HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-09 Historic Resources Board Summary MinutesCity of Palo Alto Page 1
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Call to Order/Roll Call 3
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Present: Vice Chair Bower, Board Member Margaret Wimmer, Beth Bunnenberg, Brandon Corey, 5
Roger Kohler, Michael Makinen 6
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Absent: Chair Martin Bernstein 8
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Vice Chair Bower: Could we call roll? Thank you. 10
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Oral Communications 12
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None. 14
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Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions 16
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None. 18
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City Official Reports 20
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1. Historic Resources Board Meeting Schedule and Assignments 22
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Vice Chair Bower: First order of business is the meeting schedule and I don’t think there’s any change in 24
that. I’m disappointed we’re not meeting on Thanksgiving Day. 25
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Ms. Amy French, Chief Planning Official: Well, it maybe not too late to send out a notice if you really are 27
sorely disappointed. 28
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Vice Chair Bower: I don’t have a pass to get into the building. 30
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Ms. French: But there will be a subcommittee meeting of you and someone else. 32
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Vice Chair Bower: Oh, I see and the December 28th meeting looks real? That’s the week between 34
Christmas. Do you think… 35
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Ms. French: December 28th will be canceled. 37
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Vice Chair Bower: Ok so we have – after today we’ll have one meeting on the 12th or 14th of December if 39
you have… 40
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Ms. French: Correct. 42
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Vice Chair Bower: Ok, great. 44
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Study Session 46
HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD MEETING
MINUTES: November 9, 2017
City Hall/City Council Chambers
250 Hamilton Avenue
8:30 A.M.
City of Palo Alto Page 2
2. City of Palo Alto New Historic Preservation Website 1
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Vice Chair Bower: Alright next we have two study sessions up today. The first is the – well, either – it 3
doesn’t matter which one but on the agenda the first one is the new Historic Preservation website and 4
the second item under that heading would be the Eichler Design Guidelines update. We can do those in 5
that order if you want or we could do them in reverse order since Page and Turnbull's representative is 6
here and then you can get on with your day. 7
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Ms. French: Let’s keep the order as is. 9
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Vice Chair Bower: Fine, let’s do the website then. 11
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Ms. Emily Vance, Historic Planner: Sure, good morning everyone and this shouldn’t take too long. I just 13
wanted to bring to your attention the new Historic Preservation website for the City of Palo Alto. I’m sure 14
you guys are familiar with the old one which was just one kind of big page full of text but now when you 15
navigate to the City’s Historic Preservation page you will be confronted with just some – you’ll 16
immediately notice some changes. The older website was a little confusing and the information, while 17
there, wasn’t very readily available and you have to kind of – yeah. You kind of have to parse through it 18
so here my goal was to get the information as clear and as accessible as possible while highlighting some 19
of the success stories of our program. As well as incentives and the design review process loud and clear 20
since those are the questions I get most asked. When you start off the home page is now a nice big 21
welcome sign, a lovely gift of our beautiful –some of our beautiful buildings. You’ll find information, news 22
and updates, some success stories about Stanford Theatre, Women’s Club and out contact information. 23
What I want to share with you today though are these new pages that we have created so the first one 24
being project review. This is going to be where anyone who has any questions about what they can and 25
can’t do with their home, they’ll find all that information here. This is a very good – very useful resource 26
for us at the City. The next page is our preservation incentives that we offer historic property owners and 27
so this is something that the public is very interested in and here we have all of that clearly laid out, 28
easily digestible, and it just goes on and on. We also have a new page devoted to the Historic Registers 29
so we have our Local, California and National Register, as well as explaining what those mean and what 30
the criteria are. What is a Category One? What is a Category Two? It’s all laid out nice and clearly and we 31
have pictures and the inventories loaded up of every single National Register individually listed building. 32
People can come and actually read those nominations and there’s a nice little picture. Ok, I’ll go back up. 33
We now also have a page devoted to our Historic Districts and the historic surveys that have occurred in 34
Palo Alto so we have Professorville, Ramona, and links to the nominations themselves, as well as 35
guidelines for Professorville and further information – further reading linking too past for example, some 36
of their information. Then for the surveys, we talk about the 1979 survey and it’s got some nice images 37
that came out of that, as well as the Dames and Moore and some of their context summaries that they 38
put together. So, there are lots – that information is now readily available, it’s up and anyone can come 39
and read that and learn about the history and all the work that went into those. The next – the final page 40
we put together is an actual history of Palo Alto and this was written by Steve Staiger, our resident 41
Historian, and so we actually have a nice summary of the history here in Palo Alto. At the bottom, this 42
will be of interest to all you on the HRB, it’s every historic preservation resource online that you could 43
possibly want. So, we have all of our City resources, as well as County, Bay Area, State and National so 44
you’ll find information about the OHP, the CLG Program, historic building code, etc. That it’s and I just 45
wanted to give you a quick rundown of our new site. I encourage you to look it over and provide any 46
feedback if somethings missing, if you want to include some more information or if you see something 47
that you’d like to change or to add onto. 48
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Board Member Wimmer: I just had a quick question, were – are – is there a link to the Professorville 50
Guidelines and then there will be an eventual link to the Eichler Guidelines? 51
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Ms. Vance: Yeah, so we – here, I’ll just bring this up since we’re here. We do have our Eichler page so 53
there will be a link to the Eichler Guidelines on the district page. As well as here are our Eichler Neighbor 54
Design Guidelines page so this is being updated as we’re going along with an updated schedule. There’s 55
City of Palo Alto Page 3
the pictures from the last event, the memory event which was fun. Yeah, I’ve already (inaudible) so 1
yeah, there’s an updated schedule and the draft guidelines will go up here, as well as the final – yeah. 2
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Vice Chair Bower: Where would I, as a homeowner, find the 2000 Dames and Moore information? 4
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Ms. Vance: That’s a great question because I tried to build this as if I’m not a preservationist, I’m just a 6
homeowner and I’m just a citizen of Palo Alto and I come to this front page and I read and I see 7
something that says here Historic Districts and Historic Resources surveys. So, I assume I would click 8
that and I would scroll to the bottom where we have our survey section and here’s the Dames and Moore 9
section. I can’t read it but it’s one of these links that you would click; probably that one. 10
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Vice Chair Bower: So, I’m following you on my computer here and so you go down the bottom where 12
there are all these boxes. Final survey report? 13
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Ms. Vance: Yeah so, the final survey reports, as well as a summary, are uploaded. It might take a while 15
