Alright, that was about 15 seconds.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to tonight's meeting of the Belmont Planning Commission.

It is Tuesday, January 20th, and it is 7 o'clock on the dot.

I'm gonna go through some instructions for participation, starting with uh how to attend uh tonight's meeting.

Um the this meeting will be broadcast live to Belmont residents on Comcast Cable Channel 27.

It's also streamed live via the city's website at Belmont.gov.

And uh finally it's available via Zoom and the instructions for accessing the Zoom link are included in the agenda for um participation in public comment.

Um firstly one can participate in chambers by completing a speaker slip and giving it to our clerk.

Uh you'll then come up to the lectern and have three minutes to submit your comment.

Uh also one can participate virtually using the raised hand feature over Zoom, and again, the instructions for doing so are included in the agenda.

And then finally, um, if written comments are submitted on the C dev uh website before 4 p.m.

today, um those items will be noted, summarized, read, uh uh into the record.

So, um with that, we will please take a roll call.

Yes, good evening.

Uh Commissioner Adam Kavich.

Here.

Kramer.

Here.

Chair Coolidge?

Here.

Uh Twig.

You and Jadala here.

Okay, all present absent tonight is Commissioner Majeski.

Great, thank you.

Uh next item two is our Pledge of Allegiance.

Uh please stand.

And the flag is here.

I think that's a good question.

The United States of America.

Under the I think it visible.

Thank you, everyone.

Uh next is uh item three, which is our community forum.

Uh this portion of the meeting is reserved reserved, excuse me, for persons wishing to address the commission on any matter within our purview that is not included on tonight's agenda.

So I'll see first if anyone um in chambers uh has a comment for item three, which is our community forum.

Um public speakers lips for in-house and no raised hands on Zoom.

Great, and I'll see Director DeMello.

Was anything submitted on our C dev website for uh general public comment?

None.

Great.

Thank you.

That concludes uh our community forum and moving on to item four, uh commissioner announcements and agenda amendments.

I'll turn first to my colleagues to see if there's um any commissioner announcements.

Okay, seeing none up next to see uh if staff has any agenda amendments.

We do not great.

Brisqua moving on to item five, which is our consent business.

There are no items uh on this agenda item.

Moving to number six, study session again, there are no items for this agenda item.

And uh now uh the public hearing portion of our agenda, um, uh item 7a.

Uh this involves uh 1301 shoreway, and uh there's a series of actions associated with this particular item.

Um before turning it over to staff and the applicant for presentations.

I'll first see if there's any um ex-party communications recusals or other disclosures for my colleagues.

Site visit.

Nothing to report.

Site visit.

And I have nothing to report.

Okay.

Take it away.

All right.

Good evening, Chair Kulik and honorable commissioners.

My name is Christopher Dalkumos.

I'm a consultant planner through Good City Company.

Uh joining me this evening is Danay Hall from Kimley Horn.

We'll be presenting on the 1301 Shoreway Road Office Life Science Project.

Thank you.

So we'll start out by providing an overview of the project, uh, go through the requested actions and entitlements, uh, discuss the comments received to date, and then turn into the environmental review portion uh by Danae.

Following that, uh the applicant will conduct a presentation and will receive questions from the planning commission.

And then if there's any public comment, and then the public comment period, uh, and following that discussion by the planning commission.

So this slide uh, before we're getting into the presentation, uh just provides a rendering of the back side of the project at the end of SEM Lane.

Uh this is the publicly accessible trail along Belmont Creek, and there will be a slide uh providing a little bit more information on this.

So the site is 6.9 acres.

It's in the east side of Belmont, east of US 101, southeastern corner of Shoreway Road and SEM Lane.

The underlying zoning district is regional commercial.

Uh and it's currently um currently has uh an office use on site.

So this uh office is approximately 149,000 square feet.

It's just south of Homewood Suites and Hobies uh and north of the PGE substation.

The proposed project is two office and door life science buildings, totaling 542,035 square feet between the two buildings, includes a nine-level parking garage, which includes uh 1,626 vehicle parking spaces site-wide.

There are 109 long-term bicycle spaces and then and 92 short-term spaces for a total of 201 bicycle parking spaces site wide.

As mentioned before, includes a publicly accessible trail with amenities, which we'll get into a little later, including a sports court, which is available for the public.

So the way that the buildings are oriented, building one has primary frontage along Shoreway Road, including some along SEM Lane.

Uh building two is primarily along SEM Lane.

There's a parking garage just south of the two buildings, which helps provide screening from the PGE substation.

And then to the east of uh the main campus is some additional surface parking and the Belmont Creek Trail.

So building one is eight stories, 133 feet tall, 270,452 square feet, with again its primary frontage along Shoreway Road.

Building two has a little bit of a larger base footprint, but it is shorter.

Uh and that building is 117 feet tall, 271,583 square feet along SEM Lane.

The entrance to the parking garage is primarily uh from Shoreway Road.

Uh it also includes some screening from the frontage of Shoreway Road, 1,533 total vehicle spaces, includes a solar array on top, uh and it's 89 feet tall.

So the publicly accessible amenities include approximately an 850 foot long trail along Belmont Creek, uh includes exercise nodes at different locations along the trail, seating and picnic tables, uh 10 short-term bicycle parking stalls at the Belmont Creek Trail entrance at the end of SEM Lane, and six vehicle stalls.

There's three at the top by the entrance of the trail, and then three down by the sports court.

Requested actions.

So tonight we're seeking your recommendation on certifying the environmental impact report, a rezoning from regional commercial to planned unit development and a zoning map amendment, conceptual development plan, which is the site specific zoning, the detailed development plan, which are the plans and the architecture for the building, conditional use permit.

Also, sorry, skipped over the development agreement, which is an important obviously component of one of the requested entitlements this evening.

Design review, grading plan and permit, and tree removal permit.

So start off with the planned unit development.

This includes, you know, four entitlements that are really packaged together from the rezoning from regional commercial to planned unit development, PD, the zoning map amendment to show and reflect that the site is changing and that it would be zoned as planned development.

The conceptual development plan as noted, which is the site specific zoning, the detailed development plan, and the conditional use permit.

