APPENDIX 3
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY ANALYSIS
A.2. General Plan Consistency Analysis
California law requires a Specific Plan to be consistent with the General Plan of the adopting locality. To ensure consistency with the General Plan, a review was done of the existing City of Coronado General Plan for any relevant goals and policies. This review revealed the Specific Plan and the General Plan to be complementary and consistent.
California Government Code Section 65450-65553 allows for the adoption and administration of Specific Plans as an implementation tool for elements contained in a jurisdiction’s General Plan. State law requires that Specific Plans must demonstrate consistency with goals, objectives, policies and programs of a jurisdiction’s General Plan. To ensure that the Orange Avenue Corridor Specific Plan is consistent with City of Coronado’s General Plan, a thorough review was undertaken. The following section provides analysis of applicable General Plan goals and provides discussion regarding consistency with the Orange Avenue Corridor Specific Plan. Where there are inconsistencies, the General Plan will need to be amended. The Local Coastal Program (LCP) Land Use Plan will also need to be amended.
This section analyzes the goals and policies of the City’s General Plan that are most relevant to the Orange Avenue Corridor Specific Plan area. Goals and policies in the General Plan that are not applicable to the Specific Plan were not included. Below each of the identified goals and policies is a brief discussion of the consistency of the Specific Plan with the City’s General Plan (shown in italics.)
Community Design Element
Goals and policies identified in the Community Design Element that relate to the Specific Plan include:
Design Goal 2 – To maintain and enhance vibrant commercial districts that are in scale with the remainder of the community, and that facilitate and encourage pedestrian usage.
Design Goal 4 – To encourage preservation of the City’s historic and architecturally significant structures.
Design Goal 5 – To assure that adequate emphasis is placed on community design/project design efforts in order to improve the quality of new development in the City; and
Design Goal 6 – To provide developers, where appropriate, with adequate design criteria and feedback.
Also in the General Plan is a subsection that discusses community design principles, titled “Scale/Configurations /Continuity/ Rhythm/Land Use.” The following list summarizes those principles:
• Conserve and continue Coronado’s present human-scale, pedestrian-oriented, intimately textured environment.
• By and large, the scale of downtown should remain one and two stories, with appropriate higher accent structures at corners.
• The rhythm of the street as provided by 20-30 feet wide structures and storefronts must be preserved, and larger expanses of façade should be broken up to conform to this rhythm.
• A variety of building configurations and rooflines is essential to respect the village-like scale.
• Achieve a continuity of the good qualities that already exist in Coronado and not replace them with inappropriate fad designs.
• Create a pedestrian environment that is safe, inviting, and has vitality.
• Reduce the visual bulk of multi-family development through height, setback, structural coverage, floor area and façade restrictions.
• Use open spaces between and behind buildings to improve the street environment.
• Encourage off-the-sidewalk indentations and upper floor setbacks for outdoor uses.
• Develop outdoor community gathering places downtown.
• On-site parking should be accessed when possible from the alleys or secondary streets.
• Commercial development should be encouraged to provide required parking at the rear or beneath the project.
• Drive-in automobile oriented uses should be discouraged from locating on Orange Avenue.
Specific Plan Consistency with General Plan: The Specific Plan’s goals and objectives are consistent with the General Plan. The Plan’s development standards, design standards and design criteria directly address appropriate scale and pedestrian enhancements. Design criteria addresses improvements to older or historic structures, as well as new development. Since developers of new projects must adhere to the design standards, development standards and design criteria in the Plan, the quality of new development in the Specific Plan area is improved. Design criteria is presented in a user-friendly manner, with many photographs and diagrams. Furthermore, the design criteria directly addresses and incorporates the intent of the community design principles discussed in the General Plan.
Land Use Element
Goals and policies identified in the Land Use Element that relate to the Specific Plan include:
Land Use Goal 3 – That the residential character and village ambiance of the City should be maintained and enhanced.
Also in the General Plan is a subsection that discusses each land use designation. The following list is a summary of that discussion which is relevant to the Specific Plan’s land uses:
• Land uses anticipated in the Central Commercial zone are customary downtown type facilities for comparison shopping, convenience and personal facilities, and space for offices.
• Office spaces in the Central Commercial zone should include specific office structures and office use over street level commercial facilities.
• Land uses in the Limited Commercial zone are intended primarily for convenience centers with land uses customarily located within a short distance of the residential areas they serve.
• Tradesmen may locate in the Limited Commercial zone; however, service facilities requiring outdoor storage and trading activities and light repair shops of a semi-industrial nature, are only permitted under controlled conditions with a SUP.
Specific Plan Consistency with General Plan: The Specific Plan’s goals and objectives are consistent with the General Plan’s goals and objectives. The Specific Plan combines the Central Commercial and Limited Commercial Zones into one Commercial Zone, but remains consistent with the listed discussion items of the General Plan. The Specific Plan does not propose changes in existing land use, i.e., commercial, multiple family residential, civic use, open space, nor does it propose any increased intensity in use.
Parking Element
Goals and policies identified in the Parking Element that relate to the Specific Plan include:
Parking Goal 1 – To require that new development or redevelopment provide adequate parking facilities in a functional and unobtrusive manner;
Parking Goal 6 – To minimize the amount of City land area utilized solely for parking purposes by encouraging the provision of underground or under building parking facilities.
Specific Plan Consistency with General Plan: The Specific Plan’s goals and objectives are consistent with the General Plan’s goals and objectives. The Specific Plan’s design criteria requires new development to minimize curb cuts and utilize side street and alley access for parking areas whenever possible. The Specific Plan encourages underground parking in the Commercial Zone through a lower parking requirement ratio (parking space per for building square footage) than if surface parking is used.
Circulation Element
The following goal from the General Plan dealing with circulation is consistent with and supported by the DSPC.
Circulation Goal 7 – Minimize pedestrian / bicycle / motor vehicle conflict points within the system.
Specific Plan Consistency with General Plan: The Specific Plan does not encourage bicycle or pedestrian usage in the alleys, due to their functional nature and to limit the potential for bicyclist/vehicle conflicts, especially where alleys intersect with streets.
Conclusion
The goals and objectives of the Orange Avenue Corridor Specific Plan are consistent with those of the City of Coronado General Plan. Establishment of development standards, design standards and design criteria within the Specific Plan combine to effectively implement a variety of goals and policies of the General Plan. The Orange Avenue Corridor Specific Plan is consistent with the General Plan.