to upload because it’s very big but it’s (inaudible). 16
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Vice Chair Bower: Yeah, very big. 18
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Ms. Vance: So, these – I thought these where very interesting because (inaudible) are the context 20
summary that Dames and Moore put together on something like 46 topics – unique topics to Palo Alto. 21
While they are not interactive at this point, it gives you an idea like you say oh, I want to read about 22
Leslie Nichols. I can go into the final report and read about him or her. 23
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Vice Chair Bower: Is it – the first thing I did when I saw those boxes, I thought great, click on them. 25
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Ms. Vance: Right so we are still in – so originally you could click on these and you would get a nice big 27
picture of – I love these drawings from the 1979 survey. It’s still a work in progress. You’ll notice at the 28
top of our website it will say thank you, we’re still working out bugs until November 30th. 29
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Vice Chair Bower: It’s been there what 20-years? 31
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Ms. Vance: No, we just got – it’s brand new. So, I’m still going to be working on getting these… 33
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Vice Chair Bower: Ok, I – this is a fabulous arrangement of information and it’s a huge amount. I think it 35
might be a little intimidating for your average resident because there’s so much here but at least it’s 36
here, at least it’s accessible. 37
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Ms. Vance: Well, I’m hoping… 39
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Vice Chair Bower: But they can call you Emily if they have questions. 41
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Ms. Vance: Yes. You can send them right to me. I think what people are mostly going to be looking for 43
though are the links about the HRB meetings, the project review and preservation incentives that we 44
offer. It’s very nice to have all the other information just available and accessible. 45
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Vice Chair Bower: Yeah, I mean I assume it’s a kind of duel level approach to this information. There will 47
be the professionals who need to have information like Martin, Rodger, and Margaret and need to be in 48
the weeds here. Then there will be the homeowners who are interested in the general overview of what 49
historic preservation means to their properties. Well, I think this is a huge improvement and thank you 50
for – anyone has comments? Ok, let’s move onto… 51
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Board Member Corey: I was going to say that I think it’s great overall, although one thing that I did find 53
though that I had trouble searching for it. So, if you search for historic preservation, it actually didn’t 54
come up and you had to navigate through. So maybe that’s just the – something we – if you go to the 55
City of Palo Alto Page 4
main page and you search – if you go to the search box and you search for historic preservation, that 1
page doesn’t come up. 2
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Vice Chair Bower: Right you have to… 4
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Board Member Corey: So probably worth… 6
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Ms. Vance: That is very good to know, thank you. 8
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Vice Chair Bower: Yeah, you have to do that through google and when you do that, then you get right to 10
the page. 11
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Board Member Corey: Yeah but it’s – but the search box at the top it just didn’t come up so that’s – I 13
mean assume that’s easy to fix. 14
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Ms. French: Thank you. There might other such errors and we’ve had to overhaul our whole website, not 16
just these pages, and went to a different system. So that’s why it took so long to actually launch all the 17
work that Emily and our intern did this summer. We’ve had to wait for the new regime of the website. 18
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Board Member Corey: Overall though it looks fantastic; it’s great. 20
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Vice Chair Bower: Council Member Holman. 22
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Council Member Holman: Yeah, I had a couple of observations that I had made earlier too which is when 24
you click on – well when you’re on the homepage. Do you want to go back to the home page? So, it’s the 25
last bullet here is a little confusing. It looks like it’s the listing for all of them and they – at the same time, 26
there’s one earlier which is also Palo Alto listed properties so I think people might find that confusing why 27
they are both there. 28
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Ms. Vance: So, when you click on the Palo Alto listed properties, it’s literally just the PDF of all of the 30
properties that are listed. 31
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Council Member Holman: Ah, ok. 33
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Ms. French: It’s just the inventory; it’s not the Cal. Register ones which are different from the (inaudible). 35
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Council Member Holman: Yeah, I think it might be – if there’s a way to differentiate those like on the 37
subject because – I don’t know, it might be a little bit confusing. The other thing I noticed was when you 38
do go to the link that is the Palo Alto inventory, California Register and such when it lists the benefits – it 39
does here. I know I saw it earlier so somewhere. I know I wasn’t that sleepy when I was looking at this 40
earlier. (crosstalk) Yeah, I don’t know why I am not finding it here but two things, one is it doesn’t list 41
the stages for building code either there for National or local so it seems like that would be an important 42
thing to have one there. It’s mentioned somewhere else but it’s not mentioned hereunder benefits. The 43
other question I had was from the Dames and Moore report or survey, there were some – there was a 44
conclusion drawn of how many of those and which of those were actually eligible for the National 45
Register. I couldn’t tell looking at this that any of those houses had been added to this list. 46
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Ms. Vance: No, so these are the actual individually listed; a nomination was prepared and sent to MPF 48
and there are only 16 of those. The other ones have been deemed eligible but they are not actually 49
listed. 50
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Council Member Holman: Where would one find those that are eligible for the National Register? It seems 52
like it would be important for the Planning Department as well as the Building Department. 53
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City of Palo Alto Page 5
Ms. Vance: Yeah so those are listed in our internal GIS, as well as on – if you go to a parcel report, you’ll 1
see that it says been deemed eligible so that’s one way. 2
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Council Member Holman: Excuse me. 4
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Ms. Vance: I believe it might be in the summary report but I don’t – probably not. I don’t think there’s an 6
actual list of all of the ones that were deemed eligible out of that report. 7
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Council Member Holman: Is there a reason not to have them on the website? I mean somebody might 9
want to know that they – hey my property is eligible for the National Register. 10
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Ms. Vance: No, there’s no reason to not put them up. I can put them up in that section. There’s an – I 12
have another – there’s another part on how to – is your property historic and you go to the parcel report 13
and it links the parcel report. You put in your address and it will tell you if it’s considered a historic 14
resource (inaudible) City. 15
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Council Member Holman: Ok. I concur with the comments that have been made up here that this is a 17
huge, huge, huge improvement and this woman to my right is a great asset and addition to the City 18
Staff. 19
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Vice Chair Bower: I bet. I just finished loading that and it’s a huge file but what I was looking for where 21
the individual reports that Councilwomen Holman has just been talking about. I was hoping to see those 22
up here because I think those are really valuable. Especially the 200 that are potentially eligible for 23
listing. All of them – I did the – I scanned all those in and had a fabulous time looking at the inventory 24