So the context for the request is to allow life science and research and development, allow permitted uses across all floors, which we'll get into a little bit later, allow taller building heights, wider driveway widths, allow a higher floor area ratios, and provide flexibility to the applicant as the basis for community benefits.

So the maximum floor area that's currently allowed under regional commercial is 1.8.

The office buildings themselves is 1.8.

So we're seeking and recommending a higher uh FAR to allow the two office buildings and parking that sub that complements uh the proposed use.

The maximum building height uh is currently 50 feet, and so this would allow them to build up to 135 feet, which is also consistent with uh the airport land use commission's max heights for the area, and then off-street parking driveway widths.

Zonic Code has 20 and 24 feet uh for two-way directional traffic uh internal, and then they're proposing 26 feet.

So this slide is showing all the uses that are allowed under regional commercial on the left-hand side, and this slide is also just to reflect that they're seeking to add life science and research and development in addition to the uses already permitted within regional commercial.

On top of that, uh business and professional offices within the regional commercial zoning district currently uh are limited in terms of space that's allowed on the first floor.

So they could be on the first floor as long as they do not exceed 1500 square feet.

So part of this request is to remove that restriction and allow them to include office space on the ground floor uh if needed.

Staff presented uh to City Council the proposed development agreement terms on October 28th uh last year.

Overall, city council expressed support for what was negotiated between the project applicant and staff.

So the proposed terms are to best entitlements for up to 10 years and to lock in development impact the amounts with annual CPI adjustments for parks, traffic, and housing.

In exchange, uh the applicant would contribute 6.3 million dollars in cash for uh community benefits that the city could decide to use on community center or other sorts of facilities.

It would escalate to seven million dollars in years eight and 10 of the uh the 10 year term if they don't uh submit for building permits prior to that.

It would also includes a minimum contribution of 50% of the public art investment fee for citywide projects.

So that's uh calculated as 2.7 million dollars, and the remainder of the of the of the amount will be used for public art on site.

It also includes maintaining outdoor public amenities and improvements along Belmont Creek to make sure that uh you know they're they're well maintained for for Belmont residents and uh for residents of surrounding areas that you know decide to go there.

It also includes uh specific requirements for labor, such as using a general contractor that's a union signatory, require that general contractor to make reasonable efforts to ensure that at least 20 at least I'm sorry, 30% of construction of the construction workforce are San Mateo County residents.

Also includes requiring the general contractor to make reasonable efforts to participate in apprenticeship programs.

So a little bit of the design review portion, and so this uh is describing how the project is consistent uh with the city's building design uh standards.

So we have recessed balconies and entrances that break up the mass, in addition to panels and and fins, so that you're not looking at you know just like one straight uh flat surface.

Uh the articulation uh provides uh scale of the project and kind of reduces the perception of height since yeah, just using my cursor here, showing that there's there's a first floor.

Well, there's the first level that's kind of cut off, but three additional kind of sections above that, so that uh you know there's not this idea that you know it's eight stories or um eight stories in terms of appearance with the with uh the different sections.

Uh height and density allow improved internal pedestrian and bicycle circulation, and so that allows you know tenants of the area to get around uh with the plaza in the center, moving from the buildings through the plaza to the parking garage, and uh just really take advantage of the space that's there.

In addition, uh they're also including earth tone and cool colors throughout the project.

So grading permanent plan, uh net change fill a fill is 8,000 cubic yards, and that's to bring up the site by two feet by for by two feet uh to take it above the two feet above base flood elevation as required by the city.

The grading plan and geotechnical investigations were reviewed by public works and uh consultants, and it's the reports were found to be compliant with uh the city's objective standards.

We've also included the city standard conditions approval uh with the project with relation to grading.

The proposed project would uh remove 157 trees throughout the site, and of those 157 trees, 53 are protected species.

Uh they're mostly non-native.

Uh, and they're protected species or they're protected trees primarily because of the the diameter of the and size of the trees.

So in place of that, they'd plant 166 trees throughout the site, uh, and 62 of those trees would count as replacements for those protected tree species.

147 of those would be new trees, 19 will be replanted.

Of those 147 new trees, 141 are California natives, such as oak, uh buckeye, uh, and pine.

The project also uh prepared a transportation demand management plan.

The city's policy requires the new development to implement TDM by selecting from a menu of options.

They're proposing to achieve 20.5 points, and it includes a mixture of uh incentives for bicycling to the site.

Making sure that it's pedestrian friendly, and also incentivizing carpooling and vent pooling.

Uh so for example, that would include, you know, having those designated parking spaces and making sure that the TDM liaison connects folks from the buildings to some of those programs.

The conditions of approval also address monitoring and compliance over time.

So with that, I'll hand it over to my colleague Danay Hall.

Next slide.

Alright, so I'm going to provide an overview of the CEQA process generally, then an overview of the draft EIR contents, an overview of the final EIR contents, and the next steps in the CEQA process.

Next slide.

So reminder for those and for those who don't know, CEQA or the California Environmental Quality Act is a state law that requires public disclosure of the potential environmental effects of a project.

CEQA is governed by the law itself by case law and by the CEQA guidelines that the state publishes.

So this EIR was prepared in accordance with those guidelines and the case law and CEQA law itself.

The process requires that a notice of preparation or NOP is circulated publicly to alert the public that an EIR is being prepared, and that was indeed circulated back in June of 2024.

Then the draft environmental impact report was prepared and circulated in October of 2024.

That was circulated for 45 days as required by CEQA to solicit public input, and the final environmental impact report, final EIR, responds to all of those public comments, and that was published on January 8th of this year.

And we are here tonight at planning commission where you'll consider a recommendation.

So the EIR, similar project description to what Chris described.

The EIR considered that the project could be an office and life science use, notably the life science up to biosafety level three.

The EIR considered that it would be two employment use buildings up to 542 approximately thousand square feet with the nine-story 400,000 square foot parking garage on site.

Next slide.

And if you go to the next slide, Chris, the EIR found that several of these topic areas, those listed here on this slide, would have no impact or a less than significant impact.

And just to note that the term less than significant does mean something very specific in the context of CEQA.

It is a term of art.

