HomeMy WebLinkAbout5.1 - 1247 Development Pool
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STAFF REPORT
CITY COUNCIL
DATE: December 6, 2016
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM:
Christopher L. Foss, City Manager
SUBJECT:
Downtown Development Pool Implementation
Prepared by: Linda Smith, Assistant City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City Council will consider options related to the implementation of the City's
Downtown Development Pool. This item is being brought back to the City Council at
their request.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Consider the options presented and provide direction to Staff.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
None
DESCRIPTION:
The City of Dublin, as part of the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan, holds a Development
Pool of units and square footage to allocate within the Plan area. Currently, Staff
presents a letter request to the City Council from the applicant to make a reservation of
residential units or square footage from the Development Pool. The report would
typically include an initial offer related to the Community Benefit for the project. The
City Council is then asked to “reserve” units or square footage from the Development
Pool for that project for a period of time in order to give the applicant some certainty that
the units or square footage will be there when their project is formally presented t o the
Planning Commission for review. This is a practice and not an adopted policy of the
City Council.
The practice has been in place now for five years and Staff has found that there are
some challenges. First, the City Council, in its review of past potential projects, has
found that there is very little information to help guide their decision in the reservation of
units or commercial square footage. Two, the reservation of units or square footage
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was designed for a time when the City Council would be challenged to allocate a limited
number of units/sf left in the Pool. At this time, that is not an issue.
Staff is seeking direction on the practice and offers up the following options and Staff
recommendations for the City Council’s consideration:
1. Keep the current practice
Staff does not recommend maintaining the existing practice at this time. Certainly, as
the Plan area builds out, Staff would recommend a more deliberate process to evaluate
requests for units/sf.
2. Modify the reservation process
Staff recommends a modification to the existing practice. Staff would like an opportunity
to further refine the requests in order to present a more detailed proposal for the City
Council’s consideration. Staff would recommend the use of the Study Session process
once Staff believes that an applicant’s proposal is appropriate to seek feedback (ie.
Initial design and site plan as a basic requirement). This would typically take between
three to six months from initial preliminary application. This Study Session will also
include the options for Community Benefit for the City Council’s consideration. The City
Council can, at that time, direct Staff to continue or discontinue work on the project. All
costs associated with the preliminary review will be borne by the applicant.
3. Eliminate the reservation process entirely
Because this is a practice and not a policy, the City Council could eliminate the
reservation process entirely. Staff believes that this option is less desirable than Option
2, as it would be challenging to a prospective applicant to invest the time and resources
into full-blown project plans.
NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH:
None.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.