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9.C. - Page 14 <br /> study cites several cases,including San Remo Hotel v. City County of San Francisco (2002); Ehrlich v. <br /> Culver City (1996), and Building Industry Association v. City of Patterson (2009). It is unclear how this body <br /> of case law may apply to a voluntary public benefits bonus program, but this legal consideration <br /> should be taken into account when designing a program. The City of Santa Monica has already <br /> conducted nexus studies that will cover many of the public benefits to fulfill legal requirements with <br /> regards to establishing development impact fees. The City may conduct an additional study to <br /> establish a nexus for the tiered zoning structure they are considering adopting. The zoning code <br /> update is expected to be adopted by mid-2013. <br /> Palo Alto, California: Planned Community Zoning <br /> Planned Community (PC) zoning is a flexible zoning designation used in many cities throughout <br /> California,primarily for large-scale new residential developments. The City of Palo Alto uses the PC <br /> rezoning process in creative and sometimes controversial ways to maximize the public benefits of <br /> higher intensity infill projects. <br /> How the program works:Public benefits are built into the PC zoning designation;in order to qualify for <br /> a PC,the Planning Commission and City Council must find that"development of the site under the <br /> provisions of the PC planned community district will result in public benefits not otherwise <br /> attainable.i4 In Palo Alto,developers will choose to pursue a PC zoning change if they want to build <br /> a project at a greater height,density or FAR, or with a different mix of uses than is allowed under <br /> the current zoning designation for a site. The zoning change application must go through review by <br /> the Planning Commission,Architectural Review Board,and the City Council. <br /> The Planning Department reviews several requests for a PC zone change from developers each year. <br /> The developers propose which public benefits the project will include in their application to the city <br /> for the zoning change. The final package of public benefits gets negotiated with staff and ultimately <br /> the City Council before the project is approved. This can often be a lengthy and uncertain process; <br /> one development took over 15 years to get a PC approved. <br /> The City does not have a standard process to determine the cost of the community benefits,nor the <br /> increased value of the zoning changes. There is no explicit community process about the public <br /> benefits, although the city does encourage developers to host public meetings to get resident input. <br /> Types of community benefits from past projects include traffic studies,public art,public plazas, <br /> public meeting rooms,tree plantings,grocery stores, and affordable housing. <br /> The City has not tried to quantify the cumulative impacts of the public benefits over the years,but <br /> two projects from the last 10 years help illustrate both the benefits and perils of this approach. <br /> The first project is 800 High Street, a multi-use development approved in 2003. 800 High Street <br /> includes 60 units, 10 of which are below market rate, on what was previously an old dry-cleaning site <br /> near a Caltrain station. The original zoning designation for the site was for much lower density, <br /> making the project infeasible for the developer. The City Council granted a rezone from Downtown <br /> Commercial Service and Pedestrian Overlay to Planned Community in February 2003. However, <br /> resident concerns about the increased density were so great that the rezone was put to a referendum <br /> in the fall of 2003. The referendum failed,and the project was built. <br /> 4 From Palo Alto Municipal Code 18.28.050 <br /> Page 9of15 <br />