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11/01/2007 1 Community and Economic Development Department (A L I f O R N I A GRAND TERRACE PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 1,2007 The regular meeting of the Grand Terrace Plannins Commission was called to order at the Grand Terrace Civic Center. 22795 Barton Road. Grand Terrace, California, on November 1.2007 at 7:00 n.m.,by Chairman Wilson. PRESENT: Doug Wilson, Chairperson Matthew Addington, Vice Chairperson Tom Comstock, Commissioner Darcy McNaboe, Commissioner Brian Phelps, Commissioner Gary Koontz, Planning Director Rich Shields, Public Works Jerina Cordova, Planning Secretary 7:00 P.M. CONVENED SITE AND ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD/ PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING • Call to Order • Pledge of Allegiance led by Tom Comstock • Roll Call • Public address to Commission shall be limited to three minutes unless extended by the Chairman. Should you desire to make a longer presentation, please make written request to be agendized.to the Director of Community and Economic Development. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I am wondering if members from the Planning Commission have noticed that in addition to Schwertfeger trashing our area we now have Penske delivery trucks parked on Michigan. It looks like a truck terminal. I would like to express my concern that I don't feel any confidence that any one is trying to protect the rights of people that live on Michigan Street. I would like the Planning Commission to focus on all of the trucks and do something about it. 1 - 22795 Barton Road • Grand Terrace, California 92313-5295 • 909/ 824-6621 (- Vice Chair Addington: Do you know when the CUP expires for Schwertfeger project? Director Koontz: No. I can get that information for you if you want. Vice Chair Addington: Thank you. I appreciate it. CHARLES HORNSBY 22656 Brentwood Street I have a suggestion as part of the workshop process. I think it would be a good idea to present a before and after. Specifically, you could present the before plan as 15 percent of all the land in Grand Terrace is currently used for Light Industrial; 20 percent for Commercial; 40 percent for Low Density housing. Whatever the figures maybe you could present it by category. It would be a lot easier for the public to understand. Then you could do an after. It would be good for ordinary people to understand because Land Use is the biggest impact. ADJOURN SITE AND ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD/PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CONVENE PUBLIC WORKSHOP SESSION 1. SUBJECT: General Plan Update Workshop#10 Land Use Element Housing Element(State law review) Director Koontz: I would like to go through three different items. I would like to discuss the General Plan process, where we are and-where we are going to be so that everyone has a better idea. After that, I will touch on the Land Use Plan and I want to get into the Housing Element to start going through some of the issues, law and regulations. I need to make sure that you have a good understanding on what we are facing with Housing. There are going to be many hard decisions to make in Housing. There are more specifics in Housing than other elements. The preparation of the General Plan is dictated by the State General Planning Guide Lines of 2003. It outlines the process that involves starting out with general goals and policies. The Planning Commission has been working through these workshops, taking public input. It is important to obtain public input. We have to collect data. We have to understand the existing land uses, demographics and trends, what our infrastructure is like, what it can support,public services, and what they can support. We also have to review the current General Plan for deficiencies. Is it adequate? Do we want to change it, add to it? Staff is working on stuff like this because we are dealing with a big text and we are going through a lot of detail. We are trying to put it in summary form for the Planning Commission to review. If anyone would like to take a copy of the General Plan read it and give me your comments on it, I would be more than happy to accept them. r i 2 We have to identify alternatives especially in Land Use because that is a very critical item. We have talked about alternative land uses in different areas of the City. Lastly, we have to prepare draft elements, which staff is currently working on. This is the General Plan so far(holding up the binder) and it incorporates all of the-discussions we have had to date. As Mr. Hornsby was talking about"it's good to have a before and after" the Land Use Element of the General Plan has the existing land uses by type and based upon whatever the preferred alternative is we will have that calculation as well; so you can see it side by side. We are working on different elements. We have had a lot of workshops on goals and policies for land use, circulation, open space and some of the other ones that we have not talked about. A couple of thing that I need you folks to understand is that I have this. It is as close to a document that I can release to start a discussions. There a few items that I need to fill in. My question to the Commission is how do you want to review this document? Do you want me to run copies, bind it? J will tell you it is a good idea to look at the whole thing at once. I planned on running copies and posting it on the website so that it is available for everybody. Chair Wilson: I know that it is painful to go through the copying but the bottom line is that it is . the best way to go. I am going through a specific plan in my"other life" and that is exactly the way we have done it. We did a comparison matrix then we turned around and added language and struck it out methodically where it did not apply, we then went through it with the attorneys. It is an elongated process but it works. Director Koontz: In this case, because it has been so long between the original general plan and this one, so much has changed with the formatting requirements, to go side by side page by page may be a bit difficult. Some of the key issues we can talk about, especially with the land use. We can get into a discussion for the major changes other than the format. We went through the Goals and Policies a few months ago, I noted where an existing policy is in the existing plan. Chair Wilson: I am assuming that.you are showing it as a strike out in your draft. Director Koontz: The draft is a completely new document. Chair Wilson: That is going to be difficult to compare. Director Koontz: To go back through our general plan and format will take a lot of time. Chair Wilson: If we are going to do this comprehensively, we are going to look at the existing and new and take it section by section. I cannot think of a more open forum to compare the language. That way if there is something that bothers someone they have to right