Title
Public Workshop to Consider a Draft Master Plan (PLN14-0059) for the Rehabilitation, Reuse, and Redevelopment of the Former Del Monte Warehouse Site located at 1501 Buena Vista Avenue
Body
CITY OF ALAMEDA
Memorandum
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas
City Planner
Date: April 28, 2014
Re: Public Workshop to Consider a Draft Master Plan (PLN14-0059) for the Rehabilitation, Reuse, and Redevelopment of the Former Del Monte Warehouse Site located at 1501 Buena Vista Avenue
BACKROUND
Over the course of the last six months, City staff has been working with Tim Lewis Communities to develop a Master Plan for the rehabilitation, reuse, and redevelopment of the former Del Monte Warehouse site located at 1501 Buena Vista Avenue. Staff is now requesting that the Planning Board and the Alameda community review and comment on the work completed to date. The initial draft Master Plan is available for public review on the city website at www.alamedaca.gov <http://www.alamedaca.gov> and attached as Exhibit 1 to this staff report.
Based upon the comments received, staff and the project applicant's team of consultants, including BAR Architects of San Francisco, VerPlanck Historic Consultants, and CBG Engineers, will continue to make improvements to the Master Plan. Upon completion of the revisions, staff will schedule a second noticed public hearing before the Planning Board for further review of the Master Plan.
Pursuant to the Alameda Municipal Code (AMC), the Planning Board must advise the City Council on the adequacy of the Master Plan. The Historical Advisory Board (HAB) must review the project for consistency with the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Structures. (The HAB has held two public hearings on the project and has provided a number of positive suggestions and changes that are reflected in Exhibit 1.)
ANALYSIS
At the outset of the planning process with the applicant's team, City staff requested that the applicant's Del Monte Master Plan achieve the following City objectives:
1. General Plan: Implement the City of Alameda General Plan objectives for a transit-oriented, mixed use development.
2. Historic Preservation: Preserve, rehabilitate and adaptively reuse the historic Del Monte Warehouse (one of only 25 designated City Monuments in Alameda) consistent with the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation.
3. Housing: Provide multi-family housing consistent with the 2012 City of Alameda Housing Element and the site's multifamily overlay zoning designation, remove the existing trucking businesses from the neighborhood, and provide housing opportunities for lower-income households, residents with disabilities, and seniors.
4. Transportation: Provide water-based and land-based transit services to support creation of a waterfront mixed use transit village on the Encinal Terminals and Del Monte sites, and support the construction of the Clement Avenue extension from Entrance Road to Atlantic Avenue, which will facilitate the eventual transfer of the Buena Vista Avenue truck route to Clement Avenue.
5. Sustainability: Create a sustainable, energy-efficient housing development in Alameda that would set a new standard for housing development in Alameda.
Staff believes that the initial draft Master Plan substantially achieves all of the objectives. However, staff's work with the applicant's consultant team is on-going, and at this time, staff is requesting that the public and Planning Board provide comments and suggestions to improve the plan. The suggestions and recommendations may include changes to better achieve one of the five objectives above or address other community objectives not listed above.
General Plan: In 2008, the City adopted the Northern Waterfront General Plan Amendment (GPA) to provide a planning framework for future growth and redevelopment of a collection of primarily industrial parcels located along the City's north-central shoreline. The purpose of the Northern Waterfront GPA is to establish General Plan policy, standards, and requirements for future development, while encouraging a mix of uses that are sensitive to existing residential neighborhoods and the historic character of the area.
"The intent of the development policies for the Del Monte site is to facilitate adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the Del Monte Warehouse, a building of significant historical value that is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in a manner that is compatible with the needs and interests of the adjacent residential and recreational uses." - City of Alameda General Plan
The GPA contains a number of policies that specifically apply to the reuse of the Del Monte Warehouse. These policies include:
"D-M 1. Encourage the sensitive rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Del Monte Warehouse Building consistent with Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.
