Residents of San Mateo neighborhood divided over historical designation
Residents of the Baywood neighborhood in San Mateo are sharply divided over whether it should be designated a historic place.
As Laurie Hietter walks through San Mateo's Baywood neighborhood, the place she's called home for decades, she admires the architecture and the feel of the old San Mateo neighborhood. She says preserving it is a top priority.
"This area has been intact for almost 100 years," she said. "Then, all of a sudden in the last year, four homes have been demolished and new homes built that were not at all in keeping with the neighborhood."
She is the president of the San Mateo Heritage Alliance. About three weeks ago, she and a group of neighbors recently filed an application to the State Historical Resources Commission - in the hopes of getting the Baywood neighborhood designated as a historic place.
"So much has been torn down for progress. This is just 2% of the city that we'd like to keep," she said. "Baywood meets the criteria based upon the history as a railroad and streetcar commuter suburb - but it's also a unique combination of highly intact architectural buildings."
But on a walk through the neighborhood, you can't miss bright yellow signs posted in numerous yards - and there are a lot of them - that say "No Baywood Historic District," as not everyone who lives there is on board with the idea - like Frank Elliott, Andrew Ryan, and Eleanore Dogan.
Elliott, who's also called Baywood home for decades, believes this would curb individual property rights and design decisions.
"It seems grossly unfair that a small group of people, not elected, who've decided on their own that they want to make this district historic - and they're going to tie the hands of everybody who lives here and all of the future owners who live here," he said. "It's a small group of people bypassing our elected officials, bypassing the homeowners, and deciding for us that we can't change the exterior of our homes. That's fundamentally what bothers me. I can survive whatever happens here, but this fundamentally doesn't seem right to me."
He and his neighbors think the move isn't only about aesthetics. In 2021, lawmakers passed SB 9 as a way to help increase housing availability, which affords homeowners the ability to build up to four residential units on a single-family lot.
"If it becomes a historic district, this will exempt us from the requirements of SB 9 and 10, so we think that is part of the motivation," he said.
On the FAQ section of the San Mateo Heritage Alliance website, they state the following:
How does state law affect the Baywood neighborhood?
Recently enacted state law strikes at the very core of Baywood's character, desirability and integrity. The law enables any single family lot in California to be subdivided into two parcels, allowing 2 new units on each. Approvals are ministerial with no public input permitted. That means that your next door neighbor can at their discretion, without your knowledge, demolish their historic home and erect an 4-unit apartment building next to you.
It is true that historic district designation would exempt Baywood from this law. But only you can decide whether it's worth sacrificing the charming character of the historic neighborhood in which you chose to live - and the sense of place in which you have invested - for an unknown future in which destruction of historic resources and new apartment construction may be common place.
"So, let's be clear - this isn't about history," Ryan said. "The historic district is a direct attack on those attempts to increase the housing supply in California, and that is a problem to me."
"It's not a loophole, as some people may call it, it's actually a part of the law," Hietter said.
Although the City Council hasn't publicly taken a position on this matter, San Mateo Mayor Amourence Lee takes issue with the move.
"This is under the guise of benevolence, but it is in fact, an imposition, and unwanted," she said.
The neighbors pushing for this don't need city approval, as they are applying to the state. However, the mayor recently asked the Heritage Alliance to withdraw their application.
"I have the concern of geographic equity, the concern of curbing property rights, the concern for informed consent," she said. "All of our neighborhoods have a shared responsibility to address the housing crisis and build housing, and it seems really unfair for one neighborhood to be cast in amber and every other neighborhood to absorb the responsibility of growth."
Hietter pushed back.
"This to me is not at all about housing. That's sort of, an argument that is thrown out often," she said. "I think it's a misnomer to say that this is against housing because there are no restrictions. If someone wanted to split lots and put four units on it they could still apply to the city, they just wouldn't get the expedited process that SB 9 allows, with no public per view, no parking requirements, and a short-circuited city process."
Hietter says Baywood does meet multiple criteria to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and she wants to preserve the neighborhood's character and historical significance. So, she and neighbors will trek forward.
"I just don't want to see it destroyed. It's almost like a jigsaw puzzle where if you take out a few of the key pieces, you don't have the picture anymore," she said. "There is so little of our history that is preserved here."
Elliott and his neighbors will continue to push back.
"This fundamentally doesn't seem right to me," he said. "City Council can't stop it, we can't stop it, and it seems like there is no way to stop it. So, we are doing everything we can to stop it, but it's going to be an uphill climb."