Council hears revised El Camino Real specific plan; staff to return after public draft and EIR scoping

City planning staff and consultant Ramey and Associates presented revisions to the El Camino Real Specific Plan in a study session Tuesday night, outlining a smaller-growth alternative, new neighborhood transition rules and design standards intended to reduce shading and privacy impacts on adjacent single-family homes.

Staff said the revised plan reduces the corridor’s development potential from an earlier draft that envisioned about 6,200 residential units down to a maximum of 4,400 units, while adding a new “corridor residential low” designation for townhomes at 12–25 dwelling units per acre and 2–3 stories. The draft keeps higher-density nodes for activity centers, retains a robust streetscape and transit-oriented vision, and proposes a roadway reconfiguration that would add protected bike lanes, bus boarding islands and wider sidewalks in the 120-foot El Camino right-of-way.

Consultant Alessandra London outlined the plan’s new land-use map and the development and design standards intended to reduce impacts where the corridor abuts single-family neighborhoods. Notable changes include a 30-degree daylight plane on the northern side of the corridor, deeper setbacks and upper-story stepbacks in sensitive locations, and minimum landscape screening standards (a 5-foot planter strip and tree plantings at specified intervals).

Staff described a phased approach: initiate public-draft release and EIR scoping later this summer or early fall, present a proposed final plan in fall 2025, and implement standards that streamline review for projects that conform to the adopted specific plan. The presentation also described public outreach since late 2024, meetings of a citizen advisory committee and two open houses; attendees raised concerns about loss of retail, the changes to parking on-street, and ensuring active ground-floor uses at priority nodes.

Council members asked detailed questions about parking requirements, whether density bonuses under state law would change the plan’s effective capacity, how the 30-degree daylight plane is measured for parcels at differing grades, and ways to encourage retail at key intersections. Staff said the plan aligns parking standards with the city’s recently adopted zoning code; it allows shared parking strategies and unbundled residential parking; and that density bonuses under state law (for transit proximity or affordability) would still apply and could increase effective capacity.

After discussion, the council voted unanimously to note and file the study session and directed staff to continue community outreach, prepare the public draft and proceed with environmental review. Staff said they would return with a public draft, EIR scoping materials and additional refinements to the daylight-plane and parking rules for council review.