SR-10-12-1993-9ACity of Santa Monica Staff Report: 10/12/93 Page 1 of 5
ITEM 9-A
Council Meeting: October 12, 1993 Santa Monica, California
TO: Mayorand City Council
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Recommendation TO Conceptually Review And Discuss The
Preliminary Urban Design Plan For The Civic Center
Specific Plan Area, Authorize Staff To Select A
Consultant To Prepare An Implementation Strategy And
Authorize Funds To Modify The Civic Center Specific
Plan.
INTRODUCTION
This staff report forwards to the City Councilthe recommendation
of the Design Working Group (DWG) on the preliminary Urban Design
Plan forthe Civie Center Specific Plan. As part of the work
program adopted in May by the City Council, City Council review of
the preliminary urban design plan is occurring prior to the
adoption of the Civic Center Specific Plan in order to solicit
Council input before revisions are made to the Specific Plan. This
staff report provides a summary of the Urban Design Plan work to
date, a description of the Plan, preliminary traffic analysis., and
recommendations to proceed with an implementation strategy and
revisions to the Specific Plan.
BACKGROUND
The Planning Commission held public hearings on the Draft Civic
Center Specific Plan and EIR on February 17, February 24, and March
24, 1993. The Commission expressed concerns during the discussions
about maintaining continuity throughout the Civic Center as
individual parcelsare developed over time, creating an overall
vision for the Civic Center area, and implementing the policies in
a comprehensive manner. Therefore, the Planning Commission, in its
Resolution recommending adoption of the Specific Plan, made the
recommendation to Council that an urban design plan be prepared to
conceptualize the Specific Plan and identify any changes that may
be necessary as a result of the urban design plan.
The City Council, on May 25, 1993, authorized staff to select an
urban design consultant and establi"shed an urban design working
group to help in the preparation of an urban design plan. The
Design Working Group (DWG) is comprised of two City Councilmembers
and three Planning Commissioners. The DWG began meeting on June 2,
1993 to define the role of the urban design consultant and identify
issues to be addressed in the design plan. ROMA Design Group was
selected as the urban design consultant and immediately conducted
a series of interviews with working group members, residents,
property owners in the area, representatives of various
organizations in the City, such as the Chamber of Commerce,
neighborhood groups, and the Bayside District Corporation, in order
to understand the issues and expectations of those interested in
the Civic Center area.
The DWG met~tentimes between June and September to discuss the
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City of Santa Monica Staff Report: 10/12/93
urban design plan and provide input and direction to staff and
ROMA. The meetings of the DWG were noticed, open to the public,
and provided the public the opportunity to give comments to the DWG
members. Although only one public workshop was planned, in order to
facilitate more public review and input, three public workshops
were held during the months-of June, July andAUgust. These public
workshops included design sketches and models, hands-on design
work, focus group discussions and open public forums to provide
input to the DWG members.
After reviewing issues related to circulation patterns (pedestrian,
bike, automobile), number of parking spaces, open space qualities,
building massing and potential traffic impacts, the DWG on
September 23, 1993 agreed to forward the preliminary design plan to
the City Council for conceptual review. The following describes
the plan and the issues discussed by the DWG in formulating their
decisions.
URBAN DESIGN PLAN
The preliminary urban design plan transforms the standards in the
Draft Specific Plan into a comprehensive vision for the civic
center area. The major characteristics of the urban design plan
are described below.
OPEN SPACE.
The design plan defines the locations and type of open space in the
area. There are four primary open space locations in addition to
the generous street setbacks and medians. The primary spaces
consist of the passive recreational space parallel to the I-10
Freeway between 4th Street and Ocean Avenue, which acts as a visual
connection to Palisades Park. This area can be used for strolling
and will include a bike path connecting it to the bike lane on
Ocean Avenue. The next area is the public plaza in front of City
Ha11. This area is designed as a public gathering spot with the
potential for street vending, entertainment and other outdoor
public activities. The third area, the park space within the urban
village (as shown in Planning Area 4), will provide a park setting
for the, residents and employees of the development in the area.
