Item 11-C
Planning Commission Meeting:
November 2, 2005
TO: Planning
Commission
FROM: City Staff
SUBJECT: Discussion of Approach to Alternatives
Analysis to be used for the Land Use and Circulation Elements Project
(Discussion Item 11-C)
INTRODUCTION
Significant progress has been made on the City’s
effort to create new Land Use and Circulation Elements since the project was
initiated one year ago. Two milestone work products, the Emerging Themes and
Opportunities and Challenges reports have been reviewed and commented upon by
the public, including the Planning Commission and City Council. These documents
provide the foundation for future work efforts by capturing the community’s
initial ideas of how
The next phase in the General Plan update is to study
land use and circulation alternatives in terms of their impacts on and
effectiveness in advancing community goals. The necessary first step in this phase
is to decide upon two or three defined alternatives as a means to understanding
possible consequences of and relationships between land use decisions. At this stage, the alternatives are not intended
to be used literally as individual potential preferred alternatives plans. Rather, they are intended to function as an aid
to understanding, and should be selected based on their capacity to illuminate
choices and trade-offs and to assist in making the final land use policy
designations.
This report outlines a possible approach to
developing alternatives and identifies how Planning Commission discussion and
recommendations can refine and shape the alternatives.
DISCUSSION
The
nature of updating the land use and circulation elements in a built out urban community
is that they must be integrative rather than determinative. The land use
pattern is essentially set. In addition,
much that the community may want to accomplish will be implemented through
specific programs and projects as opposed to new development within traditional
land use designations. Nevertheless, some choices will direct very different
results in specific areas. The alternatives should be structured such that they
illustrate and inform those different results.
The study alternatives will ultimately be presented
in the form of land use maps showing different locations and distributions of
land uses and different emphases and treatments in focus areas. The purpose of the alternatives is to provide
a visual basis for analyzing impacts and relationships between different
choices, and to assist in making policy trade offs. They should be seen not as predetermined
outcomes but as a way to initiate and assist discussion and debate.
Rather than presenting two or three well-defined
alternatives that determine locations, quantities, and types of each land use,
this report presents a conceptual approach to defining those alternatives in
order to make sure that issues of importance to the Commission and community
are presented and analyzed. The approach
to land use is essentially comprised of three equally important aspects:
·
Land use categories
·
Variables that will determine the nature of each land use
·
Possible strategies that could be used to achieve each land
use
Similarly the approach to the circulation element is essentially
comprised of:
·
Elements and users of the circulation system (program and
policy areas)
·
Variables (basic applications of the program or policy area)
·
Possible strategies
Equally,
if not more significant, the consistency of community input on certain issues
demonstrates that there may be some goals and policy choices that will hold for
all possible land use alternatives. The
approach to the alternatives recognizes this with a list of common elements
that could apply in all cases.
Attached to this report are two matrices to be
further refined at the Planning Commission meeting, one related to land use,
the other circulation. Each matrix identifies key topic-related elements and
element variables. For example, if housing is the key topic, then the ‘amount’
or ‘diversity’ of housing would be two variables. Another component of the
matrix is ‘possible strategies’. The strategies serve as a way to maintain,
advance or deemphasize a particular variable. There may be one or more overlapping
strategies that relate to geographic locations, possible city programs, or
other mechanisms to ultimately test the variables in different alternatives.
More specifically, the Land Use matrix identifies key
land uses: housing, local serving commercial, visitor serving commercial,
industrial, office, medical and educational. The variables are useful to help
develop alternatives by understanding what type, where, and how much of the
land uses will the city seek to advance – and how that might be explored
through different strategies.
The Circulation matrix outlines an approach toward the development of transportation,
access and mobility strategies. It
includes program or policy areas, basic variables of the program or policy, and
specific strategies that could be used to increase or enhance the effectiveness
of that type of program or policy, and a listing of priority areas for its
application. The final column of the table suggests that the overall
transportation, access and mobility program supports and underpins effective
resolution of all of the Policy Questions identified as crucial to the
project. They are the tools to make the
circulation system “work.”
Most of the approaches and strategies were identified
and recommended by people who participated in the earlier phases of this
project including, fishbowl voting, transportation surveys, the walkable
community workshop, the bicycle workshop, and the neighborhood traffic workshop.
They also reflect input from people during other related planning efforts and
feedback on existing transportation management policies and programs.
