HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-01-16 Ordinance 4675follows:
ORDINANCE NO. 4675
ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO
PRESERVING AND SUPPORTING NEIGHBORHOOD-SERVING
USES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL (CN) DISTRICT
AT CHARLESTON CENTER (PORTIONS OF THE 3900 BLOCK
OF MIDDLEFIELD ROAD) ON AN INTERIM BASIS PURSUANT
TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858 BY ADDING SECTION
18.41.035 TO THE PALO ALTO MUNICIPAL CODE TO TAKE
EFFECT IMMEDIATELY
The City Council of the City of Palo Alto does ordain as
SECTION 1. Findings. Council finds and .declares that:
A. The City of Palo Alto reaffirmed in its
Comprehensi ve Plan a goal of "an enhanced sense of
Community with development designed to foster public life and meet
Ci ty-wide needs." (Goal L-2, adopted July 1998). To implement
that policy, the City adopted Policy L-I0, "maintain a ywide
structure of Residential Neighborhoods, Centers, and Employment
Dist cts ... " and Policy L-ll, "promote increased compatibility,
interdependence, and support between commercial and mixed use
centers and the surrounding resident neighborhoods."
B. Basic to the City's land use pattern is the
avai lity of shopping and
residential neighborhoods. (Goals
Plan ifies four Neighborhood
ces within walking distance of
and L-4.) The Comprehensive
Centers:
small retail centers with a primary trade area limited to
immediately surrounding area; often anchored by a
grocery or drug store and may include a variety of
smaller retail shops and of ces oriented toward the
everyday needs of surrounding residents
(Comprehensive Plan, p. L-18.)
C. A "neighborhood-serving use" is one that primarily
serves individual consumers. and households, rather than other
businesses; is generally pedest oriented in design, and does
not generate noise, fumes or truck traffic greater than that
typically expected for uses with a local customer base. A
neighborhood-serving use is also one to which a significant number
of customers and clients travel, instead of the provider travelling
off-s
D. The City is experiencing·· an unprecedented sustained
demand for office space from businesses which are not neighborhood-
1
010201 syn 0090761
serving and instead primarily serve other businesses. The demand
for 0 ce space comes, to a large extent, from the well-financed
and 0 en highly profitable businesses that typi the Silicon
Valley. These enterprises are willing and able to pay high rents
to locate within the City's residential areas. As a result,
buildings which had been used for neighborhood-serving uses have
been removed from the retail market and converted to office,
"business to business" uses. This has led to a significant
decrease neighborhood-serving businesses in Neighborhood
Centers.
E. Charleston Center is a Neighborhood Center. It
operates under the CN Neighborhood Commercial standards first
adopted by the City in 1978. While the zone was intended to
accommodate uses of a moderate size serving the immediate
neighborhood~ it was not at that time necessary to exclude non-
neighborhood-serving uses in order to assure space a variety
of neighborhood-serving uses. It now is.
F. The Center consists of two parcels under a single
ownership. It is an important neighborhood and ty resource,
containing an anchoring supermarket and a mix of associated uses,
most if not all of which are neighborhood-serving bus ses.
G. The Neighborhood Centers are relatively small.
Charleston Center has approximately 50,000 square et of built
area and serves a large resident area. The City has a number of
other commercial districts z.oned for businesses that are not
neighborhood-serving.
H. In response to the Comprehensive Plan and citizens'
concerns about replacement of neighborhood-serving uses with
offices that do not serve the neighborhood, and in some cases do
not serve consumers at all, and as part of the comprehensive update
of the zoning ordinance, the City's Department of anning and
Commun Environment is studying modification of CN standards to
better implement the intent of the Comprehensive Plan and the
district itself. It is very likely that "neighborhood-serving"
uses will be more fully defined and other uses limited in the CN
District when the zoning ordinance update is completed. However,
that comprehensive zoning ordinance update will not be completed
within next twelve months.
I. It is necessary for the preservation of public
heal th and safety to enact an im ordinance pursuant to
Government Code Section 65858 limiting non-neighborhood serving
uses in the Charleston Center CN district while the City completes
its zoning ordinance update. If an interim ordinance is not
adopted, non~neighborhood serving uses may enter into long-term
tenancies the Center , limiting the ability of bus sses to
2
010201 syn 0090761
provide needed neighborhood-serving goods and services to City
residents. This increases traffic congestion, exacerbates an
already significant surplus of jobs over housing, and leads to a
decline in quality of Ii
SECTION 2. Section 18.41.035 of Chapter 18.41 of the Palo
Alto Municipal Code is hereby added to read as follows:
18.41. 035 Charleston Center Ground Floor Regulations.
The regulations this Section 18.41.035 apply to the
ground floor of the Charleston Center as defined in section
18.41.030(k) and shown on Exhibit A attached. "Ground floor" shall
mean the first floor which is above grade.
(a) Permitted Uses. Notwithstanding the provisions of
Sections 18.41.030, 18.41.050 and 18.94.030(b), only the following
uses shall be permitted without a conditional use permit.
(1) Accessory lities and uses customarily incidental
to permitted uses;
(2) Animal care, btit excluding boarding and kennels;
(3) Day care centers;
(4) Eating and drinking services, except drive-in and
take-out services;
(5) Neighborhood-serving offices that do not exceed
2,500 square feet in area. "Neighborhood-serving offices are
medical offices, professional offices, travel agencies, and
insurance agencies that comply with the standards .of Section
18.41.035(g) below.
