City Council praises Town & Country’s growing housing proposal – Palo Alto Online
vBig Picture
The Palo Alto City Council is signaling a real shift by welcoming a sizable housing proposal at Town & Country Village, one of the city’s most established retail centers. The plan would add roughly 160 apartments on existing surface parking lots while keeping the retail center intact. Councilmembers were openly supportive, focusing less on whether housing belongs there and more on how to manage traffic, parking, and neighborhood impacts. In a city long defined by caution around height and density, this is a notable change in tone.
Why it matters
Palo Alto rarely embraces housing at this scale, especially in high-value commercial areas. If this project moves forward, it sets a precedent that long-standing retail centers are no longer off-limits to residential development. That matters not just for Palo Alto’s housing numbers, but for the broader Peninsula, where cities are under pressure to meet state mandates and are running out of “easy” sites. This is a clear signal that even the most protected commercial districts may now be part of the housing solution.