Curtis Park West Design Guidelines
As of 2003, this site is being planned by a new developer. There are updates on the community's web site: http://www.sierra2.org/rail.html
The following is an outtake from the Curtis Park West Design Guidelines which are part of a Planned Unit Development Submittal by Union Pacific Railroad currently being reviewed by the City of Sacramento. For additional information contact Bridgette Williams with the City of Sacramento, at (916) 264-5000.
Curtis Park West Design Guidelines evolved out of a decade-long community-based planning process. They embody the spirit of historic Curtis Park and Land Park neighborhoods, the values of the surrounding community, and practical development implementation requirements. They are intended to be used by project applicants, City staff, and the Community Design Review Committee to guide design and development decisions to best capture the vision of a walkable, livable residential mixed use community.
INTRODUCTION
Curtis Park West is a contemporary development based on strong neighborhood planning traditions of Sacramento's historic and established neighborhoods. The neighborhood parks, street-friendly housing, neighborhood-scaled commercial, and dense tree canopy are key elements of the visions, principles and concepts that shape the Design Guidelines. These guidelines are intended to become the basis for implementation of Curtis Park West's places and streets.
Existing Site
The Curtis Park West development is located adjacent to the historic Curtis Park and Land Park neighborhoods. The 95 acre site currently has about 30 acres still being used as an active Union Pacific railyard. The balance of the property is the subject of this Planned Unit Development (PUD) submittal.
The railyard was active for 80 years. In 1983 the Railroad closed its maintenance facilities located on the site and in 1986 they began to discuss potential reuse of the property with the City of Sacramento.
Community Process
The design guidelines for this 65 acre infill site define the vision of the project held by neighbors, City planners, and the Union Pacific Railroad. It has been shaped by their participation over the past six years. Local residents have been proactive in the process, stressing preservation of the quality of life that exists in the adjacent neighborhoods.
UPLUC
In 1992, a City Council-appointed advisory committee of residents, City staff, railroad representatives, and consultants prepared land use objectives for redevelopment of the Union Pacific property. Known as the UPLUC (Union Pacific Land Use Committee), the Committee prepared the following overall goals and objectives for the UPRR site future use:
· Compatibility with the surrounding residential, educational and commercial uses in terms of (1) use, (2) design, (3) pedestrian orientation and (4) scale.
· Remediation of the constraints to development, including remediation of toxic contamination to a level which allows recommended land uses.
· Optimal utilization of site to best serve the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the city.
These goals and objectives were adopted by the City Council in April 1992 and have influenced the clean-up levels for environmental contaminants associated with historical railroad use of the site. In 1995 Union Pacific Railroad prepared, and has since initiated implementing a Department of Toxics Substance Controls approved clean-up plan.
Working Group
In 1996, Council Person Deborah Ortiz appointed representatives from the community including local homeowners, neighborhood association representatives, the railroad, local businesses, school district, Sacramento City College, City of Sacramento, and Regional Transit to act as a working group to support the preparation of a plan for the railyards. This document, in large part, reflects the efforts of the Working Group and their interaction with the community. The Working Group prepared the following Mission Statement:
"To implement a quality development plan that includes a well integrated mixture of residential, commercial, educational, recreational, and open space elements and community assets with a network of pedestrian and transportation options within the planned area that adequately link the surrounding neighborhoods and lead ultimately to a sustainable and livable new addition to Curtis Park and Land Park communities."
FRAMEWORK PLAN
The Framework Plan for Curtis Park West introduces a contextual perspective for creating an underlying structure for future development. It acknowledges local neighborhood context and traditions. A set of guiding principles that reflect these traditions were developed by the Curtis Park community. These principles establish the foundation for land use, circulation, and urban design concepts.
The Framework Plan reflects the visions, strategies, concepts, and principles that came from the Working Group's many meetings with the community. The plan stresses the role of a firm vision in the successful evolution of Southeast Sacramento's sustainable residential neighborhoods. The traditions of parks as place names and focal points for neighborhoods such as Land Park, Curtis Park, and Oak Park motivated the deliberate form of the Framework Plan.