D-M 2. Consider a pedestrian access or "pass through" through the building to connect Littlejohn Park to the public greenway adjacent to Alaska Basin in a manner consistent with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.
D-M 3. Adaptive reuse of the structure may include a range of uses including work/live, hotel, commercial, retail, office and/or residential uses. A mix of compatible uses is encouraged, but a single use is allowable if the single use is compatible with the historic structure and the surrounding land uses. Allow a mix of retail, residential, and commercial uses in the Del Monte Warehouse Building."
Project Zoning
The site is zoned MX (Mixed Use), with a MF (Multifamily) overlay on 11.06 acres (excludes .45 acre City-owned parcel). The MX zoning designation requires preparation and adoption of a Master Plan prior to development. Future uses and development of the property must then be consistent with the approved Master Plan. The MF overlay permits multifamily housing and a residential density of 30 units per acre. The City's Density Bonus Ordinance, which applies citywide, permits a density bonus and waivers for projects that provide affordable housing in excess of the City's requirement that 15% of all the units be affordable units.
Master Plan Description
The site plan is divided into three buildable subareas (Subareas A, B and C, Exhibit 1, Subarea Plan Map). The Del Monte Warehouse Subarea (labeled Subarea A in the Master Plan) is approximately 7.26 acres and includes the historic warehouse, surface parking and landscaping (see Exhibit 1, Sheet A1.01). The Sherman Subarea (Subarea B) is approximately .83 acres, and the Eagle Subarea (Subarea C) is approximately .87 acres.
The Master Plan proposes up to 414 units and up to 25,000 square feet of commercial space in the building and in the three sub areas (A, B, and C). The Master Plan provides a specific development plan for the Del Monte Warehouse building (sub area A) that includes approximately 309 residential units and between 9,000 and 18,000 square feet of waterfront retail space on the Clement Street side of the building. The Master Plan provides zoning standards for the other two sub-areas. These zoning standards will be used by the Planning Board and community to review future development plans for sub areas B and C.
Automobile access will be provided from all four perimeter streets. Pedestrian access will be provided along existing sidewalks on Clement and Buena Vista Avenues and planned sidewalks on the Clement Avenue Extension and Entrance Road. The internal streets are designed to extend the Alameda street grid into the project site at Eagle. A new pedestrian paseo is planned to bisect the interior of the warehouse building and connect Benton Street to the waterfront. The nearest bus stop is located about one- quarter mile away at the intersection of Santa Clara Avenue and Stanton Street. The Cross Estuary Shuttle to BART currently provides service to the adjacent Wind River office campus.
Historic Preservation and Secretary of Interior Standards:
To ensure that the proposal meets Secretary of Interior Standards for the rehabilitation of historic structures, the project team includes Christopher VerPlanck, of VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting. Mr. VerPlanck is a well-regarded preservation professional. Formerly with Page and Turnbull, Mr. VerPlanck's 2006 assessment of NAS Alameda for the City of Alameda is a cornerstone document for the NAS Alameda's eventual 2012 designation on the National Register.
The historic warehouse building was constructed in 1927. It has a footprint of 235,792 square feet, or approximately 5.4 acres. The Del Monte Warehouse's significant character-defining features include its composition as a two-story, four-part, gable-roofed volume; its solid brick walls (50 bays each along the north and south façades and 12 each along the east and west façades) articulated by pilasters and spandrel panels made of a contrasting clinker brick with green tile inlay; its regularly spaced gable-roofed parapets (five each on the north and south façades and three each on the east and west façades); its shallow-pitched roof punctuated by monitors; its regularly spaced, punched door openings at the first floor level; its punched divided light steel industrial windows at the second floor level; its shed-roofed canopy and loading docks on the north and south façades; and its exposed timber framing inside the building.
