Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: PUBLIC HEARINGS (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Introduction of an ordinance to amend the City's land use code to create a Woonerf-Living Street design standard for multi-family, mixed-use and other private developments, Citywide
Date: December 14, 2021
Written by: Noah Housh, Director of Community Development Recommendation
It is recommended by the Planning Commission and Community Development Department that the City Council of the City of Cotati introduce an Ordinance that would allow for the development and regulation of woonerfs-living streets (multi-use zones) as part of certain new private development projects.
Background
On May 3, 2021, staff presented a proposal to amend the City’s multifamily open space standards to create a menu of useable open space options. The woonerf concept was introduced and included as an option for providing this required common space.
On June 21, 2021, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Multifamily Objective Design Standards and voted to recommend approval of the proposed standards, including the woonerf as an option.
On August 10, 2021, the City Council held a public hearing on the recommended Multifamily Objective Design Standards and discussed the woonerf concept. Generally, the Council supported the woonerf concept, but there was not a consensus on whether to count the woonerf towards the required useable open space requirement. The City Council continued the item to allow staff to respond to the various questions and issues raised by the Council.
On September 28, 2021, the City Council held a second public hearing on the recommended Multifamily Objective Design Standards. At the hearing the City Council reached a consensus on the woonerf issues and voted 5 to 0 to approve the Multifamily Objective Design Standards with modifications. The major modifications included capping the amount of common indoor recreation that could be counted as useable open space at 15-percent and to remove the woonerf as a useable open space option. It was the City Council’s position that woonerfs should generally be required for all new multifamily developments and the Council directed staff to
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draft an ordinance to amend the Cotati Land Use Code to establish woonerf requirements and standards, citywide. Staff has prepared draft woonerf-living streets (multi-use zone) standards and an ordinance to adopt them.
On November 1, 2021, the Planning Commission held a public hearing to review the proposed amendments to Chapters 17.36.100 and 7.90 of the Cotati Municipal Code, creating and regulating the woonerf-living street as a development required design element. After reviewing and providing some direction to staff, the Commission voted to approve a resolution recommending adoption of an Ordinance to define and regulate Woonerfs to the City Council.
Analysis/Discussion
Generally, a woonerf is a street/accessway that takes the focus off the automobile and instead prioritizes pedestrians, and cyclists. Through the absence of sidewalk boundaries, curbs, and distinct lanes, those on foot and bike have equal access to the street/driveway. Traffic calming features consist of pedestrian amenities and decorative elements rather than speedbumps which do not add the pedestrian experience. Woonerfs are often used on public streets in the Netherlands to create public space in front of homes to provide a place to play, socialize, and engage in the community. In the United States the woonerf has been used as a placemaking strategy to create a more pedestrian friendly environment within existing commercial areas as part of redevelopment projects.
The proposal before the Council is an amendment to the Land Use Code is to require new multifamily and horizontal mixed-use developments to include a woonerf(s) as a part of projects to make certain driveways/accessways internal to the project more welcoming, appealing, and safer for everyone, and to promote greater options for common space. A woonerf will typically include features such as street furniture, planters, street trees, and benches, creating more opportunity for social interaction and bringing more people out to driveways/accessways to walk, bike and play, while still accommodating automobile circulation and parking.
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Photos of Netherland Woonerf Examples
Major components of the attached draft ordinance are summarized below:
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o Generally required for new multifamily and horizontal-mixed use developments that include a private internal driveway that provides vehicular access within a single project. o Are to be included on driveways that function as a street or alley where the car should not be the predominant circulation element and located in proximity to residential entries and common areas.
o A minimum of 100 square feet of woonerf shall be provided within the project for each dwelling unit.
o Shall include a clear and distinctive entrance with signage, change in pavement and traffic calming features as shown in the example above.
o A transition of 20 feet to 60 feet shall be provided between the woonerf entry and the intersection with another driveway or street. In all cases a minimum clear 20 feet of clear sight distance shall be provided prior to the woonerf entrance. o Traffic calming measures shall be no less than 160 feet apart within the woonerf. o Emergency vehicle access shall be provided as approved by the Fire Marshal. o The minimum length should be 60 feet and maximum length should not exceed approximately 300 feet.
o Continuous curbs are prohibited to emphasize that the woonerf is a shared space. o The woonerf shall incorporate seating, landscaping, and other pedestrian, and decorative amenities along its full length to promote common use of the space and to calm traffic. o The surface shall be decorative pavement for the full length and width of the woonerf. o Parking within and adjacent to a woonerf is permitted provided the parking is intermittent and designed to calm traffic.
o Areas not appropriate for woonerf include the typical double-loaded head-in open parking lot or leftover fringe areas of the development as shown in the photo below:
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Woonerf Design Examples and Requirements
The proposal before the City Council is unique in that the draft ordinance includes standards and regulations regarding the development of woonerfs as part of new private development projects.
Historically, woonerfs have been used to retrofit existing streets to calm traffic and improve the pedestrian experience. As such, examples of woonerfs developed as a part of a new residential project are limited. Known examples include the Tower Apartments located at the intersection of East Cotati Avenue and Lancaster Drive (shown below). This is an affordable 50-unit apartment project that includes a central driveway that includes some woonerf elements such as decorative pavement and eliminated curbs in the center portion adjacent to common open space and community buildings. The perimeter driveways are constructed in a typical parking lot configuration.