Finally, the major open space is located at the Civic Auditorium
site (Pico Boulevard and 4th Street) where surface parking
currently dominates. This open space will consist of both active
and passive recreation space and pedestrian and bike paths. The
open space network is designed to encourage a variety of activities
and provide the linkage connecting all the areas within the Civic
Center area.
TRAFFIC CIRCULATION
The Plan consists of an entirely new circulation system. This new
system is designed to better define the area and reduce the traffic
impacts from the potential development. It is carefully planned to
ensure that the area is pedestrian friendly and that no one street
acts as a major thoroughfare for access. The new network consists
of a new east/west street from Ocean Avenue to Fourth St. at the I-
10 eastbound on-ramp (between City Hall and the County courthouse).
Main Street is redesigned to one lane in each direction from Pico
to the public plaza.- At the public plaza, the street divides into
one lane in each direction around the plaza and then connects with
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Second Street at Colorado Boulevard. Main Street is designed to
link into the improvements currently underway as part of the Main
Street design process. The circulation concept is to distribute
the traffic evenly throughout the area by creating more linkages
within and around the area. A separate and distinct system has
been designed for Bicycles and pedestrians within the area and is
identified on the Plan.
PARKING
The preliminary design plan shows two new parking structures with
both below and above grade parking. The locations proposed are
behind the County Courthouse and along Fourth Street at Civic
Center Drive. These structures would provide approximately 1,825
parking spaces for use by City Ha11 visitors, employees, police
department employees and visitors, County Courthouse employees,
visitors and jurors, and Civic Auditorium visitors. As originally
proposed, the. parking £or public uses totaled approximately 3,000
spaces. However, after extensive review, and in keeping with the
Planning Commission recommendation to reduce the required number of
parking spaces by 20=s, staff and the DWG reduced the public parking
to approximately 1,945 spaces. This was accomplished by providing
the following spaces for future demand:
City Ha11 Employees 230
City Hall Visitors 75
County Courthouse Employees 467
County Courthouse Visitors 231
County Courthouse Jurors 300
Police Vehicles 175
Police Employees 247
Police Visitors 10
Civic Auditorium 200
The future demand assumes the Civic Auditorium operation will not
significantly change. Should the facility undergo renovations or
expand, subterranean parking would need to be provided to
accommodate the increased demand.
Parking provided within Planning Area 4 (RAND) will be provided
primarily below grade, however, limited above grade parking will be
located as part of the residential development. The above grade
parking will be encapsulated within the residential development. In
addition to the structure parking, surface parking will be located
adjacent to the Civic Auditorium to serve the needs of the
Auditorium for event/exhibition set-up, and along the new east/west
street to provide short-term parking for visitors.
DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS
In general, the preliminarydesign plan conforms with the
development standards contained in the Specific Plan as recommended
by Planning Commission with the exception of the Civic Auditorium
site and some minor modifications to height and floor area
standards in order to accommodate the above grade parking in the
City Ha11 and RAND planning areas (Attachment A). As indicated
above, future development intensities have been reduced for the
Civic Auditorium. The design plan assumes no change to the Civic
Auditorium but does allow up to 40,000 square feet of museum,
cultural, .or child care facility for the area. The development
intensities shown on the plan do not increase the amount of square
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City of Santa Monica Staff Report: 10/12/93
footage for either office or residential uses, but will change to
allow non-traffic generating uses such as the above grade parking
structures. In addition to changes to the height and floor area
ratio standards, changes are being recommended to the setback and
stepback standards for buildings in the area. These changes will
achieve the same goal as the present standards, to reduce the
perceived mass and scale of the proposed buildings in the area.
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
During the Planning Commission discussion, the issue of signal
synchronization and direct freeway access were discussed as traffic
mitigation measures for the Specific Plan development. Although
the EIR traffic analysis contains a qualitative analysis of direct
freeway access and a new east/west street, the Planning Commission,
and the City Council in May, requested a more detailed analysis of
these measures as a means of reducing future traffic impacts.
