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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - PC - 2002.03.06CITY OF BURLINGAME PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES SPECIAL MEETING 501 Primrose Road, Burlingame, CA Wednesday March 6, 2002 Council Chambers I. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Vistica called the March 6, 2002, special meeting of the Planning Commission to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners Auran, Bojués, Brownrigg, Keighran, Keele, Osterling and Vistica Absent: Commissioners: None Staff Present: City Planner, Margaret Monroe; Senior Planner, Maureen Brooks; City Attorney, Larry Anderson III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA There were no changes to the agenda. IV. STUDY SESSION 1. 1450 HOWARD AVENUE, ZONED C-2, SUBAREAS A AND B AND R-3 – PUBLIC COMMENT ON DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW 69,747 SF COMMERCIAL BUILDING FOR SAFEWAY AND WALGREEN'S; PROJECT INCLUDES REZONING, CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS, PARKING DIMENSION VARIANCE FOR PROJECT PARKING LOT AND PARCEL MAP FOR LOT MERGER AND RECONFIGURATION OF LOTS; PROJECT ALSO INCLUDES RECONFIGURATION OF CITY PARKING LOTS (RICHARD S. ZLATUNICH, APPLICANT AND SAFEWAY, INC. PROPERTY OWNER) CP Monroe presented a brief summary of the staff report. She noted that this is a public comment session to receive input on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project. Commissioners asked: regarding the 9' x 19' foot parking spaces proposed, is a unistall space commonly used in developments in other cities; can other alternatives be proposed in the EIR. CP Monroe stated that we will ask the environmental consultant to look into the issue of the size of parking spaces used in other cities, and noted that the suggestions for alternatives would be evaluated and it might result in another alternative. Chairman Vistica opened the floor to public comments, and noted that the Environmental Impact Report is a tool designed to measure the impact on the environment, and comments should be related to anything that you think is not addressed in the EIR. Scott Benedict, representing Community Gatepath of Northern California (formerly Poplar Recare); Mary Hunt, 725 Vernon Way; Cliff Woods, owner of building at 220-234 Primrose Road; Dan Anderson, 728 Vernon Way; Russ Cohen, 605 Lexington Way; David Kinkead, 124 Lorton Avenue; Arnold Ruff; Sam Malouf, 712 Vernon Way; Jess Roat, 101 Lorton #5; Darlene DeMaria, 101 Lorton; Angela Johnson, Ralston Avenue; Joanne McCardle, Ralston Avenue; Charles Voltz, 725 Vernon Way; Jeptha Wade, 500 Almer Road; Jennifer Pfaff, 615 Bayswater Avenue; Annamarie Holland Daniels, 515 Howard Avenue; Ralph Nielsen, 1226 Burlingame Avenue; Betty Wade, 500 Almer Road; and Bob Lugliani commented on the Draft EIR: City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes March 6, 2002 2 GENERAL • support project, Safeway now employs people with disabilities, disabled employees have not been laid off; with the project they will be able to place more people at this site, disabled employees can get to the site by bus; • have looked at the new Safeway store in Dublin, it would fit in here, the corner is a disgrace now, needs to be improved; • plans haven't changed since 1997 when public commented on the appearance, size, orientation and impact on small businesses in the area, still show a 230' long wall; • there are larger grocery stores near enough in Millbrae and San Mateo, don't need store this big, Safeway in San Mateo is 42,000 SF, Safeway doesn’t need to sell flowers; there are shops in area to get flowers, deli items; • Safeway is asking for a lot, what are they doing for Burlingame in exchange; • in recent process used for selecting the Community Center site, the most important part of the proc ess was reaching consensus, started with a divided community and hostile feelings and ended up with consensus; it is apparent this project is divisive, we should try to strive to become a united community, urge the Commission and Safeway to work harder to reach consensus so the project is something we can be proud of; • a plan this size is madness, looks like something Costco would build in a warehouse area, Safeway needs to remodel present store, but this proposal is designed to suck money out of the business community; AESTHETICS, COMPATIBILITY, MASS AND SITING • support a new Safeway, site needs developing, but this is the wrong proposal for this town; • how does the proposed building relate to other buildings in the area, how is it compatible with the uses in area and on Burlingame Avenue; • project conflicts with the streetscape plan, DEIR states there is a lack of public entrances on Primrose which creates expanses of blank wall, but doesn't state it is significant effect, why not; • proposed structure would be nice East of 101, but is far