While presented in two separate matrices, it is
understood that land use and circulation are inextricably linked. Transportation, access and mobility strategies and
alternatives will be integrated with land use alternatives and will be applied
and tested along with land use alternatives in the following ways:
·
Land use
strategies reflect advantages of focusing development to limited areas of the
City and not the majority of the City’s existing land area that is currently occupied
by residential neighborhoods. Additionally, the strategies could allow some
people’s homes and jobs to be close to local serving amenities such as
restaurants and schools.
·
Transportation
improvements will be tailored to align with and support projected development
patterns, emphasizing facilities that can provide adequate access to projected
residential, commercial, and community resources even though currently the
system may not be appropriately balanced.
·
Transportation
applications and strategies are variable in their intensity and degree. Testing
phases can suggest levels of intensity that may be necessary to provide for an
adequate, balanced system for each alternative.
In practice, the City will be able to use performance measures and
periodic assessment to identify whether goals are met or resources should be
reallocated to achieve an appropriate balance.
There are other aspects not included in the attached
matrices that must be part of any alternative that is evaluated by the
community. These aspects, or common elements, consistently have had significant
agreement throughout the process and are presented below:
|
·
Historic Preservation: Protect historically
significant buildings and clusters to preserve neighborhood and city
character |
|
·
Building Reuse: Maximize opportunities
to reuse existing structures |
|
·
Sustainability: Incorporate land use
and transportation policy that promotes sustainability |
|
·
Housing: Preserve existing
housing while pursuing objective for diversity. |
|
·
Neighborhoods: Preserve existing
residential character |
|
·
Education: Support educational
opportunities for all Santa Monicans including the needs of schools and
students |
|
·
Open Space: Support goals of Open
Space element, including the concept of all public property as open space
opportunities |
|
·
Public Safety: Reinforce sense of
community through neighborhood safety |
|
·
Childcare: Continue to prioritize
quality early education for children and their families |
|
·
Active Living: Promote healthy communities
through design and programs |
|
·
Arts and Culture: Including support for a
growing creative community |
|
·
Economic Vitality: Including opportunities
for local and community retail |
|
·
Partnerships: Meet community goals
through strong relationships with organizations, including medical and
educational institutions |
|
·
Existing Plans: Accommodate |
|
·
Regional Context: Acknowledge influence
on housing market, economy and travel demand and participate in greater
regional solutions |
|
·
Quality Design: Enhance streetscapes,
commercial and residential areas through quality urban design, including
private property design standards |
|
·
Integrated Land Use and
Transportation: Including connections between existing activities |
Next Steps
Taking into consideration
suggestions and comments received from the Commission and public at this
meeting, staff will develop draft alternatives to be discussed with both the
Commission (December 7) and the City Council (tentatively December 13).
Alternatives, revised as appropriate, will be presented for community-wide
discussion through an Alternatives Workbook, which will be designed as an easy
to absorb public outreach tool and will be available both in hard copy and on
the project websites in late January. Staff plans to use a variety of
channels to distribute this workbook to the community to generate
discussion.
The public outreach approach in
the “Alternatives” phase of the project will follow a broad strategy aimed at
bringing the community together to explore choices and trade-offs. Rather than
staff attendance at individual organizations’ meetings, staff plans to hold a
number of widely-publicized community workshops. A citywide workshop is
planned for Spring 2006, and it is anticipated that there will be a variety of other
workshops revolving around specific topics or focused on a specific
location. Staff will intensify efforts to involve individuals and
organizations that have shown interest in a workshop’s particular topic or
location, in addition to general community-wide publicity.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Planning Commission review
the submitted materials and determine first whether the outlined conceptual approach
to the study alternatives is appropriate as a whole, and what else should be
included or changed. Upon conceptual approval, more specific details will be developed
and presented next month and throughout this phase of the project. In addition, the Planning Commission is
encouraged to review the Common Elements list (above); review the attached
matrices to ensure the right topics and variables are identified, and focus the
discussion on possible strategies for further analysis.
Prepared by: Andy
Agle, Interim Director
Ellen
Gelbard, Assistant Director
Gay
Forbes, Development Services Officer
Amanda
Schachter, Planning Manager
Lucy
Dyke, Transportation Planning Manager
Jonathan
Lait, AICP, Principal Planner
Beth
Rolandson, Senior Transportation Planner
Michelle
Glickert, Transportation Planning Associate
Betsy
Kollgaard, Administrative Analyst
Planning
and Community Development Department
Attachments: Land
Use & Circulation Matrices