TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Marisa Lundstedt, Community Development Director
Nhung Madrid, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Downtown Specific Plan Project Update (Community Development Director Lundstedt).
DISCUSS AND PROVIDE DIRECTION
Line
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council, discuss the Downtown Specific Plan project update and provide direction on the preferred design alternative.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
No fiscal impact at this time.
BACKGROUND:
Since June 2014, the community has been engaged in an ongoing discussion of the future of downtown. In early 2015, the City collaborated with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to conduct a week-long visioning charrette to engage community stakeholders and evaluate the Downtown area. The recommendations from ULI’s evaluation were presented to the community in a public presentation with the premise that a consultant would develop the implementation tool designed to carry out the vision and recommendations for Downtown. Based on the visioning action items presented by ULI, Staff prioritized the action items into four categories, which the City Council approved at the February 23, 2015 City Council Study Session. In addition to prioritizing the action items, City Council hired Pacific Municipal Consultants (PMC), now known as Michael Baker International (MBI) to prepare the Downtown Specific Plan.
Following prioritization of the ULI recommendations, staff has been working on implementing both public and private sector action items concurrently with the preparation of the Downtown Specific Plan. Although some of the action items may be outside the scope of a Specific Plan such as the formation of a Downtown Residents’ Group (DRG) or filling the Economic Development Manager position, staff recognizes that these actions dovetail into the Specific Plan/process. To clarify, the DRG is a group of residents that have formed to address matters related to living conditions in the Downtown area. This privately formed group now has a voice and representation on the Downtown Specific Plan Advisory Committee to articulate their interests, concerns and perspectives on some of the issues to be addressed in the Specific Plan. Similarly, hiring of an Economic Development Manager is an HR function, but this Manager will be highly involved in the implementation of the economic strategies for greater business development and opportunities within the Downtown.
Attachment 1 provides a brief status update on several of the ULI recommendations that are currently underway. Moving forward, Staff will continue to provide the City Council with status updates on a quarterly basis through information memorandums.
DISCUSSION:
In May 2015, the City kicked-off the Downtown Specific Plan project with the Michael Baker International Consultant Team. The team met with staff to discuss project expectations, objectives, timeline and deliverables. The team also held an introductory meeting with the Downtown Specific Plan Advisory Committee which includes a balanced representation of stakeholder groups throughout the City including:
• Downtown Business and Professional Association (DBPA)
• Downtown Business Improvement District (BID)
• Manhattan Beach Commercial Property Owners Association (MBCPOA)
• Manhattan Beach Residents’ Association (MBRA)
• Downtown Residents’ Group (DRG)
• Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce
• South Bay Association of Realtors (SBAOR)
• City Staff from the Community Development Department
Community Outreach
As part of the project’s continued engagement efforts with the community, the City asked residents, property owners, merchants and visitors to share their thoughts on key questions through a survey. This survey was developed to understand how the Downtown Specific Plan can best address and reflect the needs and preferences of residents and visitors. The survey polled participants on what their priorities are for Downtown, what types of businesses they would like to see, what would encourage them to spend more time in the Downtown, to rank parking options, and what other communities may be doing that people would like to see here.
The survey was administered throughout the month of August using the City’s online engagement platform, Open City Hall. Following completion of the survey, the Open City Hall site logged 141 visitors to the topic with 172 survey responses received. That’s equivalent to approximately 7 hours of public comment at two minutes per response. With public engagement being a priority for the City Council, staff also engaged in over 40 hours of weekday and weekend intercept surveys throughout the Downtown area including locations such as Metlox Plaza, along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, the Pier/Strand, Farmers Market, and also at Polliwog Park during a “Concerts in the Park” evening event. This allowed staff and the a few members of the Consultant Team to engage with the community in a very meaningful way by providing one-on-one interactions and the opportunity to respond to questions related to the project.
