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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2 - Staff Report Item: ___2___ Meeting Date: 9/25/19 ITEM TITLE: Public Hearing: Consideration of a Design Review Permit (DR19-0024) for a mixed-use project comprised of 237 multi-family units, 15,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor commercial, a 5-level parking structure, recreation area, and associated open space on approximately 5 acres located in the Otay Ranch Freeway Commercial North, Lot 6. Applicant: Baldwin & Sons SUBMITTED BY: Caroline Young, Associate Planner REVIEWED BY: Kelly G. Broughton, FSALA, Director of Development Services INTRODUCTION The Applicant has submitted a Design Review application for approval of a mixed-use project comprised of 237 multi-family units, 15,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor commercial, a 5-level parking structure, recreation area, and associated open space on approximately 5 acres located in the Otay Ranch Freeway Commercial North, Lot 6 (see Locator Map, Attachment 1). ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW The Director of Development Services has reviewed the Project for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and determined that the Project was covered by previously adopted FEIR 02-04 and Second Addendum to FEIR 02-04. Thus, no further environmental review is required. RECOMMENDATION: That the Planning Commission adopt Resolution DR19-0024 to allow construction of a 237-unit mixed-use project on Lot 6, based on the findings and subject to the conditions contained therein. DISCUSSION: Project Site Characteristics: The 5-acre vacant project site is located in the eastern portion of Freeway Commercial North within the MU (Mixed-Use) District, on a vacant parcel. The project site is bordered by Olympic Pkwy on the north, Town Center Drive on the west, and Promenade Street on the east and south. Planning Commission September 25, 2019 DR19-0024 Page No. 2 Summary of Surrounding Land Uses General Plan Zoning Current Land Use Site: Freeway Commercial R/MU, C/MU Vacant East: Freeway Commercial H and P Hotels and future public park South: Freeway Commercial MU Vacant, Future Multi-Family Res. West: Freeway Commercial RM-1, RM-2 Existing Residential, Village 6 Project Description Project Description: The project consists of one lot and a private street along the southeast edge of the site. The development consists of one 4 to 5-story building with 15,000 square feet of commercial along Town Center Drive and 237 residential units wrapping around a 5-story parking structure. There is direct access to residential units from each level of the parking garage through interior corridors. The apartment unit mix is comprised of 32 studios, 117 one-bedroom, and 88 two-bedroom units. There are two different floor plans for a studio, five floor plans for a one-bedroom, and six floor plans for a two-bedroom unit. Each unit has a minimum 60 sq. ft. balcony The Project meets the required open space and parking for the site. Private open space is provided by balconies at each residential unit. Common open space is provided by several courtyard areas, private mini parks, a swimming pool, a dog park, a tot lot, and a project entry park area. There are several vehicle and pedestrian accesses on and off the site. Two vehicular garage entrances are located off of Promenade St. Ground floor commercial is located along Town Center Drive. This building also includes a leasing office. The building has elevators and trash chutes. Compliance with Development Standards The following Project Data Table shows Freeway Commercial SPA development regulations along with the Applicant’s proposal to meet said requirements: Assessor’s Parcel Number: 643-021-03-00 Current Zoning: R/MU and C/MU General Plan Designation Freeway Commercial Lot Area: 5 acres PARKING REQUIRED: PARKING PROPOSED: Residential Residential 1.5 space per studio (x 32 units) 1.5 spaces per 1-bed (x 117 units) Regular spaces: 393 2.0 spaces per 2-bedroom (88 units) Accessible spaces: 8 Includes guest ratio in above. Total: 400 spaces Total: 401 spaces Planning Commission September 25, 2019 DR19-0024 Page No. 3 Commercial: Commercial: To be determined at Design Review. 