3.1 Land Use and Housing
This section presents the environmental setting and impact analysis on land use in the Emeryville General Plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING
PHYSICAL SETTING
Land Use Evolution
Before the colonization of the area by Spain in 1776, the Emeryville area was the site of extensive Native American settlements. Mudflats rich with clams and rocky areas with oysters, plus fishing, hunting, and acorns from the local oak trees, provided a rich and easily exploited food source for the residents. They would dispose of their clam and oyster shells in a single place, over time creating a huge mound—the Emeryville Shellmound.
After settlement by Europeans, Emeryville became a city in its own right, largely through the efforts of businessman Joseph S. Emery who started a stonework contracting business in San Francisco. In 1859, Emery purchased a 185-acre tract of land north of Oakland and began to develop projects in the area. A community began to develop around the Emery Tract, and the town of Emeryville was officially incorporated in 1896, taking the name of its founder.
In 1871 Emery financed the construction of the San Pablo Avenue Horse Cart Railroad, which connected Oakland to Emeryville. He was also one of the primary builders of the CaliforniaNevada Railroad, which began in Oakland, crossed the burgeoning Emery Tract, and terminated in Orinda. Emeryville soon became a city of big industrial enterprises and rail terminals.
Successive years saw further consolidation of industry, including the paint factory of SherwinWilliams and Shell Development, the research arm of Shell Oil Company. Residential areas remained confined to small portions at the city’s eastern edge, bordering Oakland. As the city built out, bay fill was considered viable for creating new land. The Emeryville Peninsula was created in the 1960s by filling shallow water areas.
In the 1970s Emeryville’s landscape began to change once again as some of the city’s older industries had already begun to move to the suburbs or close up shop altogether. The city’s first major residential development—the 1,249-unit Watergate Apartments—was completed in 1971. In the mid 1970s, parks and a 500-berth marina were created by filling in 12 additional acres of the San Francisco Bay to create a small boat harbor. Multi-story office buildings rose between the Eastshore Freeway and San Francisco Bay.
With vacant warehouse and industrial space becoming available, Emeryville began to see the development of a community of artists who converted several of the buildings into live/work space. In 1984, the city’s second major housing development—the high-rise Pacific Park Plaza—
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Emeryville General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report
was completed. Between them, Watergate and Pacific Park Plaza more than doubled the city’s population, from 2,681 in 1970 to 5,740 in 1990.
As large tracts of industrial land—originally built at low intensities and supporting many fewer workers per acre of land than contemporary businesses—have continued to be redeveloped, Emeryville’s transformation over the past two decades has been dramatic, with substantial increases in employment and population. The city’s evolution continues to this day. The sections below evaluate Emeryville’s recent and current development trends.
Existing Land Use
Emeryville’s land use transformation over the past 20 years has been extensive. Formerly dominated by manufacturing and distribution, the city is now marked by ever increasing development of office, regional retail, and high-density residential land uses, as well as mixed-use developments. Almost entirely built out, with little to no vacant land, Emeryville’s growth has primarily been through redevelopment of existing land uses and rehabilitation of older buildings.
Existing land use data is provided as of 2005, the most recent data available when the Notice of Preparation for the project was issued. Previously an industrial town, the city is no longer dominated by a single land use. Around half of the developable land in the City—that is, excluding roads, highways, and other rights-of-way—is in Commercial (36 percent) or Industrial (14 percent) use, and just under a quarter (21 percent) is used for housing. Much of the land identified as commercial, however, is devoted to surface parking lots. The remainder of the city is in Public use (seven percent), Parks and Open Space (seven percent), or a mix of uses (seven percent). Only around 40 acres, or seven percent of the land, is vacant. Specific acreages for each land use are shown in Table 3.1-1. (Land attributed to roads and rights-of-ways are not included in the table.)
Table 3.1-1: Existing Land Use Distribution (2005)
Acres
222.0 126.2
87.5
Percent
Commercial Residential
36 21 14
8
Industrial
- Mixed Use
- 48.0
- Public
- 45.7
- 7
Parks and Open Space Vacant/ Unassigned Total
- 44.7
- 7
- 40.8
- 7
- 615.1
- 100
Source: Dyett & Bhatia, 2008; Metroscan; City of Emeryville, 2005.
