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Montclair advances draft general plan, housing element and AMUD zoning ahead of November hearings
Summary
City staff and consultants presented a consolidated general plan package that pairs a housing element and climate action plan with two specific plans (Arrow Highway AMUD; corridor code). Council and commissioners requested edits; Planning Commission review is scheduled for Nov. 12 and Council consideration in December.
Montclair officials and consultants presented a consolidated update to the city's general plan, housing element and related specific plans at a joint City Council and Planning Commission workshop. Staff said the package is intended to align land-use policy, zoning and climate and would return to the Planning Commission on Nov. 12 and the City Council in December.
The package combines a citywide general plan update with two area-specific documents: an Arrow Highway mixed-use district (AMUD) to replace remnant portions of the old North Montclair specific plan, and a corridor code to modernize commercial zoning on primary corridors. "This new one will replace it," said Mike (Staff member), describing the AMUD as enabling mixed-use development in areas that current rules do not permit.
Consultants presented the plan scope and expected outcomes. "The general plan essentially allows the city to step back from your daily routine of being reactive to now being proactive," said Kaiser (RangWalla Associates), explaining the nine plan elements and an implementation table that prioritizes actions and funding sources, emphasizing grant funding over general fund uses.
Sarah Walker (National Community Renaissance) summarized the housing element and RHNA obligations: Montclair's Regional Housing Needs Allocation for 2021'2029 is 2,593 units, including about 1,780 for low and very low income households. Staff reported a land inventory of roughly 146 acres with theoretical capacity for about 4,196 units; the city has a letter of "substantial compliance" from the state pending formal adoption and rezoning. "The city has a surplus in all of the different income categories and is more than able to accommodate the arena for the planning period," Walker said.
Consultants also reviewed environmental review. Greg Martin (Rincon) described the programmatic EIR process, public notices and comment periods and said the draft identifies potentially significant impacts in biological, cultural, geology and noise categories and significant unavoidable impacts related to air quality and, potentially, historic resources.
Council members and commissioners pressed staff on details including how existing industrial and light-manufacturing uses would be treated, whether mixed-use development would require parcel assembly, and the timing and scope of annexation or sphere-of-influence studies. Mikey fent (Director of Economic Development) said the city has a County-funded study planned to assess feasibility and infrastructure costs for annexing parts of the sphere of influence and that the county provided about $200,000 to help fund that study.
The workshop produced detailed editorial and policy requests rather than formal votes. Staff was asked to revise language on zoning uses, refine implementation cost estimates and return with clarified graphics and consistency edits ahead of the scheduled November Planning Commission hearing.
