City explains Town Center plan
The City of Canyon Lake is attempting to resolve two significant issues within the city with the implementation of the single proposed Town Center Specific Plan. Not only will the plan direct future Town Center development with an organized and consistent design and content, but it will fulfill a state requirement to plan for affordable housing within the city.
“I think we can all agree that the Town Center is tired, under utilized, and simply not providing as much benefit to the community as the city’s main commercial center should,” City of Canyon Lake City Manager Chris Mann said. “This is something that has to be addressed. The goal of the specific plan is to reinvigorate the Town Center as a business location, while at the same time incorporating opportunities for the development of new housing to meet state requirements.”
Although the plan is attempting to lay out specific design and use for the center, it is simply a planning document for dictating how the center is to be developed should and if future developers approach the city for authorization to build within the center.
“There is currently no proposal to develop any portion of the draft specific plan,” Chris said. “There have been no discussions with any developers along those lines. Again, this is simply a planning document. When or if a proposed project ever comes forward to develop any portion of the Town Center, any such project would undergo a very public review process.”
Although news of the plan has begun to crescendo among city residents and business owners, the city is quick to point out that it has been attempting to communicate the plan development openly from the start.
“The Town Center Specific Plan has been in the works for months, and has been publicly discussed numerous times, including at the State of the City event,” Chris said. “The city’s consultants have presented on their progress and have received feedback from the City Council in open meetings. While the notices that recently went out from the Planning Department have stirred up some additional attention, this has been an ongoing and very public process for many months.”
Much of the feedback the city is receiving has to do with the proposed housing units that are included in the plan.
“The Town Center Specific Plan does not remove commercial uses in favor of housing,” Chris said. “Nor would the occupants of any new housing have access inside the gates or to any POA amenities without POA approval. The Specific Plan envisions a mixed-use project, with commercial (shops, restaurants, etc.) on the first floors and residential units above.”
Planning for residential units not only helps the city to meet state mandates to zone for additional housing units (without having to place those units inside of the gates), but, if actually built, these residential units at the Town Center would help to support the restaurants, shops, etc. that exist below them, Chris said.
“This is a model that has proven to be quite successful in cities throughout California and across the country,” he said.
The housing element of the specific plan fulfills a state law that requires every city to update the housing element of its general plan in various cycles to provide for changing regional housing needs. The current cycle covers an 8-year period.
“This cycle, Canyon Lake was assigned an allocation of 129 housing units that the city must plan for,” Chris said. “Not all of these units must be ‘low income,’ but a certain percentage of them must be. There is no way for cities to get around these state requirements. Severe penalties can be imposed by the state on cities that fail to comply.”
With little vacant land existing within the City of Canyon Lake, the state law can be difficult to comply with, but the requirements are still enforced.
“We cannot escape the requirement,” Chris said. “We must still update our housing elements to accommodate the additional housing units. In these cases, the housing element may evaluate existing developed properties as ‘under-utilized sites.’ That being said, the city cannot control the price of a housing unit, nor is the city required to actually build housing units. The city can only establish land use criteria for the units and impose certain requirements, such as increased density.”
The state will monitor the city’s progress to make sure it has adequately allowed the opportunity for the development of the required number of units, and that it has imposed the correct density requirements.
“At the end of the day, it is possible, if not likely, that any future units, while labeled ‘affordable,’ may well be quite expensive,” Chris said.
And, all the energy, effort and expense that is being put into the Town Center Specific Plan may not bear fruit. The housing and commercial development of the Town Center called for in the plan would be quite the undertaking.
“Assembling the properties needed to actually develop the vision laid out in the specific plan would be incredibly challenging given that there are so many different owners within the Town Center,” Chris said.
“Any developer down the road who might be interested in attempting such a development would have to work closely, and very publicly, with the city and with the owners within the Town Center. It would no doubt be a long and complicated process which would require cooperation and buy-in from property owners, tenants and the community.”
But, with a specific plan eventually in place, should permits in the future be requested from the city, the developer’s plans would need to adhere to the elements contained in the Town Center Specific Plan.
A separate, but related, plan is also being developed by the city to ensure that Canyon Lake residents can continue to drive their golf carts across Railroad Canyon Road into the Town Center. The Local Road Safety Plan is being created to help reduce serious accidents along Railroad Canyon Road. The Town Center Specific Plan calls for increased golf cart parking and pedestrian walkways.
The formation of the Specific Plan is being financed in part by a grant the city applied for, and was awarded, from the state.
Residents who have detailed questions about the specific plan or the process to implementation should contact City Planner Jim Morrissey at 951-479-8005 or jmorrissey@canyonlakeca.gov.