City manager discusses downtown revitalization
By City Manager, Rachelle Rickard
Atascadero City Manager Rachelle Rickard.
–We often receive questions from members of the public concerning the desire to have more restaurant and retail shops located in the downtown, specifically surrounding Sunken Gardens, an area which is already chiefly occupied by office space including medical and dental offices but would truly be ideal for a vibrant restaurant and retail environment. Achieving this outcome has long been a primary goal of the City’s as well, and the current City Council has taken additional actions towards making this goal a reality. About a year ago, we asked for ideas and input from the community to assist us in this effort.
When Atascadero’s Downtown Revitalization Plan was adopted by the City back in 2000, the vision for our downtown was of one that would be dominated by “multi-story mixed uses with retail uses on the ground floor and residential and office above”. To assist in achieving the community’s vision for downtown, numerous improvements have been completed in the downtown area over recent years, including the newly opened Centennial Bridge and Plaza, the creek walkway and redesigned parking lot.
Another part of our effort to nurture a transition from office to restaurant and retail uses includes downtown zoning amendments that would help to encourage this shift to occur in key locations including East and West Mall on either side of Sunken Gardens; as well as Entrada and Traffic Way west of Palma Avenue along with a portion of El Camino Real. The amendments would require a conditional use permit review for new offices and health care services that want to operate on the ground floor in these key locations and would require that new offices and health care services provide on-site parking; while restaurants, retail and other ground floor uses would continue to be exempt from parking requirements. As proposed, the new zoning would not impact existing offices.
This gradual shift in zoning is one additional step towards making the downtown the place that is envisioned by the community. The response from the community to these proposed zoning changes has generally been positive. City staff members have visited each of the businesses and offices within the subject area to distribute information on the proposed amendments and to speak with property and business owners. Additional outreach discussions with the Chamber, other key stakeholders and community members have also taken place.
The proposed zoning amendments to make office and health care services on the ground floor a conditionally allowed use, subject to parking requirements as required elsewhere in the City, will be presented to the Planning Commission and the City Council. The item is expected to be presented to the Planning Commission on January 16th, 2018 and to the City Council on February 13, 2018. All those with an interest in the implementation of improvements to our downtown zoning are encouraged to watch for this topic on the upcoming meeting agendas and to attend.
As always, if you have questions regarding this or other topics concerning the City, please contact me at rrickard@atascadero.org.
