Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution Amending the General Plan Business Park Classification to Clarify the Allowable Floor Area Ratio (FAR) at Harbor Bay Business Park, as Recommended by the City Planning Board. (Planning and Building 481005)
Item six A public hearing to consider adoption of resolution amending the general plan business park classification to clarify the allowable floor area ratio at Harvard Bay Business Park as recommended by the City Planning Board. Hello. Hello. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor and members of the City Council. I am Alan Tigh, Planning Services Manager. So what's before you tonight is a minor amendment to the general plan text in the land use element. What it does is it's designed to eliminate an inconsistency in which the general plan describes the floor area ratios that are embedded in the zoning regulations at the Harbor Bay Business Park. So in 1991, when the City Council approved the zoning for the Harbor Bay Business Park, it allowed properties to be developed up to a factor of 2.0. The vision there was you we would get, you know, mid-rise office buildings. In 1991, we adopted a general plan that I would argue mischaracterizes at FSR as, uh, limited to point five when in the zoning that point five is that there's really a special provision that applied to the waterfront. So again, the zoning allowed properties to be developed there to porno for air, except an area that is along the water where they would be point five. The general plan characterized that as covering the entire business park. So, Mr. Tai, if I could just ask you in layperson's language, could you just explain to the audience just how how would that work? And if they are and if they are, did you already tell us about that? Yes. The floor ratio basically is the ratio between how much land you have and the amount of area that you have in the building. So, for example, in favor of two on a 5000 square foot lot means you can build a 10,000 square foot building. So that's really what it is. So over the last 20 years, there's been a lot of low density development at the business park. This really hasn't been brought to light, but in recent years we're seeing a lot more development in our business park. There's currently two projects in the pipeline Exelixis that wants to build an office building with 900 new jobs. There's also a new Hilton branded hotel that's proposed at the entrance to the Harbor Business Park that would be affected by this issue. So what the planning board and staff are recommending today is that you amend the text to just ensure that the description of their fair issue is consistent with what's already in the established zoning. And this was a unanimous recommendation of the planning board. That is correct. All right. Do any speakers. Specifically. Ask any questions about the staff report? Do you have a motion item of approval? I have a motion to move. Approval to have a second. A second with my thanks to the planning board that did a great job vetting this and getting to work. I will echo your thanks to the the planning board. They they are one of our hardworking, heavy lifting boards and I appreciate that. Okay. Any discussion before we vote? Councilmember Desai. I'm going to remain with the status quo. I think the point five is satisfactory. And if someone wants to come in with a higher floor ratio, especially over point eight, you know, they can do it. They can do that through a variance or special special permit use permit process they don't need. I don't think it ought to be by right. Because what you're saying is conceivably you can have a parcel like this. Point eight means that the building, if it's going to be a one story building, is going to be is going to take up basically 80% of that parcel like this. Or you could have a parcel like this. But instead of being a flat building, flat and squat building, you can have a stacked building. And so I think we really need to be wary of of what we're doing. I think the typical floor area ratio for light industrial is maybe around point three. Typical ratio for office in retail is .25, maybe point five. I think point five is pushing it as it is. And I think to give by right point eight, I think you're going to have. A lot of buildings that are, quite frankly, inelegant. One of the points of having a floor error ratio is to have a design that is elegant in terms of a design of a building, in terms of its massing and its height, that that is somewhat related to the area in which it is being built. Instead, I think you run the risk of having either these really, really short and squat buildings that are taking up a lot of parcel, or you end up having a lot of taller buildings that just seem out of out of whack. And so so I think it's wrong to to to go to point A and I would rather remain at point five. Thank you. Councilmember de SAG. So we've had a motion we've had a second all in favor. I and I'm going to pose I take it. Okay, that motion passes 4 to 1. Thank you. For clarifying. That. Comment. Wasn't that. That wasn't that was I don't think that was an accurate explanation of exactly what we just did. I just wanted to know if you want to. Yeah. So I should. Clarify the. So the current zoning allows most of the business park to develop up to 2.0 acre by right. The zoning calls out that the there is an area along the waterfront of the business park that is limited to point five. The general. Plan. Sorry, Mr. de SAC. We didn't we didn't interrupt you guys, but let's let Mr. Todd finish his comment. We voted. It's finished, and we'll move on. We had a chance to give it. Thank you for stating your opinion. We've had another request to hear, Mr. Tai. Let's hear him out. What we're trying to amend is the is how the general plan describes that FAA. Ah, and in 1991, what we put in the general plan, it was just probably poorly written to describe that the point five that we applied to in the entire area of the business park. Not just along the waterfront, and. That's what we're trying to correct. Tonight. Understood. All right. Okay, perfect. We are moving on. So then we move to item six B. Public Hearing to consider rejection of ordinance amending the Alameda Principal Code Chapter three Zoning Ordinance to Streamline Design Review for small residential additions, window replacements and green roofs. Update the work live ordinance requirements. Update the lot line adjustment procedures and make other miscellaneous administrative, technical and clarifying amendments as recommended by the Planning Board.