Fred Weis – June 16, 2023 – What is actually buildable in the Gateway Opportunity Sites?

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    Note:  This message is a portion of the full article “138 acres of Gateway: What is actually buildable?”
    Please see the full article for more information.
     
     
     
    At the June 13, 2023, Planning Commission “special meeting” this past Wednesday, Chair Scott Davies asked the question of David Loya: “And do you know or have you looked at what percentage of the actual buildable parcels in that 138 Acres is the ratio of those orange parcels to the total acreage of the Gateway Area?”
     
    This is an important question, and it is worded well. Thank you for bringing this up, Scott. It’s a question that should have been evaluated from the beginning in looking at the Gateway Plan — but was not, and has not.
     
    And one of the issues we have here is that the figures shown in the draft Gateway Area Plan are misleading or incorrect.
     
    Here are answers, in brief:
     
    1. First, the gross size of the Gateway Area is about 138 acres. But that includes the roads. The total acreage of parcels in the Gateway Area is about 109 acres.
    2. The total acreage of the Opportunity Sites is about 66 acres.
    3. What is the acreage of “the actual buildable parcels” or portions of the parcels of the Opportunity Sites is about 43 acres.
    4. There are about 5 to 9 acres of buildable parcels in areas outside of the Opportunity Sites. 
     
    The “orange parcels” mentioned refers to the “Opportunity Sites” parcels within the Gateway area. They are described by David Loya as “These are sites that have a lot of potential for future development and are largely viewed as the areas that are going to provide the majority of future development over the next 20 to 50 years in this plan.” (See the Building & Massing presentation #3, here)
    The map is from Page 41 of the 10/2022 draft.
     
    image.png
    This question is critical for understanding development in the Gateway area. At the same time, the question is more nuanced than it might appear. The key is the phrase “the actual buildable parcels.”
     
    The response from our Community Development Director David Loya was: “We do have that information. I don’t have it on the top of my head right now. But just looking at it, you can see it’s close to half.“
     
    Well, from a number of total acres perspective, that could be considered as an okay answer. But in looking at the question from the perspective of planning — which of course is what we’re trying to here — it’s a terrible answer. As a reply to the question “what percentage of the actual buildable parcels in that 138 Acres is the ratio of those orange parcels to the total acreage of the Gateway Area?” that quick answer is useless.

    Because it doesn’t begin to address the question that Chair Davies asked.

    Among the issues here is that the figures shown in the draft plan for the buildable acreage of the parcels in the Opportunity Sites are incorrect. In some cases the true acreage is less than half of what is shown. (Pages 38-41 in the 10/2022 draft.) The large issue is that some Opportunity Sites contain large areas of environmentally sensitive areas that are designated to be open space. (See map on Page 71.) Whoever was responsible for the figures on the Opportunity Sites did not factor that in — at all. Open space requirements within the Opportunity Sites are not even mentioned. All that’s looked at is the gross acreage — not the usable acreage.
     
    For some Opportunity Sites, the buildable acreage is 40% to 60% of the stated number of acres.

     

    An easy example is the anticipated daylighting of Jolly Giant Creek at the car wash site at 10th & K Streets. The parcel is shown as Opportunity Zone “G” with 1.42 acres — the size of the entire block. But when the daylighting is complete, that acreage might become 0.9 acres — in two pieces, one on each side of the creek.
     
    When I started looking into the Gateway Plan I made a spreadsheet that identified each parcel with its size, address, name of the business if applicable, the Gateway district, and — most importantly — the likelihood that the parcel might be developed. 
     This “likelihood of development” factor is, of course, very subjective. If a parcel is completely empty and there are no wetland issues, for example, then it can be a clear “Yes” on potential development. If a parcel is a recently-built building or has historical significance, then it might be considered a strong “No” — not likely to be built.
     
    To read more on this, see the article “138 acres of Gateway: What is actually buildable?”
     
    See also:  “Visualizing Compatible Density”
     
    — Fred Weis