A planned-development overlay district that would ease standards for some projects and encourage high-quality design won final approval Tuesday from the Grover Beach City Council, and will become effective in 30 days.

The district covers the West Grand Avenue commercial corridor roughly between Ramona Avenue on the north and Rockaway Avenue on the south, from Oak Park Boulevard to Highway 1.

Under the ordinance, approved on a 4-1 vote, concessions could be granted for projects that meet at least one of three criteria:

n A mixed-use project designates 25 percent of the residential units as affordable to very-low- and low-income households.

n The project achieves at least a 30 percent increase in energy efficiency over the minimum required by the California Code of Regulations Title 24.

n The project provides and maintains an amenity available for public use and access, such as a plaza, park or public art display.

Concessions that could be granted include reducing front-, rear- and side-yard setbacks; increasing the residential floor area ratio in mixed-use projects; reducing on-site parking requirements; and increasing building heights for affordable housing projects with units for very-low- and low-income residents.

Advertisement

The council debated two of the three criteria and considered making changes to them.

Councilman Bill Nicolls said the requirement for a public amenity such as a “park or plaza” would not apply to 90 percent of the developments because of the small lot sizes throughout most the overlay district.

But planning manager Diana Gould-Wells said the required size of the public amenity would be left to the staff's interpretation of what would be appropriate for the size of a given project.

She said an amenity for a small project could be just a public bench.

Nicolls also said the energy-efficiency requirement could be too costly and might discourage developers, and he suggested cutting the level to 15 percent.

“It could be an expensive proposition for most developers and builders, and I don't want to burden them with that expense if it will cut down on the number of projects,” he said.

But Gould-Wells said 30 percent is a “middle of the road” level that's used in similar ordinances passed by other jurisdictions.

And Arroyo Grande developer Tom Murray said it's important for projects to adhere to high design standards, and he recommended keeping the 30 percent level.

“You want projects that have high aesthetic value in the built environment,” Murray said. “I think that's critical for this community.”

Councilman Steve Lieberman agreed: “There's a clear expectation a project (that's granted the concessions) would not be a run-of-the-mill project.”

Councilman Chuck Ashton said he was concerned that changes made to the ordinance Tuesday would require it to be brought back twice more for approval, which could delay its implementation by another 30 days.

“What troubles me is we went through this and thought we had it worked out,” Ashton said, noting the discussion Tuesday marked the third attempt to approve the ordinance.

Mayor John Shoals cast the dissenting vote on the ordinance because he wanted some clarification in it about the scale of public amenities relative to the size of a project.

He also worried about the cost of increasing energy efficiency to 30 percent beyond Title 24 requirements.

“I want this (ordinance) done right,” he told the council. “The last thing I would like to do is have this be a disincentive (for developers).”

February 22, 2008