to state their opinion. Director Koontz: That is how we have been doing it. 3 Commissioner Comstock: It seems that is what we have been doing. We have gone through various sections and compared. I'm also in favor of keeping this open because we have had a lot of complaints that no one knew what was going on. That is not our intent. Director Koontz: Bear in mind that these are workshops and not public hearings. We are nowhere near public hearings. Right now, we are putting together the draft so that we can have something to write about. The next issue is we have to go through the CEQA evaluation which is the Environmental Impact Peport(EIR). The City solicited a RFP for EIR proposals and out of five we selected Chambers Group out of Redlands to do the work. They are doing things diligently, doing background work and they are to a point that they need a plan to write an EIR on. That is the point where we are now.. There are a couple of things we need to think about one of them is timing. We are going to be talking about the Housing Element in a minute and it requires a certification for State Housing and Community Development. They have very specific deadlines. We have to have some sort of approved Housing Element to them by the end of July 2008. To do that I have one CEQA document that covers everything including the Housing Element so we need to start moving forward. I do not think we are going to have a problem with it because we have enough time to do it. The one thing I do need is a sort of direction on a land use plan that I can use to start writing the EIR. Again, we are getting to that. We have slipped in the land use plan, which uses the EIR, we have alternative plans that we have -_ discussed on different ways we can look at different things. We will write the EIR we look at it in terms of are there environmental issues that cannot be adequately mitigated from some of the things that we are doing with the general plan. If so, we go back and look at it again at the goals and policies, land uses, circulation and address those issues if necessary. At that point, we start looking at actually submitting the General Plan and Draft EIR for public hearings. We will have a 45-day State Clearinghouse review of the draft EIR that will have the General Plan attached to it. After that, with any comments that we have received we respond in writing which is the.Final EIR then we start having the public hearings. I would like to get into the public hearings like next April or May. If we can make a decision on a land use plan I can probably have the EIR ready by early January. That would get us enough time to get something approved on the Housing Element so that I can get it to HCD by the end of July 2008. Chair Wilson: Is there a penalty or liability if we don't make the Housing deadline of July 2008. Director Koontz: They can sue us; take our low mod housing funds or a whole series of things. In our case, we can inform them that we are in public hearings and they could work with us. It would be nice to meet the deadline but if it takes longer, it takes longer. Chair Wilson: We want to do this right because it is our City. Director Koontz: Continuing, we now have it out for public review and Planning Commission hearings where we take more public input, and at this time, we have the ability to revise anything we want. If you want we can go back to scratch. There is nothing in stone. At some point you 4 will find a document that you like, you will then make a recommendation of approval to the City Council. We will again have public hearings and input, the City Council can revise anything they want and/or send it back to the Planning Commission to do it again. Sometime in the future, we have to agree that we have a decent plan, we certify the EIR and we have a formal document of the General Plan. As you can see, we still have a long way to go. Anything can change, any input could be provided and there is a lot of time to work on this thing. My goal right now is to at least get some sort of EIR started. The plan that is used in the EIR doesn't have to be the plan that is approved in the end. Chair Wilson: When does the City attorney get involved in the interpretation of this? Director Koontz: I'll send stuff to the City attorney every time I send copies to you. Commissioner Phelps: How much time are we going to have to review that? Director Koontz: It is up to you. You can schedule your meetings. How long do you need? Commissioner Phelps: A month is appropriate for me. Director Koontz: With that, let's talk about the land use plan again. I'm sorry about the size. All of the exhibits in the final version will be 11 x 17. This is my best guess of what we will be talking about. We took this back to the Hillside residential, we have made this Mixed-Use, I've taken this are at Van Buren and Michigan and made that Commercial, which is what is was before. I took K&J plating and made that Commercial, I have left for the time being all of this area(Medium Density Residential)what it is. All the Commercial on Barton Road is left Commercial. In the alternatives that we are going to have, we are going to look at all of this at the Mixed-Use concept that we had talked about. We are going to look at this area in here changing to low density residential; we can look at this area as being open space. Is there anything you want to change on this? I am going to try and use what you tell me as a basis of writing an EIR. Commissioner Comstock: Where are we in the process of getting the plating company grounds cleaned up? Director Koontz: We been working with them for three years in my life. We have been flipping back and forth and passed around. I am working on a prospective purchasers agreement that says they are willing to do certain amount of clean up and in return we would be indemnified if they found something else that we didn't know about. We are at that point now and we got funds from Community Development Block Grant funds assigned to do engineering and clean up. Commissioner Comstock: Will that be a part of the high school? 5 Director Koontz: No. They want nothing to do with it because of its history. One of the issues is right now there is some chromium that is down quite a few feet. It is going to be hard to get at. It is a hundred feet about ground water. DTS says it's not going anywhere. Chromium doesn't have a habit of moving around unless it hit water that takes it out. As you are all aware, there is a Riverside Highland well right across the street that gets tested to check for chromium. There are monitoring wells all over the site. Those will be maintained and monitored. We are looking at knocking down the building and bringing in some dirt and capping it. We are looking at making it a parking lot that can be used for over flow for sporting events. If someone comes in and proposes a project, you will be the first to know. It has been monitored for years. Chair Wilson: I had the fun of taking out a few fuel tanks and it was a sixty thousand dollar venture. There is a consensus among the Planning Commissioners in relation to this tool. JEFFREY McCONNELL 21758 Walnut Ag is a zoning designation, is that going to be included in this? Director Koontz: That is zoning not general plan. WILLIAM KAMINSKY - 11818 Burns Avenue We have had a couple of specific plans passed in the last year. Is it possible to instead of calling it mixed use to blank out that area and say refer to specific plan? Chair Wilson: Since a General Plan usually identifies with what a general plan land use is, then you will proceed with the zoning overlay on top of that. Director Koontz: In the Land Use Element we have an exhibit that shows all the existing specific plans. