City Council Agenda Report
TO: Mayor McCord and Members of the City Council
FROM: Ken Irwin, City Manager
BY: Bryan Stice, Community Development Director
MEETING DATE: September 20, 2022
ITEM NO: 7.1
SUBJECT: Approve Resolution No. 2022-64 approving a General Plan Amendment, which would redesignate the northwest portion of APN 021-025-028, a 101.96 acre lot located west of Rogers Road, between the Delta Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct, to a Light Industrial General Plan designation and motion to approve the first reading and introduction of Ordinance No. 864 approving a rezone to the West Patterson Light Industrial District. The site is currently zoned for General Commercial land uses.
RECOMMENDATION
Motion to Approve Resolution No. 2022-64 approving a General Plan Amendment, which would redesignate the northwest portion of APN 021-025-028, a 101.96 acre lot located west of Rogers Road, between the Delta Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct, to a Light Industrial General Plan designation and the motion to approve the first reading and introduction of Ordinance No. 864 approving a rezone to the West Patterson Light Industrial District. The site is currently zoned for General Commercial land uses.
BACKGROUND
The project site is located between the Delta Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct, east of Rogers Road (see Figure 1).
In 2012, the City Council adopted the West Patterson Business Park Expansion project, which provided a development framework for the area bounded by Rogers Road, Zacharias Road, and Interstate 5. Subsequently, the West Patterson Business Park Expansion area, including the subject property was annexed to the City in 2013. The Business Park Expansion Master Plan envisioned a combination of retail development and warehouse/industrial development. The “Master Plan” was further divided into two portions, the KDN Business Park/Retail Center, a primarily retail-oriented area, where the subject site is located, and the Arambel Business Park.
Standards in this Master Plan would still apply to future development.
CURRENT DESIGNATIONS
As designated at the time of the West Patterson Business Park Expansion approval, the subject site is zoned General Commercial. This zoning designation is primarily intended for retail, office, and restaurant types of uses. The Master Plan includes tentative approvals for approximately one million square feet of commercial building space on the subject property.
For context, the total current commercial square footage in the vicinity of Sperry Avenue and Ward Avenue (the Walmart, Save Mart, True Value, and Walgreen’s shopping centers) is approximately 350,000 square feet. A large format box retailer, such as Walmart or Target, typically totals 120,000 to 150,000 square feet. A typical grocery store would be 30,000-50,000 square feet, with smaller restaurants and retailers measuring between 3,000-20,000 square feet.
Despite plans for future growth, with the increased use of online shopping and other competing commercial sites within the city, the potential to build out the entire one million square feet of the site seems unlikely. Further, the number of vehicle trips passing by a site is critical to the success of most shopping centers. For the subject site, only the areas adjacent to Rogers Road are likely to experience a large volume of vehicles passing by.
PROPOSED DESIGNATIONS
The proposal under consideration would keep the General Commercial zoning on the southeastern area of the parcel, the area closest to Rogers Road. The 59.88 acres to the north and west of the property would be redesignated to Light Industrial under the City of Patterson General Plan and rezoned to the West Patterson Light Industrial District. This zoning designation is intended for industrial parks, warehousing, and light manufacturing. The designation would match the zoning designation of areas to the north of the subject property.
No development is proposed as part of this proposal.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW/CEQA COMPLIANCE
An environmental impact report (EIR) was prepared for the West Patterson Business Park Expansion project in 2012, SCH# 2011082016. The EIR concluded that buildout of the area could result in a number of significant adverse impacts. Mitigation measures recommended by the EIR reduce many of these potentially significant environmental impacts to a less-than-significant level.
Impacts for which no feasible mitigation was available were addressed by a Statement of Overriding Consideration adopted by City Council.
First Carbon Solutions prepared an initial study to consider the General Plan Amendment and Rezone. The California Environmental Quality Act provides that a lead agency shall prepare an addendum to a previously adopted EIR if some changes are necessary, but none of the following conditions exist:
1) Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or ND . . . due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects;
2) Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or ND . . . due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; or 3) New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the previous EIR was certified as complete, or the ND was adopted. . . shows any of the following:
a. The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR or ND or negative declaration;
b. Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR or ND;
c. Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible, and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or
d. Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR or ND would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative (CEQA Guidelines § 15162, subd. (a); see also PRC § 21166).