too large at this site, other grocery stores back East have built two-story stores, if you added another floor on the existing store would be big enough and would have a store that fits in with room for parking, this does not allow for enough parking, needs to be addressed in the DEIR; • this proposal turns its back on Burlingame Avenue, this is a small town, the proposed store would serve a community of 200,000 people, way beyond our village, proposal should integrate and enhance the area around it; • in Los Altos, Safeway was faced with same issues, the store there fits the "village" character of their downtown, this proposal does not fit in; do need new Safeway, but not this size and configuration; • long walls on Primrose and Howard would discourage pedestrian activity; • this plan doesn't look like Burlingame, it is too big, have to remove protected trees, egress is wrong, hope Safeway goes back to drawing board; PARKING • where will people park during construction; TRAFFIC AND ACCESS • thought of having a right turn onto El Camino Real is scary, cannot see around trees, this is a poor plan; • truck traffic for Safeway will increase from 20 a day to 29 a day, a 50% increase by this proposal, should be considered significant; • Walgreen's sometimes attempts to unload large semis on Primrose, have been stopped by Police, the noise levels are intolerable and affects operations of existing businesses; • concerned about the loading zone as proposed, is it safe, trucks will block driveway, area is already congested; City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes March 6, 2002 3 • concerned with impact on Ralston, will there be more trucks than now, why is Ralston figuring so prominently in the plan; • widening Howard will not help problems of trucks on Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane; TREES • oppose removal of 3 heritage trees and the eucalyptus on El Camino Real; WEB BASED DELIVERY • Safeway is intending to go into web based delivery business, will the proposed store be a hub, will they store and deliver from this facility, there will be small trucks in and out all day; Safeway has made a big investment in on-line shopping, if this is what they foresee in the future, there is no need for a bigger store, this additional use should be addressed in the DEIR; DELAWARE STORE • what is the impact if Safeway on Delaware in San Mateo closes, with the proposed larger store, what is the fate of the Delaware store and what will the impact on traffic be if all those customers are now coming to the new Safeway; ALTERNATIVES • dismayed did not look at alternative of expanding the existing building and keeping the orientation to El Camino Real; • what happened to the alternative proposed a year ago that showed orientation of the building to Howard with the public parking on the Primrose side of the site and the building set back to El Camino Real, don't see it in alternatives in the EIR. There were no further comments and Chairman Vistica closed the public comment session. Commissioners commented: GENERAL • disappointed that there are no changes since we saw this originally, several issues not addressed; • there is obviously concern about this project with a large turnout on a rainy night; • concerned that numbers presented by applicant regarding square footage of shopping per capita are misleading because it ignores the stores we have access to on our borders in Millbrae and San Mateo, the numbers are misused; • do we really need a store that offers 10 brands of cornflakes; this fills Safeway's needs not community's needs; • like to point out that commission has been voicing concerns about this project for several years and has been ignored, all this concern has been voiced by the community but the DEIR does not find any significant impacts, it makes the project seem like a benign little project, needs to be revisited; AESTHETICS, COMPATIBILITY, MASS AND SITING • the City's Commercial Design Guidebook states that the mass and bulk of the building should be in scale with the area and land uses nearby, should respect pedestrian activity, project does not do this, address in DEIR; • store is offering everything imaginable, flowers, deli, bank, this will impact businesses on Burlingame Avenue, need project that blends in with architecture on Burlingame Avenue; • should be oriented to Primrose, Howard and Fox Plaza Lane so that people can shop at Safeway and also go to small businesses for other shopping; • concerned with aesthetics, when you enter Burlingame from Millbrae on El Camino Real, the first thing you see City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes March 6, 2002 4 is the open parking lot at Burlingame Plaza, think we are creating the same bad thing here, can the building be reconfigured so it is more approachable from Burlingame Avenue; • this building will make Fox Plaza Lane feel like an industrial alley, site