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Council hears prescreening for 51 Encina rehab that would use downtown TDRs to support new clinic
Summary
City staff and Peninsula Healthcare Connection presented a prescreening request to allow transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) benefits for a Category 1/2 historic building at 51 Encina Avenue, potentially enabling up to 5,000 sq ft of bonus floor area to help convert a vacant Victorian into expanded medical and behavioral-health services.
Council members spent substantial time on a study-session prescreening for a zoning text amendment that would allow a site-specific transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) benefit to support the rehabilitation of a historic building at 51 Encina Avenue.
Jonathan Lait, director for planning and development services, told the council the prescreening is a preliminary, non-decisional step and could allow the property up to 2,500 square feet of bonus floor area for historic rehabilitation and another 2,500 for seismic retrofit, for a combined potential of 5,000 square feet. Lait said current TDR availability is roughly 32,000 square feet and that the market-recorded sale values of TDRs have ranged broadly, “around anywhere from $200 a square foot up in some areas up to $400 a square foot.”
Eileen Richardson, CEO of Peninsula Healthcare Connection (PHC), described two decades of local clinic work and said the Opportunity Center clinic is “bursting at the seams.” Brandon Davis, PHC AVP, gave service numbers: the clinic’s monthly visits rose from about 74 to about 239 last year, he said, and PHC turned away roughly 300 patients in the past five months; at full build-out he estimated “400 plus additional visits per month.” PHC’s proposal would expand clinical and behavioral-health capacity adjacent to the Opportunity Center and rely on partnerships with Sutter/PAMF and Stanford.
Council members probed the scope and impacts. Council member Liu pressed about the TDR square-foot totals and market value; Lait reiterated the 2,500/2,500 breakdown and provided a market range estimate. Liu asked whether the proposal intended a one-off site-specific change or an ordinance amendment; staff said the applicant’s proposal, combined with staff analysis, likely resulted in a site-specific text amendment because only one property currently met the proposed criteria. Council members also asked whether seismic retrofit had been proposed; staff said the preliminary plans did not include retrofit but could in a formal application.
Several council members spoke favorably about the concept, citing the public benefit of adding health services adjacent to the Opportunity Center. Council members and staff emphasized this was a prescreening hearing—no formal decision was reached. Staff said a full CEQA review and formal development application would follow if the applicant filed and the council chose to move forward.
Next steps: staff and the applicant will consider the informal feedback offered tonight; any formal rezoning or development application would return for further review and environmental analysis.
