As time has gone by, the County has approved this, that or the other land use in our area as a way of placating developers while "growing" the community.  The approach has been piecemeal. There hasn't been any kind of grand vision, as you might think would be appropriate for a densely-developed urban community of nearly 100,000 people. The last time the County attempted anything even vaguely resembling a vision was 1980, when it adoped the Arden Arcade Community Plan. Of course, that was a case of shutting the barn door long after the cows had left the barn. Our community went from zero to sixty when McClellan Field became an important west coast WWII facility (it once employed more than 4K military personnel and 17K civilians) and afterwards as a vibrant post-WWII suburb. The place was pretty much built out well before the County's plan for our area was written. But that was 45 years ago.

Since then our community has, arguably, sufffered from a thousand cuts: convert that former house to an auto dealership, allow a code exemption here, give a variance (usually an illegal one) there, etc. Somewhere along the line, the property on the north side of El Camino between Bell and Wright was seen as viable commercial property. Eventually, the school across the street became a charter school that is a magnet for parents from hither and yon who drive their kids to and from the school, causing significant traffic problems twice a day by queueing in the "No Stopping" zone along that stretch of the street. By now, the commercial properties have fallen out of favor and the "housing crisis" has grown larger than life.

So along comes a proposal to convert the shuttered offices right across the street from Aspire School's main driveway to nine apartments. Naturally the county's Zoning Ordinance sees that as a "Minor Use Permit" in the "Business and Professional Zone". There will be no environmental analysis. In other words, no big deal. So, as learned on short notice by the handful of nearby residents the county saw fit to tell, the old land use mistake (tweaking that part of El Camino for small offices) is slated to become a new land use mistake. Why, you might ask, is converting that commercial property to multi-unit housing, a mistake? Well, maybe because, among other things:

• The location is a dumb place for yet another a small apartment building. 
• Residents there will have to use cars to go anywhere, since El Camino Ave. and its immediate surroundings are neither pedestrian-friendly nor bicycle friendly. 
• Transit "service" there is not really valid.
• That stretch of El Camino is more or less a raceway. It can be really noisy and polluted.
• Neither the charter school across the street nor the adjoining church property can be reached safely or easily. Going there from the apartments requires long walks and significant wait time to cross El Camino at either Bell or Fulton.
• There are no park facilities handy to the site. The nearest parks are 1/2 to 1 mile away, across major streets, and require walking where there are no sidewalks.

Beyond those problems are two other major considerations. First, the County has proven it cannot ensure that apartments in the area, such as those at Wright and Marconi, can be kept up. Also, the County has consistently demonstrated that - despite its nicey-nice talk to the contrary - there is no systematic plan to convert commercial property to housing or to promote mixed-use (residental+commercial) developments, even when appropriate  opportunities present themselves.

Sadly, the proposal to convert the old office buildings to apartments is just a way for the County to check a box about complying with state law for affordable housing, while also enabling a quick buck for the developer.  Opponents will quickly be branded as NIMBYs, with the majority of the name-callers being people who don't live here and don't know our community. This proposal is really just another bandaid to make it look like the County has things under control, b ut it is really just more of the same old steam-rolling. Something is better than nothing. The people proposing the project and those making the decision to approve it are not part of the Arden Arcade community. Only the voice of the site's property owner will be heard. The property values of other property owners in the immediate vicinity will be disregarded. Our community doesn't really matter.  Other people are smarter than you and they know what's best for you. Shut up and trust them. Everyone should just stay home, be quiet, and watch TV or something.