South San Francisco Planning Commission Considers Infinite 131 Project on September 4, 2025
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to the September 4th, 2025 Planning Commission meeting.
I call this to order.
This meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission is being held in person at the Library Parks and Recreation Building Council Chambers.
To provide a comment during the meeting, please fill out a speaker card and give it to the clerk.
You have three minutes to make your comments.
Please note that all commission time limits and rules of decorum will apply to public comments.
This meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission is hereby called to order.
Will you please stand at your me for the pledge of allegiance?
To the Republic, which is standard one nation under God Liberty and Justice for all.
Thank you.
Maybe please have roll call.
Commissioner Baker.
Commissioner Evans.
Commissioner Faria.
Here.
Commissioner Shahade.
Here.
Commissioner Zing.
It's absent.
Vice Chairperson Palmiku.
Here.
Chairperson Funes.
Here.
Are there any changes to the agenda?
We do not have any changes to the agenda.
Thank you.
Does any member of the public wish to address the commission on an item that is not on the agenda tonight at this time?
Please fill out a speaker card and give it to the clerk.
At this time, I will ask the clerk if there are any members of the public who would like to provide comments.
We have no public comments.
Thank you.
Hearing no speakers, we will move on.
Next on the agenda is the disclosure of ex parte communications.
If any commissioners had any communications with applicants, did any site or project visits had any interactions with any third parties or has any conflicts regarding any items on the agenda?
Can we disclose them at this time?
If you would like to recuse yourself for an item, you can also do so at this time.
Hearing none, let's move on to the next item.
Next item on the agenda is the consent calendar.
May we have a listing of the consent calendar items?
We have one item on the consent calendar.
Number one is consideration and approval of minutes from the August 21, 2025 planning commission meeting.
Does any commissioner wish to pull any item from consent?
I'd like to make a motion.
Roll call, please.
Commissioner Baker.
Yes.
Commissioner Evans.
Yes.
Commissioner Faria.
Yes.
Commissioner Shahade.
Yes.
Vice Chairperson Palmiku.
Yes.
Chairperson Funes.
Yes.
Commissioner Zhang is absent.
At this time, I'll ask the clerk if there are any members of the public who would like to provide comments.
We have no public comments.
Thank you.
Hearing no speakers, I will entertain a motion.
Oh, sorry.
We did that already.
Next on the agenda.
If the clerk could please read the item.
Yes.
Item number two is report regarding consideration of resolutions making findings.
And recommending that the city council adopt an environmental impact report report, including a statement of overriding considerations, and mitigation and monitoring reporting program and approve applications for a general plan amendment, zoning map amendment, design review, transportation demand management plan, besting tentative map, and development agreement for the proposed infinite 131 project to redevelop the 17.67 acre protest terminal site at 131 terminal court in the Lindenville sub area with up to 1.7 million square feet of office RD and associated amenity uses and to rezone five adjacent private parcels at 120 Terminal Court, 196 Produce Avenue, 160 Produce Avenue, and 140 Produce Avenue from Mixed Industrial High to Business Technology Park High.
And item 2A is the resolution.
Thank you.
I will now open the public hearing and call for a staff report.
Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair, fellow commissioners.
Billy Gross, principal planner with the planning division.
So we are before you this evening to discuss the proposed project at 131 terminal card.
It is highlighted in red on the graphic.
And you'll hear us refer to it, and the applicant team refer to it as Infinite 131.
That's the moniker that's given for this project.
The site is located at the terminus of Terminal Court and has been continuously occupied by the Golden Gate Produce Terminal for decades.
This graphic shows the project location in conjunction with other recently entitled Life Science and Residential Projects, as well as the nearby transportation infrastructure.
As we get into more detailed views, we'll be zooming in.
This shows the proposed building sizes and configuration in comparison with similar nearby life science projects, including uh 180 El Camino Real, which is to the very left, and South Line, which is in the middle of the project.
Zooming into the site itself, the proposed infinite 131 project will consist of a 1.7 million square foot life science campus.
In this slide, you can also begin to see how Infinite 131 corresponds to the Infinite 101 project, which is immediately adjacent to the east or at the bottom of the site in this graphic.
Infinite 101 was entitled in 2023, consisting of a life science campus of approximately 700,000 square feet.
These renderings provide a feel for the infinite 131 design, which is in keeping with the Infinite 101 project architecture that you previously saw.
While each of the projects has been designed to be able to be standalone projects, the combined sites have also been designed to function as one overall campus.
As I show this detailed rendering, uh gives you uh a vision of the entire campus together.
I'm also at this point because it makes more sense for the applicant team to kind of go through the design site layout, those kinds of details for the project.
So I'm going to pause the staff presentation and allow the applicant team to walk the commission in public through the design and other important details.
And then after the applicant's presentation, I will come back and talk through the requested entitlements.
So I'm going to introduce Ben Yu with Steelway.
Great.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, we can I guess we can do the video first.
Um so uh good evening, Chair, uh Vice Chair, Commissioners.
This is uh our project that you see uh on this video.
Uh right now you're going through the portal of 101, which is the previous project that you uh had uh approved and seen.
You see here is the open space, which is uh five acres um of open space and a amenity building.
Um right now you see again the 101 that you had approved.
Uh it is adjacent to uh or close to BART and to Caltrain, about half a mile away from each.
Uh so about 10 15-minute walk.
Um, you'll also see that this is uh purposely uh designed for life science.
Um so that's what you're seeing on the screen here.
Um, what we have designed is on this 26-acre campus.
Um, combining both projects 101 and 131, is a project with a great amount of outdoor space.
Uh Treehouse Bar and Restaurant, and you're going through right now is the market hall, food hall, that will be open to the public.
Um, and you'll also see in the design that there's a fitness center in this amenity building that we're calling the launch pad.
Uh, there's this great outdoor seating area that allows for outdoor space where you can, you know, watch movies, do presentations, and that will also be open to the public.
There's a conference center uh with 500 seats, and overall, the project is something that we're very excited about that you can see the entirety of the project and not just one piece.
And that's what we wanted to show you here.
Uh, in its totality, it's uh, you know, about two and a half million square feet, and uh we'll walk through a little bit more of the details.
Um, one of the things that I wanted to do we want why we showed this to you right now is because I think the the feedback that we got about a year ago, uh it's about 13 months since we last uh were in front of you was that you kind of you love the design, you like the architecture, but you had some concerns or feedback about um, you know, traffic uh and the impacts to the neighborhood of a project of this size.
So we've really spent the last 13 months um looking at ways to mitigate those concerns, and I think we'll have Mark Schwettman uh from SOM walk through a lot of the things that we've done in the last 13 months.
Thank you, commissioners, for your time and uh good to see everybody again.
Flip through the first part very briefly since by now you're very familiar with the project.
The site for 131 uh outlined in yellow there is the current home of the Golden Gates Produce Terminal.
