How Tall Will California Avenue Towers Be?

The California Avenue fight is really a height fight. Everybody already knew the project at the Mollie Stone’s site would be big. What changed this week is that Palo Alto put real numbers on the city-backed alternative, instead of talking in rough story counts and renderings. The revised version now on the table is three buildings topping out at 124 feet, 144 feet, and 129 feet — not the original 177-foot high point. ### What project are we talking about? This is the redevelopment proposal for 156 California Avenue and the nearby Park Boulevard parcel — the Mollie Stone’s Market site across from the Caltrain station. Redco Development and the property owners want to replace the existing grocery-and-parking-lot setup with a mixed-use housing project that keeps a new Mollie Stone’s in the plan. The original filing proposed 382 homes across a 17-story tower, an 11-story tower, and a 7-story podium building. (paloalto.gov) ### So how tall are the towers now? In the negotiated alternative, the city says the project would include a 12-story tower at 124 feet, a 14-story tower at 144 feet, and another 12-story tower at 129 feet. That is the cleanest answer to the “how tall?” question. The old version’s tallest tower was 17 stories and 177 feet, so the top end drops by 33 feet and three stories. (paloalto.gov) ### Why were people confused before? Because the project has had more than one version moving at once. The public had the original builder’s-remedy application, older planning documents describing a 17-story and 11-story pair plus a 7-story podium, and then a newly negotiated option announced on May 7 for City Council review on May 18, 2026. If you were reading different documents from different moments, you got different heights — and all of them were technically real for that version. (paloalto.gov) ### What is the city actually doing? Palo Alto is trying to steer the developer toward a settlement-style alternative after months of legal and political pressure. City officials say an ad hoc council committee negotiated with Redco to produce a version with a shorter tallest tower, 50 affordable units, $14.1 million in impact fees, and a two-level grocery store fronting California Avenue. But the city also says the agreement does not predetermine the final outcome. (paloalto.gov) ### Why doesn’t the city just pick the shorter one? Because the original builder’s-remedy application is still alive. The city’s own project page says the alternative SB 330 submission was not intended to withdraw the original application. Basically, Palo Alto can try to make peace around a somewhat smaller plan, but if that path fails, the developer still has the larger proposal sitting in the background. (paloalto.gov) ### Why do the exact feet matter so much? A 14-story tower still reads as huge on California Avenue. But 144 feet lands very differently from 177 feet in design review, shadow concerns, skyline impact, and neighborhood politics. It also changes the city’s argument that it extracted meaningful concessions rather than just rebranding the same project. The numbers are the substance here, not a technical footnote. (paloalto.gov) ### What happens next? City Council is set to discuss the two options on May 18, 2026. The city says the alternative could move on an accelerated timeline and may benefit from AB 130 CEQA streamlining, but it would also require adding the Cambridge Avenue property to the Housing Element sites inventory. If council does not do that, the original application can keep moving as submitted. (paloalto.gov) ### Bottom line The answer, for now, is that the revised California Avenue towers would rise to 124, 129, and 144 feet. But the catch is that Palo Alto is not choosing between “tower” and “no tower.” It is choosing between a very tall project and a slightly less tall one — with the bigger version still waiting in the wings. (paloalto.gov)