4 spaces per 1,000 sq. ft. of commercial Regular spaces: 64 (x 15,000 sq. ft) Accessible spaces: 3 Total: 60 spaces Total: 67 parking spaces Setbacks/Height REQUIRED: Setbacks/Height PROPOSED: Front: Subject to Design Review Front: Setback along Olympic Pkwy and Side: Subject to Design Review Eastlake Pkwy: 18’ Rear: Subject to Design Review Side: Setback along Town Center Drive: 25’ Height: 65’ Max for main building 75’ Max for building features* Height * M ay exceed maximum height with Design 46’-5” (61”-7” top of tower) at Olympic Review approval. Pkwy. And Promenade St. 70’ (79’-8” top of tower) at Town Center Dr. at Olympic Pkwy 63’-4” (84’-8” top of tower) at Town Center Dr. and Promenade St. OPEN SPACE REQUIRED: OPEN SPACE PROPOSED: Common Useable: Common Useable: 200 sq. ft. per unit x 237 units 50,645 sq. ft. Total common space required: 47,400sq. ft. (213 sq. ft. per unit) Private Useable: Private Useable: 60 sq. ft. per unit x 237 units Total private space required: 14,220sq. ft. 15,337 sq. ft. (avg. 65 sq. ft. per unit) ANALYSIS: Compliance with Freeway Commercial SPA Design Guidelines Staff is utilizing the Otay Ranch Freeway Commercial SPA Planned Community District Regulations as amended in 2016 and adopted by Ordinance No. 3376 and the Freeway Commercial North Master Precise Plan adopted by Resolution No. 2016-187 to evaluate this project. The applicable design criteria are first presented in italics followed by staff discussion, analysis and staff recommendation in non-italics. Site Planning and Building Placement/Orientation:  Encourage multi-modal street design. Enhance the pedestrian and cyclist experience.  Create courtyards and paseos, extending the park experience across Town Center Drive to enhance pedestrian connections and provide a variety of places for people to socialize and enjoy nature.  Neighborhood streets should promote a social street life experience.  Angled parking along Town Center Drive. Planning Commission September 25, 2019 DR19-0024 Page No. 4  Well defined pedestrian circulation with pedestrian connection to nearby transit station. Project design follows the above criteria. To encourage multi-modal design, Town Center Drive is designed to provide sharrow markings connecting the project to the existing bike lane route along Olympic Parkway. Back-in diagonal parking along Town Center Drive prioritizes pedestrian and bicyclist safety and slows down traffic. The project is providing a secure onsite bike storage facility. Pedestrian and cyclist experience is enhanced with pedestrian-friendly features along the streets, such as tree-lined landscape parkways, hardscape with pavers in special locations and tree wells to buffer pedestrian sidewalks; setbacks to promote a pedestrian-oriented environment; pedestrian-scale facade features on sidewalk-fronting buildings such as horizontal components, overhangs, facade detail, display areas, and pedestrian seating along ground floor commercial frontage. Streets include pedestrian-scale lighting in addition to street light poles and street trees. Pedestrian breezeways are provided through the building in key locations to facilitate pedestrian connections. Connection to local bus stations is provided via a direct route along Town Center Drive to the bus stop on Olympic Parkway and via Promenade Street to the bus stop on Eastlake Parkway. Connection to the BRT Park & Ride station is provided via Town Center Drive, and along a palm tree-line pedestrian walkway through Otay Ranch Town Center mall. The innovative type of building, the so-called “Texas wrap” intrinsically encourages pedestrian activity through the nature of its building configuration. Since the parking structure cannot be seen from the street and greatly reduces surface parking, the project has an increased visual appeal and safety (i.e. minimizing pedestrian and vehicular conflict). Additionally, this style of architecture encourages pedestrian activity through a mix of uses, higher density and enhanced pedestrian- oriented design. Architectural Theme: • Buildings shall use simple massing forms that convey solid construction techniques. The design of all front or pedestrian-oriented building elevations shall clearly convey a distinct base, middle, and cornice feature.  Building massing shall be broken up subtly into smaller units to engage the streetscape with pedestrian-scaled features.  Elevations shall be articulated to reduce the box-like appearance and visual impact of repetitive rooflines.  In larger buildings or groups of buildings, massing shall be accented with pronounced horizontal or vertical massing features. This may include a tower element, vertical stair element, horizontal colonnade or horizontal succession of porches or trellis features, a colonnade, projecting eaves, accented vertical parapet or offset parapets, or similar design features.  