and think it would be a really valuable resource. By the way at the end there’s a note here that says, the 25
DPR-523 records, I have no idea what that is but… 26
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Board Member Makinen: (Inaudible) 28
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Vice Chair Bower: What’s that? 30
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Board Member Makinen: Department of Parks and Recreation. 32
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Vice Chair Bower: Oh, Department of Parks and Recreation… 34
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Ms. Vance: That’s… 36
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Vice Chair Bower: …there are 291 individual properties evaluated in the survey may be found that the 38
Guy Miller Archives, City of Palo Alto Library. Not here but somewhere else so anyway, a link to that 39
might be… 40
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Ms. Vance: Yeah, that’d be great and this is wonderful feedback. Since you guys are going to be using 42
this probably a lot more than most people so again if you have any other comments, feel free to just 43
send them to me and let me know. 44
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Vice Chair Bower: For the 11-years that I’ve been on the – 10-years that I’ve been on the Historic 46
Resources Board, we’ve never had this much information put on the website so this is a huge step 47
forward. Rodger, you had a comment? 48
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Board Member Kohler: (Inaudible) 50
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Ms. Vance: Oh that – so we haven’t put those up yet but that will – the place to find those will be on the 52
Eichler – the special Eichler page and we’ll have the draft guidelines available for the public to download. 53
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Vice Chair Bower: Ok, Council – Karen. 55
City of Palo Alto Page 6
Council Member Holman: One other… 1
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Board Member Kohler: Just a – is there somewhere – I haven’t looked at this thoroughly but if I have 3
(crosstalk)… 4
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Council Member Holman: That’s the next item. 6
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Vice Chair Bower: It’s our next item. 8
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Board Member Kohler: Ok. 10
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Vice Chair Bower: Karen. 12
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Council Member Holman: So back to the website, this is – you’ve been so busy in doing so many great 14
things and I am wondering if this information is going to be disseminated to the realty community so 15
they can use it for a resource for clients? It’s great information and I concur with David by the way that 16
the buttons that you have listed, I think it would just be remarkably interesting for pretty much anybody 17
on having those as hot links would be terrific when you get to it. 18
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Ms. Vance: Yeah, that was kind of the end goal is to have a little – with the information because they are 20
nice little essays, you know a page or two, to have that information. That’s the end goal for sure and yes, 21
it would be good to get this information to different communities so we can work on that certainly. 22
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Vice Chair Bower: Ok, any other comments? Michael. 24
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Board Member Makinen: I think it was an excellent project right here (inaudible). One comment I had – 26
it’s not anything to do with the way you organized it but the Categories Three and Four, it leaves one 27
wondering what the differentiation is so much so maybe we should address that at this point. It goes to 28
Three and Four but there’s – really, why do we have Three and Four there if there’s no differentiation? Is 29
it just three you know? I don’t know I think we should put some flesh on that. It would probably be 30
helpful, in addition to that, if we had some type of definition of any of the terms that are kind of strange 31
to somebody who’s looking on here; like a glossary or something that they can go to and quickly find out 32
what a term is and back. I think that would be very helpful for a novice who’s looking at this so they 33
don’t get confused. 34
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Ms. Vance: Yeah, that’s a great idea and that’s something we can easily put together. 36
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Board Member Makinen: Put it as an additional item. 38
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3. Eichler Design Guidelines Update 40
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Vice Chair Bower: Alright, if there are no other comments we can move onto the next item which is the 42
Eichler Design Guidelines review. 43
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Ms. French: Thank you. We have today Christina Dikas of Page and Turnbull and she is here to present a 45
PowerPoint on the Eichler Design Guidelines for neighborhoods. We have been at this project for a while. 46
We got approval last December 2016 to hire our consultant to work on these. As of yesterday, we have 47
the guidelines in draft form and we are intending to send through an E-blast today to the stakeholders 48
who have been following this, as well as upload them on our webpage. So, you are the first in the 49
community to see, everyone at this table and in this room, the hard copy of the guidelines. So, I’ll let 50
Christina take it away. On the screen – oh wait, let’s – ok, drive on this one. Ok, technical difficulties. We 51
have had new two-story homes in Palo Alto that have been subject to the Individual Review Guidelines 52
and Individual Review Program and Process. These have included homes in Eichler neighborhoods that 53
did not have a single-story overlay; new one-story homes, in these neighborhoods and elsewhere, do not 54
have any kind of design review process; they are simply just a building permit. We’ve had a concern for 55
City of Palo Alto Page 7
lack of compatibility in the Eichler neighborhoods, and that has led to some neighborhoods coming 1
forward to elect to place a single-story overlay on their neighborhoods to, at least, keep the homes one-2
story and compatible in that way. There are guidelines in place to help architects and homeowners to see 3
what – how to sensitively add to an Eichler or a replacement building that would be compatible with the 4
homes in the tract. So, I already noted that the Council approved this contract to go forward with Eichler 5
Design Guidelines. These are not regulatory, these are tools, so as noted we have the single-story 6
overlay applicable to some Eichler neighborhoods and one non-Eichler neighborhood that is looking sort 7
of Eichler-like (I call them Feichler’s or Likelers I think is another term). And then we have the – we also 8
have flood zones and this is not a tool; it’s more of a – there’s – in the code – the zoning code for R-1 9
neighborhoods - a new home in a flood zone can be taller than other homes because the first finished 10
floor needs to be taller. So, in an Eichler neighborhood – you’re already starting much higher than other -11
homes that are slab-on-grade in the tract. We also have accessory dwelling unit legislation that came 12
through this year and the City adopted local guidelines that are helpful. These Eichler Guidelines also 13
address the Accessory Dwelling Unit Guidelines. Then, as you know, we have two historic districts – 14
National Register Historic Districts - and they are not listed on the City’s inventory so they don’t come 15
before this Board. They’re historic and so we have a chance to look at those to make sure they are 16
compatible with Secretary of Interior’s Standards. Some neighborhoods have covenant codes and 17
restrictions and we know of three neighborhoods that have Architectural Control Committees. So, in 18
those neighborhoods, there has been another layer, that is a private matter, that helps with maintenance 19
of one-story homes in those neighborhoods. It’s not – those Architectural Control Committees don’t have 20
all the tools they need. Obviously, these – the enforcement is very difficult and they do have issues in 21
those neighborhoods as well. The goals of the guidelines… (do you want to do this one?) 22
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Ms. Christina Dikas: Sure, the goals of this document are to develop illustrated guidelines for preserving 24
the distinctive character of the Eichler neighborhoods in Palo Alto, to provide a design tool for 25
homeowners and architects, and to adopt as a reference for Palo Alto review bodies. In addition to this 26
document, we are exploring with the City the possibility of establishing an Eichler overlay or other 27
