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SR-022608-3A~~~ ;tYo, City Council Report Santa Monica City Council Meeting: February 26, 2008 Agenda Item: ~ °', To: Mayor and City Council From: Eileen Fogarty, Director, Planning & Community Development Department Subject: Endorsement of Frameworks Elements for the Land Use and Transportation Element Update Process. Recommended Action Staff recommends that the City Council endorse the strategy and framework elements for the Land Use and Transportation Element as described in this report. Executive Summary The Santa Monica community cares tremendously about maintaining the character of the City as it evolves over the next twenty years. The Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) must reflect the community's vision for the future and ensure that Santa Monica will evolve as desired. Through the nine well-attended workshops on Neighborhood Preservation, Placemaking, Industrial Lands Areas, Transportation and, most recently, the Boulevards the community has articulated key values and a vision for the future. These values have been transformed into a clear strategy and direction for the LUCE. That direction contains five key framework elements: 1. Neighborhood Stability: As the community vision for Santa Monica's future evolves, it is clear that there is a strong community desire to maintain the unique character of Santa Monica neighborhoods. The focus of the plan for the vast majority of the City's area will be to protect and presence the neighborhoods. The plan will focus on protection and sensitive transitions for areas immediately adjacent to commercial corridors. 2. Integration of Land Use and Transportation: The plan integrally links __ areas of land use evolution to underlying transportation infrastructure and ~lstrategies, adhering to the following key themes: • The only areas considered to evolve over the next twenty years are along existing or proposed transit corridors. Activity areas are only located in places with frequent transit. Concentration of mixed uses in these areas would create "complete neighborhoods" reducing total trips and serving the neighborhoods by providing walkable and bikeable services. 1 3. Proactively Manage Congestion: The City must proactively work towards the goal of reducing auto trips through aggressive measures targeting sources of congestion. Creation of Transportation Demand Management districts will address new and existing employers. Measuring results to provide feedback on whether the goals are being achieved will be an essential component to evaluate .progress of the plan. 4. Public Benefit: Ensure that the City and neighborhoods benefit from any future development that takes place in the City. A performance-based strategy will guide the mix of uses. The greatest incentives will encourage the addition of affordable and workforce housing. Public benefits could also include such items as shared parking, open space and community gathering areas, community services and necessary infrastructure. 5. Urban Character and Form: The community cares strongly about form, character and scale, making it essential that the plan direct the vision for Santa Monica's built environment citywide and in specific areas. This new direction allows the City to shape its future rather than be in a reactive role. Background. The purpose of this report is to seek feedback and confirmation on the proposed integrated and cohesive Land Use. and Transportation strategy. The City Council previously endorsed a series of Neighborhood Preservation, Placemaking and Industrial Lands Areas Principles and provided input on proposed Transportation Strategies. Since then, an additional Transportation workshop was held in December and a Boulevards Workshop took place on February 9th, the ninth in a series designed to iteratively develop the plan through consultation with the community, Planning Commission and City Council At the February 9th Boulevards Workshop the Planning Commission supported the strategy for integrating land use and transportation, and the LUCE direction for public benefit and sustainability. The Planning Commission discussed a range of issues including: the need for economic analysis for maintainirig today's level of services, whether the emerging nodes were all in the right locations with respect to employment 2 and social services, the mix of uses such as senior /long term care, evaluating the sun angles particularly with respect to heights on Wilshire Boulevard, balancing future development with trips, and evaluating real-time components of traffic generation related to uses. Staff will return to the Planning Commission with further detail on specific land use districts. Discussion The challenge throughout the development of LUCE is to balance the expectations of the community with the need to retain Santa Monica's character. The Plan must manage change over the next twenty years in a way that is beneficial to the community. To achieve this balance, the LUCE strategy develops tough proactive measures related to congestion, while focusing and managing change in ways so that it contributes to the community as a whole. In evaluating the City's land uses, it is clear that much of the City is constrained as existing healthy neighborhoods immediately border the commercial corridors. In many of the commercial areas that are in close proximity to residential areas, the shallow commercial lot depths limit possible future redevelopment without impacting the adjacent residences. Other areas throughout the City do not meet the basic criteria for transit access. The result is that there are very few areas where all the LUCE elements come together. In those few areas where the LUCE criteria come together, the community has identified the services and mix of uses necessary to create appropriately scaled "complete neighborhoods." The workshop discussion on the boulevards and transit areas address areas these areas. Neighborhood Stability: For approximately 90% of the City, the plan recommends stability and enhancements. Within the neighborhoods there are two areas of focus: (1) 3 ensuring appropriate scale for residential infill; and (2) defining appropriate transitions from the commercial boulevards to residential. Proposed Residential Neighborhood Stability gena oeuaPa~:e PE aer?iNHe~s6re M e~um amIN HOUSIng ®x aviry xaz ] u m ease Faau.a Land Use and Transportation Integration: The land use and transportation strategies must be integrally linked so that mobility is enhanced and change provides transportation options. The City has the opportunity to integrate land use strategies with transportation infrastructure and benefit from a number of transit improvements, including key Rapid Bus stops on Wilshire, Santa Monica, Lincoln and Pico Boulevards and the future Exposition light rail line. The Transit improvements create opportunities for housing and mixed use with the potential to reduce auto trips as much as 50%. 