Dear Mayor Keith and City Council, Agenda Item I-1 shows that the city is progressing well towards achieving the goals of the Downtown Specific Plan with regards to commercial development. Thank you for your hard work and leadership in encouraging the kind of attractive and sustainable development we need to have a vibrant downtown. However, the same report shows that we still have work to do in order to achieve the residential development we have planned for. Given its proximity to transit and services, our downtown is an excellent place for housing, particularly in the form of small, naturally affordable apartments over first-floor retail. However, there are numerous barriers preventing this housing from being developed. A purely residential development would run afoul of density requirements that prevent small units, essentially requiring developers to build a small number of large condos aimed at families. Similarly, minimum parking requirements without the option of in lieu fees make it extremely difficult to build housing on the kind of small lots that are common in the downtown. Staff is scheduling a follow-up meeting to discuss development maximums and future changes to the Specific Plan. I encourage you to ask them to examine the barriers to residential development in the downtown and potential measures to address them as preparation for this follow-up meeting. Thank you, Bob McGrew Received on Tue Dec 05 2017 - 14:42:02 PST