Curtis Park Context and Traditions
Sacramento's Southeast neighborhoods' were created out of farms and ranches that bordered the Central City. The neighborhoods that emerged from this area contained amenities intended to make them more competitive real estate ventures. This development was characterized by neighborhoods designed around parks; neighborhood commercial located along existing principal streets between neighborhoods; mixed density and mixed use areas scattered among single family residential areas; and a variety of well crafted, finely detailed residential architecture.
William Land Park, Curtis Park, McClatchy Park, Oak Park, Fremont Park, McKinley Park, Tahoe Park--all these parks are place names for neighborhoods in the turn-of-the-century communities east and west of Broadway Boulevard. These neighborhoods are organized around parks and open spaces. Following this theme, the existing William Curtis Park is a significant organizational feature and amenity.
Another tradition is the connection between neighborhoods. Even in cases where the street grid pattern shift between neighborhoods, there are strong connections. This is provided by direct street linkages and by sharing commercial districts.
Originally, trolley systems and pedestrian scaled neighborhoods made retailing and commercial services a storefront enterprise. Broadway, Franklin, and Freeport Boulevards provided commercial services for Curtis Park residents. However, in recent decades neighborhood commercial has been redefined by the automobile. Traditional storefront streets, were renovated to capture the automobile traffic that flowed on the key commercial corridors south of the Central City. Now much of the Broadway and Franklin retail is auto-oriented.
Guiding Principles
The Design Guideline Subcommittee of the Working Group solicited input from neighborhood residents as a basis for identifying nine overall design principles. These principles are this document's foundation. The first eight principles reflect the community's expectations and appreciation for the best design traditions the neighborhoods possess--walkable, friendly streets with traditionally based architecture. The ninth principle embraces the economic and social diversity of Sacramento's neighborhoods as a requirement for Curtis Park West.
1. Maintain the traditional character of the streetscape.
The character of the streetscape is defined by the scale, pattern, and design of street right-of-ways (ROW's). This includes the size of blocks and sub areas that are common to the neighborhood and surrounding community. The average block width in neighborhoods surrounding the Curtis Park West project is generally 200' to 220'. Street trees provide a dense canopy providing a "tunnel-like " street that is shady and cool. Street trees frame views and add an important structure to the neighborhood.
2. Minimize the impact of on-site parking.
For residential areas on-site parking pertains to the visibility of driveways and garages. For nonresidential areas, the scale, visibility and amount of surface parking is an issue. Many of the blocks have small narrow driveways with just wheel-track patterns to reduce the amount of paved area. Other blocks have parking off alleys. Garages are either detached or set back from the house. In either case, parking garages, and driveways are understated and do not dominate the site or house design.
3. Residential architecture should be similar to the existing neighborhood.
The traditional site planning and architectural features found in neighborhoods contiguous to the site are to be viewed as important references. The neighborhood has a lot of architectural variety: Victorian, Colonial Revival, Arts and Crafts, Tudor Revival, Spanish Revival, other revival styles can be found.
4. The mass and scale of new buildings should appear similar to that of structures seen traditionally in the neighborhood.
The scale of residential development is determined by lot size, building size, and shape of the development. The existing Curtis Park neighborhood has an typical lot size of 50' x 100' to 125'. These 5,000-6,000 SF lots provide an underlying pattern that create a common scale. Houses are on average 1-1/2 to 2 stories with some variations. The roof design and massing of buildings varies, but generally there is a central rectilinear mass with smaller gabled forms extending from it. Pre-flood control houses tend to be raised up on berms and/or lifted up on crawl spaces. Beginning in the 1930's, most housing was developed as slab-on-grade. Therefore, Curtis Park's older housing rests on crawl space podiums that lift porches and living levels above the streets.
5. Site design should be consistent with the neighborhood, with houses facing the street and with traditional landscaping.
