At its regular meeting on October 17, 2011, the City Council will consider the selection of a team as the potential developers of the City-owned 15-acre vacant property immediately south of City Hall.

The meeting will take place on Monday, October 17, 2011 at 6:30 PM in the City Council Chambers, 620 Foster City Boulevard, Foster City. The public is invited to attend or view it on FCTV; Comcast Channel 27, ATT Channel 99 or streaming at fostercity.tv. Written comments may be submitted in advance of the meeting to Rick Marks, Community Development Director, 610 Foster City Boulevard, Foster City, CA 94404 or rmarks@fostercity.org.

The City Council will base this important decision on a number of factors, including the extent to which the plan accomplishes the City’s vision for the site and how that will result in its acceptance in the community, the extent to which it has the potential to create a vibrant public gathering place, how well it serves the needs of Foster City’s senior population and whether it is a financially advantageous project for the City.

Once the City Council selects one team as a potential developer of the site, the City and the selected team will enter into a 60-day exclusive negotiating period during which specific business terms will be developed. The business terms will then be considered for approval in a public meeting.

A considerable process will have preceded this decision. Based on their selection through a Request for Qualifications process, three land development teams were invited to respond to a Request for Proposals. Two teams submitted proposals by the August 1, 2011, deadline and on September 6, 2011, presented the initial concept of the uses and designs that their teams are proposing for the site, based on the criteria that were included in the Request for Proposals. The presentations at the September meeting demonstrated the teams’ approaches and ability to create a plan that matches the City’s vision for the site. On September 15, 2011, Councilmembers visited other projects in the area that were developed by each team. The City Council also reviewed the teams’ financial ability to achieve their plans and their proposed business terms in Closed Sessions on September 19, 2011 and October 3, 2011. (Although most City business must be conducted in open meetings, the law allows for certain matters, such as real estate negotiations, to be conducted in Closed Session.) Finally, the City Council sought and received additional information from the two development teams as well as input from the public at its October 3, 2011 meeting.

The two land development teams include a team led by the Sares-Regis Group of Northern California L.L.P. and a team put together for this effort called Foster City Community Partners.

For more information, please contact Community Development Director Rick Marks at 286-3225.