Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. I now call to order the special development review hearing of 10/01/2025 at the time of 04:00. Good afternoon. My name is Sheldon Asing, and I'm the hearing officer for today's agenda as delegated by the director of community development officer in Abed. Planners of attendance are principal planner, Rebecca Bustos. Distribution of the agenda. The agenda is available on the city's website under the calendar. Events, seventy two hours preceding the meeting date. For those, present in the chambers, please silence your mobile devices. Copies of the agenda are available for your convenience at the entry there.

The chambers. Declaration of procedures. The hearing procedure and order of input for this hearing will be as follows. I will identify the project as described on the agenda. For those items on the consent calendar, I will ask if anyone wishes to speak on the item. The separate discussion is warranted. I will move the item to the public hearing portion of the agenda. If a separate discussion is not needed, the item will remain on consent calendar for approval. Those items listed on the public hearing, I'll ask staff to provide a brief report. Then the applicant or the representative will have up to five minutes to speak and should identify themselves by stating their name for the record.

After the applicant or rep the representative has spoken, any member of the public who wishes to speak on the item may provide testimony up to two minutes per speaker either for or against the project. All speakers are required to state their name for the record. Following comments from the public, the applicant may make additional remarks for up to five minutes. I will then close the public hearing and may ask staff to answer questions, respond to comments made by the applicant or the public, or further discuss the item, and then I will take action on the item. You challenge these land use decisions in court.

You may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at this public hearing or written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing. Actions on the agenda items are final unless appealed within seven calendar days. Continuances, exceptions, are there any requests from applicants for the public for the withdrawal, continuance, or exception for any other items on today's agenda? Seeing none. Public presentations.

Would any member of the public like to to briefly, address any item or topic that is not on the agenda today? Seeing nobody. Consent calendar. There's one item on the consent calendar. It is item one a. It's a development review hearing meeting minutes of 09/17/2025. Anyone has any comments on this item? Please raise your hand. K. Seeing none.

Item one a on consent is now approved. So moving on to the public hearing. Item number two. It's a public hearing action on architecture review PLN twenty five zero zero two four zero for Nvidia phase three for construction of a 324,000 square foot office building, 2,900 space parking structure, and a pedestrian bridge spanning Santo Mass Aquino Creek located at 2400 Condensa Street, CEQUA status addendum to the Santo Mass Business Park campus project EIR. Rebecca, you ready?

Yes. Thank you, Sheldon, for the introduction. My name is Rebecca Bustos. I'm the principal planner overseeing project management of NVIDIA phase three. So as, the hearing officer stated, this is the third phase of the NVIDIA campus.

It includes construction of an office building, parking attached parking structure as well as the pedestrian bridge that will span San Tomas Aquino Creek, connecting phase one and this phase of the campus. So here is a graphic of the existing site. The acreage of this site alone in the red box is about 10.96 acres. Surrounding uses are primarily office r and d. The zoning is planned development, and the general plan is high intensity office r and d.

It's located on the Southwest corner of Central Expressway and San Tomas Expressway. Phase one and two are on the east side of the creek. And then as I said, the red box is the project side site on the west side of the creek. So a little more background on the project. The San Tomas Business Park campus was approved in 2008 for 1,950,000 square feet of office r and d across three buildings.

It also included approval of a development agreement, which allowed the phased construction. The DA allowed construction phasing over a fifteen year period. However, it was extended several times, and currently, the DA is extended through August 2026. The approval was amended several times over the years with major modifications in 2013 and 2018, which adjusted the building sizes and added architectural features such as the the the trellis feature on the phase two and phase one buildings. And it also deferred construction of that pedestrian bridge to phase three.

Phases one and two of the project are currently complete. And so the current proposal is to finish out the campus with phase three asking for approximately 350,000 square feet of office, parking up to 3,000 spaces, and then that pedestrian bridge. So here is a little more detail about the zoning. Like I said, it's a planned development zoning, so it's site specific for the campus. Phases one and two are on the East Side of the creek, and those are complete at approximately 496,000 square feet for phase one, seven 155,000 square feet for phase two.

Here's a a view or rendering, I should say, of the proposed building. This is how it would be viewed from San Tomas Expressway. You can see on the Ground Floor, the parking levels are not visible due to the screening provided and also has a similar arch architectural style as the other campus buildings. Here's a view from the phase one project site, the bridge, and how it would connect into this new phase three building. Here is the Ground Floor Floor plan.

So the Ground Floor is a mix of parking and office use, and it also has vehicular access provided from three full access driveways along Condensa. The western and center driveways would provide direct access to the surface lot and new parking garage, while the eastern driveway would be used by vehicles dropping off and picking up passengers. Here are some other floor plan views. The 1st Floor, like I said, is a mix of garage and office space, while the 4th Floor is primarily office. I believe it's intended to be used for amenity space for the employees at the other buildings as well as this building.

So the CEQA evaluation that was prepared for the project was an addendum to the original San Tomas Business Park campus project environmental impact report. The addendum concluded that the modified project would not result in any new impacts or substantially increase the severity of the previously identified operational transportation impacts. Before I get to the recommendation, I

did

wanna read a modified condition into the record. So some other minor changes were made to these conditions, but the a change that we wanted to highlight is condition general condition eight, which is g eight, and I'm just gonna read it into the record as written as the revised version is written. And this will be posted on our website as well. G eight reach code. This project is subject to the City of Santa Clara reach code as set forth in city code chapters fifteen point three six and fifteen point three eight.

The owner or designee shall provide electric vehicle charging stations, EVCS, and EV capable spaces meeting the requirements of chapter 15.38 provided, however, that the chief building official may reduce the number of required spaces if he determines based on a system impact study for the project and any other relevant information that providing the full quantity would require additional electrical capacity beyond the owner's current allocation. So lastly, our staff's recommendation is to consider the addendum to the Santa Mas Business Park Campus EIR and approve the architectural review for the office building, parking structure, on-site improvements, including the surface parking, and other larger improvements, including the pedestrian bridge, which will span San Tomas Aquino Creek, subject to the findings and conditions of approval. So I believe the applicant does have a presentation prepared, but that concludes staff's presentation. Thank you.

Thanks, Rebecca. Just before I get to you, mister Rebecca, so the conditions, I know that was in the packet. It said draft all over it, and we were given a copy of the new conditions. That's the only modification because I see there's some shading. Maybe that's just a formatting.

Yes. That's primarily formatting from our our template. Other changes were some deletion of boilerplate conditions that weren't applicable, such as small project stormwater condition. Obviously, it's not a small project. Then we also slightly modified condition, let me see.

P five, as the applicant indicated that they may need to perform construction activities outside of normal hours such as concrete pours, but we indicated that would be addressed during the building permit process as typical.

Okay. So then the shading just on throughout is just a formatting issue we cleaned up?

Yeah. I think that was a boilerplate, and I can clean that up, but the language won't change.

Okay. Thank you. Alright. So now I will invite the applicant up to the podium here, and please state your name.

Well, my name is Eugene Lee from Gensler. I'm sharing my screen. Do you see? Thank you. And my name is Eugene Lee from Gensler.

I'm here to share the work on phase three called Saint Thomas Business Park Campus, Park In The Sky. Yeah. You are looking at illustrated plan that we just saw with phase one on the right hand side. We wanna carry similar architecture roof language on phase three site across the Saint Thomas Creek. However, because of park our concept is to create new destination to park in the sky above a parking level to activate that level, we are creating open shell less portion of the roof.

That's the difference between phase one and two because phase one and two buildings, they were all enclosed space, but phase three site on top of parking levels, on top of second level of the office functions, it's it's the up outdoor space. This is updated view that you just saw from Central Expressway. Central Expressway, we want to activate that street with a new architecture even at the parking facade. So parking is on this joint right hand side, but we in order to create continue the dialogue between office building, we are carrying that faceted language to cover the parking to highlight that dynamic language there. And then we believe connection with the neighborhood is critical.

For us, it's the connection between phase two that is located over the Saint Thomas Creek. So in terms of material, glass type, even the roof language is is they are speak to speaking to each other. So we are bringing similar materials, the metal facade for the glass or even the trellis. We are carrying the similar language over the phase three site. As previously mentioned, our connect the people is also important not only from vehicle point of view, also people point of view.

That's why we're putting a bridge over the San Thomas Creek connecting phase one and two to phase three site. And this is the view taken from the bridge looking through the lab building, through the office building. You can can you can now see open part at the Level 3, which is cover with the office below, but also the roof above. And these are series of plan that was just shared. You're looking at plan South East at Saint Thomas Creekside.

