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UPZONING OF THE CHURCH LOT AT STANLEY BLVD. & CAMINO DIABLO
UPZONING OF THE CHURCH LOT AT STANLEY BLVD. & CAMINO DIABLO
The City Council is in favor of upzoning all Lafayette church sites including the Living Hope Fellowship/Cavalry Baptist church parcel to 30 units/acre. This is the same residential zoning density as Downtown Lafayette. 30 units/acre zoning can reach 4+ stories and be of higher density if developers invoke the State Density Bonus Law. Buildings in Downtown have recently been permitted for 4 stories (56’) and one under review is 5 stories.
The State has directed the City to distribute multi-family housing in single family neighborhoods. The Council looked at several strategies in July. On July 10, in a list of seven strategies, staff included upzoning religious institutions to 20 units/acre, but did not recommend this strategy. However, the Council decided to pursue church upzoning at 30 units/acre! Council believed that SB4, a proposed state bill, could grant this use to churches anyway. However, SB4 is not yet law, limits heights to 1 story above current limits and includes conditions and protections that make development less lucrative. City Council’s upzoning would not include such restrictions.
In most of Lafayette, religious institutions are within single family residential neighborhoods and are scaled to the surrounding area. Our neighborhood is zoned R-10 residential which is approximately 4 units/acre with a 35’ height limit.
At 30 units/acre plus density bonus, the 2.3 acre church site could look like the last example at the right and have 70+ units. Townhouse building types in the 13-24 units/acre example in this chart are at a scale more compatible with a residential neighborhood with R-10 zoning.
Thoughts? Send an email with the subject “Church Upzoning” to cityhall@lovelafayette.org now as deliberations are underway.
Past City Council Meetings Reference Reports and Videos
Past City Council Meetings Reference Reports and Videos
News Articles
News Articles
Council considers options to address Housing Element concerns from HCD - Lamorinda Weekly 7/19/2023
This article is about the July 10 meeting at which the Council approved presenting 6 strategies to the California Department of Housing Community Development (HCD) for feedback, including Strategy 5 - Church Upzoning. The purpose in presenting these strategies is to obtain HCD's feedback on whether, with inclusion of these, it would accept the City's Housing Element, a blueprint for housing development over the next 7 years. Presenting Strategy 5 - Church Upzoning to HCD, effectively signals Council's endorsement, yet many residents are not aware of the discussion. If you have opinions about any of the strategies, now is the time to share these with Council.
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