Almost all of the Bayfront and freeway edge area west of the railroad tracks has been redeveloped in the past 30 years. Much of this space is devoted to retail and office uses in large-scale
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Chapter 3: Settings, Impacts, and Mitigation Measures
developments, such as Bay Street, IKEA, the Public Marketplace, and Powell Street Plaza, which serve a regional clientele. Almost no industrial uses remain in this area. Residential developments in this area are few in number, but large in size and high in density. In total, they comprise about 2,750 housing units—half of the housing in the city.
Development to the east of the railroad is more diverse in use, scale, and age. Industrial, office, and residential uses are geographically closer to one another. Parcel and building sizes generally diminish towards the east, where pre-war structures are supplemented with new residential and commercial construction. Two large corporate campuses—Novartis and Pixar—dominate the area south of Powell Street while the southern edge of the city is marked by “big box” retail. Emeryville’s public schools and much of its locally-oriented retail businesses lie along or near San Pablo Avenue, a major boulevard and state route which connects Emeryville with Oakland and Berkeley. In the eastern residential neighborhoods, east of Doyle Street and San Pablo Avenue, the Triangle and Doyle Street neighborhoods are composed of lower density homes.
Because Emeryville is largely flat, topography does not play a factor in the city’s land use pattern. Transportation corridors, however, do split the city into several sub-districts. The main divisions are I-80 and the railroad, and to a smaller extent, Powell Street. I-580 separates Emeryville from Oakland along the southern city limits, although a portion of the area north of I-580 is in Oakland.
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Chapter 3: Settings, Impacts, and Mitigation Measures
Residential
As of 2008, Emeryville had an estimated population of 9,727 living in approximately 5,988housing units, according to the Department of Finance. An overwhelming proportion—88 percent—of the housing units in the city are multifamily. Multifamily residential developments range from the 320-foot tall Pacific Park Plaza development to just over 500 units in small (2-4 unit) structures. The city’s housing stock also includes over 600 single-family units, consisting of both detached and attached housing units. Half of the housing units in Emeryville are located west of the railroad tracks, almost entirely in large-scale multifamily developments. All of the housing on the Peninsula is located in the Watergate Condominium complex. The remainder of Emeryville’s housing is distributed evenly throughout the eastern part of the city, with the Doyle and Triangle neighborhoods predominantly residential in nature.
Office and Research & Development
Office is the dominant non-residential use in Emeryville, followed closely by industrial, retail, and mixed-use space. Around one-third of the 3.3 million square feet of office space in Emeryville is located on the Peninsula in the four Watergate office towers. The rest of the city’s office space is distributed throughout North and South Hollis, with notable concentrations along Christie Avenue and Park Avenue.
Most of the research and development space in Emeryville—750,000 out of 970,000 square feet— is provided by Novartis. Pixar’s campus is classified as office space.
Industrial
Industrial uses once dominated Emeryville and they still constitute the most non-residential built square feet in the city, although that position has been slipping as manufacturing and warehouses are converted into other uses. Ninety-two percent of this industrial space is located between the railroad and the eastern residential neighborhoods, concentrated either along Hollis Street or at the western end of Park Avenue. The city’s industrial businesses concentrate on light manufacturing, such as a coffee roaster, and warehousing. One of the largest pieces of industrial land in Emeryville, the Sherwin-Williams complex located east of the railroad and north of Park Avenue, is expected to be redeveloped within the life of the new General Plan.
Retail and Hotel
The retail category includes any commercial use where purchases of goods or services can be made, including stores, gas stations, and restaurants. The 1.5 million square feet of retail in Emeryville is mostly regionally-oriented and located on Shellmound and 40th streets, visible and accessible from I-580 and I-80. These large-scale regional shopping centers include Bay Street, Powell Street Plaza, the Public Marketplace, IKEA, and the East Bay Bridge center. The only significant concentration of retail uses away from Shellmound Street and 40th Street is along San Pablo Avenue, which hosts service businesses like banks and cafes. Almost no purely retail uses (just 6,000 square feet) are located north of Powell Street and east of the railroad tracks, although some retail is available within mixed-use structures.