And our concept from the beginning was to find a way that this large piece of land adjacent to a freeway and other industrial uses could uh could be home to new space for for the public, for office space, for RD space, open space, retail, and the concept is based on on sheltering those uses from the freeway from the winds to the west, but creating open space between the buildings that is connected to to the city and to amenity.
Site plan above shows the series of buildings, the wedge shaped building in the center is the amenity building that Ben described.
And at the ground, you see that in the center, the most public-facing and public service uses like the restaurant and other retail like spaces are clustered around an arrival point for shuttles and other transit view from 101.
And here the two projects together, Infinite 101 and 131, show how they're they're integrated, but also independently they can be accessed from both sides of the site separately or together.
So these spaces between the buildings are uh very significant in scale.
The southern one is focused on active amenities, almost 500 feet wide.
This is the treehouse bar and restaurant that Ben talked about, an overall view showing those together.
And the northern space, which is smaller, but still quite large at over 300 feet, is more open.
It's primarily a landscape space.
Um, Vince Latenzio from Carduccian Associates is here today.
If there are any questions or detailed questions about the landscape, it is a rich actively landscaped environment that leads heavily on native tree species.
We've been very careful about placing evergreens and deciduous trees in locations for pedestrian comfort and for year-round visual interest.
This is that northern courtyard.
The buildings have a modern architecture, but with a level of articulation and scale that we think connects them to people and the work people will be doing in these buildings.
Uh serrated clear glass, warm textured aluminum, wood-like finishes.
The Central Amenity Building is actually uh envisioned as a CLT building, so this is heavy timber framing and CLT wood decks, and we bring that level of detail through to all the supporting buildings on the site.
We see this as a best in class building from the standpoint of sustainability in the environment.
We have tens of thousands of feet of rooftop PV on the top.
We've worked with city staff to place bird safe glass at the southern end of the site where it's uh within the sight line of the navigable slough.
We have water recycling and many other water efficiency measures.
It is envisioned to be an all-electric building and pursuing uh at least lead gold as well as well certification.
So last time there were specific questions and concerns about a series of issues that have been studied in the environmental document, each of which has its own mitigations.
I'll talk about a few of these, and I think Billy is going to talk about some more from a procedural standpoint.
The first question and challenge of the site is its accessibility and how it fits into the network of the city.
Right now, you can't, as a member of the public, go through the site at all.
It is essentially dead-ended to the south at Shaw Alley, which is a little easement that reaches down to Shaw Road there.
There is access only from the northeast corner at Terminal Court.
So Ben mentioned the project's location.
It's interesting that it's it's kind of equidistant between BART and Caltrain, and it's actually a natural path that somebody might use to get from that part of the city to another.
So the site includes within it multiple public connections that go from Shaw Alley up to Terminal Court, shown in purple there.
In concert with that kind of improvement for bicycle pedestrian and vehicular access at the local scale, there are a series of mitigations that relate to the signalization of intersections, the redesign of intersections, the construction of a class 4 bikeway all the way to Baden Avenue to make that connection up to Airport Boulevard, as well as the contribution to engineering studies for a number of off-site improvements that the project has been designed to coordinate with.
So, for example, the engineering study of an elevated trail crossing of 101 at the southern portion of the site, which would be over BCDC land and the site together, as well as the future overpass at Utah Avenue.
So within the site, this network of connections is very very porous, and we've I think been very thoughtful about how these connections work.
So, for example, the primary bike route is actually at the western and northern perimeter of the site, so that you could ride your bike all the way from the alley at the southern part around the site to Produce Avenue without intersecting any of the driveways within the project.
So this is a high-quality bike facility.
Both pedestrians and bikes are fully separated on that green path that goes around the site there.
The shuttle stop is at the very center of the site where it's closest to the elements of the site that the public might want to access, as well as being very convenient for employees.
And we hope that there can be future connections to the overpass of 101 on the northern part of the site.
Here's some cross-sections of those facilities.
So for example, A, C, and D.
You can see at the left part there's a curb and a complete separation of vehicular traffic from bike and pedestrian traffic, and then we've placed landscaping on the other side to soften the edge of the buildings and to screen the buildings and the pedestrians from car traffic.
The site has a huge amount of open space, really.
As I mentioned, kind of its whole design concept is around making these two central open spaces really really livable and beautiful and varied and active.
And a portion of that space is dedicated for public access, and we've placed those portions at the center where they are closest to the restaurant, closest to the shuttle stop, closest to other activating uses.
They're at the center rather than the edge because you know, one edge of the site is the freeway, the other edge is the back of a series of industrial buildings.
We've placed space at the southern end of the site that could in the future be activated by improvements to the navigable slough that's under BCDC jurisdiction.
We've worked with them to understand how that could connect.
At the moment, there's there's really nothing there, but the project accommodates that access through the blue path, it's called SLU Path there, which, as I said, it currently would dead end into the freeway, but maybe in the future it would not.
Since we are adjacent to the SLU and on a relatively flat site, there was concerns that have been raised about climate change, about sea level rise, about sea level rise mitigation, and we're doing all of that within the site.
We are sloping up and stepping up and building up very gradually over this large site from existing elevations of about eight feet above sea level at the northeast corner to 14 feet at the base of the building.
So this has been done in collaboration with one shoreline, understanding what their standards are.
This is three feet above the required FEMA elevation of 11 feet, and in line with I would say the middle band between pessimistic and optimistic predictions for sea level rise over the next hundred plus years.
There are buildings on the site today.
They're not buildings that are listed as historic resources, but the ER does identify an impact from the removal of those buildings and a mitigation measure to include a significant interpretive program, collaboration with the art program and with the existing buildings.
These are some examples of interpretive signage and interpretive programs that can range from the digital to the physical, those will be incorporated both into the buildings and also into the landscape that Vincent and his team have designed.
In summary, we think you know the project is an ambitious one that is well suited to its its place on 101 as a major gateway to the city.
Currently, you see South San Francisco from 101 here across the parking lot, and we think the design of these buildings with their warm and inviting and collaborative indoor spaces, the varied scale of the entries, the amenity pavilions, and the stepbacks and sculpted form of the buildings themselves, the relationship between the buildings and landscape, really create an appropriate and iconic marker to South San Francisco for the future.
In addition, there's very significant specific public benefits, and I'll turn it back over to Ben to talk about some of those.
Thanks, Mark.
Yeah, I just wanted to conclude it with uh I think there was discussion about well, what is it for the city or the community?
And I just wanted to directly answer that question.
I think Mark talked about all the great benefits to uh of the buildings and and the design.
I think for my perspective, the design of the buildings are great, but they're not only used for the office or life science users, this is really designed for the community.
So as part of our development agreement and the design and the use, you know, we've designed this very publicly facing uh amenity building that we expect and want the community to community to be able to use.
So we design a restaurant, we'll love those restaurants to be open during weekends when people aren't working.
You know, expect people to be using that, expect people to be coming to the site to be using the restaurant with the treehouse bar.
