REPORT TO HISTORICAL AND LANDMARKS COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
STUDY SESSION: Zoning Code Update
Report
DISCUSSION
Discussion
The Community Development Department is preparing a comprehensive update to the City of Santa Clara Zoning Code. The City of Santa Clara's current Zoning Code has not been comprehensively updated since it first came into effect in 1969.
The City has been working with Mintier-Harnish, the City's Zoning Code Update consultant, since late 2017. The goal of the Zoning Code Update process is to develop a more up-to-date, readable and relevant Zoning Code that better aligns with the City's General Plan.
To frame the issue of Historic Preservation in relation to the Zoning Code, it is important to understand the policies in the General Plan that the Zoning Code is meant to implement.
Relationship of the Zoning Code to the General Plan
As a part of the General Plan Update process in 2010, residents and stakeholders indicated the importance of historic preservation and neighborhood compatibility. These topics were considered important enough to merit their own sections in the Goals and Policies Chapter of the General Plan.
The General Plan recognizes the importance of preserving and cultivating the City's residential neighborhoods, most clearly stated in its Major Strategies. The excerpt below is from Major Strategy 4.2, Preserve and Cultivate Existing Neighborhoods.
The General Plan recognizes the importance and value of the City's neighborhoods and promotes opportunities for improvements as an important part of cultivating neighborhood character. In addition, the Plan promotes preservation through goals and policies for neighborhood integrity that address the scale, density and design of new development adjacent to existing homes.
Relevant Historic Preservation goals for this discussion are:
5.6.2-P1: Evaluate any proposed changes to properties within 100 feet of historic resources on the City's list of Architecturally or Historically Sig...
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