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CITY OF SAN
JOSÉ, CALIFORNIA Department of
Planning, Building and Code Enforcement 801 North First
Street, Room 400 San José,
California 95110-1795 |
Hearing
Date/Agenda Number P.C.
11/17/03 Item: 3.b3 |
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File Number DA-EBAY – eBay Development Agreement |
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STAFF REPORT |
Application Type Development Agreement |
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Council District 4 |
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Planning Area North San José |
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Assessor's
Parcel Number(s) 097-60-008, 009 |
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PROJECT
DESCRIPTION |
Completed by: Andrew
Crabtree |
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Location: West side of
North First Street, between Guadalupe Parkway and Karina Court. |
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Gross Acreage: 47.8 |
Net Acreage: |
Net Density: NA |
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Existing Zoning: IP Industrial
Park |
Existing Use: Industrial
Office |
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Proposed Zoning: No change |
Proposed Use: Industrial
Office |
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GENERAL PLAN |
Completed by: AC |
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Land
Use/Transportation Diagram Designation Industrial Park and Combined Industrial Commercial |
Project
Conformance: [x] Yes [ ] No [ ] See Analysis
and Recommendations |
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SURROUNDING LAND
USES AND ZONING |
Completed by: AC |
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North: Guadalupe
Parkway / Industrial Park IP
Industrial Park |
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East: Industrial
Park / Commercial IP
Industrial Park, A(PD) Planned Development |
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South: Industrial
Park / Industrial IP
Industrial Park, Light Industrial, A(PD) Planned Development |
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West: US 101 /
Hotel / Office A(PD)
Planned Development |
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ENVIRONMENTAL
STATUS |
Completed by: AC |
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[X]
Environmental Impact Report pending adoption on November 11, 2003 [ ] Negative
Declaration circulated on [ ] Negative
Declaration adopted on |
[ ] Exempt [ ] Environmental
Review Incomplete |
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FILE HISTORY |
Completed by: AC |
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Annexation
Title: Orchard No. 99 |
Date: October 8,
1981 |
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PLANNING
DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION |
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[x] Approval [ ] Approval
with Conditions [ ] Denial [ ] Uphold
Director's Decision |
Date: _________________________ |
Approved
by: ____________________________ [ ] Action [x]
Recommendation |
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APPLICANT/OWNER/ |
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eBay Inc. 2145 Hamilton
Avenue San
Jose, CA 94125 |
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PUBLIC AGENCY
COMMENTS RECEIVED Completed
by:
AC |
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Department of
Public Works, Fire Department None Received |
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Other
Departments and Agencies None Received |
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GENERAL
CORRESPONDENCE |
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None Received |
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ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS |
BACKGROUND
The applicant, eBay
Inc., has requested a Development Agreement by and between the City of San José
and eBay Inc. The subject Agreement
would allow for the development of 2.0 million square-feet of Industrial Park development
on the subject site through the transfer of 1,150,000 square-feet of floor area
credits to the subject property. The
Agreement would also include the vesting of applicable City ordinances and
policies pertaining to this development.
Corresponding applications for a Vesting Tentative Map (T03-091), Site
Development Permit (HSH 03-039), Special Use Permit (SP03-045) and a partial
street vacation of O’Nel Drive are also pending. The Site Development Permit would complete Planning review and
provide entitlement for the construction of the entire 2.0 million square-feet
of industrial park space.
The Agreement would
apply to a 47.8 acre site located in North San Jose, bounded by North First
Street to the east, Charcot/Guadalupe Parkway to the north, US Highway 101 to
the west and Karina Court and an adjacent industrial park property to the
south. Currently, the subject site is
partially developed with five industrial park buildings (totaling 533,342
square-feet in area) originally constructed by Novell Corporation under Site
Development Permit HSH 96-064 and Site Development Permit Amendment HASH
96-064-01. The previous permit (HSH
96-064) also included an additional 331,491 square-feet of industrial park
space, resulting in a total existing entitlement of 864,883 square-feet. Reconfiguration of the approved site design,
architectural changes and the construction of a surface parking lot were
approved pursuant to Site Development Permit Amendment HASH 96-064-02.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The environmental impacts of this project, which includes the Development Agreement as well
as the new Site Development Permit, Vesting Tentative Map, partial street
vacation and other associated permits, were addressed by an
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) entitled “eBay North Development Project and
General Plan Amendment” to be heard by the City of San Jose Planning Commission
on November 17, 2003. The EIR
adequately addresses impacts, mitigation measures and project alternatives that
would avoid or reduce impacts. The EIR
also analyzed potential land use compatibility, traffic, air quality, noise,
biological resources, hydrology, cultural resources, hazardous materials,
visual, geology and soils, utility and service system impacts resulting from
the project.
