Agenda Related Items - Meeting of August 27, 2024
Supplemental Packet Date: August 27, 2024
THOUSAND OAKS CITY COUNCIL
Supplemental
Information
Packet
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2:30 p.m.
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From: Chuck Cohen <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 9:37 PM
To: Andrew Powers <[email protected]>
Cc: Jonathan Cornelius <[email protected]>,
[email protected] <[email protected]>, Dave Rand <[email protected]>
Subject: Fore Green Development LLC Initiation of General Plan Amendment CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Mayor Al Adam, Council Member Bob Engler, Council Member Kevin McNamee, Mayor Pro Tem David Newman, Council Member Mikey Taylor, City Manager Drew Powers, City Attorney Tracy Noonan, Community Development Director Kelvin Parker and Lead Planner
Scott Kolwitz.
Please receive and consider the comments below pertaining to the Staff Report dated August 27, 2024, regarding Fore Green Development LLC coordinated with the Southern California Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists request for Council initiation of consideration of amendments to the Thousand Oaks General Plan and Specific Plan No. 13.
At page 2 of the Report, pertaining to the City Council declining to change the land use designation from industrial and open space to residential and open space, please be reminded that the Conference, shortly before the subject hearing, chose to terminate the land sale agreement to Fore, which had been studying the property and interfacing with City staff on the prospect of building mostly rental housing with a strong component of units available to households with incomes in the Very Low, Low and Moderate categories. Instead of Fore’s representatives presenting the case for the use change, the Conference engaged a new attorney and presented on its own. I am not privy to the content of that presentation. Subsequently, in the following January, the Conference reentered the sale agreement with Fore, and Fore’s team has been working diligently with staff and administration members to renew efforts to have the City further consider residential use, particularly in view of the State actions to increase housing supply.
At page 3, attention is called to (a) residential development of the site, PERHAPS, a request to add up to 3 acres to the pad area out of the 248 acres comprising the northerly portion of the Conference’s property in the Village at Newbury Park that is within the site plan study well underway and (b)recognition of the consistency with Council policy to locate needed housing away from existing neighborhoods and essentially proximate to the Freeway. This property is part of and adjacent to the Village at Newbury Park Regional Shopping Center, which tracks the Freeway at Wendy and TO COUNCIL: 08/27/2024
AGENDA ITEM NO.: 12A
MEETING DATE: 08/27/2024
1 is significantly closer to the actual corridor than the Mixed-Use Village Centers, including the deserving Janss Market Place.
At page 4, the Report calls out the proposed components of staff review of residential viability, and I comment as follows::
Bullet one references--“coordination of access/circulation/roads…..including emergency response and utilities infrastructure”: Those are extraordinary strengths of the site in that (1) the site will have two freshly installed access roads in advance of occupancy in Wendy and Rancho Conejo Boulevard upon the opening of the connecting road which was ordained and required in Specific Plan No. 13 at the time the Village at Newbury Park Specific Plan was approved, (2) those road installations will enhance fire access to the northerly Conference natural acreage, which again, pursuant to the requirements of Specific Plan No. 13, is subject to a condition to dedicate the remainder area to Conejo Open Space (approximately 248 acres), (3) said connector also provides minimum drive or even bicycle access time between home and jobs in the Rancho Conejo Industrial Park and allows those future residents access without entering Hillcrest Drive and the Freeway, (4) all utilities are currently adjacent in the Village at Newbury Park and were always intended to be connected to the earlier proposed school and residential uses approved in Specific Plan No. 13 (Note: obviously the sizing of transmission lines will be adjusted, but to my knowledge, there are no issues as to water and sanitary sewer capacity and flow), and for now (5) at one time Specific Plan No. 13 called for the Conference to provide space and build a new fire station to replace the station still in operation. That public benefit was changed to an in lieu fee used at County Fire discretion, and in any event the North Campus is within quick response time of fire suppression and support and, as stated above, will, with road access improvements, significantly improve response capabilities.
Bullet Three--“Community Benefits”: Public benefits include but are not limited to (1) providing to the City the largest number and types of affordable housing heretofore built and presently planned, (2) the road connector and its substantial benefits described above, including, again, fire suppression, and (3) the positive effect on industrial retention and additions through not only housing supply, but the close proximity of such housing to Rancho Conejo Industrial Park.
Bullet Four Biological resources-: Fore has conducted and is aware of the plant species, Dudleya and Lyons Pentachaeta, and will site plan accordingly. Writers special foot note: at the time of approval of Specific Plan No. 13, I walked the northerly area to find that the main thriving concentration of these plants was in the graded dirt roads. Nevertheless, mitigation of such plants will be a priority. Same for any heritage trees, including oak varieties, of which there are few, if any.
Bullet Five-- Grading: Fore has turned loose its respected civil engineering firm Stantec to assure safe and aesthetic grading. In this location, it is unlikely that there would need be any off-site export or import of earth; thus, no dirt trucks will enter city streets or the Freeway.
2 Bullet Six—Wildfire: in addition to the comments above, due to the Project’s location in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, the Project would be required to design, construct, and maintain structures, roadways, and facilities in compliance with applicable local, regional, state, and federal requirements related to fire safety, emergency access, and evacuation, as well as building materials, setbacks, and defensible space requirements for development in fire hazard areas. The local, state, and federal rules, regulations, and policies set forth minimum standards for development strategies, building materials, and systems and fire prevention strategies for development in the wildland-urban interface and fire hazard areas to reduce the risk of wildfire damage and losses. The Project would be developed according to all applicable sections of the current building codes and fire codes in the 2022 California Building Code and the California Fire Code, as amended by the Ventura County Fire Code (Ventura County Municipal Code Section 5111, Ordinance No. 32). These codes include provisions for building materials, vegetation clearance, and defensible space for fire prevention and safety. Chapter 7A of the California Building Code regulates building materials, systems, and/or assemblies used in the exterior design and construction of new buildings located within fire hazard areas. Chapter 7A establishes minimum standards for the protection of life and property by increasing the ability of a building to resist the intrusion of flames or burning embers projected by a vegetation fire, and to contribute to a systematic reduction in property damage or loss. New buildings located in fire hazard areas must comply with the ignition-resistant construction and fire protection standards outlined in California Building Code Chapter 7A. These requirements address roofs, eaves, exterior walls, vents, appendages, windows, and doors and result in hardened structures that have been proven to perform at high levels (resist ignition) during the typically short duration of exposure to burning vegetation from wildfires.”
Bullet 7-- Measures E and W: On their face, these Measures cannot bar or impede this initiation. Fore is prepared to deal with them at the appropriate time in the evaluation process.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT TONIGHT’S DECISION IS ABSOLUTELY
RESTRICTED TO WHETHER YOU DIRECT STAFF TO STUDY THE SUBJECT PROPERTY FOR A CHANGE OF USE AND ZONING, AND NOTHING MORE.
WITH THE FOREGOING IN MIND, WE ANTICIPATE A VERY SHORT PRESENTATION AND AVAILABILITY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.
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