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street I would really like to see some things like detailed descriptions of what you would allow in each area. I have not seen anything like that. In response to your question about the CUP expiration, things are going on and being approved without coming back to you. I am frustrated because we try and keep up with what the latest thing is and I want to see this stuff right away. Sharon was at City Hall and she didn't get a copy of it. I don't know what the maps are going to look like from hour to hour. I would like information on what you consider mixed use because someone threw out that you could put industrial there. In the industrial areas, I am concerned about the hazardous stuff that is being put into the air. I understand that something went into Wilden Pump recently that they are putting out more 6 pollution out into the air. I want us to look at that the next time something gets approved. I am wondering why something like that was.occurred before you and why the public couldn't give some input on it. Chair Wilson: Could we make available the description of each one of the uses? Director Koontz: It is all in here. There is a description of each land use category. Chair Wilson: Would you shed some light on mixed use. Director Koontz: It says properties designated as mixed-use tend to be developed with multiple uses on same site. This may include residential, commercial,business park, open space and recreational uses. Compatible uses maybe placed horizontally or vertically on the site. All mixed-use projects are required to submit a specific plan that demonstrates compatibility between the proposals as well as buffering from adjacent properties if warranted. Densities may not exceed those of Residential, Commercial or Industrial designations of a General Plan zoning. Chair Wilson: I think in the long run we will go ahead and have that available in printed form. To make it easy for us to understand I will say it is when you have got residential over commercial. If you were to go to downtown Los Angeles you will see banks and carports below residential. That wouldn't work in our area. Ms.Farley: My parents purchased their home in 1950 and it was considered light commercial and residential along Michigan. We hear people say "light commercial, commercial, general commercial, light industrial and industrial" that is why I want to pin this down. The other thing I want to mention on Schwertfeger property is the height of the building which he shouldn't have been able to build. Commissioner Comstock: The current designation is General Commercial according to the map that is over my left shoulder. Director Koontz: We are replacing that map with a real one that shows the General Plan to date. What I have in this area is the Industrial designation and the General Commercial is everything to the north. One of the alternatives that we are looking at in terms of the EIR is going to be comparing the existing General Plan as it sits today. HOUSING ELEMENT Director Koontz: The things I would like to go through tonight are: • State Housing Law • Element Components • Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) ( • Density Bonus Requirements 7 • Minimum Zoning Density Requirements First in terms in housing law, AB2438 requires us to provide a detailed land inventory of potential affordable housing sites. SB520 Requires jurisdictions to analyze and mitigate constraints to affordable housing. That can be constraints through government regulations or constraints from outside influences. One of the big influences is price per unit and interest rates. AB2634 Requires jurisdictions to analyze and mitigate constraints for extremely low-income housing. Fortunately, we don't have a big demand for extremely low income however there are things that we are required by law to discuss. It doesn't mean that we have to do things but we do have to discuss them. AB2511 -Strengthens Anti-NIMBY protections for affordable housing. There are certain jurisdictions that don't want to do it. This law states that you have to do it anyway. SB 1087—Requires jurisdictions to immediately forward Housing Elements to water and sewer purveyors and give priority to hookups to affordable housing. As soon as the Housing Element is adopted we have to make sure the Riverside Highland Water company get is. They need to identify that there are certain areas of affordable that they need to serve in the city. Redlands has quotas in terms of how many of sewer connections they release a year. SB575 strengthens prohibitions against arbitrary denials of affordable housing projects. Chair Wilson: That is one of the ways they are anti growth. Director Koontz: SB575 strengthens prohibitions against arbitrary denials of affordable housing projects. ( HOUSING ELEMENT COMPONENTS (2003) • Review progress of prior Housing Element We have to take the last approved housing element,all the action plans and provide a discussion that relates how we plan on doing it or not doing it and what that reason is. We have to provide up front the discussion of each and every action plan that was originally approved in the last element which was 2002. That is part of this. I have given you a draft that has been updated and out of the two hundred pages of the general plan the housing element is sixty of it. • Needs assessment and inventory of resources and constraints — Population and employment trends and housing needs — Analyze and document household and housing characteristics — Inventory land and analyze zoning and public facilities This gives us how the city looks now,and the projections shows that it looks another way. The question is how are we going to plan for affordable housing and the whole concept of things? Analyze: • Capacity of land inventory to accommodate RHNA • Analyze government constraints and efforts to remove them 8 Are our impact fees to high? Are our requirements, whatever they may be, harming affordable development because they up the price of the house? We have to look at stuff like that and identify it. In the draft plan we have gone through all of the requirements we've got. Chair Wilson: We joke about affordable housing. There is no such thing. What is