COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO Inter-Departmental Correspondence For the Agenda of December 10, 2003 To: From: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT Subject: WORKSHOP ON THE FLORIN-VINEYARD COMMUNITY PLAN Contact: Jeff Gamel at 874-6141. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Determine that the Revised CAC Preferred Land Use Plan is the preferred draft land use option for the Florin-Vineyard Community Plan, and as such, should be subject to further evaluation. 2. Forward the Revised CAC Preferred Land Use Plan and Planning Department Land Use Options for the Florin-Vineyard Community Plan to the Department of Environmental Review and Assessment for appropriate environmental analysis, and to the Public Works Agency for various technical studies to determine the necessary infrastructure to serve the study area. 3. Direct Planning staff to provide notice to all property owners within the Florin-Vineyard Community Plan study area of an opportunity to file private development applications corresponding with the preferred draft land use plan, pursuant to Resolution No. 2002-1312; and to report back on processing options, and possible cost-sharing arrangements to help fund the necessary environmental analysis and technical studies associated with the project. DISCUSSION: This item is a continuation of the workshop that occurred on October 29, 2003. At that time, your Board was presented with two draft land use options for the study area, and received testimony from a number of community residents, development interests, and members of the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) appointed to help Planning staff draft a comprehensive land use plan for this area. Your Board requested the Planning staff conduct an additional community workshop to clarify the latest land use proposals, and to explore possible compromises. The requested community workshop occurred on Thursday, December 4, 2003, at Smedberg Middle School. Over one hundred community residents attended this workshop. Presentations were made by Planning staff, the Department of Transportation (Jeff Clark), and the CAC Chair (Stuart Helfand). In addition, representatives of several property owners (Gerry Kamilos, Eric Solario, and Kevin Walker) spoke regarding private agreements to amend the CAC Land Use Option. Several amendments to the
WORKSHOP ON THE FLORIN-VINEYARD COMMUNITY PLAN Page 2 CAC Preferred Land Use Plan were discussed, and generally agreed to by the majority of those CAC members present. An amended CAC Preferred Plan is attached, and examined in greater detail below. Revised CAC Preferred Land Use Plan: The prior CAC preferred plan reflected a potential for 5,667 dwelling units, for an overall average density of 2.5 units per acre (primarily due to the large amount of agricultural-residential land use designations). Planning staff had prepared a land use plan that was intended to respond to regional housing needs, and to be more consistent with General Plan urban growth policies. The Planning staff plan reflected a potential for 10,386 dwelling units, for an overall average density of 4.2 units per acre. Multi-family designations were also increased from 22 acres shown on the CAC plan to 86 acres on the Planning staff plan. The revised CAC plan reflects a potential for 8,950 dwelling units, for an overall average density of 3.7 dwelling units per acre. It also reflects 63.5 acres of multi-family designations. Those areas west of Elk Grove-Florin Road and South Watt Avenue are identical with those land use designations shown on the Planning staff plan, except for the neighborhood along Carlisle/Caselman, west of Elk Grove-Florin Road, where it reflects the original CAC plan rural land use designations. Residential land use designations have also been added to the area northeast of the intersection of South Watt Avenue and Florin Road with the intent of offsetting the loss of density (i.e., preservation of the rural designations) for the Carlisle/Caselman neighborhood. A residential buffer north of the McCoy Avenue neighborhood has been eliminated and intensified (from RD 2-3 to ), and the recreation designation for Champions Golf Course has been replaced with a combination of, and LC designations. Planning Staff Land Use Options: While the revised CAC plan is very close to the Planning staff plan in terms of density or intensity, there are still a few areas where land use densities could be increased to be more consistent with General Plan policies (e.g., along Elk Grove-Florin Road), designations added to ensure adequate protection for aggregate resources, and/or additional sites identified for suitable multifamily development. For the most part these areas represent designations that were reflected on the Planning staff plan, but not incorporated into the revised CAC plan. These areas are depicted by the attached Planning Options A-F, and it is recommended that they be forwarded with the revised CAC plan for further evaluation. Infrastructure Needs: Pursuant to your Board s request for additional information on infrastructure financing, Planning staff asked the Public Works Agency for a preliminary evaluation of the two prior land use options. According to the attached correspondence from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Finance Section, it is difficult to draw a conclusion about relative infrastructure costs without detailed technical studies (e.g., a traffic study). It does appear that a lower density alternative would require less costly infrastructure improvements, particularly those driven by population such as libraries, schools and parks. On the other hand. other infrastructure improvements such as roadways, sewer, drainage and water costs do not vary as much based on different land use scenarios. In general, a higher density alternative should equate to a lower fee per dwelling unit. JG:jg:jrc 2
WORKSHOP ON THE FLORIN-VINEYARD COMMUNITY PLAN Page 3 Future Planning Efforts: Once your Board has endorsed a preferred land use plan, including any alternatives, an environmental document will be prepared as well as various technical studies for the necessary infrastructure to service the study area. In accordance with a resolution adopted by your Board governing the filing of development applications during the planning process (Resolution No. 2002-1312), notice will be provided to all property owners within the study area inviting private rezone applications corresponding with the identified and preferred land use patterns to be filed with the Planning Department. A subsequent workshop is recommended to allow staff an opportunity to focus on policies and procedures for processing private rezone applications, and possible cost-sharing arrangements with property owners/developers for the technical and infrastructure studies that may be necessary for this project. As you are aware, there is a request to bifurcate the processing of certain rezone applications. This request would be more appropriate to address in a subsequent workshop, once the interest in filing (and the number) of private development applications is known. CONCLUSION: A revised CAC Preferred Land Use Plan has been prepared for your consideration. This revised plan is much closer to the Planning staff plan in terms of density. Planning still recommends that a few alternatives be evaluated in conjunction with the CAC plan as these will ensure greater consistency with the General Plan, and help to meet the regions growing housing needs. At this time, it is recommended that your Board direct staff to proceed to the next important phase of this planning process to refer the preferred plan and alternatives to the Department of Environmental Review and Assessment for appropriate environmental analysis, and to the Public Works Agency for various technical studies to determine the necessary infrastructure to serve the study area. ATTACHMENTS: A. Revised CAC Preferred Draft Land Use Plan, December 4, 2003 B. Planning Department Land Use Options C. Correspondence from the Department of Transportation, November 17, 2003 D. Correspondence from the Infrastructure Finance Section, December 1, 2003 This report was prepared by Jeff Gamel. 12/9/03 JG:jg:jrc 3
NOT TO SCALE CAC Preferred Draft Land Use Plan December 4, 2003 8,950 Dwelling Units (63.5 ac. MF) WATT AVE. ELDER CREEK ROAD BRADSHAW ROAD FRENCH ROAD FLORIN PERKINS ROAD SOUTH M-1 M-1(F) M-1(SM) M-1(SM)(F) M-1(SM) M-1 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA TRACTION COMPANY RAILROAD M-1 GC RD 5-7 RD 5-7 RD-10(MHP) SC RD 7-12 RD 7-12 LC FLORIN ROAD OS GC SC RD 5-7 AR 2-5 OS UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD RD-10(MHP) OS RD 2-3 ELK GROVE - FLORIN ROAD LC SC RD 2-3 GERBER ROAD OS AR 2-5 OS SC BP VINEYARD ROAD RD 2-3