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Piedmont council adopts Moraga Canyon specific plan addendum and introduces zoning ordinance
Summary
After extensive staff briefings and more than 20 public commenters, the Piedmont City Council adopted a CEQA addendum and approved revisions to the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan, then introduced an ordinance to implement the plan. Council tied the plan to the city's housing element and required design, safety and affordability provisions.
Piedmont's City Council voted unanimously Oct. 6 to adopt an addendum to the housing element EIR and approve revisions to the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan, a framework intended to guide future housing development on city-owned land.
The action directs staff to proceed with a request-for-proposals and developer outreach steps that would follow plan adoption, but it does not itself authorize construction or commit city funds. Planning staff said the specific plan is a regulatory framework 'not a construction project' and will require subsequent project-level review, permitting and public hearings.
The council accepted staff's recommended revisions, with one amendment restoring a planning commission recommendation that private usable outdoor space per unit start at 80 square feet (subject to limited transfers to common space in proposals). The staff-recommended changes adopted by the council also clarify stopping-sight-distance and driveway-placement standards, add detail on transit-stop spacing and define a minimum affordability target for the site (staff proposed making at least 40% of units affordable on the site to qualify for an exemption under the Surplus Lands Act).
"This specific plan is a framework for future decisionmaking," Planning Director Kevin Jackson said during the presentation. He told the council the plan is intended to align with program 1l of the city's 6th-cycle housing element and to keep Piedmont eligible for state funding tied to an approved housing element.
The council introduced, on first reading, an amended zoning ordinance (Ord. 7-84 NS) to coordinate city code with the specific plan. The ordinance will return for a later public hearing and second reading before it becomes final.
What happens next: if the council finalizes the ordinance and the plan, staff will determine whether the city is exempt from the Surplus Lands Act or must follow a formal notice-of-availability process; either path leads to a public RFP and a developer selection process that the council will vet publicly.
Votes and motions: the resolution adopting the addendum and plan edits and the ordinance introduction each passed unanimously on voice votes.