affordable housing according to the definition? Director Koontz: It is based upon the medium income for your area. There is a number that shows the medium income. Fifty percent is very low, sixty to eighty percent is low and eighty to a hundred and twenty percent is moderate. Chair Wilson: Based on what the average income is that is real numbers. Director Koontz: It is based upon the region itself, which is Riverside and San Bernardino metropolitan area. We will get into the RHNA numbers later. • Non-governmental constraints There is not much we can do about the interest rates besides putting silent seconds on houses and buying down the loan. - Special housing needs This is dealing with disabled people or if we had a University it would be where do these kids find housing in town. Another example would be like the farm workers in Coachella Valley you would have to find housing for them. We don't have that issue but we have to acknowledge issues of the sort. • Opportunities for energy conservation This was slipped in and we will have to discuss this. I can provide you with copies of the last housing element and a lot of this stuff is in there. Not much has changed since that. Chair Wilson: Isn't it also governed by Title 24? Director Koontz: Yes. • Existing assisted affordable housing eligible for conversion This is saying that we have to look at homes in town can be rented or bought for an affordable rate but they are not affordable. Affordable to the State is a restriction depending on whether it was bought or rented and if you have used affordable housing funds for it. You will have to guarantee that if someone sells that house you have to sell it to someone who qualifies for affordable as well. They have to accept it as being affordable house as long as they own it. It is _ about 30 years per clause. There are different clauses and we will get into that later. 9 - — Goals and Policies — Five Year Implementation Program • Actions to be taken • Responsibility • Timing • Funding — Identification of Adequate Sites There are specific sites by assessor's parcel number and theoretically could be used for affordable housing. If you read the last housing element there is quite an analysis. Theoretically, the sites would be the ones that are zone for R-3. Those are the ones that have potential rental units on. They are smaller footprints and you have shared infrastructure. If you take a two-acre lot on the side of the hill, that is not affordable and we have to discuss that. We are listing these sites and we have gone though each parcel of vacant residential property and underutilized residential property. We have to discuss proposals. — Revise Zoning to Accommodate Affordable Housing`By Right" We will discuss `By Right" later. Chair Wilson: I have a question in the range of affordable housing. Our mechanism within the City if you compare us with Los Angeles, we are at a point when you getting into affordable ! housing cube of multi-family. Most people say multi-family is possibly affordable. The city of Los Angeles, fifteen years ago, said that it wasn't. We don't want to buy apartment houses or condominiums, what we are interested in doing is buying single-family residential units that can be converted into an affordable mode. What is our financing tool? Is there a City Council policy on distribution on affordable money? Director Koontz: Historically we have gone out, bought houses, and rehabbed them for qualified buyers and if necessary put down a silent second and deed restrict them. There is close to fifty of them we have done over the years. The problem we faced a couple years ago was that if no one wanted it we could buy it for nothing; we put money into rehabbing it we could sell it for a reasonable price. The last couple of years we have gotten into bidding wars for dump houses and to try to sell as affordable have been a problem. Chair Wilson: We may or may not have a funding mechanism? Director Koontz: In terms of funding, we have a low-mod housing fund for the Redevelopment Agency,which is the twenty percent set aside from the tax increment. At this point, a lot of that money is going to the senior housing. Later we will discuss the contribution of the senior housing towards our RHNA numbers. It is really helping out our RHNA numbers. Chair Wilson: Is there a mechanism in place for us to be able to supplement income situations in multi—family units and qualify that as affordable housing element? 10 _ Director Koontz: The element gives us all of the programs we have available. There are a lot of federal and state programs that can help us out. End of Side A Tape 1 TYPES OF HOUSING THAT MUST BE CONSIDERED • Multi-Family Rental Housing • Factory-Built or Mobile Homes Director Koontz: A lot of our existing affordable housing is in mobile home parks. The Grand terrace mobile home park down on.Grand Terrace Avenue is a very affordable place to live. Fortunately it was cleaned up a few years ago because it was derelict. Back in 2002 they wanted to add a few more trailer units in there and presented them to your group. We counted them as affordable housing. • Farmer Worker Housing • Transitional Housing—Temporary housing programs for the homeless,institutionalized people,battered women or others returning to society or changing their living environment Director Koontz: This is something handled at county level along with emergency housing. We have a couple of transitional units in town and they are monitored closely. • Emergency Housing INVENTORY AVAILABLE PARCELS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING • Vacant residentially zoned sites • Vacant non-residentially zoned sites that allow residential uses • Underutilized residentially zoned sites,which are capable of being developed at a higher density or with greater intensity. Director Koontz: This is the two-acre lot or Farm Houses zoned R3. • Non-residentially zoned sites that can be redeveloped for and/or rezoned for residential uses Right now we don't see many of those. Because we are so limited on our Commercial Industrial land to convert it to residential to provide affordable housing will offset the whole balance of things. We still need to look at the housing to jobs balance. If we sacrifice that type of land for affordable housing it will mess us up in other ways. 11 i - ADEQUATE SITES PROGRAMS — The list of potential sites and their development capacities must at a minimum total the required housing needs of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment(RHNA). Director Koontz: We have to come up with "X" number of sites that would yield "X" number of units that could yield the RHNA numbers. Requires that all jurisdictions Zoning Ordinance allow owner-occupied and multi-family rental uses "by right". `By Right"is defined as: • Local jurisdictions may not require affordable housing projects to submit a conditional use permit, planned units development permit, or any other discretionary review or approval that