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The San Ramon Planning Commission is set to consider voting on a proposed resolution for a General Plan amendment requested by Sunset Development that would reduce the floor area ratio (FAR) in a portion of downtown in order to accommodate planned and future developments in the area.
The upcoming public hearing is set to be the third and final required discussion on the proposed amendment, which has previously been up for discussion at the March 4 Planning Commission meeting and a Feb. 11 joint meeting with the City Council.
The amendment would adjust the minimum FAR in the Downtown Mixed Use – North land use zone from 1.25 to 0.5. Sunset owns approximately 96.4 acres of the 205-acre area covered by the zone, and contends that the current FAR “precludes the development of the full density range.” Current projects in the zone owned by Sunset range from an FAR of 0.13 at the Bishop Ranch Veterinary site to 0.62 at Bishop Ranch 15.Â
At their March 4 meeting, commissioners asked city staff to evaluate how many more square feet of development might be accommodated by higher FAR’s of 0.7 or 0.75 compared to the 0.5 Sunset is proposing. Currently, Bishop Ranch 8 and Bishop Ranch 15 already exceed the proposed 0.5 FAR.
“The remainder of the sites would need to increase the existing building sq. ft. in order to meet the new minimum FAR,” Senior Planner Cindy Yee wrote in a staff report prepared for the upcoming meeting. “The increase in FAR does not take into consideration any additional site and infrastructure improvements (roads, guest parking, site amenities) and the potential impacts to the residential construction type or physical form.”
Yee noted that although increasing the proposed minimum FAR to 0.7 or 0.75 would increase building square footage by approximately 29% or 33%, respectively, could help the city meet the increase in housing required under its RHNA for the current housing cycle, “it also has the possibility to deter redevelopment if sites are not able to meet this higher development standard and market conditions,” particularly for commercial developments.
“Because commercial projects would not be able to utilize State Density Bonus Law to waive the FAR standard, the higher minimum FAR could substantially impact the ability to redevelop these parcels,” Yee wrote. “By creating a wider FAR range for a site using a base FAR of 0.5, this has the potential to encourage more redevelopment due to a lower barrier to develop and a consideration of a wider range of market trends.”
Should the commission approve the proposed amendment at their upcoming meeting, it would be set for further discussion and approval by the City Council.
The San Ramon Planning Commission is set to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday (March 18). The agenda is available here.
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