The EIR identifies that implementation of
the project would result in significant unavoidable impacts upon vegetation and
wildlife (resulting from a loss of Burrowing Owl habitat), traffic levels on
regional freeway segments, and regional air quality. The project EIR also identifies a cumulative significant
unavoidable impact for traffic congestion, air quality and the loss of
Burrowing Owl habitat. The EIR
identifies one project alternative, the Clustered Development Alternative that
would be environmentally superior by reducing the impact upon Burrowing Owl
habitat while still meeting the objectives of the proposed project.
Because the project will have significant
unavoidable impacts, the City Council will be required to adopt a statement of
overriding considerations as part of the Resolution of EIR findings explaining
how the benefits of the project outweigh the impacts.
The proposed
Development Agreement would provide for development of the site with an
industrial park use, consistent with the San José 2020 General Plan Land
Use/Transportation Diagram designation of Industrial Park and other General
Plan policies as proposed to be amended.
ANALYSIS
City Ordinance No.
24209 establishes criteria by which the City may enter into a Development
Agreement. In order for the City
Council to approve an Agreement, it must find that the proposed development is
consistent with the General Plan, meets important economic, social,
environmental or planning goals of the City, and facilitates the development of
the subject property. Additionally, the
proposed development must be found to either incur unusually substantial public
improvement costs and to demonstrate commitment to a very high standard of
quality beyond the standard City requirements or the development must be found
to make a substantial contribution to the economic development of the
City. In the latter case, the
development must be for industrial office, research and development or similar
use, involve a parcel of at least 5 acres in size, create or retain at least
five hundred jobs, be used as a corporate headquarters by the primary user of
the development and qualify as a “Special Handling” project per City
requirements. Development Agreements
are approved through the adoption of a City ordinance by the City Council. The effective date of the Agreement is the
effective date of the ordinance unless a later date or the occurrence of a
specific event is specified in the Agreement.
Approval of the
proposed Development Agreement would provide the project developer with several
benefits, including the transfer of 1,150,000 square-feet of floor area credits
to the subject property and the general vesting of applicable ordinances and
policies pertaining to development of the project.
The subject site is
located within the North San Jose Area Development Policy area, and is subject
to the Policy’s Floor Area Ratio (FAR) limitation of 40%. This limitation restricts the total
allowable square footage of building area to 40% of the total site square
footage. The subject property has a
total site area of 2,082,168 square-feet and would thus normally be limited to
832,867 square-feet of development.
Under the provisions
of this Policy, if sites within the policy area are developed for
non-industrial uses, a transfer of allowable building intensity can take place
from the non-industrial sites to other industrial sites also within the policy
area. This building intensity is held
in a “pool” of transferable floor area credits until the City allocates it to a
particular property. Additionally, when
the City issues a Building Permit for a residential unit within the policy
area, 150 square-feet of transferable credits is also added to the pool. City policy is to allocate transferable
square footage from the pool to development projects that make use of measures
that potentially reduce traffic impacts.
The City has considered projects with a single large campus user to meet
this criteria because such a campus often incorporates employee cafeterias,
exercise facilities, employee commute programs and other measures that would
help to reduce potential traffic impacts.
A small number of floor area credits from this pool were already
transferred to the subject property as part of the permit issued to Novell in
1996.
The subject
Agreement incorporates a proposed Site Development Permit (HSH 03-039) which
would allow the subject property to be developed with an additional 1.15
million “bonus” square-feet beyond the standard 40% FAR limitation or 864,883
square-feet. eBay has requested that
this additional 1,150,000 square-feet of floor area credits be transferred to
the subject property as a key element of the Development Agreement. Because the pool currently contains
approximately 500,000 square-feet of transferable floor area credits, full
development of the eBay project will require that additional credits become
available to be allocated to the subject property. The proposed Agreement sets forth terms for this future
allocation, specifying as follows: the
City would first allocate to eBay the 500,000 square-feet currently available;
the next 150,000 of pool square footage generated would be reserved for the
City to be allocated at the City’s sole discretion; and 75% of all subsequent
square footage accumulated into the pool (following the 150,000 square foot
reservation) up to 650,000 square-feet would be allocated to the eBay
site. Because the Site Development
Permit incorporated into this Development Agreement provides entitlement for
development of the entire 2 million square-feet, the City will monitor the pool
square footage available for allocation to eBay prior to issuance of Building
Permits for each phase of the project.
