Title
Zoning Conformance Determination - Senior Care Facility - Applicant: Christopher Garwood, Pacific Union. An application for a zoning conformance determination for a senior care facility on a five acre property located adjacent to the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal in the Harbor Bay Business Park. The zoning determination is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Body
BACKGROUND
On October 8, 2015, the Planning Board received a request for a zoning conformance determination from Mr. Christopher Garwood of Pacific Union. Mr. Garwood is requesting that the Planning Board confirm staff’s determination that a state licensed memory care and assisted living facility is consistent with the C-M Commercial Manufacturing District Zoning for the site. (Exhibit 1)
If the Planning Board affirms staff’s determination that the proposed use is permitted by the zoning, Pacific Union will proceed with the application process, which will include a Development Plan and Design Review application for the facility. Once the Development Plan and Design Review application is complete, staff will schedule and notice a public hearing before the Planning Board to review the applicant’s proposed site and landscape design (development plan) and the proposed architecture (design review) for the facility.
A zoning conformance determination does not pre-determine an affirmative vote on the development plan and design review application, but it does presuppose that the City will not deny the application based upon a finding that the use is not consistent with the zoning.
If the Planning Board determines that the proposed use does not comply with the C-M zoning designation, then Pacific Union will not proceed with the proposal.
ANALYSIS
Description of Proposed Use
As described in Exhibit 1, Pacific Union is proposing to construct a commercial memory care and assisted living facility on five acres of vacant private property located immediately adjacent to the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal parking lot.
The facility would serve approximately 100 seniors with memory care needs or in assisted living facilities. The facility would be approximately 95,000 square feet in size, two stories in height, and include facilities for the care (feeding, bathing, personal hygiene, laundry, etc.) as well as social programs for the residents. Exhibit 2 includes a conceptual site and floor plan. The facility would also include a restaurant-style dining area, library, movie room, café, physical therapy and common living room for use by the residents. The facility would be fully staffed on a 24-hour, seven-day a week basis by approximately 53 full-time equivalent employees.
The facility would include a variety of living spaces for the inhabitants ranging from individual private rooms with bathroom facilities for single memory care residents to larger one- and two- bedroom units for senior couples in need of assisted living. The larger units would include private living, sleeping, and bathing areas, and a small food preparation space. The food storage and preparation area will include sink, counter, microwave, and refrigerator, but it will not include full private cooking facilities.
Because none of the living spaces include fixed cooking facilities (an oven), none of the private living areas are defined as “residential units” under the Uniform Building Code or the City of Alameda Municipal Code.
Description of C-M Commercial Manufacturing Zoning District.
Residential units are not permitted in the C-M District. As described in Section 30-4.10 of the AMC, the C-M District is:
“intended to be applied where general commercial facilities are necessary and desirable for public service and convenience, or where light manufacturing will be a compatible use because of absence of noise, odor, dust, dirt, smoke, vibration, heat, glare, excessive vehicular and rail traffic, radiation, and other hazards incidental to industrial uses.”
Section 30-4.10 b. lists the specific uses that are permitted in the C-M District. Item number 1 on the list references all of the uses permitted by right in the C-1 and C-2 commercial districts. Item number 3 on the list includes, “Other commercial-manufacturing uses, which are similar to the uses permitted in the district…”
Both Section 30-4.8.b C-1 Neighborhood Business District, Uses Permitted and Section 30-4.9.b C-2 Central Business District, Uses Permitted list “Uses permitted in the AP District…” as uses that are permitted in the C-1 and C-2 Zoning Districts.
Section 30-4.7 -AP Administrative Professional District, subsection b. Uses Permitted includes item number 2: “Medical facilities, including but not limited to the following: …. (e) Nursing and convalescent homes, and (g) Rest Homes.
Nursing homes, convalescent homes, and rest homes are not defined in the Zoning Code, but Webster’s Dictionary defines a nursing home as: “a privately operated establishment providing maintenance and personal or nursing care for persons (as the aged or the chronically ill) who are unable to care for themselves properly. A rest home is defined as an “establishment that provides housing and general care for the aged or the convalescent”.
Conclusion:
Based upon the above analysis, staff believes the proposed use is a permitted use in the Harbor Bay Business District and in the C-M Zoning District. Since the use is permitted by the C-M District, the use is therefore also in conformance with the 1989 Harbor Bay Development Agreement.
Staff also believes that the use could be a complementary use for the other businesses and facilities in the district, which include the Ferry Terminal, a private school, and a childcare center. Through the development review process, the applicant could consider:
• Providing amenities to support the Ferry Terminal users, such as bicycle parking and/or a café on the western end of the project adjacent to the Ferry Terminal.
• Partnering with the Harbor Bay shuttle service and/or the recently approved hotel on Harbor Bay Parkway to provide shuttle services for seniors to Park Street shops and services.
• Landscape improvements to improve the interface between the homes to the rear of the business park, the lagoon, and the site.
From a transportation point of view, the proposed use will generate relatively few peak hour automobile trips in Harbor Bay. Assisted living facilities generate few commute-hour or school related vehicular trips. Most seniors in assisted living facilities do not drive, and staff shifts are spread out over a 24-hour period. Based upon an analysis conducted for the 2013 approval of the Oakmont memory care and assisted living facility, the Harbor Bay facility is expected to generate approximately 10 AM trips and about 10 PM peak period automobile trips. For comparison purposes, if the site were developed with 50,000 square feet of commercial office use as originally proposed, the site would generate approximately 75 to 80 AM and 75 to 80 PM peak hour trips.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The Development Plan and Design Review application, if submitted, will be subject to review pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A determination of conformance with the Zoning Ordinance is not an action subject to CEQA.
RECOMMENDATION
Affirm by motion the staff determination that the proposed use is a permitted use within the C-M Zoning District.
Respectfully Submitted,
Andrew Thomas
Assistant Community Development Director
Exhibits:
1. Request for Zoning Conformance Determination
2. Conceptual Site Plan, floor plans, and architecture