Two Noteworthy 6 October 2009 City Council Agenda Items

ABSTRACT: Two noteworthy 6 October 2009 City Council Agenda Items, namely, Consideration of an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to certify an Environmental Impact Report and deny a project for the demolition of an existing building and the construction of a mixed-use development at the S.E. corner of Dolores St. and 7th Av. and Consideration of a Resolution to add a Construction Activity Road Impact Fee of 1% of the project valuation of a building permit and designate this fee for road maintenance, are presented. Selected excerpts from Agenda Item Summaries, Staff Reports, a letter and Exhibit are presented for Agenda Items.

AGENDA
Regular Meeting
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
4:30 p.m., Open Session

Live and archived video streaming available

City Hall
East side of Monte Verde Street between Ocean and Seventh Avenues

VIII. Public Hearings
If you challenge the nature of the proposed action in Court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the City Council at, or prior to, the public hearing.

A. Consideration of an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to certify an Environmental Impact Report and deny a project for the demolition of an existing building and the construction of a mixed-use development including a two-level underground parking garage, five market-rate condominiums, two low-income housing units, and commercial floor area. The project location is the SE corner of Dolores and 7th (Homescapes Building). The appellant is John Mandurrago.

Description: On 17 September 2009, the Planning Commission certified an Environmental Impact Report, adopted CEQA findings, and denied all permits for the Plaza del Mar project. The appellant is requesting that the City Council overturn the Planning Commission’s decision to deny the project.

Staff Recommendation: Deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.

Important Considerations: In December 2008 the City Council granted an appeal and overturned the Planning Commission’s decision to approve this project. The Council remanded all project decisions back to the Planning Commission, adopted findings and provided specific direction on several issues to assist the Commission. Part of this direction was to develop better evidence regarding the feasibility of the adaptive reuse.

The Council also affirmed that demolition of the Burde Building would constitute a significant environmental impact and provided the Commission with guidance on the interaction between CEQA and California housing statutes.

Recent Decision Record:
• 9/10/2008 - Planning Commission certifies and EIR and approves the project.
• 12/2/2008 - City Council adopts findings to overturn the Planning Commission decision.
• 9/17/2009 - Planning Commission adopts findings to certify EIR and deny the project.
• 9/21/2009 - Applicant files an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision.

Letter from Dennis C. Beougher, Lombardo & Gilles, LLP, attorney for appellant John Mandurrago
Re: Planning Commission’s Findings for Denial of Plaza Del Mar; September 17, 2009
“…there are clear errors and omissions in the findings…cities Findings No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 and Applicant’s Response

Conclusion
“The Applicant respectfully requests that the Planning Commission not adopt the Findings and denial of the Plaza del Mar project and/or amend the findings according to the information provided above.”

NOTE: The 6th Appellate District granted Appellant John Mandurrago’s motion for calendar preference on 25 September 2009 (Mandurrago et al. v. City of Carmel-By-The-Sea et al. Case Number H034439)

E-mail Notification 6th Appellate District

X. Resolutions
A. Consideration of a Resolution to add a Construction Activity Road Impact Fee of 1% of the project valuation of a building permit and designate this fee for road maintenance.

Description: This Resolution would approve adding a Construction Activity Road Impact Fee to the Community Planning and Building fee schedule. The fee would be collected upon issuance of the building permit. Imposition of the Construction Activity Road Impact Fee would take effect on November 1, 2009, and charged at a rate of 1% of the sum of the building permit’s project valuation.

The collected fees will be deposited in a “Road Impact Fee Fund” and earmarked for street and road maintenance, based on approved street and road projects in the City’s annual capital budget.

Based on recent building permit activity, the City would collect between $150,000 and $175,000 annually.

Staff Recommendation: Approve the Resolution.

Important Considerations: City Council directed staff to investigate imposing a construction truck impact fee to help fund street and road projects. The City contracted with Nichols Consulting Engineers, which performed a traffic counts of construction trucks in June 2009, and updated its previous Construction Truck Impact Fee Study (see Exhibit “A” ) earlier this year. Based on the Nichols’ traffic count, construction trucks contribute approximately 24% of the total trucks in terms of Equivalent Single-Axle Load.

At the two public workshops on May 13, 2008 and September 2, 2009, some of the comments from contractors about the proposed fee included:

• Contractors generally favor of road maintenance and improvements, but disagree that the construction industry should bear the costs unless other users (such as delivery vehicles and waste management vehicles) also are charged accordingly.

• Concern about the effect of a new fee on the construction industry during these recessionary times.

• The June 2009 traffic count study did not identify the number of delivery vehicles or waste management vehicles. The counts included construction vehicles only.

• The rate of the new fee was questioned. Contractors wanted to know if the City would consider a lower fee. Table 6 in Exhibit “A” shows Road Impact fees for other Northern California cities, ranging from .7% to 1.0%.

SUMMARY
Clearly, construction activity takes a toll on the City’s streets and roads. By implementing a Construction Activity Road Impact Fee, the cost of annual road maintenance would be offset. Staff recommends that the City Council approve incorporating this new Construction Activity Road Impact Fee into the Community Planning and Building Fee schedule, effective November 1, 2009.

EXHIBIT A
NICHOLS CONSULTING ENGINEERS, Chtd.

An analysis conducted on the City’s road network concluded that the estimated annual needs required to maintain the current PCI of 70 is $660,000. However, the City’s current funding level for the street network is much less than this. (i.e., in 2008, $60,000; 2009, $210,000; 2010, $400,000.) At this funding level, it is projected that the network PCI will decrease to 57 (by year 2017). Further, it is projected that the percentage of roads in the “Poor” to “Failed” categories will increase from 5% to 24% by 2017.

FY 2008/09
Number of Building Permits: 222
Valuation ($): 15,803,004

Truck Traffic in Carmel-by-the-Sea through Carpenter Street and Rio Road (One Day)
Construction Trucks: 97
All Trucks: 567
% Construction Trucks/All Trucks: 17.1%
ESALs (Equivalent Single-Axle Load): 24.2%

Annual estimated costs to maintain the City’s network PCI of 70: $660,000
Annual Budget to Road Repairs (average): ($382,000)
ADDITIONAL FUNDING NEEDED: $278,000

Conclusion
The analysis performed above suggests that the proposed road impact fee of 0.5% of the construction permit value ($79,015) will be sufficient to cover the impact caused by construction related traffic ($72,280). The estimated annual revenue raised by such fee will significantly reduce the shortfall in funding needed to preserve the City’s pavement network. However, there still remains a shortfall of $198,985.

NOTE: 2009/10 General Fund Budget of $13,741,050; $660,000 represents only 4.8% of the City’s total 2009/10 Budget.