The Site Development plan set (attached) depicts the project design at
full development.
In addition to the
transfer of floor area credits, the Agreement generally vests development
standards to the benefit of eBay. eBay
may develop the site at any time during the term of the Agreement in accordance
with the Zoning, General Plan and other development standards applicable at the
time when the Agreement is effective, or in accordance with current standards
at eBay’s discretion. Some regulations,
including Building Codes and regional, State or Federal water quality
requirements, would not be vested.
The subject
Agreement would have a term of 20 years.
During this term, eBay would retain the full right to utilize the pool
allocation described above, and be able to request additional entitlements on
the site in accordance with the vested development regulations. Because eBay has also requested a Vesting
Tentative Map, with the issuance of this map, eBay would have a vested right to
develop the site in accordance with the subdivision map and associated Site Development
Permit. Under the provisions of the
associated Site Development Permit, once a Building Permit is implemented for
any portion of the project, eBay would enjoy a similar vested ability to
develop the remainder of the site in accordance with Site Development Permit
through that mechanism. In combination,
eBay will have three mechanisms by which they can enjoy the vesting of their
development for the subject property for a term of at least 20 years.
eBay would also
enjoy the ability to transfer the property to up to three other entities (End
Users) described in the Agreement while maintaining all of the other benefits
included within the proposed Agreement.
Under such a transfer, those other entities could develop the subject
property utilizing the transferable floor area credits provided under this
Agreement, and subject to the vested development regulations. eBay also has the right to transfer the
property in any form to another entity but
the City then retains the right to restrict the allocation from the FAR pool as
to such properties thereby cancelling the
terms of the Agreement.
In exchange for
providing the applicant, eBay Inc., with the benefits discussed above, the City
would receive benefits in that the Development Agreement will support the
development by eBay of a large, corporate headquarters type industrial park
campus within San Jose. Specifically,
the proposed project meets the necessary criteria for the City to issue a Development
Agreement in that the proposed project is for an industrial office, research
and development or similar use, would involve parcel(s) at least 5 acres in
size, would create at least five hundred jobs, would be used as a corporate
headquarters by the primary user of the development, and would qualify as a
“Special Handling” project per City requirements. The Development Agreement would include provisions that allow
eBay Inc. to transfer all or a portion of the entitlement covered under the
Agreement (potentially resulting in subdivision of the site in to no more than
3 smaller campuses) to other End Users that would employ at least 500 employees
at the site. Approval of the
Development Agreement will facilitate the development of an important industrial
park site in North San Jose with a significant amount of building square
footage (2 million square-feet), providing for the City’s continuing economic
development.
The Development
Agreement as proposed has been prepared to conform with all applicable City
policies, including the General Plan as proposed to be amended, economic,
social and environmental goals of the City, and the regulations governing the
issuance of Development Agreements.
Furthermore it would further the City’s Economic Development Strategy as
set forth in the General Plan. In
response to the applicant’s request, the City Attorney’s office has prepared
the text for a Development Agreement that incorporates the applicant’s
requested items, consistent with the recommendation of Planning staff. Staff recommends that the Planning
Commission recommend that the City Council accept the Development Agreement as
proposed by the applicant and as drafted in cooperation between staff and the
applicant and the Office of the City Attorney.
A notice of the Planning Commission and
City Council public hearings was distributed to the owners and tenants of all
properties located within 1000 feet of the project site. The applicant hosted a community meeting for
the proposed project on October 16, 2003 which two local businesspersons
attended. The attendees had questions
regarding the design of the future facility however, no significant project
comments/concerns were made by the community at the meetings.
RECOMMENDATION
Planning staff
recommends that the Planning Commission approve the requested Development
Agreement Amendment for the following reasons:
1. The
Development Agreement conforms to the designations of Industrial Park and
Combined Industrial/Commercial on the adopted San José 2020 General Plan Land Use/Transportation
Diagram as proposed to be amended.
2.
The
Development Agreement conforms to the
requirements of the IP Industrial Park Zoning District.
3.
The
Development Agreement conforms to the requirements of the Development Agreement
Ordinance.
4.
The proposed
Development Agreement supports the General Plan Economic Development Strategy.
c: City Attorney’s Office