Facebook's plan to build a second campus on the west side of Bayfront Expressway moves to the Menlo Park Planning Commission on Monday.
The social network company has asked the city to rezone its 22-acre West Campus site because the building height there is now limited to 35 feet.
The 43,555-square-foot office and rooftop park that Facebook wants to build above a surface-level parking lot would reach a height of 73 feet, according to city documents. The building has been designed by celebrated architect Frank Gehry.
The commission also will consider approving an official statement that the development's benefits would outweigh its negative environmental impacts. According to a city memo, one significant and unavoidable impact could be additional traffic at the intersections of Marsh and Middlefield roads and University Avenue and Donohoe Street. Construction noise is another potential impact.
In addition, the commission is to consider allowing removal of 175 heritage trees and approving Facebook's agreement to provide either $4.5 million in fees to the city for affordable housing or put up 15 affordable housing units elsewhere, or a combination of both.
In January, the city council approved a development agreement for the West Campus project that calls for Facebook to pay Menlo Park $1.5 million over 10 years and $100,000 for local improvements, and to restrict the number of vehicles entering and leaving the new campus. Facebook
also has committed to pay the city at least $194,000 a year in property taxes.The West Campus, previously occupied by Tyco Electronics at 312 and 313 Constitution Drive, would be given the new address of 1 Facebook Way. About 2,900 employees will work there, according to project documents.
The new building will be linked to the main campus -- the former headquarters of Sun Microsystems -- via a tunnel underneath Bayfront Expressway. The main campus has been permitted to accommodate as many as 6,600 employees.
The planning commission will meet in the council chambers, 701 Laurel St., at 7 p.m.
Email Bonnie Eslinger at beslinger@dailynewsgroup.com; follow her at twitter.com/bonnieeslinger.
This is a layout sketch of Facebook's West Campus in Menlo Park, which will be designed by famous architect Frank Gehry. Facebook announced on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012, that Gehry would design the social networking giant?s new building. The quarter-mile long building will be about 10 acres in size, a have a rooftop garden, one large room with parking underneath, and hold about 3,400 engineers. Photo courtesy of Facebook. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.)
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