AgdaPkt 2000-09-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

~^p~ . Increase in peak period traffic associated with office use and attendant reduction in air quality; . More intensive office use than in the past - more employees per acre on high- priced land; . Conversion of sites designated mixed use to office use. (Mixed use is general commercial with a high-density residential combining district - CG-R); . Long lasting uses (Le., office) put into place ahead of the opportunity to re-examine land use alternatives during the current General Plan Update. Other changes attributable to office growth are: . Creation of well-paying jobs, . Turnover in ownership of property and new development, generating greater revenues from property taxes, . Creation of sites available to office uses which can create business to business sales taxes, . To the extent that new development replaces retail uses that generate sales tax and occupancy taxes (stores, auto dealerships, motels), a reduction in sales tax and occupancy tax revenue can be expected. To the extent that new offices occupy locations that the community would have designated for uses that generate sales taxes and occupancy taxes, there is an opportunity cost of office development and conversion. The local, regional, and national economies are thriving. Clearly, in this setting the competition for land will intensify and the public policy decisions will define communities in a more important way than in earlier times. Urqencv . Since the Council heard this issue on July 24, new information has been published related to the increase in the monthly rents per square foot of premium office space between the first and second quarters of 2000. The information, presented in Attachment 2, shows the rapid rate of change, and by inference, the demand for more land for offices and more conversion of land in non-office use to office use. Ultimately, the demand for offices will be satisfied because buyers of office land can outbid other users of land such as retail, housing, nonprofits (daycare, private schools, non-profit housing developers, etc.), unless local governments require a balance of uses within their jurisdictions. The substantial increase in office rents and the actual rent for premium office space in Redwood City of $7.75 per square foot (third highest in the region after Palo Alto and Menlo Park) indicates that the impacts of office development (additional jobs, and high peak period traffic and attendant air pollution, displacement of other land uses where permitted) will be greater than previously considered. Focused study of the issues is necessary to ensure that new development shall be consistent with City objectives for maintaining opportunities for high density housing development, a balance of commercial land uses, preservation of the ground floor in the core downtown area for retail uses, preservation of neighborhood commercial areas as retail and service centers that provide services to the immediate neighborhood, prevention of arterial streets from exceeding their capacity thus producing excessive vehicle emissions from idling vehicles, unified design of buildings, streetscape and landscape along gateway corridors and in gateway locations, and prevention of a wholesale departure from the existing General Plan prior to the comprehensive update of the General Plan. The intent is to carefully plan future office development, not to shut down office development. 3 -¡--'.'..-"'.T'" .