favors for-sale townhomes<\/a>\u00a0at lower densities as opposed to mid-rise apartments. They added that \u201cmodest improvements in development conditions would likely readily enable development of these prototypes in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\nAs for North Fabian Way, the biggest change involves the Maxar site, whose owner is currently seeking a buyer for redevelopment with residential options likely, city staff noted. The Maxar site could yield between 900 and 1,400 homes, according to staff, and could allow for a mix of apartments and townhomes for purchase.<\/p>\n
The 24.5-acre Maxar site could be reconfigured in a variety of ways based on the amount of residential, office, park and retail space. One concept from staff includes a large incubator space on the northernmost part of the parcel near the U.S. Highway 101, with one big park and one smaller one. Another concept reimagines the entire southern portion of the site as a large park with low-density housing along the highway and higher-density facing Fabian Way.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s decision on whether to increase the height limit and density of the sub-area could greatly influence the amount of potential housing, according to staff.<\/p>\n
The final priority sub-area of Commercial Street, Transport Street and Industrial Avenue is characterized by smaller parcels and low-density commercial uses, with a single property owner aggregating numerous non-contiguous parcels. City staff envision transforming the area with high-density, mixed-use development. A key consideration for this sub-area is a proposed development just across the city\u2019s border with Mountain View, which plans for an 11-story office building and an eight-story apartment building with 476 homes. Connectivity between the CTI sub-area and the Mountain View development is critical, staff explained.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Pat Burt and Stone both emphasized the need for Palo Alto to address its jobs-housing imbalance by regulating office development. The most recent numbers from 2023 indicate there are about four jobs per unit of housing in the city, far higher than the national average.<\/p>\n
Burt said he was interested in the city exploring a transfer of development rights to limit office development and increasing housing density where it is more suitable for the area plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I don\u2019t want to see a growth in square footage of office, but replacing existing low-density (research and development) can make sense,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n
Outdoor space is also flexible for the CTI sub-area. Staff are seeking feedback on the size and amount of open space, as well as whether it should face Charleston Road or be placed internally to better cater to the neighborhood that could be created in the sub-area.<\/p>\n
As for housing, the city has the opportunity to increase the height limit to 60 feet, or go as far as increasing heights for the residential to 250 feet and office height to 135 feet, allowing high-rises that could accommodate more than 1,500 homes.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims and Mayor Vicki Veenker seemed open to the high-rise idea near the highway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more interested in going up to get the units we need and create more spaces for parkland and trees,\u201d Lythcott-Haims said. \u201cGoing that extra height where we can stand it might help us get more of that green and that canopy that makes it Palo Alto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmembers spent much of the evening wringing their hands about the traffic impacts that would arise from adding so much housing to one area. San Antonio Road is already notorious for vehicle traffic as is, and the addition of thousands of new residents would only exacerbate that issue, councilmembers said.<\/p>\n
Staff and consultants don\u2019t yet have an idea of the traffic impact because it depends largely on the housing capacity in the area, which is dictated by height and density limits that the council will vote on in June. Veenker described this problem as \u201ctrying to sail a ship while you\u2019re building it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But councilmembers expressed a strong interest in improving the flow of traffic in the area and increasing bicycle and pedestrian connectivity. Burt cautioned that the most extensive transportation demand management plan in the world would not be able to keep up with what is essentially a brand-new neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Retail is another inflection point that the council will decide in June \u2014 that is, whether to require ground-floor retail in the priority sub-areas, or allow fully residential projects without any retail.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Ed Lauing expressed concern that fully optional retail could mean residents of new housing would lack a characteristic neighborhood feel without anywhere to shop, eat or drink.<\/p>\n
The council will have plenty of work to do when it comes to making decisions on each of these policy aspects in June, but for now, the overall message was one of gratitude toward city staff for compiling a cohesive first look at what San Antonio could become in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a really bad place to live right now, but I think down the road it could be a really great place to live,\u201d Councilmember Keith Reckdahl said.<\/p>\n
This story originally appeared in Palo Alto Weekly<\/a>. Riley Cooke is a reporter at Palo Alto Weekly and Palo Alto Online focusing on city government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In some areas, the transformation has already begun. The central San Antonio area, which is between Middlefield and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83,26043],"class_list":{"0":"post-246250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news","11":"tag-top-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SanAntonioRoad_PA_2024_WEB-5.webp.webp\")
San Antonio Road in Palo Alto on March 13, 2024. Photo by Devin Roberts.<\/p>\n