Title
Public Hearing to Consider a Recommendation to Approve the Development Plan, Design Review, and Density Bonus application, and Environmental Impact Report (SCH No. 2017042021) for the Alameda Shipways Residential project located at 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway (APN 074-1334-067, 074-1334-024 and 074-1334-023)
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas, Acting Director of Planning, Building and Transportation Department
Linda Barrera, Planner II
Re: Public Hearing to Consider a Recommendation to Approve the Development Plan, Design Review, and Density Bonus application, and Environmental Impact Report (SCH No. 2017042021) for the Alameda Shipways Residential project located at 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway (APN 074-1334-067, 074-1334-024 and 074-1334-023)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Steelwave Acquisitions, LLC, the project applicant, is requesting certification of the Environmental Impact Report and approval of a Development Plan, Design Review, Density Bonus for development of the an 8.1 acre “Alameda Shipways” site located at 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway. The applicant is proposing to construct four separate buildings containing 329 residential units, 54 of which will be deed-restricted affordable housing units. A parking lot under the buildings will provide 498 parking spaces. A new waterfront park will provide access to 2.79-acres of public open space. A portion of the park would be constructed on lands owned by the City of Alameda.
The proposed project implements the City of Alameda Housing Element and is consistent with the City of Alameda General Plan, the Alameda Municipal Code (AMC), and State Housing Law objective standards and requirements for the redevelopment of the property. Staff is recommending conditional approval of the proposed project plans (Exhibit 1). Staff’s recommended conditions of approval are included in Exhibit 2.
BACKGROUND
The project site is an 8.1 acre waterfront property located at 1100-1250 Marina Village Parkway. The site faces the Oakland Alameda Estuary and two partially submerged City-owned parcels to the north. Marina berths and marina parking lots border the site on the east and west. Marina Village Parkway and the adjacent business park border the site to the south. The site is within a three block walk of the Alameda Landing shopping center to the west and a two block walk to the Alameda Marina shopping center to the south. AC Transit Line 19 stops adjacent to the site and provides direct service to Downtown Oakland BART and Fruitvale BART. Due to its location and size, the site is identified as a multifamily housing site in the City of Alameda Housing Element.
The shipways site is currently occupied by the increasingly deteriorated and structurally unsound remains of the 1942 Bethlehem Alameda Shipyard. The “shipways” were built of reinforced concrete supported by thousands of timber piles anchored in Bay Mud approximately 50 to 80 feet deep. Overtime, the mud has settled and shifted and a substantial portion of the timber piles have become separated from the concrete deck and the concrete structures have cracked and are at risk of structural failure. Portions of the badly damaged shipways extend over the property line onto the City owned lands.
A historic resource evaluation prepared by preservation consultants Carey & Co, Inc. determined that the site is a historical resource due to its association with wartime efforts at a national and regional level and the development of steel ship building and repair at the local level. Since the project plans require demolition of the existing concrete structures, the project will require approval of a Certificate of Approval by the Historical Advisory Board.
The recommended project design plans (Exhibit 1) are the product of a lengthy public review process that began in March 2017. During the last twenty months, the applicant has made several major revision to the project in response to comments received at the following public meetings and site tours:
• April 24, 2017 Planning Board public hearing
• June 27, 2017 Planning Board and Historical Advisory Board joint site tour
• July 24, 2017 Planning Board study session
• May 3, 2018 Historical Advisory Board public hearing
• May 14, 2018 Planning Board public hearing
• June 7, 2018 Historical Advisory Board public hearing
• June 14, 2018 Recreation and Parks Committee study session
• Nov. 20, 2018 Planning Board and Historical Advisory Board joint site tour
• Dec. 6, 2018 Historical Advisory Board study session
• January 10, 2019 Historical Advisory Board study session
In addition, the waterfront park design has benefited from preliminary review by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the residents and boat owners in the adjacent marina.
ANALYSIS
General Plan and Zoning Code Compliance: The Shipways property is identified as a multifamily housing opportunity site in the City of Alameda Housing Element and a site suitable for residential use in the Land Use Element of the General Plan. Meeting the City's Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) is dependent upon development of the site with housing. The plans comply with all of the General Plan objective standards for the development of the property.
The Shipways site is located in Marina Village, which is zoned M-X (Mixed-Use Planned Development District). On October 2, 1984, the City Council adopted the Marina Village Master Plan for the 206-acre Marina Village planning area, which includes the Shipways site. The Marina Village Master Plan identifies the site for residential use.
