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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - PC - 2002.07.02CITY OF BURLINGAME PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES SPECIAL STUDY SESSION Burlingame Recreation Center- Social Hall 850 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame, CA Tuesday, July 2, 2002 I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Keighran called the July 2, 2002, special meeting of the Planning Commission to order at 7:10 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners Auran, Bojués, Keighran, Keele, Osterling and Vistica; Brownrigg (arrived at 7:25 p.m.) Absent: none Staff Present: City Planner, Margaret Monroe; Senior Planner, Maureen Brooks; City Engineer, Syed Murtuza III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA There were no changes to the agenda. IV. STUDY SESSION 1. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSED SAFEWAY PROJECT – CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW 69,747 SF COMMERCIAL BUILDING FOR SAFEWAY AND WALGREEN'S AT 1420 – 1450 HOWARD AVENUE AND 249 PRIMROSE ROAD; 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-OWNED PUBLIC PARKING LOTS. Chair Keighran called the meeting to order and noted that this meeting was continued from the Commission's Special Study meeting on the Safeway project at 1450 Howard Avenue held on June 11, 2002. CP Monroe noted that her role would be to act as a facilitator, the discussion would begin where we left off at the last meeting, and since it is a continuation of the study session held on May 23, 2002 and June 11, 2002, there will be no public comment this evening. Safeway representatives, including Richard Zlatunich, Kathleen Gallagher, Jeff Fergot, Mark Hudak and Natalie Thompson were present for the discussion. Richard Zlatunich noted that he had taken the comments and opinions from the last meeting and tried to put them together into various alternatives, although he was not able to cover them all in any one option. He summarized the interests expressed by the Commission at the last meeting along with noting briefly some of Safeway's goals: more active pedestrian area at Fox Plaza and Primrose, loading on the El Camino Real or Howard sides of the project; activate the corner of Howard and Primrose, look at having split loading docks for the two stores. He noted that there are situations on the site that Safeway considers unsafe now: parking aisles should be perpendicular to entrance for safety of customers taking carts to their cars; parking directly in front of the store causes congestion in the parking aisle; they want to move truck circulation away from pedestrian and customer vehicle circulation. Mr. Zlatunich reviewed the seven alternatives which evolved based on the Commission's comments from the last meeting. Alternative D-3: This alternative has the same location and orientation as original design in the application; it carves out an area of public open space along Primrose with an active outdoor seating area, it articulates the building around and saves the oak tree as a part of the public space, the loading dock is moved further away (west) from Primrose along Fox Plaza Lane, a 1000 SF retail space is placed at the corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane; City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes July 2, 2002 2 the footprint of both Safeway (48,000 SF) and Walgreen's (11,000 SF) is reduced from original proposal, 160 private parking spaces are proposed on site; the public parking lot is merged and at the same location with 85 parking spaces as in the original application. Alternative PC-1: This alternative shows an L-shaped building with Walgreen's at the corner of Primrose and Howard with its entrance facing a parking lot along Primrose which has its access from Fox Plaza Lane, the parking lot would have public parking spaces and parking for Walgreen's; Safeway portion of the building would face El Camino Real with parking in front; there would be a driveway access point on Howard and two full driveways on El Camino Real with right and left turn entry and exit; loading for Safeway would be from Fox Plaza Lane, Walgreen's loading would be off of the driveway on Howard; Safeway footprint is 48,000 SF, the Walgreen's footprint is 11,000 SF; there would be 153 customer parking spaces for Safeway and 6 parking spaces in front of Walgreen's; and 85 parking spaces in City lot. Alternative PC-2: This proposal has a single building oriented to the corner of Howard and Primrose; Walgreen's would be at the corner with its entrance facing onto Primrose, there would be some open space along Primrose frontage; Safeway faces Fox Plaza Lane with entrances at the two corners of Fox Plaza Lane, loading for Safeway would be from the Howard side of the building; there would be no on-site formal loading area for Walgreen's; there would be no parking near the Walgreen's entrance. Michael Brownrigg arrived at 7:25 p.m. Alternative PC-3: This alternative has a single building with 10,000 SF of retail space in a 25'-30' deep strip along the Primrose frontage and along Fox Plaza lane, the loading is off the Howard Avenue entrance with a screen wall along Howard, Safeway footprint is 42,500 SF facing El Camino Real as would Walgreen's, the parking lot is the same as the original proposal with about 160 spaces for Safeway/Walgreen's and 85 spaces in the public parking lot, there is no loading area for the Walgreen's store. Alternative D-4: This proposal has a new single building with Walgreen's at the corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza lane with perpendicular parking along Fox Plaza lane backing into the two-way traffic aisle; loading dock for Walgreen's is shown off of Fox Plaza Lane; loading for Safeway is on the Howard Avenue side; there is a 1000 SF retail space at the corner of Howard and Primrose and a public plaza along Primrose between the retail space and Walgreen's. There is articulation of the Safeway wall along the El Camino Real side of the building; the footprint for Safeway is 45,500 SF and Walgreen's is 12,000 SF; this proposal does not save the oak tree. Alternative E-3: This alternative leaves the existing Walgreen's building in its current location at the corner of Howard and Primrose with its parking in front of the building along Howard; the Safeway store would be in a separate building next to El Camino Real, with its front facing Howard and the parking lot in the front of the building; the Safeway building has an irregular shape; the City parking lot would be on the corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane; Walgreen's would continue to load from the street on Primrose; Safeway's loading would be on the El Camino Real side of the building; the footprint of Safeway would be 48,000 SF, Walgreen's would be 14,000 SF, there would be 131 parking spaces for Safeway and Walgreen's; the City lot would accommodate 85 parking spaces. Alternative E-4: This alternative is similar to E-3, but with a new Walgreen's