Project density surprises village planners
As members of two community groups review plans for a 62-unit apartment complex on 16th Street — the first project to be submitted since the July 2014 adoption of the Ramona Village Center Form-Based Code — some are questioning the allowed density.
Lansing Companies has a 2.87-acre parcel next to Ramona Lutheran Church and School that it said is within the town center form-based code area. That gives them RM-V5 center district zoning and a VR-24 general plan designation, allowing 24 units per acre, project representatives said.
In 2013, the Ramona Design Review Board told them that the Ramona Community Plan supersedes the general plan and would only allow 7.3 units per acre. But the community plan also states that residential development is limited unless it occurs after adoption of the Ramona Village Plan (form-based code). With that plan, density reverts to general plan designation, said county staff. Lansing Companies resubmitted its plans in December 2014.
Joe Farace, a planning manager with the county’s Planning and Development Services, said that when working on the 2011 community plan and the county General Plan Update there was discussion that once the form-based code was in place, projects would rely on density in the general plan.
“This is not at all what was intended by anyone,” said Rob Lewallen, chair of the Ramona Village Design Group that worked with the county and consultant Howard Blackson to develop the form-based code.
Lewallen said density was never discussed during meetings with Blackson and county staff. What was often discussed was mixed-use, he said.
In the 1980s Ramona was flooded with state-mandated low-income housing that was called mixed-use, he said.
“There were a lot of folks concerned about mixed-use,” said Lewallen.
Mixed-use, however, takes on a different meaning in the form-based code, where it refers to retail on the first floor and residential on the second or third floor. In that case, Lewallen said, mixed- use becomes rather self-regulating because 35 to 50 percent of a building would be commercial.
Lewallen said they have found some glitches in the code and will be tuning it up. If something inadvertently changed with the form-based code, he said, “then we need to get with the county and get this fixed.”
“So much of this was done between Howard’s group and the county,” said Lewallen.
Farace said the code is not about density but on building form. The code has been called custom-tailored zoning to require certain architectural, design and landscaping elements to fit in with the character of a community, which is considered a rural look for Ramona.
The building form of the proposed Valley Park Apartments was discussed at the Jan. 29 meeting of the Ramona Design Review Board. The majority of village design group members, armed with their 119-page form-based code books, attended.
“The county wanted design review to be the lead element as projects come in,” said Lewallen, who asked village design members to attend because they are more familiar with the new zoning code. Lewallen is also a member of design review.
As design review’s purview is architecture and landscaping, that was the focus of the discussion. Architect Phillip Pekarek of Pekarek Crandell Inc. said the architecture would have a Monterey theme with porches, some wood siding and wood columns.
Members of both groups said the larger building of the complex, to consist of 12 units and front 16th Street, looked too long and needed more elements. Referring to the code, members said the building needed to be more undulating with some apartment units recessed or popping out to give the appearance of different buildings.
“It’s still a flat facade,” said Steve Powell, a member of the village design group.
Lewallen said the roofline was too long and needed other elements.
The board tabled action on the project until the proponents return with changes.
With the form-based code approved, Sears at Main and Rotanzi streets sought a waiver for new signage. The monument sign will remain, but the store will get two 24-inch-lettered signs on the building, as approved by the design review board. The previous design guidelines only allowed 12-inch letters for that building.
“This is just an attempt at a small hometown retailer to modernize,” said store owner Jeff Ruland.