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Tower Apartments-781 E. Cotati Avenue- includes woonerf elements Intersection of a “woonerf” and a typical parking lot driveway
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Aerial View of Tower Apartments “woonerf”
A separate example, Riggs Park Place, is a 90- unit townhome project under construction in Washington D.C that includes a woonerf as a central vocal point. The Riggs Park Place site plan and woonerf are shown below. Both examples are similar in that the woonerf is limited to a centrally located drive aisle that appears and functions as a street or alley with limited or no parking.
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Riggs Park Place - Washington D.C
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Based upon the examples available, studies that have been completed regarding the conversion of existing streets to woonerfs and input from the Planning Commission, staff has prepared the attached draft ordinance. In general, the proposed standards do not require all driveways and parking areas within a multiple-family project to be designed as a woonerf. Rather, the draft standards require a limited portion of the project to include a woonerf similar in scale to the two examples show above. The proposed standards require a minimum of 100 square feet of woonerf area per dwelling (comparable to the amount provided in the Tower Apartment project shown above) and specify that the woonerf include decorative paving, curb-less design, integrated landscaping, and seating along the entire length. The proposed standards allow for parallel parking within the woonerf similar to a street, but also allow for head-in parking in some circumstances provided the parking is intermittently spaced along the woonerf.
General Plan
Below is a summary of some of the most applicable General Plan policies that apply to the woonerf ordinance.
Policy CON 2.1: Improve air quality through continuing to require a compact development pattern that focuses growth in and around existing urbanized areas, locating new housing near places of employment, encouraging alternative modes of transportation, and requiring projects to mitigate significant air quality impacts.
Goal H-2: Provide adequate sites to accommodate the housing needs of all economic segments of the community.
Policy H-2.6: Ensure that the City’s development requirements, including the standards established by the General Plan and Land Use Code, accommodate and provide for available housing sites that are appropriate for a range of income levels and housing types, including housing to accommodate special needs populations.
Goal H-3: Expand affordable housing opportunities for lower income households and persons with special housing needs, including seniors, disabled persons, large households, and homeless persons and families.
Goal H-5: Promote energy efficiency and conservation in residential development.
Policy H-5-2 Encourage energy efficiency and energy conservation in existing and proposed residential development to ensure sustainable practices and reduce long-term housing costs.
Goal H-6: Ensure public participation in the development of the City’s housing policies.
Staff Response:
Staff finds that the proposed Woonerf-Living Street Ordinance is consistent with the adopted Cotati General Plan in that the Ordinance would require a circulation design element that would encourage compact development and encourage alternative transportation modes, require new development to incorporate design elements to reduce reliance on automobiles and calm traffic circulation speeds, thereby reducing the costs of transportation for some residents while also
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improving safety; would incorporate seating and universal design elements into the circulation networks of private development to reduce circulation barriers to seniors, disabled persons and other special needs populations; further support energy conservation and sustainable practices in residential development by accommodating all modes of transportation and requiring landscaping in circulation areas; and would do so through a collaborative and publicly engaged process.
Planning Commission Review and Recommendation
On November 1, 2021, the Planning Commission reviewed and considered the draft ordinance at a Public Hearing. After hearing the staff presentation and asking some clarifying questions, the Commission heard comments from the public. Generally, these comments requested that the Ordinance truly seek to make woonerf design multimodal, making cars, bicycles and pedestrians equal in their importance. After closing the Public Hearing, the Commission voted to support the woonerf-living streets ordinance, but requested additional changes be made to:
1. Consider eliminating references to automobile driver priorities.
2. Consider changes to the width requirements to allow more flexibility in the traffic calming efforts and design choices.
3. Support full multi-modal design within the woonerf.
Staff responded by eliminating any specific width requirement (but keeping the emergency vehicle access compliance and Fire Marshall approval); eliminating any references to automobile driver preferences and adding some additional design requirements to further support pedestrian and bicycle use of the space.
Financial Considerations
With the exception of the staff time needed to create the woonerf ordinance, here are no direct financial impacts to the general fund associated with the creation of the woonerf ordinance.
There may be some additional cost associated with the inclusion of a woonerf in the design of future development projects withing the city, however these are likely to be marginal and not a significant strain on the budget of an individual project.
Environmental Issues
The City of Cotati is proposing changes to the Land Use Code to allow for the development and regulation of woonerfs-living streets within new private developments to provide increased use of common space by requiring and/or allowing woonerfs to enhance the use of internal driveway/accessways by providing pedestrian amenities and utilizing traffic calming techniques.
The code changes are also intended to maintain the potential intensity of development that may otherwise be permitted in the underlying zoning district where a woonerf may be developed.
Thus, the proposed code changes maintain the current potential for environmental impacts as
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analyzed in the Cotati General Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (SCH# 2013-08-2037), certified in March 2015.
No physical changes to the environment will result from adoption of the proposed code amendments alone. Future woonerf developments allowed by the code changes would be subject to individual review and to project-specific use, development, and design standards on a project specific basis, including project-level CEQA analysis if applicable. Evaluation of future projectlevel impacts would be too speculative to include in this analysis. Accordingly, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15145, project level impacts are not discussed herein.
Attachments:
Public comment_Woonerfs to Cotati City Council (PDF)
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