could be configured to use Fox Plaza Lane to funnel shoppers onto Burlingame Avenue and Primrose Road; • EIR doesn't address current pedestrian flow and how it would be changed, now broken up with parking lots, this is an area where people can shop, then go across the street, this project has a wall all along Primrose, have to walk around the block to other stores; • ESA is an excellent firm, would like ESA to address the size of the store and its relation to the needs and size of the community, why is this size store necessary; • not necessarily opposed to size if it is done correctly, big box retail is not the right solution; • the initial study in the back of the Draft EIR noted that aesthetics was considered potentially significant, but this is not mentioned elsewhere, please clarify; • regarding land use and planning, need to consider if the project divides an established community, comments from the commission indicate that the project would do just that; • regarding compatibility with the General Plan, the Open Space Element talks about micro-scale open spaces that occur between buildings, which can use focus, form, texture and color to create spaces which should link together, this project does not do that and it is not addressed in the DEIR; PARKING • should look at parking proposed, the applicant is proposing a large facility that results in a decrease in parking over what is existing now, how is that explained as not being a significant effect; • Safeway should consider underground parking like Draeger's in San Mateo; • where will employees park and how will it be enforced; TRAFFIC AND ACCESS • Traffic analysis in EIR compares this project to Safeway in Pleasanton, had to go that far to find one of comparable size, should look for comparison at Safeways in San Mateo and Millbrae rather than Pleasanton, which is where the Safeway corporate headquarters are located, Safeways in San Mateo are 35,000 SF and 22,000 SF, one in Millbrae is 36,000 SF and one in Belmont is 25,000 SF, we are a smaller City and this proposal is bigger than all of these; • very concerned about the location of the loading dock, report says they don't expect an increase in the number of trucks, find that difficult to believe; • there were various hours stated in the EIR for when deliveries would occur, would like to know what time of day deliveries are expected, will it be 24 hours a day; • concern with queuing at Howard and El Camino for access to the site, with people turning right off El Camino Real will back up into the bus stop area; • concern with impact on truck deliveries to merchants on Primrose; • concern with right turn on and off the site from El Camino Real and impacts of this access on residents on Ralston; • need to evaluate traffic if the Safeway store on Delaware in San Mateo closes and those customers come to this store; TREES • concerned with trees being removed, we are a city of trees, can the large trees to be taken out be replanted somewhere else on the site; City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes March 6, 2002 5 WEB BASED DELIVERIES • the EIR has no reference to the proposal for web-based home deliveries, needs to be articulated in the report there would be less pedestrian shopping, more small trucks, higher trip volume and more truck deliveries; would like to see a complete analysis of the project which includes the Web Based Delivery Business Plan projected volumes. ALTERNATIVES • project includes Walgreen's and Wells Fargo, would like to see alternative that just includes Safeway, and closer to the size of those in neighboring cities; • we need to look for consensus, should look at alternative 2, many of the concerns expressed have been mitigated, would like to see an expansion of that put on the table; • would like to see another alternative that shows pedestrian access to building near corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane so it can be an extension of downtown Commissioners noted that they would like to commend people for coming out, this is an important project and input is crucial, encourage people to attend future meetings and look forward to comments; encourage people to submit written comments, read the document and consider it carefully; note that this is a first step in the process, the comment period on the Draft EIR ends March 25, 2002, written comments can be submitted to the Planning Department until 5:00 p.m.; the consultant will prepare a response to comments document, that document and the Draft EIR will make up the Final EIR. The Final EIR and the project will be the subject of future hearings. We will make every effort to keep the public informed of the process. V. FROM THE FLOOR There were no public comments. VI. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Vistica adjourned the meeting at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Joe Bojués, Secretary MINUTES3.6