The relationship of houses to the residential streets in the Curtis and Land Park neighborhoods reflects a pattern of social interaction and yet allows for privacy. There is a series of public to private "zones" between the street and the houses. These zones range run from the public sidewalk, a front yard with a raised step or sloped walk up to the porch steps, the porch, and the private front door. Landscaping often reinforces this pattern with lawn along the sidewalk and shrubs against the house.
6. Provide a street network consistent with the existing neighborhood, with defined gateways and pedestrian, bicycle, and transit routes.
The pattern of detached sidewalks and planting strips are a distinctive feature in many of Sacramento's traditional neighborhoods. In the Curtis Park and Land Park neighborhoods these are particularly pronounced because of the mature street trees. Traditional separation of pedestrian, bike, and auto traffic is handled with curbs and sidewalks. Cross walks are simple without a pronounced change in materials or geometry.
7. Protect and provide open space.
Curtis Park and Land Park are "green" neighborhoods. Front yards, planting strips, lush street trees and central park space make the neighborhoods visually soft. These neighborhoods follow the Sacramento traditions of common central open spaces that give them their names and contribute to their image.
8. Commercial development should be compatible with the neighborhood.
The commercial development should complement the neighborhood emphasizing pedestrian scale, connectivity, and design. Small neighborhood storefront districts originally served the Curtis and Land Park neighborhoods and other nearby neighborhoods. (This changed as the dependence on the automobile grew encouraging commercial uses to consolidate into larger, more efficient facilities. In the area, there are only a few remaining examples of storefront shops that have the pedestrian scaled character the community is looking for.)
9. Preserve the economic and social diversity of existing neighborhood.
This is not a physical design principle. However, a greater variety of housing types will increase ranges of affordability. This is consistent with UPLUC goals and the city's General Plan policies towards assuring economic and social diversity.
These principles, and their supporting guidelines, prepared by the Working Group have been integrated into the both the Framework Plan and the Design Guidelines.
Design Concepts and Strategies
The Framework Plan reflects an overall theme of using Sacramento's traditional neighborhoods as a reference for design. Three general strategies and four concepts build on the foundation of the Guiding Principles and Sacramento's traditional neighborhoods.
Strategy #1: Creating Places
The Curtis Park West Framework Plan creates a series of places. The planning has shaped space, activated public places and deliberately choreographed the pedestrian and vehicle travel experience.
Strategy #2: Familiar Development Patterns
The Curtis Park West planning uses the existing block and lot scale and urban patterns as a design template. The familiar patterns of the surrounding neighborhoods are extended into the site.
Strategy #3: Neighborhood Development Program
The Location and density of development responds to the community design and transportation principles.
Concept #1: Strong Design Framework
The planning for Curtis Park West creates a strong and deliberate design framework for the site. It extends the grid of Curtis Park into the site, uses open space as a feature rather than residual and leftover space, and defines the entries to the site.
Concept #2: Mixed Density Transit Oriented Development
The development program and site planning provide a mixed density residential area adjacent to the future City College lightrail station. This allows a flexible response to the market while providing design guidelines that shape a variety of housing types to create pleasant residential streets.
Concept #3: Village Entry Plazas
North and south gateways provide a social and symbolic focus for the plan. They are located at the crossroads of foot and vehicular traffic. They are to be important places that define the community's image as a distinctive address.
Concept #4: Landscape and Streetscape Traditions
The Framework Plan emphasizes the use of land and streetscaping as an important form maker. Canopy trees on residential streets, pedestrian amenities in commercial and institutional areas, and the oak woodland parks are all featured in the planning.
Land Use Plan
The Land Use Plan responds to General Plan policies, UPLUC goals, pattern of soil conditions, and Working Group objectives for traffic reduction and community character. The General Plan mandates various transit and land use polices emphasizing development that increases ridership of transit. Also there are affordable housing and connectivity policies that are in force for infill development. At the core of the UPLUC goals is the desire for a visually diverse "Planned Unit Development" that is compatible with Curtis Park and Land Park neighborhoods. In response to the community outreach process, the Working Group emphasized two other land use objectives. The Working Group lowered the densities of commercial and residential uses to limit the impact of traffic on adjacent streets; and required a flexible commercial designation for the southern end of the site to allow City College campus expansion as part of a mixed use area.
