REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on the El Camino Real Specific Plan, General Plan Amendment for the creation of four new General Plan land use designations, creation of the El Camino Real Zoning District, removal of street parking on El Camino Real, and an Environmental Impact Report and Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Promote and Enhance Economic, Housing and Transportation Development
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Planning Commission conducted a public hearing and deliberated on the El Camino Real Specific Plan on May 10, 2021. With a unanimous vote, the Commission recommended approval of staff’s recommendation, with the following modifications, of the Specific Plan and El Camino Real Corridor Zoning Districts.
§ Grandfather in applications that are already in the pipeline and that are aligned with the goals of the El Camino Real Specific Plan.
§ Change the proposed land use designation for the property located at 3141 and 3155 El Camino Real from Corridor Mixed Use (45-65 DU/AC) to Corridor Residential (16-45 DU/AC).
§ Prohibit data centers within the El Camino Real Specific Plan area
§ Add a historic preservation policy
§ Consider solar access in the winter of adjacent single-family yards on the north side of El Camino Real and require design solutions to mitigate any shading.
§ Provide a free or low-cost shuttle along the corridor.
The Specific Plan represents the implementation of the General Plan’s goals and policies for the El Camino Real Focus Area and establishes the land use and development regulations for the Plan Area. Adoption of the Specific Plan will allow up to 6,200 residential units along the corridor and establish fine-grained land use designations, provide more detailed land use policy than currently in the General Plan and provide objective design standards to regulate new development projects.
BACKGROUND
The City Council is being asked to conduct a public hearing and take six actions related to preparation of a Specific Plan for the El Camino Real Focus Area:
1. Acceptance of the Water Supply Assessment (WSA);
2. Determination of the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared to analyze the potential environmental impacts for the project and adoption of a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program;
3. Adoption of the Specific Plan;
4. Adoption of associated General Plan land use diagram and text amendments including the creation of the Regional Corridor Mixed Use (55-100 DU/AC; 0.2 Commercial FAR); Corridor Mixed Use (45-65 DU/AC); Corridor Residential (16-45 DU/AC); and Ground Floor Commercial Overlay land use designations, and amending the General Plan Land Use diagrams for Phases II and III to reflect the land use designations in the El Camino Real Specific Plan; and
5. Adoption of the El Camino Real Corridor zoning districts into the Zoning Code; and
6. Adoption of an Ordinance allowing the removal of on-street parking on El Camino Real.
The El Camino Real Specific Plan will guide all land use and development decision-making processes for the Plan area. To achieve the future vision for El Camino Real, the Plan provides land uses and standards and guidelines that will apply to all new development in the Plan area, as well as public improvements and extensive renovations to existing structures.
The Specific Plan as proposed achieves the goals laid out in the 2035 General Plan by adding additional land use designations that provide a greater differentiation and a stronger correlation to specific types of development, and establishing more detailed land use policies requiring commercial uses to be focused in key locations where they will be most viable and support destination shopping and placemaking, providing design standards to direct new development and improve the interface between new and existing land uses, and providing a concept for the improvement of El Camino Real right-of-way for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders.
DISCUSSION
At the May 10, 2021 Planning Commission meeting, staff provided a presentation on the proposed project (Planning Commission Report attached). Public testimony at the hearing included 14 speakers.
One member of the public, a representative for the project located 3141/3155 El Camino Real, requested support for reducing the proposed density on their project site so that they could develop a townhouse project that would complement the adjacent recently approved townhome development on the adjacent Wheels and Deals site and be more sensitive to the abutting single-family residences.
Nine members of the public who spoke in favor of the Plan stated that many of the issues brought up during the planning process were addressed in the Plan, the additional range of housing would benefit the City by increasing the housing supply, the proposed bike lane would provide access to jobs and services and bring more activity to Santa Clara, a protected bike lane would address any safety issues for bicycle riders, and wider sidewalks and trees would make El Camino Real a nicer environment. A few of these speakers also requested that the City work with VTA on signal priority for buses, as well as increased frequency.
Five members of the public expressed concerns about the Plan. A few speakers thought the Plan did not do enough to protect existing adjacent single-family residences, that allowable building heights and massing were still too much, and in particular, on the north side of El Camino Real, residences would be shaded in the winter and possibly impede sun access to solar panels. One speaker also commented that parking requirements should be reduced as it would then in turn allow for a reduction in a building’s massing. And finally, the community benefits program should be defined and not the subject of a development agreement.
