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Workshop to receive a presentation from the Mount Calvary Baptist Church (MCBC) (ALUC-19-04) for a proposed religious campus located on the north side of Petersen Road, ½ mile east of Walters Road. The project will require a consistency determination from the ALUC at a later date with the Travis Air Force Base Land Use Compatibility Plan (Sponsor: City of Suisun City)
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Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Commission receive the presentation. This is not an action item and no formal action will be taken at this hearing. Individual Commissioners may wish to express their views on the material presented.
Introduction
The Mount Calvary Baptist Church (MCBC) is proposing to develop a multi-purpose religious campus on Peterson Road, 1000 feet east of Walters Road in the City of Suisun City (See Attachment A: ALUC Application). The project includes the construction of a Sanctuary, Education Center and a Senior Affordable Housing project as well as a Business Center, a Family Life Center, Personal Storage Units, and a Conference and Banquet Center (See Attachment B: Site Plan). The project is located within the Area of Influence of the Travis Air Force Base Land Use Compatibility Plan (Travis Plan) within Compatibility Zone C (See Attachment C: Travis Context Map).
MCBC previously appeared before the Commission on March 10, 2016 with an earlier conceptual site plan (See Attachment D: Prior Site Plan).
Staff has recommended this workshop as a means of presenting an update to the Commission on some changes to the project since it was last presented.
DISCUSSION
The Mount Calvary Baptist Church is working with the City of Suisun City to design the above mentioned multi-purpose campus on lands located on the north side of Peterson Road, 1000 feet east of Walters Road. The property is entirely within Compatibility Zone C. The land use criteria for Compatibility Zone C are listed in the Table below.
Travis Plan Requirements
TABLE I: Compatibility Criteria for Compatibility Zone C
ZONE: C
LOCATION: Traffic Pattern,
IMPACT ELEMENTS: Safety and Overflight risk and noise impacts
MAXIMUM DENSITIES
Residential: 11 dwelling units per acre
Other Uses: 75 persons per acre (indoors)
100 persons per acre (outdoors)
300 persons per acre (single acre)
Previous Presentation to ALUC on March 10, 2016
MCBC previously appeared before the Commission on March 10, 2016 with an earlier conceptual site plan. Based on the compatibility criteria for Compatibility Zone C, the following components of the project required policy interpretations by the Commission:
• The Main Sanctuary (Concentrations of People Interpretation),
• The Education Center (Concentrations of People and Land Use Suitability), and
• The Senior Affordable Housing Project (Land Use Suitability)
Policy Considerations from the March 10, 2016 Presentation
Main Sanctuary
One of the considerations addressed through compatibility planning is the safety of persons on the ground. This is generally controlled by restricting the number of persons per acre permitted by various land uses. These land uses are listed in Table 1 of the Travis Plan and, while not defined, are sometimes qualified with footnotes. For non-residential land uses, this restriction is expressed as a limitation on the number of people per acre allowed indoors and the number of people per acre allowed outdoors. Table 1 assumes that these land uses are occupied on a full-time basis and the Plan makes no provision for land uses which are seasonal or limited-term occupancy. For residential uses, the plan uses dwelling units per acre as a proxy for the number of people per acre.
The City of Suisun City has submitted information to address these issues and asked the Commission for clarification of the compatibility factors as to how they might apply to the church’s proposed development The City asked how the population intensity limitations might apply to a part-time use of the land (Main Sanctuary Building and Educational Center) and whether or not the Educational Center and the Senior Affordable Housing Project fall into the category of prohibited uses.
For those land uses with part-time or limited term occupancy, the City proposed that a person-hours equivalency be developed to compare limited term uses to a full-time use of the land. For example, if a business were open on Mondays only and occupied with 100 persons per acre it might have 1,000 person-hours per acre of intensity (100 persons per acre*10 hours occupancy on 1 day only). A full-time business with 100 persons per acre might have 7,000-person hours per acre (100 persons per acre*10 hours per day*7 days per week).
Educational Center
MCBC is proposing an education center on its campus. The Travis Plan prohibits schools. The education center raises a land use suitability question as to whether the education center is a school and thus prohibited or another land use type.
MCBC pointed out that the educational center is not a children’s school as defined by the Travis Plan. The Plan defines a children’s school as serving students up to and through the 12th grade. This implies that the school is providing mandated education for grades K-12. The MCBC Sunday School does not provide these services, but rather engages in religious training for students while parents are attending other church functions, and, as such, should not be included in the category of prohibited uses.
Senior Affordable Housing Project
The Senior Affordable Housing Project contained 88 dwelling units on 8 acres of land for a density of 11 units per acre. This density is consistent with the Travis Plan compatibility criteria for residential uses which is 11 units per acre.
The project is age restricted and will be occupied by senior citizens. The Travis Plan prohibits nursing homes and other land uses where the occupants would include the elderly. This senior project is not an assisted-living or elder-care facility. There are no medical or nursing services provided as a part of the housing. MCBC believes that this facility does not fall into the class of land uses which are prohibited under the compatibility criteria for Zone C.
For these reasons, the City of Suisun City was asking the Commission to determine if this methodology for addressing part time land uses is consistent with the Travis Plan.
The minutes from the March 10, 2016 ALUC meeting reflect that the Commission was comfortable with the matters presented by MCBC.
CURRENT PROPOSAL
The current proposal (See Attachment B Site Plan) contains the same elements as the last plan plus an area devoted to private storage units, as follows:
• The Main Sanctuary (80,000 SF),
• The Education Center (60,000 SF),
• The Senior Affordable Housing Project (72 units),
• The Family Life center (80,000 SF),
• The Conference Center and Banquet Hall (22,000 SF),
• The Business Center (10,000 SF), and
• 360 Private Storage Units
The major difference between the current and past proposal is that the current proposal includes an area of seasonal wetlands along the Petersen Road frontage which has been set aside for preservation. As a result, the area devoted to the religious campus has been reduced in size.
In addition, the senior housing project has been moved to the western side of the property from the eastern side which increases its distance from the end of the runway. There are also 360 private storage units on the northern side of the property which was previously depicted as “future development”.
The applicant has filed the required consistency determination application for this project and desires to utilize the informal presentation step to update the Commission on the progress made on the project prior to asking for the formal consistency determination at a later date.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Commission receive a presentation from the Mount Calvary Baptist Church (MCBC) (ALUC-19-04) for a proposed religious campus located on the north side of Petersen Road, ½ mile east of Walters Road. The project will require a consistency determination from the ALUC at a later date with the Travis Air Force Base Land Use Compatibility Plan (Sponsor: City of Suisun City)
Attachments
Attachment A: ALUC Application
Attachment B: Site Plan
Attachment C: Travis Context Map
Attachment D: Prior Site Plan