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. |