It means that it is less than the significance threshold that is established for a given topic area.

The topics you see here on this slide were found to have potentially significant impacts, but mitigation was identified for each of these topic areas and potential impacts to reduce those to a less than significant level.

So ultimately, the EIR found that there are no significant impacts from the project.

As I said, the final EIR responds to the public comments that were received on the draft EIR.

And the final EIR that was published contains a response to comments, some clarifications to the draft EIR in the form of strikeout and underline, as well as a mitigation monitoring and reporting program or MMRP.

All of these are required elements of a final EIR by CEQA.

The project received seven comments during the draft EIR stage, and the final EIR responded to all of those.

Excuse me, that the uh comments raised were about sea level rise and biological resources.

The final EIR responded to each comment individually, as well as provided a topical response, providing sort of a summary response that readers could read at the start of the final EIR in addition to the detailed responses to each of their comments.

So the next steps in the CEQA process after tonight you make a recommendation to City Council, and then City Council will consider the final EIR certification and the project, which is just one of the approvals for this project, as Chris noted earlier.

Uh the CEQA is one of the actions under consideration.

That completes my review.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So just wanted to indicate that staff have received zero comments after the issuance of a public notice for this project.

Outside of the comments I received during the environmental review process.

So this evening there's three recommendations that we're asking the planning commission to consider.

It's certification of the EIR, approval of the rezoning, exceptional development plan and development agreement, approval of the detailed development plan, and the conditional use permit and design review grade and plan and permit and tree removal permit.

Before we get to that, though, we'll we can have the uh applicant's presentation next.

Great, thank you.

Before the applicant presents, I do want to um note one thing for the record.

Um we did receive a comment from one shoreline, which is the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District.

I do represent them.

Uh, they're a client of mine of the county of San Mateo.

Um I did not advise them in any way with regard to the comment they submitted, but I do want to make sure that's on the record that I that they are a client of mine, but I had no involvement in this particular matter.

Good evening.

My name's Bruce Burkard.

Uh I am a partner at Four Corners Properties, and we are the owner of this site.

Uh, thank you, commissioners, for taking the time to evaluate our project tonight and appreciate your time.

I also wanted to thank um Laura Russell, uh, Chris Takumas, Kathy Kleinbaum, and Carlos Domello for uh the time they've spent uh helping us to get to this point and their constructive feedback.

I feel like it's been a wonderful team effort.

So thank you very much for your efforts up to this point.

Tonight we have um two of our uh members of our architectural team, Karen Cooklin and Gary Levers, right here.

Uh they will be coming up momentarily to share uh their architectural vision.

Um Daniel Cunningham, our landscape architect with SWA, and Minnie Romanowski, our land use council.

I think many of you may have met many in the past.

And then via Zoom, we've got Kylie Coe from Hexagon, Rekhao Fiones, our civil engineer, and uh one of my partners, Rich Yang, who unfortunately can't be here tonight, but they're all participating via Zoom.

With that said, I will uh let you go, Gary.

Thank you again.

Good evening.

My name is Gary Levers, and I'm a design principal at DGA.

And uh I think you're driving right with the.

So uh we'd like to start off by um showing our approach to this uh to this project.

We're gonna start with master planning.

You're probably very aware that 1301 Shoreway currently has a four-story office building, which I believe is vacant or largely vacant.

It's bound by the Bay Shore Highway, um, Sen Lane, Belmont Creek, and the PGE substation.

So it's surrounded by those guys on four sites.

The prominent views are from the 101, quite spectacular, and uh there's also a very important intersection that occurs between Shoreway and SIM Lane.

So, our site planning factors, really uh multiple, but the three main ones were um the PGE overhead utility lines along um shoreway, the underground gas easement along Sim Lane, and then the hundred foot BC DC shoreline band.

And if you kind of extract that from the property line, you'll end up with this buildable area.

And so the organization of our site, two buildings, a seven-story building and an eight-story building, nine levels of parking, are organized in a manner in which we think optimize our opportunities.

So the parking garage is really acting as a buffer between the balance of the site and the PGE substation.

And then the buildings create an L shape with a gap between them.

That essentially creates an internal courtyard, maximizes the frontage along SEM Lane and Shoreway, and then opens that courtyard out onto the creek.

Next.

So we've got designated drop-offs for both buildings along Shoreway and SEM Lane, and pedestrian access is from that intersection, and you can either access the courtyard between the two buildings or directly from the Belmont Creek Trail.

So community benefits really break down into three categories.

Staff has touched on financial contributions and labor alignments.

We'd like to use the time tonight to focus on the outdoor amenities.

So as I said earlier, there's a very, very prominent intersection between SEM Lane and Shoreway.

We think that's a really great place for a significant piece of art.

And then marking the other side of the site is the availability of public parking and bike parking at the head of the trail.

We then have a breadcrumb series of amenities, which my colleague Daniel is going to elaborate on.

Thank you, Gary.

So, as Gary has mentioned, there is a series of public amenities that act as a kind of string of pearls that line the Belmont Creek.

And those of you who had the opportunity to visit the site may have realized that this is kind of an underutilized amenity for the city.

So the first of which of these elements is the trailhead itself.

So at this trailhead, we'll have five dedicated parking spaces for the public use, as well as ten bicycle parking stalls for public use, a bike station, and a map that includes the larger network of trails that this leads to.

If we go on to the next slide, please.

Followed by the subsequent space, if you go into the next slide, please, which connects back to the main courtyard of the building courtyard.

So this allows users of the site and the public to intermingle at this creek trailhead here at this location.

The final uh amenity space, yes, thank you, is a multi-use uh court, which is located on the most southern end of the site, and this allows members of the public as well as the building users to access a sports court.

And our understanding is there not is not a public sports court located anywhere near this location.

So this is a great uh benefit for the community and public.

Thank you.

Go back to Gary.

So we've organized the buildings with the slightly smaller footprint being eight stories, steps down slightly on SEM Lane to seven stories, and so the height is at its maximum at that very important corner steps away from the site.

We've also uh eroded the first two levels of the building masses and exposed the structure to create a colonnade which has a much more welcoming relationship with the ground plane.

