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Archive for the ‘Residential Density’ Category

Reduced East Dublin Development Fees

by John M. Zukoski on 2009.04.08   |     Comments

mainpic_316The Dublin City Council met this past Tuesday and voted unanimously to decrease the fees that developers pay to acquire land, construct roads, and make other improvements to minimize traffic impacts in east Dublin. The previous impact fee schedule was established in 2004 and needed to be updated to reflect the drastically lower cost of land, changes in land use (i.e., higher density than expected), and higher construction costs. With this approval, the traffic impact fees for residential projects will decrease by a combined 11% and non-residential fees will decrease by 3% effective June 7th. This should help to encourage development in Dublin.

The calculation of impact fees is based on the estimated number of “trips” generated by building new projects (e.g., trips to the grocery store, trips to/from home). The most significant reason for the decrease in fees is that Dublin has built at a higher density than what was initially forecast. Higher density means more people will be generating more car trips. With fixed traffic costs and more people than expected, the cost per “trip” has been less than expected.

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Topics: Avalon, East Dublin, Impact Fees, Metropolitan, Residential Density, Traffic

Responsible City Planning

by Jimmy Huang on 2009.01.16   |     Comments

Dublin Ranch VillagesOn December 9, 2008, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application by Charter Properties to adopt the Shared Parking model for calculating the required number of parking spaces at Phase I of the Promenade. Charter Properties was not responsible for the poor planning of the ill-conceived parking arrangement at Dublin Ranch Villages, so it is definitely not obligated to resolve a problem that cannot be fixed by a garage alone. All that the nearby residents are requesting is for adequate parking as defined by Dublin’s Zoning Ordinance to be provided, so Phase I at the Promenade does not exacerbate the parking crisis that neither the City nor the HOAs have the political will or sufficient jurisdiction to confront directly. Dublin has good standards; we just need to be better about enforcing them. Given the parking realities at Dublin Ranch Villages, allocating at least 541 parking spaces as mandated by code is not only the responsible way to start the Promenade but also in the best interest of the Promenade tenants, nearby residents, and, most importantly, all of Dublin. If the City allows one developer to disregard Dublin’s Zoning Ordinance in an area with known parking shortage, it will send the wrong message to other developers with similar mixed-use projects elsewhere in Dublin. Once this bad precedent is set, those other developers can reasonably demand the City to relax its parking requirement for their projects and challenge the City in court should the City refuse. The City of Dublin cannot afford to spread this parking nightmare beyond Dublin Ranch Villages.

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Topics: Parking, Promenade, Residential Density

Golden Opportunity Missed With Wallis Ranch

by Tim Hall on 2009.01.12   |     Comments

SprawlingToDiabloAw, gee, I hate going negative again, but I really think the Dublin City Council let a golden opportunity slip through their wide open fingers at the 1/6/2009 council meeting when they extended the Wallis Ranch development agreement for an additional 10 years in exchange for a $1M Benefit Payment. The development as planned is a terrible idea for the Wallis Ranch property and for all of Dublin.

Wallis Ranch may be the most egregious example so far of Dublin’s haphazard and illogical density concentrations away from the city core and transit centers. The project violates almost every principle of smart urban design. The medium and medium-high density housing planned for Wallis Ranch exemplifies the worst aspects of sprawl, being located far from jobs, transit, shopping, the civic center and public schools. That may be fine for low-density estate homes and ranchettes, but not for medium-high density multi-family housing. With apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan, it is the very model of the modern major general plan mistake. In fact, every time the future Wallis Ranch residents want to do just about anything, they will have to get in their cars and drive. The concomitant traffic, pollution, energy consumption, expense, safety risk and wasted time will be multiplied by the density factor.

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Topics: Residential Density, Wallis Ranch

Dublin Ranch Villages Parking Challenge

by Jimmy Huang on 2009.01.05   |     Comments

Dublin Ranch VillagesOn December 9, 2008, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application by Charter Properties to adopt the Shared Parking model for calculating the required number of parking spaces at Phase I of the Promenade. At the time, the majority of the Planning Commission felt that the extreme parking shortage at Dublin Ranch Villages is brought on by the residents alone, but that assessment is incomplete at best. While residents who do not park their cars in the garages are partly to blame, the fact that the developers built up to the maximum of a given density range without regard for basic human behavior also contributes to the challenge. Many of the floorplans in Dublin Ranch Villages feature tandem garages. In a two-car household with a tandem garage, the first person to leave home is usually the first person to come home. Unless both drivers depart at the same time, the first person to take off will invariably park on the street. As the developers came up with innovative designs like tandem garages to cram more units into their high-density projects, they also converted land that should have been reserved for surface-level parking to subdivisions with the City’s blessing. According to former Councilman George Zika, allowing developers to count street parking towards the number of visitor parking as required by Dublin’s Zoning Ordinance is one of the reasons for the “absolutely ludicrous” parking crisis in Dublin Ranch Villages.

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Topics: Parking, Residential Density

Striking the Right Balance in Residential Density

by John M. Zukoski on 2008.12.25   |     Comments

high-density housingAlthough higher density residential projects may seem like a cost-effective way for Dublin to become an Entitlement Community at first, the accounting method used to justify this growth strategy often overlooks the impact higher density housing has on surrounding neighborhoods and underestimates the true cost of higher density to current residents. The increase in revenue generated by the initial burst of one-time impact fees from more units sold may be offset over time by the depreciation in property values from nearby homes and the slower appreciation rate of the high-density products themselves. The cost to provide the same level of service to a greater number of residents brought in by the higher density will continue to rise at a rate consistent with inflation, yet the City will have to contend with meeting the higher demand on a lower overall property tax base.

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Topics: Impact Fees, Residential Density