building at the corner of Howard and Primrose, with parking on the Fox Plaza Lane side of the building; some public parking would be at the corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane, with the remainder of the public parking near El Camino Real and Fox Plaza Lane; there would be no loading dock for Walgreen's and loading for Safeway would be on the El Camino Real side of the building; there would be 134 parking spaces for Safeway and Walgreen's; the public lot would accommodate about 85 spaces. City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes July 2, 2002 3 Commissioner comments: Would like to compliment Safeway on the good effort made; regarding Alternative D-3, like the park space along Primrose, would like to give up the independent retail space along Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane to make the building smaller and provide more building articulation, as well as to have some open space on the Howard Avenue side; still concerned with loading on Fox Plaza, it is now the back door to Burlingame Avenue businesses, but would like to change the tone so it is more friendly to pedestrians, the environment along Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane is valuable and needs to be protected; the concern with loading on Fox Plaza is partly because of the aesthetic impact on pedestrians and partly for the safety of pedestrians, still concerned with blank walls on Primrose, would like to see openings, similar to the other side of the street; the reason there is pedestrian traffic on Fox Plaza is that people park in the City lot near El Camino to access businesses on Burlingame Avenue and Primrose, if public parking were closer to Primrose, pedestrian traffic might be reduced. Commissioners asked if Safeway is prepared to demolish the old building and close the store during construction. Kathleen Gallagher noted that originally Safeway would not consider that option, but now they are saying it is a possibility. Commissioners also asked if Safeway had explored acquisition of the parking area on the Kurzman property to make the site layout more efficient. The applicant noted that they had tried to acquire it with no success, owner does not want to give up convenient parking for his building which fronts on Burlingame Avenue. The applicant also noted that they did not think Walgreen's would like an option with its entrance on a secondary street like Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane and also the limited parking, but thought Walgreen's might be willing to consider a location with visual prominence on El Camino Real; they will explore these options further with Walgreen's prior to the next meeting. Commissioners went through all of the alternatives presented to see which could be taken off the table for further discussion. It was determined that Alternatives PC-1, PC-2, E-3 and E-4 were not viable options and would not be under discussion. It was determined that Alternatives D-3, D-4 and PC-3 should remain on the table, with a variation on the PC-3 alternative to be explored (Bojués alternative). The pros and cons of the remaining alternatives were discussed as follows: Alternative D-3: Like the park space on Primrose, it creates a pleasant atmosphere; like the retail space on the corner at Fox Plaza Lane, it provides activity; still a long wall on Howard and El Camino sides of building; has a sea of parking viewed from El Camino; concern with location of the loading dock; the Safeway store size is still too large, there are areas within the store that can be decreased, such as number of registers, space between registers and gondolas, that would result in smaller footprint. Options proposed to revise this alternative: Move the oak to the corner of Howard and Primrose; add more variation to the wall and open space along Howard; open the building to passers by using glass block treatment along street frontages, reduce overall building footprint. Alternative D-4: Like Walgreen's on the corner of Primrose and Fox Plaza Lane, connects to Burlingame Avenue, like that the loading zones are moved west from Fox Plaza and are separated for the two stores, there is more parking in this alternative; like parking on Fox Plaza Lane, good articulation of building footprint, like the open space along Primrose, the articulation of the building offers an opportunity for creativity in the architecture; however, the trucks need to use the parking aisles in front of Safeway to maneuver into the loading dock, and there is a safety concern with the parking spaces which back onto Fox Plaza Lane across two-way traffic. Alternative PC-3: the stores along Primrose make this option pedestrian friendly, loading dock is away from Fox Plaza Lane, Safeway could be kept open during construction; still has a sea of parking; is still massive and bulky with no articulation, there is no open space along Primrose. City of Burlingame Planning Commission Minutes July 2, 2002 4 Alternative PC-3 modified (Bojués alternative): Explore the option of two structures with Walgreen's at the northwest corner of site and adding public parking on Fox/Primrose side with access to Fox Plaza Lane; add open space along Primrose. Commissioners noted that we need to settle on a building arrangement and skin (architectural design) before the project goes to action, when it is settled they would like to see story poles put up two weeks before the action meeting. Commissioners agreed that they had received so much information this evening that they needed a little time to absorb it, they agreed that the most appropriate next step would be for them to meet alone as a Commission at a continued study meeting to review the expanded and revised alternatives and requirements and see if they could come to a consensus. Commissioners concurred that this study session will be continued to the Commission's regular meeting date on July 22, 2002, with the study session starting at 6:00 p.m. The applicant was directed to reproduce for the commission the three alternatives discussed plus generate a modified PC-3 Bojués alternative, and provide material on these alternatives with any revisions to be delivered to the Planning Department for delivery with their packets no later than Tuesday July 16th for the July 22, 2002 continued study meeting. The commission also asked that Safeway representatives provide material on how they would suggest the exterior skin of these proposals would be treated, architectural styles that might work with the various building footprints. Safeway representatives indicated that they felt that they could draw from existing design information to compile pictures of exterior options of design themes, as well as a schematic look at the proposed modification of PC-3 with Walgreen's located in the northwest segment of the site. Commission thanked them for their support and assistance. VI. ADJOURNMENT Chair Keighran adjourned the meeting at 11:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Ralph Osterling, Secretary approvedminutes7..2