Where we have the vertical circulation, we've uh taken the opportunity to express that again with very subtle but nevertheless important setbacks in the building plane, and we've done the same things by eroding where appropriate next areas for balconies at the higher levels, so really working the building envelope to create an undulating surface along the main roads next.

Canopies to define the entries, which are aligned with the drop-off areas, and then mechanical screens again, step back from the parapet.

So really working the mass and trying to break as much as possible that mass down with the articulation, vertical circulation, balconies, entry points, and mechanical screens.

And in terms of the exterior fabric, again the scale of this building, we've addressed that by taking a datum point on every two stories, which is a kind of a well-known architectural trick.

You reduce the scale, and then within that two-story band, we align our vertical mullions next, which are staggered, and that creates kind of almost a kinetic quality to the elevation, which hopefully you will see on the renderings.

Next.

So when you're looking up at the building and you'll be looking up into two stories, the cutaways in the building will receive that soffit material, which brings that softness, and you can see those exposed columns allowing us to be able to maximize that soffit area.

So this is what we have at the moment, this four-story building, and this is what?

Drum roll, we'll have at the end of it.

So I'm going to walk you very quickly around the renderings, but I did want to point out the strong visual relationship between the garage and uh and the building.

This is looking from the freeway slightly north.

You can see the undercut, and then as we wrap round into the intersection, next, you can see that very important corner.

You can see the erosion where the vertical circulation is and the balconies to take advantage of those great views and the colonnade.

And then as we move around a little bit of a, you can see the scale of the building here with those two-story datum elements, and you can see how we've kind of separated the mullions, shifted it, which kind of creates that movement in the elevation next.

And then coming round, this is this the space between the two buildings, accessing the courtyard again.

You can see the entry and drop off to the lower building, the seven-story building.

Next.

So it really takes the scale of the building with the expression of those colonnades and makes it quite humane and quite inviting.

We really anticipate that there'll be a lot of activity at the ground plane.

So really animating that space, and then wrapping around.

You can see the courtyard there.

And so, you know, this is a building that speaks to the adaptability that we'll need in the future and the utility.

It's a we believe a very striking piece of modern architecture that is expressive of its time and of its materials.

Quite simple, but we think very elegantly and sophisticatedly detailed.

Um hopefully it will be an icon along the freeway, and most importantly, it'll tell you that you're in Belmont.

That concludes our presentation.

I can hear.

So now, you know, we we'd invite any questions from the planning commission.

Great, thank you for those presentations, um, both from the applicant and from staff.

Uh, we'll see um, yeah, as indicated, uh, whether there's any questions from the dais.

Maybe we'll start on.

You want to start?

Sure.

Is that okay?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let me see if I can recruit my questions a little bit.

I guess one question on the PD about retaining all of the regional commercial uses, the RC uses.

Can I hear a little bit more about why that's important to the applicant?

It seems like a lot of those uses are really not compatible with an officer lab building.

And I noticed that the CEQA analysis was done for office lab space.

It didn't include, for example, nursery and garden stores, which might have like fertilizer and pest control.

It just seemed like you're trying to maintain flexibility, but I didn't quite understand why why that's a value when most of those uses are not compatible with this really nice buildings that you've shown.

So I don't know if that applicant can comment or if the city wants to comment.

Why preserve all that RC uses when it just doesn't seem compatible?

So I can speak to it generally.

We're trying to do the mics here.

Let me know if you can hear me okay.

Um, so we wanted to continue to reflect the uses that are in the underlying district to the degree um that we could.

There could be some of those uses that could be appropriate um accessory or ancillary uses that could be associated um with the larger project.

Um, and we were trying to align it to the fact that the city is considering changes to the RC district in the future.

So we also tried to capture future uses in the RC district.

So we were trying to maintain flexibility on the site, um, but the applicant may wish to speak to what their particular interest was related to that.

Um obviously I was looking back talking to our land use council, trying to understand the history of that um that question.

So I I think that it was working collectively with the city and trying to help them maintain that flexibility.

I don't there wasn't any particular um strategic initiative around that.

Okay, so then um I guess back to staff.

So the idea would be like if unfortunately this project doesn't get built in the next 10 years, whatever reason you decide not to pursue it.

The idea would be that it would remain PD with all these land uses so somebody else could come in with like a nursery and garden store, for example.

So is that the reason?

I guess I'm wondering why we can't just say it's office and lab and amend it later.

It's a very wide list of permitted uses.

It seems a little odd.

Certainly, the list of permitted uses could be limited following the logic that you're offering.

I think that that could potentially make sense.

Um we were trying to think through that there's really two different layers of approval here.

There's a conceptual development plan, and then there's the detailed development plan.

Um, and so if somebody wanted to propose something that was very different, they would have to have a revision to the detailed development plan.

Um, but it certainly is a policy choice around what land uses should be included in the conceptual development plan.

Okay.

Okay, thanks.

Um I guess then some questions more, maybe this is around design elements, but also speaks to flexibility of use.

And I understand um uh for clarity, I work in biotech, I work for Genentech.

So certainly aware of sort of the up and down of um biotech and lab space in the area and realizing you're trying to maintain flexibility lab versus office, and I get that, but um again, just have some questions about essentially um permitting laboratory uses, um, and I know the detailed development plan could be amended.

What I see are really gorgeous office buildings.

I don't see any provision for laboratory usage, such as um supply deliveries, um, a loading dock for hazardous waste, which has to be stored and and um accumulated until it's removed, um, autoclaves, they need special venting, you need special filters and your air handling, so you need like a higher distance between floors.

Like there's so much that goes into a lab building.

I guess my question is just do we really expect that this can be either offices or labs as as designed?

Um uh just trying to understand that a little bit better again because that speaks to the future use of the of the site.

I know we're not reviewing detailed plans today.

I'm just trying to understand how this CDP DDP could be used in the future.

So very curious about your plans.

Yeah, thank you, Joanna.

Actually, uh, we work at Genantech too.

So um the building actually was originally designed as a lab with a very high floor to floor.

There are two loading docks with appropriate storage.

Um I guess I didn't see those.

