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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 8.2 TransitCntrStudySess CITY CLERK FILE # 420-30 & 430-80 AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: September 18, 2001 SUBJECT: PA 00-013 Transit Center Project Study Session Report Prepared by Eddie Peabody, Jr. and ~ Jeri Ram, Planning Manager ATTACHMENTS: 1. Letter from Alameda County Surplus Property Authority dated September 12, 2001 RECOMMENDATION: 2. 3. 4. 5. Receive Staff presentation. Receive presentation from the Applicant. Question Staff and Applicant. Deliberate. If the City Council would like to further explore the issues listed in Alameda County's letter: a. Give Staff direction on two dates that Council would be available for a field trip to view affordable housing projects; b. Direct Staff to Begin the Process for Hiring Two Consultants as follows: i. Specialist in Housing Finance ii. Specialist in AB 1600 (impact fee studies) FINANCIAL STATEMENT: Funds expended on the analysis of the provision of affordable housing would be paid by the City from the affordable housing impact fee funds. City Council would approve the contracts for the Housing Finance Specialist Consultant and the AB 1600 Consultant at a future meeting. The cost of the AB1600 study would be borne by the Applicant. DESCRIPTION: Alameda County Surplus Property Authority (ACSPA) has requested approval of a General Plan Amendment, Eastern Dublin Specific Plan Amendment and Stage 1 Planned Development Rezone approval for a 91-acre site adjacent to the east Dublin BART station. The Application also includes the approval of an Environmental Impact Report. The Application is for a mixed use, pedestrian oriented project, called the Dublin Transit Center. COPIES TO: In-House Distribution ACSPA ITEM NO. The Application includes the removal of the majority of the existing BART surface parking lots and approving land use designations that would create a high intensity, mixed use transit village development that provides housing, services, and employment opportunities in a configuration that facilitates pedestrian and transit access. The proposed land uses include: ~ · 2- million sq. ft. of office space · 180,000 sq. ft. hotel · 1,500 high-density residential units, · 70,000 sq. ft. of retail/commercial; and · Replacement of the majority of the surface BART parking with a new BART parking garage. On May 16, 2000 the City Council adopted Resolution 75-00, initiating .a General Plan and Eastern Dublin Specific Plan amendment study for the site. The City Council at its March 6, 2001 meeting had directed that the Transit Center project be deferred until additional staff could be hired to process these projects. On April 3, 2001, the City Council in a Study Session considered building heights for the Transit Center. Based on ACSPA's application package and project description, the Draft EIR was released on July 6, 2001. The EIR Consultants are currently responding to comments received from the surrounding jurisdictions and all other concerned parties. Before Staff begins working on the Plan Amendments and Zoning requests, APCSP has requested that several issues should be brought before the City Council for consideration. These items are identified in the letter from ACSPA discussed below. Letter by Alameda County Surplus Property Authority: Staff has received a letter from the Alameda County Surplus Property Authority regarding two key issues, affordable housing and the BART parking garage (Attachment 1). In the letter, ACSPA indicates that the provision of affordable housing is tied to a broader land use and financing plan that includes the sale and provision of moderate units on Sites B & C (see Attachment 1), clustering the low and very low income units on Site A, and proposing certain financial actions on the part of the City to make more affordable housing and a BART parking garage feasible. BART Parking Garage: ACSPA's letter identifies three issues relating to the BART parking garage as follows: (1) The size of the proposed BART parking garage; (2) That the garage be considered a part of traffic mitigation for eastern Dublin development; and (3) That if the garage is considered part of traffic mitigation for eastern Dublin, ACSPA is requesting that the City provide $6,000,000 in traffic impact fee credits for the structure. ACSPA indicates in their letter that they are working with BART to increase the number of permanent spaces at BART with a parking structure. It should be noted that at the present time there are 1,753 surface parking stalls available (1326 in the permanent lot and 427 in the temporary lot). ACSPA has indicated to Staff that when the structure is completed, some amount of surface parking will still be available. ACSPA's agreement with BART is that they will provide a parking structure that will increase the current amount of permanent parking by at least 500 spaces. The combined structure and surface parking would be at least 1,826 spaces. ACSPA has indicated to Staff, however, that they are also working towards increasing that amount to 1000 spaces, or 2,326 spaces. ACSPA is requesting that they receive traffic impact fee credits as part of the Eastern Dublin Traffic Impact Fee Area for constructing the BART parking garage. The Transit Center site is currently outside 'of the Eastern Dublin Traffic Impac. t Fee Area. In order to include the BART parking garage in the EDTIFA, the City would need to perform an analysis that is required under State law relating to the provision of impact fees (also referred to as an AB 1600 Study). If the Study found that the Transit Center and related road improvements were at some percentage mitigating impacts of development in eastern Dublin, the Transit Center site could be added to the overall Eastern Dublin Traffic Impact Fee Area. The Study would then determine the new eastern Dublin Traffic Impact Fee and what improvements were eligible for inclusion (this may include only a portion of the BART parking garage) and may also inClude improvements required by the Transit Center project. ACSPA is also proposing that should the Transit Center Project become part of the EDTIFA, they should receive $6,000,000 worth of traffic impact fee credits for building the parking garage. Staff cannot provide the City Council the appropriate analysis on this issue without the information that would be provided in the AB 1600 study. Affordable Housing: ACSPA has identified two issues relating to affordable housing in their letter to the City: ACSPA has indicated that they would like to concentrate the low and very low income units on one site; and 2. ACSPA has indicated that they would like City participation in the financing of the units. When the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance was adopted and at subsequent meetings with the City Council, Staff has received direction that the City Council would prefer projects that did not concentrate the low and very low-income units in one neighborhood. ACSPA is proposing, however, that clustering these units will make them eligible for grants. Additionally, they have indicated that there is an interest in this type of project by non-profit developers that would also manage the projects after they are built. ACSPA is therefore proposing that a 30 percent contribution of very low and low-income units be placed solely on Site A (Attachment 1). Staff is aware of several non-profits that have recently developed and manage projects like those suggested by ACSPA. Several attractive and successful affordable housing projects have been developed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. As in past years, field trips for the Planning Commission, City Council and interested citizens have been developed to acquaint everyone with the type, style and details of projects that might be developed in Dublin. It is with this in mind that Staff will be preparing a tour of successful affordable housing developments. The Council will be asked for available dates to schedule the tour. Following the tour, this issue can be brought forth at another City Council meeting for their direction on the type of affordable housing project the Council would like to see at the Transit Center. ACSPA has also requested in their letter that the City make a financial contribution to the development of the affordable housing component of the Transit Center. The letter raises the issues of City contribution through the Housing In Lieu Fund, or the waiver of impact fees. Staff would need additional information from the County to analyze this request. Additionally, the City would need the services of a specialist in housing financing to provide expertise in the analysis of complex financial pro-formas. These pro-formas outline the deal points and costs for projects and how they tie together. This specialist would also be able to advise the City on any allocations of the City's affordable housing in lieu funds or fee waivers that may be requested. Staff has met with the County on these issues and discussed them at some length. While the County's proposal is interesting and may have merit, Staff would need. additional information and studies prior to preparing an analysis and recommendation to the City Council on the housing financing and traffic impact fee/credit issues. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council receive Staff presentation, receive Applicant presentation, question Staff and Applicant, deliberate and if the City Council would like to further explore the issues listed in Alameda County's letter: A. Give Staff direction on two dates that City Council would be available for a field trip to view affordable housing projects; B. Direct Staff to Begin the Process for Hiring Two Consultants as follows: i. Specialist in Housing Finance ii. Specialist in AB 1600 (impact fee studies) PA00-13/ccsrss9-18 FR'OL~ COMMUN I TY Adolph Martinelli Agency Director Patrick Cashman Project Director 224 West Winton Avenue Room t 51 Hayward Ca,ifomia 94544 phone SlO 670.5400 fax 510 670.6529 WWW co.alameda.ca.us/cda DEVELOPMENT AGENCY-ADMIN. (WED) 9. 