A neighborhood association has been pressing the management of a
697-unit apartment complex in San Mateo for nearly two years to
increase security, address parking issues and clean up a garbage-filled
creek.
It has been a frustrating process for tenants of the Hillsdale
Garden Apartments and the neighborhood it sits in since the property
was sold nearly three years ago to Essex Property Trust, Inc. out of
Palo Alto.
The Beresford Hillsdale Neighborhood Association has met with
management repeatedly since April 2008 and has solicited the city’s
help to address code violations and speak out against exorbitant rent
increases. The rent increases have forced many of the senior and
low-income residents of the complex to leave, said Susan Churchill, a
22-year tenant at Hillsdale and a BHNA officer.
The pressure seems to have paid off as Essex management has
tentatively agreed to meet some of the group’s demands, said Anne
Arnold, BHNA’s president.
“We were happy to hear Essex is reviewing the security situation
and have hired a new security firm,” Arnold said. “Two full-time
security guards will be committed to solving theft and vandalism
problems and their maintenance men will address overflowing garbage
bins and trash in the creek.”
The San Mateo Police Department confirmed calls for service
increased significantly at the Hillsdale Garden Apartments from 2007 to
2008, said Lt. Mike Brunicardi.
In 2007, police responded to calls for service at the apartment
complex 454 times. That number jumped 30 percent in 2008 to 645 calls
for service, Brunicardi said. This year, police have responded to the
apartment complex 526 times.
Auto burglaries increased in the area as did suspicious
activity, Brunicardi said. Police have formed an action plan and are
working with the city to develop strategies to combat the problem.
The pledges to increase security were made to BHNA Monday night
by two Essex representatives, Christine Aiello and Leslie DeMichele,
the property owner’s new regional district manager. Monday was
DeMichele’s first day on the job, Arnold said. Neither Aiello nor
DeMichele returned calls to comment on this story.
“We were pleasantly surprised by their willingness to cooperate.
It is hard to be completely overjoyed though,” Arnold said. “We will
see now if the pledges they made will be fulfilled.”
The property owners have made pledges in the past but did not follow up on them, Arnold said.
The BHNA claims the complex lacks an on-site manager 24-hours a
day, has increased rents so much that many elderly residents have been
forced to move out and that overcrowded units have caused parking
problems in the surrounding neighborhood.
The group also claims garbage gets tossed into an adjacent creek
when the bins overflow and that there has been an increase in criminal
activity at the complex due to cutbacks in security.
Before Essex bought the property, tenants at the Hillsdale
Garden Apartments paid below market rents, according to Bob Beyer, the
city’s community development director.
Once Essex acquired the property, rents increased which caused
more people to reside per unit with more animals and garbage becoming
an issue, according to Beyer. There is no rent control in the city but
Essex did agree not to increase rents by more than $200 a month per
year.
There have been code violations at the property, according to Beyer, but no major ones.
“We found a few things here and there. It has been fairly clean,
we respond every time we receive a call. It is one of the better
looking complexes we have in the city,” Beyer said. “ ... It is not the
worst complex in the city.”
Vector control was called in to address a problem with rats, Beyer said.
Councilman John Lee has sat in on some of the meetings between
the neighborhood association and apartment management and said parking,
garbage and security are issues the city wants to help resolve. Since
the complex is privately owned, however, there is not much the city can
do about rent increases.
Churchill has lived at the apartment complex for 22 years now
and says most of the tenants who were 60 and older have moved out due
to rent increases.
Churchill is a BHNA officer and attended Monday’s meeting with
Essex alongside fellow officers Mark Albertson, Nami Akhavi and Arnold.
“I’d like to keep the senior population and fixed-income
population to stay here,” Churchill said. “There has been quite an
increase in the population here and a lot more cars than there ever
were.”
The property at 3421 Edison St. is 37 acres and has town-home
style buildings adjacent to the Hillsdale Shopping Center. The
apartments were constructed in the 1950s.
Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.
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