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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/25/1985M I N U T E S ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1985 - 4:00 P.M. COUNCIL HEARING ROOM, CITY HALL,. 990 PALM STREET SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA STUDY SESSION ROLL CALL 1 Councilmembers Present: GlennaDeane Dovey, Ron Dunin, Robert Griffin, Vice -Mayor Allen K. Settle and Mayor Melanie C. Billig Absent: None City Staff Present: Paul Lanspery, Administrative Officer; Geoff Grote, Assistant Administrative Officer; Roger Picquet, City Attorney; Pam Voges, City Clerk; Toby Ross, Community Development Director; Terry Sanville, Principal Planner; Pam Ricci, Assistant Planner; Judy Lautner, Planning Technician 1. OFFICE ZONING AND USE (File #463) Council reviewed policy options for office use and zoning in the City of San Luis Obispo. Toby Ross, Community Development Director, briefly reviewed the agenda report and took the Council on a video fieldtrip showing various new office projects and other projects at various stages in development. He reviewed some of the concerns that have previously been raised by Council. He particularly highlighted architectural compatibility /incompatibility, various parking standards and design theme standards. Staff provided three alternatives for Council review and recommended Council direct staff to fully evaluate specific options for amending the General Plan and Zoning Regulations or to terminate the consideration of the issue and continue to monitor development trends. Mayor Billig asked for public comments. LaVerne Schneider was concerned about what had happened to R -0 zoning with regard to allowing residential and office uses via a use permit. She stated this was no longer being done and felt that it should be. Terry Simons suggested that Council direct the Architectural Review Commission to seek out and develop neighborhood standards for the areas that are architecturally sensitive and increase the supply of housing in the urban core by providing parking incentives between office and residential which might be shared. Don Smith:urged the Council to keep in mind the protection of the residents from the noise and traffic generated by offices in residential neighborhoods. Penny Rapp a suggested that Council ask staff to review those areas that are potential conversions. The scale of a building should be considered as it would affect the neighborhood, and also try to consolidate large public agencies in the same general location.. Councilman Griffin suggested that staff bring back additional information on the impacts of supply of and demand for office space. He was not sure what could be done about the splitting up of public service agencies as he was not sure that they could be placed downtown in a more central City Council Minutes - Monday, February 25, 1985 - 4:00 p.m. Page 2 location. He would like to look at standards for the scale and character of offices downtown; the mixed -use idea was still okay, and he could support some exception standards if some small office conversions were applied for in those residential areas. He hoped there would be some opportunity for preference zoning to encourage office space in specified areas and those areas which develop first before the large -scale projects like South Higuera. He would be opposed to any major redirection in Council policy. Councilman Dunin stated he would like to encourage mixed -uses in the C -N zone. This might encourage the relocation of offices from the 1 neighborhood zones. He would discourage the conversion of the housing stock in the neighborhoods no matter how they are zoned. He would also discourage single housing by relaxing the parking requirements. He would only encourage demolition if the ratio of new office space to old residential space was very high. He would like the study to focus on encouraging offices. He would like to encourage professional offices around the hospital and discourage the proliferation around the existing medical offices in the downtown. He also supported the mixed -use concept and commercial neighborhood and downtown area, except that he would not like to see offices on the ground level. He also supported the idea that the ARC have a very close look at conversions and at new construction within the downtown core area. He would like to relook at whether small offices are still in strong demand. In particular he would like to look at some of the dead -end streets, like Pacific or Buchon at the railroad tracks, for possible office locations. Councilman Settle felt that the downtown commercial core already had a great deal of residential use, and he would not like to encourage additional office space nor demolitions. He felt that scale, traffic and noise should be the first concerns. He did not feel that much change was necessary to current Council policy as he would like to preserve the residential areas wherever possible. Councilwoman Dovey suggested reevaluation of the supply and demand study also focusing on size of offices where the city has been requested to provide space for large regional or research offices. She questioned if we needed smaller offices, i.e. do attorneys want to