Facebook Campus Project

Project Description

The City has received an application on behalf of Facebook, Incorporated to commence the environmental review process for two sites in Menlo Park. Both sites, which are controlled by Facebook, are located at the intersection of Willow Road and Bayfront Expressway. The first site (East Campus) is the former Sun Microsystems Campus located at 1601 Willow Road. The 57-acre campus is comprised of nine buildings totaling 1,036,000 square feet. The second site (West Campus) is 22 acres and was formerly part of the Tyco Electronics campus. The property currently has two buildings with the addresses 312 and 313 Constitution Drive.

Facebook intends to construct tenant improvements to the East Campus buildings and occupy the buildings up to a maximum of 3,600 employees pursuant to a prior City approval. Concurrent with the tenant improvements, Facebook is applying for an amendment to existing land use approvals to substitute the maximum employee cap with a vehicular trip cap. Facebook also proposes to enter into a Development Agreement with the City to create vested rights in project approvals, address implementation of the proposed design and infrastructure improvements in the project area, and specify benefits to the City. For the West Campus, Facebook does not intend to submit a development application at this time. Rather, Facebook intends for the environmental review to study the maximum development potential for the site consistent with the current M-2 (General Industrial) maximum Floor Area Ratio of 45 percent, but in excess of the maximum 35-foot building height.

Current Status

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was released Thursday, December 8, 2011. During December 2011 and January 2012, a series of informational meetings were held to introduce Council Members, Commissioners and the public to the Project, Draft EIR and Draft Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA). On January 9, 2012, the Planning Commission held a public hearing to review the Draft EIR, a regular business item to review the Draft FIA, and a study session to review the Project proposal. Due to time constraints, the study session component of the meeting was continued to a special meeting on January 12, 2012. On January 10, 2012, the City Council separately considered requests to extend the comment period for the Draft EIR. The Council elected to extend the deadline by one week, to January 30. A total of 50 public comments were received on the Draft EIR from interested agencies, organizations and individuals. These comments are responded to in the Final EIR.

On April 17, 2012, the City Council considered and approved the term sheet for the East Campus Development Agreement. The Final EIR and Final Fiscal Impact Analysis were released for public review on April 23, 2012. The Planning Commission and City Council will host the following meetings related to the Facebook Campus Project in May and June:

Monday, May 7th – Planning Commission public hearing to review and make a recommendation on the requested East Campus Conditional Development Permit amendment, heritage tree removals, Final EIR, Final FIA and Development Agreement;
Tuesday, May 29th- City Council public hearing to review the requested East Campus Conditional Development Permit amendment, heritage tree removals, Final EIR, Final FIA and introduction of an ordinance for the Development Agreement; and
Tuesday, June 5th – City Council second reading of the ordinance for the Development Agreement.

Required Review

The following approvals would be required for the two sites:

East Campus (applicant has applied for entitlements)

Conditional Development Permit Amendment
Development Agreement
Heritage Tree Removal Permits
Environmental Review

West Campus (applicant has not yet applied for the entitlements with the exception of *)

Rezoning from M-2 to M-2-X
Conditional Development Permit
Development Agreement
Lot Merger
Heritage Tree Removal Permits
Below Market Rate Housing Agreement
Environmental Review*

Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA)

A FIA has been prepared to evaluate the impact of the proposed Project on the costs and revenues for the City of Menlo Park, and other governmental entities that serve the project site including the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, Menlo Park Municipal Water District, West Bay Sanitary District, Elementary and High School Districts, San Mateo County Office of Education Special District, San Mateo County Community College District, and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Final Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA) [11.7 MB]
Response to Comments on the Draft FIA
Draft Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA) [12 MB]

Public Outreach Meeting

On December 8, 2011, the City held a community meeting on the Facebook Campus Project, in order to provide a project summary and information on the Draft EIR and FIA. This meeting took place at the Menlo Park Senior Center in the Belle Haven neighborhood.