Multifamily Development Design Standards Can Impacted All Piedmont Properties
Any property in Piedmont can become the site of a new Multifamily density increasing project.
Can a City Charter be nullified by a non-standard definition inserted many decades later by a City Council enacting a separate document, an ordinance, not approved by enacting voters who approved the actual language in the City Charter ?
Without voters amending the approved City Charter, can a non-standard definition retroactively replace a well-established term, “reclassify,” when the standard meaning of “reclassify” had been approved by voters and acted upon over years and years of the existence of the voter approved City Charter?
The Piedmont City Charter states: Section 9.02 Zoning system.
“The City of Piedmont is primarily a residential city, and the City Council shall have the power to establish a zoning system within the City as may in its judgment be most beneficial. The Council may classify and reclassify the zones established, but no existing zones shall be reduced or enlarged with respect to size or area, and no zones shall be reclassified without submitting the question to a vote at a general or special election. No zone shall be reduced or enlarged and no zones reclassified unless a majority of the voters voting upon the same shall vote in favor thereof; provided that any property which is zoned for uses other than or in addition to a single-family dwelling maybe voluntarily rezoned by the owners thereof filing a written document executed by all of the owners thereof under penalty of perjury stating that the only use on such property shall be a single-family dwelling, and such rezoning shall not require a vote of the electors as set forth above.”
Since all Piedmont zones allow single-family residential buildings, the attorney’s opinion opens all Piedmont properties to multi-family high density housing without voter approval of the increase in residential density.
The “Objective Design Standards (MODS)” are a response to state laws attempting to promote lower cost housing throughout the state, including Piedmont, by allowing Planning staff to make permit decisions based on adopted MODS design standards without public input. Additional new legislation, further impacts housing in Piedmont by promoting multiple housing, yet not mentioned by the City in this proposed action.
The time to provide your input on matters such as set-backs, safety, parking, landscaping, etc. is now.
READ the draft proposal >
Piedmont Multifamily Objective Design Standards,
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City Announcement———— below. Notations inclosed in brackets are not part of the City announcement.
Comments Sought on Draft Multifamily Objective Design Standards for Commercial and Mixed-Use Areas
[The standards will apply to all areas in Piedmont when multifamily housing is considered.]
Published October 7, 2022 by the City of Piedmont
Piedmont’s Planning & Building Department has published draft updated multifamily development design standards for public review and comment. The draft standards, officially called the Piedmont Multifamily Objective Design Standards, or “MODS,” would govern new development in existing commercial and multifamily zones.
[As Piedmont is currently proposing multifamily use in other zones, such as the Public Zone and Commercial Zone, the MODS criteria will be paramount to staff’s ministerial decisions on permitting development of multifamily structures without public input.]
[Piedmont’s City Attorney’s opinion has stated density in all zones is not controlled by voters. making these standards important for the exclusionary ministerial permitting purpose. As applied by the City to the Commercial Zone and Public Zone, both are zoned for single-family use, as all of Piedmont, opening the Single-family Zone to multifamily high density usage ]
[ The City of Piedmont is proposing multifamily high density dwellings within Piedmont’s Public zone, which includes parklands and municipal properties, because the Public zone permits single-family residential dwellings and density can be increased without voter approval. The design standards (MODS) would apply in all areas where housing is proposed for multifamily use. The new design standards are subject to implementation for: Piedmont Public properties, Commercial, and Single-family zoned properties. ]
This project is separate from Piedmont’s Housing Element update and began in 2019, when the City applied for an SB2 planning grant to fund development of the standards. The purpose of objective design standards is to ensure new multifamily and mixed-use development aligns with and enhances the character of Piedmont’s neighborhoods.
[ Single-family residential zoning is contiguous to all Public, Commercial, and Multifamily use zones in Piedmont.]
These standards would apply to proposed developments in Piedmont’s Zones C and D, where mixed-use and multifamily development is already allowed. These areas constitute less than 5% of total land in Piedmont.
[The City Attorney’s opinion does not separate uses or limit residential uses in a particular zone. The recently devised Mixed Use Zone was never approved by Piedmont voters as required by the Piedmont City Charter. The City Attorney’s opinion notes density increases are allowed because single-family zoning is permitted, announcing voters do not control density.]
The standards are intended to help maintain privacy and mitigate other possible impacts to neighbors and surrounding single-family properties. They provide specific guidelines for design elements like:
- Setbacks, building placement, and façade design
- Size, placement, and materials for windows and outdoor spaces like balconies and decks
- Location and visibility of parking areas
Objective design standards are required by State laws, including > SB 35 (2017) and SB 330 (2019). The purpose of these laws is to streamline the review process for multifamily properties statewide, with the goal of easing development of housing that is affordable to both owners and renters at all income levels. Piedmont’s draft standards support this goal while ensuring new development will not compromise existing community character.
[The standards will be applied ministerially without neighborhood input.]
The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the draft standards this winter, likely in December or January.
The timeline as set by the City Planning Department states acceptance of public comment on the draft standards through November 21, 2022. Community members can email comments to Piedmontishome@piedmont.ca.gov.
[If comments have not been sent by November 21, 2022, responders are welcome to send their comments after that date addressed to the Piedmont Planning Commission via the Planning Director Kevin Jackson, ]
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Additionally, comments may be sent to members of the Piedmont City Council, as the matter will be considered by the Council on a future Agenda.
To send comments to the City Council as a whole, email citycouncil@piedmont.ca.gov or send via U.S. Mail to the following address:
Piedmont City Council, 120 Vista Avenue, Piedmont, Ca 94611
It is difficult to fathom that the intent of the original Charter writers in the 1920s and the 1979 Charter Revision Committee was not to have resident control of use in specific zones. After all, zoning at its most fundamental is only two issues: the boundary of the zone and what uses are allowed within that boundary. The City’s position expressed through the city attorney entirely removes a vote by residents.
I would like to see historical research from the City Attorney to support the opinion that no resident vote is required.
The draft Housing Element does recommend the City undertake a review of the City Charter within the first two years of the next housing cycle. That review is intended to study the effects of the Charter on Single-family zoning and will likely look at the voting requirement of the Charter. Perhaps in that context the City Attorney will present a more thorough analysis of this question that Rick suggests. But that will depend on direction from Council.