Uh, and I've seen that in other projects that I've designed and built, in that if you've designed something cool enough, people will come and utilize it, and we welcome that.
So that's that's something that uh we we want to make sure is really um uh well designed but also well programmed.
One of the big things that we talked about or Mark Pock talked about is these offsite improvements.
I think traffic was a big uh concern uh in this area, um, and a couple of different things with that.
I think it's important to note that because of the proximity to Caltrain, this is very different from the projects that you have worked on or are looked at and built on the east side of 101.
This is really gonna be a mixed-use neighborhood.
There's a project next next to us that is under construction with 500 apartments.
It's literally a block away.
Uh there is also the Lindenville specific plan that will contemplate a lot of mixed-use activity going on.
Uh, I mentioned that because when you have that mixed-use nature, it's very different than the East 101 where people can actually live, work, and play.
But it also additionally helps people to not want to go home right away at five o'clock.
They want to use the facilities, work out, have a drink with their coworkers, that type of thing.
So it's kind of spreads out that traffic pattern a lot.
I've seen that a lot in a few of the other mixed-use projects or mixed neighborhood projects.
So I think that that's something that to really uh admire about just the location that we're we're in.
Um, and when we talk about the actual dollars and cents of the community benefits, um, I think it's important to talk about we we have a community benefit fee of twenty three million dollars in between both projects, but really we have this off site improvements.
Uh, so the in the last call it 13 months since we last saw you.
Uh we did a lot of studies on which intersections might be most impacted.
We're we have that slide that you saw that has really three uh intersections and improvements with bike lanes and uh sidewalks and in really all of the neighborhood areas that are really truly impacted.
So, you know, we've budgeted about and we've talked to contractors and how much that might cost, and uh it's it's almost 25 million dollars of commitment on our side, and that's outside of the you know 83 million dollars of transportation fees that are on top of that.
So I think when you combine those two, it's you know well over a hundred million dollars of transportation improvements that are gonna help mitigate the uh traffic concerns.
So I I'm very hopeful that um when we look at it as a whole, we've done all the right things to mitigate uh a lot of the concerns that we heard uh a year ago.
So with that, I I uh turn over back to Billy.
Thanks.
All right.
So next I will if I can get the slide to move forward, there we go.
So I'll walk through the actual entitlements that are required for the project.
Um includes a general plan amendment, then I will actually walk through each of these in the following slides, so I won't go through each now.
We will start with the general plan and the Lindenville specific plan amendments.
Um the graphic on the left shows the existing land use designation for the project site, which is mixed industrial high.
Um, if the commission remembers when we were going through the general plan update when we were looking at um preferred land use scenarios, uh we had originally looked at this as mixed use area, more so for the northern portions.
Um at that time, we we we've had a long-standing policy in at least the previous general plan, which was adopted in 1999 of identifying the golden gate produce terminal as a legacy use, and so stay there as long as they'd like.
Um we wouldn't have any requirements that would require them to leave.
And so with that, we they they at that time in 2020 submitted a letter, which is attached to the staff report asking that that residential uses would not be complementary to their use, and so that we keep that as mixed industrial, which is why in the general plan ultimately council agreed with that, and so we zoned all of that as mixed industrial land.
So moving forward, uh, Golden Gate Produce Terminal was able to look in more detail of kind of what made sense for them at this site and realized that uh and there are members of the Golden Gate Produce Terminal who can speak to this in more detail if the commission has it, but ultimately they would have to do a lot of improvements to this site that did not make sense for the existing buildings, and so they then started working with other people to how could we potentially do something different here?
Uh and so at that same time we were going through the Linenville specific plan, and as part of that, we we looked at we we knew the 101 terminal project was already in.
We'd received an application for this project, but we hadn't moved forward through all the entitlements.
Uh but in the Lindaville specific plan, there's actually a policy that states for the Golden Gate Produce Terminal and the park and fly lots that if they were ever to redevelop, that we look at them kind of doing master planning for a life science um campus.
So that gets us to why we're looking at the 131 terminal site as being redesignated as business technology park.
You will also notice on both of these graphics to the north of Terminal Court, where the current park and fly and there's a gas station, there's five parcels there that are also zoned or have a land use designation of mixed industrial to allow for this entire corridor to have the similar developments.
We are recommending we call those the off-site redesignation parcels, but we're recommending that those also be redesignated as business technology park.
So the entire produce terminal corridor would have the same zoning.
No specific project is proposed on those parcels at this time, and the current uses would be allowed to continue indefinitely.
If a development project is ever proposed on these sites, it would have to go through its own entitlement process, included project-specific environmental review.
So for the specific amendments that we're proposing to the general plan, the first is uh language edit.
This actually should have been done when we adopted the Lindenville specific plan to be consistent between the two, but we're proposing that the language that says any new uses or new development of the site to be in conformance with the mixed industrial, the mixed industrial be striked out and changed to business technology park in keeping with the Lyndonville specific plan policy and with the proposed map amendments were were recommending.
And so there's two figures in the general plan that would be updated to show that change, and then the same thing in the Lindaville specific plan itself, we would update figure 11 land use districts to change from mixed industrial high to BTP high.
The amendments to the zoning map are the same as those to the general plan and Lindaville specific plan land use maps, ensuring consistency between the three documents.
The application includes a tentative parcel map.
Uh this is a snapshot of a portion of that.
Um currently there's two parcels.
Uh this would result in eight develop development parcels.
I will say this is consistent with what we've seen in other large campus elements, allowing for the parcelization of the different building elements.
The engineering division has reviewed the tentative map, finds that it meets all of the necessary municipal code requirements, and they've included relevant conditions of approval for for the parcel map when they move forward to the final map.
For the transportation demand management, as indicated, this project is considered a tier four project with a 50% mode share requirements and a site-specific trip cap.
The TDM program is consistent with the zoning ordinance requirements.
As noted on here, the overall parking proposed on the site would accommodate 42% of the expected peak occupancy.
When we were here with the 101 terminal, I think it was 46%.
So the two of them combined are definitely a large reduction in what the total capacity of these sites would be.
The applicant is requesting a development agreement that will cover both the infinite 131 and infinite 101 projects.
As the commission has seen in some of your recent meetings, this under the current market, this is not a surprise to to staff in terms of these projects aren't able to move forward right of way, right away.
And so the DA is for a 12-year term with an option to extend the term for an additional five years.
If 700,000 square foot of the project is constructed within the first seven years, uh I will say that that term is very similar to what uh the city approved for the South Line project.
The project is required to build all electric buildings, as uh the applicant talked about that.
If these projects were just paying a community benefit fee, that fee amount would have would total $23 million in today's calculations.
What the applicant is proposing is different projects that are equivalent to that.
So it includes a child care space for 55 children.
If they're not ultimately able to build that or find a suitable provider, then they would do a payment of 4 million.
There is allocating this site as a point of sale for project construction, which would allow the city to obtain a larger portion of the sales tax allocation.
