The original plan for Foster City included nine neighborhoods, a ”Town Center” area and an “Industrial” area. Almost all residential neighborhoods contain some mixture of single family homes, two story townhomes and two and three story condominiums and apartments. Each residential neighborhood in Foster City is distinguished by street names found within the neighborhood. Most of the street names are derived from the marine nature of the City.  Each part of town has unique characteristics and styles and often in each neighborhood there are several individual developments that give special flavor to life there.

Neighborhood #10 is a largely commercial area that has offices, Banks, the Metro Center shopping and business center (it’s got, among others, Turtle Bay and Cold Stone Creamery!) and the large, soon to be filled by IBM, Parkside Towers.(formerly the Inktomi Mausoleum. It also is home to the Town Green townhouses and Cityhomes Townhouses as well as the upscale Promontory Point condos, Spinnaker Cove, Meridian Bay condos and the Emerald Bay townhouses.

This neighborhood is heavily comprised of townhouses and condos, with some of the townhouses being waterfronts, and large non waterfront single family homes. It stretches from just south of Highway 92 to the main waterway between San Mateo and Foster City in the west to Beach Park Blvd in the south and again bordered by the lagoon on the east.  It also includes Edgewater Park with it’s large lawn area, softball diamond,basketball courts, playground equipment and tennis courts. Neighborhood #9 boasts the waterfront townhouse communities of Shell Cove and Isle Cove, plus the non water townhouse community of Edgewater Townhouses. Foster City School is a nice feature of this neighborhood as well. Close proximity to shopping at the Edgewater Place is a plus for this neighborhood.

This neighborhood, also at the southern end of town, boasts a large number of single family homes, some of them waterfront plus the Alden Crossing neighborhood and the planned development Williams Landing. Both of these properties have associations. In addition the neighborhood has both Boothbay and Port Royal Parks and the Nantucket Cove townhouse project. The neighborhood is bound by the main waterway on the west, Edgewater Blvd on the east (except one small section on the water that includes Monterey & Avalon Streets) Beach Park Blvd on the north and Redwood Shores on the south. The waterfront homes on Port Royal and Cumberland are separated by a bike trail so these lots do not have direct contact with the water and thus have no private docks.

Some homeowners have commented about the noise from Highway 101 that can be heard from the homes on Port Royal as well as the fact that motor boats and water skiing are allowed on the main waterway behind those houses. The rest of the waters in Foster City do not allow that.

This is a large neighborhood geographically and encompasses several different styles and, as usual, boasts both waterfront and non waterfront single family homes but has no townhouses or condos. Interestingly there are a number of different developments in Neighborhood #7, all with associations, so there is a real diversity about the area. It’s bordered by the lagoon on the north, Edgewater Blvd on the west and open space/Redwood Shores on the east and south. It includes the waterfront communities of Plum Island, Longwater and Pitcairn as well as the non waterfront but really popular neighborhoods of Sea Colony, Alden Park, and Antigua. Finishing it off is the also popular planned community of Williams Landing. Neighborhood #7 also boasts the large and family friendly Sea Cloud Park which is the home of the Foster City Little League and offers more than 23 acres of baseball diamonds, soccer fields, play apparatus, lawn area, snack shack, batting cages and restrooms.

This neighborhood is probably equally divided between waterfront and non waterfront single family homes and a very nice townhouse community that has about 15 to 20% waterfront exposure. This area is south of Beach Park Blvd and is surrounded by the lagoon on all other sides. It includes the Ponderosa Shores single family neighborhood and the very popular Whalers Cove and Whalers Landing waterfront single family home neighborhoods. It also boasts the townhouse project Harbor Side (some waterfront units) as well as Farragut Park.

The Whalers area, particularly the Island, is possibly the most coveted neighborhood in Foster City and is easy distance by small boat, walking or driving to shopping at the Edgewater Place Center:

http://www.edgewaterplaceshoppingcenter.com/

It also has a popular “safe streets” Halloween event attended by droves of kids each year.

This neighborhood has a slightly different feel than the others so far in that it is predominantly townhouses, including many waterfronts, no high rise condos and a planned single family home development featuring some waterfronts. The area is bounded by the main lagoon, Shell Blvd on the east, and Beach Park Blvd on the south. The neighborhood features the large Catamaran Park and Leo Ryan Park on the Hillsdale side of the big lagoon, the planned homes of Bayporte, many of which have stunning waterfront exposures, the Chamber of Commerce’s favorite signature waterfront community called the Islands, and the townhouse communities of Winston Square and Winston Village.This is a particularly popular area because these projects are well maintained, the Parks are really wonderful and fronts the water and the dramatic “Islands” project has the widest waterfront exposure in town and windsurfing and rowing are common in front of this property. it’s also very appealing to many buyers that the Association dues at Winston Square are still $160.00 a month.

