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Home My WebLink About8.1 Attch 2 PCSR 07-24-2012 4 4... STAFF REPORT PLANNING COMMISSION t, , i DATE: July 24, 2012 i TO: Planning Commission i SUBJECT: PUBLIC HEARING: PLPA-2012-00033 Zoning Ordinance Amendment to Chapter 8.76 (Off-Street Parking and Loading) related to the Village Parkway Pilot Parking Program (Legislative) Report prepared by Kristi Bascom, Principal Planner EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Planning Commission will review City-initiated amendments to Chapter 8.76 (Off-Street Parking and Loading) of the Dublin Zoning Ordinance related to relaxing the parking standards in a section of the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan Village Parkway District. The proposed amendments will implement a test-case parking program on four specific parcels to see if it can enable more intense uses along the Village Parkway corridor. The Program will affect a portion of the Village Parkway District for a temporary period of three years. RECOMMENDATION: 1 Staff recommends that the Planning Commission: 1) Receive Staff presentation; 2) Open the 1 public hearing; 3) Take testimony from the public; 4) Close the public hearing and deliberate; and 5) Adopt a Resolution recommending that the City Council adopt an Ordinance approving a Zoning Ordinance Amendment to Chapter 8.76 (Off-Street Parking and Loading) related to the Village Parkway Pilot Parking Program. ) , I Submitted By e .... . * P-d By i 1 Principal Planner Assistant Communi Development Director 1 4 COPIES TO: Applicant File ITEM NO.: g o i- ii Page 1 of 6 G.IPA#120121PLPA-2012-00033 Village Parkway Pilot Parking ProgramtPC 07.24.2012tPCSRdocx Ei ATTACHMENT 2 DESCRIPTION: Since the adoption of the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan in February 2011, City Staff have been working to implement the goals-and policies of both the Specific Plan and the subsequent recommendations of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel report. One of the recommendations from the ULI report was to incentivize more commercial businesses in the downtown by having greater flexibility in regulatory standards such as the City's parking requirements. The overarching goal of the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan (DDSP) is "to create a vibrant, dynamic commercial and mixed-use center that provides a wide array of opportunities for shopping, services, dining, working, living, and entertainment in a pedestrian-friendly and aesthetically pleasing setting that attracts both local and regional residents." The DDSP established three distinct districts, each including its own set of design standards tailored to the envisioned uses. The Transit-Oriented District embraces the recent opening of the West Dublin BART station and is the district where a vast majority of the new residential development in Dublin is envisioned to take place. The Retail District includes much of the existing retail core and aims to stimulate infill development and redevelopment of aging buildings and large parking areas. The Village Parkway District embraces the existing successful service and retail uses along a "Main Street" corridor, and this district has the most potential to reutilize and re-tenant existing buildings with more intense uses such as restaurants, service retail, and other local-serving businesses. Background Since before Dublin's incorporation in 1982, the Village Parkway District has been home to many locally-owned businesses. Several of the property owners along Village Parkway have owned their properties for many years. Through the years, these owners have expressed an interest in being able to utilize the existing buildings more intensely. In many cases, more intense uses are restricted by their ability to meet the parking requirements of the City's Zoning Ordinance. • Some property owners have suggested that the Village Parkway District cannot achieve greater ) vibrancy and intensity with the City's current parking standards. This suggestion is supported by the reality that those uses which add vitality to an area — restaurants, bars, entertainment, retail establishments — would not have sufficient parking to meet the Zoning Ordinance requirements on most parcels along Village Parkway due to the existing building and development patterns in place. In accordance with Section 8.72 (Off Street Parking and Loading), the parking requirements for these uses are as follows: i I Sit Down Restaurant: 1 parking space per 100 square feet of floor area accessible to customers plus 1 parking space per 300 square feet of floor area not accessible to customers. Specialty Restaurant: 1 per 200 square feet Bar: 1 per 100 square feet General Retail: 1 per 300 square feet Entertainment Uses: Parking requirements vary from 1 per 100 square feet for comedy or night clubs to parking based on a per seat basis for theaters. i' i' 2 of 6 g . . ' Existing Conditions . A parking analysis completed in 2010 in conjunction with the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan t identified 1,395 off-street pa ing spaces in the entire Village Parkway District This district contains approximately 373,652 square feet of building area, which equates to roughly 1 parking space for every 268 square feet of building area. This average includes uses that require less t parking, such as warehouse (1 space per 1,000 square feet) as well as uses that require more t , parking, such as commercial schools (1 space per 50 square feet of instructional area). , Parking in downtown commercial districts In downtown areas throughout the Bay Area, cities have taken varying approaches to deal with i the requirement to provide off-street parking. On-street parking is also coonplace. Some , cities, including Pleasanton, have moved to a market-based approach that allows buildings in the downtown to change uses and complete small additions without requiring additional parking. Dublin has traditionally had sufficient parking in the downtown to meet the parking requirements outlined in the Zoning Ordinance. As properties in the downtown districts intensify, the ULI study (Attachment 1) recommended examining whether the traditional parking requirements should continue to apply in all cases. There appear to be property owners in Downtown who support a market-based approach to parking instead of a regulatory approach. Under a market-based approach, the DDSP would continue to regulate the use types, but parking requirements of the use types would not be a consideration. Under this approac h, parking supply and de and would be managed by the property owners and tenants, and not regulated by the City. It would become the responsibility of the property owners, property managers, and businesses to lease tenant spaces to the right combination of users to ensure that there is sufficient parking to serve the businesses and their customers. However, Staff would continue to monitor the site and enforce the removal of abandoned/inoperable vehicles to ensure that the parking spaces remain free and clear for use. Proposed Pilot Program . . 