They're doing a construction of a class four bike path from the project site to the SSF Caltrain station.
The totality of all of these different, the intention is that that would meet 23 million, and if for some reason those don't, the development agreement then includes stipulations that if there's any delta, the applicant would be required to give a monetary payment to make up for that difference.
And then lastly, the DA also includes monetary contributions of $3 million, which would be paid within the first five years of the agreement from the effective date.
From an environmental review standpoint, a draft environmental impact report was prepared for the project.
You might remember a scoping session for the draft EIR in August of 2024.
As indicated in the draft EIR, the majority of impacts were able to be reduced to less than significant, but there are impacts related to air quality, cultural resources, and transportation that would be considered significant and unavoidable even if mitigation were implemented.
In relation to the transportation impacts, one of the slides that the applicant shared with you showed a lot of the mitigation measures that have been identified.
Those mitigation measures, if implemented, would reduce the impacts to less than significant, but all of those measures require the approval of outside agencies such as Caltrans.
Because the city can't guarantee that that they will be implemented, though we do believe that they ultimately will be, they have to still be considered significant and unavoidable.
And then in relation to the cultural resources impact, because it's not the buildings for the Golden Gate Protest terminal, it's the historic use there of that site.
That's what's considered potentially historic.
One of the mitigation measures for the demolition of the Golden Gate Protest terminal is it created is the creation of an interpretive signage plan and/or public interpretation program.
And so the applicant showed what that could look like.
I just wanted to note that before the demolition of the Golden Gate Approach Terminal is allowed, the applicant team will actually have to bring in the specifics of that program that will ultimately be up for review and approval by the city council.
A response to comments document was prepared to respond in writing to comments, and that's uh what makes up the final EIR document.
It also makes any necessary revisions to the draft EIR and provides limited responses to general comments for informational purposes.
The response to comments document provides responses to the comments that the planning commission made at the hearing in August, and also from a Caltrans letter dated August 2nd, 2024.
None of the comments or responding considerations has been prepared, which makes required findings that balances the benefits of the proposed project, including the level of significance of project impacts or any new significant impacts.
I'll say members of ICF, which was the environmental consultant that prepared the environmental documents are present this evening, and they and city staff are happy to answer any more detailed questions on the environmental document that commission might have during QA.
So in closing, we find that the proposed infinite 131 project is consistent with the general plan in Lindenville specific plan policies to provide master planning and appropriate environmental analysis for office and RD uses within the produce terminal corridor.
As the rendering shows, the combined infinite 101 and 131 projects propose a state of the art life science campus that transforms underutilized sites in the US 101 corridor serving as a landmark for South San Francisco.
And based on this, staff is recommending that the planning commission take the following actions.
The first is that you move to adopt the resolution recommending that the city council city certify the EIR.
And second, move to adopt the resolution recommending that the city council adopt a Lynnville specific plan amendments, general plan amendments, zoning map amendments, development agreements, and approval of the planning entitlements.
That ends staff's presentation.
Both staff and the applicant team and the consultant teams are happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you so much.
Does any of the commissioners have any questions for staff or the applicant?
Yes.
Commissioner Baker.
Thank you.
I was wondering if we can put up the uh traffic mitigation slide that we had earlier.
Yeah, frames and the applicants.
Um recall when 101 came before us.
I'm just gonna pause real quick.
Uh IT, can you please bring up the applicants' presentation?
PowerPoint.
Thanks.
I think this was the one.
Um when we were when 101 came before us uh last year.
I'm I think there was some concern uh my myself included about the uh freeway entrance there on produce.
Um I think this slide addresses that um I think there was also some concern at the time about um the connections to uh SHA Avenue, um, and I'm not sure that this slide kind of explained how those connect what's going to be built.
I mean, right now it looks just at the overhead photo, there's basically a clearing there right now.
Um I'm just kind of concerned this is a as it is now the produce terminal has one entrance.
Um, and I was kind of concerned about the egress in an emergency situation as well as the bottleneck uh one entrance would do.
Is there a better connection to SHA proposed as part of this?
So hopefully on this graphic, you can see the little kind of portion on the upper left of the site plan that juts out across the slough um and then connects with with Shaw Road.
That is a old railroad easement.
And so I believe it is 20 feet wide.
The applicant team can correct me if I am wrong, might be 25.
Um, but when we were reviewing the 101 terminal project, uh a big question uh for city staff, including emergency services was uh can fire and police have adequate access, not just from terminal but from another area, and this meets that their requirements for access off of SHA road.
So, yes, there's access off of SHA and off of produce for both sides, um, but uh I'm assuming the SHA entrance will only be for emergency services andor bike pads.
Correct.
Okay for all vehicular traffic bike pad this the this would link in to any future bike uh routes that also uh I know the city's working on South Line, has also been doing some improvements.
How do we connect all of these?
Uh we're working through some grants right now on connecting actually across a bike ped path that goes across 101 over to the east of 101 um basically along the north side of the slough and so uh actively looking at how can we close all of those gaps for bike and ped improvements as well I guess the only other question I had is a question for myself why did I not recognize prior to tonight that the buildings made an actual infinity symbol that's called infinite one all right thank you any other questions from commissioners Commissioner Shade yeah through the chair.
Just a follow up on the traffic mitigation we discussed the congestion on the freeway entrance but I have a bigger concern and I've raised it before on airport boulevard underneath that overpass when it rains there's water puddles and traffic stops you can't move to my understanding up to now we haven't taken any mitigation measures because it's caltrains call can't touch it.
There's no drainage even now with a little bit of rain you'll see the water but when it rains heavy when we have heavy rains and storms cars can't pass how are they gonna be able to get we have 450 units going up on airport boulevard we have this huge project which was is before us the mitigation studies that were done are saying we need traffic lights we need signals what I read is San Bruno's involved Caltrains is involved I mean Shaw road for San Bruno but Caltrains 101 of my other questions one of mitigation one of the mitigation measures is the traffic signal on airport San Mateo and produce for the housing project the only doing a couple of the signals one of the mitigation measures calls for redesigning that whole intersection with traffic lights so my question to staff is how is that going to get coordinated between both developers and it's to me it's a major issue.
I will start with it still hasn't been addressed.
I will start with the second portion uh because I have a clearer answer for that uh the city is actively working with a traffic consultant to do the designs for the entirety of the improvements for the San Mateo South Airport produce terminal intersection um and we've been working you've seen construction start for the PS the former PS office parks projects so they will be implementing I believe two sides of that work the South basically on San Mateo Avenue.
And then we will have identified all of the improvements and so if we have enough funding the city can move forward and finish some of those if these developments don't move forward first.
Vice versa if the developments are able to move forward they could do portions of it reimburse us if if the city does it first we could get reimbursement from the project so they come after the fact otherwise if the this project were to move forward first they would be um responsible for doing the rest of the improvements.
So we do have a master plan for all of the needed improvements for that to make that function.
