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The Redwood City Council last week voted to approve amendments to the Downtown Precise Plan, including maximizing office development capacity to 80,000 square feet and revising minimum building height and parking ratios.
Six members of the Redwood City Council, excluding Redwood City Mayor Jeff Gee, who recused himself – a gesture that continues to happen when Redwood City Council needs to discuss updates on the Gatekeeper Projects or the Downtown Precise Plan – voted to approve the amendments at the Monday, June 26 council meeting.
The following resolutions were also passed:
- Certifying the subsequent environmental impact report.
- Moving the mixed-use downtown office square feet at 80,000 square feet to maximum capacity.
- Adopting amendments to the Downtown Precise plan, changes to the approval process, allowing projects to opt out of key DPP that include removing parking minimum,
Staff Report
As an update to last month’s DTPP study session, research and development lab offices are currently permitted under the proposed conditional use. The new amendment prohibits the CDC’s Biosafety Level 3 and Level 4, which are used to study infectious agents or toxins, in a mixed-used building. Housing cannot be included in buildings with research and development labs.
While there are eight Gatekeeper projects, six of which belong to the Downtown Precise Plan, all would need the General Plan Amendment and the DTPP amendment to allow more development capacities. This also includes the 651 El Camino project to be incorporated into the DTPP boundary.
Next Steps
The next phase of these projects will undergo a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) consistency check in the Fall. Anna McGill, the principal planner and presenter on Monday night, said that she can think of two downtown projects that are ready to break ground in the first quarter of 2024 but that steps are needed before the city council can fully sign off on the other projects.
“We anticipate that the consistency check will take about three to four months,” McGill said. “The land value appraisal could take anywhere between one to two months, the community benefits analysis again, somewhere between two and four months.”
During a staff report last month, the Gatekeeper timeline had the years 2024-2025 as the period in which the projects would obtain entitlement and building permits from the council after following the lengthy steps. By the year 2025-2026, the projects would be constructed. Redwood City staff recommends certifying the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report or SEIR because the 2020 EIR focuses on developmental capacity, but by adding more capacity, more impacts to the study will be added. The SEIR will only look at the original review, identify what’s new and compare what was originally analyzed.
Public Comment and Questions for City Council
Sha Sun, a biotech worker who works in Seaport Centere, generally expressed support for this downtown area, including biotech labs, but not so much with future employees dealing with less parking.
“Usually [biotech workers] commute to work, so that requires more parking,” Sun said. “If you want to attract more talent who currently reside in South San Francisco who reside in East Bay, that's something that we have to keep in mind.”
During the remainder of his minute, Sun provided background on general safety standards in operating a research and development office and lab. The key is that both offices and labs operate on the same floor but have different ventilation systems, which are deemed safe and easy for an engineer to operate.
Nevada Merriman, director of policy from MidPen Housing, expressed gratitude for the recommendations that were released in the report; she hopes that the partnership will continue to develop through some gatekeeper activity.
“We have over 200 homes in the pipeline and wanted to give overall gratitude to the city because it's really the spirit in which you're moving the thoughtful growth of the city forward along with the inclusion of affordable housing,” said Merriman.
Adrian Brandt, a commenter who spoke virtually, also joined the rest in supporting the staff recommendations but said that bringing mixed-use buildings to downtown Redwood City would avoid the issue San Francisco is facing.
“It's a tricky balance because I think it's very important to avoid the effect of all the office workers going home in the evening and not being present evenings, weekends,” Brandt said.
After public comments, the topic of mixed-use buildings to keep the downtown area vibrant was later echoed in Council member Diane Howard's question to city staff regarding office spaces and the number of vacancies in San Mateo County.
“Is there an ability to tweak it at some point if it looks like it's out of whack and out of balance?” Howard asked.
McGill said that the city is trying its best to have discussions with applicants to understand and predict what’s going to happen in the future.
Gatekeeper projects will undergo a CEQA consistency check between the summer and fall seasons.
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