regulatory updates where specific standards would apply in lieu of or in addition to the existing single-28
story overlay and individual review guidelines. So, that’s something that we’re exploring and we’ll discuss 29
more in the future. The next slide is our calendar and where we are today. We have this informational 30
hearing and I will be coming back to you on December 14th to hear your comments so you have a good 31
month or more to really dive into this document. We certainly recommend or we certainly welcome any 32
comments that you have. Yes, that document. 33
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Vice Chair Bower: Could I stop you right there for a second? I see that the Planning and Transportation 35
Commission is going to get this document on the 13th December and then we’ll look at it the following 36
day. What’s the – what’s Planning and Transportation going to do with this if we haven’t yet reviewed it 37
and approved it to move forward? 38
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Ms. French: Right, so we are – this will be their first look at it and we are going to describe the fact that 40
we are also looking at potential code changes. Certainly, one of the code changes is necessary - and that 41
is to reference these guidelines. As well as a cleanup item to reference the Professorville Guidelines, 42
which the code does not do right now. So, it’s about the zoning code changes that are necessary and 43
potential zoning code changes that we would return to them after Council provides directions on some of 44
these things. It’s a conversation, and the guidelines - they can recommend adoption of those guidelines 45
on that night, just as you can the next day. I hear what you are saying, you would rather maybe have 46
the Planning Commission go after the HRB to hear what the HRB’s comments are on the guidelines. 47
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Vice Chair Bower: So, that’s why I bring this up. It seems to me that the process is backward here. 49
Planning and Transportation has a legitimate role here but they ought to hear from us first because we’re 50
the Board that actually has expertise in historic issues. I think that this is what happens with the ARB 51
frequently, they are making their decisions separate from our input. 52
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Ms. French: Sure. 54
City of Palo Alto Page 8
Vice Chair Bower: Sometimes they just ignore our input which I think is inappropriate but – so I just – 1
so… 2
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Ms. French: We could just do a study session to talk with them and/or cancel that one. It’s a difficulty of 4
holiday agendas so we – so the next time we could come to them is in late January. 5
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Vice Chair Bower: I think it would be more informative for the Planning and Transportation 7
Commissioners to actually hear from us first. I mean hear what we have to say about it so I would – 8
since I didn’t see them on this timeline later, that’s why I am interrupting and bringing this up. 9
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Ms. French: They would certainly be later if and when the Council were to direct zoning code changes. 11
Then that would be a more important meeting from their standpoint. This is more of a how to look at 12
these and… 13
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Vice Chair Bower: So, that’s fine. Now I understand that this is more like a study session for them and 15
then the following day we will actually review these for substance and recommendation. Ok, so I 16
apologize for interrupting. 17
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Ms. Dikas: We are targeting a public review period that starts today. The document will be put on the 19
website later today and ending in mid-January so the general public will have a good two months – two? 20
Two months to review. 21
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Board Member Kohler: Where would we find the – how to get to that site? Is that under our… 23
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Ms. French: We will – as Emily showed you earlier, there’s the Eichler Guidelines dedicated website and it 25
will be placed there. Certainly, we will send a link to the HRB and others that are stakeholders in this that 26
have been following all this, and they will get the link that will make it easy for them to click on. 27
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Board Member Kohler: Good because I just have at least one or maybe two people who are interested in 29
that so good. Thank you. 30
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Ms. Dikas: We have a list of contact information from people who have been attending the community 32
meetings that we’ve held throughout the year and others who are interested community members. So, 33
there will be an e-blast with all the information so people can take a look. We’re targeting an April 34
completion, hopefully. Next slide? The next slide I’m going to present to you is just a quick overview so 35
that you can get a sense of what the design guidelines are and then again you have a good amount of 36
time to really read them fully before we come back to you. This is the table of contents and I’ll be going 37
through each of these chapters in subsequent slides. We have an introduction, brief history of Eichler 38
homes and Eichler residential development in Palo Alto. That also includes a section on character-defining 39
features of different styles of Eichler homes. Chapter Three is an overview of community values and 40
concerns and then we get into the guidelines. We have Chapter Four guidelines on maintaining Eichler 41
homes, guidelines for architectural compatibility and neighborhood cohesion. So, this includes new 42
additions to existing Eichler residences and new construction within Eichler neighborhoods. Chapter Six is 43
guidelines on the shared landscape, streetscape and a sense of nature. We kind of weaved through these 44
chapters so some of those values and concerns that we heard from community members earlier this year 45
so that’s where the sense of nature comes in. Then Chapter Seven is special considerations and we have 46
a special section on the two historic districts and then we have a section on accessory dwelling units. I 47
will mention that the only true historic resources are the buildings that are contributors to the two 48
National Register Historic Districts. So that is the only section of this that really uses of the Secretary of 49
the Interior’s Standards and basically says that if you’re a contributor to one of those two historic 50
districts, ideally you would have a higher bar for any alterations that you may make. There’s a certain 51
amount of flexibility that’s provided in the rest of the design guidelines that are not preservation 52
guidelines per say but loosely follow our Secretary of Interior’s Standards. There is just a little bit more 53
flexibility there so I just want to make that clear. The next slide, these are our Eichler tracts and Palo Alto 54
has the most Eichlers, I think of any City of 11,000 Eichler houses that were developed by Eichler Homes. 55
City of Palo Alto Page 9
There are over 2,500 in Palo Alto so we have found 31 tracts of Eichler and you can see the two National 1
Register Historic Districts are in green. This information was really derived from efforts that Page and 2
Turnbull put into trying to identify the specific Eichler tracts. There’s a google document that was online 3
and we’re not sure who developed it. It’s kind of an open source map of Eichler tracts but it wasn’t 4
complete so we also went to the County and we were able to get tract maps. Then we went out and we 5
drove every single street in these areas to really define is this an Eichler? Is this a likelier? So, we could 6
identify these boundaries so we hope that this is quite accurate. There are some possibilities that there 7
are tiny pockets of a couple of Eichlers here and there that aren’t represented on this map but this is 8
pretty thorough. This is part of the first chapter, the introduction and we include that map and then we 9
have the section on how to use these design guidelines. There is an overarching concept and if you’re 10
familiar with the Professorville Design Guidelines that we produced last year, similar kind of a format. We 11
have a statement explaining the objective or general approaches and then we have clarifying bullets that 12
follow and when applicable we have some sidebars with links. Chapter Two includes a brief history of 13
Eichler homes and these are just some of the images that we include. If you’re not familiar, Joseph 14
Eichler started Eichler Homes in 1949 and the first Eichler tract that was developed in Palo Alto was 15
University Gardens in 1950. It’s interesting to see how some of the Eichler designs change over time. He 16
had a contractor who worked on this first tract and it’s a little different. It has brick fireplace chimneys 17
