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Planning Board Review of General Plan Update Table of Contents and Land Use Diagram and Classifications. The review of the General Plan Chapters are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act
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To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas
Acting Planning, Building & Transportation Director
Date: May 13, 2019
BACKGROUND
Every city and county in the State of California is required to adopt and maintain an up-to-date General Plan, which establishes the local development and conservation policies necessary to guide physical development and protect the general health, safety and welfare of the community. The General Plan should be an “integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (Gov. Code, § 65300.5.) The City of Alameda General Plan is available at: <https://www.alamedaca.gov/Departments/Planning-Building-and-Transportation/Planning-Division/General-Plan>.
As described in prior reports to the Planning Board and City Council, the General Plan Introduction (Chapter 1. Settings, and Organization of the General Plan), Land Use Element, City Design Element, Parks and Recreation, Shoreline Access, Schools and Cultural Facilities (“Parks and Recreation”) Element, and Open Space and Conservation Element have not been comprehensively reviewed since adoption in 1990. Staff has begun a review of these chapters and will be proposing recommended updates for community and Planning Board review at future meetings of the Planning Board.
On April 22, 2019, the Planning Board provided initial comments on staff’s first draft update to Chapter 1 Setting and Organization of the General Plan and requested that staff provide:
• An outline for staff’s initial plan for the update and re-organization of the General Plan, and
• Additional text for the introduction chapter documenting the history of Measure A in 1972 and the subsequent actions by the City to permit multifamily housing.
Staff is currently updating Chapter 1 pursuant to the Planning Board’s direction and preparing a first draft update to the Land Use Element. At the May 13, 2019 Planning Board meeting, staff would like the Planning Board and community to review and comment on:
• The proposed outline for the update and re-organization of the General Plan,
• The initial draft of the text regarding the history of Measure A and multifamily housing, and
• Staff’s initial recommendations for the update of the Land Use Diagram and classifications.
DISCUSSION
Outline for General Plan Update: State planning law requires an internally consistent, up to date General Plan with a minimum of seven “elements” or chapters: land use, housing, transportation, safety, noise, conservation, and open space. The chapters may be combined, and additional “optional” elements may be added as deemed necessary by the local jurisdiction.
The Alameda General Plan includes an introductory chapter and nine (9) elements: Land Use, City Design, Transportation, Open Space and Conservation, Parks and Recreation, Safety and Noise, Alameda Point (AP), Northern Waterfront, and Housing. The following table depicts the current organization of the General Plan and staff’s recommended outline for the updated General Plan. The major organizational changes are summarized as bullets under each Element and described in more detail below the table.
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Current General Plan Contents |
Proposed Update Table of Contents |
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1. Introduction 2. Land Use 3. City Design 4. Transportation 5. Open Space and Conservation 6. Parks and Recreation 7. [Intentionally omitted] 8. Safety and Noise 9. Alameda Point 10. Northern Waterfront 11. Housing |
1. Introduction |
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2. Land Use and Sustainable Design - Combine Land Use and City Design Elements - Add Climate Change and Conservation policies - Add AP Land Use policies - Add Northern Waterfront Land Use policies |
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3. Open Space, Parks and Recreation - Combine existing Chapters 5 and 6, and move Conservation to Chapter 2 - Add AP and Northern Waterfront Open Space and Recreation policies |
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4. Transportation - Add AP and Northern Waterfront Transportation policies |
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5. Housing - Add AP and Northern Waterfront Housing policies 6. Safety and Noise - Add AP and Northern Waterfront Safety and Noise policies |
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The proposed reorganization of the General Plan outlined above is informed by the following considerations and observations:
Combine Land Use and City Design Elements: Staff is recommending that these chapters be combined. Land use and urban design (“city design”) are inherently interrelated. Good land use policies often include urban design and architectural design considerations. For example: “Support residential or office uses above ground floor commercial uses on transit corridors” or, “Require that the main entry to residential and commercial buildings face the street.” Staff believes that combining Land Use and City Design elements allows for a better integration of internally consistent policy considerations related to land use planning and urban and architectural design.
Create New Land Use and Sustainable Design Element That Includes Climate Change and Conservation Policies: Staff is proposing to create a single Land Use Element that combines land use, city design, climate change, and conservation policies. In 2019, climate change poses an existential threat to the City of Alameda. (See City Council’s 2019 Climate Change Emergency Resolution.) Sea level rise resulting from climate change has the potential, if not addressed quickly, of negatively impacting the quality of life for every Alameda resident and business within the next 50 years. The threat of climate change requires the community to seriously consider how historic land use patterns and current travel behaviors contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and the subsequent rising of sea levels. In addition, the challenge of climate change forces the City to consider how new development should be designed to accommodate or mitigate sea level rise through physical design solutions. Therefore policies guiding how the City designs new development to reduce greenhouse gases and prepares for sea level rise should be closely coordinated with the City’s policies about land use and city design.
