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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-06-12 CC Minutes - DZCCITY OF UKIAH CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Downtown Zoning Code Workshop CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBERS 300 Seminary Avenue Ukiah, CA 95482 Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5:30 p.m. 1. ROLL CALL Ukiah City Council met at a Special Meeting on July 12, 2011, the notice for which being legally noticed on July 8, 2011. Mayor Rodin called the meeting to order at 5:35 pm. Roll was taken with the following Councilmembers present: Landis, Thomas, and Mayor Rodin. Councilmembers absent: Councilmembers Crane and Baldwin. Staff present: Planning Director and Community Development Stump, Senior Planner Jordan, and City Clerk Currie. Councilmembers Crane and Baldwin were not present because both have a conflict of interest by owning property within a 300 square feet radius of the DZC boundaries and cannot by law participate in the discussion and/or vote on the matter. Mayor Rodin owns property within a 300 square foot radius of the DZC, but since Council needed to have a quorum, one member of the three with the conflict needed to participate, so there was a selection process between these three Council members and Mayor Rodin was selected to participate. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Special Council Meeting of 5/24/11 M/S-Landis/Thomas to approve minutesof-5/24/1-1, as submitted.—Motion carried -by all AYE voice vote. Absent: Councilmembers Crane and Baldwin. 5. RIGHT TO APPEAL DECISION 6. AUDIENCE COMMENTS ON NON -AGENDA ITEMS Steve Scalmanini commented on how nice it is to have shade downtown because the trees have not been, trimmed severely. 7. WORKSHOP DISCUSSION a. Community Workshop for Discussion of the Proposed Downtown Zoning Code (DZC) Director of Planning and Community Development Stump and Senior Planner Jordan presented the item. Recommended Action(s): Conduct a City Council workshop on the draft Downtown Zoning Code and provide direction to staff on how to proceed. Page 1 of 5 7/12/2011 USES No comments on the following: New/Updated Uses, Community Gardens, Home Occupations, Large Family Daycare, and Standards for Specific Land Uses. Residential Currently, residential dwelling -condominiums are found in the zoning code. The requirements are not consistent with the DZC and staff will need to develop other standards that are consistent with the DZC. Residential Second Unit Councilmember Landis expressed concern over the trash bins and how they are handled. Mary Anne Miller would like to see patterns or sketches of what the downtown would look like and how the DZC works with the existing pattern. Miller likes the existing pattern of alleys and supports people using their feet. Staff responded that design guidelines will accompany the DZC and are currently being developed by the Design Review Board. Don Larson asked if residential live/work and single room occupancy units would apply to the Palace Hotel. Staff responded that live/work and single room occupancy would be allowed at the Palace Hotel. Tasting Rooms 1 Councilmember Landis commented that it appears that DZC creates hurdles for tasting rooms with hours of operation and potential for loitering. Staff stated can bring back ideas for allowing by right tasting rooms on July 25. PARKING Mayor Rodin asked about private parking lots and utilizing existing unused parking; and not -have the requirement of creating new parking. Staff responded section 9.030 Shared Parking Factor addresses shared parking. Mayor Rodin stated she would like the section to say reduction of parking required; that the developer has to use the alternative unless an alternative is not available then parking can be provided on site as part of the project. Staff to develop alternative language and along with number of spaces and will bring back July 25. Pinky Kushner stated the less parking the better and certain uses do not use parking. Staff indicated this would be a significant change in the DZC that had not been previously discussed with property or business owners and suggested engaging the business community in the discussion before moving forward with the change. Page 2 of 5 7/12/2011 Don Larson supports trees in parking lots. Tammy, Quiznos, expressed concern over the existing lack of parking and parking is an issue downtown; people need places to park. New development should provide parking. Pinky Kushner asked if drive-thru services are allowed and if so for what type of business. Staff replied that drive-thru businesses were categorized, the zone and type of business would determine if and where it is allowed. For example, a bank or pharmacy drive-thru is allowed. A restaurant drive-thru is prohibited. A Major Site Development Permit is required for a drive-thru. Still need to determine if the level of site development permit for a drive-thru should be Major or Minor. Regarding Table 14, parking, Mayor Rodin asked for a general reduction in the number of spaces required for some retail, office, restaurant. Consider using 1 space per 500 square feet. Councilmember Landis concurs. Staff to review and bring back suggestions and what other agencies have done. Mary Anne Miller suggested performing a parking space inventory and then deciding where to put additional parking and where to have no parking. She supports the day lighting of Gibson