12' 01 14:30/$% 14:27/NO. 4862230686 ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGEi~y .SURPLUS PROPERTY AUTHORITY P 2 September 12, 2001 Rich Ambrose City Manager City of Dublin 100 Civic Plaza ' Dublin, CA 94568 Re: Dublin Transit Center Dear Rich: Given thc recent progress in thc preparation of the EIR and the Applications fo,r the Dublin Transit Center, it is timely to begin discusssions regarding the key issue~ that will define the character and feasibility of the development. The first two issue~ that need to be addressed are how best to acheive affordable housing and how to create a significant increase in BART parking. The Alameda County Surplus Property Authority (ACSPA) is putting forth these two issues as a package for your consideration became they are related, in that the percentage goals and approach to the affordable housing has to be feasible, in terms of generating adequate land ~ales revenues, for the BART garage to be feasible. With respect to an affordable homing in the Dublin Transit Center, the ACSP? is proposing that 30% of the 1500 residential units will be affordable. This would represent a total of 450 affo{dable units; 150 units for very low, 150 for low, m d 150 for moderate income residents. Fundamental to the feasibility of our proposal that two of the three residential sites, Sites B and C on the attached map, would be primarily market rate developments, with a 15% moderately affordable inclusk.nary component. The third residential site, Site A, will be developed so that 300 off ~e 530 total units will be low and very low income units. Site A would be developed it several phases and could include a mix of family and senior developments. The different approaches to the mix on Sites A, B and C is required for two basic economic reasons. First, as explained later in this letter, the ACSPA needs the l~md sales proceeds of the market rate developments on B and C in order to finance the BART garage. Second, the creation of any significant numbers of low and very tlow affordable units is only possible with State allocated low income housing tax c~ed/ts and bond financing. Only projects with more than 40% of the units low incomel can compete for the limited annual allocations. [ ATTACHMENT FIR'OI~ COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY-ADMIN. (WED) 9: 12' 01 14:91/ST. 14:27/NO. 4862230656 Rich Ambrose September 12, 2001 Page 2 Given a go ahead by the City, the ACSPA will immediately tutu'kef a per,ion of Site A t, developers, primarily non-profits, that specialize in the long term management ofaffor~ housing. Several affordable housing developers have expressed a keen interest in the Dt Transit Center. They are confident that the necessary tax credit allocations would be ay a substantially affordable, transit oriented development. There are many outstanding ex that demonstrate that these developers, given the proper support, can create and maintai~ residential communities. The ACSPA is prepared to help underwrite affordable developl ~ble blin ilable to mples quality nents on Site A with a favorable land price. However, even with tax credits and a reduced land pr ice, a sucessful affordable development will also need some participation by the City in the fei rn of fee waivers and perhaps the direct investment of accumulated in lieu fees. By working t~gether, we can make it happen and we can make it something of which we can ali be proud. The ACSPA has a contract with BART which gives the ACSPA the right to buy the existing · BART surface parking lot in exchange for building BART a 1700 space garage that wou~d replace the displaced parking and add an additional 500 permanent spaces. The ACSPA lis working with BART to find the means to construct a 2200 space garage, that would 500]more spaces for a total of an additional 1000 permanent spaces. As mentioned above, the ACSPA proposes to use the land sales proceeds from Sites B and C, combined with gram funds ~ovided by the Alameda County CMA, to finance the construction of the BART garage. With an Dffer in hand from a developer to purchase Sites B and C, it appears feasible to finance the 1700[space garage, given two assumptions. The first assumption is that the builder of Sites B and C l~ays the land price offer which was based on the assumption that the affordable housing requirement for Sites B and C will be 15% moderate. The second assumption is that the City will recognize the BART garage as a traffic mitigation for which the ACSPA will earn Traffic Impact Fee Credits. The 2200 space garage still has a shortfall, even with the two stated assumptions, but B~RT is working hard to identify the resources and, given commitments from BART, the ACSPP{ is prepared to take the risk to fund the construction. Construction of the garage would startI in conjunction with the s,t~_,_ of the first residential development on Site B, as early as one 3~ear from now. The ACSPA s specific request to the City is that the City recognize the positive traffic impacts of the increased and improved parking of the BART garage project and i~ctude it in the TIF Program as a $6 million improvement, for which the ACSPA could earn TIF (~redits. $6 million is the cost of the additional 500 spaces. We look forward to discussing these issues with you, your shaft, and the City Council. understanding on these key issues, sooner rather thc.n_ later, will help us all move forwarc, with this important prOject. Patrick Cashman Project Director Attachment cc: Adolph Martinelli ? 3 DEVELOPMENT AGENC¥-ADMIN. (WED) 9. 12' 01 14:SS/ST. FROR~ COMMUNITY 14: 27/N0. 4862230686 Central Pk',~,. Blvd. High Density Residential (A) High Density Residential (B) Cam (F) Campus Office (E-2) Public/ High Density Residential (c) Scarlett Ct Public/ Semi-Public Interstale 580/Du~lin-Pleasatiton B.~FIT Station Campus Office (D-2) SOURCE: Transit Center application. Owens Or. CITY OF DUBLIN DUBLIN TRANSIT CENTER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT Exhibit 'LAND USEIPLAN