City of San Juan Capistrano Agenda Report

Transcription

1 ITEM 01 TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: City of San Juan Capistrano Agenda Report Planning Commission Development Services Department ~ ~ Submitted by: Sergio Klotz, Acting Develop en Services Directo Prepared by: Charlie View, Project Manag r Historic Town Center Update. The Historic Town Center is Generally Bounded by Acjachema Street to the North, the San Diego Freeway to the East, Avenida La Paloma and Existing Commercial Uses to the South and Paseo Adelanto to the West. RECOMMENDATION: By motion, recommend the City Council: 1. Adopt a Resolution initiating a General Plan Amendment (GPA) to establish an appropriate Land Use Designation, Classification, and Development Capacity for the Historic Town Center area and consider other modifications to the General Plan as identified through the HTC update process; and, 2. Initiate a Code Amendment (CA) to the HTC Form Based Code relating to various development standards for the Town Center portion of the HTC Master Plan area; and, 3. Initiate review of the Historic Town Center Master Plan for modification as necessary; and, 4. Initiate a review of the Land Use (Zoning) classification for the properties along the west side of Camino Capistrano near Acjachema Street; and, 5. Appoint a Representative and an Alternate Representative to attend the City Council meeting to represent the view of the Commission and to answer any questions the City Council may have. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In 2014, staff identified a discrepancy between the apparent intention of the Historic

2 Planning Commission Agenda Report Page 2 of 5 Town Center (HTC) Master Plan and Form Based Code and the current General Plan. At the direction of the City Council, throughout 2015, the Planning Commission HTC Adhoc Committee reviewed the various planning documents guiding development for the HTC area to develop recommendations for reconciliation of the HTC Master Plan, Form Based Code and the General Plan. In December 2015, the Ad-hoc Committee concluded their activities with a report to the Planning Commission. On January 26, 2016 the Planning Commission reviewed the recommendations of the Ad-hoc Committee and directed staff to prepare an Agenda item for the meeting with recommendations for City Council action. BACKGROUND: General Location: General Plan Land Use Designation: Zoning Map designation: The Historic Town Center is generally bounded by Acjachema Street to the north, the San Diego Freeway to the east, Avenida La Paloma and existing commercial uses to the south and Paseo Adelanto to the west. General Commercial Town Center, Town Center Edge/General Commercial, Specific Plan DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: At the January 26, 2016 meeting, the Planning Commission discussed the vision for the HTC area as it has evolved since 2012 and the recommendations of the HTC Ad-hoc Committee. After extensive discussion of topics including development intensity; desired land uses for the HTC area; building height, scale and mass; parking; as well as protection of historic structures, the Planning Commission directed staff to bring back a series of recommendations for City Council consideration as captured above in the recommended actions. General Plan Amendment As discussed in various sections of the HTC Master Plan, the lower density and intensity standards applicable to other areas of San Juan Capistrano are not conducive to the type of development envisioned for the Town Center area. In consideration of the desire to maintain the village character of Downtown San Juan Capistrano and the desire to encourage revitalization while not overwhelming the existing built environment, the Ad-hoc Committee recommendation for the HTC Town Center was to establish a 0.75 FAR for non-residential development with the potential to increase the FAR to 1.0 if the project includes provisions for public gathering space such as an open and publically accessible plaza or accommodation of a public use such

3 Planning Commission Agenda Report Page 3 of 5 as a museum or civic facility. After review of various residential developments and consideration of the additional public dialog that has occurred since the adoption of the Master Plan, the Ad-hoc Committee recommended that residential development be restricted to vertical mixed-use buildings with no residential uses on the ground floor level at a density not exceeding 30 DUlAC. The Planning Commission expressed support for several of the general concepts developed by the Ad-hoc Committee and agreed that specific details regarding the FAR and Density would be developed if the City Council authorized the initiation of a General Plan Amendment. Commission members expressed concerns with specific aspects of the recommendations such as allowing residential uses in the HTC area however; the consensus was to first to have the City Council approve initiation of the GPA before the Commission spent additional time refining the Ad-hoc Committee recommendations. The Master Plan discusses various infrastructure design options for the Town Center area, including street and sidewalk configurations. In reviewing the plan and the adopted City Council Resolution there are some street sections that require additional clarification and this topic will also be addressed through this process. Form Based Code The HTC Master Plan vision calls for revitalization of the core downtown area and identified this area as the Town Center. To encourage revitalization and establish a "village scale" development pattern, the City Council adopted the HTC Form Based Code (Code) for the Town Center area. The Code is inclusive of standards regarding uses, setbacks, height, scale, massing and related matters. The Planning Commission did review several of the Ad-hoc Committee recommendations regarding the Code and as with the GPA, determined that the next step would be to request City Council initiation of the Code Amendment prior to delving further into the recommendations of the Ad-hoc Committee. The Ad-hoc Committee had developed recommendations regarding the following Code topics: Table 2B of the Code allows for the following unit types: Multi-family: 1 BR, 2 BR, and 3 BR. The Ad-hoc Committee recommendation to restrict residential development to vertical mixed use buildings with attached units and no residential uses on the ground floor will require modification to the Form Based Code. The Code allows for a maximum two story building and a maximum building height of thirty five (35) feet with a specific exception to allow three stories for hotel uses. The Code did not clearly identify a maximum height for the three story hotel use. After reviewing the scale and mass of buildings in other Downtown areas, the Committee recommended that the Code be revised to limit the height of two story structures to twenty five (25) feet and the height of hotel structures to three stories and thirty five (35) feet.