Creek. Staff responded the City has a parking study including an inventory. Parking is spread out and there is more parking than currently needed. City Attorney Rapport left 6:21 pm TREES Councilmember Thomas asked if property values increase if it has a landmark tree. Staff stated Planning Commission discussed this and yes, -property values do increase. Susan Knopf replied the tree advisory group was involved with the tree lists and tree protection requirements during construction. Property owners of landmark trees have not been notified. Staff will include landmark trees as one of the items to be discussed at the July 25th meeting in the public notice sent to property owners. Councilmember Thomas asked if global warming was a consideration given when selecting which trees are appropriate. Susan Knopf replied global warming did come up in tree advisory group. SITE DEVELOPMENT PERMITS Page 3 of 5 7/12/2011 Councilmember Landis expressed concern over sign design and hopes to avoid garish, corporate signs downtown. Landis hopes to have signs that represent Ukiah and its uniqueness. Landis would like to see what DRB proposes. Staff responded that the Design Review Board (DRB) is working on updating sign guidelines and the guidelines are to meet the intent of the DZC. The DZC design guidelines will replace the current Downtown guidelines for parcels located in the boundaries of the DZC. It would be helpful to get City Council's comments regarding signs. Nicholson commented that many sign violations exist in the City. Alan Nicholson, DRB member, spoke regarding the DRB's efforts on the sign permit process and sign guidelines. It is difficult to legislate esthetics. Nicholson asked City Council and staff if the board can work on changing the sign ordinance. Nicholson suggests signs should be scaled to the building size instead of property frontage. Staff responded that the lack of staffing prohibits educating the public and staff does what they can with the available resources. Staff does not recommend changing the sign ordinance until after the DZC is completed. The concern is including a sign ordinance amendment as part of the DZC would result in postponing the DZC based on past experience with attempting to amend the sign ordinance. Councilmember Landis supports limitation of formula fast food but not elimination. She asked if the limitations are part of the DZC and thinks signage is important to include as part of the limitation. Staff will add formula fast food restaurant prohibition to the notice for the July 25 meeting. BOUNDARY LINE ADJUSTMENTS AND SUBDIVISIONS City Council agrees with the Boundary Line Adjustment/Parcel Merger changes, Small Lot Subdivisions, and Subdivision Ordinance topics. BUILDING-OVER-50-YEARS-OLD/HISTORICAL BUILDING-STANDARDS--- City UILDING-STANDARDS - City Council had no comments. OTHER Minimum Density Councilmember Landis commented on a YouTube video quiz on density. Landis is not sure the maximum is high enough and suggests a density bonus. Feels there is more room for conversation. r Staff responded that there is a concern that a higher density would result in traffic impacts as part of the CEQA process. Also, airport has limitations related to density. Staff also responded there may be several ways to address the density concern. Single room occupancy uses can be exempt from density. Affordable housing is already eligible for a density bonus which would allow the project to exceed the maximum density noted in the table. Ideally projects will be mixed use with commercial uses on the ground floor and residential units above. If this is the case, Page 4 of 5 7/12/2011 the noted density is likely adequate. The airport height and density limits make it infeasible to reach the higher density numbers suggested. Sidewalk Widths Director Stump used Perkins street as an example and asked if Council's preference for on street parking or bike lanes? Councilmember Landis and Mayor Rodin avoid biking on Perkins because it is a busy street with many right hand turns by vehicles which are unsafe for bicycles. Mayor Rodin suggested bike and pedestrian path in the middle of Perkins as part of the median. Senior Planner Jordan addressed options for securing of right-of-way for sidewalks and frontage. Mandating right-of-way dedication or easement for sidewalk discussion will continue on July 25. Requirement exists now for minor subdivisions and certain building permits but might want an increase from the current 5 feet. Gene Hoggren stated that density did not work in Chicago, suggested changing the post office to a UPS or other enterprise. Building Height Constructing a one story in a two story volume to be retrofitted later will be discussed July 25. Gene Hoggren does not support two story houses. Alan Nicholson commented that on page 38, architectural standards section 7. Floor Height - Minimum could be a conflict with two story volume. John McCowen thinks the two story volume defeats the DZC purpose. McCowen asked why limit the 20% reduction in parking only to permeable paving because other drainage methods exist. Councilmember Landis reminded staff to look at the General Urban zoning or the parcels located to the west of the Pear Tree shopping center. It seems that this should be Urban Center. 8. ADJOURNMENT July 25, 2011, will be the next DZC workshop. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:45 pm. PA — - ()n D oAnne M. Currie, City Clerk Page 5 of 5 7/12/2011