The City Council voted to adopt the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan at their regular meeting on Monday, October 6.
With the Specific Plan now adopted, the next step is for the City to prepare a solicitation inviting proposals from developers who want to build in the Specific Plan area. California law provides two paths for how to approach inviting development proposals on City-owned land. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages.
The City Council will hold a study session on Monday to discuss these options:
City Council Study Session: Moraga Canyon Specific Plan
Monday, November 16 4pm | Piedmont Community Church, 400 Highland Avenue
Clara Barton/Doris Murdock Room
Agenda | Staff Report
Community members are welcome to attend and speak at the study session in-person.
Study session focuses on California Surplus Lands Act
At the meeting, the Council will receive a presentation from Economic & Planning Systemsoutlining the City's choices per the California Surplus Lands Act. The presentation will cover the process and timeline for each alternative, and provide feasibility analysis for a series of development scenarios.
A high-level summary of the options is provided in the staff report for the study session:
The MCSP indicates approximately 4.7 acres out of a total of 22.78 acres of City-owned land in the study area to be available for the development of housing. To make that land available to developers, the City must first declare it “surplus land” pursuant to the California Surplus Land Act (SLA). The City Council may also establish parameters around the future development of this land that makes it eligible for “exempt” status under the SLA pursuant to Government Code Section 37364. This staff report and the accompanying presentation provide information about the SLA and the criteria for exemption.
There are pros and cons to declaring the project exempt from the SLA. An exemption provides benefits to the City in the form of greater local control over the developer proposal solicitation process, the selection of a developer and the negotiations with the selected developer. However, to qualify for an exemption, the City must seek housing development at levels deeper than required by Housing Element Program 1.L. And if the City seeks to make the $2.1m of Alameda County Measure A-1 Bond funds available to the affordable housing developer the number of extremely low housing units would need to be increased.
The result of the deeper affordability requirements (in unit numbers and income levels) for the housing development is that it may make the project less fiscally feasible, but it could also help the affordable housing developer qualify for more grants and tax credits. A benefit of deeper affordability is that it would help the City better achieve its Regional Housing Needs Allocation for affordable housing as outlined in the Housing Element.
Like previous study sessions, this meeting will not be video recorded. However, presentation materials will be available on the Specific Plan website after the meeting.