I mean, I know you like to highlight like the in the plan, really nice soft at the lobby, but like, yeah, we do have the backup plans if if you wanted to see them.

I need to I'll dig in a little bit.

So we have taken that into consideration, and that's actually why the roofs are so packed, is because of the assumption is that there could be a laboratory use.

Um, but you know, as the market has shifted and trying to be able to respond to that, the thought was we could dial it back to an office.

Um we know AI is ticking up in the marketplace right now, it could easily accommodate that as well.

But it was it was originally designed with a high floor floor, and um, and it still is to accommodate laboratory use.

Okay.

So you feel like again, the loading docks, the storage rooms, all that could okay.

So I asked a follow-up question on that.

Well while you're at the so uh you're anticipating that you know you need what four or five times as much air to go from an office to a lab.

All that equipment, air handling equipment would go on the roof.

Yep.

Well, most of it is on the roof.

There certainly would be air intakes on the building.

Yeah.

Any you anticipate any like small animal facilities in there?

Cause you have such a nice open design that that doesn't fit with your side.

Yeah, we hadn't really anticipated that, but any of those labs can accommodate a small animal facility if one was needed.

Okay.

Um I don't want to necessarily get into modern animal facility design, but it's they're much um they're much better and more focused on air at the at the need, versus um the way that we used to design them, which was a lot of air and a lot of requirements.

So it could accommodate a small use like that, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Can I also ask a follow-up question?

Sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh the presentation referenced that this building was I think um contemplating up to a bio safety level three.

Is that correct?

It could.

And it would and it okay.

One is that correct, and two, what does that mean?

Okay, so most labs today are biosafety level one or two.

Um, but sometimes you have a specialized lab where you need to protect the people or the product, and those get designed to biosafety level three.

And um, there's just some protocols and procedures that are enacted about access, um, different kinds of um hoods are you biosafety hood is generally used in those laboratories, and HEPA filtered air is utilized for the most common types of facilities that we would see.

The more extreme facilities that you probably see in movies are are really isolated to government facilities, mostly on the east coast too.

Okay, and this dig in there a little bit more.

I was gonna go there, but oh okay.

I was just gonna ask if the SQL analysis contemplates that that possibility.

Yes.

It does.

Okay, great.

If the answer was yes for folks following on Zoom, just to make sure that the mic picks it up.

Go ahead.

Yeah, for the BSL three, I mean, to be a little bit more clear, it involves things like um an airlock, you know, for entrance where you you gown up and booties and the whole bit, there's um has to have negative air pressure, so things can't escape, they can only go in.

You have to have an autoclave inside there, all materials get autoclaved before they come out.

It's a little bit more than just access controls, just to be clear.

So again, you're contemplating the building will be ready for BSL3 lab, or like a future tenant would retrofit to BSL3.

Yeah, I mean, right now it's um a a warm shell.

So if somebody came in and they had a biosafety level three lab, part of the building would be allocated for that, and if we needed to add systems to help support that, we would do that.

But yes, they would be designed with the airlock.

I was trying not to get into all that detail, but they would be designed with the airlocks and um the proper decontamination of you know materials.

You think if a biosafety lab level three lab, a lot of things can go in, but nothing can come out really is one way to think about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, just clarify because one of an attachment for the impact analysis says the um if BSL level three um is contemplated building shall be designed and constructed as BSL three.

I just wanted to clarify that doesn't mean original construction, that can be retrofit as well.

And the whole building wouldn't be built to that level, it's very expensive, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Huh.

Okay.

Um sorry, last question.

Can you somebody clarify what bird-friendly glass is exactly?

Are there like standards for that?

I mean, obviously, shorebirds are we're hoping the marsh is continuing to increase in population.

So, generally it's a a bird, uh, it's a glazing, I'm sorry, that has um a coating on it that none of us can see, but birds can see it, and so they don't fly into the glass.

It's usually applied in the first 60 feet of the building where um birds tend to nest.

Um, and there are some design guidelines around that that architects follow.

Um, so that would be utilized on the building.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, that's it for me.

Great.

Okay, go next.

No.

No?

Okay.

Yep, thank you.

I had a couple of questions about the uh public access.

So that we you mentioned there was some parking spaces for the access to the path.

How many are there and what is the protocol for getting to them?

Um is it is it a case that there's so many that you have to um provide or have you gone over and above and maybe just talk us through a little bit how the public get into that path through this site?

So the public's accessible spaces.

I don't know if it's helpful to go back to the diagram, but they are located close to the public street.

Um so conceivably anyone from the public could drive along the public street and there would be signage identifying these public spaces that are located at the street level, uh yeah, near the number one there that would be accessible to members of the public.

There are how many spaces?

Parking spaces?

Five spaces.

Five.

And then things like people use-that's parking spaces for vehicles and then 10 uh bicycle spaces.

Thank you.

That's a good clarification.

And then say things like um public access, like a coffee shop or access to a bathroom for people using that space.

Is there anything like that provided you explained it as a welcome map, but is it is it only a welcome map to people working in this building, or is it somewhere where the public can access a part of this?

So the the regional the trail, the Belmont Creek shelf does continue on, and there are parts in Redwood City that do have you know a Starbucks, those types of uses, but uh currently within the development of this building, I don't believe there's any public um proposed uses.

Right.

And okay.

So the basketball court you mentioned, it's the only one in this area, but it's existing, right?

You're resurfacing it.

Today it's an existing tennis court.

Right.

So you're upgrading it to multi-use.

Okay, unpickable.

We've been back and forth on that, but I don't believe we're currently proposing picklewall.

Just checking.

Um you I think this is okay to mention we had we had this, this is not directly to use, it's probably to the most the architectural team.

So you you guys brought this project for a study session last May, and it's more for my own interest.

What what elements do you think from that discussion have made it through into what you're showing us now?

Is is uh because some of the things that we discussed at that point, I can see slight modulations on some of the things we talked about, but generally looks pretty much the same.

I just wondered if that was something that was helpful or if it's just a videoing of the project to us to see.

Yeah, I in the last um six months or a year, we've been working with BCDC.

Um I think bringing a lot of these ideas to fruition and um more detailed than they were before.

I think before they were very conceptual.

