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City of San Leandro City Council Staff Report Civic Center 835 East 14th Street San Leandro, California Staff Report for Discussion on Updating the Zoning Code SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Staff requests direction from the City Council regarding updates to the Zoning Code, specifically initiating a comprehensive update to modernize the City’s Zoning Code, and to integrate new, updated, and ongoing policy issues. Although the City conducts regular updates to the Zoning Code, it has not initiated a truly comprehensive update for the purpose of modernizing its organization and layout since 1989. A comprehensive update would focus on reformatting and clarifying existing provisions to be more user-friendly, implementing recent City initiatives, such as the proposed Bayfair TOD Specific Plan, and to address public comments and regulatory updates regarding the Professional Office or P-zoning district, short-term rentals, accessory dwelling units, telecommunications, and sustainable landscaping, amongst others. An alternative to a comprehensive update could be a targeted Zoning Code update, which would focus on one or a few specific initiatives described above. Tonight, staff seeks City Council direction on how to proceed regarding the aforementioned recommendations. BACKGROUND The Zoning Code is the primary tool of implementation for the General Plan, the comprehensive policy guide for the City, as well as specific plans such as the Downtown Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Strategy and the proposed Bayfair TOD Specific Plan (which is tentatively scheduled for City Council consideration at its February 20, 2018 regular meeting). The City’s power to implement planning is granted by the State Constitution; the Legislature regularly passes legislation that affects the Zoning Code. The original Zoning Code was adopted in 1961; it consisted of one chapter within the Municipal Code. The City’s first major modernization effort began in February 1989, a three-year process that resulted in the establishment of a “hearing draft” of the Zoning Code in 1991. After further discussion and amendments over the following year, the current iteration of the Zoning Code was adopted by the City Council in 1992. Since that time, the City has regularly updated individual chapters of the Zoning Code, primarily in response to specific issues, State legislative mandates or to bring the Zoning Code into conformance with General Plan or Specific Plan updates (i.e., inclusionary zoning, accessory dwelling units, etc.). The last major update to the Zoning Code was approved by the City Council in September 2016 in conjunction with the 2035 General Plan update. The changes were necessary to bring the Zoning Code into conformance with both the Downtown Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Strategy and the 2035 General Plan Update. While that public planning process implemented provisions such as File #:18-042,Version:1 City of San Leandro Page 1 of 3 2/05/2018