One comment that’s commonly heard is that the dues in the Islands are actually over $500.00 a month, maybe that’s the price you have to pay for that type of water

In this neighborhood south of Foster City Blvd we have a few waterfront homes on Corsair & Clipper, non waterfront single family houses, 2 story townhouses (some with water views) and condos with both waterfrontage and water views. This area is bounded on both the north and southeast sides by lagoon, on the northeast side by Foster City Blvd and on the west by Shell Blvd. The neighborhood includes the Marlin Cove Shopping Center (Re/Max Today!), Ketch Park and open space adjacent to the Belmont Slough. In addition there are the large condo projects of Marina Point and Sand Harbor and the newer townhouse project of Bayfront Court. Here’s a peak at this project:

http://bayfrontcourt.org/mainframe.html

Neighborhood #4 has been popular because of it’s ease of access and it’s proximity to both shopping and recreation on the Bay Trail. Bayfront Court benefits from being one of the newer projects in town (1995) in addition to it’s water location.

Many prospective buyers have commented on the higher than usual Association Dues (almost $500.00 per month) at Marina Point.

Continuing the previous trends, the Fish streets in Neighborhood #3 boast waterfront and non waterfront single family homes, two townhouse developments and some apartment communities and is bound in the north by Marlin Ave, the Bay to the east, lagoon to the west and Foster City Blvd to the south. The neighborhood includes the waterfront islands of Dolphin Isle and Sailfish Isle. It also includes Bowditch Middle School, the waterfront Marlin Park plus Sunfish, Pompano and Shad Parks. In addition there is the Marina Green Townhouses/Condos and the unique Carmel Village townhouses.

Neighborhood #3 shares the wonderful proximity to the Bay Trail as it’s neighbor to the north and also allows easy access to Marlin Cove shopping center’s popular Ranch 99 market. Marlin Cove also is where my Foster City office, Re/Max Today, is and my favorite dentist and client Shahrzad Dehdari!

Airplane noise has also been reported by some homeowners in some of the northern parts of Neighborhood #3

The Bird streets in Neighborhood #2, as did Neighborhood #1, have waterfront and non waterfront single family homes, townhouses, condos and is bound by the lagoon on the west, the Bay on the east and between Hillsdale Blvd to Marlin Ave. The neighborhood includes the waterfront islands of Surfbird Isle and Shearwater Isle. It also includes Audobon School, the waterfront Gull Park, plus Killdeer and Turnstone Parks. In addition there is the Bay Vista Townhouses as well as an additional version of Neighborhood #1′s Treasure Isle.

Maybe the key feature in Neighborhood #2 is it’s proximity to the Bay and the popular bike and exercise Bay Trail that runs the lenght of town on the SF Bay side. For more info:

http://baytrail.abag.ca.gov/vtour/map2/access/BTFoster/BTFoster.htm

Some homeowners and others, including home inspectors, have reported that Neighborhood #2 has had issues with Foundation related problems and with Aircraft noise as it’s historically been under the SFO flight pattern. Some streets on the northern most portion of this neighborhood also have had noise related issues regarding Highway 92. There are many wonderful homes in this neighborhood and it’s features have great value but I would recommend any property purchased here have an engineer’s inspection.

. Neighborhood #1 is an area whose theme is Famous Ships and that includes single family, townhouses, condos and apartments bound by the Foster City lagoon on the east and south as well as Foster City Blvd and Hillsdale Blvd.  The neighborhood includes the waterfront islands on Flying Cloud Isle, Flying Mist Isle and Shooting Star Isle. It also includes the waterfront Erckenbrack Park and Brewer Island School. In addition the Treasure Isle townhouse project and the Admiralty condos are in Neighborhood #1 along with Foster City’s few duplexes that exist on Comet Drive.

Waterfront living has long been one of the primary draws to living in Foster City and the “Isles” provide wonderful exposure, to both wide and narrow water. It’s been said as well that this neighborhood is the most convenient to the new Peninsula Jewish Community Center and what will undoubtedly be the heart of the new Foster City downtown when the Village Square project debuts on 11 acres of land next to City Hall.

Some homeowners have noted that the flight patterns for incoming aircraft into San Francisco International Airport have gradually been encroaching into this part of Foster City and noise levels here have reportedly been increasing.