And it will all happen it should all happen.
I mean, not all at once, but in close proximity to one another as funding approaches.
For the flooding, you were saying on airport under the Caltrain tracks.
Is that the under the uh the over across from Denny's?
The underpass.
Um I do not have anyone from public works here this evening to answer that, but I will make sure that we have an answer for that.
No, this question came up.
Have an answer for that.
If we bring this to um city council, I'm positive it's been identified.
I don't know what the solution that has been chosen is in the time frame for that, but we can definitely find that out.
Because it's been questions been asked on several projects.
The answers have been it's a caltrains, it's in their hands.
So, but I think it's a major issue.
There's also flooding right in front of the 101 project at the end of 101.
I don't know if you guys are aware.
Flooding does take place right there in the middle for all of the produce where the on ramp goes, when the 101 terminal project goes in, a lot of that frontage will be redone.
And so all of those, as as it as uh the applicant was talking about, a lot of the site has to get raised.
Um, and so they'll we'll be working with Caltrans on any improvements that happen, anything that's on the on ramp, ultimately is under their jurisdiction for approvals, but that'll be part of what everyone's looking at to make sure that all of this functions correctly, and it doesn't flood.
Thanks.
I have two more questions.
I mean, I have a question about the sales tax.
I mean, I understand how it works.
Why is that part of the development agreement?
How does it impact us?
Is it we want to make sure that everything is bought here in South City?
So South City would get this year.
Correct.
The way it's set up is typically the city receives, I don't know the specific percentage, but it's a small percentage of of sales tax revenue.
The majority goes to the county.
Um, if we're able to set the site as the point of sale for the construction materials, I think it ultimately turns out where we receive about 10 times more from sales tax allocation than we do under typical.
Um, and so it is a um to benefit for the city in that in those terms.
Yeah, no, no, I recognize that, I appreciate that.
I think it's a relatively recent um change that allows for that.
I have a question for the golden gates.
I know the letter was considered when we're when the general plan was adopted and the Lindenville specific plan.
My question is to the team if they can respond.
I mean, I have a business.
We've been going to the produce market, still do since 1969, and a lot of other businesses rely on that produce market.
It was mentioned in the study, the documents we received that you're looking elsewhere.
I don't know how much you'll be able to share with us.
Is it intention to open up a new produce market for the businesses in the area?
My name is uh Joe Carconi Jr.
My father built the Golden Gate Produce Terminal, bought the land, built it uh with a green grocer.
He broadcast from Golden Gate Produce Terminal 40,000 radio programs and 20,000 television programs.
Always saying South San Francisco, the Golden Gate Produce Terminal, extremely proud, big friend of the city of South San Francisco.
The Produce Terminal was an idea of my father's and my grandfather's, as well as some other people.
Because we were getting kicked out of San Francisco, we came to South City, South City was tremendous to my father.
He loved the city and is deeply moved to be able to find people that were so welcoming to a very important business.
And that's what you're talking about right here.
It is important to other people.
The idea is that we're moving the produce terminal, we're moving the tenants to another place.
We have two places that we're looking at that are really very good.
I don't think they're as good as South San Francisco, neither would my father.
But the bottom line of it is it's extremely important business, and yes, it's gonna continue.
My family and other families that go all the way back to when we built that place, uh want it to be that way.
I was 15 when the Golden Gay Produce Terminal opened, and uh I was there when the spike was driven, and I got kissed on the cheek by Miss South San Francisco was the biggest thrill of my life.
But the um, so our memories here and our desire for South San Francisco to have this project and be good can't be stronger.
I mean, I it sounds silly to say something like that.
But South San Francisco really is at the heart of my family's feelings and getting going forward.
We were kicked out of San Francisco and go in the uh project by Mayor George Christopher with no place to go, South City ran in and gave us a place.
So we will my father loved South City, and so did everybody else that was involved.
So it's a great project.
I've been working with Ben Ben Yu, who was talking here so much on this project that we want it to be open to everybody.
We want it to be a big deal, we want it to be public, and that's the way it sounds silly that he's talking like that.
He means it, and I was part of uh being able to say that we're doing that.
It's a great project, I swear it is, and that and the business is gonna continue.
My brother's business is still one of the largest down there, and uh the the produce terminal is going to continue, and those businesses are gonna continue to be served.
We have two places that want us, which is great.
The reason they want us is because industrial property is cheap around everywhere, so it's good.
So we have a couple of places where they're chasing us, and we're gonna do a very fine job.
Working with Ben You and this organization is such a pleasure.
You have no idea.
Maybe you have a little bit of an idea because he's developed stuff around here, but I tell you, these people are really quality and really good, and South San Francisco is gonna be a better place because of it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Uh, Commissioner Pomco.
Thank you.
Um, thank you to applicant and staff.
It's been a lot of work and uh long process.
Uh, has been alluded to a number of times.
Um, I I have a question that's a little bit outside the scope of this specific project, but I mean, I was thinking about how um great it is that there are so many public amenities and publicly available amenities in this project.
Um, and given that it is about equidistant from Caltrain and Bart, wondering practically, and maybe it was it was in the map, but but practically, what is the biking or pedestrian experience of going to the site from those transit hubs?
You know, knowing that we want to uh encourage uh folks to not only take their cars.
I'd say currently the experience is not ideal from either of those.
Um, but obviously there's a longer-term vision that's shown in the active South City plan to have connected bike trails, bike paths.
Uh, for instance, one of the mitigation measures is a class four from basically Produce avenue all the way up to the South San Francisco Caltrain station.
Um, I try to identify similar things to go down towards the San Bruno Bart station.
One of the larger portions of that is the future Caltrain overcrossing um project that needs to happen, the Great Separation Project.
Uh, as part of that, though, I know we're looking at what can we do to make better, much better trails.
That's also why we ask for such large amounts of transportation impact fees, such from these types of projects.
And so it's when the entire systems built out, it should be relatively easy and feel safe to get from the transit stations to this.
But there is a long-term vision that shows protected bike paths, continuous sidewalks from these sites to all of the transit stations within close proximity.
Just to repeat back what I'm hearing, there it's not an ideal experience now, but it's envisioned and it is kind of in the long term works that there would be good connectivity.
Correct.
I'll let you go to the slide, Billy, where it shows the all the connections.
I think it's important to note that the when I say the 25 million dollars of off sites, I think that really a lot of that is going into making those nodes connected both to BART along Shaw.
That's really gonna connect to all the improvements that uh the South Line project is is making.
So it's really to make that connection through, and then along all the way up uh Produce Ave uh to the Cal Train station.
So a lot of that money is making uh efforts to make it a pedestrian and bike uh lane uh up to produce uh and then down to the BART station.
Excellent.
Any other questions?
Um, just one more follow-up question.
No, no problem.
Um, just also kind of a big picture question.
I know that there's a number of um interpretation uh work and cultural markers here, specifically because of the cultural significance of the site, um, which I love and I think is really incredible, right?
