REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Approve Budget Modification No. 23 in the Amount of $310,000 to Provide Reimbursable Funding for the Creation of Objective Citywide and Specific/Area Plan Design Guidelines and Citywide Landscape Design Guidelines
Report
GRANT SUMMARY
Approval is requested for Budget Modification No. 23 in the amount of $310,000 to provide funding for a consultant services agreement and staff costs associated with creating objective Citywide and specific/area plan design guidelines and Citywide landscape design guidelines.
The total cost is fully reimbursable by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) pursuant to a reimbursement agreement approved by the HCD in June 2020 (Attachment 1). The Reimbursement Agreement was preceded by Council approval of a required Resolution ratifying and approving the City's application for the grant funds (RTC No. 19-1024, December 3, 2019).
As a result of recent changes in State law (Senate Bill 330), the City must rely on objective development and design standards for housing or mixed-use development projects. As many of the City's design guidelines are currently subjective, the City will utilize grant funding to update existing design guideline documents, develop new objective design standards, and create a new citywide design guideline document for landscaping. The objective standards will largely be applied to multi-family and mixed-use housing projects. This includes revisions to the design guidelines of several Specific/Area Plans (e.g., Moffett Park, Lawrence Station, El Camino Real, and Downtown), as well as the design guidelines that cover projects that are not within the Specific/Area Plans. Additionally, funding will be utilized for the development of citywide landscape design guidelines to be used for all types of projects.
To help facilitate development of the objective design guidelines, a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued in November 2020 to solici...
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