Kaku Associates performed an analysis ofthe project related
traff ic. impacts assuming several variations to the circulation
network and assuming that an automated traffic signal
synchronization system would be in place. Consistent with the
direction of the DWG, no new traffic was assigned to the Civic
Auditorium since it was assumed no additional development would
occur at that location. As a result of the reduction in development
in the Civic Auditorium area, the proposed new traffic circulation
network, and the automated traffic signal synchronization system,
the number of intersections with unavoidable significant impacts
after mitigation (as identified in the EIR) was reduced from 5
intersections to none. Thus, the project would not-cause a
significant traffic impact after mitigation. The details of this
analysis are contained in Attachment B. Although the project will
not cause a significant impactto the intersections levels of
service, the project may increase the daily volumes of the street
classifications identified in the Circulation Element. In order to
fully assess the impacts, staff is preparing updateddaily traffic
volumes for the surrounding and neighborhood streets in the area.
Daily project and future cumulative traffic volumes will be'added
to the existing volumes to determine if there is a conflict with
the definitions in the Circulation Element. It is anticipated this
information will be available at the October 12, 1993 City Council
meeting. In addition, staff has included projected future daily
traffic volumes for streets within the Specific Plan area as part
of Attachment B.
SPECIFIC PLAN REVISIONS
The proposed design plan is the result of extensive public comment
and thoughtful and detailed discussions by the Design rAorking Group
members. It presents a long term vision for the Civic Center area
by providing more open space and community and cultural
facilities, allowing expansion of existing facilities, and
retaining one of the City's major employers.
As outlined in Attachment A, the design plan generally conforms to
the Specific Plan standards as approved by the Planning Commission.
However, in order to incorporate the proposed design plan into the
Civic Center Specific Plan document, significant changes need to be
made to the document. Changes are required to:
- better define land uses in more specific locations;
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- allow below and above grade parking structures;
- define the traffic circulation network and its operation;
- locate open spaces, pedestrian paths and bicycle lanes;
- make minor modifications to heights, floor area
calculations and setbacks/stepbacks in some planning
areas.
In order to accurately reflect the design plan in the Specific
Plan, staff is recommending that ROMA Associates be hired to help
staff develop revised policy language. It is anticipated that this
work can be accomplished in an amount not to exceed $45,000. In
addition, staff is recommending Council authorization to hire a
consultant to help prepare an implementation strategy for the
public improvements that would be part of a Specific Plan. This
work can be accomplished in an amount not to exceed $20,000.
As presently proposed, the Specific Plan will be revised and
available for public review in early November. City Council review
of the Specific Plan and EIR is anticipated to occur on November
23, 1993.
BUDGET/FINANCIAL IMPACT
Implementation of the proposed urban design plan will have a future
budget impact. As development occurs, funds will be necessary to
construct the public infrastructure and roads, public open spaces,
landscaping and public. parking structures. The preliminary cost
estimate for these improvements is between $35 million to $40
million. A separate funding program, tied to development
scheduling, will have to be developed. The consulting costs to
prepare Specific Plan revisions and an implementation strategy are
not currently budgeted and will require the appropriation from
General Fund Reserves of $65,000 into account number O1-210-267-
00000-5506-00000.
RECOPMIENDAT I ON
Staff recommends:
1. The City Council provide a conceptual review of the
preliminary urban design plan;
2. Appropriate $'05,000 from General Fund Reserves into account
01-210-267-00000-5506-00000 for ,purposes of preparing an
implementation strategy andhiring ROMA Associates to prepare
revisions to the Civic Center Specific Plan.
Attachments:
A: Urban Design Plan
B: Traffic Analysis
Prepared by: Paul Berlant, Director of LUTM
Suzanne Frick, Planning Manager
Paul Foley, Associate Planner
Land Use and Transportation Management Department
Program and Policy Development Division
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