Action:  Review and approve, or approve with edits, the May 8, 2019 Fresno County Airport Land Use Commission Action Summary.

Summary: The City of Fresno, on behalf of TFS Investments, Inc and iT Architecture, is proposing the repurposing of a city block into a Mixed-Use Development site located on the 700 block of H Street in the Downtown Fresno.

The City has requested a consistency determination for the four-phase project whose proposal is to ultimately re-develop the ±1.37 acres of land. The project is located on the northeast side of H Street, between Mono and Inyo streets and next to Chukchansi Ballpark. The first three phases of the proposal calls for a complete improvement of the site that includes building a retail and entertainment center on a vacant lot, the demolishing of some existing buildings and parking lots, and the construction of a 4-story mixed use apartment building and entertainment venue. The fourth phase calls for the demolition or re-use of other existing buildings on the site but specific plans are not known. Supporting material included in your packets contains more specific details about the project.

The City of Fresno has issued two development permit applications related to the project. The first is for approval of the repurposing of the site to include the aforementioned uses, while the second is a planned development permit application for purposes of modifying certain property development standards including requiring commercial sidewalk connections and façade design development standards. Staff does not see a concern with this supplemental application as it relates to the ALUC. The property is zoned DTN (Downtown Neighborhood), is located in the Downtown Community Plan, and Fulton Specific Plan. The developer and architecture firm is also seeking an environmental assessment statutory exemption under Section 15268, Ministerial Projects, of the California Environmental (CEQA) Guidelines.

The site is located within Zone 6, the Traffic Pattern Zone (TPZ), of the Fresno Chandler Executive Airport. Specific site location in the TPZ is shown in the safety zone map included in your packet. The ALUCP restrictions on density and open land for the TPZ are not expected to be an issue for this project, and it is also within the Urban designation surrounding Chandler Airport. Other prohibited land uses in the TPZ include outdoor stadiums or other high-intensity uses, as well as hazards to flight. However, because of the project area's urban designation, high-intensity use would not be limited. Nonetheless, the proposed maximum height of the project's building is 61 1/2 feet which encompasses four stories. This proposed height will require an airspace analysis under Part 77 from the FAA, with approval by the ALUC contingent on obtaining this analysis.

The project falls outside of the Chandler Airport noise contours and is therefore not subject to any restrictions.

Action: Staff recommends that the ALUC approves a Conditional Finding of Consistency for the City of Fresno H Street Mixed Use Development Project Proposal contingent on receipt of Part 77 approval.

Summary:  This item was originally presented and discussed at the Commission's May 13, 2019 regular meeting. At the conclusion of the item discussion the ALUC moved to table the item, requesting that legal counsel research two issues surrounding it:

1. Are a city’s general plan and specific plans made consistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (“ALUCP”) in accordance with the requirements of California Government Code §65302.3, if the city solely amends its zoning ordinance to establish that the ALUCP is the primary plan of record, and adds new requirements for findings of consistency with the ALUCP for all discretionary entitlements, without amending the individual elements of the general plan and specific plans to be consistent with the standards of the ALUCP?

2. Can the state legislature, or the electorate, by initiative, make a law requiring high-density housing by right, and supersede the requirements of the ALUCP?

Legal counsel researched the items and forwarded findings to ALUC staff. It was then forwarded to the ALUC members for review. The findings are privileged and/or confidential and may not be shared with the public unless approved by the ALUC membership. However, a summary of the issues was submitted to Caltrans Aeronautics for review and informal comment. 

The ALUC should further discuss the findings and take appropriate action.

Item background information:

Within 180 calendar days of the ALUC’s adoption or amendment of their ALUCP, each local agency affected by this ALUCP must:   

1. Amend its land use plans and regulations to be consistent with this ALUCP, if needed; or

2. Overrule this ALUCP by a two?thirds vote of its governing body after adopting findings that justify the overrule and providing notice, as required by law. 

To establish consistency of land use plans and regulations with this ALUCP, local agencies must eliminate conflicts that may include the following:

• Land use plan or zoning designations that permit incompatible uses within noise contours or safety zones
• Permissible residential densities and nonresidential intensities that exceed this ALUCP’s density and intensity limits in any safety zone
• Permissible heights that would either constitute a hazard as determined by the FAA or penetrate the 14 CFR Part 77 surfaces Land use designations in local agency land use plans that reflect existing land uses do not render the local agency plans inconsistent with this ALUCP.

However, local agencies must limit the expansion and reconstruction of existing land uses that are not consistent with this ALUCP in accordance with the existing incompatible land use policies and standards of this ALUCP. Local agency land use plans and regulations must include provisions for long?term compliance with this ALUCP.  Local agencies must define the process they will follow when revising or amending land use plans and regulations, or when reviewing and approving land use projects within the AIA to ensure that they will be consistent with this ALUCP.  Land use plans and regulations, including zoning, subdivision and building regulations, must include standards for reviewing land use projects for consistency with this ALUCP.

Local agencies must submit an ALUC application for consistency determination per Section 2.6.1 of the ALUCP for proposed land use plans and regulations.  Once a land use plan has been found consistent with the ALUCP, future land use projects within the plan area must be reviewed for consistency if, at the time of original review, the plan consisted of only generalized land use designations without project details (e.g., site layout, density/intensity, building heights).  The city of Fresno submitted the attached Fresno Municipal Code amendment as a step to showing overall ALUCP consistency and thus meeting the above requirement. 

Action:  The city of Fresno requests that the ALUC approve a Finding of Consistency.

Upcoming meetings (approved schedule)

• July 1, 2019
• August 5, 2019
• September 9, 2019  Note: this is the second Monday of the month.