Large, uninterrupted wall planes are prohibited. Where entries, windows, glazing, or other articulating features are not feasible, elevations shall be broken up with the use of wall plane offsets, change in materials, and/or change in color. Planning Commission September 25, 2019 DR19-0024 Page No. 5 The project design meets the requirements above. The proposed building on the site will take on an aesthetic of abstract Spanish with elements of contemporary California, which identifies with a lively urban lifestyle, but still rooted in history. Architectural elements such as awnings, balconies, and trellises are appended to the building for interest and reducing mass. The building will employ mostly exterior plaster but accented with wood siding of various hues and finishes to add interest. Furthermore, in order to avoid a monolithic building of the same continuous height, the building is topped with gable and hipped roof elements adjacent to flat, parapet roofs, adding to the contemporary nature of the style. The proposed building embodies the mixed-use element of the project with a more “Irving Gill” inspired architecture, incorporating clean lines, varied roof elements, and arches. The area fronting Town Center Drive will be lined with retail function, with accent materials such as stone and wood siding materials, and a continuous storefront facade. The proposed building is composed of ground floor retail serving the local residents and visitors, and 4 and 5 stories of multi-family residential units above. The design features include: • Primary enhanced architectural elements located at the corner of Town Center Drive and Olympic parkway. • A park/plaza space, along with a secondary enhanced architectural element at the corner of Town Center Drive Promenade Street. • Special architectural enhanced facades along Town Center Drive. • Enhanced architectural elements at the corner of Promenade St. and Olympic Parkway. Parking: See Project Data Table above. The project meets its accessible parking requirement of 3 American Disabilities Act (ADA) spaces for commercial parking, and 8 ADA spaces for residential parking. Open Space: The Freeway Commercial SPA regulations do not specifically call out Open Space requirement for the Mixed-Use district. Using the standard multi-family ratio of 200 sq. ft. of Common Usable Open Space per unit, the project would require 47,400 sq. ft. of Common Usable Open Space for 237 units; a total of 50,497 sq. ft. is provided. Using the ratio of 60 sq. ft. of Private Open Space per unit, the project would require 14,220 sq. ft.; a total of 15,337 sq. ft. of private open space is provided. Storage: Although the project is proposed as apartments, which has no storage space requirement, the project provides storage space that exceeds condominiums standards. For studio and one-bedroom units, the required storage space for a condominium is 150 cubic feet (cu. ft.); the project provides 202-364 and 189-287 cu. ft., respectively. For two-bedroom units, the storage requirement is 200 cu. ft. and the project provides 440 cu. ft. of condominium storage space. Planning Commission September 25, 2019 DR19-0024 Page No. 6 CONCLUSION The proposed 237-unit/15,000 SF commercial mixed-use development is permitted in the Mixed Use Residential/Commercial (MU) District of the Freeway Commercial SPA Plan. The proposal complies with the policies, guidelines and design standards for the Freeway Commercial Design Plan, as well as the Freeway Commercial North Master Precise Plan. Therefore, staff recommends the Planning Commission approve Design Review Permit, DR19-0024, to construct a 237-unit mixed-use development with 15,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial, a parking garage, active and passive recreation areas, and associated open space on approximately 5 acres, subject to the conditions listed in the attached Resolution. DECISION-MAKER CONFLICTS Staff has reviewed the property holdings of the Planning Commission members and has found no property holdings within 1,000 feet of the boundaries of the property which is the subject of this action. Consequently, this item does not represent a disqualifying real property-related financial conflict of interest under California Code of Regulations Title 2, section 18702.2(a)(7) or (8), for purposes of the Political Reform Act (Cal. Gov. Code section 87100 et seq.). Staff is not independently aware, nor has staff been informed by any Planning Commission member, of any other fact that may constitute a basis for a decision-maker conflict of interest in this matter. FISCAL IMPACT All cost incurred processing this application and preparing this report are borne by the Applicant, resulting in not net fiscal impact to the General Fund or Development Services Fund. Attachments 1. Locator Map 2. Planning Commission Resolution DR19-0024 3. Disclosure Statement 4. Project Plans (via flash drive)