AgdaPkt 2006-07-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6A Page 7 boundaries. Allowing the introduction of a stand-alone residential use outside the downtown core, like 333 Main Street, diminishes the City's commitment and the importance to a successful downtown in having residential development happen in the core of the downtown. This issue is akin to similar discussions that have been held with Council regarding the upcoming Downtown Precise Plan and the concentration of retail land uses. The City's consultant was emphatic that we should not allow "dilution" of initial retail development in the Downtown core in that it can lose its effectiveness if it is spread too thin. Staff believes that the same can be said for "initial" housing. Care must be taken to focus new Downtown residential oriented developments fully within the Downtown Core so that they can become part of the Downtown neighborhood fabric and contribute to the balance of retail, entertainment and housing that we are seeking here. Maintaining this focus will allow this balance of land uses to be more quickly achieved. Staff strongly recommends that developers not be encouraged to do these kinds of projects outside the core for at least the next few years until the core uses are strengthened. 2. General Plan: The City has been working on a General Plan update for the past several years. The process has included a number of community oriented meetings throughout the City which were hosted by the Planning Commission, in addition to substantial research by staff and consultants. Neither the public. consultants nor staff have proposed land use changes in the vicinity of the subject site that would include residential. Aside from this proposal, the Planning Commission has also not suggested residential development in this area in the context of past General Plan Land Use discussions. In fact, there are no residential land uses in this entire "swath" of the City as bounded by US 101, Veterans Boulevard, Whipple Avenue, and Woodside Road, as evident in the Existing Conditions Map below. Thus, the applicant's proposal represents a significant change in land use for this neighborhood. At this time, staff anticipates that the General Plan policy for this area will not result in the introduction of residential land uses in this area, but rather, that it will strengthen and perhaps allow intensification of the existing land use relationships found there now. This includes utilizing the Veterans Boulevard frontage for a medical use corridor and preserving the freeway frontage for high intensity, freeway oriented commercial land uses, such as auto dealerships and big box retail. In order to contemplate a land use change that includes housing, the area needs significant consideration as a whole, and it should be a result of policy in the General Plan update. Staff anticipates that the General Plan update will direct the location of new housing opportunities throughout the City, primarily in the downtown through the Downtown Precise Plan (previously referenced above), but also in other areas where it is deemed more appropriate, such as existing high density residential neighborhoods that already have neighborhood serving infrastructure. It is premature to introduce a residential land use in this area at this time. -..,.,