COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

 

PLANNING AND BUILDING DEPARTMENT

 

DATE:

September 25, 2007

BOARD MEETING DATE:

October 16, 2007

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

 

FROM:

Lisa Grote, Director of Community Development

 

SUBJECT:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Consideration of adoption of a resolution in support of the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County’s application for Priority Development Area status for the El Camino Real corridor.

 

RECOMMENDATION

Adopt a resolution expressing County support of the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG) of San Mateo County’s FOCUS application for Priority Development Area (PDA) status for the El Camino Real corridor (“the corridor”).

 

VISION ALIGNMENT

Commitment: Offer a full range of housing choices; redesign our urban environment to increase vitality, expand variety, and reduce congestion.

 

Goals 9, 10, 11, 12: Housing should exist for all income levels and for all generations of families; public transportation choices should be convenient, affordable, accessible and safe; new housing should be clustered with jobs and commercial services along transportation corridors; and land use decisions should consider transportation and other infrastructure needs as well as impacts on the environment and on surrounding communities.

 

The FOCUS/PDA program emphasizes infill and transit-oriented development. The intent of the program is to afford areas granted PDA status priority for state and federal planning and capital improvement funding sources for infill and transit-oriented development. The El Camino corridor is a major transportation route through San Mateo County, and the availability of funding for areas along the corridor would help make public transportation more convenient, affordable and accessible to residents located along the corridor; would help cluster new housing and other development along this corridor; would take into consideration transportation and infrastructure needs; and by prioritizing clustered development, would limit impacts of development on the environment.

 

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

C/CAG has submitted an application for PDA status for a ¼-mile area along the length of the corridor throughout the entirety of San Mateo County. The PDA application process is part of ABAG’s FOCUS program. Areas designated as PDAs are eligible for priority state and federal funding sources for infill and transit-oriented development, including funding for planning and capital improvement. Designation of the El Camino corridor is consistent with the County’s housing, transportation, and environmental policies and goals. Passage of a resolution in support of the application would express the County’s support for these goals and support for prioritization of the El Camino corridor as an appropriate location for infill and transit-oriented development, and would improve the application’s chance of approval.

 

FISCAL IMPACT

 

The proposed project would have no direct fiscal impact on the County. In principle, the FOCUS/PDA program’s intent to incentivize higher density development along transportation and transit corridors might result in greater property tax base for the County, depending on the resultant amount of development realized. The project’s fiscal impact on the County would be positive or neutral.