The Land Use Plan creates a mixed use and mixed density community. It permits low to moderate densities of housing, community commercial services, parks and open space, and institutional uses. It excludes surface parking for off-site uses, storage or maintenance facilities, industrial uses, big box retail, and other uses that are not identified in the PUD Land Use Plan. Commercial and institutional uses require review by both the Community Design Review Committee and the Planning Commission for their appropriateness.
Circulation Plan
The circulation concepts address the land use planning of the new development and concern for off-site impacts of future traffic. A primary objective of the UPLUC process was to define an equitable distribution of traffic. Other key transportation objectives include:
· Develop Curtis Park West as a transit-supportive development.
· Make the project pedestrian and bike friendly.
· Design the new development to provide connections between Curtis Park and Land Park.
Key features in the Circulation Plan for Curtis Park West include a clear hierarchy of streets, redesign of connecting intersections, use of traffic calming techniques, a connective pedestrian system, and linkage of the site to the larger network of bikeways.
The planning provides a framework of primary, secondary and tertiary streets and intersections that serve the development. The primary street runs north-south along the western side of the site linking the commercial area via the mixed density residential area to the mixed use transit node. The primary street is connected to the community at 21st Street/Freeport Boulevard and Sutterville Road. Even though it is the primary street, is not a large arterial, but a neighborhood street serving two lane streets with on-street parking. On the east edge of the site is another north-south street that connects to the primary street. This is a neighborhood "slow street" that includes a bike lane and traffic calming geometry. The third level of hierarchy includes the other east-west streets that serve as quiet residential addresses.
The Framework Plan emphasizes sidewalks as an important organizational feature. These reflect the traditional walking environments found throughout Sacramento's historic neighborhoods. In addition, there are several key walking routes that link Curtis Park West to the surrounding community. Two places along 24th Street provide access from the east to future lightrail stations. The southern 24th Street connection is a pedestrian/bike/service vehicle access road that ties into a crescent park. This provides access to the commercial service or institutional mixed use Village Center and the future connections to the City College lightrail station. There is the neighborhood access to 24th Street between 5th Avenue and Donner Way that allows neighbors to walk to the Transit Village Center and lightrail station at 21st Street. There is to be a third pedestrian connection at 22nd Street north of the oak woodlands park.
The Framework Plan supports the implementation of a Transportation System Management (TSM) plan. This emphasizes demand reduction for automobile trips by providing for a variety of transit options. It is bike-friendly and transit station-oriented, and places an emphasis on reducing regional trips by providing community services within walking distance of Curtis Park and Land Park residents. City College/institutional uses are required to provide incentives for using transit. The TSM Plan should reviewed prior to preparing a development submittal.
Urban Design Framework
Curtis Park West strive to capture the romance of living in Sacramento's "park" neighborhoods. The Urban Design Framework extends the qualities of Curtis Park into the site as a series of neighborhood streets, open spaces, and social gathering places. The Urban Design Framework provides overarching concepts that organize this vision. The Urban Design Framework is further refined and support by the Design Guidelines.
The Urban Design Framework is summarized in terms of commercial and mixed use places, residential streets, open space framework, and streetscape framework. In all, these concepts shape the physical anatomy of Curtis Park West.
Commercial and Mixed Use Places: Village Centers
The plan provides for two commercial and social focal points. There is a Village Center at the south end and a Transit Village at the north end of the site.
The Village Center in the southern portion of Curtis Park West is to be a gateway and focal point storefront district around a park plaza. The Village Center has a variety of local serving commercial activities that are linked to a grocery store-anchored center. The shops share the parking and the patronage of the grocery store and its in-line shops. There is also the potential for housing, commercial services or institutional uses to be located in a second floor over retail uses.
