HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-07-10 City Council (16)City of Palo Alto
C ty Manager’s Report
TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENT: PLANNING AND
COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT
DATE:JULY 10, 2000 CMR:310:00
SUBJECT: SOUTH OF FOREST COORDINATED AREA PLAN- PHASE II
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council add six new members to the SOFA Working Group
to participate in the completion of Phase II of the Coordinated Area Plan (CAP). The new
members are Tom Harrison, Elaine Meyer, Hal Lull, David Bubenik, Loring Saga.n, and Bob
Kuhar.
BACKGROUND
The SOFA Phase II area is generally bounded by Ramona Street, Alma Street, and Addison
and Forest Avenues. The phase two area consists of approximately ten blocks, with a variety
of land uses ranging from residential, commercial, office and automotive repair. It is also a
rich mixture of historic and new development, densities, parcel size, property ownership and
residential and commercial activities.
The South of Forest Coordinated Area Plan - Phase II (SOFA II) was initiated by staff and
the Working Group (WG) on June 15, 2000. Staff also conducted the first community
meeting on the same evening. For the first WG meeting the Director of Planning and
Community Environment invited all of the current WG members and requested that any
members who did not wish to continue with phase two, to notify the department staff. As of
June 23, ten of the WG members have confirmed that they will continue to complete the
SOFA CAP through phase two.
Those members of the WG that will continue through phase two are the following:
Karen Holman
Charles Keenan
Marlene Prendergast
Yoriko Kishimoto
Steve Pierce
Larry Hassett
Sarah Cane
Marilyn Calabrese
Tom Shannon
David Ross
CMR:310:00 Page 1 of 3
When the decision was made in June 1999 to divide the SOFA CAP into two phases, a large
amount of the analysis was completed for the phase two area. The draft SOFA II Plan
contains existing conditions as well as programs, policies, land use and development standard
recommendations for this area. The WG and staff intend to utilize this base information, and
with updating it with new analysis, develop a revised SOFA II CAP. With the existing
information, and valuable experience from the SOFA I process, staff has prepared a work
program for SOFA II that was presented to the WG in June.
DISCUSSION
In addition to the existing members, the Director of Planning and Community Environment
has discussed with WG members and other community representatives the need to add
additional business and residential representatives to the Working. Group; specifically, new
members who also have close ties to the SOFA II area. For phase two, six new community
representatives have been invited to join the Working Group. Three of these new members
represent the residential community and three represent the business community within the
SOFA II area.
The community members who hav; been invited to join the WG for phase two are:
Tom Harrison (business)Hal Luft (residential)
Elaine Meyer (residential)David Bubenik (residential)
Loring Sagan (business)Bob Kuhar (business)
This would constitute a Working Group of sixteen community representatives, which is
similar in size to the participating members for phase one. In addition, Planning and
Transportation Commissioner Patrick Burt, a former member of the WG, will continue to
serve as the Commission liaison to the WG. The staff will also ask for a board member from
the ARB and HRB to serve as liaison from their respective boards.
Changes have been made to the phase two process as a result of discussions with the WG and
community members. The Director of Planning and Community Environment has asked that
two members of the WG serve as Co-Chairs, that meetings will be recorded with action
minutes produced for each meeting, and that a set schedule of meetings at the same location
(Women’s Club) be used.
The use of Co-Chairs has worked very effectively in other special planning projects, and
helps to ensure that the WG presents positions and recommendations that are a consensus of
the group, as well as keep the group focused on issues.
This work program consists of identified elements that the WG will address through working
papers prepared by the staff and then finalized by the WG. The working papers would each
contain background, analysis and discussion points for each element, and would frame the
CMR:310:00 Page 2 of 3
issues for the WG and s.taffin order to assist them to develop recommendations. The working
elements are land use, historic, density, urban design, traffic and circulation and an
implementation plan (Attachment A). It should be noted that the traffic and circulation
element would contain the proposal for the one-way Homer/Channing Avemle’s conversion
to two-way streets for the entire SOFA CAP area. In addition to the WG meetings, staff will
conduct one or two more community meetings to discuss issues and receive feedback on the
issues.
The work program is proposed to be developed over approximately six WG meetings from
June to September, with recommendations to follow to the Planning Commission and City
Council. This represents a focused time frame to complete phase two. Much of the
foundation for this phase was completed within the phase one process, and staffbelieves that
the plan would very close to completion with the WG’s progress on several key issues.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A, Work Program
Prepared By:John Lusardi, Assistant Planning Official
DEPARTMENT HEAD REVIEW:
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
G. EDWARD GAWF v
Director of Planning and Community Environment
Assistant City Manager
cc: Working Group members
Planning and Transportation Commission
CMR:310:00 Page 3 of 3