Foster City planners review Gilead campus expansion; staff schedules environmental study session

Foster City — The Planning Commission on Feb. 5 reviewed staff responses and applicant materials for the proposed Gilead Campus Expansion on Chess Drive and Hatch Drive, with staff and the applicant outlining project phasing, employee estimates and the environmental studies the commission requested.

Senior Planner Myra Blanco told commissioners the project site covers roughly 11.9 acres and would be developed in two phases: Phase 1 would demolish eight existing commercial office buildings and construct an approximately 174,785‑square‑foot, two‑story lab building with surface parking; Phase 2 would remove the remaining four buildings and could add up to about 600,000 square feet of R&D uses and a multi‑story parking garage, yielding as much as about 800,000 square feet at full build‑out. "Phase 1 would generate about 150 employees, and at full build‑out we estimate roughly 820 employees," Blanco said.

Why it matters: Commissioners…