SFPUC details $420M plan for Millbrae operations center; council and residents demand clearer alternatives and rate impacts

SAN MATEO COUNTY — The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday presented a multiyear, multibillion‑quarter‑million project to remodel its Millbrae Operations Center, a plan that drew sustained questions from Millbrae City Council members and sharply critical public comments from local residents and business owners.

The SFPUC said the project — which staff repeatedly described as ‘‘very large’’ — would consolidate staffing from an aging Rollins Road facility, expand laboratory capacity, rehabilitate the administration building and adaptively reuse the Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) building as a south shop. SFPUC staff said construction would happen in three phases, begin as early as November 2027 and conclude in late 2031. The project cost presented by SFPUC staff was roughly $420,000,000, with construction dollars on the order of $250,000,000.

Why it matters: The site sits on 17 acres on El Camino Real and houses neighborhood retail tenants and businesses that residents say provide local jobs and services. The council and residents said the scale, timing and likely wholesale rate effects on Millbrae ratepayers require fuller disclosure — including alternative sites, detailed rate modeling and parking plans — before the project advances.

SFPUC presentation and commitments SFPUC assistant general manager Steve Ritchie and project staff told the council the Millbrae…