3 LAND USE. A. Current Land Use

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1 3 This chapter describes existing land uses in the Plan Area and identifies key land use features that relate to the Station Area Plan. It also identifies opportunity sites. A. Current Land Use Existing land uses in the Plan Area are primarily a mix of commercial and multi-family uses, as shown in Figure 3-1. A mix of neighborhood oriented commercial and office space lines both sides of 25 th Avenue. Along El Camino Real, land uses transition from small-scale retail uses in the north to larger strip and formula retail in the south, culminating in the regional commercial center of the Hillsdale Shopping Center. Generally, the entrances to uses along El Camino Real front the street and the loading areas are at the back of the buildings. The land use surrounding the Caltrain station is primarily parking, with one national restaurant chain TGI Friday s and the prior station building, which is currently disused. The western extent of the Plan Area, between Edison Street and Flores Street is a mixture of singlefamily homes, duplexes, townhomes, and multi-family homes. Hillsdale Garden Apartments, a large garden style multi-family project encompasses several blocks at the south-west corner of the Plan Area. The existing land uses in the Plan Area are as follows: 1. Single-Family Residential Single-family residential units are located along the east side of Flores Street and are generally single or split level story suburban homes with attached garages, and landscaped front yards. 2. Duplex Duplexes can be found along both sides of 29 th Avenue, on a couple of parcels on 30 th Avenue, and on the north side of 28 th Avenue. They are generally 1 to 2 stories and serve as buffers between single-family residential units and multi-family residential units. 3-1

2 S. El Camino Real C I T Y O F S A N M A T E O H I L L S D A L E S T A T I O N A R E A P L A N E X I S T I N G C O N D I T I O N S R E P O R T L A N D U S E 24th Ave Saratoga Dr 26th Ave Lula Belle Ln W. 25th Ave Mary Lu Ln Palm Ave E. 25th Ave Delaware St Portola Dr Palm Ct Delmar Wy Garfield Ct Palm Pl 27th Ave Juniper St Hacienda St 28th Ave Garfield St 29th Ave Flores St Edison St 30th Ave Sylvan Ave Arbor Ln 31st Ave Briar Ln Arrowood Ln Hickory Ln Louise Ln Chestnut Ln Edison St * Mc Lellan Ave Curtiss St Winway Cir Hillsdale Blvd * Pacific Blvd Poinsettia Ave Otay Ave 37th Ave 36th Ave San Benito St Oso St San Miguel Wy Feet Plan Area Boundary Existing Train Station SF Residential Duplex MF Residential Mixed Use General Commercial Service Commercial Restaurant Office Public Facility Religious Caltrain ROW Parking Vacant Land Vacant/Partially Vacant Building *Hillsdale Shopping Center contains tenant spaces that are vacant, including the former Mervyn's building F I G U R E 3-1 E X I S T I N G L A N D U S E

3 3. Multi-Family Residential Multi-family residential buildings are located along Flores Street and 28 th and 29 th Avenues. These parcels have a mixture of townhomes and three to four story buildings, which cover a majority of the lot. The townhomes are located on 30 th Avenue east of Flores and have access via a central courtyard. Additional townhomes are located on Edison Street between 27 th and 28 th Avenues. Three story multi-family buildings with underground parking are scattered throughout the west side of the Plan Area. They exist along Flores Street, 28 th and 27 th Avenues, and Edison Street. These developments are interspersed with the original single-family homes and lower-density multi-family projects and townhomes. 4. Mixed-Use There are minimal examples of mixed-use in the Plan Area. The only current mixed-use parcels are limited to a two story building on 25 th Avenue and another on the east side of El Camino Real. 5. General Commercial The Plan Area contains commercial uses providing a wide range of products and services. Retail uses vary in size and age, and includes locally-owned stores as well as national chains. Neighborhood commercial uses are along 25 th Avenue and the northern portion of El Camino, and include a mix of neighborhood services such as salons, home décor, florists with on-site growing operations, dry cleaners, acupuncture, and independent restaurants. Commercial uses along El Camino Real include a mix of smaller independent retailers and services and regional/national chains. Uses include retail furniture shops, such as Macy s Home, and several banks including Bank of America and Wells Fargo. A strip commercial center, oriented parallel to El Camino Real, includes some national retailers such as AT&T, Mattress Discounters, Subway, Fitness 19 (a fitness center), and Performance Bicycle. Finally, the Peter Pan BMW dealership is included in this category. 3-3