would constitute a `project"under Division 13 of the Public Resources Code. • Local jurisdictions may require design review as long as the review is ministerial and does not constitute a "project" under Division 13 of the PRC. The review must be performed on the design merits of the project and require modifications to the design. However, the governing. body cannot deliberate the project's merits or exercise judgment to reject or deny the residential use itself. Director Koontz: If someone wanted to come before the City to do an affordable housing (* project, I would want have them do a Site and Architectural review. We would have to at least consider certain incentive bonuses or design incentives. If someone comes in, and adds four plywood walls with a tin roof and says that is his affordable housing, we have the right to say no. We still want it to look good. It has to blend with the community and we have to right to make sure that happens. We have to look at it all with open eyes. Commissioner Comstock: When will be seeing the RHNA numbers? Director Koontz: You have them in that handout which are as of last June. RNHA Numbers SCAG Adopted For Period of January 1,2006 to June 30,2014 Very Low Income Units—80 Low Income Units -55 Moderate Income Units—63 Above Moderate Income Units— 131 Total -329 Director Koontz: Southern California Association of Governments looks at what is happening ( in the region and they do projections on how many people are entering the community through births, immigration, etc. They start looking at where these people are going to live. They then 12 assign numbers. That number you are looking at is not the number we started with. The number they originally gave us was three times the amount. We had to negotiate it down quite a bit. They have workshops for the City; and they explain how they get it and the City has to explain why their numbers will not work. They allow the City to appeal the numbers. We don't have a problem compared to some cities. Colton tried to fight their numbers and they lost. The senior housing project is giving us seventy-two very low-income units, thirty-six low incomes and twelve moderate incomes. Of that total, all we have is seventy-eight units left. That is a through the year 2014. If we meet that number, it would average thirteen affordable units a year. Most of them are in the moderate income, which is the highest of the three categories. Chair Wilson: The City of Simi Valley did their allocation program for permits they positioned them self in the same range and they set up a cue to get priority to senior housing and affordable. Often senior housing can qualify for affordable. Director Koontz: Anywhere you go these days, senior housing projects are one of the easiest ways to meet your goals. You have seniors on fixed incomes because they are retired so they qualify on a very-low income rate. DENSITY BONUSES GOVERNMENT CODE 65915 • Density Bonus is defined as at least 25% over the maximum allowable density of the General Plan and Zoning designation. • The jurisdiction shall either grant a density bonus and at least one of the concessions or incentives listed in subdivision (k) of Section 65915 or provide other incentives or concessions of equivalent financial value based upon the land cost per dwelling unit, when the applicant for the housing project agrees or proposes to construct at least one of the following: — Twenty (20) Percent of the total units of the housing project for lower income households (No more than 80% of the area median income)as defined in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code. — Ten (10) percent of the total units of the housing project for very low-income households (no more than 50% of the area median income) as defined in Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code. — Fifty (50) percent of the total units of the housing project for qualifying residents as defined in Section 51.3 of the Civil Code (senior and disabled persons). 13 - — Twenty (20) percent of the total units in a condominium project as defined in subdivision (f) of Section 1351 of the Civil Code, for persons and families of moderate income (between 80% and 120% of the area median income) as defined in Section 50093 of the Health and Safety Code. Director Koontz: If an applicant were to come in and wanted to build an affordable housing project and they needed a density twenty five percent more than your highest density it would be very difficult not to give it to them because of this law. During this whole conversation if anyone can think of a way to get out of abiding by these laws I would like your opinion. These are the laws and this is what we have to do. • The jurisdiction shall grant an additional concession or incentive unless the jurisdiction makes a written finding,based upon substantial evidence that the additional concession or incentive is not required in order to provide for affordable housing costs if: — Low and very low affordability is guaranteed for at least 30 years • Low-income rents do not exceed 30% of the 60% of the median income. • Very low income rents do not exceed 30% of the 50% of the median income — Moderate income condominium projects is guaranteed for at least 10 years — Affordable projects with childcare facilities may receive additional bonuses or incentives Director Koontz: We have to make those findings. All of it is written in the Grant Deeds, recorded and it is legal. One interesting thing is if you have an affordable housing with a childcare facility it entitles them to a different incentive bonus because they are providing for a public service within the project. There-is an assumption that in an affordable project both parents will be working in order to support it. • The jurisdiction shall also establish procedures for waiving or modifying development and zoning standards that would otherwise inhibit the utilization of the density bonus on a specific site. These may include,but are not limited to, standards for minimum lot size,setbacks,parking requirements and public street improvements. The jurisdiction does not have to agree to an incentive through waiving or reducing development standards that will result in a specific adverse impact to the health,safety or physical environment or for which there is no feasible method to mitigate or avoid a specific adverse impact,or where there is a direct impact to a site listed in the California register of Historic Resources. Director Koontz: This is taken directly out of the law books. If we can make a finding that there is an environmental or safety issue associated with it and we can't give them the reduce rate standard we can get away from it. However, we will have to look at other things to try and make it work. 14 _ Chair Wilson: It is a great little system. The scariest thing I can see is parking requirements but these are the standards. Director Koontz: The last couple.of Years I have provided some consulting services for the