HOW DEVELOPMENT WORKS Smoothing the Way for Commercial Development Efforts
	January/February 2005

by Courtland Holman
Photos by Russell Byrne

My role is on the commercial side of Brentwood development, which is the part the city is focusing on right now. Brentwood is currently pro-commercial because we are trying to offset the period of great housing growth that we’re currently passing through.

We’re working to create an environment in which residents can shop and work where they live. They won’t be forced to travel to other places to buy the products and services they need, on one hand, or spend three or four hours a day sitting in their cars in traffic, trying to get to their job, on the other.

The more offices, stores, and shops we can build, the better it will be for local residents to shop and work locally.

We try to work on behalf of developers every way we can. We attempt to ensure that they get their permits in a timely fashion, so they can get opened, hire the professionals or office people they will need, so that those people can get out of the cars, busses, and trains as soon as possible.

A Hugely Complicated Problem
There are only three major steps in any project, which consists of getting the permits, hiring a contractor, and then putting up the buildings.

The only difficulty in developing in Brentwood comes from that first step. Acquiring permits can become a long and sometimes-frustrating process. Some developers show up at the front desk thinking that project planning will take a month only to discover that it might require a year, or more.

“I want a permit,” they might say. “Can I pay my fees and get my approvals?” It isn’t that simple. The property use they are applying for might be allowable, for example, but they still need to get the Planning Commission to allow for the use. That is not a rubber stamp process; the answer can come back “no” or “yes,” depending upon how the commission assesses the situation.

A list of permits must be secured before the first step is complete, including such things as permits for signs, building, and grading. Agencies internal to the city as well as outside agencies get involved at this point. Depending upon the nature of the business, the Health Department, for example, might have a role. New development projects must file plans for wastewater runoff, including a set of esoteric specifications called Best Practices for Storm Water.

Some impatient developers tend to think the worst of the people behind the pre-approval process I’m describing. They might imagine that City Planners enjoy leaving developers to twist in the wind. The fact is that the Brentwood City planners are good people who are faced with difficult, complicated tasks. They remain as fair and un-biased as possible as they try to identify the connections between all the parts of the picture. And City development is a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of pieces.

This business never gets any easier. The standards for wastewater runoff, for example, are changing. New regulations are taking effect that will impact both commercial and residential developments.

A Pile of Puzzle Pieces
It would be theoretically possible to do development in two months from ground up, but pushing the necessary pile of paperwork through the process slows the wheels of development when problems arise. And, given the complexity of what needs to be done, problems always arise.

Some problems with an application can be anticipated and smoothed out in a pre-application meeting, which is held between me and city planners, on one hand, and a developer with his architect on the other.

The meeting is usually initiated by my getting a phone call. Someone wishing to develop property on Lone Tree Way, for example, requests a pre-application meeting. The meeting is set up with a representative in attendance from each department, including Parks and Recreation, Planning, Building, Engineering, and myself meeting with the developer and architect.

The developer asks questions, “What’s the process?” “What am l missing?” Evaluations and site plans are submitted. “Does this look good?” “Will sufficient parking be made available?”

Each department representative during the course of the pre-application meeting must clarify what the developer can do by right and what he must get conditional use permit for — meaning that he must go to the Planning Commission or City Council for approval.

The process continues as the developer finalizes his application, which includes such things as a site plan, and fee payment forms — all involving paperwork that have to be filled out completely.

Into the Belly of the Beast
The application forms are then turned over to the Community Development Office, which has about 30 days to respond. The planners, themselves, are city employees, including the organization’s top dog, called the Chief of Planning, plus Senior Planners, Associate Planners, and Assistant Planners.

The Chief Planner assigns the application to the planners for review. The planners then queue the project into their work schedule. Eventually they review the application, and then make a determination if it is complete. Most of the time it isn’t. An application is very seldom clean in the first submission. Areas are identified that require clarification.

The developer revises the plans and applications and submits them to the Planning Department. The Planning Department assigns the planning fees for design review.

