COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

 

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES AGENCY

 

DATE:

March 14, 2005

BOARD MEETING DATE:

March 29, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

10 day notice

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

 

FROM:

Marcia Raines, Director of Environmental Services

 

SUBJECT:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Consideration of Midcoast Local Coastal Program (LCP) Update Project

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

Take tentative action on the LCP and zoning amendments for the topics described in the main staff report.

 

VISION ALIGNMENT

 

Commitment: Redesign our urban environment to increase vitality and reduce congestion. Preserve and provide access to our natural environment.

 

Goals: (12) Land use decisions consider transportation, infrastructure demand and environmental impacts. (13) The boundary between open space and development is fixed to protect the quality of the natural environment.

 

The proposal contributes to these commitments and goals, by (1) lowering the Midcoast growth rate limit, (2) initiating comprehensive lot merger to preserve the community’s planned buildout, (3) ensuring that small houses are built on small parcels, (4) protecting neighborhood commercial opportunities, (5) promoting open space and recreation uses for an obsolete roadway alignment, and (6) strengthening water runoff limits to reduce environmental degradation.

 

BACKGROUND

 

The intent of the Midcoast LCP Update Project is to update and revise land use policy affecting the unincorporated Midcoast with the aim of averting development permit appeals and improving Coastal Act consistency. The project has included numerous community workshops, followed by 15 Planning Commission hearings to review and refine project proposals.

 

On January 25, 2005, your Board approved a project review process that includes a study session followed by four public hearings. The third public hearing will occur on March 29.

 

On February 15, and March 8, 2005, your Board tentatively approved some of the topics being considered, and deferred action on the others pending additional staff research.

 

For the March 29, 2005, meeting, your Board will consider the following topics:

 

h

Annual limit on new residential development

h

Use of “Devil’s Slide” bypass land

h

Highway 1 pedestrian improvements

h

Coastal Trail policies and Midcoast trail descriptions

h

County response to LCP assigned tasks

h

Codify Coastal Act sections as LCP policy

h

LCP policy conflicts and ambiguous provisions

h

Midcoast Design Review glossary

   

SUMMARY

 

The key Planning Commission recommended amendments being discussed at the March 29, 2005, meeting are:

 

1.

Lower the annual limit on new houses from 125 per year to 1% of the Midcoast population, not to exceed 52 units, and distribute this amount among the Midcoast communities according to the relative number of vacant parcels.

   

2.

Change the land use designation and rezone three portions of the Caltrans’ owned Devil’s Slide bypass property from Very Low Density Residential (RM-CZ) and Medium Density Residential (R-1/S-17) to Open Space (COSC).

   

FISCAL IMPACT

 

Reducing the residential growth rate limit could reduce annual building and planning permit revenues. Otherwise, there would be no additional cost to the County to implement the proposals discussed in the main report.