1 STAFF REPORT
DATE: January 10, 2023
TO: Justin Hess, City Manager
FROM: Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director VIA: Fred Ramirez, Assistant Community Development Director, Planning Scott Plambaeck, Planning Manager
BY: Amanda Landry, Senior Planner
SUBJECT: Report on the Media District Specific Plan Update
RECOMMENDATION
Note and file.
BACKGROUND
The Burbank2035 General Plan Realization Land Use Program LU-3 calls for the City to evaluate its existing specific plans , including the Media District Specific Plan ( MDSP), through a public process to determine whether the vision, goals, and policies established by the plans remain applicable and revise the plans as necessary to ensure that they address current needs. To implement this, staff applied for and was awarded a $500,000 Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grant from the State of California, of which $430,000 is allocated toward the MDSP Update. Staff also applied for and was awarded an additional $430,000 from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) Grant program to partially fund the MDSP Update and required environmental assessment pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Due to the funding sources, the project management is a joint effort between the City and SCAG. SCAG has engaged WSP, a consulting firm specializing in land use, urban design, economic feasibility analysis, and traffic analysis to assist with the effort.
The City has also contracted with Rincon Consultants, Inc. to complete the environmental assessment for the MDSP Update.
The Burbank Media District
The Media District Specific Plan area is roughly bounded by Clybourn Avenue, Keystone Street, Oak Street, and the Los Angeles River (Attachment 1). The MDSP area is located on the southwestern edge of the C ity of Burbank. The 0.85-square mile area is a major employment center, with approximately 69,000 people on average coming daily into the
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
2 Media District to work. The MDSP area is home to numerous media and entertainment companies, including the Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and the Burbank Studios as well as a mix of commercial, office, and residential uses. Healthcare, recreation, and educational facilities can also be found within or immediately adjacent to the MDSP area. The Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center provides medical care and support services and recently completed an expansion to add 44 emergency department beds and 23 urgent care beds to ensure a healthy environment for the community .
Likewise, Providence High School, located immediately south of the medical center, attracts students and families, increasing business and boos ting the local economy.
Similarly important is Johnny Carson Park, which provides open space and recreational activities and serves as a gathering place for the area, including the adjacent commercial establishments, the film studios, the medical center, t he high school and neighboring residential land uses . Additionally, several large P lanned Developments are located adjacent to these commercial areas and currently host various television and film studios.
The MDSP area is also conveniently located in the heart of Los Angeles County and accessible by freeway, surface streets, and public transit. Although the majority of the Media District is bisected by two major thoroughfares, State Route 134 and Olive Avenue, a total of five bus routes serve the Media District , and run along Olive Avenue, Buena Vista Street, Alameda Avenue, Riverside Avenue, and North Hollywood Way. Thanks to this, the Media District is a short trip away from local and regional assets and destinations, such as the Hollywood Burbank Airport, Universal City and Universal Studios Hollywood, Hollywood, and Downtown Los Angeles.
Media District Specific Plan (MDSP)
The MDSP was adopted in 1991 (Attachment 2) and regulates development in the Media District, with a strong emphasis on preserving the character of the predominantly single- family residential neighborhoods adjacent to the MDSP area . The MDSP achieves this by establishing appropriate land uses, minimiz ing development-related traffic impacts , providing sufficient development opportunity for media and medical uses at strategic locations within the MDSP area and ensuring adequate infrastructure to support new development. The MDSP also addresses residential density via Floor Area Ratio (FAR) limitations and the density thresholds established in the Burbank2035 Land Use Element and codified in Burbank Municipal Code Sections 10-1-2103.5, 10-1-2109.5, 10-1-2114.5, and 10-1-2119.5.
The MDSP also includes strategies to reduce development -related traffic impacts on neighborhoods, such as requirements for employers to promote alternative modes of transportation, emphasis on providing more public transportation opportunities and maximizing pedest rian travel, implementing transportation demand management strategies, and programs to enhance pedestrian infrastructure and slow vehicles down.
The MDSP establishes a requirement for employers with 25 or more employees to reduce peak hour congestion by 38% over 20 years from the date the business established in the MDSP area. The MDSP also includes general development standards for new construction and establishes the allowed uses for zones in the specific plan area as well as physical improvements to the street network.
