Half Moon Bay Planning Commission Special and Regular Meeting - November 14, 2024
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Half Moon Bay Planning Commission Special and Regular Meeting - November 14, 2024
Note on date discrepancy: The agenda for this meeting listed Tuesday, November 12, 2024, but the meeting actually occurred on Thursday, November 14, 2024 as per the provided instructions. The summary below reflects the November 14 date as specified.
The meeting began with a joint study session with the Architectural Advisory Committee (AAC) on objective design standards, followed by the regular Planning Commission meeting. Key actions included approval of minutes from the October 22 meeting (with a correction), a public hearing and unanimous approval of a 5G small cell utility pole replacement, an informational briefing on a transportation demand management (TDM) plan, and a brief director's report on recent Housing and Community Development (HCD) letters.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes (October 22, 2024): Moved and seconded to approve minutes as amended by striking a comment from the city manager regarding the Hyatt Place EIR clarification. The motion passed unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Mike Ferrara (former mayor) commented during the joint study session, urging caution on the objective design standards timeline and questioning the need for speed given the January 1 deadline and upcoming council changes. He also commented during the TDM briefing, expressing skepticism about funding and coordination, noting that prior transportation plans (e.g., 2004 conceptual plan) have seen little implementation.
- No other public comments were made during the meeting.
Discussion Items
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Joint Study Session: Objective Design Standards (ODS) for Multifamily Housing (SB 423)
- Staff (Okoe Wilson) and consultants (MIG) presented preliminary draft ODS to meet SB 423 requirements effective January 1, 2025. The standards are intended to allow ministerial approval of qualifying projects with at least 10% affordability while providing objective design criteria.
- Discussion included concerns about potential building heights up to 83 feet (with density bonus), the risk of a five-story cinder-block building in the gap before ODS adoption, and the need for clear, graphic-rich standards.
- A consensus emerged among commissioners and AAC members to create two tiers of standards:
- Tier 1 (smaller projects): For projects with 3 or fewer units and 2 stories or less, adapt existing single-family residential design guidelines into objective standards.
- Tier 2 (larger projects): For projects with 4+ units or more than 2 stories, require selection from four architectural palettes (Neoclassical Revival, Spanish Revival, Coastal Craftsman, Contemporary) with specific design elements, color palettes, and massing requirements.
- Commissioners requested that staff bring back a revised draft with graphics, including examples from existing Half Moon Bay buildings (e.g., the library, 433 Main Street, 650 Mills).
- Next steps: City Council study session (likely November 19), then a Planning Commission public hearing on December 10 for potential adoption.
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Informational Briefing: "Get There Together" Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Action Plan
- Staff (Maz Bozorginia) and consultant (Alex Mercury) presented the draft plan developed with San Mateo County. The plan includes 14 strategies across three categories: expanding options, programmatic solutions, and management/regulation.
- Public comment and commissioner questions highlighted the need for intra-coast connectivity, flexible services for seniors and medical appointments, and lessons from prior failed shuttle pilots. Commissioners emphasized low-hanging fruit such as better marketing of existing services, improving school and college access, and prioritizing pedestrian/bicycle safety.
- No action taken; the plan is open for public comment until November 22 and is expected to go to City Council for consideration in early 2025.
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Public Hearing: Coastal Development Permit and Use Permit for 5G Small Cell Utility Pole at 745 Main Street
- Staff (Scott Phillips) presented the request to replace an existing wooden utility pole with a taller one (35 ft 4 in) to host 5G small cell antennas. The pole would be painted brown to blend in. The project is categorically exempt from CEQA.
- Commissioners asked about ADA sidewalk clearance and whether the top could be disguised (e.g., as a tree). Staff noted compliance with federal shot clocks (90 days) and local zoning.
- Action: Moved and seconded to approve the permits. The motion passed unanimously.
Director's Report
- Community Development Director Steve McHerry summarized two recent letters from HCD (dated November 5 and November 6, 2024) regarding the city's draft Housing Element and ADU ordinance. The letters highlight conflicts between the Coastal Act and state housing laws. A third letter concerning Measure D is expected. Staff is working through the issues and will return to the Planning Commission on December 10. No discussion was taken.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes of October 22, 2024 with correction (unanimous).
- Approved 5G pole project at 745 Main Street (unanimous).
- Directed staff to revise the objective design standards based on the two-tier approach, with graphics and architectural palettes, and to present to City Council study session before returning to Planning Commission on December 10.
- The TDM plan will be considered by City Council in early 2025 after public comment closes November 22.
