Title
Report regarding applications for Design Review and a Transportation Demand Management Plan to allow a new office / R&D campus and an associated amenity building and parking structure at 101 Terminal Court in the Business Technology Park - High (BTP-H) Zoning District and determination that the project is consistent with the 2040 General Plan Environmental Impact Report. (CEQA Guidelines sections 15162, 15183) (Billy Gross, Principal Planner)
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MOTIONS FOR THE COMMISSION TO ADOPT STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
1. Move to adopt the resolution making a CEQA determination.
2. Move to adopt the resolution approving planning entitlements.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission conduct a public hearing and take the following actions:
1. Adopt a resolution making findings and determining that Project is consistent with the scope of environmental analysis in the previously certified 2040 General Plan Environmental Impact Report pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183 and no further environmental review would be required.
2. Adopt a resolution making findings and approving the entitlements request for Project P22-0124 including Design Review (DR22-0038) and Transportation Demand Management Plan (TDM22-0008), subject to the draft Conditions of Approval.
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PROJECT OVERVIEW AND BACKGROUND
Site Overview
The 101 Terminal Court project site is comprised of one 8.69-acre parcel. The project site is bounded by Terminal Court to the north, U.S. 101 to the east, a navigable slough to the south, and existing commercial and industrial development, including the Golden Gate Produce Terminal, to the west. The site currently is developed primarily as a parking lot, with a small vehicle maintenance garage and pay booth, historically run by Park N Fly.
The 101 Terminal site is within the Lindenville Sub-Area of the General Plan, and is zoned Business Technology Park High (BTP-H) which permits employment uses including office and R&D. The project site and the surrounding vicinity have historically been developed with commercial and industrial uses, but the recently adopted General Plan envisioned this site as transitioning to higher-intensity transit-oriented employment uses due to its proximity to the South San Francisco Caltrain station, San Bruno BART station, and U.S. 101.
Entitlements Request
The 101 Terminal project is seeking the following entitlements:
• CEQA Determination
• Design Review
• Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program
Project Description
The project applicant, Steelwave, proposes to demolish the existing buildings on the site, and develop an office / R&D campus, with associated amenities, open space, and a parking structure. The proposed project includes two new six-story office / R&D buildings totaling approximately 665,040 square feet, an amenities building of approximately 31,300 square feet and a parking structure containing 1,131 spaces.
The three buildings would be linked together through a cohesive network of landscaping and open space. A center landscaped courtyard would be located along the interior of the project site and framed by the proposed buildings to prioritize pedestrian- and bike-friendly connections and outdoor amenities. The publicly accessible central courtyard would cover approximately 52,400 square feet, provide space for outdoor work, and be designed for recreation, and socializing with seat walls, paved areas, turf, and shade structures. The project would also provide infrastructure upgrades, and circulation improvements to the pedestrian and bicycle networks and neighborhood connectivity. The proposed site design, architectural details, and landscaping plans are all detailed in the project plan set, prepared by SOM (Exhibit B to the Associated Entitlements Resolution).
Building Architecture and Site Design
The project at 101 Terminal Court is designed with buildings that have primarily glass facades, thereby bringing an abundance of natural light into each building. Building exteriors would also incorporate combinations of terra cotta, aluminum panels, wooden columns and beams to evoke a modern aesthetic. The curvature of the building creates a courtyard on the west side of the building that is buffered from U.S. 101 to the east. The courtyards are designed to provide significant usable on-site open space. Due to the narrow configuration of the parcel, the parking structure is at the southern end of the site, adjacent to the navigable slough.
Landscaping and Open Space
Landscaping and open space features are integrated throughout the project, with the courtyards connected to ground level lobbies via multi-modal connections. The buildings also include open space areas on upper levels, creating a vertical landscaped element that continues from the main courtyard. The campus open space includes multiple planting concept areas, including riparian forest, coastal meadow and redwood groves that will provide a different feel throughout the site. The courtyards contain raised planters with benches, seating areas with movable furniture, wind screen elements, bike racks, as well as in-ground plantings that serve as bio-retention areas. Open space areas are organized to connect internally, with pathways and crosswalks, and are also designed to connect to the surrounding planned developments.
