The early stages of one Belmont’s largest life science developments are underway, with its two buildings off Shoreway Road being larger than any currently standing buildings in the city.
Located southeast of Ralston Avenue and Highway 101, the proposed facility would comprise 542,000 square feet of office space, with each building reaching seven to eight stories. During a July 16 Planning Commission meeting, Tad Stearn, EIR project manager at Kimley Horn, noted the start of the first stage of the environmental review process, which involves soliciting public feedback as part of the notice of preparation phase.
“This is to help inform public agencies and the community about the EIR process, especially on a larger project like this, where we want to get as much public input as early in the process as we can,” Stearn said. “It's another opportunity for transparency and to get additional input and outreach.”
Commissioners voiced overall support for the project, though reiterated the need to take solar heat into account and also be mindful of energy consumption and noise pollution.
“Solar heat gain … should be thought about seriously. We’ve got a huge amount of glass facade we’re talking about, especially on the south and west sides, where you really don’t want heat gain, so [we should be] looking at what we can do to mitigate that,” Planning Commission Chair Nathan Majeski said. “It’s good for the end user, but it’s good for the public at large to not have that wasted energy use.”
Light pollution was also a concern raised by several commissioners.
“It’s not just for the night sky, but it’s for all the species in the area navigating,” Majeski added.
Recommended for you
Developers would aim for a biosafety level of one or two, meaning microbes, agents and other organisms in the facilities would be relatively low risk.
During a previous meeting in May, some commissioners questioned the viability of such a project, given the downtrodden commercial real estate market, which has seen high vacancy rates and slowed leasing activity over the past year. A recent report showed the county saw a roughly 4% year-over-year increase in office vacancy rates, although they dipped slightly from the end of last year, and layoffs have continued to impact the area’s office market. But the effort is a push toward more biotechnology development in the city, with other life science facilities in the works.
While the Shoreway Road project would be the largest buildings currently in place, two other similarly-sized biotech developments currently sit in the pipeline. A 380,000-square-foot project on Harbor Boulevard has been approved, and another on Island Parkway campus will contain three buildings, ranging from nine to 13 stories.
The notice of preparation phase will continue until July 26, and a draft EIR is expected in the fall.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.