Palo Alto city staff are planning to tackle 68 items in 2025, according to a new report from City Manager Ed Shikada.
The list of proposed objectives includes replacing the Newell Road bridge, adopting a plan to eliminate road fatalities and revising the zoning code to allow more height and density for housing developments on El Camino Real.
Additionally, the Palo Alto city staff want to create an assessment district to fund streetscape improvements on University Avenue, evaluating the creation of an affordable housing complex near Matadero Creek, in the Ventura neighborhood and establishing a program that would allow multi-family developments to adopt electric vehicle chargers.
The 68-item list also includes new or revised programs that carry a sense of urgency. These include activating a fire engine at Fire Station 4 near Mitchell Park, enhancing efforts to clean up downtown and developing a new master plan for Cubberley Community Center, a project that council members hope to complete by the end of the year.
One area in which the city hopes to see milestones in the first part of the year is public safety. Despite repeated delays and a protracted feud between the city and its contractor, Swinerton, Palo Alto hopes to complete the $120 million project.
Considered one of the city’s most urgent infrastructure projects by city staff, the Sherman Avenue building will serve as the new headquarters for the Police Department, the Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Services.
In addition to opening the new building, the city plans to create a “business watch” program in which businesses collaborate with a team of at least two officers to reduce crime in prominent commercial areas.
Fire protection will also loom large on the city’s priority list for 2025. Shikada’s list of annual objectives calls for updating the fire management plan for the foothills area and approving a contract for rebuilding Fire Station 4 by this summer.
It also includes adding a fire engine to the Mitchell Park fire station, which has been staffed with only an ambulance since the pandemic.
The absence of a fire engine has alarmed residents in the city’s southeastern quadrant, prompting Fire Department brass to propose a cross-staffing model in which a three-person crew can operate either an ambulance or a fire engine, depending on the nature of the call.
Then there’s flood protection, a topic of concern for residents who live near the unpredictable San Francisquito Creek.
While the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority is reevaluating its plans for a regional project to improve flood protection, Palo Alto officials are charged with implementing one crucial component of that plan: the reconstruction of the Newell Road bridge.
According to the new report, the city plans to award a construction contract for the bridge replacement this spring and to launch construction later in the year.
Council member Keith Reckdahl said the goal is to identify items on which the city wants to make “extraordinary progress” this year.
He said: “There are some things that have a timeline that’s really tight and we have to make progress on this year, and we really need to identify those for staff and really make progress on those.”
According to a new report from City Manager Ed Shikada, the city of Palo Alto are looking at tackling 68 items in 2025. Including replacing the Newell bridge, increasing public safety and increasing fire protection.