We talk a lot about being the industrial city, and there's such a rich history, and the folks we heard a little bit tonight who you know helped make South City what it is, and um again, beyond the scope of the specific project, but I was just wondering if if there's other similar work envisioned kind of to anchor South City and some of our history and our place.
I'm thinking specifically about right the role of Lyndonville and being like kind of a cultural hub and having potentially uh a home for like uh arts and culture makers.
I just think there's some really interesting ties here and um curious if there's some uh broader vision around that.
Um the Lindenville specific plan definitely envisions the area as an arts and makers district and the zoning is definitely in place for that.
Um, there are other on a project-by-project basis.
We've definitely had other projects do a similar cultural or interpretive um kind of historical signage program, for example, the South Line project did as well.
In terms of a larger citywide effort, um, this is where I'm gonna get into trouble because I feel like we had a cultural arts plan underway, and I just don't know enough about it to say where we are in that process.
Are you I don't know that there's anything concrete happening, sometimes it takes these types of projects to kind of get ooh, we like the way that looks.
Can we um incorporate that in other spots?
Uh, we can also do a bit more of that.
I sometimes think with a lot of signage for our trails and such too.
More like at Oyster Point.
Going through the history of Liberty Ships at this space, or what oyster Point was 100 years ago out at the public parks.
And so I know staff has had lots of thoughts of that.
Uh there's not any specific project yet, but these are the kinds of things that get us talking about that.
Also, just wanted real quick.
I I'm going back one question.
Um, this the purple lines are class four bikeways on this, showing how you would connect from the San Bruno Bart up to Shaw and then up into the SSF Cal train.
So just showing that there are could you clarify class four?
Class four are separated bike lanes within the roadway itself.
They're just for bicycle facilities.
So and protected from vehicular traffic.
Can I make um I thought of one more answer to the question about the cultural art?
So I wanted to mention that this project and all non-residential projects are subject to a public art in lieu fee, or the requirement to provide public art on site.
That's a relatively new fee.
I think it's been in place for about the past five years.
So that means we're just starting, the city's just starting to see those funds coming in or the art being placed on site.
But in terms of funds coming in, that's the type of resource that our parks and recreation department and our cultural arts commission can use to put towards the development of a plan that you are discussing.
So it this also feels like we're just at the beginning, being able to kind of look at and envision that, and that there are resources coming in to work towards it.
Similar to Commissioner Shahade's question, we will look at this in more detail and have a better answer as well in terms of the city council's half report of other actual programs, be able to talk to parks and rec staff and provide a better, more complete answer of what efforts the city's going through for this.
Great, thank you.
And granted that's all bigger picture, so but I think it's kind of useful to know.
Yeah, thank you.
Definitely.
Awesome.
Thank you, Commissioner Evans.
I this all sounds very small compared to what we've been talking about, but um regarding parking, can I have I because I didn't see it in the document?
Kind of a breakdown of where the parking is in each garage because one's over here and one's over here, and I'd just like to know kind of where that's at in terms of meeting the peak occupancy expectations.
That's question number one.
I'm looking for this section drawings because I believe they showed parking levels.
I can clarify the the parking is provided for each 101 and 131 independently for the ratio that that Billy and his team have allowed.
And there is a mix of parking both below grade and in the garage labeled 131 garage at the right, top right side of that.
So if you were working in um curved building on the top of the plan, you would likely again come in either from Shaw or from Terminal Court, park in the corner there and walk over.
Um there's some parking below grade, which can serve the other building.
And if you were parking for Terminal 101, you would use the garage that's at the bottom left side of there.
Um, one clarification on that connection, it's actually 33 feet wide.
So the the road connection to Shaw has both bike bed and then one vehicular lane in each direction.
Um there is a proposed improvement at the intersection of that in Shaw, which right now is it's just open.
I'm not even sure there's a stop sign there right now.
Um, and the separated bike path that starts there actually um continues along Shaw to the west all the way to South the South Line project, far station beyond.
The exact mix of how many of the parking spaces are above and below is not determined yet, but the parking is independent for each of the two parcels at the north and at south.
Okay, Commissioner Evans, I was just gonna add one other caveat to that.
One of the conditions of approval we have is um all these spaces like the amenity building, childcare restaurants, any of that are supposed to be available to the public.
Um sometimes there are, depending on the tenant who comes in, they might not want everything to be available to the public.
If that were to happen, um the parking that was um estimated for those uses is no longer allowed to be using the like they if all of this were private and there were no public spaces, the parking would just be capped at 1.5 per thousand square foot of office RD.
And so they'd have to lose 500, 600 parking spaces.
We don't anticipate that, but we didn't want them to be overparked if there were to be changes from private to public space, so just noting that for the commissions.
Yeah, the the totals there, uh, there's two thousand nine hundred and twenty-one spaces, of which two thousand three hundred and eighty-six are for the private RD uses, and the remainder are for um the amenities and other facilities on the site, and again, those are roughly split between the north and the south.
Okay, so that leads me to my next question in terms of public access.
How do we make sure that the public knows there's access for them?
Because when you look at the site, it's a little uh closed off in the front.
How do you anticipate making the interior spaces available to the public?
Right.
So I think there's two answers there.
One is confidence that the owner will program the spaces, advertise them, and make people aware that there's something great there, and of course, any business there would want that.
So that's not an architectural answer.
Yeah, the other pieces currently terminal court basically dead ends into the site.
There's kind of a little cul-de-sac there.
And then similarly at Shaw, I think there's a fence there today, so it's I think it's very closed off.
The plan, as you see, it shows actually building essentially the equivalent of a public road as the continuation of terminal court on the right side there.
You see, it jogs a little bit around those trees, and then it turns and connects to Shaw.
So if you were approaching this site after this project was built, it would appear as it was a completely public roadway.
Now it is built on private property, but we've worked with the city to make sure it meets all the standards of a public roadway.
Um you're on that road that runs around the site.
There are several places where you can see into all that landscape through the other roads, and you could take a shuttle from one of the train stations.
If you were riding a bike on Shaw Road, you would be in a new two-way bike path, and there would be a clear intersection there.
So I think you know, for a site that is bounded on one side by a freeway.
Um I think we've done a couple of things that will make it feel much more publicly spirited, and then you add to it that there will be businesses in there that are trying to let people know they exist, and Ben maybe can speak to that.
Yeah, just from a practical standpoint, I think um the parking garages in South San Francisco for this RD use are they don't charge, so like you know, we want security, we won't want to make it safe, but it's it's parking that it's right now like uncontrolled, you don't have to have a badge to get in and that type of thing.
That might change 20 years from now.
Uh not sure, but right now uh that that's all throughout South San Francisco, and and we expect that to be the same.
So, like parking, you know, there'll be probably visitor parking up front uh very very accessible to visitors, uh, including you know, not visitors of the of the buildings, but visitors to the site.
Um another thing is that we want really cool uh restaurants.
