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Home My WebLink About101-CC Staff Report.pdf 1 SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: October 20, 2010 AGENDA ITEM: DEPARTMENT: Community Development CITY MANAGER: Dave Anderson PREPARED BY: Michael Fossati DIRECTOR: John F. Livingstone, AICP SUBJECT: Adoption of the General Plan Circulation and Scenic Highway Element and conforming amendment to the Open Space and Conservation Element trails map, and a Negative Declaration RECOMMENDED ACTION: Planning Commission recommends the City Council; • Open the public hearing and accept public testimony on the General Plan Amendment; • Close the hearing and deliberate; • Certify the Negative Declaration by Resolution (Attachment 1) and approve the Resolution to adopt the revised General Plan’s Circulation and Scenic Highway Element including a conforming amendment to the Open Space and Conservation Element (Attachment 2). REPORT SUMMARY: The General Plan is a legal, land use policy document that charts the future of the City as expressed by the community. The document consists of goals, policies, action programs, area plans, and basic information regarding the City of Saratoga. The General Plan is composed of seven mandated elements. Those elements are Land Use, Circulation, Housing, Noise, Open Space, Conservation and Safety. This report discusses an update to the Circulation and Scenic Highway Element (Circulation Element) of the City’s General Plan. Although State law does not mandate how often a General Plan element (with the exception of the Housing Element) should be updated, it does require jurisdictions to periodically update their General Plan. The City’s Circulation Element was previously updated in 2000. The Circulation Element is a policy document that acts as a long-range traffic management plan and is intended to assess existing traffic conditions and develop goals and policies to address any changed conditions. This update to the Circulation Element also allows the City to address any new California legal requirements pertaining to circulation elements. The update to the Circulation Element includes the following: • Updates to descriptive information regarding transportation policy. • Clarification of existing policies. • Changes to the bicycle facilities maps to reclassify or remove certain existing bike routes. 2 • Identify new bike routes, bike lanes, and bike trails. • Demonstrate future bike routes and conceptual alignments of proposed future bike trails. The update also includes a conforming map amendment to the City’s Open Space and Conservation Element (Open Space Element). This amendment will create consistent trail maps between the Circulation Element and Open Space Element. The update will not result in physical changes or new construction of roadways, routes, lanes, or trails within the City. An Initial Study and subsequent Negative Declaration have been prepared for this Circulation Element update pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines. The initial study concluded that the Circulation Element update will not result in significant adverse impacts on the environment. Public Hearings The following public hearings were scheduled to review the Circulation Element update. The meetings included discussion with the Pedestrian, Equestrian, Bicycle, and Trails Advisory Committee (PEBTAC), Traffic Safety Committee (TSC), Planning Commission and City Council. The dates of these meetings and topics of discussion were as follows: October 15, 2008 – City Council considered proposed amendments regarding designations of the bicycle facilities map within the Circulation Element. The Council accepted public testimony and directed staff to consult further with PEBTAC to explore alternatives to the proposed amendments. April 15, 2009 – City Council provided direction to Staff to move forward with the process of incorporating the proposed bicycle map into an updated Circulation Element. February 17, 2010 – City Council meeting to authorize the Fehr and Peers to prepare the update to the Circulation Element. May 13, 2010 – Joint meeting between PEBTAC and TSC to review the Draft Circulation Element’s proposed goals, programs, and policies. September 8, 2010 - The Planning Commission recommended approval to the City Council of a Negative Declaration and an Update to the General Plan Element, including an amendment to the trails map within the Open Space and Conservation Element. The Planning Commission also recommended that both the proposed Village Trail lengthened approximately one-quarter mile west past Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and that comments from the VTA be incorporated. VTA recommended minor changes to the text of certain portions of the Draft Element. A matrix detailing the questions and comments has been added to this staff report as Attachment 3. Environmental Review The public review period for the Negative Declaration and the Draft Circulation Element began on July 26, 2010 and ended on August 26, 2010. Staff did not receive comments on the Negative Declaration. Staff did receive minor comments from the City of Campbell, the Valley Transportation Agency (VTA) and Caltrans on the Circulation Element. 3 OPEN SPACE/CONSERVATION ELEMENT UPDATE: A component of a General Plan Element update is to ensure that other elements within the General Plan are consistent. Staff and PEBTAC determined that the trails map located in the Open Space Element were different than the trails map within the Circulation Element. It was demonstrated that trail facilities in the Open Space trails map were either misrepresented or in different locations than the trail facilities in the Circulation Element trails map. Once the trail locations were confirmed, Staff worked with PEBTAC to verify that both the Circulation Element trails map and the Open Space trails map were identical with one another. The updated trails maps for the Circulation and Open Space Elements are included as Attachment 4 and 5. FISCAL IMPACTS: The approved contract amount with Fehr and Peers to prepare the Circulation Element was $14,000. No additional fiscal impact is anticipated from this project. As a General Plan document, the Circulation Element does not specifically commit the City to programs that have a financial impact in regard to the current budget. CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FOLLOWING RECOMMENDED ACTION: The Circulation Element update would not be adopted and the current Circulation Element would remain in effect. Maps within the Circulation Element would remain unchanged, including the bicycle facilities map that designates Mt. Eden Road, Pierce Road, and sections of Big Basin Way as existing bicycle routes. The existing trails map within the Circulation Element and the Open Space Element would remain inconsistent. ALTERNATIVE ACTION: • Continue this item and direct staff and consultants to revise the Circulation Element, or • Do not approve the Circulation Element update. This will leave the existing Circulation Element as the City’s land use regulatory document. FOLLOW UP ACTION: None required. ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT: The public participation component of the project is described on page 2-3 of the Circulation Element. A public notice of the Circulation Element update and the Negative Declaration was sent to all adjoining jurisdictions, all regional traffic management agencies, all tribal agencies and school districts within the City’s jurisdiction, the Santa Clara County Recorder’s office and the State Clearinghouse. A copy of the agenda packet is also made available at the Saratoga Branch Library each Monday in advance of the Council meeting and residents may subscribe to the agenda on-line by opting in at www.saratoga.ca.us. Notice of this meeting was properly posted and published in the Saratoga News on October 5, 2010. 4 ATTACHMENTS: 1. Resolution to adopt an Initial Study/Negative Declaration with the following attachment: a. Initial Study/Negative Declaration (without Attachment A, included below as Attachment 2a) 2. Resolution to adopt the Circulation and Scenic Highway Element with the following attachment: a. Draft Circulation and Scenic Highway Element 3. Matrix of Summary Responses from Public Comments a. E-mail from City of Campbell b. E-mail from PEBTAC c. Letter from VTA d. Letter from Caltrans 4. Trails Map – Circulation and Scenic Highway Element 5. Trails Map – Open Space and Conservation Element (includes previous map with change items and proposed map) 6. Staff Report – Planning Commission Meeting – Sept. 8, 2010