4 Additional General Commercial land uses in the Plan Area include Hillsdale Shopping Center, which contain a number of upper end national retailers, such as Sears, Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, and smaller associated brand-name retailers, including Aveda, Abercrombie & Fitch, GAP, and Restoration Hardware, and occupies the entire block on the northeast corner of El Camino Real and Hillsdale Boulevard. South of Hillsdale Avenue from the shopping center is the Hillsdale South portion of the center which was developed in the late 1990s with large big-box retail chains of Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, and the Macaroni Grill. Trader Joes recently opened a store at this location. There are two vacant storefronts flanking the Trader Joe s. 6. Service Commercial This land use is found along El Camino Real in the western part of the Plan Area and includes several smaller chain auto service stores such as Jiffy Lube and Midas. This land use also includes a large public storage facility, which is accessed by an alley off of 25 th Avenue. 7. Restaurant A variety of local and national eating establishments are located within the Plan Area. These uses vary from small ethnic restaurants in older buildings to national chain restaurants, delis, and fast food. The Hillsdale Shopping Center also has a large food court and sit-down national restaurants such as California Pizza Kitchen and Outback Steakhouse. 8. Office The Office land use is found throughout the northwest portion of the Plan Area. These smaller separately leased office suites provide space for lawyers, real estate agents, and temporary employment agencies. 9. Public Facility Public facilities are uses that provide public services. In the Plan Area, there is a vacant fire station located at the intersection of 27 th Avenue and Edison Street, which is to be redeveloped with an updated facility on the same site. A temporary fire station will be built at the intersection of El Camino Real 3-4

5 and 28 th Avenue to accommodate the construction of the new station. Additionally there is an AT&T central switching building located at the southeast corner of Edison and 28 th Avenue. 10. Religious There is one church in the Plan Area, located on the northeast corner of 25 th Avenue and Hacienda Street. 11. Caltrain Right-of-Way (ROW) The transportation corridor provides rights-of-way for public transportation and encompasses the Caltrain tracks and the access on either side. 12. Parking Within the Plan Area, parking facilities vary from limited on-street diagonal and parallel parking in the north to large surface lots and parking decks serving the Hillsdale Shopping Center in the south. There is a parking garage south of 25 th Avenue, serving an office building and commercial uses along 25 th Avenue. 13. Vacant Land There are several vacant parcels located throughout the Plan Area. Vacant lots exist on the northwest corner of 28 th Avenue and El Camino Real, on the west side of El Camino between 25 th and 27 th Avenues, and along Pacific Boulevard, east of the Caltrain station. The existing right-of way for 28 th Avenue, east of El Camino Real, is a vacant paved lot that is currently used for off-site parking for the Peter Pan BMW dealership. This parcel is owned by the Peninsula Joint Powers Board (JPB) and is the location of the planned 28 th Avenue grade-separated railway crossing. 14. Vacant Buildings In addition to vacant land, on which no buildings exist, vacant buildings are found throughout the Plan Area. Vacant buildings are noted on Figure 3-1 with a striped hatch. These buildings include several stores within the Hills- 3-5

6 dale Shopping Center, as well as some buildings along 25 th Avenue near El Camino Real. B. Recently Approved and Proposed Projects The following projects were recently approved in and near the Plan Area. 1. Bay Meadows Phase II. The Bay Meadows project is located immediately adjacent to the Plan Area. See Chapter 2 for a project summary. 2. Peninsula Station Affordable Housing. The Mid Peninsula Housing Coalition is developing a mixed-use project located on south El Camino Real between 28 th and 31 st Avenues. This site is nearly in the middle of the Plan Area, adjacent to the Caltrain right-of-way and is zoned transitoriented development (TOD). The project is a four story mixed-use building with 68 units of affordable family housing and approximately 2,900 square feet of commercial space. A below grade parking garage provides parking spaces for both the residential units and commercial space. 3. Peter Pan BMW Showroom. Peter Pan BMW is constructing a new showroom at its current location on a 2.7 acre parcel east of El Camino Real intersecting 27 th Avenue. The work will include partial demolition of the existing buildings to remodel the existing space and construction of a 5,117 square-foot addition that will be a new sales showroom. The parking and circulation will also be reorganized and some additional landscaping will be provided along the El Camino Real frontage. Access to the site will not change, and while the style of the remodeled building will change to a more modern look, the basic site layout and building massing as viewed from El Camino Real will not change. The project will also provide a widened sidewalk and landscape strip along the El Camino Real frontage, consistent with the El Camino Real Master Plan Guidelines. The automotive repair component of the dealership has been moved to Burlingame. 3-6

7 An additional group of projects are proposed, but not yet approved, in and near the Plan Area. Those projects are listed below: South Delaware Street Housing. This project on the City s former Police Station site is proposed to include 120 very low, low, and market-rate apartments. It is located at Delaware Street and Bermuda Drive, just south of Highway Fire Station 23. In February 2010 the City of San Mateo approved the demolition of the existing fire station building and the construction of a new 9,495 square foot fire station at the northeast corner of West 27 th Avenue and Edison Street at 31 West 27 th Avenue. The new construction of Fire Station No. 23, located at 31 West 27 th Avenue is consistent with the City s immediate and high priority goal of enhancing all existing public safety facilities. Fire Station No. 23, built in the 1950s, is in critical need of structural upgrades and modernization of its facilities, including the training classroom, dormitory and restroom facilities, and storage for the department s wildland equipment, safety training, and other specialized gear. The new station would be two stories in height and contain fitness, living, dormitory and restroom facilities, as well as a lobby and conference room. The project proposes an additional training area and incorporation of the existing training tower at the southwest portion of the site. In order to facilitate the construction of the new fire station, a temporary station will be required to be constructed at 2820 S. El Camino Real, a block to the southeast of the project site. This site contains a vacant commercial building formerly used for auto repair uses. In order to use this site as a temporary fire station, all the existing structures on the site will be required to be demolished. Two temporary buildings will be located on the site, totaling 4,940 square feet. C. Parcelization Pattern The organization and size of the parcels within the Plan Area vary widely within the Plan Area. Parcel size indicates previous development patterns and significantly impacts the ability to created mixed-use development suffi- 3-7

8 ciently served by parking. The Plan Area parcelization pattern can be broken down into five main categories. Figure 3-1 illustrates the parcel lines of the Project Area, shown in light grey. The five categories of parcelization include: 1. Small Residential Parcels. These parcels are from ⅛- to ¼-acre in size, have single-family or duplex residential buildings on them, and are located at the western extent of the Plan Area. 2. Multi-family Parcels. These parcels are located on the western and southern portions of the planning area and have multi-family buildings of varying densities. The parcels range in size from ½ to 1 acre. 3. Community Retail Parcels. These parcels are narrow and long. They range from 30 to 60 feet in width, are roughly 100 feet in depth, and are less than ½-acre in size. They are located along the 25 th Avenue neighborhood commercial district and at the northern end of Plan Area along El Camino Real, east of the Ah Sam florist shop. 4. Regional Commercial Medium Sized Parcels. Located along the northern portions of El Camino Real, these parcels are larger than the community retail parcels, south of the Ah Sam florist shop and continuing south to the Hillsdale Shopping Center. These 1 to 1.5 acre sites have strip commercial uses or large single-retailer buildings. They are often wider than they are deep. 5. Hillsdale Shopping Center and Associated Retail. The Hillsdale Shopping Center consists of two large 5 acre parcels with an enclosed shopping center surrounded by both surface and structured parking. In addition, the Hillsdale South Shopping Center, a strip commercial center with large stores facing onto parking, is included in this category. D. Opportunity Sites Opportunity sites are identified as part of the land use analysis because they help to focus the attentions of the community, staff, and consultants working on the Plan to sites where some change might happen over the lifetime of the 3-8

9 planning effort. In the case of the Hillsdale Station Area Plan, this planning effort has a horizon year of Underlying several of the opportunities below is the expectation of grade-separated crossings changing the current street configuration in the Plan Area. As described in Chapter 6, Transportation, 25 th, 28 th, and 31 st Avenues are planned to cross the train tracks through grade-separated railway crossings. At 28 th and 31 st Avenues, this will mean a new street right-of-way east of the railway, where one currently does not exist. These opportunities relate to another important topic discussed further in Chapter 6, Transportation: High Speed Rail. High Speed Rail funding was approved by California s voters in 2008 and is currently being planned to travel along the Caltrain corridor on the Peninsula. The development of High Speed Rail is expected to have ancillary benefits for communities like San Mateo, including potential funding for the grade-separated railway crossings. The City recognizes that the opportunity sites are private property and that change will ultimately result only when the property owner sees a market demand for new development or a change in use. In addition to potential new development, there are also opportunities throughout the Plan Area for urban design improvements and streetscape or circulation improvements. Each type of opportunity is described below, along with their general locations. Locations of the opportunity sites are also shown in Figure Development Opportunities These sites are locations where new development could potentially occur over the next 20 years. The sites were selected because they are either already vacant, have older buildings or buildings that are vacant or underutilized, include large portions of the parcel dedicated to surface parking, are nearby the relocated Caltrain station, or are adjacent to planned grade-separated railway crossings. As the demand for new housing and commercial space grows in the Plan Area, the potential for redevelopment at higher densities and intensities increases. 3-9

