COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Planning and Building Department

DATE:

April 26, 2010

BOARD MEETING DATE:

May 11, 2010

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

10-Day Notice

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Jim Eggemeyer, Interim Director of Community Development

SUBJECT:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Consideration of modifications proposed by the Coastal Commission to the County’s Zoning and Local Coastal Program (LCP) amending the residential design standards in the unincorporated Midcoast.

RECOMMENDATION

1.

Adopt a resolution accepting Coastal Commission suggested modifications to the County’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) and Zoning Regulations amendments modifying Residential Design Standards in the Midcoast, and directing staff to transmit resolutions to the Coastal Commission for certification.

2.

Adopt a resolution approving amendments to the San Mateo County Local Coastal Program Visual Resources Component to enact new Design Standards for One-Family and Two-Family Residential Development in the Midcoast.

3.

Adopt an ordinance amending San Mateo County Ordinance Code (Zoning Annex) Chapter 28.1 to enact the “Design Standards for One-Family and Two-Family Residential Development in the Midcoast.”

BACKGROUND

County Planning staff is recommending that your Board accept modifications proposed by the Coastal Commission at its December 10, 2009 public hearing, to the County’s proposed Zoning and Local Coastal Program (LCP) amendments for residential design standards in the urban Midcoast, which had been previously approved by your Board on April 20, 2004. The proposed amendments will go into effect if your Board approves the modifications proposed by the Coastal Commission, and if the Coastal Commission then determines that the County’s approval is legally adequate.

DISCUSSION

In April 2004, your Board approved amendments to the County’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) Visual Resources Component Policies as well as to the Zoning Regulations. The purpose of these amendments was to establish new design review standards for one- and two-family residential development in the urban Midcoast. On December 10, 2009, the Coastal Commission proposed modifications to these amendments. The amendments will go into effect if your Board accepts the modifications, and the Coastal Commission then finds that the County’s approval is legally adequate.

During the course of the preparation of the report to the Coastal Commission regarding this matter, San Mateo County staff worked with Coastal Commission staff to resolve outstanding issues on the proposed modifications. The two staffs were able to reach agreement on all but one proposed modification, which County staff then addressed orally at the December 10, 2009 Coastal Commission hearing.

For the most part, the modifications are clarifications in language that Coastal Commission staff thought important and do not materially change the policy intent or substance of the amendment. In several other instances, the changes proposed by the Coastal Commission were minor and acceptable to County staff. However, Suggested Modification #10 would require that landscaping be drought-tolerant, and either native or non-invasive, and would prohibit plants deemed invasive, problematic, or noxious.

County staff did not fully agree with the part of Suggested Modification #10 that required all landscaping to be drought-tolerant, as this would have precluded the planting of non-drought-tolerant fruit and vegetable gardens, flowers, and other landscaping. At the Coastal Commission hearing, County staff addressed this concern to the Coastal Commission, and the Coastal Commission added language that specifically excluded fruit and vegetable gardens from the requirement for drought-tolerant landscaping. County staff remains concerned that an outright prohibition on non-drought-tolerant landscaping is unnecessary and potentially problematic, especially because it would be difficult to enforce. However, the language added by the Coastal Commission does address part of this concern, and staff recognizes the many years of effort and varying points of view that went into this amendment, and therefore recommends accepting all of the Coastal Commission’s modifications as proposed.

Livable Communities 2025 Shared Vision: The proposed amendment will establish new design review standards for one-family and two-family residential development in the urban Midcoast, promoting the vision of livable communities.

County Counsel has reviewed and approved the resolutions and ordinance as to form and content.

FISCAL IMPACT

It is not anticipated that this proposed action would have any fiscal impact.