In 2012, the site zoning was amended to include the Multi-family Residential Combining Zone (MF District), an overlay zone that permits multifamily housing on the property, which was necessary to bring the City of Alameda into compliance with State Housing Element Law. The new zoning also served to improve the financial feasibility of site redevelopment by increasing the allowable density on the site and permitting multifamily housing on the site. Prior to 2012, the development of the site was limited to single family homes and duplexes.
Shipways Residential Plan: The project provides:
• 329 multifamily rental studio, one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom units in a variety of sizes including:
• 54 deed-restricted affordable housing units, including 27 units for very low-income households, 10 units for low-income households, and 17 units for middle-income or “moderate”-income households. Moderate-income households are defined as households with an income that does not exceed 120% of Alameda County area wide median income. In 2018, a moderate income family of four could earn up to $124,800.
• 85 market rate “affordable by design” small units of 900 square feet or less and 138 small “affordable by design” units of 900 to 1,200 square feet in size.
The 8.1 acre Shipways site is zoned M-X (Mixed Use Planned Development) with an MF (Multi-family Residential Combining District) overlay which permits a residential density of 30 units per acre. At 30 units per acre, the site accommodates 243 units. However, the applicant is requesting a 35% state density bonus for a total of 329 units. To qualify for the density bonus, the applicant proposes to deed restrict 11%, or 27 of the units, for very low-income households and therefore qualifies for a 35% density bonus pursuant to Government Code section 65915(f)(2) and AMC section 30-17.7.1. (Alameda’s inclusionary housing requirements, AMC Section 30-16.4, only require that 4% of the total units to be deed restricted to very low-income households.) The applicant’s density bonus application is attached as Exhibit 3.
State Density Bonus Law and AMC 30-17 (Density Bonus Ordinance) require the City to permit the construction of additional residential units and, if requested by the applicant, provide reduced parking standards, regulatory incentives/concessions, and waivers to developers who agree to build a certain percentage of affordable housing that meets the statutory criteria. (Gov. Code, § 65915(b)(1), AMC § 30-17.) State law defines a density bonus as a:
“density increase over the otherwise maximum allowable gross residential density as of the date of application… or, if elected by the applicant, a lesser percentage of density increase, including, but not limited to, no increase in density.” (Gov. Code, § 65915(f).)
Government Code section 65915 prohibits the Planning Board or City Council from reducing the number of units in a development that has qualified for a density bonus:
“In no case may a city… apply any development standard that will have the effect of physically precluding the construction of a development meeting the criteria of subdivision (b) at the densities or with the concessions or incentives permitted by this section. An applicant may submit to a city…a proposal for the waiver or reduction of development standards that will have the effect of physically precluding the construction of a development meeting the criteria of subdivision (b) at the densities or with the concessions or incentives permitted under this section and may request a meeting with the city…. If a court finds that the refusal to grant a waiver or reduction of development standards is in violation of this section, the court shall award the plaintiff reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of suit.” (Gov. Code, § 65915(e)(1).)
Furthermore, Government Code section 65589.5 (the Housing Accountability Act) prohibits the Planning Board and City Council from reducing the number of units, unless the reduction in units is necessary to mitigate:
“a significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact, based on objective, identified written public health or safety standards, policies, or conditions as they existed on the date the application was deemed complete.” (Gov. Code, § 65589.5(d)(2).)
In this case, there are no specific, adverse impacts to public health or safety because (1) no such standards, policies, or conditions existed on the date the application was deemed complete, and (2) there is no evidence of public health or safety impacts associated with the project.
Shipways Waterfront Park Plan: The Shipways project includes construction of a new 2.79 acre waterfront public park on a portion of the Alameda waterfront that has never been open to public access. The new park will replace the existing concrete shipways that currently extend into the Estuary and onto the City-owned parcels. The applicant is proposing to demolish the structures entirely at their expense, including the dilapidated portions located on City property, build a new stabilized shoreline, and construct and maintain a new 2.79-acre waterfront park for public use.
The park design has benefited from review by the Alameda Recreation and Parks Commission and staff, BCDC, San Francisco Bay Trail staff, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the adjacent marina boat owners and live aboard residents.
The Shipways waterfront park plan includes:
• A 2.79 acre public park, with seating areas, children’s play areas, public piers over the water, and public kayak launching facilities and water shuttle dock. Public access will be ensured through public access easements granted by the Developer. Maintenance of the public park will be the responsibility of the project at no cost to the Alameda taxpayers or the City of Alameda Recreation and Parks Department.
