|
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. 11/28/01 Item
3.j. |
||
|
|
File Number PDC 01-03-043 |
||
|
STAFF REPORT |
Application Type Planned Development Rezoning |
||
|
|
Council District 6 |
||
|
|
Planning Area Willow Glen |
||
|
|
Assessor's
Parcel Number(s) 282-43-005; 006; 012 |
||
|
PROJECT
DESCRIPTION |
Completed by: Anastazia Aziz |
||
|
Location: Southeast corner of South Bascom Avenue and Moorpark
Avenue |
|||
|
Gross Acreage: 1.55 |
Net Acreage: 1.55 |
Net Density: n/a |
|
|
Existing Zoning: CP Commercial |
Existing Use: Commercial and vacant |
||
|
Proposed Zoning: A(PD) Planned
Development |
Proposed Use: Office and/or post-secondary institutional uses |
||
|
GENERAL PLAN |
Completed
by: AA |
||
|
Land
Use/Transportation Diagram Designation General Commercial |
Project
Conformance: [ X ] Yes [
] No [ X ] See
Analysis and Recommendations |
||
|
SURROUNDING LAND
USES AND ZONING |
Completed
by: AA |
||
|
North: Interstate
280 Unincorporated County |
|||
|
East: San Jose
City College R-1-8
Residential |
|||
|
South: Retail CP – Commercial
Pedestrian |
|||
|
West: Valley
Medical Center Unincorporated County |
|||
|
ENVIRONMENTAL
STATUS |
Completed
by: AA |
||
|
[ x ]
Environmental Impact Report Addendum [ ] Negative Declaration [ ] Negative Declaration adopted on |
[ ] Exempt [ ] Environmental Review Incomplete |
||
|
FILE HISTORY |
Completed
by: AA |
||
|
Annexation
Title: Maypark No. 4 |
Date: September 24,
1954 |
||
|
PLANNING
DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION |
|||
|
[ x ] Approval [ ] Approval with Conditions [ ] Denial [ ] Uphold Director's Decision |
Date: _________________________ |
Approved
by: ____________________________ [ ] Action [b ] Recommendation |
|
|
APPLICANT /DEVELOPER/OWNER |
|||
|
Richard
Treumpler, Green Valley Corporation The Martin
Rajkovich 1992 Revocable Trust & The Rajkovich 1992 Revocable Trust 777
North First Street, 5th Floor P.O. Box 189 San
Jose, CA 95112 Hollister,
CA 95024 |
|||
|
PUBLIC AGENCY COMMENTS RECEIVED |
Completed by: AA |
|
Department of Public Works See attached
memoranda. |
|
|
Other Departments and Agencies See attached
memoranda from Fire Department, Police Department, Environmental Services
Department, County of Santa Clara Roads & Airports Department dated March
27, 2001, June 15, 2001, August 8, 2001 and August 23, 2001, Santa Clara
Valley Water District dated June 4, 2001, Santa Clara Valley Transportation
Authority, dated April 5, 2001. |
|
|
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE |
|
|
None received. |
|
|
ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS |
|
The applicant, Green Valley Corporation, is requesting a Planned Development Rezoning from C-P Commercial to A(PD) Planned Development to allow the development of up to 80,000 square feet of office and/or post-secondary institutional uses on the subject site.
Three
commercial buildings are currently located on the site; however, a large
portion of the site at the prominent corner of South Bascom Avenue and Moorpark
Avenue is vacant with limited landscaping and is generally unkempt. The majority of the land area occupied by
commercial uses is paved parking area with limited landscaping and small,
historically insignificant commercial buildings. Moorpark Avenue is the site’s northern boundary, Leland Avenue
and San Jose City College are located to the east, commercial uses are located
south of the subject site and Valley Medical Center is located to the
west.
The project proposes a maximum of 80,000 square feet of office and/or post-secondary uses. The building is located at the corner of South Bascom and Moorpark Avenues. The proposed building's height is 80 feet. An east-west pedestrian paseo is provided at the southern edge of the site to facilitate access to Bascom Avenue and public transit. Both Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus routes #62 and #85 stop on Bascom Avenue immediately south of the subject site. A north-west/south-east pedestrian walkway connecting the rear of the building to San Jose City College is also proposed.
