Chapter 14.04.040
Urban Reserve
Sections:
14.04.040.020 Process for Converting Urban Reserve Lands.
14.04.040.030 Development Inventory and Land Need Forecast.
14.04.040.040 Evaluation and Selection of Lands for Potential Conversions.
14.04.040.060 Exception for Major Employment Uses or Public Facilities.
14.04.040.070 Interim Use of Urban Reserve Lands.
14.04.040.080 Designating Lands as Urban Reserve.
14.04.040.010 Purpose.
A. The Vacaville General Plan designates certain areas that are not expected to develop by the General Plan horizon year as urban reserve. Urban reserves are lands that are reserved for future urban use, that do not have an assigned General Plan land use designation for a specific type of use, that require comprehensive planning prior to urbanization, and that are intended to be retained in their current use, agricultural use, or similar minimal use until urbanized. These lands will require a General Plan amendment, annexation, and other various City planning approvals to permit urban development. General Plan policies provide that the City will consider General Plan amendment requests to convert lands designated as urban reserve to other land use designations no more often than every five years.
B. The purposes of this chapter are:
1. To provide a process and criteria for the City to evaluate conversions of lands designated urban reserve to land use designations that permit urban development during each scheduled review.
2. To establish the City’s policies regarding the use of urban reserve lands prior to being assigned other land use designations.
3. To ensure an adequate, long-term supply of developable residential and nonresidential land without outpacing the community’s ability to plan and prepare for such development.
C. This chapter applies to all lands designated urban reserve in the Vacaville General Plan, except as noted in General Plan Policy LU-P17.4.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.020 Process for Converting Urban Reserve Lands.
The City shall use the evaluation process described in this chapter to consider converting urban reserve lands to other land use designations. This process is conducted in conjunction with the five-year update of the municipal service review as part of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. The evaluation shall be completed within no less than five years after completion of the previous evaluation or General Plan update. The process has three steps:
A. First, the City prepares a development inventory and land need forecast as described in Section 14.04.040.030 to determine the amount and type of urban reserve land that could be eligible for conversion to urban land use designations.
B. Second, the City evaluates alternatives of which urban reserve lands would best meet the needs identified in the development inventory and land need forecast and selects for which urban reserve lands, if any, it wishes to initiate the General Plan amendment process. This process is described in Section 14.04.040.040.
C. Third, the City Council considers General Plan map and text amendments to assign urban land use designations to the selected urban reserve lands. This step is described in Section 14.04.040.050.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.030 Development Inventory and Land Need Forecast.
A. The first step in evaluating whether to assign urban land use designations to urban reserve lands is for the City to prepare a development inventory and land need forecast (“inventory”). The inventory is completed in conjunction with the five-year update of the City’s Municipal Service Review and Comprehensive Annexation Plan. The Director of Community Development prepares the inventory, which is subject to Planning Commission review and City Council acceptance.
B. The inventory shall include the following:
1. An inventory of the amount of land that has been developed within the City since the previous Inventory or General Plan update;
2. A current inventory of the amount of developable lands available within the City and within the sphere of influence by land use;
3. A forecast of the amounts of developable land by land use type that may be needed to accommodate expected development within the City over the 10- and 20-year periods following the inventory; and
4. A comparison of the inventory and the forecast, and a determination of the amount of land needed by land use type to retain a 20-year supply of developable land within the City and sphere of influence or to replenish the supply of developable land within the City and sphere of influence reduced since the General Plan’s adoption.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.040 Evaluation and Selection of Lands for Potential Conversion.
The second step in determining whether to assign urban land use designations to urban reserve lands is for the City Council to evaluate and select properties, if any, that it wishes to consider for assignment of urban land use designations. The City Council shall consider any requests from owners of urban reserve lands and the recommendation from the Planning Commission. The City Council shall consider the following factors:
A. The information from the development inventory and land needs forecast. The amount of land converted shall not exceed:
1. The amount of land of each land use type that has been developed citywide since adoption of the General Plan.
2. The amount of each type of land that is needed to maintain a 20-year supply of that type of land within the City and sphere of influence.
3. The City Council may, however, convert additional land as necessary to convert entire parcels, to provide appropriately sized sites for the planned use, or to otherwise accommodate sound land use planning (for example, to accommodate infrastructure extensions or the creation of logical boundaries). The total amount of additional land so converted shall not exceed 10 percent of the greater of either subsection A.(1) or (2) of this section.
B. Which lands best meet the future needs of the City as identified in the inventory.
C. Which lands are projected to have either existing or near-term proposed transportation, water, wastewater, and storm water utilities available within the 10-year period following the inventory; and
D. Which lands are most likely to meet the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) annexation criteria before other potential prospective lands.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.050 General Plan Amendment Process for Assigning Urban Land Use Designations to Urban Reserve Lands.
A. After the City Council has selected the urban reserve lands eligible for conversion to urban land designations and initiated the General Plan amendment process for these lands, the City Council may:
1. Direct that staff proceed with preparing a specific proposal for amending the General Plan for new land use designations for the properties; or
2. Authorize individual property owners or groups of owners to apply for such a General Plan amendment.
B. The General Plan amendment shall be processed as specified by Chapter 14.04.030 of this code.
C. The City Council is not obligated to approve any General Plan amendment proposal to convert urban reserve lands.
D. If the City Council chooses not to approve a General Plan amendment proposal to convert certain urban reserve lands, it may choose to initiate the General Plan amendment process for a like amount of other urban reserve lands following the process identified in Section 14.04.040.040.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.060 Exception for Major Employment Uses or Public Facilities.
A. The City Council may, at its own discretion and upon its own motion, initiate a conversion of urban reserve lands to accommodate or a major employment use that creates a minimum of 100 permanent jobs or a public facility.
B. Such conversion is not subject to the requirements of this chapter and may occur at any time. Such conversion shall not include conversion to a residential land use designation.
C. Such requests shall be subject to all required General Plan amendment, rezoning, annexation, and other land use approvals.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.070 Interim Use of Urban Reserve Lands.
Urban reserve lands are intended to be retained in their current use, agricultural use, or similar minimal use until urbanized. The City will oppose proposals to up-zone or otherwise approve development not previously allowed prior to adoption of the General Plan on urban reserve lands during this interim period in accordance with General Plan Land Use Policies.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)
14.04.040.080 Designating Lands as Urban Reserve.
Designation of new lands as urban reserve may occur as part of a new General Plan or a comprehensive update to the plan. Until such time, no new lands shall be designated urban reserve.
(Ord. 1972, Repealed and Replaced, 02/22/2022)