that are prominent on the front façade, which you don’t see in later ones. Later on, he had several well-18
known and highly reputable mid-century modern architects who worked with him. One of them is Anshen 19
and Allen out of San Francisco. They did the Fairmeadow tract and a number of others but this is an 20
example of theirs. Jones and Emmons, A. Quincy Jones, designed Green Meadow in 1954 to 1955 and 21
next slide, Claude Oakland’s work on some of the later Eichler tracts and an example is the Los Arboles 22
Addition number two in 1974, which are really interesting with this center gable roof. Yes, Chapter Two in 23
much more detail. We also discuss a general history about Joseph Eichler’s concept for affordable yet 24
modern design in the post-war period. So, this is an example of an advertisement that was made at the 25
time. Next slide; and then some of the interesting neighborhood layouts. We talk a little bit about the 26
Green Meadow Community Center. Again, that was Jones and Emmons and then the Community Center 27
landscape was also done by Thomas Church who is a very well-known mid-century landscape architect. 28
Then as I mentioned earlier this chapter not only includes a history of Eichlers but also the defining 29
character features. We’ve broken them down into different typologies of Eichlers so this is straight out of 30
the document. This is a front gabled Eichler and we have some illustrations that pull out into bullet points 31
of some features that can identified with additional character-defining features over on the side in bullet 32
points. I lost my page. Flat-roofed Eichlers with these interesting tall and narrow windows on the front 33
and next slide there’s a flat with shed roof version and we have a series of photo variety. I love the one 34
at the bottom right with the yellow car in the driveway as well. Then the last one that we have is this flat 35
with gable roof and there are variations of it that you can see in the photos below the main one with a 36
side gable and kind of flat trunk aided roof gable. Those are the ones from Claude Oakland from the 37
1979s. Then Chapter Three as I mentioned earlier there’s an overview of community values and 38
concerns. We have – we hosted two community meetings in the spring, one was a general community 39
meeting where we introduced this project and the other one was specifically for the two National Register 40
Districts to find out if they had any specific concerns or comments that they wanted to provide us. We 41
heard from people but not everybody was able to attend these meetings so we took the questions that 42
we had posted in the meetings and we posted them online in a survey monkey link. We ended up 43
receiving I don’t know how many hundreds of comments from the community and we documented all of 44
those. We distilled them down in to these six general concepts of comments that we received so in this 45
chapter will be summarized of what we heard from the community. Then we tried to weave those 46
through the guidelines that are in the following chapters. This is kind of an interesting approach and 47
something that we haven’t had in other design guidelines that we have produced for Professorville or for 48
other Cities just because we really wanted to use all of this commentary that we received from the 49
community. This page just kind of illustrates the first three topics of a sense of community, a shared 50
landscape, streetscape and sense of nature and valuing privacy. This is a quote from one of the 51
community members, ‘Eichler owners and residents are very social with each other. Members of our 52
Eichler neighborhood meet twice a year for block parties, twice a year for solstice parties, monthly for 53
book clubs and daily for informal chat sessions. I’ve never lived in a place where the neighbors are more 54
tightly connected and welcoming.’ So that is a comment that we received and categorized into that sense 55
City of Palo Alto Page 10
of community value. Next slide; and then the last three are comments about the modern architectural 1
style, concerns or comments about architectural compatibility with new construction in the neighborhood 2
or other changes and valuing neighborhood cohesion. One comment about the architectural style is this 3
quote here that somebody mentioned a uniquely California modern indigenous style. The fifth community 4
value and concern involved adaptability and I think we also discussed the need for upgrades and 5
sometimes some difficulties that Eichler homes present for upgrades. Then lastly those who do value 6
preservation and there are a lot of different opinions about Eichlers. Some people love them, some 7
people don’t care so much for them so we tried to be objective and not chapter but kind of report back 8
what we heard. Alright, these next slides are just a few examples of guidelines that we have in each of 9
the chapters, just so you get a little sense of that. Chapter Four is on maintaining Eichler homes and a 10
couple examples of the guidelines are to maintain/replace windows while representing the design 11
characteristics of Eichler homes. We have the illustrations that show that you should really try to maintain 12
those large plate glass expanses verses inserting windows with lots of divisions. To treat entry doors and 13
garage doors in a manner that maintains the patterns found in Eichler neighborhoods. We have a yes on 14
solid front doors preferably and garage doors that have a cladding that similar to the wall cladding of the 15
rest of the house versus the kind of modern or contemporary garages doors and front doors that you 16
may see. As I mentioned the – with the National Register Historic Districts we have – we use more of the 17
Secretary of Interior’s Standards so this is a little bit looser guideline. You know preferable to keep what 18
you see in your neighborhood. Chapter Seven or sorry, Five involve architectural compatibility and 19
neighborhood cohesion. This is where we talk about additions, one-story additions and two-story 20
additions so 5.2.1 discusses placing a new residence or new construction within its lot so that it conforms 21
to the streetscape pattern of the surrounding neighborhood. Then we have bullet points that follow with 22
more detail and 5.2.2, to develop a new house design with an appropriate massing and height that 23
blends well with the surrounding neighborhood so there’s a no on that bottom graphics. Then Chapter Six 24
involves landscape, 6.3.1 is an example to place fences and other boundary features. 25
26
Board Member Kohler: Can I ask a quick question just -- on this page you were just going through 27
showing the good and bad and then the ‘X’? Is there – where do you… 28
29
Vice Chair Bower: What page are you one? 30
31
Board Member Kohler: I’m having a hard time figuring out what page we’re on. 32
33
Vice Chair Bower: It’s over here up on the upper right corner. 34
35
Board Member Kohler: I know, it’s 84 (inaudible). I’m just curious is there anywhere where you talk 36
about one-story versus two-story? (Inaudible)… 37
38
Ms. Dikas: Yes, we have guidelines that are specific to one-story additions and then we have guidelines 39
that are specific to two-story additions. We also have guidelines on new buildings, whether one or two-40
story. 41
42
Board Member Kohler: In this? 43
44
Ms. Dikas: In the document, yes. These – this presentation is really just quick highlights so a couple of 45
examples. 46
47
Board Member Kohler: Ok, I just wanted to get – figure out where we were here. Ok, thank you. 48
49
Ms. Dikas: Chapter Six on landscape, just a couple of examples that we’ve provided are to place fences 50
and other boundary features where they will not obstruct views of an Eichler residence. 51
52
Board Member Kohler: Sorry to interrupt again but in this case, it might great on this big green page to 53
have a six because you have to look in here to figure out where you are. 54
55
City of Palo Alto Page 11
Ms. Dikas: Ok, thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. 1
2
Board Member Kohler: That’s what’s confusing, I go (inaudible) -- ok, alright, thank you. 3
4
Ms. Dikas: We have some check marks on examples that have front yards that do have fences but they 5
are semi-permeable or are setback close to the house versus all the way at the front of the street where 6
the entire front yard would be a block off and that’s not recommended. Chapter Seven, this is that special 7
consideration chapter on the National Register Historic Districts and ADUs. This is an example of an – one 8
of the ADU Guidelines to design detached ADUs with as low height and roof slope as possible in order to 9
reduce the buildings visibility from surrounding residences. The ADU topic is interesting because they – 10
because of the State legislation they are allowed even though in Eichler neighborhoods the backyards are 11
very important because that’s where the full window walls occur. So, we’ve tried to provide some 12
