AgdaPkt 2000-09-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ A --2- The Architectural Review Committee is concerned that industrial land is being converted to office use. City staff reports that the demand for office space is reaching into the neighborhood commercial districts, the ground floor of the downtown retail core (CBR District), and the General Commercial and Industrial Districts. Within the past two years the City has approved 2.9 million square feet of new office space. Currently, there is an additional 602,148 square feet of office space proposed, bringing the total to 3.5 million square feet of office space. Office development has become the most profitable, and therefore the preferred, use of commercial and industrial land. The market is directing that most commercial and industrial land be used for offices. In this economic setting even more commercial and industrial land is actively and potenti~lIy for sale throughout the City. It is the strong demand for office space coupled with the fact that offices are a permitted use in every commercial and industrial district in Redwood City that is driving the replacement of non-office uses with office uses. It is easy to replace retail, entertainment, restaurants, motels, auto dealerships and industrial uses with offices (please see Attachment 1 for office uses permitted and conditionally permitted in commercial and industrial zoning districts in Redwood City). Additionally, office is permitted in two office districts, two office/high-density residential combining districts and in the case of public facility offices, in the Public Facility District. Trends a) Strong demand for offices in an array of sizes, but especially for land that can accommodate at least 80,000 square feet of office - enough for a single tenant. b) More employees in a given space because land costs have risen due to the dwindling supply of land for offices in cities to the south. Often employees are added after the initial move into an office building - an easy way to expand and maximize the use of a building, but which results in more workers, cars, and traffic than planned by the City. c) More employees due to recently approved office development, for example soon there will be 5,000 new workers in Pacific Shores. d) Rising land costs - The price of office space has sky rocketed in Palo Alto and has risen substantially in Menlo Park and throughout the entire sub-region. The City Council in Menlo Park is disinterested in adding office space because this use generates peak period traffic on streets already experiencing Level of Service F (LOS F). San Carlos has over 300,000 square feet of office development currently planned or under construction and a recent analysis projects a demand for at least another 700,000 square feet over the next 15 years. e) Conversion of buildings in the Industrial Restricted (IR) and Industrial Park (IP) Districts to office space. f) The projected addition of 1,100,000 people to the Bay Area between 2000 and 2020. Effects of Rapid Office Growth Office development in Redwood City is transforming the activity and character of the commercial and industrial areas in the following ways. Although these changes are both positive and negative, the issue of the desired balance of land uses in Redwood City is the central question. . Loss of potential housing sites; . Displacement of non-office commercial and industrial by offices; . Visual impacts of streets filled with offices and gateway locations with massive offices; 2