CITY OF SAN MATEO
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CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 21 Section Name: PUBLIC HEARING Account Number: 26-3111 File ID: 25-10567 TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Community Development Department
MEETING DATE: November 17, 2025
SUBJECT:
Station Park Green Specific Area Plan — Amendment
RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt a Resolution to approve the amendment to the Station Park Green Specific Plan (PA-2025-048) and Design Guidelines to change the mix of floor area allowed for retail and office uses, and adopt an addendum to the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act Sections 15162 and 15164, based on the Findings for Approval and subject to the Conditions of Approval.
BACKGROUND:
In 2011, the City Council approved the Station Park Green Specific Plan and the Station Park Green Design Guidelines and adopted an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (PA-2007-030). In 2014, the City Council approved a Specific Plan amendment and a formal application for a Site Plan & Architectural Review (SPAR), Site Development Permit (SDP), and Parcel Map to modify this mixed-use development (PA-2014-055). Additionally, a modification to the previously approved SPAR application was approved in 2020 in order to remove stairs within a required PG&E easement (PA-2020-061).
The Station Park Green Specific Plan is a transit-oriented mixed-use development, located in the San Mateo Rail Corridor Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Zoning District near the Hayward Park Caltrain Station. The site is approximately 12- acres (521,396 square feet) and includes four buildings with 599 residential units, a 3,000 square-foot community room, 36,000 square feet of office and retail uses, and a 2.3-acre park. Building MU-1, which is located at the corner of S. Delaware Street and Concar Drive, is the only mixed-use building in the development with four upper stories of residential uses and 36,058 square feet of ground-level space (excluding parking and mechanical areas) for office and retail uses.
Since project completion in 2018, the property owner has reported that the retail spaces in the MU-1 building have been challenging to lease. The last operating business (a sandwich shop) located at the corner of S. Delaware Street and Concar Drive closed recently, and most retail spaces have never been occupied. The applicant stated that for seven years they have worked with brokers to find tenants for the retail spaces but have not been able to find prospective businesses. Thus, the applicant is requesting an amendment to the Specific Plan and Design Guidelines to allow these ground floor retail spaces to be occupied with office uses. The proposed Resolution with the requested amendments to allow ground floor office uses is included in Attachment 1.
On October 28, 2025, the Planning Commission held a public hearing to consider the project. The Planning Commission received the staff and applicant presentations, and public comments (one speaker). Commission questions focused on retail viability in this location, loss of commercial space available for local businesses, plans for getting the remaining retail spaces occupied and how the applicant will ensure public awareness of the community room. Overall, the Commission expressed general support for amending the Specific Plan to allow for increased office use rather than seeing the ground floor space
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remain vacant but did note that the loss of the retail space to office uses was of concern. The Commission also recommended that the applicant and City better promote the community room to increase public awareness of this amenity; and that the City should compile a list of all amenities like this that are available to the public (staff is working on this). Following the discussion, the Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council approve the amendments to the Station Park Green Specific Plan.
Project Description and Modifications
The project proposes amending the existing Specific Plan and Design Guidelines to convert the majority of existing ground floor retail spaces into office space within MU-1 Building. The current Specific Plan and Design Guidelines encourage active retail uses and have a minimum requirement of 25,000 square feet of retail/services/restaurant use. The reduction of retail requires an amendment to the program (see table below with calculations of existing and proposed retail and office space square footage). The proposed project consists of interior modifications to ground floor uses as detailed in the table below.
Table 1 – Proposed Square Footage by Use
Type Existing Square
Footage Range
Proposed Square
Footage Range
Existing Floor Area
Ratio
Proposed Floor Area
Ratio
Office 10,000 – 15,000 10,000 – 35,000 0.1 0.2
Retail 25,000 - 30,000 3,000 - 30,000 0.2 0.1
Amenity (Community Room) 3,034 3,122 No change No change Building MU-1 is bounded by S. Delaware Street, Concar Drive, Station Park Circle, and Green Way. The building is five levels and consists of retail and office space on the ground floor with four levels of residential apartment units above. The applicant proposes relocating the community room and retail spaces to the southeast side of the building along Concar Drive, with office spaces placed along the other three sides of the building to improve connectivity and tenant circulation. The proposed plans are included in Attachment 3 and the plans from the previous amendment in 2014 are included in Attachment 4. The building’s total square footage would remain the same. A location map showing the project site, its vicinity, and adjacent zoning designations is included in Attachment 5.
The applicant also proposes minor exterior site improvements, including new furniture, lighting, and landscaping along the project’s street frontages on Concar Drive and S. Delaware Street, and design and landscaping improvements to the plaza space at the corner of Concar and Delaware to make it more inviting and accessible for pedestrians.
To support these requested changes in uses, the applicant has provided a retail viability report prepared by the Econic Company (Attachment 2), which outlines the significant challenges in finding retails tenants for these existing spaces, including a lack of retail synergy with the immediate area, wider economic factors (such as online shopping) and the lack of clearly visible storefront parking. The applicant cites these issues as reasons why potential retail tenants do not open shops in Station Park Green, even with rental concessions. The City’s retail consultant, Retail Real Estate Resources (RRER), also reviewed this application and provided input and recommendations (Attachment 6). Generally, RRER agreed that these attributes have had a negative impact on rental feasibility but recommends that the existing restaurant space (Space I on the plan set) that has had infrastructure installed be preserved for retail uses along with the adjacent space to create retail synergy, as well as improving the visibility of storefront signage. RRER recommends that the majority of ground floor spaces be allowed to be used as office space, or quasi-retail for a non-profit or similar use, to support its ability to be occupied.