After public testimony, the Planning Commission discussion and recommendations addressed several topics. The following provides a summary of the Commission discussion and a staff response for each.
Grandfather Policy
The Commissioners discussed the four pending development applications within the Plan area and thought that those projects should be able to be processed with their current General Plan land use designations. The Commissioners agreed that applications that are already in the pipeline, and that are aligned with the goals of the El Camino Real Specific Plan, should be able to be processed consistent with their current land use designations.
Currently, there are four development applications on file within the Specific Plan area. Of those four, one application is inactive, and two, as proposed, are consistent with the land use designations identified for their site on the Specific Plan’s land use plan. The fourth application, as proposed, is inconsistent with the land use designation identified for their site on the land use plan. The Commission recommended a grandfather policy for existing applications, and made a separate recommendation to change the land use designation for the proposed project located at 3141/3155 El Camino Real (see below). However, it is unnecessary to include a grandfather policy as the two active applications would be consistent with the proposed land use designation identified for their sites on the land use plan. Therefore, staff does not recommend the inclusion of a grandfather policy in the Specific Plan.
3141/3155 El Camino Real
In response to the applicant’s request for a change in the proposed designation for 3141/3155 El Camino Real, the Commission discussed the proposed project and recommended that the draft Specific Plan land use plan be changed from Corridor Mixed Use (45-65 DU/AC) to Corridor Residential (16-45 DU/AC) as requested. The Commission noted that the lower density land use designation would be consistent with the townhome project approved on the adjacent property.
The land use plan as proposed was developed and recommended by the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) that guided the Specific Plan effort. The CAC chose to focus more intensive development at key nodes “Activity Centers”, and a less intensive mix of commercial residential uses in the “In-Between” areas. The “In-Between” areas are divided into two designations with the lower density designation: Corridor Residential, which supports townhome type units, placed on parcels that are narrower and smaller, and the medium density designation, Corridor Mixed Use, which supports lower density apartments applied to large parcels.
The developer for the property at 3141/3155 El Camino Real requested their land use be changed from the medium density, Corridor Mixed Use, to the lower density, Corridor Residential. Staff is recommending that the Specific Plan move forward consistent with the CAC recommendation, which provides the best scenario for contributing to a range of housing options and affordability levels to meet the critical local and regional need for increased housing supply.
Data Centers
Commissioner Cherukuru expressed concern about the possibility of data centers locating within the Plan area, and while the Zoning Code limits data center development to industrial zoned sites, requested that language be added to the Plan and Zoning Districts to explicitly state that data centers are a prohibited use.
Because the Specific Plan is not intended to support data center development, the addition of this language would have minimal impact, but would be consistent with the overall goals and policies of the Specific Plan. Consistent with the Commission’s recommendation, staff recommends identifying the data center use in Table 4-1, Allowed Land Uses (pg. 49) of the Specific Plan and Section 18.27.050, Land Use Table of the zoning districts as a use that is “Not Permitted”, to provide clear direction that data centers may not be located along the El Camino Real. Consistent with this, the General Plan only allows for data centers in the Low-Intensity Office/Research and Development (R&D), Light Industrial, and Heavy Industrial land uses designations.
Historic Preservation
Commissioner Biagini was concerned that the Plan did not have a historical resource discussion and that new development implementing the Plan may impact potential resources adjacent to the Plan area. She requested that a historic preservation policy be added to the plan.
The Specific Plan EIR evaluated the Plan’s potential impact on cultural resources and identified a mitigation measure which has been incorporated into the Plan that requires any future project development site within the Plan area to prepare the appropriate California Department of Parks and Recreation 523 Forms (DPR Forms) for any building or structure that is 50 or more years old for the purpose of establishing eligibility as a California Historical Landmark or for the California Register of Historical Resources.
Preparation of historic policies specific to the Plan area, depending upon the scope of the effort, could require additional time and resources that would delay the completion of the Specific Plan or require a separate, follow-up planning effort. The City’s Historic Preservation Policy and its implementation procedures were developed through a considerable community based effort and intended to be applicable City-wide so that additional policies for the Plan area wouldn’t be necessary.
To address the concern of historic resources adjacent to the Plan area, staff recommends the addition of an action item to Table 6-2, Implementation Actions and Programs (pg. 181) in the Implementation Chapter of the Plan. The action would be to conduct a “windshield survey,” with staff identifying potential historic structures adjacent to the Plan area and include the list of identified structures as an appendix to the Plan. The responsible party for this action would be the planning staff. The “windshield survey” list would then be consulted by a developer, the community, and staff when new projects are proposed to know whether a project was adjacent to a potential historic structure.
