Planning Commission Hearing - April 2, 2020 Item #5 One Broadway Plaza
Jeff Dickman
PUBLIC COMMENT for the APRIL 2, 2020 PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING - TO BE READ INTO THE RECORD FOR ITEM #1
Good evening Chairman McLoughlin;
I request that the Santa Ana Planning Commission delay the hearing for the One Broadway Plaza project for the following reasons:
1. One Broadway Plaza is Not an Emergency Project. The project is not public works related, not does it not help our City with the world wide virus outbreak, nor address any immediate need of the city for housing or office space. However the City is treating the processing of the OBP as if it is an emergency, causing staff to closely together increasing the rick of exposure and transmission of the Corona-virus. This is unacceptable, and wrong. Please delay the hearing to a time when it is again safe for staff and the public to gather and work together.
2. No Credible Reason has been set forth to Convene this Hearing. The City nor the developer have offered an explanation why this project is proceeding during the pandemic. By processing the project now, instead of later, causes City staff to work together at a time of increased risk to everyone's personal safety. Last Monday the developer mentioned he was attempting to secure investors to fund the office tower. Given that the pandemic is just that, a pandemic, businesses are not operating as usual, and slow-downs are occurring everywhere. As such there is no compelling need to process the requested General Plan Amendment and Zone change.
3. Project Requires Additional Consideration by the Planning Commission, and the Public. One Broadway Plaza was planned, then approved in 2005, and never built. In the 15 intervening years, other projects have been proposed and are underway. Each of those projects had to address predecessors projects, and account for traffic and other impacts, but not One Broadway Plaza. Instead the City recommended that OBP instead prepare an Amendment to the old Envrionmental Impact Report (EIR). The Amendment mostly documents the change from 19 floors of office to 19 floors of apartments. Given the scope of the project's impacts, despite its past approval, and passage of 15 years, it would seen reasonable for the City to work with the public and the developer to better account for these impacts, and fully mitigate for such. To allow OBP to proceed, minus an updated EIR, and without substantial mitigation's for the anticipated impacts, allows the developer to negatively affect key transit corridors, like Main Street and Broadway, and also degrade the health and quality of life for numerous adjoining neighborhoods.
4. Consider a Conditional Approval. A tool I have used with large development projects, is to offer builders a conditional approval. A conditional approval is a delayed approval, contingent on the project completing certain tasks. The dilemma for One Broadway Plaza is the community had merely one (1) single information session prior the Planning Commission hearing, This is concerning since it has beenyears since OBP had the public's attention. Because of the developer's aggressive and accelerated schedule, there is plainly no time to adequately work with him, staff or even our fellow residents, to prepare and advocate for mitigation's to balance the impacts with the need of the community for quieter streets, and safer neighborhoods, and less traffic, among other issues. Offering the developer a conditional approval, affords much needed time for the virus crisis to pass, and for some initial conversation to develop measures which insure the preservation of our beloved neighborhoods, and to then return to a future City Council meeting, assuming a consensus on those mitigations and other benefits is reached.
5. One Broadway Plaza Requires a New Development Agreement (DA) Development Agreements record cash contributions, amenities or other benefits negotiated from a project. The original One Broadway Plaza development agreement has expired, and a replacement DA should be prepared to identify and formalize specific community requested benefits from the developer. Projects are commonly required to build new roads, and upgrade infrastructure, like sewers. However other benefits, even important ones like traffic mitigation and parks, may not be required, as is true with OBP, with its limited traffic mitigation's.
One Broadway is only lightly required to mitigate for its traffic impacts. This is because the City Council that approved OBP failed to negotiate for these important benefits for all of the adjoining neighborhoods. I request the Planning Commission recommend to the City Council that it work with the developer, and the affected neighborhoods, to prepare a new DA to include traffic mitigations for those previosly identified communities, and also including Logan, Lacy and the Downtown, to also insure the project includes on-site affordable housing, and a requirement for the developer to purchase land for a new neighborhood park, and to design and construct those improvements.
Thank you,
Jeff Dickman, French Park
* Chairperson of the Planning Commission, Mark McLoughlin. His email is mmclo...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 1 Councilperson is Mr. Vince Sarmiento at vsarm...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 3 Councilperson is Jose Solorio at JSol...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 2 Councilperson for French Park, Logan and Lacy is Mr. David Penaloza at dpen...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 4 Councilperson is Mr. Phil Bacerra at pbac...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 5 Councilperson is Mr. Juan Villegas at jvil...@santa-ana.org
* Ward 6 Councilperson is Cecilia Iglesias at cigl...@santa-ana.org
* Mayor Miguel Pulido, his address is Miguel Pulido at mpu...@santa-ana.org