From winterety at sbcglobal.net Fri Jul 30 08:35:48 2004 From: winterety at sbcglobal.net (sheryl lynn gerety) Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:35:48 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] City Council, 27 July 2004 Message-ID: <217600A7-E23E-11D8-90C1-00039370746A@sbcglobal.net> 29 July 2004 Old North Neighbors: Here is a quick summary of what happened at the City Council meeting this last Tuesday, 27 July. Recall, there were two items on the agenda of immediate interest to us because they challenged the Residential Design Guideliness that cover Old East, Old North and University/Rice Lane. The first was a development of four rental units with a total of 10-12 bedrooms on two adjacent K Street lots (Old East). That project would replace two bungalows. The second was a development of four single-family homes, replacing a single cottage on a single small lot, on B street (University/Rice Lane). Council rejected the K Street project without prejudice, on a 3:2 vote (Asmundsen, Greenlaw, and Sousa against; Puntillo and Saylor in favor), meaning that it could be reconsidered within the next several months. With Greenlaw recused because her Rice lane home is within 500 ft of the proposed B Street project, Council split 2:2 on that development (Asmundsen and Sousa voting no; Puntillo and Saylor voting yes). Because the B Street project would require that Council pass a single-lot zoning exceptions to proceed, it is effectively stymied by the tie vote. There was considerable, organized opposition to these particular projects, but not necessarily to appropriate in-fill, from the neighborhoods, including Old North. That opposition and divided reports from City Staff and the Planning Commission forced Council Members to recognize that ?in-fill,? which everyone seems to endorse in theory, is not well-defined or governed in practice. For the most part, then, Council members publicly justified their negative votes on these projects by the need to think seriously what constitutes appropriate ?in-fill? for the DG neighborhoods, so to be fair and consistent to residents, developers, potential residents, etc. In both cases, Council directed staff to work with a subcommittee of Council members to get a better handle on the situation. This probably will happen more quickly than not, due to a sense of urgency and not a little impatience, especially on the part of those pushing these and other pending projects. The developers also are organized and are not hesitating to make their views known. Council members appeared not to recall, or if newly elected not to know, that they also in January had directed staff to work with the neighborhood organizations on the Guidelines and questions about R2-CD zoning. After the meeting, I sent them all a copy of that resolution and the unanimous roll call vote in its favor. I want to thank everyone who came out to express an opinion, whether or not you got a chance to speak (Mayor Asmundsen limited public commentary severely). Special kudos to Dennis for the ?We have a Plan -- In-Fill and Preservation? name tags. Once again, it is clear that we must be present and vocal, in numbers, to be heard. These issues have not gone away; they are, rather tenuously, on hold for a short while. We will have to be ready to participate vigorously in the discussions that try to resolve how the City Council is going to define in-fill appropriate for our neighborhoods. Bruce Winterhalder President, ONDNA Here is the letter the ONDNA Board presented to Council: 27 July 2004 Members of the Davis City Council: We, the Board of Directors of the Old North Davis Neighborhood Asssociation, wish tonight to make two points: first, we support residential infill; second, we oppose the project proposed for 233 B Street. We and other residents of Old North reviewed and discussed the Staff report and the July 7, 2004 Planning Commission hearing on this project at our July 22nd meeting. First, the "Downtown and Traditional Residential Neighborhood Design Guidelines and Overlay District," or ?Design Guidelines,? were developed as part of a multi-year public process involving hundreds of citizens. Their goal is not to isolate and fossilize our neighborhoods, but to promote development that reinforces their strengths and respects their residential diversity, scale and unique historical character. Indeed, infill projects have gone forward in and around Old North since adoption of the Guidelines (see attached list). Most of these proceeded uncontested; a few involved working out compromises among neighbors. Our first point, then, is this: in-fill consistent with the Design Guildelines is happening and it works. Second, the City staff report on the B Street project found it to be inconsistent with multiple elements of zoning (PD2-86A), the Core Area Specific Plan (CASP), and the Design Guidelines. The Planning Commission did not contest these negative evaluations; nonetheless they voted narrowly in their meeting to approve the 233 B Street project. At least once it was said in that meeting that infill development is impeded under the Design Guidelines; thus, a new vision is needed. That conclusion is simply incorrect; moreover, it is dangerous. Single-lot zoning in support of infill that decisively violates the CASP, zoning codes and the Design Guidelines sets a precedent that threatens all of us with piecemeal development driven by speculation. Thus, our second point: we urge you to reject this and any project so decisively inconsistent with multple City planning documents, including the Design Guidelines. In conclusion, we affirm our support of the Design Guidelines. We endorse and document in-fill consistent with them. And finally, we plead that you support City Staff, deny these projects, and join with us in promoting in-fill that is worthy of the City?s reputation for democratic, coherent and progressive planning. Signed by Bruce Winterhalder (President), and the Board Members, Daniel Braunschweig, Dennis Dingemanns, Dan Quickert, Steve Tracy, Andrew Wallace, Angela Willson, Old North Davis Neighborhood Assocation. Partial list of projects recently approved or completed in or near Old North under the auspices of the Traditional Neighborhood Design Guidelines. 616 B Street 2nd story addition (Maria Ogrdziak Architect) 626 B Street Addition 602 C Street New second unit (Scott Neeley & Associates Architecture) 518 D Street Relocated home onto existing lot as 2nd 617 D Street New second unit (Scott Neeley & Associates Architecture) 508 E Street 2nd story addition (Scott Neeley & Associates Architecture) 616 E Street New second unit (Scott Neeley & Associates Architecture) 618 E Street New second unit (Scott Neeley & Associates Architecture) 622 / 630 E Street Renovation 637 E Street Addition (Clay Johnson Design) 613 F Street Renovation unknown 530 F Street New second unit (Kevin Fong Design) Bruce Winterhalder -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 6993 bytes Desc: not available URL: