Camino Pablo Single-Family Residential Subdivision Rezon General Plan Amendment and Development Plan

The Camino Pablo Single-Family Residential Subdivision, Rezone, General Plan Amendment, and Development Plan project includes Major Subdivision application CDSD23-09646. Rezone application CDRZ23-03270, General Plan Amendment application CDGP21-00004, and Development Plan application CDDP23-03012, to allow development of the southern 7.9 acres of the 23.9-acre project site consisting of a residential subdivision of 13 single-family residences with attached accessory dwelling units (ADUs) incorporated into 11 of the residences. The remaining northern 16.0 acres of the site would remain as agricultural open space. The project site is a legal lot in the AL Agricultural Lands, General Plan land use designation. The applicant has submitted a Major Subdivision application to create an 18-lot subdivision as shown below, including 13 residential lots (Parcels 1 through 13), open space Parcel A, landscape Parcels B and C, and street Parcels D and E. Parcels 1 through 13 and Parcels B through E encompass the proposed residential development on the southern portion of the site. Parcel A is the northern 16,0 acres of the site that would remain as open space. As part of the project, Parcel A would be redesignated from its present AL General Plan designation, to a Resource Conservation (RC) designation and this portion of the property would be deed restricted to prevent future urban development thereon. To allow the Major Subdivision to proceed the applicant requests a General Plan Amendment to redesignate the southern 7.9 acres as Residential–Low Density (RL) to allow the development of 13 single-family residences on this portion of the site. The applicant also requests that the County Rezone the southern 7.9-acre portion of the project site from the A-2 General Agricultural District to a P-1 Planned Unit District and has submitted a Development Plan application for the P-1 District to allow development of 13 one- and two-story detached single-family residences on individual lots. The lots would range in size from 15,368 square feet to 27,827 square feet, with an average lot size of approximately 19,969 square feet. Attached ADUs would be included in 11 of the homes, while Parcels 7 and 8 would not include an ADU. The 7.9-acre southern portion would have a net development area of 6.65 acres (without street Parcels D and E) with a resultant net density of 1.95 residential units per acre, which would be within the 1-to-3 dwelling units per net acre density range that is permissible within the RL General Plan land use designation. The applicant expects project construction phase to last a total of 32 months, including 14 months for grading, infrastructure installation, and building pads, and 18 months for construction of the proposed homes. The 13 residential lots would have access onto Camino Pablo via a new access road terminating in a cul-de-sac. The cul-de-sac would have a sidewalk on the north/east side. The opposite side of the cul-de-sac would be lined with several stormwater bioretention and filtration planter strips. The cul-de-sac would form the fourth leg of the Camino Pablo / Tharp Drive intersection. Tharp Dive is a two-lane residential collector street that intersects with Camino Pablo and a number of local residential streets. Camino Pablo is a two-lane arterial street that travels northwest from the Camino Pablo / Tharp Drive intersection to connects to Canyon Road – Moraga Road, which is a two – to four-lane County-designated arterial road. The project would utilize existing sewer main and water line infrastructure located within the Camino Pablo right-of-way maintained by the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (CCCSD) and East Bay Municipal Utility District respectively. The project would be required to apply to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), and obtain approvals necessary for annexation into the CCCSD and EBMUD districts before service may be provided. The residential lots would comprise 5.95 acres of the 7.9-acre gross development area, with the remaining acreage dedicated to the street right-of-way (1.26 acres) and common area landscaping (0.69 acres). The residential lots would have minimum 20-foot front yard setbacks, 15-foot rear yard setbacks, 10-foot side yard setbacks, and a minimum 25 feet aggregate side yard setback. The common area landscaping would provide visual buffers that would separate the homes from Camino Pablo. Parcel D would be the cul-de-sac, which would be dedicated to Contra Costa County. Parcel E consists of a 0.24-acre area adjacent to Camino Pablo, which would be dedicated to the Town of Moraga. The location of the proposed homes on the southern portion of the site would preserve the higher elevations of the site and thereby would preserve the visually prominent hillside in the northern and eastern portions of the site and adjoining agricultural open space land to the east. Residential development would retain the natural features of the land to the extent feasible and most of the homes would be developed on split pads, thereby stepping the homes up or down the hillside, depending on their orientation. The homes have been horizontally massed to minimize view obstruction. The homes would be custom homes, each having a unique design, but all homes would be in a “Transitional” style of architecture that blends traditional forms, materials, and colors with modern exterior and interior elements. The residences would be designed to be energy efficient and constructed to meet the stringent fire resistance requirements for development in a Wildland/Urban Interface Zone. Most of the homes would have two stories, while the homes on the southernmost lots (Parcels 7 and 8) would be one story. The homes would range in size from 3,463 square feet to 4,474 square feet, not including garages or porches. The ADUs would include all one-bedroom units with separate kitchen/living/dining areas, ranging in size from 920 square feet to 1,117 square feet. The onsite hillside contours that characterize the local topography would be retained. Project grading would extend onto the adjoining property to the east and would slightly lower this hillside crest running along and outside the east side of the project parcel from approximately 705 feet to 702 feet. To stabilize the site, slide conditions that affect the southern portion of the site would be repaired. Although grading would entail cuts and fills totaling 59,600 cubic yards of soil, grading would be balanced on site, requiring no import or export of fill. A 4-foothigh retaining wall would extend along the rear of the easternmost lots (Parcels 1 through 5). Additional retaining walls would be placed on some of the individual lots in order to accommodate the homes and yards. Retaining walls would also be placed on the west side of the project site. Exposed retaining walls would be landscaped with a variety of ornamental trees, shrubs, and grasses that are intended to obscure the walls upon maturity. The project includes a connection to an existing storm drain system that currently collects runoff from the site and directs stormwater flow to Moraga Creek. The stormwater runoff from the site would be treated by bioretention basins and discharged into the proposed onsite storm drain system prior to entering the existing storm drain system. Parcel A would continue to discharge into an existing v-ditch, located adjacent to Camino Pablo that ties into the existing storm drain system. As part of the project, Camino Pablo would be widened from Tharp Drive south to the southern end of the project site frontage. The existing right-of-way, which varies between roughly 46 feet and 59 feet, would be expanded to a 68-foot right-of-way. The existing 28-foot-wide roadway would be expanded to 36 feet and would include a curb and gutter on both sides. The existing curb and gutter on the west side of Camino Pablo would remain, while the existing 8-foot-wide sidewalk extending along the project site frontage would be replaced with a new, slightly relocated 8-foot-wide sidewalk. The property owner intends to dedicate the additional right-of-way to the Town of Moraga.