Reso 2001-020 RDA 2001-002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chapter III -Infill Development III. Infill Development As noted in Chapter I, the Revitalization Strategy area is San Leandro's best- situatedarea for higher density development; close proximity to both Down- townand BART make it unique in this regard. Four significant vacant and/or underutilized properties are the focus of the Strategy's infill development rec- ommendations: (see map on previous page) 1) The BART surface parking lot at the corner of San Leandro Boulevard and West Juana Street; 2) The Westlake Site west of the BART station between Martinez and Alvarado Streets; 3) The San Leandro Boulevard frontage west of the former City Corpora- tion Yard site now proposed for approximately 200,000 square feet of office space. 4) The area along north Alavarado Street between Davis Street and San Leandro Creek. New, transit- and dowrt'town-oriented Infill development is proposed for all four sites: housing for the BART lot, office/R&D for the Westlake Site, and either housing or office/R&D for the west San Leandro Boulevard frontage and the north Alvarado Street area. Development programs for each of these sites are outlined below. Design guidelines are provided in the Appendix. BART Lot Housing & Replacement Parking BART Lot Housing. A maximum of 200 units of multi-unit housing are pro- posed for the BART parking site. At 2.2 acres, density would be approxi- mately 90 units per acre, comparable to the Pacific Plaza condominiums to the east. Building height would be four stories above apartially-submerged parking garage, also similar to Pacific Plaza. Design guidelines for this housing development and other potential Infill projects are provided in the Appendix. The guidelines promote architectural forms that are complementary to the attractive older single family cottages in adjacent neighborhood areas, maintain aneighborhood-scale frontage with regularly spaced building entrances and stoops that encourage residents to walk to destinations within the downtown area, provide significant setbacks along street frontages, maintain a residential streetscape and accommodate frontage street trees that screen building mass. A pedestrian way is recommended along the extension of the West Joaquin Avenue right-of-way. This will provide a more attractive and direct route to the station than via West Juana Street, serving existing area residents as well as those in the new housing development. Ownership housing-i.e., condominium development-is the higher density housing type preferred for the site. However, due to liability concerns, few condominiums are currently being developed by the private sector. In addi- tion, BART has criteria for development of its properties that need to be ad- dressed. Most important, new development should maximize transit rider- ship. Housing projects should generally have a minimum density of from 50 - 60 units per acre; on this site it would result in a minimum of 110-130 units. BART also typically retains ownership of the land. This allows BART to (a) maintain an income stream and thereby reduce the amount of public subsi- dies needed for operation, and (b) ensure that land use remains transit-ori- ented. Given these factors, a project that mixes rental apartments and ownership townhouses will be considered, provided the level of design and manage- ment of the rental housing portion of the project is high. - 31 - Infill housing should have front porches to promote pedestrian activity.