City council orders up Town Center specific plan
A major step in the new Town Center redevelopment process has been taken by the City Council, a body whose current roster reflects voter unhappiness with a recent past effort to revitalize the 40-acre Old Town area.
The council agreed on April 21 to pay up to $534,476 for a Town Center specific plan and environmental impact report by RRM Design Group and five other firms working with RRM in the planning process.
The specific plan will provide “clear policies, implementation measures, economic development strategies, design guidelines and development standards” for the long-studied Town Center, according to council-adopted requirements.
Also, RRM will prepare three or four alternative land-use plans that reflect nine priority topic areas identified in a report presented by the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee.
The 24-member blue ribbon body met in open sessions July 2006 to November 2007 to develop guiding principles for Town Center redevelopment, based on community input.
The group was formed after a past council was forced to abandon a Town Center plan when residents petitioned against higher-density zoning ordinances, protested possible eminent domain use and complained about closed-door meetings involving council members, council-selected developers and city management staff.
Four current council members—John Anderson, Jan Horton, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing—campaigned in 2006 and 2008 against high-density zoning, taking private property for economic development and the secretive ad hoc committee meetings.
Interestingly, the council won’t implement a key blue-ribbon recommendation to form a citizens’ specific plan advisory committee because the group “provided significant input during the preparation of their report,” so an advisory panel “would not be necessary.”
Council also decided that any cultural arts facility proposed for Town Center should be fiscally feasible, self-sustaining and come from a private, non-profit entity.
Also, two other consultants are completing work on citywide projects with special application to Town Center and the newly approved agreement for a specific plan.
The first is an economic development strategy by Buxton Company “to determine retail leakage from Yorba Linda and to identify business types that likely would be successful … given the demographics of the city and surrounding region.”
The second is a historical resources survey by Galvin Preservation Associates to research and document the city’s historic buildings and settings.
The economic analysis should be completed “in the near future” and the historic survey in August or September. The specific plan could be finished in a year to 18 months.
The council agreed on April 21 to pay up to $534,476 for a Town Center specific plan and environmental impact report by RRM Design Group and five other firms working with RRM in the planning process.
The specific plan will provide “clear policies, implementation measures, economic development strategies, design guidelines and development standards” for the long-studied Town Center, according to council-adopted requirements.
Also, RRM will prepare three or four alternative land-use plans that reflect nine priority topic areas identified in a report presented by the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee.
The 24-member blue ribbon body met in open sessions July 2006 to November 2007 to develop guiding principles for Town Center redevelopment, based on community input.
The group was formed after a past council was forced to abandon a Town Center plan when residents petitioned against higher-density zoning ordinances, protested possible eminent domain use and complained about closed-door meetings involving council members, council-selected developers and city management staff.
Four current council members—John Anderson, Jan Horton, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing—campaigned in 2006 and 2008 against high-density zoning, taking private property for economic development and the secretive ad hoc committee meetings.
Interestingly, the council won’t implement a key blue-ribbon recommendation to form a citizens’ specific plan advisory committee because the group “provided significant input during the preparation of their report,” so an advisory panel “would not be necessary.”
Council also decided that any cultural arts facility proposed for Town Center should be fiscally feasible, self-sustaining and come from a private, non-profit entity.
Also, two other consultants are completing work on citywide projects with special application to Town Center and the newly approved agreement for a specific plan.
The first is an economic development strategy by Buxton Company “to determine retail leakage from Yorba Linda and to identify business types that likely would be successful … given the demographics of the city and surrounding region.”
The second is a historical resources survey by Galvin Preservation Associates to research and document the city’s historic buildings and settings.
The economic analysis should be completed “in the near future” and the historic survey in August or September. The specific plan could be finished in a year to 18 months.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
<< Home