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Home My WebLink About08/18/1998, 8 - ANNEXING PART OF THE MARGARITA AREA IN RESPONSE TO LAND OWNERS' REQUEST council. °� . j acEn& aEpoizt CITY OF SAN LUIS O B I S P O FROM: Arnold B. Jonas, Community Development Director Prepared By: John Mandeville,Long-Range Planning Manager Glen Matteson,Associate Planner G;PM SUBJECT: Annexing part of the Margarita Area in response to land owners' request CAO RECOMMENDATION Allow the requesting owners to proceed with annexation,provided they pay the applicable processing fees. DISCUSSION Situation/Summary Two of the five major landowners in the Margarita Area, John King and Richard DeBlauw, have asked the Council to complete the annexation of their properties (attached map), which the City initiated in 1993. For now, the three other major owners are waiting for further information on development costs and allowed development capacities before proceeding with annexation. The request raises two issues: 1. Should part of the Margarita Area be annexed ahead of the areawide annexation? Staff recommends that the separate annexation be processed, since doing so is consistent with General Plan policies and could accelerate open space dedication and production of modest housing. In discussions with all the owners, staff has said that the area could be annexed in phases, if some owners were willing to proceed ahead of others, with the understanding that any development must wait for adoption of the specific plan. 2. Should the City bear the entire additional cost of the separate annexation procedure? Staff recommends that the owners pay the application fees to the City and to the County that would typically be required of individual applicants. The reasons for the City's bearing the full cost for the separate annexation are not compelling,as they were when the City initiated the areawide annexation at the City's expense. Background In 1993, as the City was concluding the update of the Land Use Element, property owners in the Airport Area and Margarita Areas requested that the City eliminate a policy requiring specific plans as a pre-requisite to annexations in the Margarita and Airport areas. They stated that completing the specific plans was problematic and could make annexation in the future difficult. Because detailed comprehensive plans for these areas were determined to be necessary, the City maintained some of the specific plan pre-requisites, but took several actions to assure the property owners that the City would work to implement the General Plan annexation goals. These actions included 1) a City-initiated annexation application for the area within the urban reserve boundary south of the existing city-limits and east of Higuera Street (which included the 9_ Council]Agenda Report-Margarita Area partial annexation Page 2 Margarita Area); and 2) special policy provisions allowing the Margarita Area properties to annex to the City prior to the adoption of a specific plan for that area. The City Council initiated an annexation application for the whole Margarita Area in conjunction with the Airport Area in November 1993. This was done as a sign of the City's commitment to General Plan policies calling for annexation of the area as well as for the purpose of efficiently annexing the entire area in one step rather than an undetermined number of smaller annexations. The application was made to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), the countywide agency which decides boundary changes for cities. It was also the City's intent that the annexation application would act as a catalyst for the completion of necessary plans by giving the property owners an incentive to pool their efforts to complete the specific plans and support the completion of the annexation. The intent was to facilitate completing the General Plan pre-requisites to annexation. This did not occur, however, and it took several years for the City to develop a strategy for completing the specific plans. Because the annexation pre-requisites were not completed, the City did not complete the annexation process. The annexation application expired one year after it was submitted to LAFCo. The area-wide application can be reactivated with minimal additional fees to LAFCo. The LAFCo Executive Officer was not available when this report was written, and it is not certain at this time whether the application fees previously paid by the City could be applied to a new application or whether they would instead be refunded to the City and new fees be paid. The Land Use Element of the General Plan allows annexation of land in the Margarita Area once the City Council has approved a draft of the Margarita Area Specific Plan, as the project description for an environmental impact report. The Council gave that approval on May 19, 1998. The Council had allowed for annexation before adoption of the specific plan in response to owners' desires expressed during the Land Use Element update hearings. Such earlier annexation could reassure owners that development would proceed, make it easier for owners or developers to obtain financing, and possibly allow subdivision and architectural review applications to be submitted sooner. According to the General Plan, if all or part of the Margarita Area is annexed before the Specific Plan is adopted, the annexed territory is to be zoned Conservation/Open Space until the specific plan is adopted. Following adoption of the specific plan, the land would be zoned consistent with the it.Actual development must wait until the specific