The proposed project would make several modifications to the exterior of the building, including demolishing the non-historic 1950s-era Storage and Labeling Shed at the northwest corner of the site and "re-skinning" the outer two sections (bays 1 and 4) of the roof to allow code-required light and air into the building. Fifty new openings would be punched into the exterior walls at the first floor level (see Exhibit 1, Sheet A3.04). The center two sections of the roof (bays 2 and 3), as well as the wood-framing that supports it, would be removed to construct a new five-story addition within the footprint of the building. The new addition would rise about two stories above the existing exterior walls and would be significantly setback from the existing façade.
The height of the new addition would be 49 feet to the roof parapet, which is comparable to the height of the nearby Wind River buildings, and about 10 feet higher than the four-story, 39-foot high buildings recently approved for TriPointe Homes along Fifth Street at Alameda Landing. Because the addition is setback 60 feet from the north and south facades and 250 feet from the east and west facades, the addition is not visible from the adjacent sidewalks and only slightly visible form other perspectives further from the property. The applicant is working on plan to provide story poles at a future date, which will help demonstrate the visibility of the addition from the adjacent public rights-of-way and parks.
Multifamily Housing for a Variety of Household Types
The General Plan and Zoning Ordinance support the development of a variety of multifamily housing for a variety of housing needs on this site. As noted above, the entire site, with the exception of the .45 acre of land owned by the City, has a MF zone designation. At 30 units to the acre, the site can accommodate 342 units. The City's 15% inclusionary zoning ordinance requires that 51 of those 342 units be available to very low-, low-, and moderate-income households (HHs). The Master Plan anticipates that the applicant would apply for a density bonus pursuant to the City's Density Bonus Ordinance (DBO). If the applicant provides 16% affordable housing (5% affordable to very low-income HHs, 4% affordable to low-income HHs, and 7% affordable to moderate-income HHs), he/she is eligible for a 20% density bonus, or 410 units. Of these 410 units, 55 would be inclusionary units (16% calculated on the base project of 342 units). Seventeen units would be affordable to very low-income HHs, 14 units would be available to low-income HHs, and 24 units would be available to moderate-income HHs.
Of the 309 housing units proposed within the existing warehouse, 127 (41%) would be one-bedroom units, 162 (52%) would be two-bedroom units and 20 (7%) would be three-bedroom units. The one-bedroom units would range in size from 706 to 840 square feet, the two-bedroom units would range in size from 1,150 to 1,446 square feet and the three-bedroom units would all be 1,766 square feet. The location of each housing type within the building is shown in Exhibit 1 (see Sheets A2.01 through A2.05).
Residential units will be designed to be universally adaptable. All primary floors will be served by an elevator and every residential unit will have an accessible route to it and within it. The townhouse units will have an adaptable first floor and a second floor or mezzanine that is not adaptable.
The Master Plan anticipates subsequent entitlements, including a condominium map. A condominium map would allow for rental as well as for-sale units. The project is envisioned as a mix of rental and for-sale units.
Parking and Transportation Demand Management (TDM)
The Master Plan is designed to support a waterfront transit village on the Northern Waterfront. To be successful, the project must support transit, bicycle and pedestrian modes of travel and discourage automobile use. The Master Plan parking and TDM program proposes:
· 309 parking spaces within the Del Monte Warehouse to be shared by residents;
· 134 parking spaces outside the Warehouse to be shared by residents, commercial tenants and visitors;
· 60 existing on-street parking spaces on Buena Vista Avenue and Clement Avenue for use by visitors and the public;
In order to reduce traffic trips and parking demand, the Master Plan includes unbundled parking regulations similar to those approved for Alameda Point. Unbundled parking separates the lease or purchase price for a residential unit from the cost for a parking stall. The intent of the provisions is to reduce housing costs and support tenants and buyers who might wish to live without a car or with only one car. The use of unbundled parking in other cities has effectively reduced the number of traffic trips and parking demand, resulting in lower required parking ratios for new developments. The following regulations will apply to the sale or rental of parking spaces in the residential buildings within the Del Monte Master Plan area:
· All off-street parking spaces shall be leased or sold separately from the rental or purchase price for the individual units for the life of the units, such that potential renters or buyers have the option of renting or buying a unit at a price lower than would be the case if there were a single price for both the unit and the parking space(s).
