From a City of Alameda press release:
After a multi-year effort, the North Park Street rezoning will be recommended to the City Council for adoption on March 19 at the City Council meeting at 7:00 p.m.
The rezoning process began in 2008 with the City Council’s North Park Street Gateway Strategic Plan. The plan prescribed a series of recommendations for the redevelopment and re-design of the North Park Street corridor (from the Estuary to Lincoln Avenue) to address the impending departure of the City’s historic “auto row.”
The Gateway Plan and the North Park Street Code establish new zoning and development regulations that encourage new business to re-occupy the former auto dealerships, encourage pedestrian-oriented design, and preserve and enhance the predominately residential areas along Eagle and Buena Vista as well as the business areas along Clement and Blanding Avenues.
"PSBA is extremely happy the City Council has the new zoning ordinance for the North of Lincoln area of Park Street before them. This ordinance will only enhance the development efforts already underway in the area and will make further development just that much easier for potential investors and developers in the North of Lincoln area,” said Robb Ratto, executive director of the Park Street Business Association.
“We'd like to thank the Planning Board for their hard work on this issue and, of course, city staff; without their efforts this ordinance would never have gotten off the ground."
“The North Park Street area represents an important economic development opportunity for Alameda and a wonderful opportunity to recreate a transit oriented, pedestrian friendly, mixed-use environment along Park Street at the gateway to Alameda” said Andrew Thomas, Alameda city planner. “It serves as an important gateway to Alameda, a major transit corridor, a historic mixed-use neighborhood with blocks of historic homes and long term Alameda businesses.
“These new codes include a strong emphasis on form and building design to ensure that the character of new development is consistent with Alameda’s tradition of architectural and site design excellence. We are trying to ensure that property owners and developers know what the City is looking for in terms of good design in addition to what we are looking for in terms of land uses,” said Thomas.
The City Council will hold its first reading of the draft code on March 19, 2012. If approved, a second reading will occur on April 2, 2013 for adoption and the new code will take effect 30 days later on May 2, 2013.
Editor's note: At the same meeting, the city council will hold a public hearing and consider certifying the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the North Park Street regulations. You can see the complete agenda and accompanying staff reports for the March 19 council meeting on the City of Alameda website here.
