|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Danville Town Council and Planning Commission are set to consider the first phase of proposed amendments to the town’s downtown business district ordinance Tuesday night.
The purpose of the amendments is to spur development in Danville’s retail sector, according to town staff.
“Despite a number of efforts, the retail sector continues to struggle in the face of a new competitive retail reality dominated by online options and upscale lifestyle centers to the north and south,” assistant town manager Tai Williams wrote in a staff report.
At Tuesday’s joint meeting study session, the council and commission will review updating the current ordinance as relates to the town’s downtown core area.
During a workshop back in February, the council directed staff to implement a two-phased update of the ordinance, with Phase 1 focusing on the downtown core and Phase 2 on North Hartz Ave area
After reaching out to the Danville consumer and business community for feedback, a team of staff and consultants from MIG Inc. incorporated their suggestions for downtown retail development into concrete strategies presented at a May joint study session. At the session’s conclusion, council members and commissioners directed the team to translate the strategies into ordinance language and be presented for consideration.
The key Phase 1 components to be discussed Tuesday include re-affirming the vision of the downtown core, adding and clarifying land-use designations, streamlining the permit processing and encouraging outdoor social spaces.
The vision “re-affirmation” centers around the perceived character of Danville’s downtown core.
“Consistent with direction from the Town Council and Planning Commission, the main drive for all proposed ordinance amendments is to maintain the character of the downtown core as the center of Danville life, defined by vibrant and engaging pedestrian-oriented land uses and unique special events,” Williams wrote.
Land-use designations would be updated, adding new terms for “blended use” and “tasting room.”
The categorization of blended use would allow retailers to incorporate small, non-retail components to their shops while still being considered wholly retail for land-use and parking requirements. Tasting room would cover shops that want to offer beer and wine tasting on the side or as a standalone store.
Also as part of the land-use designation changes, the amendment would differentiate the various restaurant types, to “acknowledge the differences in parking demand between each dining subcategory and its impact on retail,” according to Williams.
These new categories lead into the streamlining of permit processing — by expanding the list of retail designations, there will be fewer deviations from this, thus reducing the need to process permits.
Also to expedite permit processing, the amendment would simplify the process for outdoor seating and the parking demand calculation.
Lastly, the update proposes that outdoor public gathering spaces be incentivized, through giving a credit towards a development’s off-site parking in-lieu fee for every 100 square feet of public gathering space.
Feedback from the Town Council and Planning Commission will be incorporated into an updated draft of the ordinance, to be presented for consideration at a Planning Commission meeting next month.
The commission’s recommendation is then expected to be passed on to the council for review and adoption at an October meeting.
“The town’s commitment toward this collaborative effort toward economic vitality is demonstrated by the significant investment of $100+ million in infrastructure improvements as well as the proposed ordinance amendments to simplify and streamline permitting processes,” Williams said. “The remaining factors affecting vacancy rates (successful business operations, property owners’ lease rate expectation, and community support) are beyond the control of the town.”
The study session is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Town Meeting Hall, 201 Front St.
Livermore and Pleasanton have successful and thriving downtowns. Maybe take some ideas from them as to why. Also, what I keep hearing is that the leases are too high and driving retailers out.
The reason we moved to Danville was because of the charm of downtown. Sad to see it diminishing.
No mention of affordable and reasonable lease agreements to entice retail stores. Or how about more parking? Wait…another pizza joint will fix everything.
Hit the nail on the head David !! Danville will be a ghost town at some point in time.
Funny, my wife and I have been walking around Danville for some 12 years now and we’ve never seen it so vibrant. There are more eateries than ever before (and not just of the expensive, high-end variety as in years past), and the evenings (particularly weekends) are filled with more young people than we remember in the past.
On the other hand, we’re rarely there during weekday hours. On the few occasions we’ve been there on, say, a Tuesday afternoon, it can be pretty dead. This seems especially true with the purely retail shops, i.e. the “froufrou” clothing shops and other independent – and wildly expensive – places. So I suspect it’s largely those places that are struggling.
Though we enjoy the new Danville Brewery and Pizza Antica, we were disappointed with the Danville Hotel development in some respects. The area near the jewelry store and Basque Boulangerie should have been a popular public gathering space, with tables and chairs out in the open and people all over. They should have considered some small, cheap, family-friendly places in this area, maybe little kiosks or something to save space but to drive traffic there.
I’m glad the town is looking into the broader issues. Let’s hope they can make some adjustments so that all the businesses downtown can survive and thrive.
Bring back Rick’s Picks! There is nothing like that store and loved it.
The greed of the commercial landlords are killing the small retailers and restaurants and driving them out of business.
I agree that the exorbitant rents charged by landlords is likely a culprit. But building owners will always try to get as much as they can from lessees, so I don’t know what the answer is. I suppose it would be nice if there was a limit to how much they could charge; on the other hand, we probably wouldn’t want to see prices so low that every sleazy liquor store or fast food joint could afford to move in!
This sounds like an issue with customer demand and with the advent of online shopping local shops have been hit hard. You can buy almost anything on amazon and now niche online services are filling the boutique store space. Society seems to be moving from the local individual that knows your tastes to computer algorithms that use large data sets to predict your tastes.
The best way for the town to keep its retail shops and charm is for people to support their local shops with their dollars.
Not sure what levers the city council has to influence landlords.
While it’s important to worry about the health of the downtown area, how is it the town has forgotten about the road conditions in areas like El Pintado. You are talking about $100 million for downtown?? I’ve lived in Danville almost 50 years and off El Pintado for over 35 years and the condition of that road is worse than atrocious and has been all 35 years I’ve lived here. Putting ineffective patches is not the answer. I would say much of it is also very very dangerous. I think your priorities are a bit skewed.
True retail is hurt by online sales however what I am seeing is a number of restaurants have shut their doors in the past year primarily because they couldn’t afford the rent and couldn’t pass the increases on to their customers.
So the emphasis is on more drinking? Peet’s cut its hours some time back because more people were coming to Danville to imbibe than drink coffee and the place was emptying out. Walk along Hartz any evening and you will see the trendy booze joints doing very well. As for the daytime, it used to be okay that there wasn’t a ton of business since everyone was at work. But now that big money is being made all the time at Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, Danville may as well get some too. Guess family oriented places like Craft’s Creamery aren’t good enough when you can have more tasting rooms and trendy high priced chains.
Maybe the town could revitalize itself by focusing on family instead? Lunardi’s was once a popular market but in recent years seems to have become a ghost town. The store could come back to life with a community kitchen and events focused on family cooking. This would complement the weekly farmers market. The outdoor space that the ordinance mentions could be used for healthy eating and family events. This seems to make a lot more sense than using it to divert more upscale shoppers from Walnut Creek.
Lunardis captues the essence of Danville retail woes…Empty, cold, and overpriced.
I preferred the old lumber yard and car wash myself.