Meeting Transcript
423, which introduces some of the provisions of SB35 into the coastal zone. We'd like to focus this presentation mostly on discussing the design standards themselves, but I will start the discussion by providing you guys with some background on the state legislation, why we're here, and some of the applicability throughout our jurisdiction. So SB 35 requires streamlined ministerial approval process for jurisdictions that are not making sufficient progress on their RENA numbers. Half Moon Bay has been identified as one of those jurisdictions. So we have a certain affordability requirement that requires us to allow for streamlined approval of those projects. We have a um thank you. So that would thank you so much. No worries. So through the streamline ministerial approval process, it does allow for jurisdictions to implement design review through objective design standards. And previously, this did not apply to the coastal zone, but effective January 1st, 2025, it will apply to the coastal zone through SB 423. It is limited to certain site restrictions, which I will get more into in a later slide. But it does have applicability here, and it would be applying to projects with just a 10% affordability aspect. We have lost the screen again. Okay, thank you. No worries. Additionally, uh AB 2011 and SB6 also allow for streamlined ministerial approval process with uh a differing affordability component, so not the 10%. Um it has a few different ones, so I don't want to get too deep into it as our main focus really is SB 423, but thought it was good to mention that that could have these design standards could have app applicability under those provisions as well, and that applies within more uh commercial jurisdictions where it's been identified as an underutilized commercial site, and there's specific provisions to that within the legislation, but again, um don't want to get deep into that at this time. So we're here today to continue to work on developing objective design standards for multifamily housing. Uh our goal is to develop some objective design standards that will align with Half Moon Bay's eclectic characteristics. Um we know that Half Moon Bay isn't necessarily defined by any one architectural style, and we want to try to find one that allows some flexibility while still aligning with uh Half Moon Bay's community. Uh so objective design standards are a broad set of definable standards, so it can't be left up to any human interpretation, it needs to be consistently applied throughout by anyone's uh interpretation. There should really be no room for interpretation. Uh so to qualify for ministerial review, a project would have to meet all of these objective design standards that we would be implementing. Um if they were choosing not to, they would still apply for discretionary review as we have we currently do. Uh same with if it's located in an area where uh it does not apply, and again I'll get to that in a f in another slide here, but if it's on a specific site where these provisions cannot apply, they would still have to go through discretionary review as we currently do typically with architectural review or coastal development permits. Umards are still applied, so these objective design standards are not overriding our existing development standards, they're simply an addition to specifically we have very minimal uh design standards, if any, that actually apply to multifamily housing. Uh some of you might know we have single family design standards, but those don't apply to multifamily, and again, and those single family even are somewhat subjective, so we're trying to get a more objective uh standards in place here. Uh density bonus law could still be used in some circumstances to override some of these objective design standards dependent on the level of affordability if they're applying density bonus law, but it's still important that we have these implemented. Some amendments would be required to our code as part of this. This would require amendments to the municipal code as well as the local coastal land use plan. The provisions of SB 423 would require that any approval or denial would have to be based on objective standards. So we would need to have these objective design standards where we're looking more at the design, but also uh at a future in future updates, would need to be updating more of our code to be objective within these, so that can also be applied. Throughout Half Moon Bay, it would and in general SB 423 applies to sit zone for multifamily, including mixed use, and this is for permitted use and conditional use. Um but it can't be within prime agricultural lands, flood hazard areas, areas subject to greater than five feet of sea level rise, um, or areas within the Coastal Commission's appeals jurisdiction, which is typically between the sea and the first public parallel road or the first 300 feet of any beach or mean high tide line. Um there's also some other provisions that would prevent it, but they are somewhat less applicable to Half Moon Bay, such as fired hazard zones and items like that, but those would also prevent uh a project from qualifying under these provisions. And it also is required to be within an urban area, which Half Moon Bay is defined as. So, in developing these objective design standards, we went through a walking tour with our architectural advisory committee members, as well as one member of the planning commission who was appointed to be part of the ad hoc subcommittee. Uh as part of this walking tour, we also had members of the public attend to join us and provide some comments as well. Uh the tour visited several housing sites existing and one vacant potential future housing site. Uh, and the goal was to explore some of these design preferences uh throughout Half Moon Bay. And then that was provided in the some feedback on that was provided in the existing settings analysis, which is attachment one to your ICE staff report. Uh, here are just a few of our existing multifamily sites that you can see. Um these have aspects that are well liked about them that are worth considering and continuing to think about what you might like to see included within the objective design standards as it relates to these architectural features, color, um, massing, all of that. Today we're gonna focus the SADI session, as I mentioned, on the design standards themselves, not so much the legislation or the process that we are going through. We really want to work on getting feedback from both the planning commission and the architectural advisory committee on different areas within the draft objective design standards that you have that you might like to see developed, incorporated. There's some specific uh blanks you might see that we'd like feedback on getting that filled in. Um so I just wanted to reiterate that because I'm going to end my portion of the presentation and allow our consultants to take over during the discussion to guide you guys through that discussion, but first wanted to open it up, conclude my portion of the presentation and allow for any clarifying questions on what I've gone over thus far, but uh and then allow for public comment. I would like to uh there will still be opportunity to ask questions on the design standards themselves throughout the discussion. So I'd encourage that clarifying questions might relate more to why we're here or the process that we're going through. Thank you for that uh very good presentation, Akoe.
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