Wendy's Condo Development: Commission Rejects Plan For Three More Apartments

The Planning Commission on Monday turned down a proposal by the developer of a to add three more apartment units.

The project would replace the Wendy’s on El Camino Real, and it requires 15 percent, or eight units, to be priced at below-market rate to comply with state affordable housing laws.

Edwin Law, principal of Pinewave Development, said he requested to add three units to the 51-unit floor plan to offset the cost of providing below-market rate units.

City Planner David Petrovich said a traffic analysis would have to be completed to justify the additional units.

The crux of the issue came down to parking.

Law said he would fall five parking spaces short with three extra units and wanted to know if the commission would be open to a plan to share parking with the commercial condominium owners.

The project envisions nine office or retail units along the ground floor and two levels of parking.

Commissioners suggested utilizing stacked parking but Law said that wasn’t a viable option for a suburban city like Millbrae.

Law proposed keeping the building in the same footprint but fitting one extra, two-bedroom unit on each floor by shrinking the other units slightly.

“It’s really nice that you are able to do it in the same footprint,” said Chairwoman Catherine Quigg. “But it looks to me that since we are getting so dense that I guess we would have to have a traffic analysis.”

Quigg said she was concerned about the cumulative effect of traffic on busy intersections like Millbrae Avenue and El Camino Real.

Petrovich said the project could reduce the required parking for the commercial portion of the project by five parking spaces if Law committed to office space, since the project is within 800 feet of the BART station.

Law said he was fine with the traffic study but he didn’t want to be restricted to just office space. He said if the commission didn’t approve his shared parking concept then he would go back to the original 51-unit plan.

Commissioner Lorrie Kalos-Gunn said she liked having the higher density in the project. “This is exactly what we were looking for when the specific plan was developed,” she said.

Commissioners Quigg and John Walker were in favor of keeping the original plan, so the commission rejected Law’s revisions.

Since Law couldn't get support for shared parking, the architect will draw up plans based on the original 51-unit floor plan.