CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
1/8/2024
1 SUBJECT:
Update regarding the community engagement plan for the Local Coastal Land Use Plan (LCLUP) certification process.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Consider and approve a revised community engagement plan for Pacifica’s efforts to obtain CCC certification of the LCLUP, and confirm reprioritization of Strategic Plan workplan items assigned to the Planning Department.
STAFF CONTACT:
Christian Murdock, AICP, Planning Director
(650) 738-7341
[email protected]
Stefanie Cervantes, AICP, Senior Planner
(650) 738-7341
[email protected]
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
On October 9, 2023, the City Council approved a three-meeting community engagement plan to update the public on where the Local Coastal Land Use Plan (LCLUP) update process stands, and to discuss where it should go next. Additional information on the City’s work to update the LCLUP component of the City’s Local Coastal Program (LCP), which started in 2009, is available in the City Council agenda reports for the City Council meetings on October 9 (Agenda Item No. 10), November 13 (Agenda Item No. 1), and December 5, 2023 (Agenda Item No. 1).
The City is at the stage in the LCLUP update process where it must consider suggested modifications1to the City Council-approved LCLUP proposed by California Coastal Commission (CCC) staff. The CCC staff released these suggested modifications in late February 2023 as part of the CCC’s agenda for its March 8, 2023, meeting. The community engagement plan approved by the City Council was designed to address the CCC’s suggested modifications in three stages of public meetings as outlined below, starting with a City Council study session, followed by a community roundtable discussions meeting, and then concluding with a City Council consideration item, with public input accepted at each of these three meetings:
• Meeting #1: City Council Study Session
o Purpose: Study session to present and discuss the CCC staff suggested modifications from March 8, 2023.
o Timing: November 13, 2023
• Meeting #2: Community Roundtable Discussions
1 Available under Agenda Item No. 14.a for the meeting on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, at https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2023/3.
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o Purpose: Provide a staff presentation followed by a community roundtable discussion of potential alternative modifications to those presented by CCC staff for the March 8, 2023 CCC meeting, based on discussions between City and CCC staffs that started in June 2023.
o Facilitation: Due to the complexity of the subject matter discussed at this community meeting, a professional facilitation service facilitated the roundtable conversations. City staff notetakers supplemented the facilitators to ensure comprehensive collection of community input.
o Timing: December 5, 2023
• Meeting #3: City Council Consideration of a Comment Letter to CCC o Purpose: The third meeting was originally planned to be a City Council consideration item to discuss a potential comment letter from the City requesting revisions to the CCC staff's March 2023 suggested modifications. Transmittal of this comment letter would need to be sufficiently in advance of a CCC certification hearing on the Revised Certification Draft LCLUP to allow time for CCC staff to analyze the City’s requests and publish a staff recommendation.
Staff recommends transmitting the comment letter at least two months, but ideally three months, prior to a desired CCC certification hearing. o Timing: Currently anticipated in early-February 2024 (previously anticipated midto late-January 2024) The City Manager highlighted in the October 9 staff report that revisions to or refinement of the above-outlined community engagement process should continue to allow completion of the process by end of February 2024, and that any potential revisions to the 3-meeting process should consider impacts to the numerous other Strategic Plan priorities the City is undertaking in this same timeframe. The City Manager also indicated that continuation of the community engagement process beyond February 2024 may cause a CCC certification hearing to occur later than June 2024.
While the June 2024 timeline for a CCC certification hearing is not a statutory requirement, it is an important deadline pertaining to the City’s Strategic Plan and the timeline City staff and CCC staff have discussed in collaborative efforts to date. Certification of the Sharp Park Specific Plan, adopted by City Council in 2022, is contingent on the certification of the LCLUP. While projects in the City’s Strategic Plan Workplan can continue under the 1980 LCLUP, successful certification of the 2040 LCLUP and Sharp Park Specific Plan will allow for more clarity in the regulations and benefit other priority projects, such as the Beach Boulevard Infrastructure Resiliency project, 2212 Beach Blvd Development, and the Sharp Park Library project.
Additionally, continuing extensive work on an elongated timeline to achieve 2040 LCLUP certification will create staff constraints to work on numerous important Strategic Plan priorities.
Meeting #2: December 5, 2023
The community gathering for a staff presentation and roundtable discussions on December 5 included 157 confirmed attendees and several additional attendees who declined to check-in at the staff table. Attendance at this meeting was among the highest of any City-sponsored meeting in recent memory. The high level of participation confirmed the continued significant community interest in the LCLUP update process.