This area could become an Institutional Mixed Use development. In this scenario, City College would expand into Curtis Park West and create a City College Village area. This would be a mixed use place where college facilities and commercial buildings would spatially frame and activate the plaza entry area.
Residential Streets: Streets as Places
The Urban Design Framework views residential streets as important places--as the veins of community life. The Plan emphasizes the relationship of the housing to the public domain. The pattern of architectural elements and social "eyes-on-the-street" are stressed on all of the residential streets, regardless of the density or housing type.
Open Space Framework
The Framework Plan provides about 143% of the amount of open space required by the General Plan. The open space is patterned to meet a number of recreational, oak woodland preservation, infrastructure and design objectives. Open space features in the Plan include:
Detention Basin Park: The planning combines on-site and area serving detention basins along the west edge of the site. The combined basin provides 3.5 acres of open space. The park will include a junior size soccer field and playground area. Adjacent to the detention basins, but within the park, is a potential location for a community swimming pool. The detention basin can be used as an open space resource through a joint use agreement between the City and the Flood Control District.
Oak Woodland Parks: On the northern and eastern edges of the site are oak woodland preserves. These parks are to provide for informal recreation. They represent 2.6 acres of open space.
Crescent Entry and Pocket Parks: At the pedestrian and vehicular connection to the Curtis Park, there are two small neighborhood crescent parks. These parks are formally landscaped to reinforce the entry to Curtis Park West, while providing some lawn area for sitting and visiting. These Crescent Parks represent 0.3 acres of open space. A small 0.2 acre pocket park is to be located adjacent to the 24th Street entry Crescent Park.
Village Park Plaza: At the southern gateway into the site is a park plaza. This is to be the focal point for the Village Center. It is a combination of hard and softscape elements. The 0.4 acre park plaza can be used for modest gatherings or larger special events if the surrounding streets are temporarily closed. It is to have seating areas and be surrounded by traffic calming measures making it easily accessible from the adjacent storefront areas.
Transit Sidewalk Plaza: Adjacent to the 21st Street lightrail station is the mixed use portion of Curtis Park West. This area is to have modest amounts of storefront uses near the station. This area also acts as a northern gateway to the site. As part of this mixed-use area, development should frame a sidewalk plaza area. This would involve creating a wider sidewalk at the primary intersection as a focal point for storefront, restaurant, and retail activities.
Streetscape Framework
Sacramento is the "City of Trees." Curtis Park and Land Park showcase this tradition in grand style. Original subdivision plans for these traditional neighborhoods incorporated strong streetscape and planting concepts that reinforce the hierarchy of streets, frame parks and shade streets. It was also a climate responsive asset that helped sell houses. The Framework Plan incorporates these traditions.
The streetscape planning for Curtis Park West identifies a palette of street tree themes for sub-areas and particular streets to enhance their image and improve wayfinding. In addition to trees, other landscaping will add color and texture to various areas. The Framework Plan uses six categories of trees.
Canopy Trees: Canopy trees are the most important tree for residential streets. These trees provide a canopy of green and shade. This is the trademark of Sacramento's traditional neighborhoods. There are five canopy trees selected to heighten the identity of streets and neighborhood blocks.
Gateway Trees: At the north and south entry areas are stands of gateway trees. These trees use color and scale to mark the entry places for Curtis Park West.
Storefront Area Trees: The storefront areas have special needs for trees that have a smaller stature, less leaf drop, and canopy habit that is more vertical to keep branches away from awnings, signage, and storefronts.
Parking Lot Shade Trees: The parking areas associated with commercial and institutional development are required to have shade trees. These trees have to survive in an "auto environment" and provide modest to fast growth for shade.
Oak Woodland: The existing oak woodlands are used as a reference and theme for open space at the edges of the site. Infill planting of additional varieties of oaks is intended to enhance the natural frame to Curtis Park West.
Buffer Trees: The edges of commercial and institutional uses will be planted with trees that provide a visual buffer. These are hardy evergreen trees with dense leaf and branch growth.
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