guidelines generally too place ADUs that might be built in appropriate places and try to minimize their 13
mass as much as possible. Then our Chapter Eight involves process improvement suggestions. This 14
chapter is a bit of a work in progress. It – part of it really relates to these regulatory changes that we’re 15
still exploring so there’s actually a placeholder right now where a matrix may end up being inserted. It 16
discusses some of our recommendations for project review for the National Register Historic Districts, 17
design review training and raising awareness of the neighborhood Architectural Control Committees, and 18
designation of additional National Register Historic Districts you recommend. We found that when we 19
were driving around there were actually a couple of tracts that we noticed that had perhaps even higher 20
integrity than at least one of the National Register Districts. So, there are certainly others out there that 21
could be eligible for similar reasons. Then again, this potential modification to zone code related to 22
Eichler neighborhoods. We have – we currently have some of the background information about what 23
we’re exploring but not really the meat of those recommendations yet. That concludes my presentation, 24
thank you. 25
26
Vice Chair Bower: Great, thank you for running through that for us. I have some comments but does 27
anyone else want to start? Ok. 28
29
Board Member Wimmer: I was just going to ask, once we have a chance to review the document, how do 30
we – if we see suggestions and things like that, how are we going to just go—at a future meeting and 31
each individual person make their suggestions? How would you like to receive comments I guess is what 32
my question is? 33
34
Ms. French: Thank you. We could do one of two things or both, we do plan to come back to you, as 35
noted, December 14th so if you wanted to make notes etc. and – on your copy in red or something and 36
bring those to the meeting on the 14th, that would be great. Also, if there’s some critical issue that is 37
formatting something that needs – it doesn’t need discussion but needs – you need to alert us to 38
something, I would ask that you go ahead and email that to me. We can – I can collect anything that 39
comes forward in the next month and ship that over to Christina. 40
41
Ms. Dikas: Yeah, so we’re definitely accepting written comments, whether an email to Amy or a marked-42
up copy that you want to hand over, or verbal comments at the next meeting that we attend. 43
44
Vice Chair Bower: I’ll lead off then. I think Roger’s suggestion about numbering the title pages is a really 45
good one because I had the same problem. 46
47
Ms. Dikas: Ok, great. 48
49
Vice Chair Bower: On the map that you’ve created which I am very appreciative of; when I first looked at 50
it, I couldn’t understand why the dates of – the building dates of these tracts where so haphazard - and 51
then I realized that you’ve listed the tract alphabetically. I wonder if you could sort that by – also provide 52
a map sorted by date so we have a sense of the oldest and the youngest. I’m not sure how complicated 53
that would be but it’s probably just sorting the list – tract name list. 54
55
City of Palo Alto Page 12
Ms. Dikas: We do have a table of the tracts where we tried to find the architects but we haven’t been 1
able to – I forget – oh, I think it’s at the end of Chapter Two; let’s see. 2
3
Vice Chair Bower: End of Chapter Two? 4
5
Ms. Dikas: Where was it? 6
7
Vice Chair Bower: Which is what page? 8
9
Ms. Dikas: Well, I can’t find it now but I’ll see if it was organized by year for that one. Oh, I just found it, 10
it’s on page 40. Oh, and I just saw a typo. This also looks to be ordered by – in alphabetical order so 11
that’s a great comment, thank you. 12
13
Vice Chair Bower: What’s really helpful is to see – as I was looking at the map, I was most interested in 14
what – where the first tracts or the first clusters, I think is a better term, where built. 15
16
Ms. Vance: That can – if I could just kind of follow up on that? I think that’s a great idea to show it 17
chronologically and what you could do, I’ve done this in the past, is you do like a gradient shading so you 18
can see going light to dark. That kind of provides this geographic context as well, and to see where they 19
are coming from - but I like that idea a lot. 20
21
Ms. Dikas: So, it would be an additional… 22
23
Ms. Vance: Yeah, I was kind of envisioning it as another map. The same one but just doing a color scheme 24
to show the order in which the neighborhoods where built. 25
26
Vice Chair Bower: In the Professorville Guidelines they do – your firm did shade the buildings by era. 27
28
Ms. Dikas: Eras, yeah. 29
30
Vice Chair Bower: Not quick by date of when they were built but I think they clustered – they identified 31
them as – by design. Anyway, I think it would – I’m not trying to push another page in here but I think 32
that’s important. I’m wondering about the setback; did you look at average setbacks on these Eichler 33
houses? It looks – I mean my intuition is that they are about 25-feet from the property line. 34
35
Ms. Dikas: I believe we did. 36
37
Vice Chair Bower: It seems to me that one of the most important parts of the Eichler neighborhoods is 38
the streetscape. You can’t really get into a person’s house unless you’re invited but everybody can see 39
the architecture from the street and it’s really startling how many different design patterns there are and 40
you’ve done a really excellent job of bringing that out. I’m wondering if there shouldn’t be effectively a 41
façade easement suggestion or even an ordinance that will preserve what the public sees. What you do 42
in your backyard I’m less concerned about, although I am concerned about the impact on the neighbors 43
but it’s really the streetscape that we’re trying to preserve. That’s the part of the public history that we 44
can see. Last comment – two comments, one is it seems to me in reviewing this and also as part of the 45
Professorville Guidelines review, that single-story review is critically important in these neighborhoods 46
where there is a historic designation because if you lose – if single-story buildings are not included in 47
discretionary review, somebody can go in there and build any style of architecture. This begins to bleed 48
off the critical mass that makes Historic District important. At the past, Palo Alto Stanford Heritage Board 49
Meeting last night, one of the Board Members had mentioned that one of the Eichler districts is worried 50
about losing their Historic District statues because they’ve had so many infill projects. So, I’m not sure 51
how to move this forward in terms of the ordinance but it seems to me that that’s something that the 52
Council ought to consider. I’m not sure how it would fit into this process but it could be a 53
recommendation from Staff or it could be a recommendation from our Board. Last item, again, I don’t 54
mean to be picking apart your timeline – your public hearing timeline but I’m wondering about the 55
City of Palo Alto Page 13
advisability of having the Historic Resources Board evaluate and move this forward in the legislative 1
process before the end of the public comment period. So, there will be a month – pretty much a month 2
from today that we’ll be looking at it but the public comment period goes on a month beyond that. I 3
worry about the impression that we’re racing to judgment before the public comment period ends. I 4
would have felt somewhat more comfortable having our meeting after the public comment period ended. 5
Now I understand all of the complexity about that but I’m just saying that I’m a little bit uncomfortable 6
about that. 7
8
Ms. French: I’ll just say originally, we had the meeting set up for November 28th and I think I announced 9
that but there was a conflicting Rail meeting that came up and so we had to cancel it, change our plans 10
and put it off into February now. 11
12
Vice Chair Bower: I understand. There’s nothing else going on in the City but historic preservation review 13
but nonetheless, I just – it’s a perception issue more. It’s not that we couldn’t – we could come back as a 14
Board and incorporate any comments that come after our meeting but I just think that’s problematic. 15
Anyone else has a comment about this? Michael. 16
17
Board Member Makinen: Just one comment, I was glad to see that on page 31 that you do recognize the 18
fact that Eichlers are basically an extension of Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses. Wright – the Eichler 19
was really designed as a low-cost version of the Usonia house for the working man. It would be nice to 20
have a little example of a Usonian house and how the Eichler derived from the Usonian house; just a little 21
picture there of how they relate to one another. Wright was greatly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright - 22
and that’s the genius for all these Eichlers, was Frank Lloyd Wright. 23
24
Board Member Corey: One question, all – I think it looks good overall. I’m going to go through and mark 25