The City staff presentation2 at the beginning of the December 5 meeting focused on a critical set of potential alternative modifications, introducing to the community for the first time the concept of Special Resiliency Areas, or SRAs. These SRAs would effectively “carve out” large portions 2 Presentation slides available on the Project Documents page at https://www.planpacifica.org.
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of the Rockaway Beach and West Sharp Park neighborhoods from the standard policies contained in the LCLUP, applying a different set of focused policies that would generally be more permissive of development, subject to certain limitations, but in no case less permissive than the CCC staff suggested modifications from March 2023. Due to the complexity and implications of the SRAs and associated policies, it was not possible to discuss other potential alternative modifications at the December 5 meeting.
Staff received positive feedback from many attendees of Meeting #2. These participants appreciated the opportunity to learn about a new potential approach with the SRA policies, and to participate in a substantive discussion about the LCLUP update. Not all feedback from attendees was positive, however. Many had questions about the new SRA information, and the LCLUP update process overall, which they felt were unanswered at the meeting. City Council members have received similar feedback from their constituents.
Consideration of a Revised Community Engagement Plan
Based on the feedback received by participants at the December 5 community meeting, the City Manager recommends that further consideration of the community engagement plan by City Council is needed to decide whether the previously-approved engagement plan remains sufficient for completion of the LCLUP process. The City Manager recommends that a change to the plan is appropriate to most effectively address the main concerns expressed by participants in Meeting #2, and to balance the impact to other Strategic Plan priorities and timing of an LCLUP hearing by the CCC.
Recommendation for a Revised Meeting #3
While Meeting #3 was originally envisioned to involve City Council approval of a comment letter to CCC, the City Manager now recommends that Meeting #3 involve a special meeting consisting of a question-and-answer (“Q&A”) format. The original format for Meeting #3 would now become Meeting #4.
A special meeting on a weekend would be the most effective to accomplish the meeting’s primary objective to inform the community on all potential alternative modifications, to answer the community’s questions, and allow time for Council discussion after the Q&A session. A weekend meeting with a morning start time would allow sufficient time to answer as many questions from community members as possible. The meeting would include a coffee service throughout the morning and a box lunch service for the public, Council, and staff. Saturday, February 3, 2024, is currently identified as the most feasible date to conduct Meeting #3, with all of City Council available on that date.
The morning session would be dedicated to answering questions from the public, focused primarily on answering questions submitted in advance of the meeting, which will allow sufficient time for staff to thoroughly consider and prepare answers. The morning session would also include a limited period, approximately one hour, to receive questions not submitted in advance, and to answer them to the extent possible. Due to the complexity of the LCLUP subject matter, submission of questions in advance is essential to allow staff time to provide the most responsive answers possible.
The afternoon session would provide an opportunity for City Council members to engage in a Q&A with staff and consider providing direction on potential alternative modifications for final discussion and decision at Meeting #4. The agenda packet for Meeting #3 would include the draft comment letter to CCC including all potential alternative modifications that will be eventually discussed and decided by Council at Meeting #4. In addition, the packet for Meeting #3 would also include a special case studies report and FAQs, developed with assistance of additional planning consultant services, to help illustrate the importance of key potential Pacifica City Council 4
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alternative modifications. Development of the packet materials for Meeting #3 will be informed by the community discussions and input from the December 5th meeting (Meeting #2).
New Meeting #4
In the event of a revised Meeting #3, as described above, a new Meeting #4 would become necessary. The purpose of Meeting #4 would be to allow City Council consideration of a potential comment letter from the City requesting revisions to the CCC staff's March 2023 suggested modifications. Transmittal of this comment letter would need to be sufficiently in advance of a CCC certification hearing on the Revised Certification Draft LCLUP to allow time for CCC staff to analyze the City’s requests and publish a staff recommendation. This comment letter should be transmitted at least two months, but ideally three months, prior to a desired CCC certification hearing.
Based on the anticipated timing of Meeting #3 in early February 2024, the City Manager recommends the timing of Meeting #4 to occur in late-February/early-March 2024, and should be a consideration item as part of a standard City Council agenda, whether at a regular or special meeting, depending on the specific timing.