plan is adopted. Adoption of the specific plan depends on completing infrastructure, financing, and environmental studies, which are being done in connection the City's work on the Airport Area Specific Plan. These further studies are scheduled to be completed this year, so the Planning Commission and City Council could hold hearings leading to adoption of the Margarita Area Specific Plan and the Airport Area Specific Plan starting early next year. Considering just the procedural efforts, it is more cost-effective to annex one large area than several small ones. This was one reason why the City Council initiated annexation of the remaining unincorporated Edna-Islay secondary planning area. That area is composed of numerous individual properties which represent a potential to consume significant staff time if �-2 Council Agenda Report-Margarita Area partial annexation Page 3 annexations occurred one or two properties at a time. This was also a factor in the City's initiation of the application to annex all of the Margarita and Airport areas in November 1993. As noted above, the other reason for the City's earlier annexation application was to provide property owners with incentive to complete the specific plans that were a pre-requisite to annexation. These two reasons for publicly funding the request of the two property owners that is currently before the Council do not exist to the degree they were present in the original annexation application. For this reason, staff is not recommending that the City ask LAFCo to credit the previously paid annexation fee for use by the two properties now asking to proceed. In response to the owners' current request, the following three procedural approaches are available. They differ mainly in how efficiently staff and Council time is used, and in when any additional LAFCo processing fees would be advanced. Option 1 is consistent with the CAO recommendation. Options#1 and#2 have the following in common: • The City prepares an initial environmental study, LAFCo request, and prezoning package (similar to the one recently done for the Fuller Road Area, in the Edna-Islay secondary planning area east of Broad Street); • The City and the County enter into an agreement concerning assignment of tax revenues from the territory to be annexed; • The City and the owners enter into pre-annexation agreements concerning extension of services, payment of impact fees, and dedications of land, distinguishing between those that will occur upon annexation and those that will follow in the course of subdivision and development; • LAFCo holds a hearing; • The annexation of the requesting owners' land is completed (probably winter 1998-99); In Option #1, the City does not reactivate its previous LAFCo application now, but allows the owners to proceed separately. • The owners pay any LAFCo application fees, County planning fees, and City processing fees; •. Annexation of the remaining owners' land is completed later(probably summer 1999). In Option #2, the City modifies and reactivates its previous LAFCo application to encompass only those owners wishing to proceed now. • LAFCo may credit the previously paid application fee toward a separate proposal within the previously proposed annexation area, or the City can use some of the original annexation fees for this purpose. Some additional processing fees for the County Department of Planning and Building would be due regardless of the approach taken. City staff recommends that the owners pay those fees and City processing fees as for any privately initiated application; • Annexation of the remaining owners' land is completed (probably summer 1999), with additional LAFCo fees to be paid. 03 Council Agenda Report-Margarita Area partial annexation Page 4 With Option #3, the City reactivates its previous LAFCo application only when all owners are ready to complete the annexation under an adopted specific plan. • The owners pay no additional fees (costs covered by previously paid fees or by new use of those fees after being refunded); • The forthcoming EIR and the prezoning are transmitted to LAFCo; • The City and the County enter into an agreement concerning assignment of tax revenues from the territory to be annexed; • The City and the owners enter into pre-annexation agreements concerning extension of services, payment of impact fees, and dedications of land, distinguishing between those that will occur upon annexation ands those that will follow in the course of subdivision and development; • LAFCo holds a hearing; • The annexation for all owners is completed(probably summer 1999). FISCAL IMPACT The immediate, processing-related fiscal impact depends on the direction given by the Council, and can be summarized as follows. ;City processing cost in addition'Portions of City processing cost!Potential additional Option to area-wide annexation work;borne by: :County or LAFCo already budgeted General Fund T Owners_Ki__ ___ ___;fees T T T 1 $24,700:; _____________$18,500 $6,2 00+ $0 _ + + 2 $24,700. ---- ------$18, 0; ----- ; ----------------$3,700 $0, $0 The City has advanced the cost of completing the specific plan and EIR, to be recovered through fees when construction occurs. That arrangement would not be changed by any of the listed options. For long-term, General Fund operating costs and revenues, the broad fiscal impacts of annexations, including the Margarita Area, were examined during the Land Use Element update and were found to be beneficial. Public facilities and financing plans being prepared as part of the Airport Area work will provide more specific information on capital costs and revenues for that area. It should be noted again that development will not begin until this additional fiscal information is available. ALTERNATIVES In addition to the options noted above, Council may continue action. There is no State-mandated deadline for acting on this request. Attachments Location map Owners' letter of request cnR 8_18-98 revised , VM III:IIIIIr �!:,�! _ F 111101 VA M MMI s� III mimem m , ME ►_� _ MNI 1 = v'r ;1 ■ i 1. IN �uwumnn11150 �■ . pllli .111111 ■o ■M =ui UU1 ..11 ...