The design review for all development projects must also go through the Planning Commission, which is a citizen review board composed of residents selected by the City Council providing an additional level of checks and balances for development projects to ensure quality of construction and design. The five commissioners do a very fine job!

To expedite the process, we try to keep the Conditional Use Permit moving through channels at the same time. The Conditional Use Permit is an additional request to the Planning Commission that they give approval for the type of use the developer is requesting for a certain property: a gas station, for example, or a bowling alley. And all this is just for the Planning Department.

The City’s Engineering Department has its own processes, some of which remain a mystery to me. Properties have to split, sometimes, for example, and a map must be drawn to define the lots resulting from the splits. Laws govern how many splits you can make.

Sometimes roads have to be created and named. Signs must be changed. Traffic patterns altered. Lot numbers must be assigned. The whole process can get sticky and complicated.

With that in mind we get the engineering processes going simultaneous with the design and planning activities to expedite the process.

Showing a Path Through the Wilderness
The fact is, contrary to some people’s opinions, the City of Brentwood is trying to speed the process up, not trying to slow down it. Developers who are novices to the process underestimate the amount of planning work city development requires, and the number of steps the planners are forced to go through. This becomes especially true if a project involves environmental review.

The process is complex to the point that the normal people, like me, can’t get our minds around the complexities. It is elaborate to the point that I have to use a spreadsheet myself to keep the required steps straight in my own mind.

One thing I’ve done, that’s been a great hit with developers starting on a project in our city, is to create a fee spreadsheet, which provides for them at the earliest planning stage with some idea of the fees they will have to pay to develop with us.

The fee spreadsheet has been a great tool because when a potential developer does his pro forma he can tell whether the project will work or not. Most cities don’t provide that kind of service. Developers must inquire about fees from each individual desk.

Of course, the first thing they must do is to find out what “desks” they need to ask this from, and where they are located. My fee spreadsheet helps them avoid that. We simply enter their preliminary information — square feet, street frontages, and location and the form spits out the answer. My estimates run pretty close to reality.

I also created a brochure called “Economic Development Road to Success.” This displays the step-by-step processes that the developer has to take — beginning with the preliminary meeting through final approval.

Developers tell me that my work is a benefit to the city. Other municipalities they work with don’t provide my services. They are happy that I’m here.

Selling Brentwood
I’m helping the city become proactive in trying to locate firms that we want to move into our area. We’re trying to get restaurants to look at us, for example. We assist them with marketing analysis in an attempt to lure them here. We show them the demographics that we’ve compiled. We answer the question, “Why you would want to locate here?”

Jane Bauer and I did a map of Brentwood and handed them out at the Cornfest to show citizens what’s coming to town and where. I’m still handing these out. They make a good selling point — that we’re serious about Brentwood economic development. You can find this map on the web at www.ci.brentwood.ca.us/department/engineer/gis/gismat.cfm.

We’re also providing information to commercial brokers so they can attract businesses that should locate here. We hold meeting with real estate people and members from the business community — giving them information about locations they could move into. We share ideas with them.

Depending upon the scope of their projects we will even drive them around and show them a location or two to see if they can find something suitable. We help them not to waste their time.

Nothing succeeds like success, they say. It’s certainly true about economic development. Brentwood recently broke through some economic and population thresholds that made our city suddenly pop up on the radar screens in a lot of corporate headquarters.

Even though the rate of growth will begin to slow, five years from now we’ll have more population. A lot more commercial development will be completed on Lone Tree Way. Our downtown will perhaps contain a multiplex theater and a major parking structure. The corner of the Highway 4 Bypass and Balfour Road will be commercially developed.

And five years from now a lot more people will be climbing into their cars at 8:40 a.m. to get to their 9 a.m. jobs than now. And in the evenings a lot more people will also be leaving at 6:40 p.m. to get to a 7 p.m. dinner or entertainment engagement.

I’m doing everything I can to make this happen. The changes will ultimately be good for everyone.

Lots of information on the website. www.ci.brentwood.ca.us.

925-240-2506
cholman@ci.brentwood.ca.us