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Emeryville General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report
Three of Emeryville’s hotels are located in the Bayfront area, with a fourth on the Peninsula. These national chain hotels are laid out similarly: high-rises, between seven and 13 stories in height, with on-site surface parking. The city’s four hotels have a total of 930 rooms between them.
Mixed-Use Developments
Mixed-use developments, for the purposes of discussion here, are those with more than one type of use on the same parcel. In Emeryville, mixed-use configurations include multifamily residences above retail, industrial uses with live/work space for artists, and office space mixed with retail or industrial uses. Together, they make up seven percent of the city’s land area and, excluding residential portions of the developments, 12 percent of its non-residential building space.
Public and Institutional
Public land, as well as privately-owned educational facilities such as Ex’pression College, makes up around eight percent of Emeryville’s land. Civic uses—City Hall, police and fire stations, public services, and other City-owned land—take up just four percent of Emeryville’s land. Educational uses, which include the land owned by Emery Unified School District and several private institutions, take up less than 15 acres. With the exception of Ex’pression College and public safety facilities, all of the active civic and educational land uses in the city are located in its southeastern quarter.
Major Development Projects and Trends
In recent years, a large portion of Emeryville has been redeveloped, with new land uses replacing vacant lots or low-valuation sites. This process continues today, with around 10 approved projects in progress as of February 2009, and an additional seven projects proposed.
Recent Development
Since the adoption of the last General Plan, new construction has occurred throughout the city. New development has also been concentrated in the area south of 40th Street and on large parcels along Hollis Street. Some other notable centers of development are in northeastern Emeryville along the Greenway—a linear park in development that follows a former railroad right-of-way diagonally through the city—and on San Pablo Avenue between Park Avenue and 47th Street.
Residential Trends Since 2000, approximately 1,700 new housing units have been developed in Emeryville, representing nearly 30 percent of the total housing stock. These residential developments come in several forms: large high-density structures—such as EmeryBay Club & Apartments Phase II and Bridgecourt Apartments; residences within small and large mixed-use developments—such as Bay Street and Glaushaus; industrial rehabilitations and loft-style housing units along the future route of the Greenway—such as 1401 Park Avenue and Oliver Lofts, respectively.
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Chapter 3: Settings, Impacts, and Mitigation Measures
In contrast, virtually no new single-family detached homes are being constructed, although single-family attached homes have been built as part of some new developments. The reasons for this are likely the high price of available land—enhanced by the relatively large amount of land that single-family homes require relative to other residential uses—and the overall lack of vacant land in Emeryville.
Non-Residential Trends Recent non-residential developments have transformed 115 acres of land, or 22 percent of the citywide non-residential total, and added 3.86 million square feet of commercial and industrial building space, or 38 percent of the city’s current supply. Office and retail have dominated recent projects, together accounting for just over half of new non-residential building floor space. Office and lab development has included the expansion of Novartis and the development of Emery Station, both phased campus-style developments. Retail development has come in several forms: big box stores on large sites—such as IKEA and the East Bay Bridge Center (partially in Oakland); walkable retail—such as Bay Street’s retail component and the Promenade on San Pablo Avenue; and, increasingly, smaller neighborhood-serving retail establishments as part of residential mixed-use projects—including in Andante and the Courtyards at 65th Street.
Approved and Under Construction Development
Approved and under construction development projects, as of November 2007, are included in the buildout analysis. At that time, just over 900 housing units were in development in Emeryville, which would increase the city’s existing supply by 18 percent. These projects are mostly sited along the edges of the city, with three of them located in both Emeryville and Oakland. In terms of non-residential development, 1.3 million square feet of office development was approved or under construction, as of November 2007, and 34,000 square feet of retail development.
Since November 2007, several new projects have entered and moved through the development pipeline. Several mixed-use with residential developments have been approved or proposed, including Papermill and 39th and Adeline projects, which together would add 169 units, eight live/work/flex units, and 1,000 sq ft of retail. Potential major office, lab, retail, and other mixeduse projects include the redevelopment of Marketplace, the construction of the Transit Center, and Emery Station Greenway, which could add nearly 250,000 sq ft of lab space, residential, retail, and public parking. Finally, the Emeryville Center for Community Life and Emeryville Arts Center represent a potential expansion of public education, community, and arts facilities, and the Doyle Hollis Park is under construction.