Climate change is an environmental challenge, and climate change policies are by their very nature the types of policies that were historically included in the “Conservation Element”. The 1990 General Plan Open Space and Conservation Element (Chapter 5) includes policies about energy conservation, water conservation, and environmental benefits of an urban forest canopy. Although not recognized as such in 1990, these policies are climate change policies. For these reasons, staff recommends combining policies related to land use, design, climate change, and conservation into a new “Land Use and Sustainable Design” Element.
Throughout the new Element and in the review of the other elements it will be important to ensure that the City’s General Plan addresses environmental justice and social equity.
Integrate Alameda Point and Northern Waterfront into the General Plan. In 2003, the Council adopted the Alameda Point “optional” Element, and in 2008 the Council adopted the Northern Waterfront optional Element. These elements were the products of multi-year community planning processes for these specific areas of the City. Each element is organized and designed to serve as a “mini-general plan” for the district: each element has a group of land use policies, a group of transportation policies, a group of open space policies, etc.
The first policy goal stated in the Alameda Point General Plan Element is the “Seamless integration of Alameda Point with the rest of the City.” When that goal was initially adopted into the General Plan 16 years ago, the land at Alameda Point was still owned by the Federal Government, the land was zoned for a military industrial use, and over 75% of the existing buildings were vacant. Much has been accomplished over the last 16 years, and it is now time to seamlessly integrate the Alameda Point general plan policies into the General Plan.
Likewise, the policies governing the development of the Northern Waterfront should be integrated into the larger, citywide Elements to ensure internal consistency throughout the entire General Plan and recognize that like Alameda Point, the Northern Waterfront area is just one of many important sub districts within the larger city of Alameda.
Create New Open Space, Parks and Recreation Element. Staff plans to combine existing Chapters 5 (Open Space and Conservation Element) and 6 (Parks and Recreation Element) into a single Open Space, Parks and Recreation Element, and, as described above, move the Conservation policies to the new Land Use and Sustainable Design Element. The new element would be supplemented with the Open Space and Recreation policies from Alameda Point and the Northern Waterfront and updated to reflect the many new parks planned and constructed in Alameda since 1990.
Measure A and Multifamily Housing: Staff prepared the following text for inclusion in Chapter 1 for Planning Board and community review and comment:
In 1972, in response to a variety of factors, including the development of poorly designed apartment buildings throughout Alameda and along the south shore of Alameda and the original proposal for the expansion of Bay Farm Island into what is now Harbor Bay, the residents of Alameda placed a measure on the ballot to add a single sentence to the City Charter stating that: “There shall be no multiple dwelling units built in the City of Alameda”. (Charter Section 26-1) The zoning code defines “multiple dwelling units” as structures with three or more units.
In 1991, in response to the development of the Marina Village duplexes, the voters of Alameda added a density standard: “The maximum density for any residential development within the City of Alameda shall be one housing unit per 2,000 square feet of land.” (Charter Section 26-3) The two measures, collectively referred to as “Measure A”, effectively stopped the development of any multifamily housing and any residential development over 21 units per acre in Alameda from 1973 to 2010.
In 2009, the City Council adopted a density bonus ordinance to implement the requirements of State Density Bonus Law. Under Density Bonus Law, if a project includes specified amounts of deed restricted affordable housing units, it is entitled to an increase above the otherwise-applicable maximum density for the site. In addition to the bonus units, projects using Density Bonus Law are entitled to reduce parking requirements and waivers from development standards, including the multifamily prohibition. In 2012, after the adoption of the density bonus ordinance, the Planning Board approved the multifamily townhomes across from the Alameda Landing shopping center - the first privately constructed multifamily homes in Alameda in over 35 years.
In 2012, pursuant to State Housing Element Law requirements to identify sufficient land zoned for residential use to accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Need Allocation, the City Council updated the Housing Element and adopted a Multi-family Residential Combining Zone (MF District), which permits multifamily housing by right with a residential density of up to 30 units per acre on specific sites in Alameda. With the adoption of the multifamily zoning district, the City of Alameda was able to bring its General Plan Housing Element and zoning code into conformance with state law. Over the next six years, the Planning Board was able to multifamily housing on the Marina Cove, the Del Monte, the Encinal Terminals, and the Alameda Marina multifamily zoned sites.
Staff invites Planning Board and community comments on the proposed text shown above.
Land Use Diagram and Classifications. Pursuant to Government Code section§ 65302(a), the land use element must designate “the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the uses of the land…”, “shall include a diagram or diagrams”, and must also include “a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various districts and other territory covered by the plan.”
The Alameda General Plan meets these requirements by providing a Land Use Diagram that shows the appropriate location for various types of land uses in Alameda, a set of land use classifications that describe each use and the recommended intensity or density of use in each classification, and a discussion with tables describing the amount and general location of planned growth in population and employment that is anticipated by the General Plan. The 2019 update will require revisions to all three of these sections.
In 2018, the Planning Board reviewed and recommended some specific changes to the Land Use Classifications. Although staff has not scheduled those recommendations for City Council review, those recommendations did inform the following recommended changes to the Land Use Classifications, shown in Exhibit 1. For comparison purposes, staff has also included the existing Land Use Classifications in Exhibit 2.
