File #: 2017-4206   
Type: Regular Agenda Item
Body: Planning Board
On agenda: 4/24/2017
Title: Study Session to Provide Comments and Direction on Collaborating Partners Main Street Neighborhood Site Plan
Attachments: 1. Exhibit 1 Initial Site Plan, 2. Exhibit 2 Narrative Description, 3. Item 7-B Presentation

Title

 

Study Session to Provide Comments and Direction on Collaborating Partners Main Street Neighborhood Site Plan

 

Body

 

To:                      Honorable President and

Members of the Planning Board

 

From:                      Michelle Giles, Redevelopment Project Manager, Base Reuse

                     

Date:                     April 24, 2017

Re:                     Study Session to Provide Comments and Direction on Collaborating Partners Main Street Neighborhood Site Plan

DISCUSSION

On March 21, 2017, the City Council approved the Main Street Neighborhood (MSN) Specific Plan. The MSN Plan fulfills the General Plan policy objectives for a transit-oriented mixed-use, mixed income neighborhood with diverse housing options, parks and open spaces, neighborhood-serving businesses and transitional commercial uses. The MSN Plan implements this vision through a variety of regulations, standards, and guidelines for both public improvements and private investment. 

One of the primary objectives of the Specific Plan was to facilitate the consolidation and rebuilding of the existing supportive housing that is currently located in deteriorating 70+ year old housing scattered across 34 acres of the Main Street Neighborhood.  The supportive housing groups who lease and operate this housing include:  Alameda Point Collaborative (APC), Building Futures with Women and Children (BFWC), and Operation Dignity, known at the “Collaborating Partners”.

The Collaborating Partners work to meet the housing and service needs of persons impacted by homelessness, poverty, mental health concerns, domestic violence and veteran status in the Main Street Neighborhood.  In addition to leasing and managing 200 housing units for over 500 residents, the organizations provide employment training for adults, an academic center, teen center, and summer programming for children.

In the summer and fall of 2015, the Collaborating Partners and Mid-Pen Housing Corporation (Mid-Pen), a Bay Area-based nonprofit affordable housing developer selected to assist the Collaborating Partners in constructing new facilities, held a series of community outreach meetings, focus groups and design input meetings with residents on their preferred housing types and ideas for the neighborhood design that were then used to form the preferred site plan.  The meetings were facilitated by staff from MidPen, David Baker Architects, and Urban Design Innovations.  A video capturing the community engagement process can be viewed here - <https://youtu.be/U8nHGa4hgQk>.

The outcome of this engagement was selection of a preferred site to consolidate the groups’ housing and services. The selected site is approximately 10 acres and bounded by Main Street to the east and West Midway to the north. The site was chosen to meet several objectives to allow the Collaborating Partners to compete for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits needed to finance the new supportive housing including: proximity to public parks, schools, grocery stores and transit, and need to minimize upfront infrastructure-related costs due to its proximity to the Site A development. The preferred site was incorporated into the approved Main Street Neighborhood Specific Plan.

On December 15, 2015, the City Council unanimously approved an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement (ENA) with MidPen Housing, as Developer, and the Collaborating Partners for the 10-acre site south of W. Midway to relocate and reconstruct new facilities to support the long-term needs of their communities. The remaining land would be available for private development, pursuant to the discretion of the City Council, to help fund the infrastructure for both the Collaborating Partners’ site and the new development.

On December 15, 2016, the City Council approved a First Amendment to the ENA extending the term of the agreement to the end of 2017, to allow time for the Main Street Neighborhood Specific Plan to be approved.  The First Amendment also added new requirements and terms, including: 1) approval by the City Council of an Implementation Term Sheet no later than April 30, 2017, to establish the key business terms and framework for the transfer and development of the property; 2) a negotiated Disposition and Development Agreement (“DDA”) and Development Site Plan no later than December 31, 2017; and 3) An extension of the term at the sole discretion of the City Manager for no more than two times for up to three months each time.

On April 4, 2017, the City Council approved an Implementation Term Sheet with Mid-Pen and the Collaborating Partners. A similar process was used in the negotiations of the Site A DDA, with the City Council approving a non-binding term sheet to be used as a guide to address key issues in the DDA, at the same time that the Development Plan was reviewed and approved through the City’s planning process. 

DISCUSSION

At the April 24, 2017 Planning Board meeting, the project applicants and their design team would like to review their preliminary site planning ideas for the 10-acre parcel with the Planning Board.   As described in the exhibits, the applicant team is still working through a number of planning issues with the site plan and would appreciate Planning Board advice at this time. 

Planning Board comments will assist the site planning team as it develops its final submittals for a Development Plan application for Planning Board consideration at a future public hearing.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW

On February 4, 2014, the City Council adopted the Alameda Point EIR, which evaluated the potential environmental impacts of the Alameda Point Zoning Ordinance and development in the MSN Plan area.  The EIR analysis helped shape the MSN Plan to minimize potential environmental impacts and support a sustainable development. All development within the MSN Plan area is required to comply with the mitigation measures adopted by the City Council for Alameda Point.

 

RECOMMENDATION

Provide comments and direction on Collaborating Partners Main Street Neighborhood Site Plan.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Giles, Redevelopment Project Manager - Base Reuse

Exhibits:

1.                     Initial Site Plan

2.                     Narrative Description