HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-01-16 Ordinance 4676follows:
ORDINANCE NO. 4676
ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO
PRESERVING AND SUPPORTING GROUND-FLOOR
NEIGHBORHOOD-SERVING USES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
COMMERCIAL (CN) DISTRICT AT MIDTOWN SHOPPING
DISTRICT (PORTIONS OF THE 2600, 2700 AND 2800
BLOCKS OF MIDDLEFIELD ROAD, 700 BLOCKS OF COLORADO
AVENUE, MORENO AVENUE, AND SAN CARLOS COURT-AND
THE 600 BLOCK OF BRYSON AVENUE) ON AN INTERIM
BASIS PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 56858 BY
ADDING SECTION 18.41.037 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. The Council finds and declares that:
A. The City of Palo Alto reaffirmed in its
Comprehensive Plan a goal of fostering "an enhanced sense of
Community with development designed to foster public life and meet
City wide needs." (Goal L-2, adopted July 1998). To implement
that policy, the City adopted Policy L-I0, "maintain a citywide
structure of Residential Neighborhoods, Centers, and Employment
Districts ... " and Policy L-ll, "promote increased compatibility,
interdependence, and support between commercial and mixed use
centers and the surrounding residential neighborhoods."
B. Basic to the City's land use pattern is the
availability of shopping and services within walking distance Of
residential neighborhoods. (Goals L-3 and L-4.) The Comprehensive
Plan identifies four Neighborhood Centers:
small retail centers with a primary trade area limited to
the immediately surrounding area; often anchored by a
grocery or drug store and may include a variety of
smaller retail shops and offices oriented toward the
everyday needs of surrounding residents
(Comprehensive Plan, p. L-18.)
C. Two of the Neighborhood Centers, Edgewood Plaza and
Alma Plaza, are developed under site-specific PC Planned Community
zoning regulations. However, Midtown and Charleston Center operate
under the CN Neighborhood Commercial standards first adopted by the
City in 1978. Both centers are valued neighborhood and city
resources, containing anchoring supermarkets and drug stores and a
mix of associated neighborhood-serving businesses. However, the CN
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district lows uses which are not neighborhood-serving in certain
circumstances. Charleston Center is addressed in a separate
ordinance.
D. A "neighborhood-serving use" is one that primarily
serves individual consumers and households, rather than other
businesses; is generally pedest an 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 so one to which a significant number
of customers and clients travel, instead of the provider travelling
off site.
E. The City ,is experiencing an unprecedented sustained
demand for office space from businesses which are not neighborhood-
serving and ead primarily serve other businesses. The demand
for office space comes, to a significant extent, from the well-
financed and often highly profitable businesses that typify the
Silicon Valley. These concerns are willing and able to pay high
rents to locate within the Neighborhood Centers which 'are intended
to serve the City's resident areas. As a result, buildings
which had been used for neighborhood-serving uses have been removed
from the retail. space market and converted to office or "business
to business" uses.
F. The Neighborhood Centers are small, and conversion
of some of their ground floor commercial space to non-neighborhood
serving uses not only removes valuable neighborhood serving uses
but can adversely effect those that remain. Unless the CN
standards are changed to protect neighborhood-serving uses in
Midtown, they will be displaced by non-neighborhood serving uses.
G. The City has zoned a significant portion of its land
for non-neighborhood serving uses. It has substantially more jobs
than housing, and use of CN district properties for non-
neighborhood serving uses worsens this jobs/housing imbalance at
the same time that it leads to s of quality of Ii in the
neighborhoods and increases in driving.
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 Planning and
Community 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 the CN
District when the zoning ordinance update is completed. However,
that comprehensive zoning ordinance update will not be completed
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within the next twelve months.
I. It is necessary for the preservation of the public
health and safety to enact an interim ordinance pursuant· to
Government Code Section 65858 limiting non-neighborhood uses on the
ground floor the Midtown CN district while the City completes
its zoning ordinance update. If an interim ordinance is not
adopted, non-neighb6rhood-serving uses may continue to enter into
long-term tenancies in the Midtown Center, limiting the ability of
businesses to provide needed goods and services to neighborhood
residents. This increases traffic congestion, exacerbates an
already significant s~rplus of jobs over housing, and leads to a
decline in quality of life.
SECTION 2. Section 18.41.037 of Chapter 18.41 of the Palo
Alto Municipal Code is hereby added to read as follows:
18.41.037
Regulations.
Midtown Shopping District Ground Floor
The regulations in this Section 18.41.037 apply to the
ground floor of the Midtown Shopping District. as defined in section
18.41.030 (k) and as shown on Exhibit A attached. "Ground floor"
shall mean the rst 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 facilities and uses customarily incidental
to permitted uses;
(2) Animal care, but excluding boarding and kennels;
(3) Day care centers;
(4) Eating and drinking services, except drive-in and
take-out services;
(5) Personal services;
(6) Retail services, excluding liquor stores;
(7) Reverse vending machines, subj ect to regulations
established by Chapter 18.88 of this code;
(8) Neighborhood business services.
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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 18.41.037.
(b) Conditionally Per.mitted Uses. The following uses
may be conditionally allowed subject to issuance of a conditional
use permit in accordance with Chapter 18.90 and paragraph (g) of
this Section 18.41.037:
(1) Ambulance services;
(2) Automobile service stations, subj ect to site and
design review in accord with the provisions of Chapter 18.82;
(3) Churches and religious institutionsi
(4) Convalescent facilities i
(5) Financial services;
(6) Mortuaries;
(7) Medical offices not exceeding 2,500 square feet in
area, professional offices, travel agencies, and insurance
agencies. No conditional use permit shall be granted unless the
City makes the additional findings in Section 18.41.037(g),
(including the finding that the office is neighborhood serving). No
conditional use permit is needed for a medical office replacing an
existing medical office without expanding it.