Following the initial Open City Hall community outreach effort, the survey results and key themes and recommendations were then used to confirm the community’s vision to develop the alternative design concepts that were incorporated into the first community workshop. The key themes and recommendations include preserving the small-town beach character, improving and increasing parking, protecting small business viability, increasing outdoor dining options, considering more programming such as art walks and outdoor concerts, creating a more pedestrian/dog/kid friendly environment, wider sidewalks, more safe street crossing, supporting local businesses and limiting larger retail chains and investing in streetscaping, street art, and a façade improvement program. Attachment 2 provides a summary of the survey findings. Staff anticipates using Open City Hall for future engagement with the community on other components of the Downtown Specific Plan.
Community Workshop
The first community workshop, which was held on Thursday, October 8, 2015, was a highly interactive workshop that utilized large wall mounted posters with a display of various graphics and pictures to engage and excite attendees. The workshop included a comprehensive project overview of the ULI Report, goals, process and timeline for the Specific Plan. The workshop format also allowed attendees to rotate from station to station to discuss topics related to zoning regulations such as land use, design preferences for architecture and downtown tenant mix, mobility, multi-modal circulation and parking strategies, urban design and streetscape concepts such as street furniture, lighting, landscaping, and public spaces, and various opportunity sites and priority projects.
Attendees were engaged through techniques such as hands-on mapping exercises, and priority voting exercises using rotating small group stations. This allowed staff and the consultant team to facilitate smaller group discussions with attendees in a more manageable and meaningful way. Workshop attendees were able to have a first-hand opportunity to provide invaluable feedback essential to shaping the future of Downtown.
An additional workshop was held on Friday, October 9, 2015, in order for the business community to provide feedback on the same workshop materials that were presented the previous evening. Attachment 3 provides a comprehensive summary of the results from both workshops, and it also provides an overview of the community’s preferences on the alternatives presented at both workshops.
Next Steps
Since inception of the discussions related to the Downtown Plan/Downtown Specific Plan process, the community has provided a tremendous amount of time, input and feedback through dozens of outlets including City Council meetings, Commission meetings, workshops, stakeholder interviews, and surveys to name a few. The recommendations from ULI have provided the City with strategic advice to formulate a vision for the next 20 years. Through this Downtown Specific Plan process thus far, the community has confirmed that vision through outreach opportunities mentioned above.
In summary, the purpose for the workshops were to formally introduce the project to the community and solicit input on the community design concept alternatives as presented at each interactive station. The desired outcomes include updating the community on the project status, determining the community’s preference on various aspects of the project’s alternatives, and educating the community on the project’s economic and business development efforts. Attachment 3 is a detailed summary of the workshop outcomes.
Based on the input from the Community Workshop, several alternatives have been prepared for Council review and ranking. More specific details about each alternative will be presented at tonight’s meeting. In addition, staff will also utilize Open City Hall to gain community input on the preferred alternative.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST:
Workshop #1 outreach materials included a half page color display ad in The Beach Reporter, window display posters throughout the Downtown area, a press release, e-notifications through the City’s website, information on the dedicated Downtown page at: www.downtownmbdefined.com <http://www.downtownmbdefined.com>, in-person engagement at the Farmers Market, notifications through the City’s social media outlets, and email notifications (Attachment 4).
CONCLUSION / RECOMMENDATION:
In order to move to the next step in the process, staff is requesting the City Council to consider the proposed preferred alternative and the rankings of the alternatives by the community, and to either validate the proposed preferred alternative or to provide further direction. Loreli Cappel, Project Manager with Michael Baker International will be present at tonight’s meeting to provide a presentation and to further discuss the proposed preferred alternatives.
Staff recommends that the City Council discuss the Downtown Specific Plan project update and provide direction on the preferred design alternative.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Downtown Specific Plan Update Memo
2. Open City Hall Survey Results
3. Workshop #1 Summary Memo
4. Public Outreach Collateral
5. PowerPoint Presentation