So there, we have office function, the south side of that zone with the office function, and then north side is the parking. Level 1, there was Level 1. Level 2, similar. Level 3, this is where we want to create a new destination. That's Level 3. And then south north side of that garage or the parking structure is the part that we're trying to create. I think that that's all the slides that we have for you.

Okay. Thank you. So the pedestrian bridge, and I understand that Florida campus, you've got some pedestrian bridges that connect the buildings. It wasn't really clear in your presentation, but I just wanna understand where does the bridge land once it goes over?

The bridge lands at Level 2 of our office level.

Okay. So directly into a building? Directly into the building. Okay. And this is a good screen, actually, to remain on. So it looks like you guys use a lot of light triangles in the design. You have the grid that goes over. But it looks like the parking, because it's in a rectangular kinda shape, doesn't follow the triangular bit. And you kinda talked about it a little bit, but I'm trying to understand, are you doing that because of a certain amount of parking that you're trying to hit? Or what's sort of the design intent there? It seems to not follow the rest of the camp.

Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, the facade, we're trying to carry the language. In terms of structure grid, so it's if you can imagine triangle grid there, we're carrying the language over. So on top of parking structure, we are expressing triangle grid. But when it comes down to parking level, we are basically adding more columns so that it's it becomes more rigorous so we can put more efficient parking. Wait. What it gets expressed at the roof level is the only triangle grid.

Okay. And, Rebecca, just a question for you. They'll they'll leave the podium just yet. So are they meeting the or targets for the parking pursuant to the development agreement?

Yes. Their PD zoning outlined a parking maximum, actually, of 3.93 spaces per thousand square feet, and they are within that based on the office square footage provided.

Then I noticed something different between Rebecca's presentation and your presentation. I think it was taken from Central Expressway. The screening did not go maybe as far along like, the garage looked exposed, and I wasn't maybe I'm maybe I'm missing something. So there's that. And then see how you could see the levels of the garage, but I seem to catch that in Rebecca's. Maybe, Rebecca, you can show yours.

This was the submission that we sent on twenty August twenty seven.

This one? This one. Okay.

Apologies. I didn't see the updated renderings, so these must be outdated, obviously, the one

I showed. Yeah. This this sorry. So

this is the updated? This is updated rendering. Correct.

And you show the other one?

You have to stop sharing. I'm not sure. Can you stop sharing?

Oh, yes.

Okay. So it looks like it's changed. I'm just trying to understand the reasons for the change, I guess, of not having the screening goal around.

Yeah. It's it's the garage. It's the garage, obviously, behind this facade. In order to create the open air system that parking would need, you need the open air area to provide clean air at the parking garage. So we could not close the entire building with facade like it's showing here. That's why the design has been progressed to create more openness towards plan north side. I have a watch express on the sense Central Expressway, we're still cladding with the metal panel while you're seeing in my

So, Rebecca, looking at this, it looks like maybe you weren't aware of this one. What are your thoughts about this?

Obviously, our preference is always more screening, but I understand the limitations with the building code requiring open air. Is in your version, is that the maximum or minimum amount of screening that would be needed? Yeah.

Yes. You would need that minimum.

Otherwise, it's some other kind of mechanical means or so. Okay. I I don't have any other questions then for you. And so I'm just it's still public hearing, so I wanna open it up for anybody else that may have a public comment, Other people, in the chambers or online? Seeing none.

Alright. I will then close the public hearing. Regarding the the conditions just to the applicant and you're in agreement with the conditions. Is that correct? Okay. Maybe just semantics, but on the g eight that you just mentioned about where it says a billing official and it says he determines, just wanna be, like, he or she. Just I don't know. Just seems a little bit better, I think, to say that. So seems like I think that'd be agreeable with that. He or she.

K. Otherwise, I think I would agree with staff's findings with the project. Appears to be consistent with the development agreement. And I think I'm pleased with the design, and it looks like it'd be a good project. I don't know what name it's gonna be, another Star Trek name.

We'll see. But, otherwise, I will then approve architectural review for the phase three of construction of 324,000 square foot office building, 2,903, space parking structure, and pedestrian bridge spanning the creek, okay, at 2,400. And, also, agree with the, with the findings for the addendum. So your project is, now approved. Thank you.

Thank you.

That's the only item that we have today. So I now adjourn the development review hearing at a time of 04:22. Next meeting will be on Wednesday, 10/15/2025 at 4PM here in the council chambers and also via Zoom. Thank you.