TO: COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC FROM: Christopher Burton
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: CITYWIDE PLANNING DATE: February 14, 2023
ACTIVITIES UPDATE
Approved Date
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the status report on Citywide Planning activities.
BACKGROUND
The Planning Division’s Citywide Planning section in the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement leads the ongoing evolution of the Envision San José 2040 General Plan, Area and Specific Plans, and Urban Villages. In addition, Citywide Planning is responsible for the City's ordinances and policies that relate to land use and urban planning, including Zoning Ordinances, Sign Ordinances, Citywide Design Standards and Guidelines, and various City Council Policies. The team is also responsible for monitoring and maintaining data relating to development in the City and forecasting development trends.
This update on Citywide Planning Activities is provided annually to the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee.
ANALYSIS
The Citywide Planning section is comprised of seven teams that are each responsible for a variety of work plan items. The following provides a status of the work plan items, including recent accomplishments and work currently underway and planned.
1. Housing
Staff’s primary focus has been completing the 2023-2031 Housing Element Update as required by State law. Over the past year, in conjunction with the Housing Department, staff conducted two rounds of outreach, including numerous focus group meetings, five community meetings, tabling at the Vietnamese American Organization’s Community Day, and a movie, “A Reckoning in Boston,” screening to educate people and discuss CED AGENDA: 2/27/23
FILE: CC 22-042
ITEM: (d)3
2/15/23
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Subject: Citywide Planning Activities Updated
redlining and fair housing Additionally, the team provided an update to the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee, and the Housing and Community Development Commission, and conducted a Planning Commission Study Session.
In July 2022, the team completed the draft Housing Element document and posted it for a 30-day public review period with two community meetings during that period to receive input on the draft. On September 16, 2022, the draft was submitted to the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for a mandatory 90-day review period. On December 15, 2022, a comment letter was received from HCD on the Housing Element draft and staff are currently working to address the comments.
Extensive information, including the HCD comment letter, is available on the Housing Element Update webpage. The Housing Element is expected to return to City Council for approval in June 2023. It will then be submitted to HCD. Another active work item on the Housing team is the annual Housing Element Progress Report which is due to HCD on April 1, 2023. This Report provides an update on the City’s progress in implementing its 5th cycle Housing Element, which was in effect until January 31, 2023. This task is underway in partnership with the Housing Department with a tentative City Council hearing date of March 21, 2023.
The Housing team includes the Destination Home planner who expedites the processing of development applications for projects including significant components of Extremely Low Income and/or Permanent Supportive Housing. This position is funded by a grant from the non-profit Destination Home. In the past year, the Destination Home planner oversaw the approval of four applications for a total of 327 much-needed affordable housing units. Currently, there are 13 development applications, totaling 2,406 units, under review.
2. Climate Smart
The Climate Smart position in the Citywide Planning Division has been responsible for the multi-year effort to implement parking reform which is an integral component of achieving our Climate Smart and greenhouse gas goals. On December 6, 2022, City Council approved an ordinance amendment to the San José Zoning Code to remove minimum vehicular parking requirements from the code require mandatory Transportation Demand Measures (TDM) for new development. This is the culmination of a nearly four-year process that was coordinated with the Department of Transportation through the American Cities Climate Challenge. The ordinance officially goes into effect on April 10, 2023.
Staff is currently working on numerous items to ensure that new development applications are moving through the City’s processes with few hiccups. The new ordinance will significantly change how the City reviews development permits. The Department of Transportation is working on establishing a staff position whose role will specifically be to review TDM plans for new development applications. Staff is also
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working to update pertinent application forms to reflect the new code language and updated submittal requirements.
Updating the development services permit database (AMANDA) to reflect the new permitting processes will, unfortunately, take significantly longer but a large amount of initial design work for the update has been completed. Staff expects to have the new information and applications completed in March 2023, which will ensure that applications submitted less than 30 days from the ordinance's effective date will meet the new requirements.
Staff resources that would otherwise be dedicated to other Climate Smart work are currently reassigned to amend the Evergreen East Hills Development Policy such that it only applies to development-entitled, but not yet built projects, and does not apply to new developments going forward. As part of the Four-Year Review of the General Plan, City Council amended the General Plan as such; however, staff still need to modify the Policy and the municipal code to be consistent with City Council’s direction and the General Plan. Staff anticipates presenting these amendments to City Council for its consideration by June 2023.
3. Ordinance
The Ordinance team is responsible for updates to the Zoning Ordinance, Sign Ordinance, and City Council Policies related to land use and development. The team will at times take on other policy work, such as the General Plan policy updates of land use studies.
