Possible Redwood City Service Center and (maybe) Supercharger

[tivoboy]

No wonder. I drove by today and noticed that the entire lot was filled with Lexus SUVs.

Well it has been a Lexus and land rover overflow lot for a whole now.

 

[mblakele]

So Tesla got approval from the planning commission for a service center and showroom but then decided against the facility including as showroom, the city insisted that a showroom be part of the facility, and Tesla decided to not proceed with the project at all?

There is more to this story than is being reported. Why would the city insist on a showroom being part of the facility? I don’t know why Tesla decided against including a showroom, but why would that matter to the city? The building used to contain a Crunch Fitness gym, now it’s empty, the city would gain tax revenue if Tesla built a big Service Center there.

And why did Tesla decide against having a showroom in that facility? They need a better showroom/service center in the area, as BurlingameService is in an awkward location to access, the showroom is small, and the Service Center is extremely busy.

According to Plans for new Redwood City Tesla location scrapped it's a zoning problem:

“After the Planning Commission meeting, they said we only want a service center, not sales and we said we can’t support that,” said Assistant City Manager Aaron Aknin. “It has to be extraordinary circumstances to do a rezone and the service station didn’t meet that criteria.”​

I'd guess Tesla is trying to reduce costs. They may believe that the sales showrooms in Palo Alto and San Francisco are enough for the area, and they may have data to support that. I wouldn't count Burlingame because I agree that the showroom there is too small. Given a free hand I might choose to remove sales from Burlingame and direct sales prospects to other locations. But maybe that's another zoning problem.

 

[ecarfan]

According to Plans for new Redwood City Tesla location scrapped it's a zoning problem: “After the Planning Commission meeting, they said we only want a service center, not sales and we said we can’t support that,” said Assistant City Manager Aaron Aknin. “It has to be extraordinary circumstances to do a rezone and the service station didn’t meet that criteria.”

Thanks. According to this Redwood City GIS the location at 515 Veterans Blvd is zone “IP”.

Here is the definition of that zone Municode Library

From that page, here is the list of permitted uses. I would say that item M covers servicing and repairing vehicles.
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18.2 - Permitted Uses.

The following structures and uses are permitted in the IP District:

A. Administrative, business, and professional offices, the gross floor area of which is less than ten thousand (10,000) square feet;

B. Research and development;

C. Manufacture of precision instruments and devices, such as electric or electronic equipment and appliances;

D. Printing, publishing, or lithograph shops, but not including bookstores;

E. Processing of food products and pharmaceuticals, but not including the production of fish or meat products, sauerkraut, or vinegar or refining of fats or oils;

F. Manufacture, assembly, processing, or packaging of products from previously prepared materials, such as cloth, plastic, paper, leather, and precious and semi-precious metals and stones, but not including such operations as saw or planing mills, or any manufacturing uses involving primary production of wood, metal, or chemical products from raw materials;

G. Warehousing and wholesale distribution or storage facilities;

H. Television or radio studios and stations, but not including transmission or reception towers;

I. Indoor building materials sales establishments;

J. Combined retail and wholesale office equipment stores and accessory office supply sales;

K. Floor covering stores and furniture stores;

L. Appliance stores, including appliance repair service appurtenant or incidental thereto;

M. Business or industrial supply, maintenance, or service establishments;

N. Family child care homes, within residential structures, in accordance with the provisions of Section 39.3.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

 

[mblakele]

Thanks. According to this Redwood City GIS the location at 515 Veterans Blvd is zone “IP”.

Here is the definition of that zone Municode Library

From that page, here is the list of permitted uses. I would say that item M covers servicing and repairing vehicles.

Good research: on the face of it zoning shouldn't be a problem.

Maybe a resident of Redwood City can contact Assistant City Manager Aaron Aknin to dig into this?