HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrd 1162-1995ORDINANCE NO. 1162-95
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO
ADDING CHAPTER 20.39, THE "RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
OVERLAY DISTRICT REGULATIONS" TO THE SOUTH SAN
FRANCISCO MUNICIPAL CODE
RECITALS
WHEREAS, applications for (1) an amendment to the zoning
ordinance of the City of South San Francisco (the "Zoning
Ordinance") adding Chapter 20.39, the "Research and Development"
or "R&D" Overlay District Regulations, (2) an amendment to the
Zoning Ordinance adding Chapter 20.40, the Genentech "Research
and Development" or "R&D" Overlay District and (3) an amendment
of the zoning map of the City of South San Francisco (the "Zoning
Map") reclassifying from Planned Industrial (P-I) to Planned
Industrial/Research and Development Overlay District (P-I/R&D)
certain Genentech properties were submitted to the City. The
amendments to the Zoning Ordinance and the Zoning Map are
sometimes referred to together herein as the "Project"; and
WHEREAS, an environmental initial study (the "Initial
Study") which considered the potential environmental impacts of
the Project was processed and reviewed in aCcordance with the
California Environmental Quality Act. The Initial Study
determined that the Project would not have any potentially
significant impacts on the environment; and
WHEREAS, based upon the Initial Study and other information
including, but not limited to, the East of 101 Area Plan
Environmental Impact Report ("Area Plan EIR"), a Mitigated
Negative Declaration was prepared for the Project pursuant to
Pub. Res. Code Section 21050(c) (2) and was made available for
public review pursuant to Pub. Res. Code Sections 21091 et seq.;
and
WHEREAS, on January 19, 1995, the Planning Commission of the
City of South San Francisco (the "Planning Commission") held a
duly-noticed public hearing on the proposed Negative Declaration
and the Project; and
WHEREAS, by separate resolution the Planning Commission has
recommended to the City Council of the City of South San
Francisco (the "City Council") adoption of the Mitigated Negative
Declaration; and
WHEREAS, after having reviewed and considered all evidence
and testimony in the record, the Planning Commission voted to
recommend to the City Council approval of the amendment to add
Chapter 20.39 to the Zoning Ordinance.
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WHEREAS, the proposed amendment to add Chapter 20.39 to the
Zoning Ordinance is consistent with the applicable general plan,
the East of 101 Area Plan (the "Area Plan"), including, but not
limited to: (1) the goal on page 1 of the Area Plan to "guide
and regulate development in a manner which protects and enhances
the area's physical, economic and natural resources, while also
encouraging appropriate development in the area"; and (2) Area
Plan Policies LU-16, LU-17 and CIR-16 related to development
pursuant to Facility Master Plans.
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of South San
Francisco does hereby ordain as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapter 20.39 is hereby added to the South
San Francisco Municipal Code to read as follows:
Chapter 20.39
"RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT" OVERLAY DISTRICT REGULATIONS
20.39.010 Short Title
20.39.020 Purpose
20.39.030 Definitions
20.39.040 Overlay District Designation
20.39.0S0 Development Standards and Criteria
20.39.060 Permit Review
20.39.070 Effect of Pre-Existing Approvals
20.39.080 Annual Report
20.39.010 Short Title. This chapter may be referred to as the R&D
Overlay District Regulations. This district may be referred to as
the R&D Overlay District.
20.39.020 Purpose. This Chapter establishes the Research and
Development Overlay District ("R&D Overlay District"), prescribes
regulations for reclassifying properties to and from this
district and establishes development standards and requirements
within the district. The R&D Overlay District is intended to
enhance planning and design principles for research and
development facilities. In addition to the general provisions
described in Chapter 20.04 and the purposes of the underlying
zoning district, the specific purposes of the R&D Overlay
District include the following:
(a) To create a framework defining a facility-wide
architectural character, a system of open space elements
and a pedestrian and vehicular circulation plan linking
buildings and uses together in a flexible, logical and
orderly manner for each R&D Overlay District.
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(b) To increase the flexibility of the city's land
use regulations and the speed of its review procedures to
reflect the quickly changing needs of research and
development focused corporations.
(c) To establish facility-wide design guidelines
and development standards to produce an attractive,
coherent and efficient environment.
(d) To establish facility-wide development
capacities consistent with the City's General Plan,
including any area plans, existing conditions, and growth
and development projections submitted as part of a
reclassification for a particular property.
(e) To establish procedures to define a baseline of
existing conditions for each lot to be reclassified to an
R&D Overlay District with regard to those items and
obligations identified in section 20.39.040 (b) (3) at the
time the lot is reclassified so that the City may use
this data to reestablish the baseline in the event that
the lot is removed from the R&D Overlay District
classification.