Uh one of the why we designed the what the we we did user research and went out to all the the biotech firms uh in South San Francisco and in the Bay Area.
One of the ones that said, Hey, we really wish we had a restaurant with a bar, uh, and that was open to the public because we can't find anything like that in San Francisco or in South San Francisco.
So that's why we designed what we did, uh, because we want people to come from Oyster Point to our site or come from downtown or anywhere else in South San Francisco to visit our site.
That's gonna make those businesses more uh feasible because you know, again, weekend traffic, we want those restaurants to be open over the weekend.
So we want to encourage it uh very much uh so to really add to the feasibility for those businesses as well.
So more of a destination.
Right, exactly.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you guys so much.
Can I see the chair?
Go ahead.
Commissioner Sadi.
To the chair.
Clarification, a lot of the biotech companies, don't have open.
They have gates.
You can't access the parking lots.
Unless you have a proximity card where you're paying.
Quite a few of them.
So I just wanted to clarify that.
Because does that mean you're not gonna have any gates?
It's just gonna be open, I think it's uh the ones that have gates typically are our private uh firms uh that have that.
But if it's a multi-use campus, you know, I've I've gone to the cove, I've gone to, you know, BMR's uh project, GOP project, and I've just driven straight through and I don't have to pay for parking.
So I think but there might be certain reserve spots for those executives and and some of those or you know, reserves areas.
But in general, in my experience, I've been able to like even, you know, Gilead or any of those.
I'm I've been able to drive onto their campus without having, you know, secure parking.
There are areas that they do block off.
We will have um those uh you know arms that that come down in cases in which you know it's you know, we we might we're we're installing those, but usually they're up is is what my uh experience is.
And that's similar to the case, similar to uh to what we're doing.
You know, we don't want it's it's a little different in in Discovery Station and our project near the safe way because we don't want the Safeway people to come over, so we we might have access cards, but it's you know essentially you know free parking uh for visitors and and tenants.
Commissioner Shahade, from a staff perspective, I will say that all of the projects that have been constructed since starting in 2015 was when the COVID started.
Uh staff has been pushing for open public access, and so I think the oyster point the uh all of these we're trying to make kind of public amenities for this and not allowing there to be gates, and that was the same conversation we've had with this applicant for this project.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Free.
And more just digress a little bit.
Um, one concern I've always had a lot of the projects we've approved over the years is is a transportation issue.
Um as we go to the project and it we're talking about right now when you talk that intersection at San Mateo Airport Boulevard, there's other projects being vetted there at the same time.
I wish I had that crystal ball where we could predict just what the impacts are gonna be.
Because when you when you talk about a major hub to Southbound 101, the wrong time of day, we're gonna have the impacts there.
When we start construction on these buildings, there'll be impacts.
We seem to make it through it, and I'm glad that at least there's some effort to look into this stuff.
We're talking Shah Row and Tanfram behind there.
Is vehicles or pass residents or customers start learning ways in the work, they're gonna start impacting these auxiliary roads, which really have no a lot of traffic at this time.
So I know we have plans in place, and uh I've just I will still have that concern that we get to that San Mateo Avenue and Airport Boulevard.
It's crowded right now.
So I'm hopefully these plans that we're negotiating between the city and the builder that we stay proactive on those to make sure we don't get to a point that we minimize the impacts, and it will be impacts that we minimize them to the best to uh to come through it.
But otherwise, like you say, um when we've approved a lot of buildings out of east of 101, I always had those same concerns.
Great.
Thank you so much, it seemed like everything would start at the top and be that funnel on the public wish to address the commission on any on this item at this time?
Please fill out a speaker card to give it to the clerk at this time.
I will ask the clerk.
Are there any members of the public who would like to provide comments?
We have no members of the public wanting to provide comments.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Oh, we have one?
Okay, great.
Go ahead.
Besides the fact that the comments Ms.
Freeman Adina Friedman made at the beginning of the introduction to this project project, and also the gentleman here behind me.
That those comments could not be heard in the auditorium sitting where we are sitting.
We can hear sound, but cannot uh determine what the words are.
Besides that, I did not hear members of the commission that have a conflict of interest recuse themselves from this discussion.
We the public have a need to mitigate the detrimental impacts to us by people voting on projects that have an economic benefit to them, Mr.
Shahade.
You've habitually filed tax forms and forms required by the FPF Practices Commission, stating that you make quite a bit of money from the biotech industry from Genantech.
You continue to sit on the commission voting on projects that come before you.
At this time I'd like to close the public hearing and we have one more.
Next speaker.
Sorry, Mina Richardson.
Good evening, Commissioners.
My name is Mina Richardson.
I'm here to ask a question of the uh the members of the um planning commission or our staff related to an article I read yesterday about the uh the the development on spruce and El Camino that has been uh requested to that it would be paused due to financial difficulties, and that the research and development will not continue along with the uh the development of housing.
Um, but there's also the safe way.
My question is the safe way has been partially built and I want to know when this they will stop the construction.
The newspaper article did not say specifically when the money would run out and they would stop the construction for another 10 years.
Can you uh enlighten the public about the timeline when we can expect um that this uh development will not complete the safe way, which I had hoped would be prioritized because the community has been without this needed uh grocery store for nearly at least 20 years, um in this area to replace one that was there prior.
So if you can provide that information, I would appreciate it.
Thank you.
I was just saying the comment is not for this specific project.
Um, so we don't need to comment on that right now, but staff is happy to have a conversation with the commenter after the meeting.
Thank you.
Okay, at this point, I'm gonna close the public hearing and turn the matter over to the commission for discussion.
Who would like to go first?
Commissioner Faria.
I would at this time like to acknowledge.
Like you say, I mean when I moved into the city in the 70s, I can't remember the city not having a produce market.
So I want to thank you for all the years and uh with your built-in clientele.
Uh you will you will continue on surviving.
But like you say, uh, people always remember South City from the produce market, not that you came to South City group.
Thank you.
Commissioner Evans.
Um, I would like to second those or echo those thoughts.
And I know that this was a passion project for the Carcione family, and something that Pete Carcioni had in his heart to the day that I thank you for continuing that tradition.
Anyone else?
Commissioner Pomiko?
Thank you.
Um thank you again to staff and um applicant for uh thoughtful and ambitious project.
This is a big project.
Um I I think Lindenville in general is such an incredible opportunity.
Um and also just very aware that the nature of being on the planning commission is um project by project, and as you saw from some of my questions, um I think I would just continue to recommend, and I know staff is already thinking about this, uh, some of the bigger picture questions, uh, particularly the connectivity as we create these really incredible sites that people want to go to, making sure that it's safe for all modes of transportation to get there.
Um, and I just put my hat on as the parent of a three-year-old and a five-year-old, um, and thinking about right, how would I get them to some of these really incredible places in South City without only relying on a car?
