Community Development

Recent state laws require Foster City to update its General Plan’s Open Space and Parks Element by January 1, 2026 (per SB 1425), integrating climate resilience and "rewilding" strategies, and its Conservation Element (per AB 1889), assessing wildlife movement, habitat connectivity, and development impacts. The City is currently amending these elements to comply.

The project applicant, Gilead Sciences, seeks to redevelop an approximately 12-acre property at 1155, 1165, and 1185 Chess Drive. The proposed project is to demolish the existing one and two-story commercial/light industrial buildings (totaling 191,507 square feet) and surface parking with up to a maximum of 800,000 square feet (SF) of biotechnology or research and development uses with a parking garage in two phases. Phase One would include the demolition of eight (8) out of the 12 existing office buildings (approximately 123,536 SF) and the construction of a two-story building up to 200,000 SF.

Phase Two would consist of the demolition of the remaining four (4) existing buildings (approximately 67,971 SF) and the construction of up to 600,000 SF of additional multi-story buildings and a multi-story parking garage. One of the new buildings would replace some of the surface parking used in Phase One.

In 2009, the City previously prepared an EIR for the Chess Hatch Master Plan (SCH #2008122065) and an addendum was later certified to address a reconfiguration of the project in 2013. On September 3, 2013, the City amended its zoning map for the Chess-Hatch Property, changing the zoning designation to CM/PD (Commercial Mix/Planned Development). It also approved a General Development Plan (GDP) to allow up to 800,000 SF of office, biotechnology, or research and development  on the Chess-Hatch Property via City Ordinance No. 573. Subsequently, on April 17, 2014, the City’s Planning Commission approved a Use Permit/Specific Development Plan to allow the demolition of nine (9) office buildings, comprising of 146,000 square feet of development, and construction of 600,000 SF of office development area and up to 5,000 SF of business supporting uses in two (2) towers and a connector building, and construction of two multi-story parking garages. Ultimately, no demolition or redevelopment was ever completed at the project site. The original project consisted of the same amount of square footage to be developed; however, the current proposal would be for R&D use only. Gilead is currently requesting:

• An Amendment to the General Development Plan for Chess-Hatch Master Plan
• Vesting Tentative Map
• Use Permit/Specific Plan for only Phase One

 An application was submitted by Kali Futnani of Gilead Science, Inc. to demolish an existing office building and entitle a new  research and development building on the Gilead Campus. The proposed conceptual plans for the subject site include the following:

      1. Demolish 24,768 square-foot office building.
      2. Construct ±181,000 square-foot R&D building.
      3. Five-story building with lab/lab support spaces and a pilot lab located on the first-floor.