The project open space is designed to be accessible, visible, well-lit, and meets the requirements of the South San Francisco Municipal Code (SSFMC) Section 20.310.002 (G), Open Space Design and Orientation.
Site Access and Circulation
The project site is currently only accessed from Terminal Court, which branches off Produce Avenue prior to the beginning of the southbound onramp to U.S. 101. A second site access point is proposed from Shaw Road along a former rail right-of-way that will connect to the southwest corner of the site. Internal roads would be configured in a loop pattern, providing vehicular access to buildings, structured- and at-grade parking, and on-site amenities. The project would provide a total of 1,300 parking spaces throughout the site to accommodate both the office/R&D uses and other publicly accessible amenity uses.
The Project site is located within 1/2-mile of the San Bruno BART station and 2/3-mile of the South San Francisco Caltrain station. Employees and visitors to the site will be encouraged to access the site via public transportation, active transportation, or through non-single occupancy vehicles, as will be reflected in a comprehensive Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program. Pedestrians and cyclists are separated from vehicle traffic, with separate sidewalks and pathways, as well as speed humps and raised crosswalks included on internal roadways to prevent high vehicle traffic speeds where there may be conflicts with other road users. Bike rooms will be located both office / R&D buildings and in the parking garage, with bike racks provided near building entrances, and within plazas. A total of 61 long-term bicycle parking spaces and 61 short-term parking spaces are located throughout the site. The TDM program and parking management plan are both discussed in more detail in subsequent sections of this staff report.
GENERAL PLAN AND ZONING CONSISTENCY ANALYSIS
Business Technology Park High (BTP-H) District / Site and Building Design Standards
The General Plan designation and zoning district for the site is Business Technology Park High (BTP-H). The General Plan describes the BTP-H as:
High-density corporate headquarters, research and development facilities, and offices.
The maximum base floor area ratio (FAR) in the BTP-H district is 0.5, with up to 2.0 permitted with community benefits, and the height maximum is the maximum permitted by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. As proposed, the project would be developed at a FAR of 1.84, consistent with the FAR permitted with the payment of a community benefits fee applicable to the proposed FAR above 1.0, per SSFMC Section 20.395.003(A)(2). The maximum proposed height of the office/R&D buildings is 113 feet 6 inches, which was determined to be preliminarily consistent with FAA regulations; prior to the issuance of a building permit, the applicant will be required to submit a determination of no hazard issued by the FAA.
In addition to the development standards in the BTP-H zoning district, the Zoning Ordinance contains general citywide site and building design standards, to supplement district-specific standards (SSFMC Section 20.310). These standards contain requirements for building entrances, open space design and orientation, on-site circulation and parking, building materials and textures, and architectural integrity. The design of the project meets these standards, with a focus on high-quality design and materials, usable open spaces, and pedestrian and bicycle connections to and throughout the site. The project is designed to meet the BTP-H district zoning standards, as well as the citywide development standards.
Parking and Loading Requirements
Vehicle Parking
The recently updated Zoning Ordinance (2022) includes updated parking ratios to reflect transit-oriented locations, and the need to provide fewer parking spaces in order to incentivize and support alternative modes of transportation and reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips. SSFMC Section 20.330.004 (Required Parking Spaces) states that parking ratios required in the Zoning Ordinance are parking maximums. This is a policy change from the previous zoning ordinance, which provided parking ratios as required minimum parking.
The maximum parking ratio for R&D uses is 1.5 spaces / 1,000 sq. ft. of gross floor area (SSFMC Table 20.330.004 Required On-Site Parking Spaces). The project is proposing 998 spaces for the approximately 665,000 sq. ft. of office/R&D area, in keeping with the maximum parking ratio. The project is also providing an additional 302 parking spaces for other amenity uses which lack parking maximums, accommodating about 26 percent of the total capacity of these spaces based on maximum occupancy allowed. Together, the proposed 1,300 parking spaces would accommodate approximately 45 percent of the expected peak occupancy of the project, in support of the TDM requirements discussed below. The Infinite 101 Parking Management Plan memorandum from Fehr & Peers is provided as Attachment 1 to this staff report. Staff has included a condition of approval requiring that all identified amenity spaces must be open to the public for these additional parking spaces to be allowed; if at any time the amenity spaces are restricted to only for campus tenants, the associated additional parking spaces must be removed and replaced by landscaping/open space improvements.