City of Coachella on affordable housing and that has been a challenge. We have looked at a variety of small lot single-family lots and condominium we designed 4,500 square foot PUD lots,but in doing so they got additional units so that they can give you "X" number of them as affordable and make the project work in the long run. There are a variety of ways to make this affordable. It is not easy. Chair Wilson: The medium affordable is worse than it is here.. Since there are thirty five thousand lots that are chained up because no one is building right now. ZONING DENSITY REQUIREMENTS • AB 2348 requires each City in the State to establish a minimum density (Default Density) based upon the jurisdiction's size. • The Grand Terrace Default Density is at least 20du/ac(Page 7 of Appendix lof AB 2348). Director Koontz: This is provided in your packet and in the back there is a list of every city in the State based on their jurisdiction size. If you look at Page 7 Appendix 1 it list Grand Terrace and our default density is 20 units to the acre. By law we need to have a 20 unit to the acre designation. In 2000 we never got the housing element certified by HCD. The issue at that time was that we would not create the 20-unit density and we would not designate two parcels with that density. We designated one, which is the Senior Housing project. I am sure that we are going to come back and make the same comment. I need direction. Do you want to look for one or do you want to wait until they address it. They-have offered to come down to the City and tour it and suggest where they want to put up an affordable housing unit. Chair Wilson: I would say that is advisable. In my experience it is a rare opportunity that they agency backs down. Commissioner McNaboe: You say that it wasn't certified because we didn't designate that zoning. What is the penalty for it not being certified? Director Koontz: There wasn't one. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there a penalty now? Director Koontz: If they wanted to play nasty they could. There is a lot of that going on. When AB 939 came in and if you didn't meet your goal the State could come in and penalize i you ten thousand dollars a day. 15 I can get them to come down drive through the city and show them there is not much land left. If you look at the numbers and assuming that affordable is high density residential there isn't much space to build it. Commissioner McNaboe: Could they look at the property by the freeway? Director Koontz: One of the alternatives is to require that project to do some sort of"affordable housing" to provide that. However, it's only a certain percentage. That happens all the time. Applicants realized that it isn't that bad of a thing. That is why incentives are out there. Builders in are in it for the money. Chair Wilson: You can submit but the question is "is it financially feasible". The state would have to examine it and you may find that it is absolutely impossible to make the project pencil. The government is obligated to look at it again and the developer is not obligated to lose money on the project. Commissioner Comstock: How big of a project does one need to have to satisfy the second requirement? The City can purchase a small lot and put 20 units per acre on it would that satisfy it? Director Koontz: You could build a single-family house, sell it as affordable as long as you deed restrict it, it counts. In Coachella, the City Council imposed a policy that stated any project that was at least eight units one unit was a percentage. This is on a volunteer program. The City had low mod funds to offset some of the cost. There are trade-offs and it is very complicated. You have to monitor and maintain it. There are companies out there where this is all they do. That is the conclusion of my presentation. How do you want to approach this? This is what we are dealing with. Vice Chair Addington: Our goal according to the State is 20 units per acre. Where are we right now? Director Koontz: The R3 zoning is 12 units to the acre but there is a clause where you can increase.it up to twenty percent where we can get up to 15 units to the acre. Do you remember the original DeBerry/Reed project where he wanted 15 to the acre but we had a discussion on what constitutes an incentive package that would warrant that bonus. We never figured it out. We can go to fifteen but we have to justify it. Vice Chair Addington: So you would take all of the acreage of the City and on the average, we would have to have 20 units per acre? Director Koontz: The way I read this is if you take these numbers and take out the senior housing project that is the total of number of affordable housing we have to provide by June 30, 2014. Of that, we have to prove that where there is available land it must be able to handle that hundred and whatever amount of units. The State went a step further and asked for two sites last 16 time. The sites didn't have to cover all of the units under RHNA but they needed to be identified. We didn't comply and that is where it stopped. We have identified all the available parcels zoned R3which could be used. We used realistic density and we got it down to 10-11 units instead of 12. Take the number of acres times that density and we have got the reasonable number of R3 units that can be built on all the vacant and underutilized R3 property. That number is more than this number. We can approach it that way and say that we have property available and we got an R3 Senior zone on the books so we got a 20 unit to the acre zone but it can only be used for R3. It's a balancing act. We are close. We can give them densities under the R3 without giving them a 20 unit to the acre zone. Vice Chair Addington: This is a little more complicated than the simple math. Chair Wilson: This is what is possible and it does not necessarily mean that is what it's going to be built out to. So what you are saying is we have to identify some parcels and we need to set that in our General Plan? Director Koontz: We have the Medium High Density Land Use designation on the books. We have the capability of going to twenty, which should go a long way with the State. The only catch is that this goes to the year 2014. In the year 2014 we start all over again. This is an _- ongoing issue. Chair Wilson: What do you need from us? Director Koontz: Comments. Questions. What direction do you want us to take? It appears that you want me to get the State down here to drive the City and see what we have. Vice Chair Addington: On the tour is it appropriate to have one or two planning commissioners there? Chair Wilson: If we can get them.down to the City, I will volunteer. Vice Chair Addington: What is the deal on finding a second site? Director Koontz: The comments on the 2000 review, the State Housing and Community Development Department specifically requested that we specify two sites and zone them for this high density residential. Vice Chair Addington: Is that