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Committee approves Palo Creek Reserve PUD rezoning after settlement, limits hotel size and residential units
Summary
The Land Use & Zoning Committee approved a PUD rezoning for the Palo Creek Reserve site that reduces residential density, caps a proposed hotel at 200 keys and adds a traffic‑study condition that can be waived by traffic engineering.
The Land Use & Zoning Committee on Oct. 21 approved ordinance 2025-673, a planned-unit development rezoning for roughly 29 acres south of JTB along San Pablo Road South, after members said parties reached a settlement that narrowed the proposal’s scope.
The committee voted 7-0 to approve the PUD, which converts an office complex to a mixed-use development that will include retail at the north portion of the site, a hotel limited to 200 keys, and up to 180 townhomes/rowhouses. Planning staff told the committee the revised plan reduced residential units from 250 to 180, lowered the parking‑garage height from 62 feet to 45 feet and limited standalone commercial buildings to 25,200 square feet.
Planning staff said the request is “substantially different” from a prior PUD denied by council in December 2024. The staff report found the proposal consistent with the comprehensive plan’s Commercial/General Commercial (CGC) land-use category and recommended approval with a single condition listed in the agenda.
Attorney Steve Debonau, representing the applicant, told the committee the parties negotiated a settlement agreement that “signed off” on the rezoning and that the applicant would accept the condition included in the agenda. Neighbors raised a remaining concern about a traffic study: Paul Harden of Riverplace Boulevard urged the committee to ensure a traffic study would be produced at PUD verification rather than allowing it to be waived.
Public works and transportation staff said the chief of traffic engineering (or their designee) may waive the traffic study if prior analyses and remaining roadway capacity make a new study unnecessary, and that methodology meetings would determine whether a new study was required. The committee adopted an amendment adding a traffic‑study provision that requires a study upon PUD verification unless waived by the chief of traffic engineering or their designee.
Council members who spoke in favor noted the proposal reduced density and building heights while increasing buffering between the development and nearby neighborhoods. The measure passed after the committee adopted the amendment and then approved the ordinance as amended.
The committee also recorded mandatory ex parte disclosures: Councilmember Landon said he attended an all‑day mediation on May 21 that produced the settlement; the chair disclosed a September 22 meeting with the developer and neighborhood representatives. Dylan Rheingold of the Office of General Counsel told members staff considered the reapplication “new” for purposes of the council’s rules and administrative res judicata principles, but he noted the final determination of newness rests with the committee and city council.
