1 Hamilton: Answers to Questions and Comments Recently Received

What is the status of 1 Hamilton? The City has partnered with EAH Housing to develop approximately 40-50 low-income rental apartments at the northern portion of 1 Hamilton. City planners and the EAH Housing Team are in the process of assembling information based on City Council and Planning Commission direction. The City will provide an announcement to the community once application materials are submitted, and will be made available to the community upon completion.

What about story poles for 1 Hamilton? The City is currently collecting bids to erect story poles for the project. Once application materials are submitted, additional details will be communicated, including the approximate dates and length of time story poles will be erected.

When will site-specific environmental concerns be evaluated for 1 Hamilton? As noted above, the City and EAH Team is in the process of preparing application materials based on City Council direction. A site-specific project-level Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be assembled for the project and submitted as part of the development review application materials. The Draft EIR will be circulated for public comment after publication of the Housing Element EIR and will contain site-specific analysis including addressing public comments related to asbestos and air quality, among other items.

Why is the Land Use at 1 Hamilton changing with the Housing Element? The Housing Element is a policy-level document that provides direction but does not result in the actual “rezoning” of 1 Hamilton. It does, however, amend the General Plan (since the Housing Element is one of the required elements of the General Plan). Therefore, to maintain internal consistency within the General Plan, City planners are recommending that City Council amend the land use designation for the northern portion of the 1 Hamilton property from its current "Community Facility (C-F)" land use designation to "Multi-Family (MFR-2)" land use designation in the General Plan Land Use Element to identify a certain level of "population density and building intensity" for the 1 Hamilton site, which will occur concurrently with the adoption of the Housing Element. (See Government Code Section 65302(a) for details).

When will rezoning occur for 1 Hamilton? In order to build affordable housing on the site, the City will create a separate parcel for the northern portion of the 1 Hamilton property with rezoning from Open Area (O-A) to Multi-Family Residential Bayfront (RM-B), which is similar to those multi-family residences in the surrounding area with a land use designation of Multi-family (MFR-2) allowing up to 29 units/acre.

The actual “rezoning” for 1 Hamilton will establish the full array of development regulations

applicable to the site and will occur concurrently with the development review proposal, which includes the project-level environmental review and approval of a ground lease for the site. Housing Element law envisions that the rezoning of sites identified in the sites inventory may occur subsequent to the adoption of the Housing Element. (See Government Code Section 65583(c)(1) for details).