• To provide maximum feasible public access to the shoreline and clear and visible public access to the park, two large 40 to 60 foot wide park “extensions” are provided on either side of the building connecting the waterfront park to the public right of way on Marina Village Parkway.
• The final park design features longer finger piers on the interior of the park, rather than the edges, which will accommodate the kayak launch and water shuttle dock, while minimizing privacy and noise impacts to adjacent boaters from public park use.
• A new 26-foot wide trail extension will provide bicycle and pedestrian access along the waterfront and emergency access to the park for emergency response vehicles and connectivity to the existing Bay Trail.
• A public restroom, and outdoor showers/kayak wash area, a children’s play area, picnic tables and BBQ grills, water fountains, public art, bicycle racks, dog wash station, and historical information plaques for public use and enjoyment.
Architectural Design: The architectural design of the project is shaped by several physical and institutional constraints and objectives:
Flood Plain and Sea Level Rise: The residential buildings and parking structure must be lifted above existing grade to meet federal flood insurance requirements and address regional and local sea level rise requirements. As a result, the entire site is lifted above the existing grade of the public right of way on Marina Village Parkway to accommodate up to three (3) feet of sea level rise. Since the raised site and structure blocks views of the water and the park from Marina Village Parkway, the 40 to 60 foot wide “park extensions” on either side of the building provide important visual and physical connections from the public right of way to the public park.
Building Massing and Height: The 329 units are distributed among four separate buildings positioned on a common parking structure. The decision to create four separate buildings with an open corridor between the buildings to the water was made in response to the Planning Board’s request that the applicant break up its original design for a single monolithic structure. As a result of this change, the height of the buildings increased. The two buildings facing Marina Village Parkway are four stories and the two buildings facing the water the two buildings facing the water have partial sixth stories. The building heights therefore vary from 59-feet to 79-feet.
Pursuant to Government Code section 65915(e) and AMC 30-17.12 (Waivers of Development Standards that Physically Preclude Construction), the applicant has requested a height waiver to allow residential buildings to exceed the Multifamily Zoning 45-foot height limit to accommodate the proposed 329 housing units. The applicant’s density bonus application demonstrates that only 243 units could be constructed within the 45-foot height limit, and the height limit physically precludes construction of the proposed project with the density bonus units. Therefore it can be concluded that a waiver of the City’s height limits must be granted to comply with State Law governing density bonus waiver requirements and allow the development of the requested 329 units.
The garage provides parking for 498 automobiles or 1.51 spaces per rental unit. The 1.5 space per unit ratio is comparable to the parking requirements imposed on similar residential projects at Alameda Point, Encinal Terminals, and Alameda Marina. The 1.5 parking ratio is also consistent with State Density Bonus Law limitations on the city’s ability to require additional private parking and is a higher parking ratio than the maximum parking ratios that the Developer is entitled to request under the State Density Bonus Law.
The applicant is requesting a partial waiver of the long term secure bicycle parking requirements to reduce the proposed number of long term bicycle parking spaces in the garage structure from 360 secure bicycle storage spaces to 150 secure bicycle storage spaces. The request is made to allow for the 498 parking spaces within the structure.
Cultural Resource Design Elements: Architectural, artistic, and landscape design elements have been incorporated into the project design to partially mitigate for the loss of the existing concrete shipways and provide visual and educational references to the site’s history and association with wartime efforts and ship building. The plans include:
• All four existing concrete head house “Shipway” walls signs, which will be saw cut and incorporated into the new building’s front elevation to reflect the location of the four existing shipways. The existing wall signs will be saw-cut from the facades and these pieces of the buildings will be preserved and reused.
• Large laser etched steel panels along the sides of the building depicting ship building images accompanied by historical information displays with historic photos.
• Graphics of former shipway construction “blue prints” incorporated into art work on site and historic interpretive signage throughout the site.
• Custom ship play structures as a homage to the shipbuilding history in the children’s play area.
• Building materials that draw inspiration from the existing building structures and crane ways, including corten steel wall cladding inspired by the existing sheet pilings and brick pavers inspired by the historic Powerhouse brick.
• Sloped roof building forms inspired by the existing sloped shipways.
• Four new, publicly accessible docks extending into the Estuary in the general location of the four original crane ways that currently extend into the Estuary. The outer two docks have been kept shorter than the inner two docks to minimize privacy and possible noise impacts from the park users on the adjacent boaters.
