AgdaPkt 2010-05-24 special, clsd and jnt

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7.A Page 2 with respect to the portion of the CBR that would be affected by the proposed ordinance. Before proceeding with the analysis of the proposed amendment, staff presented the overall concept of the amendment to the Council's Economic Development -Downtown Ad Hoc Committee at their meeting on March 1, 2010. The Committee directed sve on proceed and to clearly address any potential impacts the amendment may ha other businesses downtown, for example, by ensuring that parking provisions are adequately assessed. The Committee has also been considering new research relathe to Downtown's retail potential and the recommendations of that study are in line with intention of the proposed CBR amendment, which is to strategically address the vacancies with other types of active uses that can support downtown. The Plan~~g Commission considered the draft amendment to the CBR Zoning Ordinance along an associated environmental assessment at a noticed public hearing on April 20, 2010, and recommended approval of the draft amendment to the City Council. Project Description The proposed zoning text amendment would allow for office uses on the ground floor as permitted uses for some properties within the City s downtown core. The purpose ofC to proposed amendment is to encourage economic vitality within Downtown Redwood y and to locate a range of commercial and residential land uses in such an orientation so as to take advantage of the Downtown as a walkable, transit-served, mixed-use urbanizing district. The existing ordinance specifies,that office uses are permitted above the ground floor and that "ground floor dependent office uses are conditional uses on the ground floor within the CBR Zoning District. Ground floor dependent offices are defined in Article 2 of the Zoning Ordinance and include establishments such as travel agencies, insurance brokers and others whose businesses offices offer service to s th in customers. The walk-in customer orientation is the only criteria that distinguishe existing ordinance with respect to office uses on the ground floor throughout the CBR Zoning District from that which is proposed in this code amendment, which would permit additional types of office uses on the ground floor for portions of the CBR zoning died t New provisions associated with parking and storefront design are also incl o osed address environmental and operational concerns associated wetV ew a rocess is ordinance. Under the proposed amendment, a streamlined r p established for occupancy of existing buildings. A more in depth Use Permit process is proposed for new development. The proposed amendment would continue to allow retail and restaurant uses on the ground floor of buildings throughout the CBR. The proposed code amendment does not change the requirements for Broadway, Theatre Way or Sequoia Station. Thus, the amendment does not allow ground floor office uses, unless they first secure a use ermit and are found to be "ground floor dependent, in these areas. Streets that would p be affected by the code amendment such as Main Street and Brewster Avenue cou continue to have existing retail, new retail and restaurant businesses, along with new office uses that would be allowed if the amendment is adopted. General Plan and Zoning Compliance: The CBR Zoning District is associated with the Downtown Mixed Use land use designation in the 1990 General Plan (as revised)• 007 designation was established with adoption of the Downtown Precise Plan in len e Although the Downtown Precise Plan was later rescinded pursuant to a legal chat g , the General Plan designation was not. Prior to the 2007 General Plan Amendment:ctee downtown area had a General Plan land use designation of Heavy CommerciallOffi