Parking
spaces to serve the proposed uses are to be located both on the site and on the
San Jose City College (SJCC) campus. A
total of 272 parking spaces are provided in conformance with Title 20
requirements for office uses.
Forty-nine on-site parking spaces are accommodated in two surface parking
lots. One surface lot is located at the
south-western corner of the site and permits right in/out only access from
South Bascom; the second lot is located at the north-eastern corner of the site
and permits right in/out only access to and from one-way Moorpark Avenue. The balance of the parking is proposed to be
located off-site on San Jose City College property.
The
applicant plans to lease the proposed building to San Jose City College for use
as the College’s high technology center as identified in the campus master
plan. During the term of this lease,
the uses will be primarily institutional, i.e. classrooms, administrative and
instructor offices, and cafeteria. The
proposed zoning also permits office uses should the leasing arrangement with
SJCC change and the College no longer remain a tenant. The shared off-site alternating parking
arrangement with SJCC will be implemented through a recorded easement or other
recorded agreement to ensure that parking will be available even if SJCC does
not remain a tenant in the building.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
Staff and San
Jose City College representatives attended a Burbank Strong Neighborhood
Initiative community meeting on Thursday, May 24, 2001. The proposed plans were available for review
prior to and after the meeting and the general response was positive, although
concerns were expressed regarding lack of parking and existing parking impacts
on the adjacent neighborhood.
A notice of the
public hearing before the Planning Commission and City Council was published
and distributed to the owners and tenants of all properties located within
1,000 feet of the project site. Staff
has been available to discuss the project with members of the public.
The
environmental impacts of this project were addressed in the San Jose City College Facilities Master Plan
Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) certified by the San Jose City
College Governing Board on September 12, 2000.
This EIR addressed the redevelopment of the SJCC campus including a
60,000 square foot High Technology Center on the subject site. A supplemental traffic analysis was prepared
to address the currently proposed 80,000 square-foot building. This analysis indicates that the larger
building conforms to the City’s Transportation Level of Service Policy and that
the current project would not change the findings of the EIR in regard to
traffic. Staff has reviewed the
proposed rezoning in the context of the Final EIR and has determined that the
current project does not raise new environmental concerns or increase the
impacts as identified in the EIR. Based
on this analysis, staff has prepared an Addendum to the Facilities Master Plan
EIR concluding that the EIR adequately addresses the environmental impacts of
the project.
GENERAL PLAN CONFORMANCE
The proposed
rezoning is consistent with the San José 2020 General Plan Land
Use/Transportation Diagram designation of General
Commercial and with the height limit of 95 feet. The General Commercial
designation permits a mixture of commercial uses including business and
professional office uses and institutional uses. The zoning proposes office and institutional uses in conformance
with the General Plan. The proposed
building height of 80 feet is well under the permitted General Plan height
limit of 95 feet as provided through General Plan Amendment File No. GP00-T-12.
The primary
issue associated with this proposal is conformance with the Commercial Design
Guidelines.
Site Organization
The proposed
project’s exemplary siting conforms to the Commercial Design Guidelines (CDG)
for site organization. The CDG
stipulate office buildings greater than three stories should be placed at or
near the front setback line and that the primary entry should be placed on the
public street. The proposed 10-foot
setbacks from both Bascom and Moorpark place the building near both major
arterials and allow for 10-foot wide pedestrian sidewalks and a landscape strip
to soften the streetscape. The main
entry is placed at the corner of South Bascom and Moorpark which appropriately
focuses building architecture and activity on this prominent corner. A smaller secondary entry is located to the
rear of the building which connects to the pedestrian pathway leading to the
SJCC campus.
