No changes to zoning to meet state requirements, panel told

Benicia Planning Commission will hear public comments Thursday before recommending how the City Council should act to modify several city housing documents to bring them into compliance with mandated state and federal regulations.

The panel also will consider a request to open a preschool at a local church.

Among the housing documents needing modification is the mitigated negative declaration for the Benicia Housing Element, one of seven state-mandated General Plan elements.

Amy Million, principal planner, wrote the commission Sept. 29 to say the city has had a Housing Element since 1979, and has updated it periodically to meet state requirements.

The latest draft, for 2015 to 2023, has been reviewed and “pre-certified” as complying with state law, she wrote, and if the final document is certified by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) by May 31, 2015, Benicia will remain in compliance.

The city ran late getting its most recent edition of the Housing Element certified by the HCD, which was done in 2012, Million wrote. That meant employees had to start immediately on the next modification.

Because the previous element was approved so recently, she wrote, employees have suggested only minor changes are needed to the new update.

The draft received public airing at a workshop May 15, and has been promoted on the city website and through fliers distributed at City Hall, Benicia Public Library, the Benicia Certified Farmers Market and directly to local organizations and other interested individuals, Million wrote.

The HCD gave it a 60-day review, as well, and told the city July 21 that it meets statutory requirements, including those from Senate Bill 2 that provides for emergency shelters. The Council, however, must take additional ordinance amendments to remain in compliance.

During each cycle of Housing Element updates, the HCD and the Association of Bay Area Governments establish a regional housing needs allocation for very low, low, moderate and above-moderate income levels for each city. Benicia’s share is 327 units, Million wrote.

“A common misconception is that the city must find a way to ensure these units are built,” Million wrote. “Instead, the city must show that there are sufficient sites under the city’s policies and zoning to accommodate these units if the market exists to build them.”

She explained that HCD wants to know whether a city has enough land at higher densities for enough affordable housing to be built to meet community needs.

In the 2007-14 Housing Element, Benicia’s allocation was 532, but that has been reduced to 327 based on state and regional projections, Million wrote.

“This means that Benicia will continue to be able to accommodate its state-required share of housing growth without any changes to existing zoning,” she wrote.

Among the changes city staff has recommended is to assure Benicia has enough capacity for its water and wastewater needs; to remove the inclusion of housing in the General Commercial zone; and to inventory vacant and underused parcels to determine if they could be used for low-income housing.

Other suggestions are to remove allowing emergency shelters by right in specific residential zoning districts to allow for more flexibility; to define transitional and supportive housing in the zoning ordinance; to reach out to the public on various topics through brochures available in the Community Development Department; and to delete sections on seismic retrofitting and sustainable “green” construction.

The document’s mitigated negative declaration, a look at environmental impacts in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), looked at a list of 18 factors, from air quality to noise to greenhouse gas emissions, and found that none would be negatively impacted.

However, the area, like many in California, is subject to earthquakes, and new developments would be subject to site-specific assessments.

Should additional homes be built, the mitigated negative declaration indicated the impact on air quality would be less than significant. Building near the coastline could lead to flooding problems, but they, too, are considered less than significant. The construction would cause a slight but “less than significant” impact on city services.

However, Jill E. Sowards, staff attorney for Legal Services of Northern California, wrote Million July 7 to say the document has had inadequate public participation. “The city must describe its outreach efforts to all economic segments of the community,” she wrote.

Among other criticisms, Sowards wrote that the previous version of the Housing Element received inadequate review, and that its analysis doesn’t specify income levels served by local subsidized developments. Nor did the document identify and analyze potential constraints to development of affordable housing or say adequately how Benicia expects to fulfill its goals, Sowards wrote.

Million replied Sept. 17 that additional updates in the document have addressed some of those concerns.

“It is the city’s intent to be realistic about its ability to implement programs and the timing associated with accomplishing each task,” she wrote.

Attorney Dana Dean, who represents AMPORTS, the company that manages the Port of Benicia, urged the city to remove the Arsenal historic district from lists of vacant housing sites.

Dean also suggested city employees clarify the wording in the draft’s section on physical constraints and environmental concerns in the Arsenal. The draft needs to be consistent with city ordinance references to work-live uses, she wrote.

Dean also expressed concern about the document’s observations on hazardous materials and whether noise from industrial areas — as well as light, glare and dust — would have impacts on other land uses, aesthetics and air quality.

In a matter related to the Housing Element document, the commission will hear and review public comments on an ordinance amendment that would incorporate new regulations governing transitional, supportive and emergency homeless shelters.

Associate Planner Suzanne Thorsen wrote Sept. 29 that the changes are required by the California Housing Accountability Act, and the commission itself led a workshop June 2 on what should be included in the ordinance amendment.

“Transitional and supportive housing are not currently distinguished in the zoning ordinance from other types of housing,” Thorsen wrote; rather, those types of housing are designed to help the homeless and people with special needs.

According to information Thorsen received from the Benicia Community Action Council, at least 43 homeless people — seven individuals and 21 families — lived in Benicia as of April. The nonprofit CAC said a five-bedroom home would serve up to nine of its clients.

But the state doesn’t require Benicia to build an emergency shelter, Thorsen wrote, and “No shelter is currently proposed,” though Benicia must state where such shelters are allowed as a permitted use.

The proposed ordinance amendment would allow supportive and transitional housing as a permitted use in three residential zones and open space zones, and an emergency shelter as a limited use in one residential zone.

Supportive and transitional homes and emergency shelters would be allowed on a limited basis in some commercial zones. The ordinance would add further regulations, such as for parking.

Jasmin Powell, president of the Benicia Industrial Park Association, wrote the Planning Commission Aug. 12 to say the association opposes housing in the Industrial Park.

“Housing in the Industrial Park defeats the city’s efforts to recruit and retain business,” Powell wrote.

In other business Thursday, representatives of the Lighthouse Covenant Fellowship Church, 1175 Church St., will ask the commission for a use permit to operate a preschool at its property.

The preschool would have 1,540 square feet of classroom space, an office and restrooms.

In addition, the church would fence off about 3,400 of yard for outdoor play.

Up to 35 children, 2 to 5 years old, could be accommodated at one time at the preschool, which would be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Up to 100 could be enrolled at the preschool, Thorsen wrote in a report.

She is recommending approval of the project.

Also Thursday, the commission will examine a proposed amendment to the city code and Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan (DMUMP) that would waive fees in connection with a request for reasonable accommodation, Million wrote in a Sept. 29 report.

Those could be for a waiver of yard setback limits, particularly to accommodate wheelchair ramps, or for parking on a front or side yard setback area.

This action would be taken to comply with state and federal fair housing laws that offer protection to disabled residents, she wrote.

“Some cities do not assess an application fee to reasonable accommodation requests, as the fee itself may be a barrier to the applicant,” Million wrote.

Benicia Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.