(8) Private clubs, lodges, or fraternal organizationsi
(9) Private educational facil iesi
(10) Utility facilities essent to provision of utility
services to the neighborhood, but excluding construction or storage
yards, maintenance facilit ,or corporation yards;
(11) Liquor stores;
(12) Temporary parking facil ies, provided that such
facilities shall remain no more than five years:
(13) Farmer's markets;
(14) Commercial recreationi
(15) Outdoor recreation servicei
(16) Recycling centers.
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(c) Prohibited Uses.
(1) Residential uses of any nature.
(2 ) Administrative office uses and general bus ss
office uses (other than neighborhood-serving travel agencies and
insurance agencies), other than those lawfully in existence on
January 16, 2001.
(d) Certification of New Neighborhood-Serving Office
Uses. Any office use occupying a particular ground floor premise
in the Midtown District for the first time after January 16, 2001,
shall obtain a written determination from the Director of Planning
and Community Environment that quali s as a neighborhood-
serving use as defined in Section 18.41.037(g) before occupying the
premises. The applicant shall submit such information as the
Director shall reasonably require in order to make the
determination. The Director shall issue the determination within
30 days after receiving a complete application. Failure to submit
the required information shall be grounds for determining that a
business is not neighborhood-serving. Provided, transfers of
businesses as described in paragraphs (e) (2) and (f) (3) need only
establish that they are a continuation of any existing business or
practice.
(e) M±ddlefield Road. Buildings fronting on Middlefield
Road are shown on Exhibit A. Ground ~loor development in these
buildings and additions to them are subj ect to the following
requirements:
(1) No space ona ground floor occupied by a non-office
use on January 16, 2001, or first occupied after that date, may be
used for offices without a. conditional use permit. .
(2 )
be replaced
is found to
square feet.
An existing medical office on the ground floor may
with another medical office if the new medical office
be neighborhood-serving and does not exceed 2,500
(3) An existing ground floor office other than a medical
. office may only be replaced with afiother office if (i) the new
tenant or owner will continue the existing bus s or practice; or
(ii) a conditional user permit is issued for the new office use.
(f)
18.41.037 (e)
requirements:
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Other.Frontages. Buildings not covered by Section
are subject to the following ground-floor
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(1) No space on a ground floor occupied by a non-office
use on January 16, 2001, or first occupied after that date, may be
used for an office without a conditional use permit.
(2) Any existing office on the ground floor may be
replaced with a medical office or neighborhood-serving office use.
(3) An existing ground floor office may be replaced with
another office of any type if the new tenant or owner will continue
the sting business or practice.
(g) Additional Conditional Use Finding for New Offices.
No conditional use permit shall be sued for any new office use on
the ground floor unless, in addition to the findings required by
Chapter 18.90" the City finds that the proposed use will be
neighborhood serving, that it will be conducted in a manner that
will enhance and strengthen the Midtown Shopping District as' a
neighborhood resource, and that it will not diminish the retail
strength of the District.
(h) Definition of Neighborhood-Serving Use. A
neighborhood serving use is one that primarily serves individual
consumers and households rather than businesses, is general
pedestrian 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 signi cant number of customers and clients travel,
including neighborhood residents, rather than the provider of the
goods or services travelling off-site.
(i) Exclusion of Certain Office B\;lildings. 711, 719
and 721 Colorado Avenue, buildings not fronting on Middlefield
Avenue, designed and used for office purposes, and not well suited
to other uses are exempt from the provisions of this Section
18.41.037.
SECTION 3. The Council finds that this project is exempt
from the provisions of the Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA")
because it can be seen with certainty that there is rio possibility
that this project will have a significant effect on the
environment, and because this ordinance falls within the exception
to CEQA set forth in Section 15268 of the CEQA Guidelines.
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SECTION 4. Effective Date and Applicability. This
ordinance was passed by a four-fifths vote after a public hearing
pursuant to Government Code on 65858 and shall be effective
immediately upon adoption and shall cease to have force and effect
on March 2, 2001 unless further extended after an additional public
hearing.
INTRODUCED AND PASSED: January 16, 2001
AYES: BEECHAM, BURCH, EAKINS, KLEINBERG, LYTLE, MOSSAR, OJAKIAN
NOES:
ABSTENTIONS:
ABSENT: FAZZINO
City Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
L~'*-~ Seni Asst. City Attorney
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City anager
c:;Q~~
Director of Planni~and
Community Environment
THIS DOCUMENT I.S CERTIFIED TO BE AN
ORDINANCE DULY PASSED BYTHE COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO AND
THEREA ... rER POST!~HE..fi0UNCIL
CHAMBERS ON IDV (WITHIN 15
DAYS OF ITS PASSA E)
"I certify (or declare) under penalt,
of perjury that the foregoing is true
and correct." . ~1~tb\roJ P1l11J0J2do, ~ BLtlupd
Date & Place Siiif18tUre .
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CN District in Midtown
o CN Zone
Designation·
Buildings with
Middlefield
Road Frontage
CN District
Midtown Shopping Center
and
uildings with Middlefield Frontage
(1993 building footprints)