To help correct a vexing jobs-housing imbalance, Palo Alto may look to set an annual cap on office and R&D development.

During the first of two discussions scheduled on the topic Monday, several council members said they were in favor of exploring a limit on commercial development of 10,000 to 45,000 square feet per year. But they acknowledged that a cap alone would not be enough to solve the problem.

“We have a jobs-housing imbalance,” said Councilman Cory Wolbach. “It’s actually the worst in the country. Addressing it by only adding housing will not be enough, and addressing it by only limiting office development will not be enough. You have to work on both sides of the scale.”

There are three workers for every resident, said Vice Mayor Greg Schmid. That’s well above the average for Santa Clara County, and the city expects to add 10,000 residents and 21,000 jobs over the next 20 years, he said.

Schmid also pointed out that recent surveys have shown that residents are deeply unhappy about the speed and intensity of development in Palo Alto. Since 2001, the city has added 517,000 square feet of commercial space and lost 37,000 square feet of retail space, he said.

And residents, Schmid added, aren’t getting much in return for the building boom. They pay three times as much in taxes and bear the brunt of the resulting traffic and parking impacts, he said.

“Is this our future? Is this what we want? Shouldn’t we have a debate about that?” Schmid asked.

Councilmen Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth also voiced support for a cap on commercial development.

“I think it’s pretty clear that for a majority of Palo Alto residents, we’re at a point in time where the incremental benefits of more office expansion are outweighed by the incremental costs,” Filseth said. “There’s an argument that the negatives can be mitigated, but they can’t be mitigated completely. It’s the first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.”

Although Wolbach was in favor of limiting office and R&D development, he said the council should be wary of “unintended consequences.” For instance, it might drive up the cost of existing commercial space and force smaller businesses out of the city. He likened a cap to a tourniquet.

“Tourniquets are designed to address existential threats,” Wolbach said. “But if you aren’t careful, you could lose a limb. Small businesses in Palo Alto could be among those limbs.”

The council is scheduled to hold the second discussion and potentially take action on March 2.

Public reaction to the concept was mixed.

Dan Garber, an architect and former planning commissioner agreed that the cap merited debate but said he wouldn’t support one. Large-scale commercial developments that are built near public transit and include transportation demand management programs can have relatively few impacts, he said.

“Zone for what you what, and if what you want is to chase small business out of town even faster than it’s being chased out of today, because that’s who will bear the brunt of this, then setting more limits on growth is the very best way to do that,” Garber told the council.

Whitney McNair, senior associate director of land use and environmental planning for Stanford, was one of several university officials who raised concerns about the impact of a cap on the Stanford Research Park, which is home to HP, Merck, Nest, Tesla Motors and SAP.

“I’m concerned that this effort to implement interim measures or even permanent zoning changes is rushed and without proper supporting analysis, including environmental and fiscal,” McNair said. “A quick and rushed effort here could lead to a cure worse than the disease.”

But Norm Beamer, president of the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association, was in favor.

“I just don’t understand why we need more offices,” Beamer told the council. “I understand why people would love to have offices here, but our office-to-housing ratio is one of the highest in the world. It’s just common sense. We don’t really need more office space here.”

Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.