be near the county building and do doctors want to be near the hospitals. She had a problem with reducing the parking requirements for offices which are used in the neighborhood zone. She would encourage public agencies to consolidate their services in one location. When demolition is requested, i:e. when doing lot combinations, she would also encourage mixed -uses. Regarding architectural compatibility, she would like to see staff come up with some language that would make it clearer as to what those requirements should be. She had no problem looking at the dead -end streets for possible office conversions and did not feel the basic idea was a bad one, although she would be concerned about how the traffic would be mitigated. Mayor Billig felt it was important to keep in mind land use emphasis that the city wanted in the future. She felt that it was extremely important that there be a balance between the uses for office and neighborhood. She would not wish to encourage urban sprawl by not allowing sufficient offices downtown, however, she was concerned about the conversion of housing to offices. Everytime you convert one house, you are, in essence, being required to build two houses for its replacement. She would like the study to identify the need for large -scale housing or larger -scale offices. She would like to analyze designated office zones that were residential areas prior to 1977, such as Walnut and Peach Streets, but would not necessarily be appropriate today for continued conversion. She would like to look at property north of Santa Rosa as to its appropriateness for the P -0 zone. She was definitely supportive of housing first. With regard to new construction, she would like to look at the scale and architecture and felt that lot combinations could be a real problem. She felt the guidelines were important for new construction in older areas, particularly looking at scale; the downtown area should be reexamined as to professional office zoning; neighborhood standards were extremely important and she would like to see incentives for restoration. She suggested the Council Subcommittee (Settle / Billig) draft a letter to City Council Minutes - Monday, February 25, 1985 - 4:00 p.m. Page 3 the Architectural Review Commission expressing Council's concerns with direction to staff to draft language that would strengthen the ARC Guidelines regarding neighborhood standards and neighborhood themes. She was not anxious to change zones for expansion of office use, particularly for the larger offices. After discussion and upon general consensus, Council agreed to 1) direct Council Subcommittee (Settle /Billig) to draft letter to ARC regarding Council,concerns of parking requirements, density, scale, architectural design, etc., of developments particularly in older residential /office areas surrounding downtown. 2) Staff to develop draft ARC Guidelines concerning neighborhood standards, i.e. density and scale of projects; 3) staff to develop an interim commercial development policy statement; 4) staff to draft a policy statement supporting preferential treatment for residential use over office use; and 5) as part of the budget review, staff to submit a work program to look at supply and demand for commercial development use (5 -0). 2. TRANSFER DENSITY RIGHTS (File #431) Council considered a Development Rights Transfer Program. Toby Ross, Community Development Director, reviewed the agenda report stating that the recommendation was to 1) review the program options; 2) identify scope of study; 3) decide on method of implementation; and 4) request staff to return with a program consistent with City Council direction. As part of the alternatives that were submitted, staff supported Option B which would add a section to the city's Land Use Element or Zoning Regulations stating that as part of changes approved to implement the Hillside Planning Program, a sentence was added to the Land Use Element text enabling development right transfers. A developer may request such a transfer and negotiate the terms at this time. The Council could further define the program by adding a paragraph describing conditions under which the city will consider a transfer, alternatively a section could be added to the Zoning Regulations defining these conditions. If the Council wished to pursue that alternative, staff would return with the recommended wording that would eventually become a text amendment. After brief discussion Council agreed to support Option B and expand the statement in the LUE and include written guidelines on criteria as Council discussed. This would also include highlighting certain hillside areas of particular sensitive interest, i.e. Los Osos Valley, Airport area, and Goldtree area. There being no further business to come before the City Council, Mayor Billig adjourned the meeting at 6:25 p.m ?-t",Monday, March 4, 1985. U Pa I ela Voges, Cit Clerk APPROVED BY COUNCIL: 4 -16 -85 MINUTES ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1985 - 12:10 P.M. COUNCIL HEARING ROOM, CITY HALL, 990 PALM STREET SAN LUIS OBISPO. CALIFORNIA STUDY SESSION ROLL CALL: Councilmembers Present: GlennaDeane Dovey, Ron Dunin, Robert Griffin, Vice -Mayor Allen K. Settle and Mayor Melanie C. Billig