AgdaPkt 2000-07-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CtA - fø e) Parking Redwood City's parking requirements are outdated for two reasons. Today there are more office employees per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area than previously, and when land which is zoned for industrial use is converted to office use, the parking standards for industrial areas are applied. The parking standards for industrial districts are based on uses that are land extensive (manufacturing and warehouses), not on uses that are labor extensive (offices). Redwood City's parking standards for offices in commercial districts were premised on approximately 3 employees per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area; but, today there are 4 - 6 employees per 1,000 sq. ft. of gross floor area. Consequently parking spills over to City streets. The parking standards in the Zoning Ordinance should be revised to address the intensive occupancy of certain office categories. f) Air Quality The City's General Plan states "The City should take into consideration the cumulative air quality impacts from proposed developments and should establish and enforce appropriate land use as well as other regulations to reduce air pollution." Policy L-13 on page 6-6. Office uses are characterized by high peak period trips, while housing is characterized by lower peak period trips3. Although the total number of daily trips for housing uses exceeds the total for offices, trips generated during peak periods are particularly significant because when trips exceed, or come close to exceeding, the capacity of a road or intersection, and the Level of Service (LOS) declines to LOS E or F, there are more vehicles stalled in traffic and increased emission of air pollutants. Thus traffic congestion and degraded air quality are linked. The City should limit temporarily the amount of office development in order to evaluate the cumulative impact of the growing proportion of its land occupied by office uses that produce peak period traffic on congested roadways that is greater than that of other uses. This evaluation is necessary to protect the health of the people of Redwood City and is consistent with the General Plan. 2. Need to establish an urgency interim ordinance. In the following sections, the actions recommended by staff are underlined. a) Ordinance establishinq a 45-dav moratorium on office development and/or office conversion on parcels one acre or larqer in the followinq zoninq districts not includinq the Bair Island Studv Area: . CG-R .CG . CB, and .CN 3 Source: Trip Generation 6th Edition, Institute of Transportation Engineers, 1997, 5