`I _�- �� it ■111111 .. WE MME , ❑ _ -anon.. __� •� m _ �11111111! �pu u•�= =:.��:1111 �� 1 �,111111 �� June 3, 1998 Mayor Allen Settle City Council Members CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO City Hall xx Palm San Luis Obispo, California 93401 Re: Request For Proceeding with Pending Annexation Application; MARGARITA ANNEXATION AREA; San Luis Obispo DeBlauw and King Properties Dear Mayor Settle and Councilmembers: We are writing to you to request that you proceed with the annexation of our properties located within the Margarita Specific Plan area. We have attached a map that describes our respective sites (Parcels "B", "C" and "D"), which encompass approximately 130 acres adjoining Margarita Avenue in southern San Luis Obispo. This request is made consistent with your General Plan Land Use Policy, which provides in part that, upon Council action to adopt a draft Specific Plan for the Margarita area, annexation of properties may proceed. As you may recall, the City had initiated an annexation application with LAFCo for the Margarita area, and as far back as 1994 the Council requested that said application be placed on hold with LAFCo pending related actions in the Airport Area and environmental review. Last year Council and staff worked cooperatively with local property owners in both the Airport and Margarita annexation areas to move this collective planning process forward. This cooperation has been very constructive and has moved this planning process forward in a possitive manner. At the request of the City, we contributed funds to the preparation of the joint EIR presently under way for these areas. We have continued to contribute our time and our support for this process because it is in our community's best interest to expand our City in these areas. The draft Margarita Specific Plan adopted by your Council on May 19, 1998, represented many years of discussion and preparation on our part, and this Plan was brought to Council as a result of your commitment and staff's efforts in 1997. A major threshold was achieved when this Plan was finally completed to staffs satisfaction, and recommended to you by the Planning Commission. S-�O ' San Luis Obispo City Council Margarita Annexation Area,. Luis Obispo 6/3/98 Page 2 At this time we are led to believe that action by the Council is required to move forward with the pending annexation request. Authorization by Council to proceed with the annexation of our properties can be limited to our ownership interests only. Such an action would then prompt LAFCo to examine these sites independently, and permit LAFCo and the City to arrive at a mutually agreeable determination on the annexation request. As we understand this process, LAFCo should be able to move quickly with this specific request as they are well familiar with the varied aspects of this property and annexation. Our properties are the logical first step for expansion of San Luis Obispo into the Margarita Area because of our adjacency to already-developed portions of the City, proximity to developed or readily available infrastructure, consistency between City and County Land Use designations, and because we will extend greenbelt and hillside open space on the south side of the properties adjoining the Stoneridge projects. Again, we appreciate staff, Commission and Council's leadership and vision on this important process. We would appreciate your prompt consideration and action on this request. Sincerely, Richard DeBlauw ohn E. King SIERRA GARDENS KING VENTURES RICHARD DEBLAUW CONSTRUCTION encl: Map Exhibit cc: John Dunn, City Administrator Arnold Jonas, Community Development Director John Mandeville, Long Range Planning Manager MARANNEXCCH701 Margarita Annexation a--'Specific Plan lntenm(Pre-Annexatic iscal Implementation Report OWNERSHIP- and EASEMENTS M^ F PARCEL A: APN: 07E•771-011 �•' — iI �� j 1 WATER EASEMENT 60.0 ACRES JOHN E KING ETAL I �\ 2 CM SO-PG&E EASEMENT PARCEL B: 4 PUBLIC UTILITY EASEMENT EASEMENT APN: 076731-0I I CRES � Y I�® �--- S WATER EASEMENT JOHNE.KIN r 6 DRAINAGE EASEMENT IOHN E KING ETAL O PARCEL C: p . 7 SLOPE&U`IUX Y EASEMENT �\ APN: REx1-010 r eb V SIE ACRES .F.RRA GARDENS OF )Vld' SAN LUIS OB[SPO,LTD. �• ' PARCEL D: APN:0'!6x1-011 20.0 ACRES SIERRA GARDENS OF SAN LUIS OBISPO.LTD. ° PO PARCEL E. •. t., U: "d APN: 0176-341-004 .' P. ..;: ,F. L5.0 ACRES L J.MARTINELLI TR.ETAL 5 'r :'�`. '- •�• (1'f�`�\� PARCEL F: "J• ' APN: 076791-004 . .� 157.95 ACRES DOLLY GARCIA ErAL ] a. • (j �. PARCEL G: APN: 076791-005 ' • • g • l IRENE BRUGHELII TR-ETAL ' I j" ••�•• •••••• • :� �� PARCEL H: �f x\.31 4�{ s.. _ } • •••• • 1 APN:076.791-006 --. ' `��••• .�l ii i'i / ` •• `O (i 2M ACRES 7 CITY OF SIO. Q ••••• •M ^ r- PARCEL-3 AGES i j ••�••i L J.MARTINELII TR.ETAL (SAN LUIS TALLOW CO-INC.) � PJircel I Parcel F / arcel r 117-71 - \ f _ 10 03 0�) 'D . o o '�♦ �YL�S['SBI SPO •••.•••• EASENE4T PARCELBOUDARY SPECIFIC PLAN TAGIJf LD. BOUNDARY LD.TAG SOURCES: SAN LUIS 0IIISP0I COUNTY ASSESSOR FLIUNM LNG SURVEYS Prebminary Worknq Draft 0 "e