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PC - Consideration of Zoning Code Amendment P2019-0058-ZCA, Establishing "Corporate Housing" as a New Permitted Land Use with New Definition, Use and Development Standards, Amending Culver City Municipal Code (CCMC) Title 17: Zoning Code; Section 17.220.015 - Commercial District Land Uses and Permit Requirements, 17.320.020 - Number of Parking Spaces Required, 17.400 - Standards for Specific Land Uses, and 17.700.010 - Definitions.
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Meeting Date: March 27, 2019
Contact Person/Dept: William Kavadas, Assistant Planner
Michael Allen, Current Planning Manager
Phone Number: (310) 253-5706 / (310) 253-5710
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [X] Action Item: [] Attachments: [X]
City Council Action Required: Yes [X] No [] Date: TBD
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - Planning Commission (3/22/19); (Posted) City Website (3/7/19); Gov Delivery (3/7/19); (Published) in Culver City News (3/7/19).
Department Approval: Sol Blumenfeld, Community Development Director (03-20-2019)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the Planning Commission adopt Resolution No. 2019-P003 (Attachment No. 1) recommending to the City Council approval of Zoning Code Text Amendment P2019-0058-ZCA amending Culver City Municipal Code (CCMC) Title 17: Zoning Code; Section 17.220.015 - Commercial District Land Uses and Permit Requirements, 17.320.020 - Number of Parking Spaces Required, 17.400 - Standards for Specific Land Uses, and 17.700.010 - Definitions, as it relates to establishing a new use definition and use standards for "corporate housing".
PROCEDURES
1. Chair calls on staff for a brief staff report and the Planning Commission poses questions to staff as desired.
2. Chair opens the public hearing and receives comments from the general public.
3. Chair seeks a motion to close the public hearing after all testimony has been presented.
4. Commission discusses the matter and arrives at its decision.
BACKGROUND
On December 12, 2018, representatives from the proposed Mayumi Hotel met with City staff to discuss conversion of an existing hotel/boarding house located at 5630 Sawtelle Boulevard into an extended use facility to accommodate stays of more than 30 days. The Mayumi Hotel is proposed to fill the emerging need for corporate housing created by new tech and creative office uses that require extended stay accommodations. The new Culver City employees of Amazon Studios, Apple, and HBO are likely to be users of the facility.
The Zoning Code currently prohibits stays of longer than 30 days at hotels. Typically, extended stay uses allow for stays of greater than 30 days. Standard hotels generally operate on the basis of short term stays for business and pleasure trips less than 30 days. However, extended stay accommodations, or Corporate Housing, fill the residential gap between leased housing which is typically a one year timeframe and hotel uses which is typically 30 days. Corporate Housing provides accommodations for people on work assignments who need more time in a location than is generally allowed by a hotel. Corporate Housing is defined as a facility with guest rooms or suites, provided with or without kitchen facilities, rented to the general public for long term lodging purposes of greater than 30 days but less than 365 days. Corporate housing typically includes a variety of services similar to a hotel in addition to lodging such as restaurants, meeting facilities, personal services, and may also include accessory guest facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, indoor athletic/fitness facilities, and accessory retail uses. While operated as a hotel, the use is subject to collection of transient occupancy tax.
Several nearby cities permit extended stay accommodations including Los Angeles, Anaheim, Hesperia, Huntington Beach, La Mirada, Monrovia, Torrance, and Victorville. All of the above cities were contacted and considered extended stay accommodations as a hotel use, zoned and parked in the same manner and subject to the requirement to collect transient occupancy tax for up to 30 days.
DISCUSSION
Corporate housing can be considered a hybrid of hotel and residential uses. Table 1 (Attachment Two) shows comparable development standards for typical mixed use residential, hotel, and corporate housing land uses.
Although the proposed text amendment is primarily applicable to existing hotels, and not intended for the conversion of existing housing stock to corporate housing, Culver City has one existing legal non-conforming SRO/Boarding House (8925 Lindblade), in the Industrial General Zone, that could potential be converted to corporate housing should the zone be changed to a commercial zone as shown in the below land use table.
The Planning Commission is being asked to consider recommending approval of the following Code Amendments:
C. Definitions, "C"
Corporate Housing. Facilities with guest rooms or suites, provided with or without kitchen facilities, rented to the general public for long term lodging purposes of greater than 30 days but less than 365 days. Corporate housing typically includes a variety of services in addition to lodging; for example, restaurants, meeting facilities, personal services, etc. Also includes accessory guest facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, indoor athletic/fitness facilities, and accessory retail uses.
H. Definitions, "H"
Hotel or Motel. Facilities with guest rooms or suites, provided with or without kitchen facilities, rented to the general public for transient lodging (less than 30 days) and subject to Transient Occupancy Tax. Hotels provide access to most guest rooms from an interior walkway, and typically include a variety of services in addition to lodging; for example, restaurants, meeting facilities, personal services, etc. Motels provide access to most guest rooms from an exterior walkway. Also includes accessory guest facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, indoor athletic/fitness facilities, and accessory retail uses. For stays of longer than 30 days up to 365 days see "Corporate Housing".
Project Review:
Corporate Housing would be considered an additional type of temporary lodging. The land use and parking requirements would be updated to include corporate housing in their tables, shown in Table Two (Attachment Three).
Conclusion:
There is a need to address the housing demand created with newly locating creative/tech uses while the City also addresses larger citywide affordable housing needs. Corporate Housing is one solution that provides temporary housing to address the influx of new temporary employees in the City.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION
The proposed Zoning Code Amendment P2019-0058-ZCA is considered a project pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Project is considered exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b) (3) because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the Project to amend the Zoning Code will have a significant effect on the environment. The Project by itself, does not result in any physical changes in the environment because it will only amend the Zoning Code to allow hotel stays longer than 30 days that will not result in an intensification of development beyond what the Zoning Code already currently allows.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
For the purposes of this text amendment, changing the zoning code alone will not have a fiscal impact on the General Fund. However, per current Finance Division regulations, a stay at a hotel of more than 30 days is exempt from transient occupancy tax. Current code requires stays of less than 30 days, but a patron could check out of the hotel and check back to restart the 30 day timeframe. Allowing stays of greater than 30 days would reduce the ability of the City to collect this taxes on guests who check-in and out of the hotel to circumvent timespan requirements. Unfortunately, the City does not keep record of the number of hotel patrons who currently stay in hotels on long term basis either by checking-in and out or by virtue of the property owner.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Draft Resolution No. P2019-P003 and Exhibit A: Proposed Zoning Code Text Amendments in "Strikethrough/Underline" format
2. Table One
3. Table Two
MOTION
That the Planning Commission:
Adopt a resolution recommending to the City Council approval of a Zoning Code Text Amendment as it relates to establishing a new use definition and use standards for corporate housing.