CITY COUNCIL
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Planning and Development Services
Meeting Date: June 15, 2026
Report #: 2606-6436
TITLE
FIRST READING: Adoption of an Ordinance to Amend Various Sections of Title 16 (Building Regulations) and Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to Implement Retail Vitality Policies in the Comprehensive Plan, Including Changes to the Zoning Map for Parcels Zoned CN(GF) as Recommended by the Economic Development Committee. CEQA Status: The Ordinance is Consistent with and Represents Implementation of Adopted Policies in the Comprehensive Plan, for Which an Environmental Impact Report (Comprehensive Plan EIR) was Certified on February 5, 2016.
RECOMMENDATION
The Economic Development Committee and staff recommend that the City Council adopt an ordinance to amend various sections of Titles 16 and 18 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) (Attachment A) to implement retail vitality measures related to Comprehensive Plan policies and the City Council's 2025 Enhance Business Vibrancy Priority.
DISCUSSION
The draft ordinance in Attachment A builds on retail conditions and strategies considered in 2023 and 2024, and an interim retail ordinance adopted in December 2024. Approval of this updated ordinance is intended to:
Codify interim ordinance provisions;
Address other topics raised by the City Council in November 2024 while considering the interim ordinance (such as expanding retail-like and office uses, and considering amendments to the retail preservation ordinance);
Allow a broader range of retail and other commercial uses; Reduce confusion from overlapping/conflicting regulations; Rename the Conditional Use Permit to Administrative Use Permit to better reflect the current permit process;
Add standard conditions for specific uses and remove overly subjective findings; Streamline parking requirements and permit approvals;
Reduce ground-floor vacancies; and
Encourage vibrancy in the City’s commercial areas, including Downtown and California Avenue.
Amendments to the zoning code are shown as underlined/strikeout in Attachment A.
City Council Economic Development Committee Recommendation On June 3, 2026, the City Council Economic Development Committee made a unanimous motion to recommend that the City Council adopt the draft ordinance, with the following modifications:
Allow health screening uses in the definition of personal services, which includes activity such as biometric body scanning, imaging or other health testing not intended to fulfill outside medical orders
Remove a provision that would have allowed retail medical on the ground floor of University Avenue – the ordinance does allow neighborhood-serving office on the back half of a University Avenue facing property when accessed from a side street.
Additionally, the motion called for referring further discussions of residential uses in the Charleston and Midtown Shopping Centers and additional locations and definitions of medical office uses and personal services to the Economic Development Committee in a future meeting.
Staff have revised the draft ordinance in Attachment A to address this motion:
1. Adding health screening to the personal services definition (PAMC 18.04.030(114));
2. Removing medical office as a permitted use fronting University Avenue (removal of language in previous versions of the draft ordinance under PAMC 18.30(C).020, Table 1); and,
3. Continuing the zoning code prohibition of residential uses in the Charleston and Midtown Shopping Centers (relocating a prohibition formerly in PAMC 18.16.040, Table 2, to PAMC 18.16.040, Table 1, footnote 1).
For additional background, analysis, fiscal impact, stakeholder engagement, environmental review details, and an ordinance with annotations explaining the rationale behind substantive changes, see the Economic Development Committee staff report available online here:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=12046&meetingTe mplateType=2&compiledMeetingDocumentId=19611.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: 2026 Retail Vitality Ordinance
APPROVED BY:
Jonathan Lait, Planning and Development Services Director