And now there's you know, there's some detailed plans that our partner SWA has prepared for these elements that are consistent with that.

Along with that, we've been working a lot on the sea level rise issues in this area, which, as you know, are very complicated.

There's several cities coming together here along this creek.

Okay, so one one comment that uh we discussed last time was how strong that connection feels between the between the shoreline path and the courtyard, and whether it feels like members of the public feel authorized to access that, or if it's really just a nod towards this little slim path.

We talked about the slim path before, and whether or not that could have been a bolder gesture towards it feeling like part of the same space.

It's been it's been opened up quite a bit, I think.

Um there's a render, maybe one back from this that shows uh go to number three.

One more.

There you go.

That um I think invites people into that space.

It's uh the landscaping there is really lovely, lovely.

It's you know, we're raising the grade to get above the floodplain, um, which helps a lot with sea level rise.

Um, and then creating a a very stepped garden um with different areas for people to gather and have a cup of coffee.

Um, just get outside, meet with people, take a walk.

Um, and so I think it's I think it's more welcoming.

I think if you work there and you needed to take a walk, you would come out to this path and certainly.

Yeah, I think if you walk you work there and you need to take a walk, you would feel like that.

But if you're walking on the path, you might not feel like you could pop into this courtyard.

That it's really the other way around that I'm kind of more interested in.

It's people using the trail.

Well, are they gonna feel authorized to utilize this as part of Belmont's public realm?

I think this trail will kind of always be in competition with the BCDC trail on the other side of the creek.

Um, this is just a creek trail, it's not the official BCDC trail.

Sure.

A trail's wide, it's got all kinds of amenities, and um, so there's a little competition there.

This is I think more the people on this side of the creek that use it are probably uh working in the area.

Um, and if they have a choice, they might choose the larger path.

Okay.

And what does the security of the site look like at night?

So it's connected to this trail, and that's a good thing, but I guess after dark, how does that look for the site and the way that you've addressed that and the design?

Yeah, I think it in general the site will obviously have some kind of security at night because it it needs to will have blue lights um out in the parking lot and certainly um in the garage.

Um I mean I could envision security guards making a lap here.

Yeah, okay, and the I guess is there's a time frame for the use of the building, or is it open?

What were the hours you'd visit?

The idea would be that the building would close at 5, 5:30, something like that.

So that the campus will essentially be closed at that time.

Okay.

Sorry, can I clarify?

That's not normal for labs.

Um the campus itself, but there would obviously be the opportunity for people to work.

Yeah, we know you'll work all night long.

I try not to.

Yeah, just saying you're gonna have employees pulling in and out at any time.

So the campus may I don't know how you close a campus without a fence, but the employees would be going in and out with their card keys at any time.

Yeah, if it's a lab.

Yeah.

So there'll be there'll be security to make sure people get to their cars safely.

But there won't be trucks making deliveries.

There are right, there's business.

People shouldn't be having visitors, you know, at that time, uh unless it's, you know, your family coming to I guess that's somewhat the paradox of having a site that feels open connected that it gives you an issue with security if you sort of um designing it.

The trail isn't lit at night anyway, so I am not sure it's something that would attract people at night.

Again, I think they might go to the other trail, you know, maybe in the summer when it's if it's sunny.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry, I had one last comment.

Um the you still have the power lines at the front of the site.

And those are the Hetchy lines that serve the whole.

But they're still not shown in any images.

Um I've not I've still not seen them in a visual, and I think I think they're quite a big impact on the way that it looks from the front.

I thought we had shown them.

I mean it's I know it's a very minor point, but I feel like it's does change the way that looks from the front.

Some the context.

We do have a rendering that has those.

From the front, you mean from the highway from the yeah, sorry, the street view.

From the sim lane corner entrance, this one here.

Yeah.

Where are the power lines things?

They're over there in the corner.

They're very transparent.

And nobody're supposed to see it.

Okay.

Thanks.

Paint them with clear paint.

Sorry.

Yes, I this question might be backing up as a neural commissioner.

I might just not have missed something, but the 10-year entitlement, I'm wondering if it's tied to the cyclicality of office, life sciences, the outlook, you know, why is it 10 years?

Thank you.

Uh the reason is is that I think anyone who's picking up the paper over the last three years recognizes that there's been a drastic impact in the office market as well as the life science markets.

I'm sure you know firsthand.

And so if you look at the peninsula market, it's plus or minus about 85 million square feet, and the vacancy rate, depending upon whose numbers you look at is somewhere between 25 and 30 percent.

So let's call it 21 to 25 million square feet.

And at current absorption levels, that's probably between five and seven years of time between before you can even get down to a what I would call it a market equilibrium.

And so the reason that we requested this time horizon is while it does take quite a bit of time to get a project of this scale and size going forward.

Um, we also need to be aware of the financial markets and the and the uh tenant occupancy um drivers.

Okay, and as a follow-up, I think in the development agreement it said in the terms seven years with three one-year extensions.

Is that are you ideally thinking in seven years we should know, but let's be safe about it, or I mean, in an ideal world, we're building this in three years.

So I mean, it really, I mean, to be honest with you, I think that the I think the driver for that was uh correct, some optionality, and then there's also uh there's a financial piece to that for the city that I think is beneficial to them, and so we're working through that, you know, having those options.

Okay, thanks.

And the second question, I'm not sure who it's for, but um, just context on um you know the old traffic question.

Um, within the TDM, there's a grading system.

I guess it's like A through F, and and D at one point was described as in essence bad during rush hour, but acceptable.

I'm wondering in the Bay Area if any of our sister cities, we have the same, you know, the same issues, the same basic ratings around main thoroughfares and um going on and off the freeways.

Um I can speak to that generally and then we can see if that satisfies your question.

Um we are looking at uh traffic, we're looking at it two different ways.

We're looking what falls under CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, and what is outside of CEQA.

When we're looking at SQL, we're looking at vehicle miles traveled, so the distances that people drive between their destinations, and then outside of CEQA, we are looking at level of service, LOS, and that's graded on the traditional A through F scale.

