The New Urbanist Racetrack

"Where midcentury suburbia came with spacious yards and low-slung homes with wide driveways, the Bay Meadows plan is designed to encourage transit use and errands on foot. It trades private space for a well-landscaped public realm.

'You can't stick your head in the sand and pretend nothing is going to change,' said Robert C. Gooyer, an architect who serves on the planning commission and has lived in San Mateo since 1982. 'Not everyone wants or needs to live in a 1950s ranch-style home.'

From the start there's been opposition from residents who see this sort of district as antithetical to the community they chose to live in decades ago. But the San Mateo City Council approved the overall plan in 2005, and the specific designs for the 21-acre western portion of the site in April."