Title
PLN24-0279 - 677 West Ranger Ave - Design Review - Applicant: Laura Billings on behalf of Alameda Food Bank. Public hearing to consider Design Review to construct a 10,000 square foot pre-engineered metal warehouse attached to an existing building, which is a Non-Contributing building within the NAS Alameda Historic District. The project will provide new on-site landscaping, including a landscape buffer between the public sidewalk and redesigned parking lot and planters with shade trees in the parking lot. General Plan designation: Mixed Use. Zoning Designation: AP-AR, Alameda Point Adaptive Reuse Zoning District. No further environmental review of the Design Review is required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to the streamlining provisions of CEQA Guidelines Section 15183.
Body
To: Honorable President and Members of the Planning Board
From: Steven Buckley, Planning Board Secretary
BACKGROUND
Since 2020, the Alameda Food Bank has operated at 650 West Ranger Ave (Building 92), through a lease agreement with the City of Alameda. The Alameda Food Bank has a tentative lease agreement with a purchase option for 677 West Range Avenue (Building 607) across the street. On November 13, 2023 the Planning Board approved a Development Plan for a new site layout and use permit for the community market use at 677 West Ranger Avenue. The Alameda Food Bank is now seeking approval of Design Review for a new 10,642 square foot prefabricated addition, consistent with the approved Development Plan, to address increased demand and a shift in their operational model (Exhibits 1 and 2).
DISCUSSION
Guide to Infill Development Within the NAS Alameda Historic District
In 2014 the City certified the Alameda Point EIR (“EIR”) (SCH No. 2013012043), which identified that development within the NAS Alameda Historic District (“Historic District”) could cause a significant impact. To address this significant impact the EIR’s Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) provided Mitigation Measure 4.D-1b, which states, “Prior to approval of new buildings within the Historic District the City shall complete and adopt Guidelines for New Infill Development within the Historic District. All new buildings will be reviewed for conformance with the guidelines.”
On June 6, 2024 and July 18, 2024, the Historical Advisory Board (“HAB”) reviewed staff’s draft “Infill Guidelines for Infill Development within the NAS Alameda Historic District” (“Infill Guidelines”). At their June 6, 2024 meeting the HAB provided feedback to staff on the draft Infill Guidelines. Staff addressed the HAB’s comments and is bringing revised draft Infill Guidelines for consideration on July 18, 2024 (Exhibit 3). Per the HAB’s previous comments, the current draft guidelines do not apply to projects outside of the Historic District.
Building 607 is a non-contributor to the Historic District. Additionally, the entire project site is a non-contributing space to the Historic District’s original base layout and landscaping. Therefore, per the NAS Alameda Historic District’s NRHP Registration Form, the project is not a part of the Historic District and the pending design guidelines do not formally apply. Regardless, the applicant has incorporated character defining elements from nearby contributors to the Historic District, which will be discussed in the Design Review section below.
Existing Conditions
Building 607 at 677 West Ranger Avenue was originally built in 1980 and is a 9,218 square foot single story office building located at the southwest corner of the project site, setback approximately thirty feet (30’) from the property line along West Ranger Avenue. The project site is bounded by West Ranger Avenue to the south, Pan Am Way to the east, West Midway Avenue and a day care center to the north, and a vacant lot to the west. The site has an approximately 2,000 square foot area leased to a wireless communications facility (“WCF”) in the middle of the parking lot. The WCF features an approximately 100 foot tall tower with antennas, a ground level equipment enclosure made of corrugated metal, and is surrounded by a seven foot (7’) tall chain link fence with redwood slats. The parking lot has 123 parking spaces, which is above the maximum number of parking stalls permitted, and does not provide any landscaping as required by the City’s Parking Ordinance (AMC Section 30-7). There is a large non-conforming driveway to the east of Building 607 along West Ranger Avenue. There is a twenty-four foot (24’) wide access easement between the parking lot and adjacent day care center, which has a driveway on West Midway Avenue and exits the site with a driveway on West Ranger Avenue to the west of Building 607. There are no driveways along Pan Am Way. On-site landscaping is sparse, limited only to the areas directly adjacent to the building and consisting of a scattering of small trees and shrubs. Four (4) of the trees on the east side of the building will be removed as part of site improvements. New public infrastructure surrounding the site consists of street resurfacing, a cycle track, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, was approved with Alameda Point’s Master Instructure Plan (MIP), and is currently under construction.
Proposed Site Plan
The overall site plan was previously approved by the Planning Board on November 13, 2023 (Exhibit 4), and the current Design Review application is consistent with that approval. The project will place the pre-fabricated warehouse addition on the east end of Building 607. The footprint of the addition is approximately 129 feet by 80 feet. This will extend the façade facing West Ranger Avenue to be approximately 270 feet long. The existing thirty foot (30’) wide landscaping buffer between the existing building and West Ranger Avenue will be replanted and extended along the façade of the addition. The non-conforming driveway along West Ranger Avenue will be replaced by a twenty-four foot (24’) wide driveway to the east of the addition. A new twenty-eight foot (28’) wide driveway is proposed at the midpoint of Pan Am Way. As discussed above, new sidewalks, curbs and gutters are being installed around the site, including along West Midway Avenue. There are no proposed changes to the existing driveway on West Midway Avenue.