So level of service is no longer included in CEQA, but it's still within the city's um guidelines and policies, so we still analyze it that way, separate from CEQA, and so you'll see that um analysis as part of the discussion on these types of projects.

Um cities have similar but slightly different um expectations of what level of service they're gonna have.

So on busy freeways, you might in on ramps and on ramps, you might have level of C is acceptable, you might have level of D D is acceptable.

In very urban areas, you have level F is even acceptable in some cases.

Um and so we have similar but not exactly the same requirements as is other nearby cities.

Does that satisfy your question?

Yes, thank you.

Okay.

Okay, that's all.

Great.

Uh I just had a few.

One was just a clarification.

The slide that's currently that we can see with the financial contribution.

Just one just clarifying that um for years eight through ten, it's just an additional contribution of 700,000.

Correct?

It's a seven million total.

Just that that bullet is slightly slightly confusing, so I want to make sure that's clear.

It's a total contribution of seven million.

It's not if it goes, not an additional seven million, it's a total seven million.

Yes, want to make sure that's abundantly clear.

Yes.

Um, thank you.

Are you gonna ask about trees?

Um, no, but I would like to ask about trees.

You can ask about trees when I'm done.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Cool.

So uh BCDC.

Um, uh, can someone walk through the uh amenities that were added in response to recommendation from BCDC?

Is it all of them?

Is it some of them?

Or there's some recommended that were not accepted?

Um that's a three-part question, sorry.

Highly compound.

Um it was uh a partnership with BCDC and understanding who is using this trail.

BCDC looked at the larger trail network and what was missing from the other trails and portions.

There's portions right across in Redwood City that are undergoing similar developments.

They want to ensure that we were matching uh both planting in our tree species, so if they were very cohesive on that trail, but they also didn't want to have redundancies in the amenities.

So we talked about the sports corps basketball was a preference from them.

Uh the bike parking, the bike station were recommendations from BCDC, the signage uh pointing toward the trail is something that BCDC recommended and that we're including in the project, um, as well as the uh the multiple nodes of seeding along the trail that don't exist today.

What is a bike station?

Uh like the uh it has the pump, it has the different tools, so it's one of those kind of uh fix-it stations.

And was before you leave, sorry, was there anything they recommended that is not included in the uh the plan?

Not that comes to mind.

I don't believe so.

Great.

And then uh another related question.

So um who's in charge of maintenance of that area, in particular the the sports court and uh the entirety of the trail that uh fronts or I guess backs your property.

Yeah, correct.

Yeah, the uh the the acronym is the language or it's business SBCA, the shore business association.

Okay, so I can maybe speak to the mic so folks on Zoom can hear.

Uh the SBCA uh organization.

Okay, so that's just like a business cooperative that they all kind of pitch in together to maintain that stretch of of property?

Okay.

I mean, that SEM lane, there is a um, there's a Caltrans kind of outflow pipe that goes right into SEM Lane, right kind of where that ball court is, which historically has flooded in major kind of you know rain years, and so just wondering making sure that the city is not responsible for um maintaining kind of issues related to that.

Like, is there dredging that's required to kind of kind of mitigate flooding?

Um, and if the trail is kind of inundated, this business cooperative is solely responsible for for kind of mitigating those issues.

You know, that's a good question.

So the the Shores Business Center Association is responsible for maintaining the uh the trail, uh, but as it relates to um maintaining Belmont Creek, uh I'd have to come back to you on that.

Okay.

That's not that's not something that's part of this plan or that's contemplated in any of the documentation we're looking at.

No.

Okay.

Um, I think that's all I had for the moment.

You want to ask about trees?

Yeah, just could we go back to the slide showing the trees that are being removed and relocated?

Just quite a few trees.

Um did you say there was 19 trees being relocated?

Sorry.

On the staff presentation?

Yeah, it was in the staff presentation.

Yes.

So sorry, go ahead.

No, no, go ahead.

Uh uh it's I'm just curious, like what species of trees you're gonna try to replant.

Replanting trees is extremely difficult.

I think the trees that you're correct.

Uh moving trees is uh harmful on a lot of trees.

But uh the trees we're proposing to relocate are our Butus Marina and the arborists we've been working with uh suggested that the particular trees that we're proposing to relocate are good candidates for transplants.

And there aren't that many trees that are remaining, right?

I'm concerned that the two-foot elevation change would kill the trees if you tried to just dump soil on top of them.

Uh that's right.

So these would be boxed up during construction and then put back post-construction.

Okay, good.

And uh I appreciate the detail on the non-native species being removed.

I think that's important, and that we'll end up with more native species than we have now, not less of a parking lot.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Any any follow-up questions?

One is one?

Yeah.

Um sorry, maybe for Laura about the community benefits.

It was a little confusing.

I understand the um development option fee of 6.3 going up another 700,000.

But then there was mention about 2.7 million for art, 50% on site.

Is that 2.7 is 50%?

So the art fee is 5.4.

I was that I was a little confused about the whole art fee thing.

Can you clarify?

Yeah, I'll direct it to Kathy Kleinbaum.

Assistance.

Thanks, Kathy.

Good evening.

Um, Kathy Kleinbow, Assistant City Manager.

So the public art fee is one percent of the total project valuation, which is estimated to be 5.4 million.

So of that amount, they have to have a minimum, but they could have more of that money provided to the city for off-site public art, and then whatever remains of the total valuation that's due then would be in public art that's available on site.

Great.

Thank you for clarifying.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Anyone else before we open up the public hearing?

Okay.

So I think at this point we will now um open the public hearing portion of the meeting, and we'll start with um any comments in chambers.

Um we have not received any in-house uh speaker slips.

Okay.

This next on the list would be to check Zoom to see if there's any raised hands for this item.

Item 7A.

Um no raised hands on Zoom either.

Okay, and Director DeMello, do we have any written comments that were submitted before the 4 p.m.

deadline today regarding uh this item?

We do not.

Okay.

No one here, no one over Zoom and nothing in writing.

Correct.

Great.

So with that, um, I will close the public hearing and we'll turn now to commissioner deliberation.

Anyone wanna kick things off?

I'll start.

Okay.

Um I can make the findings.

It's a very thorough presentation.