· Potential buyers and/or renters of affordable residential units shall have an equal opportunity to buy or rent a parking space on the same terms and conditions as offered to the potential buyers and renters of market rate units, at a price proportional to the sale or rental price of their units as compared to comparable market rate units. In no event would the cost/rental of one parking space and a unit exceed 30% of the buyer's/renter's annual income (or 35% of a moderate-income homebuyer's annual income). This stipulation shall be included in the Affordable Housing Agreement recorded between the City and the developer pertaining to the affordable units.
· Parking spaces shall be offered only to residents and tenants served by the off-street parking, except that any surplus space may be rented out to non-residents or non-tenants with the provision that such spaces must be vacated on 30-day notice if they become needed by tenants or residents.
To provide alternatives to the automobile, all residents and commercial tenants will pay annual fees to support establishment of supplemental transit services such as: shuttle services to BART, water shuttle services to Oakland, and/or on-site car share services. The funds will be managed by a Transportation Management Association (TMA), which will provide an annual report on the success of the programs. The TMA may choose to merge with an existing TMA to leverage its resources and provide more expansive services.
Due to consistent efforts by the City of Alameda over the last 10 years, the adjacent Windriver office campus, the Chipman Property, the Boatworks project, Alameda Landing, and Alameda Point are all required to financially support similar transportation services. Future projects within the Northern Waterfront Priority Development Area (PDA) will also be required to fund and provide similar services. These future projects include: Encinal Terminal, Alameda Marina, the Penzoil site, and others. As the Northern Waterfront redevelops, the number of transit riders will increase to support transit, and the funds generated by these projects to support transit services also will increase. Working together, the project TMAs and their transportation funds will play an important role in transforming the former industrial Northern Waterfront area into the transit oriented waterfront community envisioned in the General Plan and in Plan Bay Area, the region's Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions regionally.
Sustainable Design Requirements
Building improvements will be consistent with a LEED Silver designation or its equivalent. Continued use of solar panels for energy generation is encouraged and deemed consistent with the architectural character of the building.
Open Space & Landscape Design
In addition to meeting the planning and land use objectives described above, the proposed site plan proposes landscaping surrounding the perimeter of all three buildable subareas. The landscape palette includes Bay Friendly groundcover, bioswale planting and shrubs as well paving and ornamental stone (see Exhibit 1, Sheets L1.01 - L1.03 and L2.01). The bio-swales would include Black Poplar trees. Parking area and perimeter trees include Catalina Ironwood, Monterey Cypress, Gingko and Coast Live Oak trees.
In addition, there is a large public paseo and a small amount of common interior space (6,050 square feet) on the first floor of the Del Monte building and several outdoor common open spaces, including an outdoor seating area in front of the retail space facing the Estuary. There currently are no details for open space for the Sherman or Eagle Subareas. The Zoning Ordinance requires a minimum of 300 square feet of usable outdoor open space per unit. For the 414 total units on this site, a minimum of 2.85 acres of open space would be required on-site (Del Monte Warehouse plus adjacent pads). Since this amount of common open space cannot be provided on-site, the City is negotiating an in-lieu fee to support construction of public open space off-site. The fee may be used to contribute to the improvements planned for the 21-acre Jean Sweeney Park across the street. Any combination of on-site open space/in-lieu fee would be addressed as part of the Development Agreement or DBO application.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
In 2008, the City certified an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Northern Waterfront GPA. The City is currently working on a supplemental environmental document to ensure that all of the potential environmental impacts of the proposed Master Plan are adequately analyzed and disclosed. Once completed, the draft document will be released for public review.
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. Staff has not received any public comments on the building design as of April 17, 2014.
RECOMMENDATION
Hold a public hearing and provide comments on the proposed Del Monte Master Plan.
Respectfully Submitted,
Andrew Thomas
City Planner
Exhibit:
1. Draft Master Plan