Zoning changes get approval in Half Moon Bay

The amendments also reduce parking requirements and ease restrictions on development, specifically housing, in mixed-use districts. 

“The vision here is we want to concentrate development in the downtown core and not have so much traffic along Highway 1. … To do that we have to ease up on restrictions in the downtown core and make it easier to build down here,” Councilwoman Debbie Ruddock said at the meeting. “The document we have now is way better and it will serve us well over time.”

The amendments specifically do away with requiring a conditional use permit for residential development in mixed-use districts, a change that would simplify the entitlement review process in some cases, according to a staff report.

Multi-family developments downtown also must now have a minimum density of 15 units per acre to “ensure modest unit sizes and better housing yield from downtown sites,” according to the report.

The city’s parking standards hadn’t been updated for some time and can be a “significant constraint” on the production of housing, according to the report. Officials in the past have specifically blamed the city’s parking rules for preventing the redevelopment of a property across from City Hall.

So for residential development, the city is now requiring just one parking space for each studio or one-bedroom unit instead of two while 1.5 spaces is required for each unit with two or more bedrooms. Guest parking provisions will remain unchanged.

For commercial development, the parking requirement has been reduced from one space per 250 square feet to one space per 300 square feet “to ease constraints on small lots,” according to the report. Cafes and restaurants are now required to include just one space per 75 square feet instead of the previous one space per 45 square feet.

Requirements on the number of garages in multi-family projects have also been reduced, further limiting barriers to development of those sorts of developments.

As for mixed-use development downtown, the Planning Commission can now grant up to a 20% reduction in required parking if it can be shared by users of the residential and non-residential components of the development.

“These zoning amendments bring us into the 21st century and I think the town will appreciate the projects that are done from this, one of which will happen on Main Street in the near future,” said Mayor Adam Eisen. “It’s going to make a big difference in our town.”

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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