It's clear to me that staff has uh put a lot of work into this and with uh help of the consultants and that um um yeah, I can make the findings to make the recommendation to the city council.

Great.

Anyone want to go next?

Likewise I can make the findings.

I I feel like when we saw it um just less than a year ago, it was already very well developed and a lot of work had gone into it, and you can see that effort has been made to push that even further and to take it fine-tune all these elements and really work to see what else can be done with uh the sum of the parts here.

Um some things that weren't even asked to be done, kind of have been developed further, and and you can see that it's kind of singing through in a lot of the things that you say in the way that it's presented.

So I think that's a tribute to it.

It's generally very high quality, and I think it's in step with a lot of similar projects you see um with this type of um use.

I can make the findings as well.

I think broadening the potential uses is is wise.

Great.

Um yeah, similarly, I think it's a great place for site intensification.

I agree the site's underutilized um at the moment, and this is in our city a perfect place for more intense um commercial usage.

I really hope that the market rebounds and we're able to get uh some employers there.

I'd love to see a better balance between jobs and residence here in Belmont.

Um for those unaware, we have about half the ratio of our neighbors, Redwood City and San Mateo, as far as our our jobs to um residence ratio, so love to see more employers.

Um, this is a perfect place for it.

Um I wanna thank um Lara who kind of walked me through what a TMA is and how we might someday get an employer shuttle in the eastern San Carlos Belmont region, um, to which this project would be required to join.

It's one of our um conditions uh of approval here.

Not time for it yet, but really hoping that we can get something going with our neighbors because um I've seen a very successful shuttle program in South San Francisco.

Obviously, way more employers up there, granted, but um it's that last mile.

I think we all know from for example, Caltrain or the buses on El Camino to the employer that really matters and making that last mile.

So I'm really happy to see that CMA.

And again, Laura, thank you for explaining it to me.

Um yeah, in general, um yeah, really pleased with the project and uh and I can make the findings.

Great.

And I could also make the findings.

I I concur with with all the comments um uh that were raised by my colleagues.

I do agree it's the perfect place for a marquee project in Belmont.

Um, and so um thank you both the staff and to the applicant for the insightful uh presentations.

Okay, with that, I think so I think we have three separate items.

Um so I think we'll we'll take those um probably one at a time would be the I think the best way to do that.

Um so maybe let's let's uh let's start.

Anyone um anyone would like to make a motion?

We'll start with um whatever the first one on the list is, which I'm I'll pull up in a sec.

I can make a motion.

The uh resolution number, resolution of the planning commission of the CFL not recommending that the city council certify the final environmental impact report and adopt the sequel findings of fact and adopt the mitigation monitoring and reporting program for the 1301 Shorey project, application number PA 2022-0024.

Wonderful.

Is there a second?

I second.

Great.

It's been moved and seconded.

Let's let's I guess take a roll call just because.

Okay, Commissioner Adam Kevich.

Aye.

Kramer?

Aye.

Chair Coolidge?

Aye.

Twig?

Aye.

And Jadala?

Aye.

Uh motion passes five-zero.

All right.

Anyone want to take tackle the uh rezoning?

Uh sure.

Uh I shall make a motion to approve the resolution of the planning commission of the city of Belmont recommending the City Council adopt an ordinance approving the rezoning of 1301 Shoreway Road from regional commercial zoning district to planned unit development zoning district and related zoning map amendment, and approve the conceptual development plan for a commercial development and approve the development agreement at 1301 Shoreway Road Assessors Parcel 040 371 110.

Great.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Great.

And I'll just note there is a a typographical error in the third recital.

It references January 20th, 2025.

Of course, the hearing is 2026.

So but it's been moved and seconded, and let's uh take a vote.

All right, Commissioner Adam Kavich?

Aye.

Kramer?

Aye.

Chair Coolidge?

Aye.

Twig, aye, Jadala, aye.

Motion passes five zero.

Wonderful.

And let's now round it out with the design review.

Uh Rezo.

Good friend.

I'll move to make the motion to approve the resolution of the planning commission of the City of Belmont recommending approval of the detailed development plan, conditional use permit, design review, grading plan, and permit and tree review removal permit for the property located at 1301 Shoreway Road.

Parcel number 040 371 110.

I second the motion.

Great.

And I'll know there's the same typographical error appears in the second recital.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Okay, Commissioner Adam Kavich?

Aye.

Aye.

Chair Coolidge?

Aye.

Twig?

Aye.

Jedala?

Aye.

Motion passes five zero.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Um my colleagues for for that.

And again, thank you to the applicant and thank you to staff.

These are just recommendations.

So there's no appeal period at this point.

So the next step would be for the city council to do its work.

Correct.

Great.

When is the city council meeting?

I think we're targeting the February 24th meeting for this item.

Wonderful.

Well, good.

Well, congratulations on completing this this phase of the project.

And good luck on the next uh next phases.

So that concludes uh the public hearing portion of our agenda.

Um and that takes us to item eight, which is other businesses and updates.

And I'll see from Director DeMello whether we have anything for that item.

Sure, uh nothing of major import.

We do have a next meeting for the commission, February 3rd.

We will have agenda items for that night.

Um kind of important night as well, because we are gonna be bringing you minutes of the January 6th Planning commission meeting, and we'd like to get those if possible adopted that night so we can include that as part of the package that's gonna go to the council.

Um again, uh we uh do have a meeting that night.

Hope to see you all there.

So we could have a quorum and no other updates, uh no comdev items of note are scheduled for the the city council meeting on January 27th.

So and that's it um happy new year and Scott Rennie attorney has started to join us.

So great you might be wondering why I was here and it wasn't because I didn't I didn't think anything would come up that would need it need my attention but I do think this was a monumentous meeting um it hasn't been lost on the staff I don't we neither of us can recall a time when a project of this magnitude has come before the city uh planning commission and it's moving forward with a recommendation for approval so it really is a uh an important project for the uh city is uh taking under consideration and moving forward with our plan for economic development and for moving the city forward through the 21st century very important that we uh get this one um in the books great appreciate those helmets thank you you're here okay and so I think with that we can adjourn it is 8 12 thank you everyone have a great evening and happy