The Planning Board of Alameda met via Zoom on March 8, 2021, at 7:00 PM. The meeting included a study session on the proposed process and schedule to update the City's General Plan Housing Element for 2023–2031 and a public hearing on a Tidelands Exchange and amended Master Plan for the Encinal Terminals property. The board also approved minutes from February 8, 2021, and received staff reports. The meeting adjourned shortly after 10:00 PM.
Planning Director Andrew Thomas presented the work program for the eight-year housing element update. Key points included:
Board members asked clarifying questions and offered suggestions:
No action was taken; the board directed the Housing Element subcommittee (Cisneros, Hom, Teague) to meet with staff and develop recommendations.
Presentations:
Public Comments (6 speakers):
The board then separated the two actions.
Action 1: Tidelands Exchange – After discussion, board members supported the exchange, noting it enables a viable project, provides public benefits, and is a council decision. A motion to recommend approval of the Tidelands Exchange to the City Council passed 6-0-1 (Board Member Ruiz recused).
Action 2: Amended Master Plan – The board discussed the plan’s merits and areas for improvement. Members Rothenberg, Cisneros, Saheba, Curtis, Hom, and Teague suggested refinements including: referencing the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, Bay Trail, and sea level rise; adding timeline expectations; clarifying lighting, landscaping (no palm trees), block porosity, parking distribution (decentralized from central lot), building step-backs, and achieving at least LEED Silver (strive for Gold). President Teague also requested more detailed form-based standards similar to the 2017 plan. Staff confirmed these changes could be made without delaying the Development Agreement. The board voted to defer approval of the Master Plan and bring it back together with the Development Agreement, incorporating the suggested amendments. Motion passed 6-0-1 (Ruiz recused).
I'd like to call to order the March 8th 2021 meeting of the planning board. As it everyone else has gone, I it's my turn to leave the flag school. Board member Cisneros. Yeah. Curtis. Here. Rothenbury? Yeah. Ruiz. Yeah. Ms. Heba. We have a quorum. Thank you. Does staff add in any agenda changes? No, not from staff. I I'd like to acknowledge that it's International Women's Day. And we have four very critical roles on this board that are covered by excellent people. And I'm really glad to call you my peers. So and while I would like to say that I did it intentionally, the random order is that our women board members will all be going first in our discussion today. The first item is oral communication. Anyone may address the board on a topic not on the agenda. If you would like to speak, please uh raise your hand. Last call for uh oral communications on the items not on the agenda. Okay, I'm gonna close that section. Uh the consent calendar is empty, so we'll move on to the first regular agenda item, the planning board study session, the proposed process and schedule to update the city's general plan housing element for 2023 to 2031. As this is a study session, the staff report, public comment, and then board questions and comments. Good evening. Uh President Teague, uh members of the board. Uh my name's Andrew Thomas. I'm the planning building and transportation director. I'll give the presentation tonight. Um Artie, I can share screen, right? That is correct. Uh can everyone see this uh housing element update screen? Yes, okay, great. Um, so uh tonight's workshop is was scheduled um to give the opportunity to give staff the opportunity to present our work program for the update of the housing element for the period 2023 through 31. Uh it's a two essentially an 18-month work program um because by under state law, the city of Alameda needs to uh have a and the city council has to adopt a housing element um by the end of 2022. Um so this workshop is an opportunity for the public and the planning board to review the work program, um initial work products, and provide direction to both staff and the planning board subcommittee for the housing element um update. Uh the housing element is a mandatory uh element of our general plan. It's the policy document that describes how we're gonna take care of the housing needs of all economic segments of our community through a variety of housing types, including multifamily uh rental, uh supportive housing, single room occupancy, emergency cells, transitional housing. So it's it's the mandatory update of our housing element, um, and it needs to show how we're gonna accommodate the needs of every income level in the city of Alameda. Um, our one of the major uh objectives of the um eight-year update of the housing element is to show how the city is going to provide land uh suitable and zoned appropriately to accommodate our regional housing needs allocation or often referred to as our RENA. Our draft RENA for this period is 5,354 units. That's still a draft number. It may change. It will become final uh this summer. There will be an opportunity to um to appeal if the council wishes to appeal. Um, it should be understood that our arena represents one percent of the regional allocation for the whole region. So essentially, what the regional methodology is it determined is that Alameda should provide for one percent of the regionals of the region's housing need during this period.