Shading/Solar Access
Commissioner Huang expressed concern about the height of properties on the northern side of El Camino Real and the potential for shadow impacts on adjacent single-family homes to the rear, particularly in the winter. Several commissioners echoed this concern. Commissioner Huang recommended that decreasing the height on the north side of the Plan area would prevent adverse impacts to solar panels, and possibly treating the north and south sides differently as the sun’s position relative to the corridor would have lesser effects on the south side. It was recommended that the Plan include a policy and standard that requires the consideration of solar access in the winter of adjacent single-family yards on the north side of El Camino Real and require design solutions to mitigate any shading.
The Specific Plan as proposed was developed with design standards, including neighborhood transition and building massing standards, to ensure that new development provides appropriate and sensitive transitions in height and scale to existing neighborhoods. The goals of these standards is to preserve neighborhood character and protect light and privacy while maintaining an economically viable development site that contributes to a range of housing options and meets a critical local and regional need for increased housing supply.
Following the Planning Commission hearing, further analysis of potential shade and shadow impacts was prepared for development on the north side of El Camino Real to determine the extent of shading that could occur of the rear yards abutting those sites. Rear yards could be shaded up to three weeks around the Winter equinox (December 21). At that point in the year however, six foot good-neighbor fences also cast a shadow on the rear yards. In order to eliminate any potential shading of adjacent single-family residences during the winter, a more stringent daylight plane standard would need to be added to the Plan. Further study would be required to determine how an increased daylight plane angle would affect the feasibility of development and whether a development would be able to achieve the minimum densities required in the Plan while also conforming to such a standard, raising the possibility that the proposed land use designations may need to be modified. While the current Plan has minimal shading impacts on adjacent development, eliminating any impact would likely have an impact on the viability of the Specific Plan. Therefore, staff does not recommend any changes the transition standard in the Plan.
Community Shuttle
Commissioner Saleme commented that a shuttle to business on the corridor would benefit those that have limited parking. He recommended that a free or low-cost community shuttle be provided along the corridor.
The Specific Plan does not preclude the provision of a community shuttle for the Plan area and supports instituting a shuttle by providing it as an option for developers when utilizing the community benefits program. The City does not currently have a funding mechanism to support a shuttle and it should be noted that the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is providing high quality and highly utilized bus service along the El Camino Real corridor. There are frequent bus routes (running every 15 minutes or better), which includes the local Route 22, as well as the limited stop rapid bus 522, with stops at Scott Boulevard, Bowers Avenue-Kiely Boulevard, Lawrence Expressway, and the Santa Clara transit station, which provides a connection to Caltrain.
Staff Recommendation
The staff recommendation is presented below as Alternatives 1-6. To address some of the concerns raised by the Commission during their discussion, staff recommends modifications be made to the Specific Plan and Zoning Ordinance as detailed in the discussion above.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was prepared for the El Camino Real Specific Plan and related approvals (the “project”) in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The EIR analyzes program-level impacts of the El Camino Real Specific Plan. The EIR and Notice of Availability (NOA) were circulated for a 45-day period from December 10, 2020 to January 25, 2021 in accordance with CEQA requirements. The EIR provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential environmental impacts for the project.
The EIR found that any potentially significant impacts can be mitigated to a less than significant level. The mitigation measures are included in their entirety as a part of the proposed Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP). A detailed discussion of the potential impacts and mitigation measures to be applied to the project is specified in the EIR and would be implemented through the MMRP for the proposed project.
During the Draft EIR comment period a total of eleven comments were received. None of the comment letters identified a new significant impact, or have provided substantial evidence that the CEQA analysis is otherwise inadequate. Responses to the Draft EIR comments, as well as minor text changes and clarifications, in the form of a Final EIR, were made available to the public through the City’s website on April 19, 2021, and have been forwarded on to the commenters on the Draft EIR.
The environmental impacts of redeveloping an existing commercial corridor and state highway were analyzed at a program level. It is intended for the Final EIR to be used by developers as a starting point for the environmental clearance of their individual development proposals, which will further facilitate redevelopment of the area.
The Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council approve and certify the EIR.