4 Planning Commission Agenda Report Page 4 of 5 The Municipal Code established the Park Once program in the Land Use Code (9-535 (h)) in 2011 and for the Town Center area as part of the Form Based Code ( ) in The Form Based Code allows for the use of the Park Once Garage for various land uses such as retail, commercial, entertainment and food uses "upon satisfying all in-lieu fee requirements". The Ad-hoc Committee identified two impediments to the implementation of Park Once as anticipated in the Code: 1) There is no established Parking In-lieu Fee 2) No Park Once Garage has been constructed In consideration of the lack of an established fee or resolution of the construction of a Park Once Garage, the Ad-hoc Committee recommended the elimination of the Park Once option/regulations until such time as there is adequate information to develop a complete and viable program. The Ad-hoc Committee also made recommendations regarding the Esslinger Building and Judge Eagan House setback and height polices recorded in Exhibit A to City Council Resolution In response to the City Council motion adopted December 11, 2015, this matter was not included in the Planning Commission review of the Ad-hoc Committee recommendations. The Planning Commission Committee of the Whole is reviewing this topic and continued the matter until the meeting of February 23, After review by the Committee of the Whole, these matters may also be addressed as part of the General Plan Amendment and Code Amendment. In staff's implementation of the Form Based Code, several additional irregularities and inconsistencies have been identified that merit evaluation should the City Council initiate a review through the Code Amendment process. These include the following: Table 2.2A (Required Yard) establishes a required Front Yard setback of zero (0) feet while Table 2 C (A) (Building Placement and Type) establishes a range for the minimum Front setback from zero (0) to ten (1 0) feet Table 2 C (B) (Building Configuration) calls for a minimum two (2) foot vertical separation of the ground floor to the adjacent sidewalk while many existing and anticipated buildings Downtown are configured with an at-grade transition to the sidewalk. There is also conflict between the vertical limit of 2C (B): of two (2) feet minimum and the Terrace frontage type (3A.5) that allows for a six (6) inch vertical separation. The properties located along the west side of Camino Capistrano near Acjachema Street are included in the Town Center designation and subject to the Form Based Code however the prevailing development pattern is more consistent with the General Commercial policies and standards. The General Plan and Code Amendment process will include review of this area.

5 Planning Commission Agenda Report Page 5 of 5 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: The initiation of the General Plan and Code Amendment study has been determined to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The activity of initiating the studies to consider the General Plan and Code Amendments is exempt per CEQA Guidelines section (Class 6) research activity and study for an action a public agency has not approved or adopted. NOTIFICATION: The proposed project does not require newspaper publication of a public notice nor the mailed notification of individual property owners. Public notice has been satisfied through the State-mandated posting of the meeting agenda at City Hall and on the City's website. This following interested parties have been noticed via . Jerry Nieblas Janice Pickartz Rudy Reyes Paul Fulbright Susie Wernet Jeff Singer Katherine Ransom Dan Friess Roy Nuun David Wood Andrew Wood John Gilloti Mechelle Lawrence Adams Laura Freese Tony Brown Steve Oedekerk Jake Griffith William Griffith Mary D. ATTACHMENT(S): Attachment 1 -Aerial Photo Attachment 2 - General Plan Land Use Map Attachment 3 -Zoning Map

6 Historic Town Center Master Plan Project Area & Sub-Areas ----~~--~--~-- Historic Town Center Master Plan Project Area Historic Town Center Master Plan Sub-Areas ATTACHMENT 1

7 SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO LAND USE MAP N ~ WWE s SCALE: 1" = 750'..., Feet 0 1,500 3,000 4,500 ORANGE COUNTY LAGUNA NIGUEL SAN CLEMENTE 1.0, GENERAL OPEN SPACE - 1.1, OPEN SPACE RECREATION D 1,2, NEIGHBORHOOD PARK D 1.3, COMMUNITY PARK D 1.~. SPECIALTY PARK - 1,5, REGIONAL PARK - 1.6, NATURAL OPEN SPACE D 1.7, RECREATION COMMERICAL D 2.0, VERY LOW DENSITY D LOW DENSITY - 2.2, MEDIUM LOW DENSITY D 2.3, MEDIUM DENSITY D 2.4, MEDIUM HIGH DENSITY - 2.5, HIGH DENSITY D 2,6, VERY HIGH DENSITY D 3,0, NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL - 3,1, GENERAL COMMERCIAL - 4.0, INDUSTRIAL PARK D 4.1, QUASI INDUSTRIAL D 4,2, AGRI-BUSINESS t~w 4.3. LIGHT INDUSTRIAL OFFICE/RESEARCH PARK Q 5,0, PUBLIC & INSTITUTIONAL - 5.1, EXISTING PUBLIC SCHOOLS D 5.3, ASSISTED CARE FACILITIES D SPECIAL STUDY - PLANNED COMMUNITY - SPECIFIC PLAN/PRECISE PLAN ~ ~ () I s: m z -1 N

8 Historic Town Center Master Plan Zonin --.::::::=:=---- Feet ,200 ATTACHMENT 3