Bicycle Parking
The 101 Terminal project includes short-term and long-term bike parking options for employees and visitors. SSFMC Section 20.330.007 includes standards for bicycle parking:
• Any establishment with 10 or more employees shall provide long-term bicycle parking in an amount equivalent to five percent of required vehicular spaces.
Based on this requirement, 101 Terminal is required to provide 50 bicycle parking spaces, based on 998 maximum parking spaces for the office/R&D use. The project is providing 61 long-term parking spaces and 61 short-term parking spaces, located throughout the project site. The project is far exceeding the number of required parking spaces, helping to support the proposed TDM plan and encourage bicycle use as a commute mode.
SSFMC Section 20.330.007 (Bicycle Parking) includes design and location, and security requirements for long- and short-term bicycle parking. As designed, the 101 Terminal project meets these requirements, and a project condition of approval is included to ensure that these requirements are met during project construction.
Transportation Demand Management Plan
SSFMC Section 20.400 establishes regulations related to Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plans, using a points-based TDM planning approach to ensure that each development project contributes its fair share toward reducing vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), while providing flexibility to be sensitive to the local development context, project type, and scale of the project. Required points are intended to align with the approximate level of auto travel reductions needed to achieve consistency with city, regional and state environmental goals. The TDM ordinance includes four tiers of compliance for different types and scales of development, based on their anticipated effects on the City’s transportation network.
The 101 Terminal project is classified as a Tier 4 project, as it is an R&D project with at least 400,000 sq. ft. of floor area. Tier 4 requirements include:
• A total of 50 points
• Annual monitoring to achieve a maximum of 50 percent of employees commuting via driving alone
• Annual monitoring of a site-specific trip cap
The proposed TDM Plan, prepared by Fehr & Peers (Associated Entitlements Resolution, Exhibit C) includes a checklist, which achieves the required 50 points through a mix of required and optional trip reduction measures designed to reduce the number of peak hour vehicle trips, auto dependency, and the need for commuting by single-occupancy vehicle for project employees and visitors. The project design, transit-oriented location and programmatic TDM elements encourage alternative modes of transportation including walking, bicycling, micro-mobility options, carpooling, vanpooling, remote work, and public transit.
SUSTAINABILITY / CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
The proposed project is consistent with recent sustainability regulations that have been adopted at State and local levels. Examples include Senate Bill 375, passed in 2008, which aims to create more efficient communities by providing alternatives to using single occupancy vehicles. Projects that link higher density development to transit help meet this goal. At the local level, the General Plan policies and implementing zoning for this area focus on linkages to Caltrain, other regional transit including BART, SamTrans, and community amenities.
101 Terminal is designed as a high-density transit-oriented development, located roughly between the San Bruno BART station and the South San Francisco Caltrain stations. The proposed project would be designed to achieve a minimum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) version 4.1 Building Design and Construction Core and Shell Gold rating as well as WELL v2 Core Gold certification. Proposed sustainability measures include an all-electric building design, on-site renewable energy in the form of rooftop photovoltaic panels, and high-performance building envelope and HVAC systems, as well as other measures.
DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
The Design Review Board (DRB) initially reviewed the project on May 16, 2023. The Board was supportive of the project site planning and architecture but had concerns with the parking structure design and its view from the south of the site. Following that meeting, the applicant revised the design of the eastern edge of the parking structure to include an art element, and also provided improved renderings depicting the project as viewed from the south. DRB reviewed the updated project at the June 20, 2023 meeting and supported the updated parking structure design. Comment letters from both DRB meetings are included in Attachment 1 to this staff report.