Despite lacking a full-time supervisor, the team has had some successes in the past year.
In February 2022, City Council adopted an update to the Zoning Ordinance and Cannabis Business Ordinance to allow additional cannabis businesses to open in commercial areas.
Staff on this team is also responsible for monitoring and lobbying on state legislation on behalf of the Planning Division and were successful in proposing amendments to Assembly Bill 2011 to address San José’s needs.
In the summer of 2022, staff began scoping the Coyote Valley Corridor Study, which will analyze potential new uses for the properties located along the east side of Monterey Road in Coyote Valley that is compatible with or in direct support of the region’s agriculture and open space resources. The result of the study will inform future proposed amendments to the General Plan as to allowed uses and development regulations contained in the General Plan and the Zoning Ordinance. Staff conducted preliminary outreach to inform the scope of the study. As of the writing of this memorandum, staff is in the process of signing a contract with a consultant to perform the study. Staff anticipates the study will be completed in the fall of 2024.
In the past year, the team also worked on amendments to the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance to allow 100% affordable housing developments on land used for religious or
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other types of assembly (Yes, in God’s Backyard, “YIGBY”). This task was progressing slower than anticipated due to the challenging CEQA analysis required. In December 2022, City Council directed staff to replace this work item with modifications to the definition of Permanent Supportive Housing that would be a simpler scope of work but achieve largely the same goals as the original task. Given the current staff resources and the staff focus on the Housing Element update, the schedule for the Planning Commission and City Council consideration of these proposed amendments is yet to be determined but is anticipated in fall 2023. It should be noted, however, that State Senator Scott Wiener and Assembly Member Tina McKinnon introduced Senate Bill 4, a YIGBY bill, into this year’s legislative process. If this bill is signed by the Governor, it would supersede the City’s proposed YIGBY General Plan amendments. Staff will therefore be tracking this bill closely.
4. General Plan
The General Plan team is primarily responsible for processing both privately-initiated and City-initiated General Plan Amendments, the annual General Plan Performance Report, the Five-Year Development Forecast, and other miscellaneous data and mapping requests.
The City holds an annual review with hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council to consider all privately-initiated amendments to the General Plan. In February 2022, City Council heard five privately initiated General Plan amendments for the 2021 General Plan annual review cycle. The 2022 Annual Review is planned to be heard by City Council on April 11, 2023. City Council will consider four privately-initiated General Plan Amendments; a fifth General Plan Amendment may also be considered if the applicant is able address technical site issues. Typically, the Annual Review occurs in the fall of every year, which means that the 2022 Annual Review would have occurred in the fall of 2022; however, to allow for the completion of the environmental review of the proposed amendments, the 2020 Annual Review process was moved to this spring. As part of the Annual Review process, staff prepares a General Plan Annual Performance Review Report which tracks the City’s progress in implementing the 12 major strategies and multiple goals of the General Plan. Staff is completing work on the 2022 Annual Report and will present this Report to the Planning Commission on March 22, 2023, and to City Council on April 11, 2023.
City Council approved two City-initiated General Plan text amendments in 2022: 1) adding a new policy and clarifying language to require that privately-initiated General Plan Amendment applications are reviewed concurrently with a development/use permit application, and 2) adding a new policy and clarifying language stating that any commercial space requirements intended to create a mixed-use development no longer applies to 100% deed-restricted affordable housing citywide.
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Staff is currently completing the annual Development Activity Highlights and Five-Year Forecast. This Forecast serves three important functions:
• Assists the City Manager’s Budget Office in estimating future constructionrelated tax revenues that generate funds for the City’s Capital Improvement Program;
• Provides City policymakers and staff with key data for periodic assessment of the rate, type, and location of development activity in San José; and • Provides information on major development projects to the public.
This report will be included as an attachment to the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Budget document and will be posted on the PBCE website in early March 2023.
5. Urban Village Planning
The Urban Village team is updating four Urban Village Plans—Little Portugal, Roosevelt Park, 24thStreet & William, and Little Portugal—in central San José, under one project or planning process called the “Five Wounds Urban Village Plan,” and referred to as the “Five Wounds Updates” (Updates). The Updates respond to City Council's direction in 2019 to endorse the recommendations of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) Playbook for the 28th Street/Little Portugal BART Station. The recommendations of the TOC Playbook focus on changing the housing and employment capacities in the area. The existing capacities of the four Urban Village Plans total 4,855 jobs and 2,022 dwelling units pursuant to Appendix 5 of the Envision San José 2040 General Plan. The TOC Playbook for the 28th Street/Little Portugal BART Station accommodates 2,100 jobs and 7,800 dwelling units.
