San Bruno CA: State of the City Address - Part 1 of 2 Parts

The San Bruno Chamber of Commerce included Mayor Jim Ruane’s State of the City address

Part 1 of 2 – State of the City - Part 2 at

http://patch.com/california/sanbruno/san-bruno-ca-state-city-part-2-2

Good afternoon, I am Jim Ruane the very proud Mayor of the wonderful City of San Bruno and I am very pleased to be here today to celebrate and congratulate the new San Bruno Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and to share some of the highlights of the City of San Bruno’s activities and accomplishments of the past year and what we can look forward to in 2016.

Before I go any further, I would like to take a moment to thank the Chamber of Commerce and each of you for your continuing support to San Bruno. I know that you are each proud of our community and working together I know we can continue to accomplish great things.

We have our entire City Council together here today, so I would like to recognize each of them for their tireless work on behalf of our community. Irene O’Connell, Rico Medina and Ken Ibarra. And of course our City Clerk Carol Bonner. For those of you who have not already met San Bruno’s newest City Council member, I would like to introduce Vice Mayor Marty Medina. Vice Mayor Medina joined the City Council just last month following the recent November, 2015 election in the seat filled since 2009 by former Vice Mayor Michael Salazar. As we welcome Vice Mayor Medina, I also want to recognize Vice Mayor Salazar for his service during an especially important and productive time in our City’s history. We appreciate his contributions to our progress over the last year and before.

Talking about the recent November election, the voters’ approval of Measures R and U sets the stage to assure that the City will continue to be served by persons with professional qualifications and capability in the important positions of City Clerk and City Treasurer. Approval of the two ballot measures means that beginning at the end of the current incumbents’ terms in 2017, the City will use a recruitment and selection process similar to that we now use to select our professional staff to appoint the City Clerk and Treasurer instead of using the election process which only requires that candidates be 18 years of age and residents of San Bruno.

You may remember that last year I reported on the then recent approval of Measure N on the November, 2014 ballot that approved new development standards that are critical to the City’s ability to implement and realize the vision for transformation of the community’s downtown and business areas as they are set out in the City’s Transit Corridors Plan. We are already off to a good start with two new projects in the Corridor area now approved and entitled.

At the former cinema site, right at the southern gateway to our downtown, the new San Bruno Plaza project will begin rising out of the ground in a few months. In July the City Council and others gathered with Saris Regis Company to celebrate the start of demolition of the former San Bruno Cinema building, once a community fixture and more recently a deteriorated eyesore. Demolition was completed in August to make way for the exciting Plaza project, a three story complex with 83 new residential units and 7,000 square feet of new retail space. This vibrant new transit-oriented development will offer amenities for bicycle enthusiasts and close, convenient connections to transit for those new residents who do not happen to work right here in San Bruno. Completion and occupancy is still about 18 months away, but the start of construction this spring will be tangible evidence of the San Bruno’s exciting future.

A second new project in the Transit Corridor Plan area was just approved by the City Council two short blocks above El Camino Real. Here, a new 2-story, 15,268 square foot building will be constructed to house medical offices and a kidney dialysis center to serve what we understand is a big need in our region. Demolition of the existing 10,000 square foot existing medical office building is expected by late summer this year, with construction to commence by the end of the year. We look forward to welcoming the new occupants in late 2017.

Elsewhere in the Transit Corridors area, the City is receiving an increasing number of inquiries and preliminary proposals for development or redevelopment of properties that now have increased potential under the new Measure N development standards. Perhaps most exciting are the plans being developed for redevelopment of the former First National Bank building in the heart of the Transit Corridor directly across the street from our new CalTrain station on San Bruno Ave. The property has recently been sold to a new owner who is working closely with our staff and adjacent property owners to consider a new transit oriented mixed use residential and commercial project.

Overall, 2015 continued to show strength in the business and development areas in San Bruno. One of the indicators of the strength of the economic environment is the number of building permits we issued. During 2015, the City issued a total of 1,523 building permits. This is up from 1,122 just a few years ago at the depth of the recent recession. The largest increase was in the residential sector, where we have seen a rise from 239 residential alteration, or remodel permits in 2009 to 580 in 2015. The number of permits issued for commercial alterations, tenant improvements for new businesses in existing buildings and the like rose during the same time period from 55 to 86.

Business investment in San Bruno continues to be very strong. During the past year, not only did YouTube complete interior improvements at its headquarters location at 901 Cherry, it also acquired two existing office buildings at 900 and 1000 Cherry. YouTube has also completed interior renovation to the office buildings and has increased its presence in San Bruno by an additional 1,200 employees. Also in the Bayhill Office Park, Walmart.com acquired a 103,000 square foot building on Elm and completed a full remodel in 2015 to accommodate approximately 600 new employees.

This isn’t the only development in the Office Park, San Francisco Police Credit Union will be at the City’s Planning Commission next to seek entitlement for construction of its new three story office building. This new building, on the 1.7 acre site of the former TGI Fridays is planned to house the Credit Union’s offices in 66,800 square feet with two levels of subterranean parking. We look forward to seeing the start of construction for this project. Assuming approval of the project, construction could begin as soon as late this year with completion and occupancy in early 2018.

The project that is most exciting is the proposed hotel at The Crossing that will not only fulfill a long-held community dream, but will create a signature gateway to the City and help ensure San Bruno’s long-term economic vitality. In September the City formally adopted an amendment to the U.S. Navy Site and its Environs Specific Plan (Specific Plan) to support the development of the hotel project. The City is now working with OTO, one of the primary hotel development companies in our area to complete final review and approval for the new 143 room select service hotel with 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space that will accommodate up to 300 people at weddings, meetings, parties and other events on the remaining 1.5-acre site within The Crossing development. The project is planned to meet a high standard of energy efficiency with rooftop solar panels and two natural gas shuttles to pick up and drop off hotel patrons. Once the entitlement process is complete, in the next few months, construction could begin this year. And I would like to add that despite some unwarranted controversy and innuendo regarding the financing of this project this Council has always had as its highest priority the interests of the one group of people we serve and hold in the highest esteem, the Citizens of San Bruno.

But it is not just private investment and development that moves our community forward and increases our vitality. The past year marked the initiation of two great new infrastructure initiatives for San Bruno with the conversion of all of the City’s approximately 2,100 street lights to new state of the art energy efficient fixtures and the installation of new “smart” water meters throughout the community. In total the City Council has committed new investment of over $7 million in City Capital resources. The new Light Emitting Diode or “LED” lamp fixtures not only greatly improves visibility for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists and create a safer environment with brighter, white light illumination, the fixtures are long-lasting and durable offering a decrease in outages and maintenance costs. The City’s $1 million cost for this project will be covered by electricity cost savings over the next 9-10 years and reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions forwards the City’s commitment to environmental protection.

The following is the schedule for the airing of the State of the City Address on Channel 1 throughout the rest of the month of January:

M-F 10am

M-Sat 1pm

Sun, Mon, Wed. and Sat. 9pm