Z0.39.030 Definitions. The following definitions shall be
supplementary to those contained in Chapter 20.06 of the
Zoning Ordinance:
(a) Facility. Ail lots of record and their
structures owned or leased by a single entity and engaged
in research and development and associated activities,
which are reclassified such that the uniform regulations
and requirements covered by the R&D Overlay District
apply.
(b) Facility Master Plan. A long-range plan which
provides guidance for the growth and development of a
public or private facility.
20.39.040 Overlay District Designation.
(a) Application. R&D Overlay Districts are
established consisting of all lands so reclassified on
the Zoning Map of the City of South San Francisco. All
regulations, development standards and requirements shall
be those set forth in the underlying zoning district, and
other rules and regulations of the South San Francisco
Municipal Code, except as provided by this chapter.
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(b) Reclassification. Reclassification to and/or
removal of lots from an R&D Overlay District may be
considered pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 20.87
and the following:
(1) Minimum Area. Reclassification to the R&D
Overlay District may be considered only for one or more
lot(s) totaling twenty acres or more.
(Z) Required Signatures. The petition for
reclassification to or removal from the R&D Overlay
District must be signed by the sponsor of the Facility
Master Plan and the property owner(s).
(3) Documentation of Existing Conditions.
Applications for reclassification to an R&D Overlay
District shall be accompanied by documentation that
establishes the condition of each individual lot to be
reclassified. The documentation shall include, but is not
limited to:
(A) lot area,
(B) building height,
(C) building setbacks,
(D) building floor area,
(E) lot coverage,
(F) landscaping area,
(G) parking spaces,
(H) off-street loading areas and their
dimensions,
(I) land uses, and
(J) conditions in any pre-existing
discretionary permits or approvals
issued for such lot by the City that
would be superseded by the
reclassification.
Ail the information shall be provided in a form
acceptable to the City's Chief Planner. The Chief Planner
may waive the submittal of certain information items if
satisfactory alternatives are proposed or if the Chief
Planner determines that the information does not relate
to the standards to be modified in the particular
reclassification.
(4) Facility Master Plan.
(A) Application requirements.
Applications for reclassification to an R&D Overlay Dis-
trict shall be accompanied by a Facility Master Plan.
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(B) Procedure for the review of the
F&cility Master Plan. Facility Master Plans shall be
reviewed by the Planning Commission to determine:
(i) that sufficient roadway, intersection
and infrastructure capacity exists to accommodate
facility development proposed by such Facility Master
Plan;
(ii) that any proposed modifications to
the standards and regulations of the underlying zoning
proposed by any reclassification to the R&D Overlay
District are supported by information contained in the
Facility Master Plan or. other documents; and
(iii) as part of its review, the Planning
Commission must find that the Facility Master Plan is
consistent with the City's General Plan and any
applicable area plan, and fulfills the purposes of the
R&D Overlay District as set forth in Section 20.39.020.
(C) Use of the Facility Master Plan. If,
after review of the Facility Master Plan, the Planning
Commission has made the determinations in subsection (B)
above, the City may establish facility wide development
standards. Such facility-wide development standards shall
be incorporated in the reclassification of the facility
to an R&D Overlay District.
(D) Contents. The Facility Master Plan
shall include, but is not limited to, the following
components:
(i) A description of the facility
including the physical setting and the proposed
activities.
(ii) Growth and development projections
with estimates of the facility's building areas, employ-
ment, vehicular trip generation, public infrastructure
and utility needs.
(iii) Transportation and parking programs
to support any facility-wide parking standards.
(iv) Design Guidelines. Design guidelines
shall be prepared and submitted to the City both as part
of the Facility Master Plan and for use by the City to
evaluate facility development proposals. The guidelines
shall promote quality design of the facility's buildings
and grounds, promote a functional, safe and attractive
environment and preserve and enhance the valuable natural
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and historic character of each facility. The design gui-
delines shall contain, but are not limited to, the
following components:
1. An inventory of the existing
physical setting of the facility's site including: site
access and entries, landforms, adjoining properties,
views to and from the facility, micro-climates, vege-
tation, historical structures and other unique physical
features and visual landmarks.
2. A conceptual framework and over-
arching goals for the facility and sub-facility designs.
These should include the establishment of guidelines for
creating senses of entry into a facility and orientation
within the facility in response to the components of the
site inventory.
3. Plans, standards and character
statements of the facility's circulation systems for
pedestrians and vehicles.
4. Plans, standards and character
statements for a hierarchical system of open spaces,
activity nodes and interconnections.
