Oakley residents will likely experience a transformation of the city center over the next few years after the City Council last week approved a site plan to develop the area into a walkable hub for community events and commercial spaces. Steve Smith, a local businessman spearheading the project, estimated he had submitted at least 10 site plans to city officials over the past three years. The process isn’t over yet. Now, Smith’s development team is entering negotiations with the city attorney to create a formal development agreement, but last week’s vote indicates the City Council supports and plans to move forward with a redevelopment of the downtown core. “My objective here from day one has been to create something that is both functional, economically feasible and sustainable and provides a great service to the community,” Smith told city councilors. Smith’s proposal has changed dramatically over the years as Oakley city councilors, planning commissioners and residents expressed concerns over various aspects of the project, including traffic, safety along the S.R. 32 corridor and a potential loss of open space. However, Smith’s most recent site plan altered the project to only focus on the properties sandwiched between Center Street and Weber Canyon Road, which he referred to as the North Block. He had previously proposed developing the South Block below Center Street as well, but his team dropped that aspect of the project in November. “I really like this plan,” Smith said. “I think it accomplishes what everybody’s looking for.” The now-approved site plan includes a building with almost 20,000 square feet of commercial space on the east side of Center Street. The building will house multiple businesses, including a hardware store, post office, bakery and pharmacy. It will also be the location of an expanded Ken’s Kash with 12,000 square feet of space. The Oakley Town Hall will sit in the middle of Center Street, with a food pantry and small retail space slated for the western edge bordering S.R. 32. There will also be a privacy wall near the food pantry, which Smith said was one of the top requests residents made throughout the team’s public engagement sessions. He added that he wants to hire local artists to paint a mural on the wall to make it more visually appealing. Another building with space for retail businesses will be to the north of the food pantry along S.R. 32. Smith said half of the building will be dedicated to a two-story restaurant with outdoor patio seating on the second floor. The rest of the structure will house offices and commercial space. “It could be a dentist’s office. It could be an attorney’s office. It could be an art studio,” Smith said. “Any of those things make sense in terms of serving the community, and we would certainly want to be very reflective of the services that could come in and be right here in Oakley.” Smith said his team hasn’t settled on anything specific for the restaurant, which will be close enough to the Oakley Diner to share utilities and freezer space, but he said he hopes it will become a location for “authentic pizza and pasta.” “We don’t want any of what we would call ‘national brands’ here,” Smith said. “We want local artisans, specialty shops and reasons for people to come to Oakley. That’s the kind of thing that would be most attractive to us, and we think would actually invite people in and keep them coming back.” The northwest corner of Weber Canyon Road will have another smaller building for retail stores and a soda or coffee shop. The shop will have a drive-thru, but it will only be accessible from the city center, not Weber Canyon Road, after city councilors and residents said they were anxious about traffic congestion and pedestrian safety. Smith said his team also removed a connecting road from Weber Canyon Road to Center Street, which would have run through the city center’s middle. He said he was concerned that people would use the road as a thoroughfare to replace S.R. 32, making the development more dangerous for shoppers and other drivers. The developers changed the site plan so the open space previously located in the middle of the city center is now on the outskirts near the Oakley Diner. Smith said that helps with potential traffic congestion, too. The acre of open space also includes a pavilion, and Smith suggested the city could close the parking lot and use the pavilion to host community events. Smith’s team removed housing from the city center plan as well, telling city councilors that including housing units made the project too complicated, especially when considering overnight parking. City councilors said they were impressed with Smith’s willingness to listen to officials’ and residents’ concerns to draft a plan everyone could support in its early phases. They unanimously approved the site plan, but that doesn’t mean construction will start soon. First, the city and Smith’s legal team need to create a development agreement, which will likely include a timeline for phasing the project. The Planning Commission will then hold a public hearing, review the development agreement and forward it to the City Council with a negative or positive recommendation. The City Council will hold its own public hearing, giving residents a second opportunity to weigh in on the agreement, before making a final decision. Smith previously said he expected negotiations over the development agreement to last a few months, and he told the City Council last week that it would take at least a year for an architect to finish the city center blueprints. The post Oakley City Council approves city center site plan after three years of negotiations appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less