up some comments at a later date. One question I had kind of and I don’t know if it’s a particular issue 26
as far as from the front façade but my observation from Eichlers before and being in them with friends is 27
they have very prominent chimneys on the inside. I noticed on page 71 about the chimneys, there’s a 28
discussion about seek strategies to structurally stabilize the chimney. My understanding is there are 29
ordinances now with the City where you effectively can’t touch brick and mortar chimneys to stabilize 30
rather than replace because there are concerns about wood burning. It would be good to get clarification 31
at some point on what that is. So, you can’t get a permit to stabilize because they encourage people to 32
tear down and rebuild it; it’s for air quality. 33
34
Vice Chair Bower: And earthquake safety. 35
36
Board Member Corey: Sorry? Yeah, no, sorry. It’s the replace rather than repair because of the wood 37
burning and because of earthquakes safety, there’s a lot of concerns around doing that so I just wanted 38
to kind of throw that in. Again, I don’t think there’re a lot of fronts, but I notice this is – because they are 39
very prominent on the inside, these huge like ceiling to wall fireplaces. I don’t know if you can come back 40
with any info on that. 41
42
Vice Chair Bower: There is no repair of an existing masonry fireplace. 43
44
Board Member Corey: You literally have to tear it down. 45
46
Vice Chair Bower: Because it doesn’t have enough steel in it, it’s not built to current standards. They 47
probably need points if you can get into the flue and seal that again, that would be useful but most likely 48
– I mean the City Building Department had no interest in trying to patch together an old fireplace. 49
50
Ms. French: I guess the comment on that, that I would have, is the good news - that there is only one 51
Eichler tract that has chimneys facing the streets. So, from the public standpoint, that won’t be as much 52
of a problem as far as the look of it but yeah, we should get a handle on that. Thank you. 53
54
Vice Chair Bower: Beth. 55
City of Palo Alto Page 14
Board Member Bunnenberg: Is there any mention in here of the problems with the heating coils that 1
were put into the cement? 2
3
Ms. Dikas: Yes, we do have a guideline or two that have to do with the slab heating. 4
5
Vice Chair Bower: There’s a terrible example of adding heating and cooling to the top of an Eichler 6
building near the Eichler Edgewood Plaza. It’s astoundingly bad, it’s probably about 2 ½-feet above the 7
roof plane, it totally ruins the Eichler design lines, and it’s just lazy in my opinion. It could have been 8
made much smaller and flatter but I don’t know, it’s something you’ve addressed here I presume? 9
10
Ms. Dikas: We do have a guideline that discusses adding mechanical or other things to the roof, whether 11
it’s HVAC or heater or otherwise. I think we just say that to try to keep it as low as possible so that it’s 12
not particularly visible. 13
14
Vice Chair Bower: Ok, any other comments? 15
16
Board Member Wimmer: Yeah, I was going to mention something. I was just kind of thinking beyond the 17
guidelines and how this sort of impacts our community and things. I was wondering because we’re 18
always talking about incentives, are there any – could there be any creative incentives just for Eichler 19
people who want to preserve their Eichler? Maybe we could keep that in mind as – in further discussion 20
to make it – kind of give them some incentives so they feel somewhat rewarded for preserving what they 21
have. Also, I was wondering now that these are becoming more of a historic structure, would we want to 22
think about coming up with a plaque? In Professorville we have those really neat plaques on the houses 23
and maybe we come up with a different look. Maybe not the oval plaque but maybe something square or 24
something, I don’t know. I think that could be kind of neat idea because it really makes it more –feels – 25
that contributes to the sense of community, the sense of preservation. I know a lot of people don’t like 26
those plaques on their houses but I don’t know, maybe some people – the Eichler people would like that. 27
I don’t know, just an idea. 28
29
Vice Chair Bower: Alright, Council… 30
31
Board Member Kohler: Can I ask one more question? I have a client who started out doing a new home 32
and they’re right off Charleston. I’m looking through here to see in the guidelines for new homes and 33
looking at page 81, in that area there’s a check off on a house that’s ok and it’s got a continuous wall of 34
the second floor in the back behind the – I guess (inaudible) beyond the existing Eichler. Then over on 35
the other side – I guess it’s the little glass window but – so you’re encouraging this shape of home for 36
new homes or second-floor additions on page 81 in the lower left-hand side? Is it got the little green 37
arrow? 38
39
Ms. Dikas: We have guidelines that discuss pushing second-story additions back from the street and 40
things of that nature. So, I think this image is an example of somebody who’s done that in the 41
neighborhood. 42
43
Board Member Kohler: This is the section that someone who is going to do a new home looks at it for 44
guidance. 45
46
Ms. Dikas: This specific section is on second-story additions to existing Eichlers. 47
48
Board Member Kohler: I’m assuming that if you’re doing a new home you’d have to look at this section. 49
50
Ms. Dikas: 5.1, the title to this section is new additions to existing Eichler residences and then I think 51
later, 5.2 is new home construction within Eichler neighborhoods. Then we have a couple of photo 52
examples of new homes on page 84. They both happen to be one-story which is generally what we’re 53
recommending but we’re not excluding second-story homes. 54
55
City of Palo Alto Page 15
Board Member Kohler: But I mean – are you saying you can do two-story homes or are you saying… 1
2
Ms. Dikas: Yes. 3
4
Board Member Kohler: This is the guideline that you’ll refer too? Well, I’m not sure that’s enough 5
guidelines and maybe there need to be more sketches or something. I just – for the average person to 6
look at this, I – essentially you want the back of the house to be – if it’s two-story in the back part, not 7
up toward the front is what you’re saying I think. Is that… 8
9
Ms. Dikas: That image was for an addition to an existing Eichler. 10
11
Board Member Kohler: Ok, well I’m just trying to say, is there guidelines in here too – that has sketches 12
of new homes and how they might work or not work or have anything because the Eichlers are great 13
homes but they are not so well holding up at this age point. There have been lots of problems and 14
people are – would like --- would rather do a new home than refurbish one that’s – the heating doesn’t 15
work and all these kinds of things; the windows are double paned. 16
17
Ms. Dikas: We’ve mostly included photos of buildings in the neighborhoods that we found to be more 18
successful examples of new home construction within Eichlers versus using illustrations of a potential 19
design. We do recommend not a historicism design but using a modern vocabulary to be more 20
compatible with Eichlers, using certain roof forms… 21
22
Board Member Kohler: That’s here – in the book here? 23
24
Ms. Dikas: Yes, it’s all under 5.2 and there are -- there’s 5.2.1 through 5.2.8 so there are eight different 25
recommendations for a new home construction. 26
27
Board Member Kohler: Ok but I’m not seeing – there’s no visual. 28
29
Vice Chair Bower: Right, there’s no visual. 30
31
Board Member Kohler: It’s all writings. 32
33
Ms. French: (Inaudible) 34
35
Board Member Kohler: Well, even your guidebooks for regular homes have got more detail. 36
37
Ms. French: What I’m hearing Rodger is that you’re saying that like the IR Guidelines that have don’t do 38
this, do something more like this, in drawn elevations. Is that what you’re saying you’d like (crosstalk) 39
something like that. 40
41
Board Member Kohler: People reading this aren’t – they don’t know what a facia board is. 42
43
Ms. French: There’s a possibility that we could modify the IR Guidelines to have a whole couple of pages 44
on Eichlers with those types of drawings. 45
46
Board Member Kohler: Actually, that would probably be a good idea because it might actually encourage 47
more people to build Eichler type homes instead of the more modern homes. I don’t know I’m just trying 48
to say, an average person looking through here, who is going to do a new home, and it’s just a lot of 49
words so it doesn’t… 50
51
Ms. French: Right. 52
53
Board Member Kohler: In this kind of world you need more visual I think. 54
55
City of Palo Alto Page 16
Ms. French: Right so for those who are choosing to do a new two-story home, they are going to have to 1
go through the IR Guidelines. And this is to supplement that. It has guidelines written that it’s possible 2
that we could… 3
4
Board Member Kohler: Sorry to add more work to you. 5