IMPACT FEES
The 101 Terminal project is subject to the City’s impact and development fees, which are used to offset the impacts of new development on City services and infrastructure. The draft Conditions of Approval (Exhibit A to the Entitlements Resolution) list out the relevant impact fee estimates, summarized below:
• Childcare Fee: $1M
• Citywide Transportation Fee: $24M
• Commercial Linkage Fee: $11.6M
• Public Safety Impact Fee: $890,000
• Parks Fee: $2.4M
• Library Impact Fee: $95,000
• Community Benefits Program Fee: $6.3M
• Public Art Requirement: On-site, or in-lieu contribution of .5% of construction costs
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
In 2022, the City Council certified a programmatic Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the 2040 General Plan (State Clearinghouse #202102006) (CEQA Resolution, Exhibit A). The program EIR assessed the potential environmental impacts resulting from implementation of the 2040 General Plan Update, Zoning Ordinance Update and Climate Action Plan Update, which established new land use, development, and urban design regulations for the city over a 20-year planning period. The 101 Terminal Court project proposal for an office/research and development campus is in keeping with the envisioned use at the project site and in compliance with the City’s development standards.
Section 15162 of the CEQA Guidelines states that no subsequent EIR need be prepared for a project where an EIR has previously been prepared unless the lead agency identifies subsequent changes in circumstances that were identified and not previously analyzed or would create new significant environmental effects. More specifically, Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines mandates that projects that are consistent with the development density established by existing zoning, a community plan, or general plan policies for which an EIR was certified shall not require additional environmental review, except as might be necessary to examine whether there are project-specific significant effects that are peculiar to a project or its site. CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 specifies that when reviewing a project that meets the requirements of this section, a public agency shall limit its examination of environmental effects to those that the agency determines in an environmental checklist or other analysis.
The environmental checklist and appendices prepared by the City for the project dated September 7, 2023 (CEQA Resolution, Exhibit B) serves as substantial evidence that the current project is within the scope of the previous environmental analysis including General Plan EIR and Mitigation Monitoring Program and that subsequent CEQA analysis is not required for the proposed project. As demonstrated through the environmental checklist analyzing project impacts, there are no effects that are peculiar to the project, or were not previously identified, or have become more adverse due to new, previously unknown information. As such, no further environmental review would be required pursuant to Section 15183. The project would be subject to all relevant mitigation measures included in the 2040 General Plan EIR Mitigation, Monitoring, and Reporting Program (MMRP) (CEQA Resolution, Exhibit A - Final General Plan EIR).
CONCLUSION
The proposed project seeks to transform underutilized parcels in the Caltrain station area into a transit-oriented, R&D development that will provide new employment opportunities, new publicly-accessible open space amenities, and an improved public realm, focusing on pedestrian and bicycle connections to Caltrain. In addition, the proposed development conforms to the vision articulated in the DSASP and the General Plan, and proposes a high-quality design that is consistent with the zoning standards and design guidelines of the BTP-H zoning district.
Therefore, staff recommends that the Planning Commission take the following actions:
1. Adopt a resolution making findings and determining that Project is consistent with the scope of environmental analysis in the previously certified 2040 General Plan Environmental Impact Report pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183.
1. Adopt a resolution making findings and approving the entitlements request for Project P22-0124 including Design Review (DR22-0038) and Transportation Demand Management Plan (TDM22-0008), subject to the draft Conditions of Approval.
Attachments
1. Infinite 101 Parking Management Plan, prepared by Fehr & Peers
2. Design Review Board Letters, May, 2022 and June, 2022
Associated Resolutions and Exhibits
1. 101 Terminal CEQA Resolution (File ID#23-762)
A. 2040 General Plan EIR (weblinks)
B. 101 Terminal Environmental Checklist
1. Environmental Checklist
2. Appendices (weblinks)
2. 101 Terminal Entitlements Resolution (File ID#23-763)
A. 101 Terminal Draft Conditions of Approval
B. 101 Terminal Project Plan Set
C. Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program