4 Transportation Network $fizQt Y+~pc~Ogias ~P =.5 Wi'n' ~]~ ^ p Proactive Congestion Management: Aggressive management of employee trips are addressed with the creation of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Districts throughout the City and incorporating measures such as parking pricing, transit incentives, pooling of ridesharing resources and providing facilities for flexcar, bicycling and walking. Additional sources of congestion will also be the focus of management tools. The desired goal is to move towards a cap on net new auto trips, reducing both existing and new trips. Measuring results to provide feedback on whether the goals are being achieved is essential to evaluate progress of the plan. Public Benefit: The mechanism of performance standards to assure community benefits is generally supported by the community. As the LUCE progresses the efforts focus more specifically on defining and reaching agreement on specific desired community benefits, while also developing approaches to encourage or subsidize them. The LUCE 5 strategy proposes a low baseline for any future development. Performance measures for public benefits described below are required for any height above the baseline. • AffordableM/orkforce Housing: The most significant incentives will be to encourage affordable and workforce housing. The community has expressed particular interest in affordable housing to continue to foster a diverse community and in workforce housing to attract employees to the region. The workforce housing could be located near existing institutions for greater balance of uses (e.g. near hospitals, near entertainment industry offices) • Community Benefits: Some of the community benefits discussed to date include: shared parking, new infrastructure such as sidewalks, bike facilities and street grid refinements (Industrial Area); support for arts and cultural facilities and uses: historic and cultural preservation; parks, community gathering and open space; community centers for youth, teens, adults and seniors; and child care centers. Urban Character and Form: Principles guiding future development as well as the public realm are critical components of the City's future evolution. These Principles include buildings scaled to enhance the pedestrian experience as well as appropriate sidewalks to encourage pedestrian activity, and enhanced connections from neighborhoods to boulevards (pedestrian, bus, bike and alleys). These principles are further detailed in the Placemaking findings. BOULEVARD DESIGNATIONS As is required by state law, the LUCE will include land use designations that identify the desired future land use and development intensity on each parcel. The Luce principles will guide future .development replicated in the land use designation and maps. These principles coupled with transportation strategies will serve as the roadmap to implement the vision. This section focuses on key boulevards that would benefit from these policies. Boulevards/Activity Areas: "Mixed Use Activity Center' • Wilshire Boulevard at Fourteenth Street 6 • Santa Monica Boulevard at Fourteenth Street • Santa Monica Boulevard at Twenty-Sixth Street • Lincoln Boulevard at Pico Boulevard • Lincoln Boulevard at Ocean Park Boulevard The LUCE strategy of coordinating land use with transportation by locating activity centers at transportation nodes is based on Principles identified during the Place Making, Transportation and Industrial Lands workshops. Rapid Bus routes along Wilshire, Santa Monica and Lincoln Boulevards and the future Exposition light rail line create opportunities for housing and mixed use with significantly lower auto use. •_ ~_ Neighborhoo~ interconnects fransit, bicycl routes • Expo LRT • Subway to ::~~c- v.... ........ -M YI X .~ 66 Febmary 9, 2008, .. ..~, ... _~' ....... ...:.: 9 O y' These activity areas require certain land use characteristics in addition to being located at strategic stops or stations. To be viable, the activity areas need to contain, or have the ability to assemble larger commercial parcels to have enough depth from the boulevard for the upper stories to step back from the residential uses behind them and permit the development of shared parking facilities in subterranean garages. Acceptable projects that build above the 32 foot base height would be required to provide workforce and affordable housing, plus a variety of other benefits; including: • Dedication to widen sidewalk/create median; 7 • Mixed-use -with neighborhood serving uses; • Public gathering place/activities; • Green median; • LEED Certified/Sustainable Design; • Community Facilities; • Parking District: - Shared parking - Off peak use of parking by adjacent residential; • Transportation Demand Management District participation - 50% trip reduction; and • Provide funds for community services; arts, childcare. Exposition Light Rail -Transit Villages: "Transit Village" • Bergamot Station • Station adjacent to Memorial Park The EXPO Authority is currently preparing plans and environmental analysis for Phase 2 of the Exposition Light Rail Transit Line (LRT), extending from Culver City to downtown Santa Monica. The EXPO Authority is projecting completion of the Santa Monica segment around 2015. Transit stations are being planned at Bergamot Station, a mid station adjacent to Memorial Park and the downtown station near Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue. The EXPO Line stations provide a special opportunity to move a large number people from automobiles to the LRT system. To take advantage of this opportunity and in turn support the LRT, a Transit Village and Mixed-Use Creative Arts land use would be centered around the Bergamot stop and a lower intensity node would be located adjacent to Memorial Park. Acceptable projects that build above the 32 foot base height would be required to provide