something we do now? Can we roll it over? Director Koontz: I don't want to talk about individual sites. We have identified all the R3 sites by Assessor's Parcel Number in the document. We need to get the document out and talk about the Housing Element as we go through the document. That is the appropriate time to talk about ( this because you will have the information in front of you. 17 l PUBLIC COMMENT JEFFREY McCONNELL Walnut Avenue I don't remember having heard this. All the requirements by the State, is that because we are an incorporated city or is this to guarantee that we get subsidized federal/property tax funds? Director Koontz: This relates to every City in the State plus every County and jurisdiction that has taken on affordable housing responsibilities. It has nothing to do with funding. PATRICIA FARELY 12513 Michigan Street One thing that I keep being amazed by is that at the last meeting and here, Gary Koontz said that we were ninety five percent done with this plan. Now he is saying that this is going to take more time. This is frustrating to get all.this just print. I would like to also point out that a long time ago I commented about Mr. Schwab actually having six places for doing high density. Yet he publically denied it. He said this is the only one. This is where we keep being misled. I think it is incredibly important that we do not go around and have isolated areas in the middle of low- density housing. Because it affects everybody's property unfairly. That is why I was saying I do think that it should be in the center of town where everyone is paying attention to it. It should not be scattered around among all the low density residential. We need to figure out how to do it and do it right. I think associations that, because it to be self monitored, we do not have to call the police in all the time. By the fact that everyone is paying attention because it is commercial area and special zoning with maintenance with zoning. I know that is not going to happen if you do pockets throughout the City. In the claims that have presented to the State, places were identified as being low, low income which in fact aren't. There were some apartments that were listed on Mount Vernon Avenue that were a part of this. That is not accurate. The information is not accurate as far as what we have and where we are going. I'd rather see more apartment buildings turned into low, low-income housing instead of damaging all of.the other residential areas where people don't want to be next to high-density areas. That hasn't been protected. The more that you put in Grand Terrace the more school you need. I would like to also know how the Assessor's office could change the Schwertfeger's place to Industrial on a deed without it ever going to the City and public. The City has the right to go in and say we need that property for residential. Director Koontz: I consider this ninety five percent done as to the draft. 18 CHARLES HORNSBY 22616 Brentwood Street Can we see that map again? Is that pointer available? If you drew an imaginary line from one corner to another corner, how many changes are going on in this area versus that area? I'm noticing that all the changes that are going to be resisted are in that diamond. The diamond.areas is like sacred ground. The State is telling us to do a lot and that is pretty clear but I doubt that money is not behind it. A lot of decisions made in this City because of Redevelopment money. I know for a fact that there is a letter that tells this City that by putting the senior housing where it is they have to provide an equally sized complex for other people. I have a copy of that letter and this goes-back two years. If we are going to be told by the State that we have to do all of this stuff 1) a rule of discovery process need to go into effect as to how-much of that is tied to money and 2)whether the burdens that this will place. You are discussing burdens and the viability of neighborhoods along with quality of life. We need to know if the burdens are not going to be shared on this side of the line with none on the other. Chair Wilson: We have talked about this before. Pocket zoning is not a desirable way of doing things. However, then there are times when you are looking at an area of redevelopment opportunity or consideration that it doesn't become a pocket zoning because a major of the area is non-conforming. We have been big time advocates for considering character of the neighborhood is before anything happens and we continue to do that. That is the purpose of the importance of these meetings. Commissioner Comstock: I may not be the most knowledgeable of the housing element but I am looking at the mixed-use area as previously discussed. I am wondering if at possible to suggest to the developer who is bringing that project forward to put some low qualified housing. With a commercial area, the housing would be monitored. Chair Wilson: We are dancing a fine line. There are a whole bunch of us here that are close to seniors or are seniors. When we start to talk about pocket zoning it is a serious condition on whether you segregate all of the affordable situations to an area of the city to be able to go to the store or that you are next to a busy area where you can't sleep at night. Moving five hundred feet one way or another it can affect many people. This is one of the processes we are tackling, that is why it is so tough. Vice Chair Addington: Following up on a suggestion that Patricia Farley made; what is the possibility to adapt apartments and or duplexes to meet affordable housing? Director Koontz: According to one of the first slides I gave you, it says that you should go and ( find existing housing available and make it deed restricted available. 19 Chair Wilson: Example. You be the owner and have rent control, you are in the same circumstance. That is where it gets hairy. Director Koontz: This is not easy to attack. Vice Chair Addington: I was trying to understand this and wanted to address Patricia's suggestion. WILLIAM KAMINSKY Burns Avenue Getting back to that mixed-use zone, we have a specific plan but it doesn't take an account of any housing. It is strictly industrial and commercial. There is a possibility but nothing written in. I don't know if the State can make us put in this high-density area and include it or not. Instead of saying mixed-use we have about four or five uses besides industrial, commercial and residential with a combined"tell us to put it there". Director Koontz: If you are referring to the Outdoor Adventures Center Specific Plan, that is not in existence any more. What we are doing is-putting together a brand new one and an EIR that has a total different concept. We have a master developer,he has come up with a concept, and we are moving forward with a completely new concept. That project is considering residential as part of the project with commercial, office and recreation. Commissioner McNaboe: Is there a current specific plan covering that area? Director Koontz: The Outdoor Adventures Center was never rescinded. Commissioner McNaboe: Did that have Industrial? Director Koontz: The lower area was considered Industrial and the industrial zones we have do allow certain commercial uses and services uses. Again, by changing the whole thing to mixed- use and putting a specific plan on it takes away that underlying Commercial/Industrial designation. Chair Wilson: You also have the flexibility of permitted uses as well. When we talk about the allowable uses the permitted uses.come under another sleeve. You can go in and request a Conditional Use Permit. End of side B Tape 1 Chair Wilson: What I do want to do is chat about the relationship of the General Plan and a specific plan overlay. If the area on Barton Road has an existing plan overlay and a General Plan has been adopted where that area'is a multiple use the only way that specific plan is applicable is only if it is in concert with the General Plan. 20 Director Koontz: In hierarchy, the General Plan takes precedence and you find your way down t to specific plans and site plans. If you elected to change all the area long Barton Road to a mixed-use we would have to go back and amend to allow those uses to be consistent with the General Plan. Commissioner Comstock: I realized that quite a few amount of RDA money on the senior housing project; do you know where we are at on that? Is there available funds? Director Koontz: I don't know that information but I can get it for you. I know that the majority of the available funds have been committed to the senior housing project. Chair Wilson: Let's get the paperwork. Director Koontz: I can get the City Manager to give a presentation on that. One of the sections we didn't really talk about in the Housing Element tonight is we have to identify funding sources. Part of that is they wanted a discussion on that. Because that pot of money can be used toward meeting their affordable housing goals. PATRICIA FARLEY 12513 Michigan Street You are saying twenty percent of the money that you get for redevelopment well the more you get the higher we go into debt the more we are required to have low-income housing? Director Koontz: It relates to the Redevelopment money but not the amount of housing that is required under the RHNA numbers. They are two separate things. Ms.Farley: If you have twelve million versus sixty million then the twenty percent means more supply of low-income housing? Chair Wilson: The standard of the amount of the percentage of low-income housing that you provide is based on RHNA; the money has nothing to do with it. Commissioner McNaboe: Would the money set aside help achieve that goal? Director Koontz: That is one of the income sources that provide low-income housing. Commissioner McNaboe: The relationship between the money and the low-income housing is that the money you get through RDA helps you to achieve that goal that is set by State law because you are an incorporated city. Director Koontz: If a City doesn't have a RDA and the twenty percent set aside they are still required to meet the RHNA numbers. They will have to find money from another source like the general fund. 21 JEFFREY McCONNELL Walnut Avenue Since the RHNA numbers were based on the area of the City and the existing Housing Element hypothetically in twenty years if the City is build out would RHNA numbers drop? Director Koontz: The RHNA numbers are based on SCAG's projections. They don't look at the Housing Element. They look at the demands for the region and where they think the people are going to go. Mr.McConnell: If we are built-out can we argue that we are? Director Koontz: There are cities in LA County that have a RHNA obligation because you can do redevelopment. There are two different numbers there is one that goes to year 2014 and there is another projection that goes to year 2035. There are about forty five hundred homes in the City and their first numbers to us in the 2035 said that they wanted us to build another two thousand homes. I talked to SANBAG and asked them where are we going to put that amount. I went to every piece of residentially zone that was vacant or underutilize and came up with a maximum number of units we could build per the General Plan. We argued and they realized that we were right. Colton didn't get away with that. • Information to Commissioners • Information from Commissioners Director Koontz: In terms of your next meeting we don't have anything however we can do another workshop. It is getting close to Thanksgiving. What I would like to do is get the draft out. Chair Wilson: We need as much time as we can with the draft. If someone wants to review it other than the Planning Commission, how will they do that? Director Koontz: My goal is to get it on the website as soon as possible. Chair Wilson: What if you do not have access to the internet. Director Koontz: We can run copies but there is a fee unless we go back to City Council and they say differently. We will post it at the counter and the senior center. Chair Wilson: As much as we don't want to go into the next century when they put together the habitat conservation plan for San Bernardino/Riverside County they came out with a CD. It is a reality that we are wasting paper. 22 J r We do have the availability of computers in the Library granted the seats are not comfortable but \, we want to accommodate anyone that is interested to find out what is going on with the general plan and that is our goal. Director Koontz, let me know how many copies are going to be available. Anyone in this audience can contact me personally. My name is in the phone book I will see that we get you a copy to review. Vice Chair Addington: Have we now had a workshop on every element of the General Plan update? Director Koontz: We didn't do anything on safety, public facilities, public services and noise. What I want to do is discuss in sustainable development. Vice Chair Addington: I know the noise was just updated a few years ago. Director Koontz: I'm reluctant to do workshops on those because we are all going to fall asleep. It is very dry. Noise and Public Safety have not changed. Chair Wilson: I would agree when it comes to that aspect of it. For example Air Quality is a regional issue for the most part. We will think about it. Director Koontz: I think the sustainable development is worth having a workshop on. Chair Wilson: We can wait until after the first week of December. Director Koontz: If you can give me until the Thanksgiving holiday to get the document out to everybody that would give me time to put together a power point on sustainable development in the first week of December. Chair Wilson: That is a consensus. ADJOURN PUBLIC WORKSHOP SESSION NEXT PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING TO BE HELD ON NOVEMBER 15.2007 Res ectfully Submitted, Approved BA �. *1Z -<�, I Directorckoontz, Plannid Director Doug Wilson Planning Commission Chairman .-r r t 23