The proposed recommendations are based on real estate market projections developed for the TOC Playbook. Those projections effectively reduce the planned employment capacity by half and increase the residential capacity by two-thirds, approximately.
The planning process for the Five Wounds Updates is a joint effort between the City of San José and VTA, funded through various sources, including Federal Transit Administration, Local Early Action Planning (LEAP), Regional Early Action (REAP), and Metropolitan Transportation Commission grants, and Caltrans grants totaling approximately $1.5 million. Most of the funding has been used to fund consultant work.
The consultant team, led by the Planning Collaborative, was brought on board in September 2022. The first community workshop was held at Roosevelt Community Center on December 8, 2022. Since this workshop, the project team has worked on the completion of existing conditions, prepared a real estate market assessment, and prepared the first land use plan. The team presented the first draft of the land use plan at its first Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting on January 25, 2023. The next community workshop is scheduled for April 20, 2023; strategies will be discussed to address the potential displacement of businesses and residents due to new private and public investments in the area including BART.
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While there is funding to complete two other Urban Village plans, this work is temporarily paused until the team staff vacancies are filled, anticipated in the spring of 2023. Once staff is hired, work will resume on the Alum Rock (east of Interstate 60) Urban Plan which is funded through a $400,000 Caltrans grant, and on a “market ready” urban village in west San Jose funded through the $400,000 allocation to PBCE in the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Adopted Budget.
6. Station Area Planning
Located along Monterrey Road in southwest San José and in Council District 7, the Capitol Caltrain Station Area Plan is a 16-acre planning effort to accommodate 700 dwelling units and approximately 60,000 square feet of commercial development, together with developing strategies for beautification, economic development, and transportation planning. The Capitol Caltrain Station Area Plan was initiated out of the Monterrey Corridor Working Group process and is part of the strategic direction to catalyze development opportunities along the Monterey corridor. City Council accepted the Monterrey Corridor Working Group Report in September 2022. Other strategies in the Report include promoting economic vitality and promoting livability and sense of place.
Staff started the planning process in early 2022, securing a consultant team and hiring a project manager. On May 12, 2022, the first community workshop was held at Captain Jason M. Dahl Elementary School. Approximately 50 people participated, including Council District 7 office staff. Following the workshop, the City’s consultant completed an economic and real estate analysis for the plan area. Staff then developed preliminary land use plans based both on input received at the first community workshop and the findings of the real estate market analysis. The next step is to hold a second community workshop to obtain feedback on the draft Plan vision and the conceptual land use plan.
However, the planner position for this station area plan is now vacant, and the work is paused until the position is filled, anticipated in the spring of 2023.
7. Citywide Planning
The Citywide Planning team is responsible for the multi-year effort to align properties’ he zoning and general plan. This work plan item is included in the City Roadmap Initiatives and is mandated by State law. The work consists of bringing to City Council rezonings of approximately 12,000 properties to make the zoning of the property match the land use designation in the Envision San José 2040 General Plan. So far, 4,630 properties have been rezoned, with approximately 7,000 remaining. The remaining rezonings are anticipated to be completed by December 2023.
The other major work plan item for the Citywide Planning team is changing the General Plan land designation of all mobile home parks in the City to a Mobile Home Park land
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use designation. Pursuant to City Council direction, staff submitted a mid-year budget request to process General Plan Amendments on the 13 parks that could have the most potential to redevelop based on the real estate market and other factors. If this request is approved, staff would initiate this work in the spring of 2023. Also pursuant to City Council direction, staff has submitted an annual budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023- 2024 to change the General Plan land use designation on the remaining 44 parks. If this proposal is approved, staff would initiate this work in the summer of 2023.
Citywide Planning Section Staffing
While the Citywide Planning section staff has made progress on several priorities since the last activities update, the team is challenged with vacancies and has a current vacancy rate of 40%.
Recruitments are underway to fill team vacancies and with PBCE’s new Customer Service Charter initiative, staff has created a comprehensive and transparent view of the Citywide Planning section’s current workload and ability to take on new work plan items.
In Fiscal Year 2022-2023, the team has been focused on the Housing Element. Once the Housing Element is taken to City Council and submitted to the State, and as vacant positions are filled, the management team will determine how new staff capacity can be allotted to re-start paused work plan items.
COORDINATION
This memorandum was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office.
/s/
CHRISTOPHER BURTON, Director
Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement
For questions, please contact Michael Brilliot, Deputy Director, at (408) 535-7831.