3 DISCUSSION
Purpose of the MDSP Update
The current MDSP is more than 30 years old and has not been significantly updated since adoption. In the time since, the physical, economic, and regulatory context has changed significantly and the MDSP needs to be updated and refined to respond effectively to these changes, maintain or strengthen the existing neighborhood protections and to facilitate the development of residential units that can make best use of, and coordination with, the transportation resources that serve the MDSP. Further, only the areas located north of Alameda Avenue feature a pedestrian-friendly street network with shorter blocks, narrower streets aligned with trees, and more human- scale buildings that create a more welcoming and comfortable built environment and the MDSP Update is studying ways to bring that to the rest of the area. Streamlining the development of new housing is a matter of significant regional and local concern, because while the Media District is compact and highly developed with primarily commercial uses, it has limited housing opportunities for individuals travelling to work at this major employment center. The current status in the Media District with limited housing only adds to the significant jobs -housing imbalance that contributes to traffic congestion, and lack of housing affordability. As noted earlier in this report, the Media District is a major regional employment center with approximately 69,000 jobs. However, there are fewer than 400 residents that live and work in the MDSP area, which is indicative of the dramatic jobs-housing imbalance that exists for the MDSP area, city, and region. Streamlining the development of housing in the MDSP area to serve even just a small fraction of the 69,000 jobs, may have a significant positive impact on regional and local traffic and housing affordability.
The MDSP Update is also an opportunity for the City to establish a clear vision for the Media District and institute a set of objective development standards to help implement that vision for the next 15 to 20 years . This is a significant and important step as the statewide regulatory setting is increasingly trending toward streamlining residential development and limiting local governments to enforcing only those objective development standards that are in effect at the time of submittal . The most prominent of these regulations is currently Senate Bill (SB) 35, codified in Government Code Section 65913.4, which establishes a streamlined ministerial approval process for qualifying housing projects that meet certain specified criteria. Under SB 35, certain cities are limited to evaluating SB 35 Projects against the objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards that are in effect at the time a Notice of Intent (NOI) to submit a SB 35 Project is submitted to the City. Recent State legislation with similar requirements includes
Assembly Bill ( AB) 2011 (CEQA -exempt ministerial approval pathway on commercially zoned land for qualifying residential development that meets affordable housing targets and pays prevailing wages)
SB 6 (allowing residential use on commercially zoned property without requiring a rezoning for projects that pay prevailing wages and meet "skilled and trained workforce" requirements)
AB 2234 (enforceable timelines for local governments to issue post -entitlement ministerial building permits)
4 AB 2295 (allowing educational employee housing on land owned by school districts or county office of education)
SB 886 (CEQA exemption for qualifying university housing development projects) AB 2668 ("cleanup" of SB 35's streamlined ministerial approval process) AB 2334 (reforms to the State Density Bonus Law to define "base density" and provide further concessions for 100 percent BMR projects in low VMT areas) AB 1551 (Density Bonus Law benefits for mixed-use projects) AB 682 (Density Bonus Law benefits for shared/co-living housing) Parking Reform and Other Cost Reductions:
AB 2097 (prohibiting minimum parking requirements within a half -mile of public transit)
Current Status of the MDSP Update Process
The MDSP Update kicked off in April 2022 with the goal to present a complete policy recommendation to the City Council in the Summer of 2023. Compared to other similar City efforts, the overall timeframe of the MDSP Update is somewhat accelerated, with an anticipated timeline of approximately 18 months. This is in large part due to the timeline obligations associated with the REAP and LEAP grants that fund the MDSP Update, which include terms that the grants are effective through June 2023. Additionally, it is imperative to have a revised set of objective standards in place to manage the consequences of the new regulations noted above.
Major project phases or milestones, followed by the date(s) the phase was initiated or the dates when the milestones were achieved, are noted below.
Project Kickoff (April 2022)
Discovery/Technical and Environmental Analysis (May 2022 - May 2023) Public Outreach and Communication (August 2022 – May 2023) Policy Formulation (November 2022 – May 2023)
Public Hearing Process and Adoption (May 2023 – June 2023) The public outreach and communication efforts associated with the MDSP Update consist of five rounds of outreach. Each round consists of a key stakeholder (which for the purposes of the MDSP Update are major property owners, significant businesses, developers, and active residents) meeting, a public workshop, and a study session with internal City staff. The first round occurred in August 2022 and focused on providing an overview of the MDSP Update process to the public, including a discussion of the existing physical and regulatory conditions that affect the Media District . The second round of outreach occurred in September 2022 and focused on land use alternatives and urban design. The third round of outreach occurred most recently in October 2022 and focused on transportation and circulation issues.
As part of the overall outreach efforts staff also met with, or has plans to meet with, key property and business owners, residents, and developers who have expressed interest in developing within the proposed Media District. These efforts included one-on-one meetings with interested residents or property owners, neighborhood group walkabouts, 5 and ongoing correspondence with other interested members of the public. Further, the MDSP Update will be the topic of the Winter 2023 UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Urban Design Studio. The Studio participants will observe and learn about the relationship between the development review process and transit planning. The students will analyze and create solutions for the public realm, built environment, urban design, and mobility and share their ideas with City staff.
