Ponto East and Ponto West - Shopoff questions – May 3, 2017

1. DWELLING DENSITY: The area East of Ponto Road is now zoned R-23 (15 dwelling units per acre minimum to 23 dwelling units per acre maximum), not including State affordable housing density bonus:

·         Shopoff is proposing 137 dwellings on 6.5 net acres (= 21 dwelling units/acre)

·         Potentially with additional dwellings for an affordable housing density bonus

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* Should Shopoff's proposed density be:

2. HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS: currently proposed on the East side of Ponto Road are:

· 40 feet high (3 story)

· These buildings would be the tallest along the SW Carlsbad coast

· Commercial buildings like hotels are limited to 35 feet tall

· The building heights for the Poinsettia Shores Planned Community [which San Pacifico is majority of the development and the Shopoff and Kam Sang proposals are minor developments] limits building heights to 30-35 feet.

· All San Pacifico residential buildings except Santalina [35 feet tall] are no taller than 30 feet and must have a minimum 3/12 roof pitch

· The Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan that provides additional development guidance for the Shopoff proposed development specifically calls this area the “townhomes” area and shows 2-story [under 30 feet] townhomes as the ‘vision’ for the site.

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* Should the Shopoff proposed 3-story and 40 feet building heights be reduced to 2-story and/or no taller than 30-35 feet maximum to be consistent with the vision and more compatible with the Poinsettia Shores and San Pacifico community?

3. BUILDING INTENSITY: The Shopoff proposed stacked flat residential buildings have underground parking to allow more land use intensity and building mass. The proposed buildings run in a fairly contiguous cluster west of the railroad right-of-way from Avenida Encinas north to Ponto Storage.

· Shopoff’s proposed residential square footage [not including any balconies, private recreation or ancillary buildings] is 247,100 square feet total in 3 stories at 40 feet high (82,000 sq ft per story).

· For reference the Carlsbad Costco building is about 115,500 square feet in 1 story at 35 feet high. So Shopoff’s proposed residential building footprint is approximately 72% of the Carlsbad Costco, though it would be 5 feet higher than Costco.

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* A. Is Shopoff’s proposed building intensity compatible with San Pacifico and the Poinsettia Shores Community and appropriate?

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* B. Should Shopoff place story poles on-site to show and photo document the proposed building mass?

4. THE BEACHFRONT VILLAGE COMMERCIAL SITE: west of Ponto Drive proposes some design issues that may be of concern:

· A driveway entrance/exit along Avenida Encinas between Ponto Road and Carlsbad Blvd may make pedestrian/bike travel to the beach less safe.

· The site is proposed to filled with soil to lift the ground level at Coast Highway 9 feet higher and buildings put upon this higher ‘building pad’

· The proposed building designs and material qualities may be of concern

· A proposed grassy park-like ‘common area’ that can be used by customers and community may connect with the City’s land and planned trail under Coast Highway [Carlsbad Boulevard]

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* A. Should a driveway if needed be on Avenida Encinas, Coast Highway or Ponto Road?

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* B. Should Shopoff be allowed to fill the site to 9 feet??

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* C. Are the proposed building design and qualities sufficient to be the commercial and community heart of the Ponto Beachfront Village?

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* D. Is the proposed ‘common area’ desirable?

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* E. If so, do you prefer:

5. THE POINSETTIA SHORES MASTER PLAN and Local Coastal Program require prior to any land use change on the Shopoff site [approximately 10 net acres] a documented evaluation of making the East of Ponto Drive site recreation facilities (i.e. “public park”), or lower cost beach visitor accommodations.

· Since 2012 the San Pacifico, Ponto and entire Southwest quadrant of Carlsbad have been in a Park standard deficient [not meeting the City’s minimum 3 acres of Park per 1,000 population City Growth Management Program Standard].

· In 2015 our Southwest quadrant needed 6.6 acres of new City Park to comply with Growth Management Standards.

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* Should the Shopoff East site [or portion of the site] be: (select one or more, give examples)

6. PARKING: There is not a lot of excess or extra parking in the current Shopoff proposal and this will not be a “Gated” community. Concerns have been raised regarding vacation rental by owner (VRBO) and beach access parking in this new development.

· Parking in this area is already a problem on weekends and during the summer

· Additional residential units and VRBO may make this problem worse

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* A. Should Shopoff modify their development plans to accommodate more parking for potential VRBO parking in their development?

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* B. Have you experienced problems with VRBO and parking in your neighborhood?

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* C. What parking solutions would you propose?

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