The parking lot has been configured to account for the addition, new driveways, and expanded on-site landscaping. The total number of parking spaces would be reduced to forty-eight (48) stalls, six (6) of which will be ADA accessible. New tree islands are proposed throughout the parking lot to provide Jacarandas as shade trees. The perimeter of the parking lot along all street frontages will have a new five foot (5’) wide landscape buffer between the public sidewalk and parking lot. This landscape buffer will feature Blue grama grass as ground cover and a mixture of shrubs along with the Jacaranda shade trees.
Addition Design Review
Building 607 was built in 1980 as a craft and hobby shop for residents of NAS Alameda. Since the base’s closure it has been used as an office building, currently occupied by the Alameda Point Collaborative (APC). APC will be moving to another office location on the base within the Bachelors Enlisted Quarters (BEQ). Building 607 is one-story, approximately twenty-seven feet (27’) tall, and features a large hipped standing seam metal roof and corrugated metal siding. No major changes are proposed to the north, west, and south elevations.
Directly south of the site are Building 92 (650 West Ranger Ave) and Building 91 (651 West Tower Ave), both of which are contributing buildings to the NAS Alameda Historic District. Both buildings were originally identical, however Building 91 was rehabilitated for adaptive re-use in 2018 and is currently occupied by Almanac Brewing and Admiral Maltings. The rehabilitation consisted of converting the existing loading bay doors into storefront systems, an addition to the rear, repainting the building, and refurbishing the industrial windows.
The proposed addition is a pre-fabricated thirty-five foot (35’) tall warehouse that is approximately 10,000 square feet in size. The addition combines design elements from Building 607 as well Buildings 91/92. The addition has a gabled roof, oriented east-west, made out of standing seam metal to match the existing building. The addition’s siding will be corrugated metal to match the existing building. Window bays consist of four over four simulated divided lite windows, consistent with the windows on Buildings 91 and 92. The “Guide to Preserving the Historic Character of the NAS Alameda Historic District” identified the monitor clerestory windows on Buildings 91 and 92 as character defining features. The addition will incorporate this design element with its own clerestory windows consisting of two over four simulated divided lites.
The applicant will be painting the entire building consistent with the approved color palette for buildings within the Historic District. The existing building and lower portion of the addition will be painted “Brite Red” and the upper portion of the addition will be painted “Linen White.” There is an approximately eighteen inch (18”) tall aluminum composite metal band painted “Slate Gray” that will separate the upper and lower colors. The proposed elevation drawings on Sheets A3.2 and A3.3 show this metal band continuing beyond the addition and extending across Building 607 on the proposed north and south elevations. The top of the metal band would be approximately 3 feet (3’) below the eave of the roof and ends at the storefront system of windows and doors on both north and south elevations. The rest of Building 607 is shown to be painted entirely “Brite Red.” Staff feels this results in an uneven design and recommends a condition of approval that the metal band stop at the end of the addition and the entire north and south elevations of Building 607 be painted one color, as depicted on the rendering on Sheet A0.0 of Exhibit 1.
The applicant anticipates providing public art on site by commissioning the painting of a mural in the upper area of the addition’s east elevation facing Pan Am Way; the plans currently show a placeholder graphic. The mural will be subject to approval by the Public Art Commission, which is required prior to the issuance of building permits.
The draft findings for design review are included in Exhibit 5.
Conclusion
The existing building and current layout of the property were developed fairly late in NAS Alameda’s operating timeframe, and therefore do not contribute to the Historic District as either a National or Local Monument. However, the site was still developed by the Navy prior to the City having jurisdiction over development on the base and is inconsistent with development standards such as maximum number of allowed off-street parking spaces and requirements for on-site landscaping. The proposed site layout is consistent with the Development Plan approved in 2023 and brings the property into conformity with the City’s parking and landscaping requirements. The landscaping will provide a buffer between the parking lot and new public sidewalks and adjacent section of the cycle track. The proposed addition utilizes the same roof and siding materials as Building 607, while also incorporating the same windows size, operation type, and spacing as Buildings 91 and 92 (which are nearby contributors to the Historic District).
PUBLIC NOTICE AND COMMENTS
Property owners and residents/tenants within 300 feet of the project boundaries were notified of the public hearing and given the opportunity to review and comment on the proposal.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Pursuant to the streamlining provision of Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines, no further environmental review is required because the project is consistent with the General Plan and Zoning Regulations for the land. The environmental impacts of the development of the area were considered in the Alameda Point Project (APP) Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) adopted by the City Council on February 4, 2014, in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and in the General Plan Update EIR adopted by the City Council on November 30, 2021; and as documented in the project CEQA Checklist, the Community Market project would not result in significant impacts that: (1) are peculiar to the project or project site; (2) were not already identified as significant effects, cumulative effects, or off-site effects in the FEIR; or (3) were previously identified as significant effects but are determined to be substantially more severe than discussed in the EIR.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no climate impacts as the result of the proposed improvements.
RECOMMENDATION
Hold a public hearing and approve Design Review for an approximately 10,000 square foot addition at 677 West Ranger as specified in the Draft Resolution (Exhibit 5).
Respectfully Submitted,
Steven Buckley, Secretary to the Planning Board
By,
David Sablan, Planner II
Exhibits:
1. Project Plans
2. Applicant Statement
3. Draft Infill Guidelines for Development within NAS Alameda Historic District
4. 2023 Alameda Food Bank Development Plan (PLN23-0390)
5. Draft Resolution