1 STAFF REPORT
DATE: June 27, 2023
TO: Justin Hess, City Manager
FROM: Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director VIA: Fred Ramirez, Assistant Community Development Director – Planning BY: Amanda Landry, Senior Planner
SUBJECT: Approval of an Amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding with Southern California Association of Governments for the Regional Early Action Plan Grant to Update the Media District Specific Plan
RECOMMENDATION
Approve an Amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) for the Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) grant that will support the efforts to update the Media District Specific Plan (MDSP) (Attachment 1).
BACKGROUND
SCAG, the administrator of the REAP grant, launched the grant opportunity to assist Southern California jurisdictions in developing planning projects that aim to increase housing production and advance Connect SoCal’s1 growth, vision, and policies. The City of Burbank applied for and was awarded $430,000 through the REAP grant program to help meet Program Goal LU-3 of the Burbank2035 General Plan which includes “Review the three existing specific plans [i.e., Burbank Center Plan, MDSP, and the North San Fernando Boulevard Master Plan] through a public process to determine whether the vision, goals, and policies established by the plans remain applicable and appropriate and to revise the plans as necessary to ensure that they reflect current desires for each of the three areas.” (Source: Burbank2035 General Plan-Plan Realization Element Program LU-3, Pages 8- 6). The update is currently in process. However, the deadline for the REAP grant is June 30, 2023, and SCAG has approved an extension to December 31, 2023.
1 https://scag.ca.gov/connect-socal
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
2 DISCUSSION
Staff proposes to amend the terms of the MOU with SCAG to revise the deadline to fulfil the terms of the REAP grant to June 30, 2024. Amending the MOU with SCAG and extending the terms from June 30, 2023, to December 31, 2023 , will allow staff the additional time necessary to continue to build upon the extensive public engagement that has been completed for the project to date. The completed public engagement includes an interactive mapping exercise on the MDSP Update website, four community meetings, three walking tours, four stakeholder meetings, a virtual listening session, presentations to the boards and commissions, and attendance at neighborhood meetings upon request by the public.
Through the course of the initial public engagement efforts, staff found the interactions to be a critical and valuable part of the planning process . A dditional engagement opportunities were incorporated into the process that were not originally planned, such as the three walking tours and the listening session. These efforts generated a significant amount of valuable community feedback that is helping to shape some of the draft revisions to the MDSP, which are still being reviewed and analyzed by the project team.
Additional engagement is planned over the course of the remainder of the update process to ensure that the public will have adequate opportunities to fully understand the results of the policy analysis and the proposed updates to the MDSP that will be presented to the City Council. Further, additional engagement will be important to ensure the public fully understands the associated environmental review of the proposed updates. Furthermore, the additional time will allow the City to complete utility studies, including a sewer capacity study for the planning area that will assess current capacity and determine necessary upgrades to support future land developm ent envisioned in the specific plan; this information will also be factored into the project’s environmental impact report.
Staff recommends that City Council amend the MOU to extend the deadline of the REAP grant to December 31, 2023, to ensure staff has adequate time to continue to engage the public in a manner consistent with the current level of engagement and meet community expectations.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), this falls outside the definition of a “project,” as there is no direct or indirect physical change to the environment. Therefore, the changes to the terms of the MOU related to the REAP grant are not subject to CEQA pursuant to Section 15378 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations. The actual MDSP is subject to CEQA and will be reviewed at a later date.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no General Fund fiscal impact to amending the SCAG MOU. The MDSP is fully funded by the REAP grant, the Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant from the 3 California Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the City’s Sewer Funds.
The estimated budget for the Media District Specific Plan is $860,000.
CONCLUSION
The REAP grant along with proactive, long-range planning effort s will help facilitate responsible development and maintain local control by allowing the community to develop a long-range vision for where and how housing is developed within the MDSP area in a way that is unique and appropriate to the City of Burbank.
ATTACHMENT
Attachment 1 – Amendment to the MOU with SCAG
Attachment 2 – MOU with SCAG