4., "-` A pilot program to w test market- . baasy of approach for parking ing is one 4' f testing the concept to see if , it could be successful in Downtown discussed the athewholp og eilot Staff has , . program concept Village with two property owners o , lhaoge Parkway who have ' d limitations on their 1 . . the 1'hjiCity's t o l parking aa r kspei parking ieni gr p r requirements op er'ty due to . .,,.. . The area to test a proposed market- based . reduction pilot program is shown in the map at left. The address range of the proposed 1 . study area is all of the even numbers between 7016 and 7150 Village Parkway. . . Tprhoe4.3-acre area consists of four properties owned by two owners. i Each building has multiple tenant spaces that house a variety of uses including retail, indoor recreation, bar/restaurant, auto repair and service, warehouse, and personal service. There is a total of 76,160 square feet of building area and 160 parking spaces spread throughout the properties. This section of Village Parkway could be a successful location to test a pilot market-based parking program for several reasons: 1. The buildings on these properties are located close to the street, which makes them good candidates for more active uses. 2. There is on-street parking in front of these buildings that could be utilized by customers. 3. The four parcels are fairly self-contained. If the pilot program leads to more intensive parking demands, it is expected that there would be limited spillover parking onto other Village Parkway properties. 4. The property owners have expressed a willingness to try a market-based approach. Staff presented a report to the City Council on May 15, 2012 seeking their input on the concept. The Councilmembers were supportive and directed Staff to pp proceed with preparing an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to temporarily suspend the parking standards in a portion of the Village Parkway District for a limited term of three years. Staff proposes to modify Section 8.76.080.D (Parking Requirements by Use Type — Commercial) to add the following language (new text is underlined): Commercial Use Types. Commercial Use Types shall provide off-street parking spaces as noted in the table below, with the exception of uses located on four parcels in the Village Parkway District of the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan. These properties, identified as the even numbered addresses between 7016 and 7150 Village Parkway (APNs 941-0210.002-02, 941-0210-005-04. 941-0210-005-05, and 941-0210-005-03), are not required to provide a prescribed number of parkingc spaces for any use that is permitted or conditionally permitted in the Downtown Dublin Zoning District. Attached is a Planning Commission Resolution (Attachment 2) recommending that the City Council adopt an Ordinance (Exhibit A to Attachment 2) that will amend Chapter 8.76 as detailed above. At the conclusion of the three year pilot program, the City will assess the success of the program and determine whether the relaxed parking requirements should be considered throughout the Village Parkway District. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), together with the State Guidelines and City Environmental Regulations require that certain projects be reviewed for environmental impacts and when applicable, environmental documents prepared. For this project, Staff recommends that the project be found exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with Section 15061(b)(3) because it can be seen with certainty that the amendments to Chapter 8.76 of the Dublin Municipal Code (Off-Street Parking and Loading) will not have a significant effect on the environment 4of6 eb NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH: In accordance with State law, a public notice was published in the Valley Times and posted at several locations throughout the City. A notice of this hearing was mailed to those requesting such notice ten days before the hearing and the Staff Report and attachments were made available for public review prior to the public hearing in accordance with Government Code Sections 65090 and 65091. A public notice was also sent to all tenants and property owners in the entire Village Parkway District and all tenants and property owners within 300 feet of the affected properties. To date, the City has received comments from one business representative on Village Parkway regarding the proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendment (Attachment 3). A copy of this Staff Report was provided to the two affected property owners. ATTACHMENTS: 1) Urban Land Institute's Downtown Dublin Technical Assistance Panel Report, dated July 2011 2) Resolution recommending that the City Council adopt an Ordinance approving a Zoning Ordinance Amendment to Chapter 8.76 (Off- Street Parking and Loading) related to the Village Parkway Pilot Parking Program, with the draft Ordinance included as Exhibit A 3) Email from John Denholm of Oil Changers dated July 17, 2012 1 1 • j 5 of 6 GENERAL INFORMATION: APPLICANT!: City of Dublin PROPERTY OWNERS: Thomas and Martina Murphy, 1485 Bayshore Blvd #56, San Francisco, CA 94124 B&B Borden LLC, 6 Sky Terrace, Danville, CA 94526 LOCATION: Even-numbered addresses between 7016 and 7150 Village Parkway ASSESSORS PARCEL NUMBERS: 941-0210-002-02 941-0210-005-04 941-0210-005-05 941-0210-005-03 GENERAL PLAN LAND USE DESIGNATION: Downtown Dublin Specific Plan (Village Parkway District) SPECIFIC PLAN LAND USE DESIGNATION: n/a SURROUNDING USES: USE LOCATION ZONING GENERAL PLAN LAND USE CURRENT OF PROPERTY . , Downtown Dublin Specific Plan North DDZD Auto Service, Restaurant ilia*e Parkwa District Downtown Dublin Specific Plan South DDZD Office, Personal Service 1 illaoe Parkwa District 1 DDZD Downtown Dublin Specific Plan Retail, Restaurant, Office, 1 EMI , illa.e Parkwa District Personal Service West n/a n/a Interstate 680, i • Rood Control Channel RESOURCES: i General Plan i Zoning Ordinance ii. i, ii i: I, 6 of 6 1,