10 CITY OF SAN MATEO W. 2 5t a Dr E. 25th Ave Lu L n r Wy Sa ra to San Mateo Event Center ga D r Palm Ct Palm Pl Delm a Mar y h Av e Garfield Ct Port ol lle L n 24th Ave Delaware St 26th Ave Palm Ave Lula Be t Edison S t Flores S Hacien da St Garfield St St 28th Av e Juniper S. El Camino Real 27th Av e * * 29th Av e Bay Meadows Phase II New Train Station 30th Av e Sylvan A ve 31st Ave Briar L n Hillsdale Park Lo ui se Ln Arrowo od Ln Hickor y Ln Chestn ut Ln Edison St lv Hillsdale B Existing Train Station Mc Lellan Ave d Poinsettia Ave Pacific Blvd Win way Cir * Hillsdale Shopping Center Oso St Otay Ave San Benit o St * 36th Av e 37th Av e Curtiss St Arbor Ln 0 San M iguel W y Feet *Housing Element Sites Inventory Plan Area Boundary Potential Opportunity Site Railroad Urban Design Improvements Creek Streetscape/Circulation Improvement FIGURE 3-2 URBAN DESIGN AND POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITY AREAS

11 New streets are expected to be created when the grade separations are constructed. These will connect 28 th and 31 st Avenues from El Camino Real to the east side of the train tracks. Parcels adjacent to the new streets are called out as opportunity sites as long as they do not have recently developed or renovated buildings. Along El Camino Real several other parcels with existing development are called out as opportunity sites. In order to be developed into new housing, retail, office or mixed-use buildings, the small parcels near 25 th Avenue would need to be assembled into single ownership to make larger development sites that are financially feasible for redevelopment. The three parcels on the west side of El Camino Real between 27 th and 28 th Avenues are already under single ownership but are very shallow in depth (106 to 120 feet), thus limiting redevelopment potential. Three of the sites along El Camino Real are already identified in the City s adopted 2009 Housing Element Appendix A inventory of sites available for new housing development, described in more detail in Chapter 8. Around the existing Caltrain station, there are several parcels that currently provide parking for the station. When the station is relocated to the north, these parking lots may be too far from the station to serve as regular surface parking. Therefore, they present an opportunity for future development. At the southern extent of the Plan Area, two parcels are identified as opportunity sites. The first currently houses a bank building and the second is currently a parking lot. The creek adjacent to this property could be a focus for change in this portion of the Plan Area, such as orienting new development to ensure residents and visitors know about and can view the creek. 2. Streetscape/Circulation Opportunities Streetscape and circulation opportunities could take several different forms. In the case of 28 th and 31 st Avenues, planned grade-separated railway crossings would connect El Camino Real to Saratoga Avenue/Highway 101 through the Bay Meadows II Project Site. Along 25 th Avenue, the street location itself may remain roughly the same, but streetscape improvements could include wider sidewalks, new street trees, pedestrian amenities, or modifications to 3-11

12 travel lane striping. These grade separations present a significant opportunity to connect the Hillsdale Station to Bay Meadows Phase II, as well as an expansion of overall east-west travel options within this area of San Mateo. Finally, a potential improvement is shown connecting Edison Street through to 31 st Avenue. This is not currently planned, but could provide a connection for either bicycles and pedestrians or automobiles that would be a northsouth alternative to El Camino Real. 3. Urban Design Opportunities The urban design opportunities are envisioned as places where the land uses would not necessarily change, but where visual enhancements could be made in support of the transportation changes or improvements to key intersections in the Plan Area. Visual enhancements could include improvements to the outside of a building, additional windows or other visually interesting items, or landscaping. Parcels identified for urban design improvements are located along the El Camino Real and the Hillsdale Boulevard frontages of the Hillsdale Shopping Center. In addition, parcels identified for urban design improvements follow the edge of the potential streetscape/circulation improvements connecting Edison Street to 31 st Avenue. Finally, enhancements are proposed at key intersections along El Camino Real, including 31 st, 28 th, and 25 th Avenues. As is described in Chapter 2, 25 th and 31 st Avenues are theme intersections per the El Camino Real Master Plan; 28 th Avenue is also a theme intersection, having been added as part of the San Mateo Rail Corridor TOD Plan. E. Conclusions The land uses in the Plan Area reflect a piecemeal auto-oriented parcel pattern developed over an extended period. Retail and commercial uses are concentrated along El Camino Real, consistent with the uses along the entire length of El Camino through the city, and the Peninsula. Multi-family uses buffer the commercial and retail from the single-family neighborhoods that are located to the west and southeast of the Plan Area. 3-12

13 The parcelization patterns are problematic in the Plan Area. The small size of parcels in the north relative to the south makes it difficult to establish new uses, since the small parcels include insufficient space for adequate parking. There is a district parking strategy for the retailers along the western segment of 25 th Avenue, but El Camino-facing parcels have to rely on on-street parking. This condition implies the need for a parcel assembly strategy to allow for redevelopment. 3-13

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