The proposed
project provides pedestrian and bicycle facilities appropriate for the
institutional use and consistent with the recommendations of the CDG. The project proposes a 10-foot wide sidewalk
along Bascom providing direct access from the bus stop located immediately to
the south of the subject site to the proposed building’s front entry located at
the corner of South Bascom and Moorpark Avenue. Additionally, an 8-foot wide pedestrian pathway with tree wells
is accommodated along the southern edge of the property immediately south of
one of the site’s surface parking areas.
Bicycle racks are also provided in both on-site parking lots.
Building Design,
The CDG strongly
encourage building design that affords a sense of entry, incorporates high
quality finish materials, and provides ground-floor pedestrian interest. The proposed building design achieves a
fitting sense of entry and successfully addresses the prominent corner location
at Bascom Avenue and Moorpark Avenue.
The vaulted corner element also provides an appropriate entry feature
for the Bascom Avenue neighborhood located south of Interstate 280 and the rear
entrance on the southeast side of the building provides a dramatic sense of
entry for San Jose City College students approaching the building from the
campus.
The proposed
building materials include a cement plaster system off-white and gray in color
paired with reflective brown/green-tinged glass which do not enhance the
building design. The proposed muted
colors for the body of the building do not provide contrast with the chosen
murky reflective glass and in fact create a monotonous façade. Additionally, the materials do not achieve
articulation in that the cement plaster system is a very flat material lacking
texture and the glass is not inset or recessed to create greater shadow
variation. Furthermore, the reflective glass offers no depth to the building
and in fact adds to the monotonous flat façade. Higher quality materials and non-reflective glass that provide
greater building articulation, depth, complementary color variation and
pedestrian interest would appropriately supplement the building’s excellent
siting and prominent corner location.
Staff will work with the applicant at the Planned Development Permit
stage to improve this aspect of the building design.
The zoning proposes to share parking with
SJCC. The required parking ratio is one
space per 250 square feet in keeping with Title 20 requirements for office
uses. Conditions of the proposed Planned
Development Zoning specify that the off-site parking on the SJCC campus must be
located within 750 feet of the project site.
As long as the property is used for institutional uses, specific
off-site parking spaces are not required to be reserved exclusively for the
proposed building. In this case,
parking may be provided throughout SJCC campus because it is anticipated that
students attending classes in the building will likely be attending classes
elsewhere on campus and the aggregate campus parking is sufficient to meet the
overall needs of the College.
Use of the building as non-college office space
will trigger the requirement that on-campus parking within 750 feet be
dedicated for the use of the office building during business hours. This will be achieved through an easement or
other recorded agreement which specifies that the balance of parking spaces not
provided on-site must be made available for use by the office building from
Monday through Friday during business hours.
A public right-of-way dedication of up to six
feet is required along a portion of the project’s Bascom Avenue frontage in
order to accommodate a right hand turn pocket.
The details of the dedication are not finalized yet; however, the
Development Standards and environmental mitigation have been modified to allow
the rezoning to proceed. The modifications
to the minimum building setbacks from Bascom Avenue and the traffic mitigation
allow flexibility regarding the building location to accommodate the dedication
without compromising the pedestrian environment, landscaping or parking.
For all of the above reasons, staff concludes
that the proposed project is in substantial conformance with the Commercial
Design Guidelines.
Based on the
above analysis, staff concludes that the proposed project provides a
significant opportunity to further important goals and strategies of the
General Plan for transit-oriented use and infill development, that the project
conforms to the Commercial Design Guidelines and is compatible with the
surrounding neighborhood.
Planning staff recommends that the City Council
approve the subject rezoning for the following reasons:
1.
The
proposed project is consistent with the San José 2020 General Plan Land
Use/Transportation Diagram designation of General Commercial.
2.
The
proposed project conforms to the Commercial Design Guidelines.
3.
The project
furthers the goals and objectives of the City’s infill strategies and will
promote transit usage.
4.
The
proposed rezoning is compatible with existing and proposed uses on the adjacent
and neighboring properties.
c: Ben Azarnoush, BFGC Architects, Inc.,
150 South first Street, San Jose, CA 95113
James Eller, Bryant, Clohan, Eller,
Maines & Baruh, 303 Almaden Blvd., San Jose, CA 95110-2721
AA/207-02