2_Exhibits A-C - Laserfiche WebLink

30-feet where commercial development is otherwise permitted to be 40-feet would be overly restrictive. Staff believes allowing the flexibility for residential projects to exceed 30 feet, when subject to the public review process required for a PUD, is appropriate. Although staff believes the above recommendations are supportable, the City Council may direct further revisions or alternative height and/or FAR limits. CONCLUSION The final Task Force meeting is scheduled for April 23, 2019, with Planning Commission and City Council hearings to follow this summer. At its upcoming meeting, the Task Force will provide a recommendation to the Planning Commission (and Council). Staff will supplement the Task Force recommendation as necessary to provide additional perspective and guidance on some of these topics and issues based on the City Council's discussion and direction. Staff recommends providing direction on each of the five topic areas as described above. Submitted by: Approved bd.: ,1 ' 4...._____ / f Ge Beaudin Nel on Fialho Director of Community City Manager Development Attachments: 1. February 26, 2019 Task Force memorandum discussing public outreach 2. Public Comments 3. Land Use Map in November 2018 draft Specific Plan (Figure 4-2) 4. Land Use Map in the existing Specific Plan (Figure IV- I) 5. April 24, 2018 Task Force memorandum discussing height 6. Draft Downtown Specific Plan (available digitally on the City website at citvofpleasantonca.gov/draftDTSP and hard copy available on request) Page 15 of 15 District is more realistic and appropriate given that properties will have a 36-foot height limit, and will need to include parking, on-site circulation, landscape areas, drainage, and so on. Given the transitional nature of this zone between the residential districts and the commercial districts, staff does not believe 300- percent is appropriate for this area. • Downtown Commercial. The 300-percent FAR and 40-foot height limit currently for the Downtown Commercial district are consistent with that currently permitted in the Downtown Commercial district. As shown in the examples above in Figure 1, the existing FAR allows a 3-story building occupying 100-percent of a site, which no existing development in the downtown today approaches. Nonetheless, the higher FAR provides additional flexibility new buildings with more lot coverage, appropriate for the commercial center of downtown. Staff believes these development standards are appropriate as the plan sets the parameters for the next 20 years of (re)development in the core commercial area. • Residential Planned Unit Developments. PUDs have routinely and successfully allowed the City to consider and approve deviations from development standards such as height and FAR, taking into account factors such as location, design, public benefits/amenities, and site and project-specific conditions. Allowing residential PUDs to exceed 30-feet will not change that. If a residential component to a project is proposed in the downtown core, limiting it to Page 14 of 15 d we should maximize value and volume of use we can get on the land of this downtown (MU-D) area. Construction today tends to have higher plate heights and limited this area to 40-feet will only yield two-stories and really restrict any additional height/floors. However, given the right location and design, the Council may want to allow three-stories in some instances. Another comment agrees with the Task Force recommendation in terms of allowing additional heights so the projects can be reviewed on an individual basis. The final comment requested the note about limiting PUDs to 30-feet be stricken from the DSP to allow additional flexibility especially given modern construction. Summary of February 26, 2019 Downtown Specific Plan Update Task Force Meeting Page 6 of 7 c Plan Update Task Force Meeting Page 5 of 7