5. Guidelines for site planning,
including guiding principles for the location and massing
of buildings, open spaces with special consideration of
the relationships to the architectural context of
building sites, local micro-climates (wind) and useable
outdoor spaces within building sites
6. Guidelines for the architectural
character of structures, walls, signage, utilities and
other components of the built environment.
7. Guidelines for the landscaping of
the facility including plant pallets, street furniture,
lighting standards and street tree planting programs.
8. Guidelines for the location and
design of parking and loading facilities.
(5) Removal from a District. Any lot removed
from an R&D Overlay District shall conform with the
existing conditions of such lot at the time of
reclassification as documented in Section 20.39.040(b) (3)
above, except that the City may determine not to require
demolition or other elimination of physical improvements
to a lot in connection with its removal from the R&D
Overlay District. Any property removed from a Facility
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Master Plan may be removed from its R&D Overlay District
upon receipt of a petition from the sponsor of the
Facility Master Plan and the property owner(s). Any such
petition shall be processed in accordance with Chapter
20.87
(6) Reclassification Ordinance. The ordinance
reclassifying a property to the R&D Overlay District
shall also create a chapter of this title establishing a
statement of purpose of the district and listing any
revised zoning standards and regulations applicable to a
reclassified facility. These revised standards may
include:
(i) changes from the standards of the
underlying zoning district regulations; and
(ii) maximum facility development
capacities, including total floor area, employee count,
average daily traffic generation or peak hour traffic
volumes and utility usages.
(c) Design Guidelines.
(1) The facility design guidelines are subject
to the review and approval of the Planning Commission.
The Planning Commission may approve the facility design
guidelines if it finds that such guidelines are
consistent with the applicable reclassification
ordinances for purposes of this chapter (as set forth in
Section 20.39.020) and the criteria set forth at
Section 20.39.040(b) (4) (D).
(2) The City shall use these facility design
guidelines to evaluate projects within the applicable R&D
Overlay District. The facility design guidelines shall
supersede any other design guidelines of more general
application that have been or may be adopted by Planning
Commission resolution that would otherwise apply to the
reclassified properties. The facility design guidelines
shall not supersede any design guidelines contained in
the General Plan or any applicable area plan.
20.39.050 Development Standards and Requirements. Except
as follows, whenever a structure is enlarged or newly
constructed or a new use is inaugurated in a structure,
it shall comply with the development standards and
requirements set forth in the underlying zoning district,
and conditions of any prior City approvals.
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(a) Changes to standards and regulations. The City
Council may approve changes from the underlying zoning
district's standards and requirements for each R&D
Overlay District. Any such changes shall be set forth in
a chapter of this zoning ordinance.
(b) Facility-wide compliance. The ordinance
adopting such changes may identify certain standards that
may be met for a facility in its entirety rather than on
a lot-by-lot basis. When standards and or regulations are
to be satisfied on a facility-wide basis, it shall be the
responsibility of the property owner or facility operator
to maintain tables demonstrating how the facility
complies with the facility-wide standards, and how each
individual lot contributes to such compliance. Said
tables shall be in a form acceptable to the Chief Planner
and shall be submitted for review and approval by the
Planning Commission each time a project is submitted for
its discretionary approval or at least once a year as
part of the Annual Report discussed in Section 20.39.080
below.
(c) Standards and requirements that may be changed.
Development standards and requirements of the underlying
zoning district including, but not limited to, building
setbacks, lot coverage and floor area ratios may be
amended for the properties to be reclassified.
(1) Off-Street Parking Requirements.
Off-street parking and loading requirements may be
established based on a parking demand study, consistent
with General Plan and any applicable area plan policies.
(Z) Floor Area Ratio. The maximum Floor Area
Ratio (FAR) may be exceeded, consistent with General Plan
and any applicable area plan policies.
20.39.060 Permit Review. Development review of projects
within R&D Overlay Districts shall be in accordance with
all provisions of this title.
(a) Design Review Procedure. The following
procedures shall apply to design review for projects
subject to subsections (b) and (c) below. Except where
the Chief Planner finds that a proposed project does not
involve significant design issues and therefore does not
require Design Review, the procedures contained in
Chapter 20.85 are not limited or changed by this chapter.
The standards and guidelines to be used during the Design
Review procedure for R&D Overlay District projects are:
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(1) those contained in the General Plan and
any applicable area plan, and
(2) those contained in any relevant Planning
commission resolution, except where superseding facility
design guidelines have been adopted pursuant to
Section 20.39.040(c).
(b) Administrative Review. The following projects
are not subject to discretionary review under this title
except those projects determined by the Chief Planner to
potentially have a significant adverse environmental
impact or which are not consistent with the Design
Guidelines or the purposes of the R&D Overlay District.
