The city of Sunnyvale is hoping to turn Moffett Park's 24.3 million square feet into a high-quality office space to house corporate headquarters for technology industry leaders.

At the May 11 meeting, the city council unanimously approved a series of zoning code amendments to the Sunnyvale General Plan, giving the go-ahead to the Moffett Park Specific Plan, a project many hope will position the city for success as the economy improves.

Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzi Blackman said that with the plan in place, Sunnyvale will be able to better court new businesses and hold on to existing ones by creating room for expansion and new growth.

Planning Officer Trudi Ryan said the Specific Plan is designed to make the area inviting to expanding businesses, with high floor-to-area ratios for building as much as possible on any given parcel of land. In addition, a streamlined review and permit process will allow businesses to begin building as soon as they hit the ground in Sunnyvale.

According to Ryan, about 15 million square feet of the park are currently developed, leaving almost 9 million open for new buildings.

More importantly, Sunnyvale Economic Development Manager Karen Davis said the Moffett Park area will provide space for the expansion of local businesses so they are not forced to leave Sunnyvale when they begin growing again with the economy.

"Should they find that they don't have a very receptive area next to them, then the possibility of having a second campus in another city is opened up," said Jane Vaughan, a developer with Menlo Equities who was involved in the plan's formation.

As an example, Vaughan pointed out that the Marvell offices moved from Sunnyvale into the old 3-Com campus across Highway 237 from Baylands Park. Had Marvell had the space and environment they required, she said they would still be on Sunnyvale's side of the border, rather than San Jose's.

"Our priority is working with existing businesses, because it's really critical that we retain the businesses we have here already," Davis said. "We're just trying to make it as easy as possible for these businesses to expand in the area should the opportunity eventually present itself."

Davis said the plan's implementation also gives local real estate brokers—with whom the city has been working to better promote the opportunities Sunnyvale has to offer—a new selling point for potential customers.

Vaughan said Sunnyvale needs a selling advantage to go up against San Jose and Santa Clara for potential clients. Because San Jose is a larger city with a larger budget, more time and staff can be dedicated to courting companies, something Sunnyvale cannot compete with.

"Sunnyvale is not able to do the sorts of things San Jose did, but having this plan in place will help bridge that gap," Vaughan said.

Additionally, she said Santa Clara is known for being more flexible with developers than surrounding cities, something this plan should also help Sunnyvale compete with.

Attracting new businesses brings more sales tax dollars to the city's coffers, and the retention of existing businesses prevents the loss of those same dollars, allowing the Sunnyvale budget to climb out of the crunch it has felt for the last few years.

Several years ago, Ryan said city staff noticed a trend of large, corporate developments in the Moffett Park area, and the local business community suggested that that future demand in the area could be substantial, given its proximity to several major highways and its central location in Silicon Valley.

Jane Vaughan said that the impetus for the plan was the desire to coordinate all the developments into one cohesive area.

"Council wanted all these companies, but they were uncomfortable approving them piecemeal, because they had to think, 'I hope the big picture looks alright in the end,' " Vaughan said.

According to the Specific Plan itself, Moffett Park—officially the "Moffett Field Business Park,"—stretches from the Moffett Field airstrips to Sunnyvale Baylands Park to the east, between Caribbean Drive and Highway 237 to the north and south respectively. In the past few years, Juniper Networks, Yahoo Inc. and Network Appliances all set up corporate complexes in the area.

In 2000, the Moffett Park Specific Plan—to set the parameters for future development in the area—was conceived as a study item by the city council.

On Nov. 11, 2003, after extensive reviews and public input, the city council voted unanimously to accept the plan's environmental impact report, which looked at the effects the project would have on traffic, air quality and other concerns. The council also amended the Sunnyvale General Plan to allow for the creation of the specific plan and instructed city staff to complete the plan—including council-suggested revisions—and begin the approval process.

The unanimous vote on May 11 approved the final necessary ordinance changes and the Moffett Park Specific Plan was completed.

The plan has 11 guiding principles, including encouraging and supporting emerging industries, streamlining the review and permit-granting process to expedite business growth and the incorporation of current "smart growth," practices into large-scale projects.

Those principles in turn created more than 30 specific objectives for the project, in areas such as land use, transportation and environmental concerns. Among them are the opening up of pedestrian and bike transportation options to encourage people to leave their cars at home and encouraging the building of high-quality corporate headquarters and office complexes.

As a result, three distinct districts have been created as part of the plan, each catering to a different aspect of what the Moffett Business Park has to offer.

In the Moffett Park General Industrial district, there is a standard floor-to-area ratio of 35 percent, meaning that the maximum floor space can be 35 percent of the total space on the parcel. But if builders achieve Leadership in Energy Efficient Design certification, by using renewable resources, recycled goods, energy-efficient power sources and other "green," building practices, the FAR increases to 50 percent. The increases in space are made possible by a reserve of 5 million square feet of development space set aside for builders who agree to practice "smart" growth.

Suzi Blackman, from the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, called those design elements "strategic flexibility," a trait she said is important when trying to plan for future business booms. By giving loose boundaries and being willing to negotiate, she said Sunnyvale is making itself more inviting to potential buyers.

"I think it left sufficient flexibility so we have some options for change," Blackman said.

The Moffett Park Transit Oriented Design district sits near existing light-rail stations. Developers hope this area will encourage future employees to use alternate transportation to get to and from work. In that area, the standard FAR is 50 percent, which can increase up to 70 percent for builders who practice smart growth.

The last district is the Moffett Park Commercial area, designed to house retail and hospitality businesses to support the offices. Hotels and restaurants can also help the city by generating sales tax dollars by serving local workers and visitors.

Blackman said that if enough large businesses come in, they will have to rely on small local businesses for needs like landscaping and printing, which will fuel Sunnyvale's local economy by increasing demand for services.

For the commercial district, the standard FAR is 40 percent, which cannot increase with energy efficient design certification.

Even though the plan is up and running now, all those that have been involved say they expect it to take some time before businesses come looking for new space, but all are confident that it will happen.

"We think this is going to be a great area for corporate headquarters to relocate to, or for local companies to expand into," Davis said.