(6) Personal services;
(7) Retail services, excluding liquor stores;
(8) Reverse vending machines, subj ect to regulations
established by Chapter 18.88 of this code;
(9) Neighborhood business services.
Uses lawfully existing on January 16, 2001 may be continued as non-
conforming uses but may only be replaced with uses permitted or
conditionally permitted under this Section 18.41.035.
3
010201syn 0090761
(b) Conditionally Per.mitted Uses.
may be conditionally allowed, subject to issuance
use pe t in accord with Chapter 18.90:
following uses
a conditional
(1) Ambulance services;
(2) Automobile service stations, subject to site and
design review in accord with the provisions of Chapter 18.82;
total
makes
(3) Churches and religious institutions;
(4) Convalescent facilities;
(5) Financial services;
(6) Mortuaries;
(7) Neighborhood-serving offices over 2,500 square feet in
oor area. No such permit shall be granted unless the City
additional findings in Section 18.41.035(f).
(8) Private clubs, lodges, or fraternal organizations;
(9) Private educational facilities;
(10) Utility facilities essential to provision of utility
to the neighborhood, but excluding construction or storage
yards, maintenance facilities, or corporation yards;
(11) Liquor stores;
(12) Temporary parking facilities, provided that such
facilities shall remain ho more than five years;
(13) Farmer's markets;
(14) Commercial recreation;
(15) Outdoor recreation service;
(16) . Recycling centers.
(c) Prohibited Uses.
(1) Residential uses of any nature.
(2) Administrative office uses and general business
office uses (except neighborhood-serving travel agencies and
insurance agencies) other than those legally in existence on
January 16, 2001.
4
010201 syn 0090761
(d) Certification of New Neighborhood-Serving Office
Uses. Any office use first occupying space at the Center on or
after January 16, 2001, shall obtain a written determination from
the Director of Planning and Community Environment that it
quali es as a neighborhood-serving use, as defined Section
18.41.035(g), before occupying its premises. The applicant shall
submit such information as the Director shall reasonably in
order to make the determination, and the Director shall issue the
determination within 30 days of receiving a complete application.
Failure to submit the required information shall be grounds for
determining that a business is not neighborhood-serving.
(e) Center-wide L~it on Office Space. No more than 7,500
square of total floor area at the Center shall be occupied by
office space at any time.
(f) Additional Conditional Use Per;mit Findings for Offices
over 2,500 Square Feet. Before approving a conditional use permit
for neighborhood serving uses than 2,500 square feet in
total area, the Cit"y shall find that the proposed use will be
neighborhood serving, that it will be conducted in a manner that
will enhance ~nd strengthen the Center as a neighborhood resource,
and that it will not diminish retail strength of Center.
(g) Definition of Neighborhood-Serving Use. A
neighborhood-serving use primarily serves individual consumers and
households, not businesses, is generally pedestrian ented in
design, and" does not generate noise, fumes or truck traffic greater
than that typically expected uses with a local customer base.
A neighborhood-serving use is also one to which a significant
number of customers and cl travel, rather than the provider of
the goods or services travelling 0 site.
SECTION 3. The Council finds that this project is exempt
from provisions of the Environmental Quality Act (" CEQA" )
because can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility
that this project will have a significant on the
environment, and because this ordinance falls within the exception
to CEQA set forth in Section 15268 of the CEQA Guidelines.
II
II
II
II
II
010201 syn 0090761
5
SECTION 4. Effective Date and Applicability. This
ordinance was passed by a four-fifths vote after a public hearing
pursuant to Government Code Section 65858 and shall be effective
immediately upon adoption and shall cease to have force and effect
on March 2, 2001 unless further extended after additional publ
hearing.
INTRODUCED AND PASSED: January 16, 2001
AYES: BEECHAM, BURCH, EAKINS, KLEINBERG, LYTLE, MOSSAR, OJAKIAN
NOES:
ABSTENTIONS:
ABSENT: FAZZINO
ATTEST:
~i).By»-
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
~~~
010201 syn 0090761
APPROVED:
fHIS DOCUMENT IS CERTIFIED TO BE AN
OROINANCE DULY PASSED BVTHE COUNCIL
or '."I":jO CITY OF PALO ALTO AND
TH::I.'::!\I" rER POSTEfJ~~1'tfJi:ftUNCIL GH~\:l'JERS ON I (WITHIN 11
'JAYS Of ITS PASSAG )
"I certify (or declare) under penalty
of perjury that the foregoing is true
and correc8
... I 01 YM!2 C1fu
atf! '" Place
6
~ ..... ....
,.Q .... -= ~
~
...
2 c:
Q)
0
c: g
en
Q) -;:: as .s::
0 -.2 ... -en
is
Z
0
c:
.2
Q)1t! c: c:
00) N.-Z~
00
D
#-o.o~
~~«,.C~
View: CN District Charleston Center
~
The City of
Pa 10 Alto
....
.$ c
Q.)
()
..... 0)
.!'2 .~ .... e. '(;)e.
.-0 Cl..c:: zC/)
()c
.9
(J'J
CD
m ..c::
()
i' c .;::
e.
(5
J'2'
0) c
~.
::J ..a
('I')
0)
0) ...--
This map is a product
of the
City of Palo Alto GIS
ffi
0' 150'
This documenl is a grap~iC represen1ation only of beSl availabie .. uroe •.
The City of Palo Mo .ssumes no re$Ponsibilly ti:>r any erro ...