6 - Laserfiche WebLink

prioritize proximity to these sorts of community amenities in its scoring for affordable housing funding. An additional criterion has been included to reference proximity to high schools; as well as another that responds to concerns raised by City officials and community members, to evaluate whether the site would contribute new demand to schools with existing or projected capacity issues. Section 4: Environmental Impacts/Hazards Criteria in this section reflect key categories of natural hazard, and of potential exposure to negative environmental elements such as noise, air pollution, or odors.4 Section 5: Impacts on Sensitive Resources This section carries forward previously-included criteria, with some modified wording for clarity. Section 6: Height and Mass Compatibility Consistency and compatibility with neighboring residential uses is the focus of criteria in this section. Minor changes are proposed to clarify that the comparison of a future housing project FAR with surrounding development would be based on the average height and allowable FAR of surrounding residential properties (since multiple zones or buildings may adjoin a site). Section 7: Interest in Site: Property owner interest in high-density housing, as reflected in this criterion, is considered a positive attribute for a site. Although, per HCD guidance, jurisdictions with a RHNA over 5,000 units are not required to provide evidence of property-owner agreement, it is beneficial to do so since sites (and particularly non-vacant sites) assigned to lower-income housing come under greater scrutiny from HCD. 5 General Plan Conformance Staff wishes to highlight a change proposed in this first round scoring, to delete the previously included criterion: "Potential Inconsistency with General Plan Themes." This criterion referenced and cited a number of specific General Plan policies around sustainability and community character, including policies concerned with neighborhood compatibility, scenic views, and aesthetics; impingement of new development on open space and agricultural lands, and avoidance of hazards. Exhibit B includes a list of the General Plan policies previously referenced in the scoring criteria, for reference. Analysis for conformance with the General Plan and the referenced policies will be an extremely important consideration for the overall sites evaluation. As currently written, however, a meaningful evaluation against this criterion at this early stage would involve a complex, and in many instances somewhat subjective, evaluation across a diverse range of policy topics. Staff believes the policy considerations important at this phase are well- 4 Criteria related to proximity to the 230 kV line and to wireless facilities have been removed, since other regulations would address any legitimate public health considerations around placement of residential uses in proximity to these facilities, and may be viewed as unduly restrictive by the State. 5 A previous criteria for"Economic Interest" based on freeway proximity has been deleted. Assuming the intent of this criteria was to understand tradeoffs in converting freeway-adjacent commercial properties to housing, staff believes this aspect would be more effectively analyzed as a policy consideration at a later stage of review. Housing Element Update Planning Commission 6 of 8 The majority of criteria in this section have been carried over from the prior Housing Element; they reflect both the general planning principle that residential uses should be convenient to schools, parks, and other amenities, and also respond to criteria in the TCAC program that Housing Element Update Planning Commission 5 of 8 discussion regarding massage businesses that arose during the Downtown Specific Plan (DSP) update, and concerns then about an overabundance of personal services. She Planning Commission Minutes Page 3 of 9 July 28, 2021