Office market: Too hot to handle.

Cities and residents wonder if they've had too much of a good thing

However you slice it, San Mateo County rode the late 1990s real estate wave to become one of the hottest office markets in the entire country.

Rents have shot to the moon, equaling or surpassing those in downtown San Francisco in some cases. Scarce land has been snapped up faster than you can say "For Sale." Projects have been filled long before they've even broken ground, and vacancy rates have been near or at historic lows.

But the real-estate explosion has also sparked its share of concern about how much is too much, and whether the office market bonanza is taking too great a toll on the Peninsula's quality of life.

"As traffic gets more intense, people are saying, 'My God, we shouldn't build any more offices,"' said Ed Everett, city manager in Redwood City, …