City Council Direction Requested
Should City Council support the approach outlined above to schedule a revised Meeting #3 and new Meeting #4, the City Manager requests direction on a couple details associated with the planning and conduct of Meeting #3:
1) What is the appropriate venue? Should the meeting be conducted at the Community Center or elsewhere? A venue other than the Community Center could affect meeting scheduling, depending on availability. An alternative venue may also increase costs to conduct the meeting due to booking fees and any equipment rentals needed. 2) Should a professional meeting facilitator be engaged? A professional meeting facilitator could help manage the Q&A portion of the meeting to remain within the determined process and timeline. Professional facilitation support will add cost to the meeting.
The following additional factors are also relevant for the Council’s consideration of whether to add a meeting to the community engagement plan:
1) Impacts on Other Strategic Plan Workplan Items. Adding another meeting to the community engagement plan will impact other Strategic Plan workplan items. The Planning Department already has a significant assigned workload in the Strategic Plan workplan for Fiscal Year 2023-2024. Adding an additional meeting, with the significant technical and logistical preparations required, will delay staff’s work on the short-term rental (STR) ordinance update and tree protection ordinance update by at least one month. Other modifications to the community engagement plan beyond the City Manager’s recommendation could extend this delay and could potentially impact other priority items, such as completion of work associated with the Housing Element, implementation of Housing Element programs (set to begin in 2024), and certification of the Outdoor Commercial Permit ordinance.
2) Additional Coordination with CCC Staff. Depending on the final provisions in a comment letter approved by City Council to request alternative modifications by the CCC, it is possible that City staff will need to engage in further discussions with CCC staff to ascertain whether they will recommend approval of the alternative modifications to the CCC. It is possible that multiple staff-to-staff meetings will need to occur, with the possibility of additional consideration by City Council to consider any revisions to the Pacifica City Council 5
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comment letter. This process could take up to two months, depending on the significance of the alternative modifications.
3) Overall Timeline for LCLUP Action by CCC and Final Action by Council. Work to update the LCLUP has been ongoing for over 10 years. Prolonging the adoption process will delay efforts by the City to modernize land use planning and other policies within the Coastal Zone. Prolonging LCLUP certification also increases the potential for inconsistencies with the General Plan, and will complicate development project approval, which will be particularly challenging for larger-scale projects that may be proposed such as housing (including affordable housing) and economic development objectives (including redevelopment of the Council Chambers site at 2212 Beach Boulevard) in the Coastal Zone.
The timeline for LCLUP action should be understood to not only include this next action by Council to seek CCC certification, but also the necessary post-CCC certification action required by the City. This will include Planning Commission and City Council public hearings to adopt the revisions certified by the CCC. This process will take at least two to three months following final CCC action and is necessary before the LCLUP will take effect.
CONCLUSION
The original community engagement plan approved by the City Council was designed to address the CCC’s suggested modifications in three stages of public meetings. During the second meeting (December 5th), staff received feedback requesting more information and responses to numerous questions. Given the importance of this LCLUP Update, the City Manager recommends adding an additional community meeting beyond the original threemeeting community engagement plan. Such a revised community engagement plan would allow for more community input and understanding about potential alternative modifications before the Council’s consideration of a comment letter from the City requesting revisions to the CCC staff's March 2023 suggested modifications. Adding one additional meeting will also create only minor delays in other Strategic Plan priorities for the Planning Department, and will also enable targeting a CCC certification hearing date by June 2024, depending on the significance of the alternative modifications. The City Manager does not recommend adding more than one additional community meeting, due to the impacts a longer certification process would have on many other City Council Strategic Plan priorities.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
The Council may choose not to add an additional meeting to the community engagement plan, or to add more than one additional meeting. Either course of action will have timing and cost implications on completion of the LCLUP update.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
The Local Coastal Land Use Plan is consistent with the following item(s) in the Council-adopted Strategic Plan and Priority Work Plan for FY 2023-24:
● Goal 4: Pursue climate change adaptation and mitigation. ○ Strategy C: Update Pacifica’s Local Coastal Plan and improve communications and collaboration with the California Coastal Commission.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Staff’s ongoing work toward LCLUP certification can be accomplished within regular Planning Department operations and does not require an additional appropriation at this time. A new and expeditied consultant services agreement, preliminarily estimated to be within the City Pacifica City Council 6
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Manager’s approval authority of $50,000, is anticipated to be needed to assist staff in developing the special case studies report and FAQs.
The community engagement process directed by City Council may have a direct fiscal impact (to be determined). Community meetings have a direct cost of at least $3,000-5,000 inclusive of meeting supplies and other logistics, including food/refreshments for attendees.
ORIGINATED BY:
Planning Department
ATTACHMENT LIST: