Pleasant Hill BART

Specific Plan

LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT

1. Increase the concentration of high intensity transit-oriented development, including office, retail, housing, and institutional uses in the Station Area so as to better utilize the regional transit accessibility provided by BART. For Areas 11/12: a) undertake a Community Design Program that balances the many competing interests (the program to be further defined by the Pleasant Hill BART Steering Committee); b) establish a Design Review Process.
   
   
2. Integrate housing into the Station Area wherever environmental constraints or overall land use considerations do not preclude it. Developers proposing projects in areas with high noise levels must show how the land use suitability standards can be met both inside and outside residential buildings and hotels, and through architectural design and site planning that is consistent with the Urban Design Guidelines.
   
   
3. Provide retail and other commercial services and public open space amenities that serve station area employees, BART riders, and residents of the station area, and nearby residential and commercial users and that can optimize the use of area infrastructure.
   
   
4. Provide opportunities for developments with a mix of land use, including office, hotel, retail, business and personal services, public facilities, and/or housing in order to obtain superior design, to optimize the use of infrastructure, to develop supportive markets, and to permit the right mix of uses in all economic environments. Mixed use developments are typically very well integrated physically and functionally; for example, mixed use housing/retail developments allow residents to walk rather than drive to shops. Developments with one building or a series of buildings could be consistent with this objective.
   
   
5. On land suitable for intensification, prohibit low intensity development or uses that will not contribute to increased regional and local transit usage.
   
   
6. Provide for public uses that will complement and enhance the Station Area by helping to create a sense of place.
   
   
7. To prevent underutilization of the Station Area land supply and a discordant development pattern, encourage either assemblage of small parcels into functionally viable sites or cooperative planning and development by groups of contiguous property owners.
   
   
8. Achieve cooperative development actions by BART and the private sector which will more fully utilize the Station Area resources.
   
   
9. Protect housing within and adjacent to the Station Area from adverse effects of intensification including noise, traffic intrusions, parking conflicts, visual incompatibilities and obstruction of sunlight.
   
   
10. Provide for the partial public recapture of value created by BART and other public investment so that these revenues can be used to support further transit improvements.
    
    
11. Achieve an equitable distribution among Station Area property owners of area wide development costs required to facilitate intensification of uses in the Station Area. An assessment district, or similar district, may be established to provide a financing mechanism for the payment of infrastructure fees. A property owner participating in such assessment district will receive credit towards the required development fee on a per square foot basis for the principal amount of the assessment.
    
    
12. Comply with the Growth Management provisions of the County General Plan as defined by Measure C (1988).