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HomeMy WebLinkAbout101-Advance Planning Activities.pdf SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: June 20, 2007 AGENDA ITEM: ORIGINATING DEPT: Community Development CITY MANAGER: Dave Anderson PREPARED BY: John F. Livingstone, AICP, Com. Dev. Dir. DEPT HEAD: John F. Livingstone SUBJECT: Community Development Department’s Advance Planning Activities RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: Direct staff accordingly. REPORT SUMMARY: At the May 2, 2007 City Council meeting the Council directed staff to bring back a report on the prioritization of ordinances including the proposed ordinance prohibiting blighted property and the Guidelines and Standards for Land Use Near Streams. On May 16, 2007 staff brought back the report, but due to the late hour the item was continued to this meeting. BACKGROUND: At a Study Session on March 2, 2007 the City Council directed staff to start work on updating the sign ordinance, the fence ordinance, and the Housing Element of the General Plan. Prior to this the Planning Commission met at a Study Session to provide the City Council with their nd recommendation. Since the March 2 meeting, the additional policy issues noted above have been brought to the Council’s attention. This report describes staff’s current plans for nd implementing Council direction from the March 2 meeting and presents information regarding the costs and time required to process the additional matters and includes discussion from the th May 16 meeting which includes the proposed Newsrack Ordinance, Story Poles and Noticing. CURRENT WORK PROGRAM: Staff has included work on the Housing Element, sign ordinance and fence ordinance in the proposed 2007-08 budget and expects to proceed with these items as follows: Housing Element The first phase of the project will be to consult with the City Council regarding the overall approach to the Housing Element (e.g., retain major policies and update only to the extent necessary to comply with state law or engage in a comprehensive policy review and update) and direction on the recommended form of community involvement such as an Ad Hoc Committee with appointed citizens or the Planning Commission. Based on this direction staff would start AdvancePlanningWorkProgram June20,2007 Page2 the RFQ process to look for a qualified consultant, obtain Council approval of the consultant contract and proceed with the update in the manner directed by the Council. The expected time line to update the Housing Element would be approximately one to two years depending on the policy issues, extent of community involvement, and nature of comments from the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Sign Ordinance Staff plans to bring a report to initiate the sign ordinance update to Council in August and receive direction from Council on the recommended form of community involvement. Staff expects the sign ordinance will take approximately one year to complete. Fence Ordinance Staff plans to bring a report to initiate the fence ordinance update to Council in September and receive direction from Council on the recommended form of community involvement. The fence ordinance would take approximately 6 months to complete. SUPPLEMENTAL WORK PROGRAM: The current draft of the proposed budget currently does not contemplate work on General Plan amendments or zoning ordinance updates beyond those included in the Current Work Program described above. The work program for the additional ordinances would be as follows: Blighted Property Ordinance – This ordinance would take approximately 6 months to complete and would involve a level of effort comparable to that expected for the fence ordinance. Guidelines and Standards for Land Use near Streams – This ordinance would take approximately one year to complete but could take more depending on the level of detail to be included in the ordinance and the nature of environmental review that is performed. News Rack Ordinance – This ordinance would take approximately 6 months to complete and would involve a level of effort comparable to blight ordinance. Story Pole Ordinance - This ordinance would take approximately 6 months to complete. Noticing Ordinance - This ordinance would take approximately 6 months to complete. OPTIONS: The City Council has several options with respect to supplementing the work program: 1.Make no changes to the current work program. The additional issues could be addressed later this year if the current work program is completed earlier and with less time and cost AdvancePlanningWorkProgram June20,2007 Page3 than expected. If the issues are not addressed this year, they can be included as priorities in next year’s work program. This would not involve any change to the proposed budget. 2.Replace one or more of the ordinances in the current work program with one or more of the ordinances in the supplemental work program. The blight, story pole, news rack and noticing ordinances are expected to involve a level of effort comparable to the fence ordinance and could replace that ordinance in the current work program. Similarly, an ordinance to implement the Guidelines and Standards for Land Use Near Streams is expected to be roughly comparable to the sign ordinance and could replace that ordinance in the current work program. This would not involve any change to the proposed budget. 3.Add one or more ordinances to the current work program. This would require the reallocation of funds in the proposed budget to accommodate the additional work. The blight, story pole, noticing and news rack ordinances would require approximately $5,000-$15,000 of City Attorney time depending on the extent to which the public process leads to an ordinance that differs substantially from ordinances used in other jurisdictions and approximately $10,000 for a contract planner to work on the project for a total of approximately $25,000. An ordinance to implement the Guidelines and Standards for Land Use Near Streams would likely require $20,000 or more for CEQA review and a comparable amount for City Attorney review and for a contract planner for a total estimate of approximately $60,000. Both ordinances would require additional staff and administration time to assist both the contract planner and the City Attorneys office. The additional staff time would need to be absorbed by the existing staff. The blight and the newsrack ordinances are not located in Chapter 15 of the Municipal Code that falls under the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission; therefore the two ordinances are not required to come before them. In order to expedite the ordinances and reduce costs the City Council has the authority to review them directly. FISCAL IMPACTS: Discussed above. ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS: Conduct a study session to review the ordinance priorities. FOLLOW UP ACTIONS: Staff will continue to work on the tasks recommended by the Council. ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT: Notice for this meeting. ATTACHMENTS: None