Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 397-06City of Palo Alto City Manager,s Report TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: PLANNING AND COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT DATE:NOVEMBER 6, 2006 CMR: 397:06 SUBJECT:STATUS REPORT ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT SCHEDULE AND WORK PROGRAM This is an information report and no Council action is required. BACKGROUND On June 5, 2006, the City Council approved the Work Program for an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. The focus of the amendment is to ensure adequate punic services are available to serve new housing development, to preserve sufficient land for neighborhood- serving retail uses and to extend the Comprehensive Plan through 2020. The amendment process was to begin after completion of the Zoning Ordinance Update (ZOU) process in spring of 2007 and anticipated to take approximately 2 years to complete. Staff will be returning to Council in the winter of 2006/2007 with a detailed budget and consultant contracts. As an interim measure to prevent loss of retail sites prior to completion of the Comprehensive Plan amendment, on August 7, 2006 the Council: 1) directed staff to modify the commercial zoning districts to eliminate "stand alone" housing through the ZOU and 2) initiated rezonings on the Palo Alto Bowl, Mayflower Motel and Summerwinds Nursery and adjacent office sites, which are planned and zoned for housing but currently used for commercial development. Subsequent to the Council’s approval of the Work Program, the State notified the City that all housing elements are to be revised by June 2009. The Work Program adopted by Council did not anticipate changes to the Housing Element. DISCUSSION As part of the Comprehensive Plan amendment process, staff proposed quarterly progress reports to Council. Although the amendment process is not scheduled to begin until after completion of the ZOU in 2007, staff has prepared this report to provide Council with information related to the amendment schedule and Work Program in general and as it relates to the State’s housing dement requirements and Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process. The report also provides the status of the four Council-initiated rezonings. Planning staff is coordinating with Budget staff and will be including funding for the Comprehensive Plan amendment work in the mid-year budget package. CMR:397:06 Page 1 of 3 Housing Element and ABAG RHNA Process In July of 2006, the City received information from ABAG initiating the RHNA methodology process. Since then, staff has been carefully monitoring the progress of the ABAG Housing Methodology Committee (HMC). At its October 19th meeting, the HMC approved an allocation methodology for assigning shares of the regional housing need to each city and county in the Bay Area using factors related to housing growth, jobs, and opportunities for transit oriented development near existing and planned transit stations. Recently Palo Alto staff responded to a questionnaire from ABAG regarding factors related to growth projections and growth capacity. ABAG has assumed that in 2020, Palo Alto’s population will be 70,900; staff’s response supports a more realistic projection of 65,000-66,000. The population projections are critical because they will be a factor used in determining housing growth for the RHNA within Palo Alto. The ABAG Board of Directors will adopt proposed a "fair share" methodology for all jurisdictions in the Bay Area in January based on the HMC’s recommendations and public input. The draft housing allocations based on the adopted methodology are to be released by June 30, 2007. The current state housing RHNA statute provides for two reviews of the proposed allocations. The first begins in June 2007 and concludes in October 2007. The second is an appeals period which begins in November 2007 and concludes in April 2008. The RHNA process schedule is attached, which shows that adopted Housing Elements are due to the state by June 2009. Work Program and Schedule Revisions Due to the requirement to update the City’s Housing Element by 2009, staff has revised the Work Program for the Comprehensive Plan amendment (Attachment A) to incorporate the Housing Element review. Although staff did not originally include updating the Housing Element through the amendment process, staff anticipates completing the amendment within two years after completion of the ZOU and the Council-related rezonings as reflected in the attached schedule. The ZOU schedule that staff presented to Council in June reflects the anticipated timeline for ZOU completion. The Commercial Zones/Mixed Use and Performance Standards should be completed by the end of 2006. The Multi-family Districts should be heard by Council in early 2007 with the remaining chapters of the ZOU to Council in spring of 2007, which would conclude the ZOU process. Rezonings of Four Properties to Commercial In late August, staff sent letters to all owners and tenants of the four sites (Palo Alto Bowl, Summerwinds Nursery, Middlefield Road office building and Mayflower Motel) proposed to be redesignated and rezoned from multi-family use to commercial and has met with the property owners and some tenants to discuss the proposed changes. A community meeting to discuss the proposed land use changes was held on October 26, 2006. Staff prepared several development prototypes of different land uses including retail, mixed use and housing for each ;ite, which were discussed at the community meeting. The prototypes will also be provided to the Planning and Transportation Commission and City Council during their deliberations on the land use changes for the three sites. It is anticipated that the rezonings will be heard by the Planning and Transportation Commission before the end of the year and the City Council in early 2007. Staff CMR:397:06 Page 2 of 3 has also identified additional sites in the City that are currently used for commercial development but planned and zoned for residential uses and not listed on the City’s Housing Sites Inventory. Staff will be returning to Council to initiate rezonings on those sites before the end of the year. RESOURCE IMPACT This report is a status update to Council and has no resource impacts. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This report is an information item and is not subject.to CEQA. ATTACHMENTS A.Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program (revised October 2006) B.Comprehensive Plan Amendment Schedule (revised October 2006) C.ABAG RHNA Schedule PREPARED BY: Advance Planning DEPARTMENT HEAD REVIEW: CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: LIE Director of Planning and Community Environment FRANK BENEST City Manager CMR:397:06 Page 3 of 3 Attachment A Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Plan 1. Update Base Conditions and Growth Projections Incorporate recent planning studies/new data into base conditions Identify a realistic growth rate for development through 2020 2. Amend Land Use Map and Land Use Designations Prepare land use evaluation for EastMeadow Circle/Fabian Way/West Bayshore area; identify land use and zoning changes Prepare land use evaluation for existing Fry’s Electronics site and adjacent properties: identify land use and zoning changes Evaluate existing definitions for non-residential land use designations and determine if housing should be restricted or disallowed under those designations Evaluate implementation of Program H-29 3. Review Pertinent Policies and Programs Scan all programs for relevance and clarity Focus on policies that allow conversion of non-residential land to residential uses Add or strengthen policies that limit the loss of retail serving uses Incorporate policies and programs addressing or strengthening provision of services where applicable Incorporate Goal addressing City’s commitment to reduce global warming ¯ Identify general areas for new parks and community facilities Enhance and integrate a pattern ofwalkable neighborhoods Update Housing Sites Inventory/Housing Element 4. Environmental Analysis Prepare Environmental Impact Report for amendment Provide thorough analysis of service needs to schools, parks and libraries resulting from project growth through 2020 ’ Integrate CEQA significance thresholds used in EIR in appendix to Comprehensive Plan amendment Attachment B Attachment C o o~1 el o o o c) C o c