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7''~'age 1 of 3 <br />Page 17 <br />PLG-Sailesh Mehra <br />From: PLG-Sailesh Mehra <br />Sent: Monday, Apri105, 2010 3:50 PM <br />To: 'Carol Wolfe' <br />Subject: RE: Zoning Amendment <br />Dear Ms. Wolfe, <br />Thank you for yaur email with regard to the proposed Zoning' Text <br />Amendment to the Central Business Retail Zoning District Code (Article 26 of <br />the Zoning Ordinance). The proposal is as follows: <br />The City of Redwood City proposes to amend the text of Article 26 -CBR (Central <br />Business Retail) District of the Zoning Ordinance to allow for office uses on the <br />ground floor as permitted uses for some properties within the City's downtown core. <br />The purpose of the proposed amendment is to encourage economic vitality within <br />Downtown Redwood City and to locate a range of commercial and residential land <br />uses in such an orientation so as to fake advantage of the Downtown as a walk-able, <br />transit-served, mixed-use urbanizing district. Currently a significant number of <br />commercial vacancies are located within the CBR Zoning District and the existing <br />regula#ions limit the type of businesses that can be located on the ground floors of <br />these buildings to primarily retail uses. The existing ordinance specifies that office <br />uses are permitted above the ground floor and that "ground floor dependent" office <br />uses are conditional uses on the ground floor within the CBR Zoning District. Ground <br />floor dependent offices are defined in Article 2 of the Zoning Ordinance and include <br />establishments such as travel agencies, insurance brokers and others whose <br />businesses' offices offer service to walk-in customers. The walk-in customer <br />orientation is the only criteria that distinguishes the existing ordinance with respect <br />to office uses on the ground floor throughout the CBR Zoning District from that which <br />is proposed in this code amendment, which would permit additional types of office <br />uses on the ground floor for portions of the CBR zoning district <br />Generally, the CBR Zoning District includes Broadway from FI Camino Rea! to Main <br />Street and in that span, the streets intersecting Broadway between El Camino Real <br />and Marshall Street. Sequoia Station is also part of the CBR district, however, the <br />area formerly considered in the Franklin Street Plan, is not. Staff has developed and <br />analyzed a proposed code amendment for Planning Commission and City Council <br />consideration That would allow for office uses of ground floor spaces in existing <br />buildings and/or new development on such streets as E! Camino Real, Main Sfreef, <br />Marshall Street, and Brewster Avenue within the CBR Zoning District. Retail type <br />uses (e.g. shops, salons, restaurants) would still required on the ground floor on <br />Broadway, Theatre Way (Middlefield between Winslow and Broadway), as well as in <br />Sequoia Station. If approved, proposed amendments would be made to sections 26.1, <br />26.2 and 6.10 of Article 26 of the City's Zoning Ordinance. <br />The plan you mention, which would have promoted Main Street as an <br />art/antique district, was proposed several years ago and unfortunately never <br />approved. Given the economy and vacancies in the downtown, we feel it <br />would be prudent to allow office uses in the ground floor in certain <br />designated areas (with the exception of Broadway and Sequoia Station) in <br />4/15/2010 <br />