Staff has also begun the update of the Land Use Diagram that accompanies the Land Use Classifications. The initial draft of the updated Land Use Diagram is shown in Exhibit 3. The existing Land Use Diagram is included in Exhibit 4.
When reviewing the exhibits, the Planning Board should note the following major changes proposed in the initial draft of the Diagram and classifications:
Retain and update the Low-Density and Medium-Density Residential. These two designations would be retained and updated.
Retain and update the Community Commercial Mixed Use and Neighborhood Business Mixed Use Classifications. Staff is proposing to retain these two existing mixed use commercial classifications. The Neighborhood Business Mixed Use designation identifies the “stations” throughout Alameda. The Community Commercial Mixed Use classification identifies the major mixed use, transit oriented commercial corridors on Park Street and Webster Street. The classification also identifies the single use shopping centers at South Shore, Marina Village and Alameda Landing.
The text describing future employment and population growth will identify the Community Commercial Mixed Use areas on the Land Use Diagram as the areas with opportunities for business and employment growth and opportunities for new housing development over the next 20 years.
Eliminate Office Classification. Staff is recommending that the “Office” classification be eliminated. Alameda has a few business parks (Marina Village and Harbor Bay), but they are not limited to office uses. Almost all of the few sites identified on the existing Land Use Diagram as “office” are actually a variety of commercial or institutional uses. From a planning, transportation, and climate change perspective, the General Plan should be emphasizing mixed use classifications rather than single use classifications. Furthermore, historically, Alameda developed a mixed use land use pattern with office uses above ground floor commercial uses and office uses sprinkled within higher density residential uses (such as along Santa Clara Avenue). For these reasons, staff does not believe it is necessary to maintain an Office land use classification.
Eliminate Business Park and General Industry and create Business and Employment Classification. Staff is proposing a new “Business and Employment” classification. This classification would replace the “Business Park” classification and the “General Industry” classification. The major sites covered by this classification would include the Marina Village business park, the Harbor Bay Business Park, the “Wind River” offices adjacent to Marina Village, the Bay Ship and Yacht lands, and the Ballena Island vacant lands.
The text describing future employment and population growth will identify the Business and Employment areas on the Land Use Diagram as the areas with opportunities for business and employment growth over the next 20 years.
Consolidate the Mixed Use Classifications. The General Plan currently identifies ten individual “Specified Mixed Use classifications” (MU1 through MU7 and AP1, 2, and 3). Staff is proposing to establish a single mixed use classification, which would be used on the Land Use Diagram to identify Alameda Point, the Northern Waterfront, and Coast Guard Island.
The text describing future employment and population growth will identify the Mixed Use areas on the Land Use Diagram as the areas with opportunities for business and employment growth and opportunities for new housing development over the next 20 years.
Consolidate the Parks and Open Space and Commercial Recreation Classifications. The current General Plan has two separate classifications: “Commercial Recreation”, which identifies marinas, and “Parks and Public Open Space/Open Space/Habitat”. Staff recommends combining commercial recreation into a new “Parks and Recreation” classification, which would cover parks and commercial recreation and marinas, and establishing a free standing “Open Space Habitat” classification which would cover wildlife refuges and sensitive habitat areas.
Retain Public/Institutional Classification. This land use classification will be retained and updated.
Eliminate Federal Facilities Classification. Staff is recommending that the “Federal Facilities” classification be eliminated. In 1990, approximately 1/3 of the main island’s land area was owned by the Federal Government. The 1990 General Plan essentially took the approach that since the Federal Government did not need to follow local general plan policies, the General Plan did not need to plan for these areas. In 2019, the major federal land holdings are limited to Coast Guard Island, the wildlife refuge and future Veterans Administration property at Alameda Point, and the Naval Reserve Center on Clement Street. Staff recommends that the updated General Plan indicate how these lands should be utilized in the event that they are transferred out of Federal ownership. For example, the federally owned wildlife refuge at Alameda Point was designated Open Space Habitat in the General Plan in 2003, not “Federal Facilities”. The draft Land Use Diagram (Exhibit 3) designates Coast Guard Island as “Mixed Use” instead of “Federal Facilities”. (Coast Guard Island is currently occupied by office, maritime industrial, educational, recreational and residential buildings and uses.)
Land Use Diagram: Exhibit 3 illustrates how the new and updated classifications would be applied on a new Land Use diagram. Exhibit 4 is the current land use diagram, which is provided for information and comparative purposes only.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Reviewing the existing elements of the General Plan is not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Any future decisions to amend these chapters will be subject to environmental review and the appropriate review will be conducted at that time.
RECOMMENDATION
That the Planning Board review and comment on:
• The proposed outline described in this report,
• The proposed text describing the history of Measure A provided in this report,
• The proposed initial draft Land Use classifications (Exhibit 1), and
• The proposed initial draft Land Use Diagram (Exhibit 3).
Respectfully Submitted By:
Andrew Thomas
Acting Planning, Building & Transportation Director
Exhibits:
1. Draft revised Land Use Classifications
2. Existing Land Use Classifications
3. Draft revised Land Use Diagram
4. Existing Land Use Diagram