Burlingame City Council

Welcome to Ultraground. We catalog code changes for you.

Citywide

October 16, 2023

• Application Fee Increases | Title 25 Updates | Approved

September 5, 2023

• Application Fee Increases | Title 25 Updates | Approved

You saved: 6h 3m

City Council 10/16/23

Application Fee Increases

Title 25: Burlingame Municipal Code Chapters 25.62 & 25.108 | Citywide | Approved

The newly adopted ordinance amending Chapters 25.62 and 25.108 of the Burlingame Municipal Code is intended to enable the city to recover the full costs of processing complex development projects. By switching from fixed fees to open-ended deposits, the city can now scale up charges to align with the staff time required for major proposals.

Without more specifics on the city's fee structure and methodology for calculating deposits, let’’s use the Peninsula Crossing project as an example. However, I can make some general points:

The current fixed fees would likely cover the basics of application processing like planning staff review time, public notices, etc.

The additional deposit would scale up to account for the complexity and staff time involved for a large project like this. Factors could include extent of environmental review, engineering/traffic studies, design negotiations, legal review, etc.

For a major commercial project with significant zoning exceptions, the deposit could potentially be in the tens of thousands of dollars on top of normal fees.

However, the actual deposit amount would depend on the specific hourly rates, overhead multipliers, and staff time estimates made by the city.

The ordinance allows "any other municipal services" besides planning and legal to be charged against the deposit if involved in application processing.

A 12 acre commercial development with significant height exceptions would likely involve substantial staff time across multiple departments.

Compared to a standard project, total fees including deposit could potentially be 25-50% higher for this type of complex development. But hard to estimate without the city's fee schedule.

While this may cause uncertainty of open-ended deposits, the city views it as a common sense approach to safeguard revenues. The ordinance passed unanimously on October 16, allowing Burlingame to right-size fees to fit large projects that incur greater public costs.

Staff Report: Ch.25.6225.108Title 25

City Council 09/05/23

North Rollins Specific Plan

North Burlingame | Approved

The North Rollins Specific Plan implements the goals of the Burlingame 2040 General Plan to redevelop the northern part of Rollins Road into a new mixed-use neighborhood.

The specific plan allows for increased residential density (1,557 units vs 1,199 in the General Plan) by reducing allowable office and industrial development.

Here are some key development details from the North Rollins Specific Plan draft:

• The plan area is approximately 88.8 acres located in northern Burlingame, near the Millbrae Transit Center.

• The specific plan requires community benefits for increased densities/heights such as open space, affordable housing, sustainability features, etc.

• Live/work, townhomes, apartments, condos encouraged.

• Residential densities range from 25 to 100 dwelling units per acre. Building heights up to 85 feet are allowed in some areas.

• Larger projects must provide at least 12% of site for a public park.

• Sustainability goals include net zero energy, water conservation, EV charging, and green building materials.

• New streetscape improvements will create pedestrian and bike friendly complete streets. Rollins Road will have protected bike lanes.

• Objective design standards regulate building design, massing, facades, entries, etc. to create a consistent neighborhood character.

• Larger projects must provide community benefits like additional open space, public art, grocery store, cultural space.

• The plan will be implemented through a new North Rollins Specific Plan (NRSP) zoning district and design review process.

• Environmental review has been completed through an EIR Addendum to the General Plan EIR.

• A point system was added to assign values to different community benefits. This responds to feedback on weighing benefits.

• Adopting the specific plan and EIR addendum will establish the policy and environmental framework to guide new mixed-use neighborhood development in North Rollins.

The development community appears supportive based on the three approved projects already under construction in the plan area. The plan allows existing development rights to be transferred to open space portions of properties, removing penalties for providing open space.

Staff Report: North Rollins Specific Plan

Plan Website

Thank you for being a part of Ultraground.