Title
PLN15-0198 - 1926 Park Street - Applicant: Bridgett Shank on behalf of Park Esquina, LLC. Public Hearing to consider approval of a landscape plan for a previously approved development project. The Planning Board approved a Design Review and Conditional Use Permit for a two-building mixed use development with a condition of approval that required final landscape plan approval by the Planning Board. This project is categorically exempt from further environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, Section 15304 - Minor Alterations to Land.
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: David Sablan
Planner II
BACKGROUND
On July 25, 2016, the Planning Board approved a Design Review and Conditional Use Permit for a mixed use development at 1926 Park Street. The approved project consists of two individual buildings on a narrow infill lot, with small pockets of landscaping located throughout the lot. The Planning Board required that the applicant review the possibility of including street trees along the Park Street and Blanding Avenue frontages of the project, and conditioned the project to receive final approval of a landscape plan by the Planning Board.
DISCUSSION
Staff and the applicant reviewed the City’s Master Street Tree Plan, adopted by the City Council in 2010, and determined that planting new street trees along Blanding Avenue and Park Street would not be possible due to separation requirements and existing subsurface utilities. The Master Street Tree Plan’s Volume 2, Appendix 2 provides a list of structures and utilities within the public right-of-way that have a required separation from street trees (Exhibit1). The applicant provided a project site plan that identifies the required buffer areas, which essentially rules out the possibility of adding street trees in the public right-of-way (Exhibit2, Sheet 1).
The applicant is requesting approval of the on-site landscape plan. The applicant has provided a revised landscape plan that better depicts the variety of plant species proposed (Exhibit2, Sheet 3). The plant palette includes a collection of native and non-invasive grass species in small planter areas in lieu of fescue turf. In the larger planter areas the plan uses Hummingbird sage as a flowering plant. The aggregate size of the landscape areas continues to qualify this project as a covered project under the City’s Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (WELO), which requires that landscape material, turf, and irrigation systems work cohesively to meet water-efficient landscaping standards under state law. Based on the physical constraints that preclude planting of additional street trees and the proposed landscape plan, staff recommends approval of the landscape plan as revised.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This project is determined to be Categorically Exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to the CEQA Guidelines Section 15304(b) - new landscaping that does not involve the removal of healthy, mature and scenic trees.
PUBLIC NOTICE and Comments
Property owners and residents within 300 feet of the project’s boundaries were notified of the public hearing and given the opportunity to review and comment on the proposal. As of the writing of this report, staff did not receive any public comments.
RECOMMENDATION
Hold a public hearing and approve by motion the proposed landscape plan, with the previous conditions of approval from PB-16-22 remaining in affect for this project.
Respectfully submitted,
David Sablan
Planner II
Exhibits:
1. City of Alameda Master Street Tree Plan, Vol. 2, Appendix 2
2. Project Plans