AgdaPkt 2004-04-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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■ 1' ■ ■ 1 d • . u - � ��$-23 the provision of a child care center. Thus, the total exemption sought is limited to 10,000 square feet. -- MSI is an important community resource and Abbott's accommodation to retain MSI on this property is significant. Abbott has allowed MSI to continue operations from the site rent-free sinre Abtatt bought the property from Cargill in late 2000. A new MSI buiiding is proFosed ��s part of the Phase 1 site development. MSI's future operations have bee�� reloc3ted to the "front" of Abbott's property. This location gives MSI more visibility and fosters a relationship between MSI and the .. adjacent Port of Redwood City water-oriented uses. For MSI's permanent location, Abbott intends to either sell a parcel designed to accommodate the MSI building for a minimal fee (e.g. for $1.00) or lease the site to MSI for a nominal fee. The existing MSI dock, which is attached to the north side of Abbott's property, would be left in place for MSI. MSI would conduct educational programs inside their building, on their boat, and on Abbott's property along the proposed multi-use public-access path on Abbott's waterfront, which will have excellent views of adjacent wetlands. Staff supports an FAR exemption for the Abbott campus development on the order of magnitude requested by the applicant for this large site based on the public benefits offered by the project. There is no question that Abbott's planned accommodations for MSI, as well as the provision of a child care facility within their project area, are significant benefits of the proposed development. The total exemption would only be 1.3% FAR. However, staff has concems about the proposed Zoning Text Amendment. As `-� drafted, the proposed text amendment is tailor made for the Abbott project to ensure that inappropriate requests for FAR exemptions would not become a problem for the City. The result of this approach is that very few other projects, if any, would ever qualify for this exemption. There are two ways to open up the proposed code so that it would apply to more properties. 1) Additional zones or even ail commercial and industrial zones with FAR limits, and not just the IR zone, could be made to qualify for the exemption. 2) Projects smaller than ten (10) acres, such as one or two acres, or even no minimum area, could be made to qualify for the exemption. Unfortunately, the drawback of making such modifications could expose the City to unintended consequences. Staff believes that there may be a wide variety of uses that could qualify as "independent educational non-profit facilities open to the public." It is likely that many such uses might not be as desirable as an institution like MSI. The risk of this happening is very low if the code is adopted as proposed (e.g. limited to large sites in the IR Zoning District); however, the risk increases if these limits are stripped away. Child Care Onlv Text Amendment: Staff is recommending an FAR exemption based solely on the provision of child care. Attachment 3 includes the draft ordinance for this concept. The City first established FAR limits in all of the industrial and some of the commercial zoning districts in the spring of 2001. At that time, it was decided that a conservative approach was most appropriate and "' the code was written to not allow for a vehicle to exceed FAR limits in any case. The FAR limits that the City established tended to be fairly generous and thus