workforce and affordable housing, plus a variety of other benefits, including: • Infrastructure and roadway dedication • Mixed-use -with neighborhood serving & arts uses • Public gathering place/activities-open space • LEED Certified/Sustainable Design • Community Facilities • Parking District - Shared parking - Off peak use of parking by adjacent residential 8 • Transportation Demand Management District participation - 50% trip reduction • Provide funds for community services; arts, childcare. Downtown: "Downtown Core" The Downtown Core area is intended to maintain and enhance the downtown area and to provide for a balanced mix of retail, residential, entertainment and visitor-serving uses. Key strategies include: • New Specific Plan • LRT station -transit oriented uses • Maintain economic viability (uses, parking) -remains heart of community • Role of housing • Linkage to Civic center Neighborhood Commercial: "Neighborhood Commercial" • Montana Avenue • Main Street • Ocean Park Boulevard These boulevards contain Neighborhood Commercial activity centers with varying results. Main Street and Montana Avenue have developed well and are very successful. Improving parking and the pedestrian environment are on the short list of potential enhancements for these two boulevards. In addition to parking and pedestrian improvements, some buildings along Ocean Park Boulevard need fagade improvements to achieve community acceptance.. Neighborhood Commercial limits building height to two stories and 23 feet. 9 Neighborhood Commercial: "Neighborhood Commercial & Mixed Use Boulevard" Pico Boulevard Contrary to the relative success of Main Street and Montana Avenues, past policies have not allowed the private sector to upgrade many of the commercial properties along Pico Boulevard. A number of issues impact this area, but much of the difficulty relates to the predominant small parcel sizes. Most of the commercial .parcels along Pico Boulevard were subdivided prior to modern planning and subdivision regulations and are too small to permit subterranean parking. As a result, existing buildings cannot be enlarged or new buildings constructed without using the ground floor to proved parking. Opportunity exists to create larger parcels on the south side of Pico Boulevard that would permit new development over subterranean parking. The proposed low intensity mixed-use land use designation would provide additional incentives to permit new neighborhood serving retail on the ground floor with residential uses above. Establishing parking districts and shared parking would also benefit the neighborhood commercial on the north side of Pico Boulevard. Low scale projects that build above the 32 foot base height in the proposed "Mixed Use Boulevard" area of Pico Boulevard would be required to provide workforce and affordable housing, plus a variety of other benefits, including: • Require ground floor retail. • Residential on upper floors with shared parking (potential parking district). • Reduce parking requirements for desired uses such as restaurants and cafes. Actively re-develop auto-oriented uses. • Recording Academy property opportunity to expanded office complex and create a parking district. • Provide well-maintained landscaping, streetscape, and green space along Pico. A small strip of neighborhood commercial that is located across from Santa Monica College provides an opportunity to create a neighborhood serving activity area that would cater to pedestrians (students and faculty) from the college with little on-site parking. Acceptable projects at this node would need to: • Create an attractive, highly walkable retail area serving Santa Monica College 10 • Create a parking district for uses serving pedestrians from Santa Monica College • Maintain and develop safe pedestrian and bicycle connections. • Work with the college to create a TDM program • Explore possibilities for a small park or plaza General Commercial: "General Commercial" Lincoln Boulevard (south of freeway) Many of the properties along Lincoln Boulevard, south of the Santa Monica freeway have the same challenge described for Pico Boulevard, small lots that limit parking options and the ability to convert properties to more desirable uses. Lincoln Boulevard, being a State highway, has high traffic volume and serves as the southern gateway to the City. The LUCE will provide the framework for positive change, but overcoming all of the constraints may require intervention. New development would: • Continue existing commercial and retail uses. • Allow limited automobile-serving uses. • Create an entryway treatment near the city limit. • Beautify streetscapes and improve building facades: • Locate parking behind buildings. • Reduce the number of curb-cuts by encouraging agreements between adjacent landowners • Parking strategy. Employment and Commerce: "Health Care Mixed Use, Industrial Conservation, Industrial Mixed Use and Office" Health Care Mixed Use, Industrial Conservation, Industrial Mixed Use and Office land use designations. The Health Care Mixed Use designation is a new designation that allows for the expansion and continued vitality of the two hospitals in the city. The designation will allow a variety of uses including medical office, retail uses to support the hospital uses and workforce housing that is targeted at employees of the hospitals. The need to provide quality healthcare and emergency medical services is critical to the 11 community. 1lVhile the LUCE will recognize this fact, the current Hospital Area Specific Plan should be revised subsequent to updating the LUCE. The other land use designations allow for the continuation of the existing employment uses without allowing for significant expansion. Conclusion City Council endorsement of the land use strategies and framework is recommended to proceed with the LUCE. The final Transportation workshop prior to completing the Draft LUCE document will pull together the community's ideas about all forms of transportation on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at Santa Monica High School Cafeteria. Additional economic and land use workshops are being scheduled for later in March. Financial Impacts & Budget Actions The recommendations presented in this report do not have any budget or fiscal impacts. Prepared by: Name of one staff member who is responsible for the preparation of the report 12 Approved: Forwarded to Council: