Project Proposal
Project Overview
Sequoia Station is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to plan for the future of regional transportation and to transform Redwood City’s downtown core by putting high-impact housing, retail, childcare, and jobs directly on rail. The redevelopment will provide Redwood City residents and visitors with new walkable and family-friendly dining and entertainment, inviting public open spaces, walkable and bikeable streets that connect downtown to the surrounding neighborhoods, on-site childcare, and a modernized and community-serving retail experience.
Sequoia Station aims to create a project that supports Redwood city’s vision for the Transit District – as well as the City’s goals for creating an inclusive community and advancing equity. Building a sustainable community where residents of all income levels can access resources including safe, affordable housing, mobility, jobs, high-quality schools, and food is key to the Sequoia Station project team’s redevelopment strategy. The team aspires to advance equity by building hundreds of high-quality affordable homes directly on transit, providing lower income residents improved access to critical resources.
Sequoia Station is the largest affordable housing project in Redwood City’s development pipeline and will deliver 631 new homes, 254 (40%) of which will be affordable to very low, low, and moderate-income households. The project also unlocks critical transportation upgrades by advancing the El Camino Real Corridor Plan with bike and pedestrian improvements and supporting Caltrain’s 2040 Business Plan with the dedication of approximately 1-acre of land for track expansion and future grade separation projects.
Equity and Community Benefits
Sequoia Station will provide important community benefits and includes all of the City’s strategic priorities – Housing, Transportation and Children and Youth – with Equity, Inclusion and Sustainability all central to the project proposal. Lowe has partnered with Eden Housing to directly respond to the identified community need to provide as much affordable housing as possible at the deepest levels of affordability – a key priority within Redwood City. Project community benefits include:
- Hundreds of homes for all income levels
- Upgraded Safeway and CVS that will remain open throughout construction
- Improved bikes lanes and creation of new, walkable streets
- Neighborhood serving retail and family-friendly dining
- Approximately 10,000 SF childcare in the heart of Downtown
- Vibrant Hamilton Plaza including programming and an artist grove
Project Design
The Sequoia Station project team submitted an updated project application in May 2022 that reflects input from the Architectural Advisory Committee, the Planning Commission, and project stakeholder meetings.
The latest project application features new renderings to showcase updates to the project’s design, offer additional context to how the project fits into the overall vision for downtown Redwood City, and to provide further details on project elements including Hamilton Plaza.
Existing site: Redwood city's missing puzzle piece
Sequoia Station today is a frequently-used neighborhood shopping center that provides critical shopping services to Redwood City residents and access to Caltrain, but it is also outdated and car-centric. There is no easy route to walk or bike to Sequoia Station retailers, the Caltrain station, or Redwood City’s downtown entertainment district from the west.
Sequoia Station is the puzzle piece we need to connect existing neighborhoods to Downtown and the Entertainment District across the Caltrain tracks. This critical piece will convert parking lots to walkable public realm, create green open space and activated retail, and develop high impact housing and commercial space adjacent to a future modern Caltrain station.
Sequoia Station will complete the puzzle that connects people and places – Neighborhoods to Downtown.
Sequoia Station Reimagined
Connecting People Beyond Buildings
Sequoia Station’s redevelopment unlocks the opportunity to create a new level of connectivity in central Redwood City – connecting people and places through an inspirational public realm. Initial concepts for a new Sequoia Station fit into the City’s broader vision for Central Redwood City and its transit-connected future, with a focus on creating a seamless relationship between the City’s pedestrian-friendly entertainment district, a multi-modal Sequoia Station, El Camino Real, and its established neighborhoods. Critical services that residents depend on, including Safeway and CVS, will be maintained and open while Sequoia Station Shopping Center is reimagined to become the neighborhood shopping center for the future.
It would also allow Redwood City and Caltrain to plan and build for the future by providing critical land for future track expansion and electrification, as well as integrate with regional Cross Bay (Dumbarton) planning efforts to connect the Peninsula and East Bay. The redevelopment of Sequoia Station is required for this critical transportation expansion.