Um also uh thinking, you know, big picture and some of the opportunities around uh again, some of my questions about really doing some placemaking and history acknowledgement, which we've heard some about tonight, about you know where South City comes from and its roots.
I just really encourage uh staff and city council to think about that in a holistic way.
Um, as Billy said, sometimes these things come to us because a project brings up these questions.
Uh and because in the nature of a planning commission, the thing we can count on is that things will come before us that are about change, and so I think it's really important and useful to anchor in the history of South City.
Um then the the last piece that uh struck me in terms of some of the big picture of this project is that uh indeed a lot of it, as uh fellow commissioners pointed out is dependent on cross-jurisdiction collaboration, and while that's out of our control, I think there's some work that I'm sure staff is already doing, but would encourage staff to think about like what are some of the longer term partnerships we can have so that when we do need to call on our colleagues in the city of San Bruno, for example, or or Caltrans, uh those relationships and partnerships are ready to go so that it's not just hey, this project has come up.
How do we figure this out together?
Thank you so much.
I'd like to thank staff for their amazing work on this project and everything else to Commissioner Pomaku's point.
This is project by project as is the nature of planning commission.
So thank you for all of the work you guys are doing.
Thank you to my fellow commissioners.
Um, and can we get a motion, please?
Madam Chair, I'd like to move that we passed a resolution making findings and recommending city council certify the environmental impact report, including adoption of a statement of overriding considerations and mitigation monitoring and reporting programs for the Infinite 131 project.
Thank you.
Do I have a second?
A second, thank you.
Roll call, please.
Commissioner Baker.
Yes.
Commissioner Evans, yes.
Commissioner Faria, yes.
Commissioner Shahade.
Yes, Vice Chairperson Palmaku.
Yes.
Chairperson Funes.
Yes.
Uh Commissioner Sang is absent.
There's a second motion, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I'll make that same motion.
To adopt a resolution recommending adoption of a Lindaville specific plan, amendment general plan, zoning map amendments, development agreement, and approval of planning entitlements.
Do I have a second?
I'll second.
Thank you.
Roll call, please.
Commissioner Baker.
Yes.
Commissioner Evans.
Yes.
Commissioner Faria.
Yes.
Commissioner Shahade.
Yes.
Vice Chairperson Palmiku.
Yes.
Chairperson Funes.
Yes.
Commissioner Zing is absent.
Yeah.
At this time, I will ask the clerk if there are any members of the public who would like to provide comments on this item.
Or sorry, my apologies.
Um does any commissioner have any items or announcements?
Cool.
Well, at this point, I'll join the meeting.
Thank you guys so much.
Have a great day.
That ends the September 4th, 2025 meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission.
Discussion Breakdown
Summary
South San Francisco Planning Commission Meeting - September 4, 2025
The September 4, 2025 meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission focused on the proposed Infinite 131 project, a major redevelopment of the Golden Gate Produce Terminal site into a life science campus. Staff and applicants presented project details, commissioners engaged in extensive discussion, and public comments were heard before the commission voted on recommendations to the city council.
Consent Calendar
- Unanimous approval of the minutes from the August 21, 2025 Planning Commission meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- One speaker raised concerns about audio issues during the meeting and alleged conflicts of interest regarding Commissioner Shahade's ties to the biotech industry, urging recusal.
- Joe Carconi Jr., representing the Golden Gate Produce Terminal, expressed strong support for the project, shared personal history with the site, and assured that the produce terminal business would continue at new locations, maintaining service to the community.
- Mina Richardson inquired about an unrelated development project (Safeway), but staff noted it was not relevant to this agenda item.
Discussion Items
- Staff Presentation: Principal Planner Billy Gross outlined the Infinite 131 project, requesting entitlements including a General Plan amendment, zoning map amendment, design review, and a development agreement. The project involves 1.7 million square feet of office/R&D space on 17.67 acres, with adjacent parcel rezonings. Staff highlighted consistency with the Lindenville Specific Plan and recommended certification of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which identified significant but unavoidable impacts on air quality, cultural resources, and transportation, with mitigation measures.
- Applicant Presentation: Ben Yu and Mark Schwettman from the applicant team detailed design features, public amenities (e.g., restaurants, open spaces), sustainability goals (all-electric, LEED Gold), and traffic mitigations. They emphasized community benefits, including a $23 million equivalent in fees and off-site improvements like bike paths and intersection upgrades, totaling over $100 million in transportation enhancements.
- Commissioner Questions: Commissioners raised concerns about traffic congestion, especially at the San Mateo/Airport Boulevard intersection and flooding issues under Caltrain tracks. They discussed public access to amenities, parking arrangements, pedestrian/bike connectivity to transit hubs, and cultural interpretation programs for the historic produce terminal site. Staff and applicants addressed these, noting ongoing coordination with external agencies and long-term vision for connectivity.
Key Outcomes
- The commission unanimously voted (6-0, with Commissioner Zing absent) to adopt a resolution recommending that the city council certify the EIR, including a statement of overriding considerations and mitigation monitoring program.
- The commission unanimously voted (6-0) to adopt a resolution recommending that the city council approve the Lindenville Specific Plan amendment, General Plan amendment, zoning map amendments, development agreement, and other planning entitlements for the Infinite 131 project.
Meeting Transcript
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the September 4th, 2025 Planning Commission meeting. I call this to order. This meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission is being held in person at the Library Parks and Recreation Building Council Chambers. To provide a comment during the meeting, please fill out a speaker card and give it to the clerk. You have three minutes to make your comments. Please note that all commission time limits and rules of decorum will apply to public comments. This meeting of the South San Francisco Planning Commission is hereby called to order. Will you please stand at your me for the pledge of allegiance? To the Republic, which is standard one nation under God Liberty and Justice for all. Thank you. Maybe please have roll call. Commissioner Baker. Commissioner Evans. Commissioner Faria. Here. Commissioner Shahade. Here. Commissioner Zing. It's absent. Vice Chairperson Palmiku. Here. Chairperson Funes. Here. Are there any changes to the agenda? We do not have any changes to the agenda. Thank you. Does any member of the public wish to address the commission on an item that is not on the agenda tonight at this time? Please fill out a speaker card and give it to the clerk. At this time, I will ask the clerk if there are any members of the public who would like to provide comments. We have no public comments. Thank you. Hearing no speakers, we will move on. Next on the agenda is the disclosure of ex parte communications. If any commissioners had any communications with applicants, did any site or project visits had any interactions with any third parties or has any conflicts regarding any items on the agenda? Can we disclose them at this time? If you would like to recuse yourself for an item, you can also do so at this time. Hearing none, let's move on to the next item. Next item on the agenda is the consent calendar. May we have a listing of the consent calendar items? We have one item on the consent calendar. Number one is consideration and approval of minutes from the August 21, 2025 planning commission meeting. Does any commissioner wish to pull any item from consent? I'd like to make a motion. Roll call, please. Commissioner Baker. Yes. Commissioner Evans. Yes. Commissioner Faria.