Existing Densities and Intensities
Much of Emeryville is developed at a low-to-moderate level of intensity, with a scattering of commercial buildings that have an FAR above 2.0 and residential structures that exceed 60 units per acre. Very generally, the highest intensity properties in the city are located on the Peninsula and north of Powell Street.
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Emeryville General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report
There are very few low density residential uses in the city, with most of the housing to the west of Doyle Street built at moderate densities. 90 percent of housing in Emeryville is built at or above 20 units per acre. Even some single-family homes—which are typically built at five to seven units per acre in many suburbs—are at or above 20 units per acre due to their small parcel sizes.
The city’s highest density housing is largely within a few developments. Pacific Park Plaza has 99 dwelling units per acre, Emeryville senior housing has 84 units per acre, and Emery Bay Club & Apartments has 70 units per acre.
Trends in Density and Intensity of Development
Based on recent and approved projects, non-residential intensities in Emeryville are on the increase. Recent hotel, office, and retail developments have all been built at higher than average FARs. Furthermore, the continued addition of buildings to the Novartis and Pixar campuses will greatly increase the overall intensity of the city.
Meanwhile, the residential density of the city will be increasing somewhat in the near future. Purely residential developments are becoming denser, with approved projects averaging more than 60 units per acre. Even so, while Emeryville has several mid-rise and one high-rise residential structure, the highest attained residential densities are actually quite low given the heights of these buildings.
REGULATORY SETTING
Current Land Use Plans
Land use in Emeryville is affected by several City plans as well as the master plan for the Eastshore State Park. The jurisdictions of these plans can be seen in Figure 3.1-2.
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Emeryville General Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report
1987 General Plan (updated 1993)
The current General Plan was adopted in 1987. An update in 1993 changed the plan from an information-based document into a series of objectives and recommended policies. These objectives are broken down into subgroups that reflect six of the seven elements required by the State—land use, circulation, open space, noise, conservation, and safety. The Housing Element is separate. State law requires all elements to be consistent with one another.
The citywide goals laid out in the 1993 Plan update are to:
• Provide services and facilities for Emeryville’s citizens. • Encourage a land use pattern in which a variety of uses are intermingled in a compatible fashion.
• Establish a circulation system allowing for the free movement of persons and goods to, from, and within the city while avoiding an over-accommodation to vehicles at the expense of land use and pedestrian movement.
• Improve the quality and livability of the city by seeking development [that is] visually sympathetic to its surroundings and urban character.
• Encourage land uses which strengthen the tax base while respecting the natural, scenic, and historic resources of the city.
The 1993 Plan’s specific land use objectives are to:
• Create a major activity center in the Bay Area with new office, commercial and high-tech industries and new housing of all types, replacing obsolete, incompatible, and low-intensity prior uses.
• Create a living and working environment which protects and enhances existing development, while providing new amenities and facilities for an expanded workforce and residential population.
Emeryville Zoning Ordinance
Emeryville’s Zoning Ordinance contains nine base land use districts. The City maintains a mapbased system of building intensity (FAR) and building height regulations. The Zoning Ordinance contains only two residential districts—Medium Density Residential and High Density Residential. While the residential densities available by right are moderately high (reaching 20 units per acre for Medium and 45 units per acre for High), none of the districts permit multifamily housing type by right, but rather require a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for this. Similarly, much higher development densities are available in both districts (35 and 108 units per acre for Medium and High Density respectively) under the CUP system. The maximum permitted building height on the zoning map is 95 feet, which may be increased to 175’ with a CUP. This limit has been exceeded numerous times, including by such developments as Pacific
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Chapter 3: Settings, Impacts, and Mitigation Measures
Park Plaza (320 feet) and the Watergate office and hotel development to the west of I-80, as well as approved plans for Novartis. The proposed General Plan includes height limits so height variances will not be possible and any deviation will require a General Plan amendment.
North Hollis Area Urban Design Program
This plan was implemented through the North Hollis Overlay Zone. It covers the northeast corner of the city—north of Powell Street and east of the railroad, also including the block south of Powell between Hollis and Peladeau. This plan calls for infill residential uses that complement the existing neighborhood and stimulate use of the Greenway; the discouragement of throughtraffic; a balance of automobile access with other transportation modes; sufficient public parking; and private development that enhances the character and pedestrian improvements of the area.