San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan
San Pablo Avenue is the main commercial corridor for many of the cities it runs through. MIG created the Specific Plan for the corridor, adopting form-based code regulations for this corridor and adjacent transit-accessible areas, and standardized design guidelines and development regulations. The Plan provided a unified look and feel along the Avenue and identified catalytic opportunities for business, housing, public facilities and transit connections to enhance the corridor as a community amenity. The code and Complete Streets Plan promote economic development, context-sensitive design and mode shift to elevate San Pablo Avenue as a sustainable, multimodal and transit-oriented mixed-use neighborhood. It offers the City—and private developers—a graphically rich, user-friendly document for future land use and design decisions.
MIG also prepared the Specific Plan Program EIR. After the EIR was certified, the City prepared the consistency analysis for the Hampton Inn, concluding that the project was consistent with the certified EIR and no more CEQA review was necessary, consistent with CEQA streamlining provisions. Since adopting the Specific Plan in 2014, El Cerrito has successfully implemented many development proposals and achieved most of the residential growth envisioned as part of the project.
In 2019, MIG helped the City update the Plan, refining and clarifying to provide more balanced and consistent administration of the standards and guidelines. It aims to increase residential and commercial development in the plan area and continue to support a vibrant, walkable, sustainable, and transit-oriented corridor that respects surrounding neighborhoods.
The update anticipates a development capacity increase of about 2,500 residential units with 100,000 square feet of commercial square footage.
The Supplemental EIR (SEIR) revised the previous EIR to describe and analyze the differences between the 2014 Specific Plan and the Specific Plan Update. With the certified SEIR, the City can continue its CEQA streamlining for many future individual projects.