and that the condos won\u2019t be affordable.<\/p>\n
The property is currently owned by Darel Robert Chapman, 61, and Elu Chapman, 65, of San Mateo. They\u2019ve listed the property for $6.3 million, marketing the \u201crare development potential\u201d north of downtown Palo Alto.<\/p>\n
Limited discretion<\/p>\n
In an interview on Tuesday, Councilman Pat Burt said the city has limited discretion in denying SB79 projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s very little that council can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Burt encouraged residents to speak with state legislators. He called SB79 \u201can arbitrary piece of legislation that was designed as one size fits all out of Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This rendering shows plans for Palo Alto’s Mollie Stone’s market, one of the large developments proposed near a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-315608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}