Just months after a shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, another Bay Area tech company is bolstering its own security.
The e-commerce giant eBay is planning to install security fencing around its Hamilton Avenue headquarters, according to plans filed with San Jose’s planning and building department, and it wants to move quickly.
“We believe the safety and security for our employees is paramount and agree that proceeding under a temporary building permit would be the best course of action,” several eBay executives wrote in a letter to a building division manager after a meeting in early August to discuss the company’s concerns. “eBay understands the risk of proceeding under this approach and will make necessary corrections, up to complete removal, of the work in place following potential planning and permit process comments.”
According to the plans, much of the tube steel fencing is expected to be at least 7 feet tall, with both vehicular and pedestrian access gates. The fencing, equipped in places with panic hardware, would ring the perimeter of the campus and enclose employee courtyards. (The YouTube shooting in April occurred in a courtyard area at that company.)
“We work hard to create a safe and secure workplace environment for our employees, which is a fundamental responsibility of every company,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email. “We recently partnered with our local law enforcement agencies to undertake a comprehensive review of our workplace operations, and based on their recommendation to better improve our safety controls, we will be constructing a picket fence around the perimeter of our campus.”
The spokesperson declined to directly answer a question about whether there had been recent credible threats against employees, saying only, “This project is being undertaken as part of review of our workplace operations.”
June Cooley lives in one of the many condominium complexes that surround the eBay campus and has been trying to mobilize fellow residents and neighboring complexes to take a closer look at what the company is proposing.
While Cooley said she understands the need for employee security, she has mixed feelings about the proposed fencing, and thinks eBay treats the neighborhood as its “personal fiefdom.” She also pointed out that the company already has security guards. And she’s not sure it will help, Cooley said, noting that teenagers regularly jump her complex’s fencing to use the pool.
Councilwoman Dev Davis, who represents the area, said Friday she was working with the city to schedule a community meeting to get input from neighbors about the project.
The company aims to start construction of the fencing in November and expects to complete the project by early next year.
“It would be nice to have some dialogue with eBay,” Cooley said, adding that she also has concerns about eBay workers using her complex’s visitor parking without permission. “We, as neighbors, want to be able to coexist.”
