Vacant for about a decade, the old U.S. Borax headquarters building at 26877 Tourney Road in Valencia is positioned for rebirth as a Kaiser Permanente medical office and urgent care facility.

On Tuesday the Santa Clarita Planning Commission will consider approving a plan that calls for the demolition of a 4-story, 299-space parking structure in favor of a new, 7-story parking structure with 567 spaces. Included in the plans are certain other improvements to transform the 116,901-square-foot office and laboratory complex into medical offices.

Kaiser Permanente currently operates a smaller, 70,835-square-foot medical office complex just up the road at 27107 Tourney.

According to a city staff report, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, a component of Kaiser Permanente, submitted plans in June 2015. City planning staffers met with company representatives and “issued preliminary comments on the site plan, elevation plan, and landscape plan, and provided draft conditions of approval.” The plans were also reviewed by RRM Group, the city’s architectural design consultant, and by Newhall Land, to ensure conformity with the covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R’s) for the site. The company revised its plans accordingly and resubmitted them in December.

According to the staff report, “A small portion of the existing R&D (laboratory) area, 5,040 square feet, of the building would be demolished to allow for a larger loading dock area. The converted medical office building would accommodate outpatient medical care facilities, urgent care services, a clinical laboratory, specialized medical suites, and a patient pharmacy.”

Back in 1991, when the city approved U.S. Borax’s plans for the 75-foot-tall building it erected in 1992, the city allowed Borax to get by with fewer parking spaces than would otherwise be required, based on a study of parking demand.

This time, the city is requiring Kaiser to conform with its standard parking requirement of one parking space for every 200 square feet of medical office space. Thus the tear-down and rebuild. From 49.5 feet tall today, the new structure would reach a height of 67 feet at the highest parapet wall – slightly shorter than the office building – although the top of its elevator shaft would be 80 feet off the ground, and 82.5 feet to the top of the tallest parking lamppost.

As part of the project, Kaiser is also seeking approval of an oak tree permit to remove two non-heritage “volunteer” trees – a 7.5-inch coast live oak and a 2.6-inch valley oak – that weren’t there in 1991. Kaiser intends to plant 10 oaks elsewhere on the project site in exchange.

“There would also be modifications to the circulation to allow access to the rear of the building and the creation of priority parking spaces for the urgent care facility which may include ambulance parking areas,” the staff report states. “A 200 square-foot coffee cart would be located outside the office building near the entrance to serve both employees and patients. Lastly, there would be an outdoor area that would be both passive and programmed with educational uses, an interactive area, and a small seasonal weekly farmers market.”