AgdaPkt 2011-06-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7.A. - P ag e 12 5 2.0 Project Description 2.0 Pro"ect Descri tion J p The City of Redwood City adopted a comprehensive update to the General Plan in 2010, to be the community's most important and dynamic planning tool. The new General Plan established new policies, goals, and implementation programs for the long-term physical development of the community, constituting the blueprint for how the City will look, how development will occur, and providing a framework for the provision of City programs and services. The new General Plan responds to new State laws and addresses housing, urban form, circulation, atmosphere and climate, water resources, child care, seniors, health, historic resources, economic development, safety, and sustainability initiatives in the City. The new General Plan represents a transformation of the prior 1990 General Plan. The new General Plan includes significant revisions to the land use map and completely new text, proposing progressive and innovative programs and policies for certain corridors and focus areas. Key land use objectives pertaining to the Mixed Use Corridor District areas and expressed in the General Plan include: ■ Transform EI Camino Real to a vibrant, mixed use, pedestrian-friendly boulevard that links regional transportation improvements and local economic development efforts. ■ Transform the Veterans Boulevard corridor into a true boulevard, with nodes of regional commercial, businesses that benefit from high freeway visibility, an office district, and mixed use neighborhoods in between. ■ Implement land use policies and mixed-use development that encourage walking and bicycling and maximize connections between neighborhoods. ■ Foster a pedestrian and aesthetically appealing atmosphere along major corridors, with buildings primarily oriented to public streets, high-quality architecture, minimized driveways and parking areas as visible from the sidewalk, and maximize visible pedestrian entrances. ■ Improve the corridors to create a network of "complete streets" that emphasize pedestrian orientation and safety, public transit access, safe bicycle movement, and other improvements. ■ Provide the appropriate density and intensity of land uses to facilitate high levels of transit use along corridors. ■ Require new development to provide engaging, well-landscaped outdoor spaces that invite and support outdoor activities for residents, especially areas viewed or accessible by the public. ■ Encourage pedestrian activity by requiring all ground-floor businesses to include transparent window fronts and, to the greatest degree possible, be oriented toward commerce. ■ Explore establishing minimum development intensities and/or heights along primary corridors. ■ Provide that buildings located along corridors be designed to define the public realm, activate sidewalks and pedestrian paths, and provide "eyes on the street" in accordance with the following principles: o Emphasize pedestrian orientation in site and building design, promoting a walkable environment with active street frontages, well-scaled buildings, and usable site spaces. o Minimize the visual impact of parking facilities on all public streets. o Locate the frontages of buildings directly adjacent to the public sidewalk. o Provide public open spaces for public enjoyment, and include outdoor seating or other amenities that extend interior uses to the sidewalk. o Minimize driveways, as they interrupt the continuity of street facing building elevations; prioritize their location to side streets and alleys. o Utilize building patterns that mix the heights of elements, and consider adjacent lower scale development as applicable. ■ Encourage the replacement of older low-scale, auto-oriented development with well-designed new projects that offer pedestrian orientation, higher densities with more efficient use of land, and continued productive economic value. ■ Accommodate the pedestrian in all public and private improvement projects along EI Camino Real. Redwood City Mixed Use Corridor District 4 Zoning Ordinance Addendum to General Plan FEIR