AgdaPkt 2020-08-10 Special Joint SA PFA

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7.A. - Page 2 of 25 BACKGROUND At their November 4, 2019 meeting, the City Council considered a series of planning actions to seek community input and guide future development and transit service in Downtown Redwood City and beyond. The City Council directed staff to develop a resource plan to support a community visioning process for Central Redwood City. The boundaries of the area to be studied are expected to generally be EI Camino Real, Whipple Avenue, Veterans Boulevard, and Woodside Road (see Attachment A). The need to study the transit and land use planning is Central Redwood City is driven by several factors: • Adoption of the Caltrain Business Plan with up to 12 trains per peak hour per direction by 2040, including high speed rail • Continued preliminary work on the Dumbarton Rail Corridor with the potential for new transit services across the Bay ending in Redwood City • Potential grade separations of the railroad and surface streets to increase safety, preserve traffic flow and accommodate a 4 -track station • Receipt of a mixed-use redevelopment proposal for Sequoia Station, creating an important window of opportunity to support City -desired land uses and transportation improvements at and adjacent to this potential development site • Upcoming Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle that will require the City to update its Housing Element and plan for approximately 4,600-5,200additional housing units with a particular focus on affordable housing, as directed by State and regional bodies • Numerous development projects requesting a General Plan Amendment to exceed development caps in Central Redwood City Recognizing that the development of the Central Redwood City Plan will take some time, the City Council also directed staff to develop a "Gatekeeper process" to allow the City Council to consider whether to proceed with any current requests for General Plan Amendment Initiation. While there is some complexity in allowing individual projects to proceed during a substantial long-range community visioning process, the Council acknowledged that certain projects meeting City goals and community benefit objectives could be a benefit to the City and proceed in advance or concurrently with the visioning process. The City Council emphasized that these projects should be evaluated against the Council -adopted Strategic Priorities: Housing, Transportation and Children and Youth. Since the adoption of the City's General Plan in 2010, the City has experienced accelerated growth and development due to a variety of factors. These factors include a strong economy and a Downtown Precise Plan that streamlined project analysis and public review by setting overall development caps within the Downtown for office, residential, retail and hotel development. The DTPP caps have been met for office uses and have nearly been met for residential development. As a result, any proposed development project with office uses or significant residential uses requires the project to request initiation of a General Plan Amendment to allow the development proposal to be considered. The table below provides the status of the Plan's development caps: Page 2 of 13 City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.ore 52