Water Supply Assessment
City staff has prepared a Water Supply Assessment for the El Camino Real Specific Plan. An Assessment is required to analyze the utility’s current and future water supplies as well as the current and projected water demands in the utility’s service area. The Assessment must include a determination as to whether additional water supplies are necessary or if sufficient water supplies exist for the proposed development. The law also requires that the water utility’s governing body approve water supply assessments. The City Council is the governing body for the City’s Water Utility.
The Assessment provides a detailed analysis of the amount of water necessary to meet the needs of the proposed development and the City’s ability to supply that amount of water based on the projections identified in the City’s Urban Water Management Plan as well as water supply assessments prepared after the City’s Urban Water Management Plan was approved in 2016. The Assessment found that the City’s water utility has sufficient water supplies to meet the projected water demand of this development during normal, single dry year, and multiple dry year scenarios. Council’s approval of the Assessment (see attached resolution) is necessary for the El Camino Real Specific Plan to be approved.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funding for the development of the El Camino Real Specific Plan and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) comes from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) grant awarded to the City of Santa Clara in the amount of $910,000. When the Council approved the Funding Agreement with MTC, the City agreed to a 12% match, or $109,200 of the total project costs, which funds came from the Capital Improvement Projects Budget.
The proposed change in land uses would significantly increase land values, as well as demand for services, having both positive and negative fiscal impacts upon the City.
On the whole, implementation of the Specific Plan is expected to have a relatively minor net fiscal impact to the City and will provide housing necessary for Santa Clara’s ongoing economic vitality.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office.
PUBLIC CONTACT
On June 4, 2021, the notice of public hearing for this item was posted within 300 feet of the project site and mailed to property owners within 300 feet of the project site. Newspaper notice of this item was published in The Weekly on June 3, 2021.
Public contact was also made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov>.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Adopt a resolution approving the El Camino Real Water Supply Assessment (WSA).
2. Adopt a resolution approving and certifying the Final EIR prepared for the El Camino Real East Specific Plan (SCH # 2019059029), including CEQA Findings.
3. Adopt a resolution approving the El Camino Real Specific Plan, a specific plan consistent with CA Government Code Sections 65450-65457.
4. Adopt a resolution approving a General Plan text amendment creating the Regional Corridor Mixed Use (55-100 DU/AC; 0.2 Commercial FAR); Corridor Mixed Use (45-65 DU/AC); Corridor Residential (16-45 DU/AC); and Ground Floor Commercial Overlay land use designations, and amending the General Plan Land Use diagrams for Phases II and III to reflect the land use designations in the El Camino Real Specific Plan.
5. Adopt an ordinance amending the zoning code to create the El Camino Real Zoning district.
6. Adopt an Ordinance allowing the removal of on-street parking on El Camino Real.
7. Direct staff to return to City Council with a modified version of the proposed project.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
1. Adopt a resolution approving the El Camino Real Water Supply Assessment (WSA);
2. Adopt a resolution approving and certifying the Final EIR prepared for the El Camino Real East Specific Plan (SCH # 2019059029), including CEQA Findings;
3. Adopt a resolution approving the El Camino Real Specific Plan, a specific plan consistent with CA Government Code Sections 65450-65457;
4. Adopt a resolution approving a General Plan text amendment creating the Regional Corridor Mixed Use (55-100 DU/AC; 0.2 Commercial FAR); Corridor Mixed Use (45-65 DU/AC); Corridor Residential (16-45 DU/AC); and Ground Floor Commercial Overlay land use designations, and amending the General Plan Land Use diagrams for Phases II and III to reflect the land use designations in the El Camino Real Specific Plan;
5. Adopt an ordinance amending the zoning code to create the El Camino Real Zoning district; and
6. Adopt an Ordinance allowing the removal of on-street parking on El Camino Real.
Staff
Reviewed by: Andrew Crabtree, Director, Community Development Department
Approved by: Deanna J. Santana, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. El Camino Real Specific Plan Planning Commission Report
2 El Camino Real Water Supply Assessment (WSA) Resolution
3. El Camino Real EIR Resolution
4. CEQA Facts and Findings
5. El Camino Real EIR MMRP
6. El Camino Real Specific Plan Resolution
7. El Camino Real General Plan Amendment Resolution
8. El Camino Real Land Use Plan
9. El Camino Real Zoning Districts Ordinance
10. El Camino Real No Parking Resolution
11. Web link to Draft Specific Plan Document and EIR
12. Public Comments