Diana Diamond Response - Questionable "Public Benefits"

1. Sheridan Plaza complex: one of the "public benefits" was supposed to be public art, but this is the statute in the (private) courtyard of Caffe Riace (Note: The City bears significant share of the responsibility for this fiasco).
2. 200 Page Mill (across from the Agilent building): "public benefit" included a fountain. Fountain has been turned off for years.
3. One of the "public benefits" of this proposed project would be a fountain and sculpture inside its entrance - "public" because it would be visible to passers-by.
4. The developer proposed that the City donate to him the adjacent segment of Page Mill Road - it is a secondary entrance to the Caltrain parking lot. He would use it for parking and a small plaza with some landscaping. He then claimed that that plaza would be a "public benefit", in essence a donation from him to the city.
5. In another case of "double dipping", he labeled the housing itself as a public benefit.

This developer is hardly alone in playing these games. The developer for the previous big project - 800 High - got credit for a "public benefit" for putting ornamentation (a small sculpture) on his building, increasing its value. He also got credit for creating "public space" by putting a small plaza in front of the café in his building, and -surprise, surprise - it was usurped by the café for outdoor tables.