• Historic photographs of the site will be displayed in the building’s leasing office and lobby area.
On December 6, the Historical Advisory Board endorsed the mitigation package described above, but asked for more information about the feasibility of saving one or more of the head houses for future office space or community serving uses. The requested analysis is included as Exhibit 4. The analysis finds that saving one or more the head houses is not financially feasible. The Historical Advisory Board will review these materials on January 10, 2019. Staff will transmit the Board’s comments on the design concepts to the Planning Board orally at the January 14, 2019 public hearing because this staff report was completed prior to the Historical Advisory Board hearing.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
In 2017, the City of Alameda released a Notice of Preparation (NOP) notifying the public and governmental agencies that the City had determined that the project proposal requires preparation of an EIR pursuant to CEQA. On April 24, 2017, the Planning Board held a public scoping session on the Draft EIR. On April 4, 2018, the City completed work on the Draft EIR and initiated a 45-day public review period, which ended on May 18, 2018. On May 3, 2018, the Alameda Historic Advisory Board held a public hearing on the Draft EIR, and on May 14, 2018, the Planning Board held a public hearing on the Draft EIR. On January 3, 2019, the City of Alameda published the Final EIR and is attached as Exhibit 5. The Final EIR addresses the comments received and makes revisions to the Draft EIR in response to the comments received.
In summary, the EIR discloses the following impacts to the environment of the 329 unit project:
Significant and unavoidable impacts: The EIR found that the following two environmental resource areas would be significantly impacted by the proposed project and that even with the recommended mitigations, the impacts would remain significant:
• Transportation and Circulation: The EIR finds that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable transportation impacts to the local transportation system, largely due to the limited remaining capacity for additional automobile trips on the local system at the City’s two primary Estuary crossings at the Webster and Posey Tubes and at the entrance to the Park Street Bridge. The EIR recommends a series of measures to mitigate the transportation impacts, but acknowledges that these mitigation measures cannot completely eliminate the significant impacts for automobile travel. The findings that the City’s existing gateways at the Estuary crossings are at capacity and will be impacted by additional automobile trips is consistent with the findings from the Encinal Terminals EIR, Del Monte EIR, Alameda Point EIR and every other EIR that the City has completed in the last 15 years. The proposed mitigations are consistent with General Plan Transportation Element policies for transportation mitigation.
• Cultural Resources: The EIR found that redevelopment of the property and demolition of existing shipway structures would result in a significant impact on the historic resource. The Shipways property is a historic resource because of its role in wartime shipbuilding efforts. The Historical Advisory Board added the Shipways site to the City’s Historical Building Study List. Although the impact of removal cannot be mitigated to a level of less than significance, the EIR recommends that the project mitigate the impact to the extent feasible by preparation of photo documentation and public interpretation of the shipways overseen by a Secretary of the Interior-qualified architectural historian and public interpretation of historical resources provided on the site. This could include a plaque, kiosk, or other method describing the historic importance of the shipways to the public.
Significant impacts that can be mitigated: The EIR found that the following six environmental resource areas would be significantly impacted by the proposed project, but with the recommended mitigation measures imposed, the impact would be less than significant: 1) Air Quality, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate Change, 2) Biological Resources, 3) Hazards and Hazardous Materials, 4) Hydrology and Water Quality, 5) Noise and Vibration, and 6) Utilities and Service Systems.
Less than significant impacts: The EIR found that the following environmental resource areas would not be impacted or the impact would be less than significant due to the design of the project or due to existing federal, state, regional, or local permitting requirements, impact fees, or other regulations specifically designed to minimize environmental impacts: 1) Aesthetics, 2) Geology, Soils and Geohazards, and 3) Land Use Consistency and Compatibility 4) Population, Housing and Public Services.
The full text of the Draft and Final EIR documents are available at https://alamedaca.gov/shipways-1200-marina-village-parkway-alameda and at the Community Development Department.
RECOMMENDATION
Conduct a public hearing and approve a resolution recommending approval of the Shipways Environmental Impact Report (Exhibit 6) and Shipways Development Plan, Design Review and Density Bonus application (Exhibit 2).
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Acting Director of Planning, Building and Transportation Department
Exhibits:
1. Alameda Shipways Residential Development Plan
2. Draft Resolution of Approval and Conditions
3. Affordable Housing Density Bonus Application
4. January 10, 2019 Preservation Analysis for Historical Advisory Board
5. Final Environmental Impact Report
6. Draft CEQA Resolution