01 8-27-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

by the developer. Mr. Iserson said the City has done specific plans in a variety of ways, but more recently and preferably, it reaches out to have representatives from all parties included in the process. Mr. Dolan presented the General Plan issues, said both BRE and W.P. Kerry proposals require General Plan Amendment. The mixed use designation refers to mixed uses on a single site, and therefore, this definition could either be maintained or amended. CarrAmerica would not need a General Plan Amendment under either the existing or new plan. They believe there is reason to take CarrAmerica out of the park-wide process and there would have to be traffic analysis done. He discussed the market analysis done by CarrAmerica and said mixed use, residential and housing were all considered to be an advantage to the park, an amenity which could increase the attraction of the park and generate greater income. However developers do not believe mixed use is feasible with the present housing allocation within the park. He said the allocation from the preferred plan may need to be considered as well as increasing the allocation to Hacienda while being mindful of the housing cap. There are approximately 500 units in reserve that have no geographic assignment. Staff believes regardless, an updated market study will need to be done, as well as a traffic analysis. Mr. Dolan said there are also issues relating to the housing element, zoning, and approving high density housing to meet policy 9 and 41, noting allocating more high density units to Hacienda would provide more opportunity for inclusionary housing units to reach affordable housing goals. He said there is an issue raised by the current applications in that it is the City's policy to disperse low income units throughout projects in the community. However, there is a proposal to consider a concentration of units in one portion of the site. While this is the easiest way to get the most number of affordable units, the issue is one of policy. The housing element encourages mixed use, modification of development standards to achieve affordable housing, a new development concept around transit, reduced parking requirements to use transit, and allowance for open space. Mr. Dolan said there are also funding opportunities. The City received its designation from ABAG as a primary development area and cities with such designation are eligible for planning and capital grants. He said the City received a planning grant in association with the BART station project which could result in capital grants to fund capital projects, such as public amenities and trail improvements. He reviewed the 9 questions outlined in the staff report: Chair Blank referred to slides 2, 8 and 51, stating that it was mentioned that in October 2005, the Council gave direction to do a specific plan, then in December 2007 James Paxton indicated there might be some interest in doing a PUD modification. He questioned if work stopped on the specific plan, as three years had gone by. Mr. Dolan said the Hacienda representatives regrouped and the stakeholders met and discussed how they wanted to move forward, as earlier on they thought they would have more support for spark-wide planning effort. More recently, there was interest on the part of the three property owners for the three applications also that came forward, and there was not much progress made in the interim with the specific plan. Chair Blank referred to the comment on the walking map and said some of the maps he has seen on transit-oriented development do not incorporate a circle, but they actually measure streets. He noted that the building on the south side will be more than a half mile to walk, questioned if there was a way to tell how much existing commercial could be converted versus how much new infill will be created. He referred to slide 38, stating it was presented as a transit-oriented development but he felt more of the examples looked more like transit adjacent CC/PC Joint Workshop Minutes 3 August 27, 2008