14 - Laserfiche WebLink

DISCUSSION Both the General Plan land use designation and the Downtown Specific Plan designation for the subject site are High Density Residential (greater than eight dwelling units per gross acre). The proposed project, with five units on approximately 0.24 acres, would result in 20.8 units per acre. Although the High Density Residential designation does not have a midpoint density per se, the City uses 15 dwelling units per acre as the midpoint density benchmark. This proposed development's density is, therefore, 5.8 units per acre greater than the midpoint for the high density residential land use. This proposal is, therefore, not only consistent with the land use designation, but complies with the Downtown Specific Plan policy of encouraging development at densities that exceed the General Plan range midpoints in order to enhance the opportunities for unique housing types, affordable housing, and economic growth in the Downtown. In addition, the proposed project meets the Downtown Specific Plan's Historic Preservation Objective of preserving appropriately designated historic resources that can reasonably be preserved. Instead of razing the historic home, the applicants have chosen to preserve the existing structure. The home will be slightly reduced in size to allow for adequate separation between the proposed structures. The structural and architectural integrity, however, will stay intact. The preservation of the existing home would provide diversity to the project's streetscape, as well as a smooth gradation of building mass when viewed from the corner of West Angela Street and Peters Avenue. In order to ensure that the renovation of the historic home is conducted in a manner that preserves the historic integrity of the structure, staff has added a condition to the project subsequent to Planning Commission approval requiring the applicant to replace any materials or details in kind, subject to review and approval by the Planning Director. Plan Layout and Building Design The project consists of four individually designed, single-family detached homes with a turn-of-the-century home located at the corner of the site. Three of the new houses will face Peters Avenue, and the fourth home is set back on the site. The units have purposely been located close to the existing sidewalk to present a unified heritage Page 4 of 7 After City Council action, the applicants will follow with an application for a tentative map to subdivide the property into five separate parcels.