To support longer-term economic development strategies and to avoid losing all of this retail space to office uses, the City has included a requirement that a minimum of 3,000 square feet of floor area be preserved for retail uses. Condition of Approval #3 requires the applicant to commit to investments that make the space more viable for businesses to lease these spaces and to rent reductions. These commitments include up to $80 per sq. ft. in tenant improvement funding and six months of free rent to help get new retail businesses established; and to make one of the spaces (Suite A) available to retail use or a non-profit office tenant. For a non-profit tenant, up to $30 per sq. ft. in tenant improvement funding, up to six months of free rent and a reduced monthly lease rate of $21 per sq. ft. would be provided. Furthermore, the plan for the new office space is for Essex to establish their headquarters, with 75-100 employees, at Station Park Green. This will align
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with the City’s Economic Development business retention strategy by allowing Essex, a Fortune 500 Company, to remain in San Mateo rather than moving out of the City.
While the mix of uses on the ground floor of MU-1 will change, the existing on-and-off-street parking layout with 932 parking spaces will not change. Since office space requires less parking than retail, the proposed project will provide more parking than required. Hexagon Transportation Consultants, Inc. provided a trip generation report stating that the proposed conversion from retail to office uses would generate up to 197 fewer daily trips (Attachment 7). Additionally, as the project is within one-half mile of Hayward Park Caltrain Station, additional parking for residential and commercial uses is not required pursuant to Assembly Bill (AB) 2097. The project also does not impact bicycle parking, as sufficient short- and long- term bike parking spaces are provided for office and retail use.
Additionally, as part of this application, the applicant has offered to provide a community benefit in the form of a $50,000 contribution toward neighborhood park improvements at Concar Park and Sunnybrae Park. Additional information about this contribution is included in the Applicant Cover Letter in Attachment 2. These funds will support the City’s efforts to enhance public parks and community amenities.
Attachment 8 provides comprehensive tables that list proposed modifications to the Station Park Green Specific Plan and Design Guidelines. The previously approved Specific Plan and Design Guidelines are included as Attachment 9. Details on the findings for approval are included in the Proposed Resolution (Attachment 1).
BUDGET IMPACT:
The proposed amendments have been processed using fees paid by the applicant and will not impact the City’s General Fund.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
The applicant held a formal Neighborhood Informational Meeting on March 19, 2025. The applicant’s summary of the neighborhood meeting is included as Attachment 10. The meeting was attended by 18 guests.
Under the provisions of Government Code Section 65352.3, Tribal Consultation Notices were sent on July 23, 2025, with a deadline to respond by October 19, 2025. No tribal consultation requests were received.
This item was heard by the Planning Commission on October 28, 2025. One comment was received in advance of the meeting and one member of the public provided comments during the meeting about the lack of retail spaces on-site. The public comment is included as Attachment 12. Any public comments received after publication of this report will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration at the public hearing and posted to this item on the City’s Agendas & Minutes Public Meeting Portal as “Post Packet Public Comments.” ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
A Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for the Station Park Green Specific Plan was certified by the City Council on January 28, 2011. An addendum to the MND was provided for the previous application that was approved in 2014 (PA-2014-055).
The findings for approval for this proposed project include environmental findings that rely on the previously certified MND, which tiered off of the San Mateo Rail Corridor Transit-Oriented Development Plan (Corridor Plan) Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (certified in 2010).
There is no substantial evidence that the Project will result in any new impacts or increase the severity of any impacts previously identified in the Addendum to the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND), originally adopted on February 2, 2015.
An Addendum is appropriate because the Project will not result in any significant effects not discussed in the prior MND.
There are no effects previously examined that will be more severe than what was shown in the prior MND and no previously infeasible or considerably different mitigation measures were found to substantially reduce the significant effects on the environment. As such, an Addendum is appropriate because none of the changes described in Section 15162 call for a subsequent EIR (Section 15164(a)) and only minor technical changes are necessary (Section 15164(b)). The City has prepared
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this Addendum to address the environmental effects of the Project compared to both the previously approved and original projects. Based upon this substantial evidence, the Project will not result in a substantial change to the conclusions and analysis in the MND. As such, an Addendum to the MND has been prepared (Attachment 11). The proposed changes are not substantial in scope under CEQA Sections 15162 and 15164 as determined by the lead agency in accordance with CEQA Section 15064(f)7.
NOTICE PROVIDED:
In accordance with Government Code sections 65090 and 65091 and the City’s Municipal Code public noticing requirements, posted in three public facilities, the notice for this public hearing was published in a local newspaper of general circulation, and noticed to the following parties at least 10 days in advance of City Council meeting:
• Property owners, residential tenants and business tenants within 1,000 feet of the project site; • The City’s “900 List” which contains nearly 100 Homeowner Associations, Neighborhood Associations, local utilities, media, and other organizations interested in citywide planning projects; • The City’s Planning “Notify Me” email list; and,
• The interested parties list, which includes interested individuals who contacted the City and requested to be added to the project notification list accordance.
ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 – Proposed Resolution
Att 2 – Applicant Cover Letter, Use of Space Terms and Retail Viability Report Att 3 – PA-2025-048 Proposed Project Plans
Att 4 – PA-2014-055 Approved Plans
Att 5 – Location Map
Att 6 – Retail Review Memo, Retail Real Estate Resources Att 7 – Trip Generation Report
Att 8 – Table of Changes to the Specific Plan and Design Guidelines Att 9 – 2014 Station Park Green Specific Plan and Design Guidelines Att 10 – Neighborhood Meeting Summary
Att 11 – CEQA Addendum
Att 12 – Public Comments
STAFF CONTACT
Steven Lizzarago, Assistant Planner
[email protected]
650-522-7205