The Chief Planner's decision to approve or disapprove a
project under this subsection may be appealed to the
Planning Commission pursuant to Chapter 20.90.
(1) Additions to existing buildings where only
one such addition to such building occurs within a twelve
month period, and where the addition is limited to the
lesser of: a) 10,000 square feet in area or b) 20% of the
existing gross floor area of the building, measured as of
the date the specific project application is submitted.
(2) Accessory structures and above grade
utility systems equal to or less than 500 square feet in
area;
(3) Interior building modifications which
involve changing the use of less than 30 percent of a
building's gross floor area;
(4) Changes in the use of existing buildings
where both the prior and proposed use are defined in the
underlying zoning district as Permitted Uses;
(5) Minor site improvements, including, but
not limited to: landscape amenities, small at-grade open
parking lots of less than 50 parking spaces and minor
above grade utility systems to service existing
buildings. Minor site improvements under this section
shall also be subject to the square footage limitations
contained in subsection (1) above; and
(6) Replacement, relocation or reconstruction
of parking lots or spaces which does not result in a
parking capacity increase.
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(c) Minor Use Permits. The following projects are
subject to the review and approval of a minor use permit
by the City's Chief Planner. The Chief Planner may
approve, approve with conditions or deny approval of such
projects.
(1) Procedure. The Chief Planner's review of
minor use permits shall comply with the procedures
established in Chapter 20.81.
(2) Appeal. The Chief Planner's actions may be
appealed to the Planning Commission by direction of the
Planning Commission or pursuant to procedures set forth
in Chapter 20.90.
(3) Projects subject to Minor Use Permits
(A) Addition(s) to an existing building
where only one such addition to such building occurs
within a twelve month period, and where the addition is
limited to between 10,000-20,000 square feet (but not to
exceed 20% of the existing gross floor area of the
building, measured as of the date the specific project
application is submitted). In the event that the total
of such additions exceeds twenty (20) percent of the
floor area existing at the time of first request for
expansion, the Chief Planner shall notify the Planning
Commission of the project approval within four days of
the approval.
(B) Accessory structures and above grade
utility systems of between 501 and 5,000 square feet.
(C) Small, at-grade parking lots of 51-
150 parking spaces.
(4) Required Findings. The Chief Planner's decision
to issue a minor use permit shall be based on all of the
following findings:
(A) The proposed use will not be adverse to
the public health, safety, or general welfare of the
community, nor be detrimental to surrounding properties or
improvements.
(B) The use is consistent with the City's
General Plan and any applicable area plan.
(C) The proposed use complies with all
applicable standards and requirements of this title.
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(D) The use complies with the R&D Overlay
District's facility design guidelines.
20.39.070 Effect of Pre-Existing Approvals. Notwithstanding
any other provision of this chapter, all preexisting zoning
requirements and conditions of approval for any building or
use within a Facility Master Plan area shall continue in
effect except where modified by the reclassification ordinance
or facility design guidelines adopted hereunder.
20.39.080 Annual Report. Upon approval of a reclassification
ordinance, the sponsor of the applicable Facility Master Plan
shall thereafter submit an annual status report ("Annual
Report") for review by the Planning Commission. The Annual
Report shall include, as appropriate, the status of facility-
wide improvements, anticipated new construction or renovation
projects, an update on transportation and parking needs,
projected changes in the facility usage and requirements,
advance notice of any proposed changes to the facility-wide
development standards or design guidelines, and notice of any
changes that have been made to the Facility Master Plan since
the most recent Annual Report.
SECTION 2:
SEVERABILITY.
In the event any section or portion of this ordinance
shall be determined invalid or unconstitutional, such section
or portion shall be deemed severable and all other sections or
portions hereof shall remain in full force and effect.
SECTION 3:
PUBLICATION AND EFFECTIVE DATE.
This ordinance shall be published once, with the names of
those City Councilmembers voting for or against it, in the
Enterprise Journal, a newspaper of general circulation in the
City of South San Francisco, as required by law, and shall
become effective thirty (30) days from and after its adoption.
* * * * *
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Introduced at a regular meeting of the City
Council of the City of South San Francisco, held the 22nd day
of March , 1995.
Adopted as an Ordinance of the City of South San
Francisco at a regular meeting of the City Council of
the City of South San Francisco, held the 12th day of April
, 1995, by the following vote:
AYES:
Councilmembers Joseph A. Fernekes, John R. Penna,
Roberta Cerri Teglia and Mayor Robert Yee
NOES: None
ABSTAIN: None
ABSENT: C0uncilmember Jack Dra.q0
City Clerk
As Mayor of the City of South San Francisco, I do hereby
approve the foregoing Ordinance this 12th day of April ,
1995.
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