Next Steps for the MDSP Update
The Project team will continue to facilitate an open dialog about the MDSP Update with the community as noted above and through engagement with various Burbank Boards, Commissions and Committees. Staff has made and will make presentations to the following Burbank Boards, Commissions, and Committees, as well as any other organization that reaches out to the Project team:
Youth Board Parks and Recreation Board
Senior Board Art in Public Places
BWP Board Chamber of Commerce Board
Heritage Commission Sustainable Burbank Commission
Board of Library Trustees Community Development Goals Committee
Burbank Cultural Arts Commission Infrastructure Oversight Board Transportation Commission Planning Commission
The fourth round of outreach is planned for January/February 2023 and will focus on draft policy alternatives. As part of this round of public outreach, a neighborhood walkabout in the northern portion of the MDSP area, in the general vicinity of the Talaria/Wholefoods development at 3401 East Olive Avenue, will be held on January 19, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
In addition, an in-person community workshop is planned for the evening of February 22, 2023, in the Buena Vista Library Community Meeting Room located at 300 North Buena Vista Street. The fifth round is anticipated to occur in late March or early April 2023.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
This Report has no potential for resulting in a direct or indirect physical change to the environment and falls outside the definition of a “project” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and is therefore not subject to CEQA pursuant t o Section 15378 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations. This staff report is for informational purposes only about the Media District Specific Plan Update process.
The MDSP Update is subject to CEQA. To fulfil the requirements of CEQA, a Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is being prepared. A Program EIR is an EIR, which may be prepared on a series of actions that can be characterized as one large project and are related either:(1) Geographically,(2) As logical parts in the chain of contemplated actions,(3) In connection with issuance of rules, regulations, plans, or other general criteria to govern the conduct of a continuing program, or (4) As individual activities carried out under the same authorizing statutory or regulatory aut hority and having generally similar environmental effects that can be mitigated in similar ways. A specific plan is an ideal type of project for which a Program EIR is appropriate. 6 A Program EIR also has several strategic advantages. The Program EIR can: (1) Provide an occasion for a more exhaustive consideration of effects and alternatives than would be practical in an EIR on an individual action; (2) Ensure consideration of cumulative impacts that would not normally be reviewed on a case-by-case analysi s; (3) Avoid duplicative reconsideration of basic policy considerations ; (4) Allow the lead agency to consider broad policy alternatives and program wide mitigation measures at an early time when the agency has greater flexibility to deal with basic problems or cumulative impacts; and (5) Allow reduction in paperwork. Later activities in the program must be examined in the light of the program EIR to determine whether an additional environmental document must be prepared, and if the City finds that pursuant to Section 15162, no subsequent EIR would be required, the City can approve the activity as being within the scope of the project covered by the program EIR, and no new environmental document would be required.
As part of the Program EIR, a comprehensive study of the utility infrastructure that serves the MDSP will be prepared to ensure that appropriate policy and planning strategies are established to ensure that the anticipated future growth within the MDSP area is adequately served by critical utility services.
FISCAL IMPACT
As noted previously, City staff applied for and was awarded a $500,000 LEAP Grant from the California Department of Housing and Urban Development , of which $430,000 is allocated toward the MDSP Update. Staff also applied for and was awarded an additional $430,000 from SCAG REAP Grant. Therefore, the estimated budget for the update to the Media District Specific Plan is a total of $860,000. As part of the terms of the REAP grant, the deadline for completion of the project is set at June 30, 2023.
The goal of the LEAP Grant program is to support projects that will accelerate housing production to meet the identified housing needs of every community, which is aligned with the purpose of the MDSP Update. The goal of SCAG, the administrator of the REAP Grant program , is to assist Southern California jurisdictions in developing planning projects that aim to increase housing production and adv ance Connect SoCal’s growth vision and policies. The MDSP Update was awarded the LEAP and REAP grants as the purpose of the MDSP Update is to facilitate streamlined regional housing and transportation solutions , which is aligned with and furthers the shared goals of the respective LEAP and REAP programs
CONCLUSION
The MDSP Update is envisioned to include strategies that will facilitate a variety of housing options for all economic segments of the community (affordable, workforce, mixed-use and higher density housing), as well as create safe and convenient access to surrounding retail, commercial, entertainment, and recreational centers. The planning process currently underway includes considerable public outreach and engagement to ensure that the City continues to work together with the community to build and protect neighborhoods.
7 The MDSP Update also presents a timely opportunity for the City to maintain local control to the extent possible and to plan in a manner that leverages the rich transportation resources in the Media District. The MDSP Update will also contribute to furthering the City’s and the region’s housing and economic goals , improve the City’s jobs-housing balance, strengthen and enhance the existing neighborhood through clear and objective development standards. The final product of an updated MDSP would not only establish objective development standards that support residential and mixed- use infill development projects with publicly ac cessible amenities, but also help the City achieve the City Council goal of facilitating the building of 12,000 new units over the next 15 years in a way that doesn’t just produce new buildings but helps to build neighborhoods that contribute to a safe, beautiful, and thriving community.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Media District Specific Plan Boundary Map Attachment 2 – Media District Specific Plan