Council and Commission to Review Lafayette Downtown Creeks Plan

The Lafayette City Council and Planning Commission have scheduled a joint workshop at 5:30 pm on November 14, 2016 in the Lafayette Library’s Community Hall, located at 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd, to receive a presentation by the City Creeks Committee on the Downtown Creeks Plan.

“This is the first opportunity for the City Council and Planning Commission to review the draft plan,” said Will Elder, Chair of the City Creeks Committee.

“We have spent many months putting together a draft plan based on creek surveys and comments from the community, property owners and downtown businesses, so we are eager to hear the thoughts of the City Council and Planning Commission on this work”

The draft plan encompasses about 1 mile of creeks that flow through the downtown, south of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. A primary recommendation in the plan is to remove non-native plants and revegetate these creeks with native riparian species which can help improve wildlife habitat and stabilize creek banks.

While most of the downtown creeks are privately owned, the draft plan has developed a list of potential City projects for the few stretches of publicly-owned creeks in the downtown.

According to Elder, the City projects include constructing overlooks and public spaces along the creeks. “They are intended to demonstrate to the downtown property owners the benefits of creek enhancements and how these enhancements can be achieved.”.

“The plan also provides a vision for creek enhancements on several private properties” said Elder. “These enhancements are based on requirements and guidance from other City planning documents”

Elder hopes that the creek enhancements can be achieved through the City’s existing development review procedures for creek-side properties in the downtown. “The plan’s vision will be achieved gradually over the next 20 or so years as individual downtown properties are redeveloped,” he said.

“We have compiled a list of changes to make to the draft plan based on comments received from other City committees and commissions, and the downtown property owners and businesses,” said Elder. “At the November 14 workshop, we will see if the Planning Commission and City Council have additional changes which can be incorporated into a final draft that will be considered for adoption early next year”.

Click here to obtain the agenda and staff report. Contact Steven Goetz, Senior Planner, City of Lafayette if you have questions on this workshop.