With the pandemic slamming the travel industry and diminishing business for local hotels, Burlingame officials are considering loosening development standards along its Bayfront to lure biotech companies.
The Burlingame City Council considered Monday, March 1, a proposal to increase the floor-area ratio allowed for developments other than hotels east of Highway 101 along Old Bayshore Highway.
Traditionally officials have reserved dense development rights in the area for hotels as an incentive to attract the travel destinations that generate tax income for the city, but the pandemic is forcing them to reconsider.
“We have to look at diversity of jobs. We have been very successful with our hotels but the economics are changing a bit due to the pandemic and it is going to be unfortunately a slow recovery for our hotels and routines. And I do think we should look at branching out,” said Mayor Ann Keighran O’Brien.
Councilwoman Donna Colson agreed as well.
“I think the comments about the hotel industry are very relevant. It could be years before that industry comes back,” she said.
Under the proposal, buildings reserved for tenants in the life sciences industries could be allowed to build a floor-area ratio up to 3.0 — a significant spike from the current standard of 0.75 floor-area ratio for every building in the area other than hotels.
Floor-area ratio is a scale by which commercial development gauges density, and higher ratios allow for bigger buildings.
With the pandemic wrecking travel patterns and driving up vacancy rates in hotels that were previously operating near capacity, some Bayfront land owners expected to build hotels are turning their focus to biotechnology.
During the meeting, one such real estate developer, Peter Banzhaf, said amending the building standards would yield an uptick in business interest for Burlingame.
“We think Burlingame has got this opportunity to be this incredible place,” he said.
Hoteliers favor the proposal as well in the effort to revitalize some of the more stagnant areas along the Bayfront, said officials.
Looking ahead, councilmembers are expecting to discuss the proposal with the Planning Commission during a joint meeting next month.
To prepare for the discussion, Burlingame officials are expecting to meet with officials from South San Francisco and San Carlos, because both cities have established hubs of biotechnology companies.
As officials examine the initiative, Councilwoman Emily Beach encouraged her colleagues to consider the public benefits which must be offered by developers in return for the ability to build larger projects.
Child care facilities and infrastructure protecting against sea level rise are among the amenities identified by Beach which developers may be asked to finance in return for more dense developments.
Councilman Michael Brownrigg supported the proposal as well.
“If we are going to rezone something and create a significant uplift in value for landholders ... I think it is an important question about what is in it for the public? So I think the idea of a study session is a good one,” he said.
Vice Mayor Ricardo Ortiz also had reservations regarding biosafety and the use of potentially hazardous agents in biotechnology businesses too.
Yet despite the variety of unanswered questions, officials favored further exploring the issue as a means of fortifying a diminished economy along the Bayshore.
“On balance, I lean into saying yes to this because we all understand the impacts to the travel and leisure industry and it feels like the right thing to do,” said Brownrigg.
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