01 8-27-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Councilmember McGovern said she spoke with James Paxson who said there were about 100 parcels in Hacienda and about 75 owners of those parcels, but she has no idea what parcels were underdeveloped and how the owners felt about it and she was uncomfortable in making the decision regarding CarrAmerica. Commissioner O'Connor supported forming a subcommittee. Regarding separating out CarrAmerica, he felt anyone in the park willing to build amulti-story parking structure to replace flat parking is probably underdeveloped. CarrAmerica is on the same road as BART and the TOD site. If commercial space is moved off the TOD site to CarrAmerica, the square footage of commercial would not change, but it would add more intensity into the park because of the residential. Therefore he did not believe the two should be separated. Commissioner Fox agreed with Commissioner O'Connor; CarrAmerica and the additional square footage that other businesses would give up is key. She believed it should be integrated within the task force and not be a separate process. In terms of the entire strategy of putting parking structures in place versus looking at underground parking needs review. In looking at the area, when you take a site and cover it with buildings and parking structures, she would like to see more green space left. Also, she believes the school district needs to be a member of the task force and suggested that task force to have meeting minutes and two-way dialogue. Commissioner Pearce echoed Commissioner Fox and O'Connor's comments, thinks the process is inter-related and CarrAmerica should be included. More public dialogue is needed, and to talk about it all at once with a task force as a substitute for a specific plan process seems to be the right way to go. Chair Blank supports the task force, is willing to serve on it, said his vision is like the General Plan outreach meetings, minutes need to be taken, and it needs to be an interactive environment. He was surprised and disappointed that the public has not been involved. Regarding bifurcating CarrAmerica, he said he did not have enough information to make that decision, but it is outside the half mile limit, and because of this, it could be looked at as a stand- alone and bifurcate it out of the whole Hacienda. However, the park has done a lot to integrate it and integrate it with the traffic flows. So possibly this decision could be made once we see the final EIR on the General Plan and understand the impacts it will have. Then we can come back and make a more rational decision. He also believed the General Plan update and Staples Ranch should be done before dealing with this. Commissioner Olson believes that much of the General Plan update is done, supported a task force and direct the task force to look first as to what is in that updated General Plan now because the housing element is addressed, and work right away to develop guidelines for Hacienda. He was not in favor of making CarrAmerica and having it wait for that process because it is already underway. Commissioner Narum said she agrees with Chair Blank, wants to see what the EIR from the General Plan states when it comes back. She said if the square footage seems workable then she believed the City could go forward with the workshop, continue to fine-tune the lay out. Conceptually, having a campus with a hotel and retail makes a lot of sense, but we need to understand the traffic before getting into the final design of it. She supports the task force and would be willing to serve on it. Commissioner Olson questioned if the EIR studies the intensified use on CarrAmerica and the TOD housing. Mr. Iserson said indirectly, but not specifically on CarrAmerica. It maintains the CC/PC Joint Workshop Minutes 16 August 27, 2008