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