At its Tuesday night meeting, the City Council voted to extend the Emergency Interim Ordinance it approved a couple of months ago to October 26, 2012 as amended by staff. It establishes interim development standards and procedures to be applied to new commercial projects, pending the codification of the revised land use and circulation elements of the General Plan (LUCE), incorporates the staff’s modifications and addresses ordinance applicability, CM District non-conforming uses, shared parking and FAR calculations in the Downtown, with exemptions for City projects.

At the same meeting, in closed session, prior to extending the Emergency
Ordinance, the Council approved a settlement with a developer with two pending projects whose attorney, Chris Harding, threatened litigation that would challenge the interim ordinance, and, possibly, void it. City Attorney Marcia Moutrie advised the Council to agree to the settlement. The developer’s projects are located at 702 Arizona Avenue and 1315-1317 Seventh Street.

The Council also approved the design of a new City parking structure on
Second Street. It is larger than any existing parking structure, has solar
Panels on the roof, and exterior staircases crisscrossing the face of the
structure. The Planning Commission had appealed the design. The Council
incorporated some of its suggestions, but over-rode the appeal.