PLANNING COMMISSION STAFF REPORT
MEETING DATE: October 11, 2016
PREPARED BY: John W. Baty, Principal Planner/Community Development
APPROVED BY: Leslie Little, Assistant City Manager/Community Development
Title
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT CONTROL SYSTEM (RDCS) DRAFT COMPETITION MANUAL WORKSHOP
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
RECOMMENDATION
Review, discuss, and provide feedback on the revised Public Review Draft RDCS Competition Manual
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CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act):
Project, Description of CEQA requirements
An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Morgan Hill 2035 Project, which included the Residential Development Control System (RDCS) Update, was prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and certified by the Morgan Hill City Council on July 27, 2016. (SCH #2015022074)
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PROJECT SUMMARY:
The Morgan Hill 2035 Project includes an update of the City’s Residential Development Control System (RDCS) and the development of an accompanying RDCS Competition Manual.
On July 27, 2016, after a nearly 3.5 year process that included multiple community meetings and/or public hearings by the RDCS Update Working Group, Planning Commission, and City Council, the Council adopted Resolution No. 16-129 placing the RDCS Update (Measure S) on the November 8, 2016 ballot.
The purpose of this workshop and subsequent workshops with the Planning Commission is for staff to receive feedback from the Commission on specific changes to the Revised Draft RDCS Competition Manual (attached) that would be incorporated into a Final Draft RDCS Competition Manual. In January/February 2017 the Final Draft RDCS Competition Manual would undergo testing and refinement prior to being considered for adoption by the Planning Commission and City Council at public hearings in March/April 2017.
For this first workshop, staff is requesting that the Planning Commission focus their review on the "big picture", including the overall approach and criteria, not on specific point values. Comments are also requested regarding any changes made since the last time the Commission met on the initial Public Review Draft Competition Manual (link below) in March 2016.
Major changes to the Competition Manual since it was last reviewed by the Planning Commission include the following:
• Removing minimum points for criteria grouped within each objective (e.g., “schools”)
• Adding criteria where the Planning Commission awards points based on project merits rather than financial contribution (e.g., 5-E: Park and Open Space Design).
• Modifying location criteria to better encourage infill away from the urban edge, particularly the addition of new Criteria 2-B: Infill Corridors.
• For points awarded for financial contribution, basing points on value of contribution per unit (e.g., 1 point for every $1,000 contributed per unit)
• Modifying point values to be consistent with the RDCS Ordinance limitations on available points for criteria within each objective
• Adding reference to new residential design criteria which will be in the updated Zoning Code (e.g., Criteria 9-A)
At prior meetings the Planning Commission also discussed identifying points as either “bought” or “earned” and possibly requiring a minimum number of earned points. Staff and consultants recommend against explicitly making a distinction between earned and bought points in the Competition Manual, but rather considering this issue when designing the overall system, establishing criteria, and assigning point values to individual criteria. To assist the Planning Commission consider this issue, staff and consultants have prepared a spreadsheet that identifies points as either earned or bought, and shows their percentage of overall available points (Attachment 2). Staff and consultants recommend using this spreadsheet to track available points as the Planning Commission and City further refine the Competition Manual in the months to come.
Based on Commission feedback staff will propose changes to the criteria and refinement of specific point values and bring back revisions for a more detailed discussion with the Commission.
Attachments:
1. Revised Draft RDCS Competition Manual
2. Competition Criteria Spreadsheet
3. Initial Public Review Draft RDCS Competition Manual 2-16-2016 (link)
4. RDCS 2016 Competition & Morgan Hill 2035 Schedules