6
Ms. French: Well, it won’t happen immediately. 7
8
Board Member Kohler: Yeah, ok. 9
10
Ms. Dikas: We’re exploring that anyway, updating the IR Guidelines to include some Eichler specifics. 11
12
Board Member Kohler: When we do new homes we always meet with Arnold but I suppose Arnold will 13
have a lot of this under his packet of ideas so he will be a big help. 14
15
Vice Chair Bower: Alright, Council Member Holman had a comment. 16
17
Council Member Holman: Yeah, just a couple suggestions. Firs thank you for getting this far, it’s a lot of 18
work and Page and Turnbull is a very accomplished at how to do these. So, they are very clear and laid 19
out very well. Just a clarifying thing maybe, as Rodger had mentioned putting in a chapter number on the 20
cover page I think or the chapter page. I think it also might be good to put them at the chapter pages 21
themselves otherwise you’re looking like this and people who aren’t familiar – you know there are pages 22
that don’t have any 4.2.3 so you don’t know what chapter you’re in when you look so just adding the 23
number up here would be helpful. Page 17 and obviously we just got this At Places so there hasn’t been 24
time to review it but page 17 talks about repairing and replacing windows and doors but all the language 25
there is about replacing windows. I don’t see anything about repairing or retaining so that’s one comment 26
and windows are such a huge, big deal and that’s something that I caught, to begin with right off. I really 27
do concur with the Chair’s comments about the review process in terms of sequencing. There’s currently 28
no architect on the Planning Commission and I think if the Planning Commission doesn’t benefit from an 29
action item of this body reviewing this document after they have had a chance to review it, I think there’s 30
going to be a lot of confusion back and forth and discontinuity in terms of intention and progress. I think 31
it’s going to lead to maybe the community and very likely the Council being like well what are we, you 32
know? It seems like it would be a lot more effective to have a December 7th if that date could be 33
arranged without changing the Planning Commission meeting. I mean look at December 7th to have an 34
HRB meeting. 35
36
Ms. French: That’s an ARB date. 37
38
Council Member Holman: That’s an ARB date, ok. Well, I would really strongly suggest for everybody’s 39
benefit to have this body have a chance to review this document and make comments in an action item 40
setting prior to going to the Planning Commission. Again, especially because there’s nobody there with 41
preservation experience and there’s not even an architect there. A couple other just quick comments is as 42
the question – I appreciate the questions and comments from the Board Members. As I – oh, one thing 43
that’s about Joseph Eichler, I really appreciate the history that’s in here about how he stood for no 44
discrimination. I mean he was really a visionary and a social leader in that regard. You might consider 45
adding in there, even to the extent that he resigned or was expelled, I forgotten which, from the – what 46
was it? The State Construction Board or something? It’s – that information is available but it went that far 47
that he was no longer apart of that body because they would not include his nondiscrimination policy. 48
The other comment is if I understand and again, this is not from having read this, it’s just from hearing 49
comments and questions. That someone could build a new two-story home in Greenmeadow – well, no, 50
not in Greenmeadow because that has a single-story overlay but somebody could build a new two-story 51
in any Eichler neighborhood according to these. So, what seems like to make sense is either in parallel 52
with this or in – as a part of this, how neighborhoods could apply for National Register status. The other 53
thing before you go, I know you have an answer ready, but the other thing is the replacement of even 54
single-story homes in National Register Districts because right now they get no City review but they are 55
City of Palo Alto Page 17
listed on the National Register. Two neighborhoods are listed on the National Register and there’s no 1
review so I heard the Chair saying that some people are concerned about – I think it was you who said 2
some people are concerned about even the eligibility of the National Register because of how much 3
change is happening in the neighborhood. As I’ve listened to the neighborhood over the last – and the 4
neighbors and the community over the last couple 3-years, they want to see not only the character 5
retained but they want to see the National Register status of their neighborhoods retained too. How 6
would this possibly get them there? 7
8
Ms. French: The guidelines themselves wouldn’t. That is why there’s a two-part program here to get 9
these guidelines before the Council in addition to the potential code modifications that the Council could 10
then direct to go forward. There are – there’s a menu of possibilities, there are Eichler overlays, there are 11
independent development standards that could be added, and so there’s a host of things. We’re working 12
on those as potential for the Council to direct to move forward after they get a good handle on what 13
those options are. 14
15
Council Member Holman: I was understanding that the community, and what they were looking for 16
actually is these, yes, but I thought that what the community was looking for was Eichler overlays. 17
18
Ms. French: We’ve heard that from some, not from everybody. 19
20
Council Member Holman: I’ve heard it from a lot. 21
22
Ms. French: Sure, but people come talk to you because they want that. There are other people that don’t 23
want that action so we have the whole host of residents that have interest and we need to bring those 24
forward to the -- that’s one of the reasons the community workshop is pushed off until next year. That’s 25
because we are working on these potential code changes and when you bring up the National Register 26
tracts – I mean because they are not listed on the City’s inventory, they are not protected by our City’s 27
ordinance. That – has not even been identified in these potential code changes that we’re working on 28
was modifying the Historic Preservation Ordinance, which is always a hot topic. Yeah, that’s another 29
ordinance that’s been long overdue to modify and we talk about it here, Categories Threes and Fours and 30
Ones and Twos and those are all in the ordinance. That would be a change and if you wanted to say 31
there’s only Category One and Two, one is significant and one isn’t or ones just contributing. Those kinds 32
of changes would have to come forward to the Planning Commission and to the Council. 33
34
Council Member Holman: I guess the question to make it not a many-years-long processes is could those 35
opportunities, suggestions, hindrances, or whatever, come forward to the community in parallel to this so 36
they are not looking at this and going, oh this is what we get. When some might want one thing and 37
some might want another thing. Could they come in parallel to each other so again, we’re not extending 38
this out several years? 39
40
Ms. French: Yeah, we are not interested in years, we’re interested in months. What we’re interested in is 41
getting these guidelines to the Council for adoption. We’re also interested at the same time getting to the 42
Council the menu of direct Staff to go forward with A, B, and C’s, so that’s going to be a Council decision. 43
We’re going to come forward with proposals after having vetted those with the Planning Commission. It 44
was going to be December 13th to start talking about those, and now we’ll push that off until January it 45
seems like, if that’s an interest. So, that will be something that comes to the Council in March to direct 46
Staff to then resume and go forward for the next whatever-6-months, to get it done. 47
48
Council Member Holman: Hopefully while I’m still in Council and thank you. 49
50
Vice Chair Bower: If there are no further comments then I encourage Boardmembers to forward their 51
concerns or any suggestions to Emily or Amy so we can have them included before we meet to discuss 52
this as a Board. So, if there’s no further discussion about this let’s do some housekeeping and move on 53
with the day. I do not see any members of the public here, let alone members who would like to speak 54
so I think we don’t have any public comments. 55
City of Palo Alto Page 18
Action Items 1
2
None. 3
4
Approval of Minutes 5
6
4. Historic Resources Board Draft Minutes of October 12, 2017 7
8
Vice Chair Bower: Approval of minutes, I wanted to suggest that – let’s see, the minutes from October 9
12th. I noticed – this is when we were first looking at Eichler Guidelines. In the minutes I think there is a 10
place where I’m discussing the CC&R’s of Greenmeadow and in the literal translation that came out as 11
CCNRs so I think that’s… 12
13
Ms. Vance: What page are you… 14
15
Vice Chair Bower: Well, it’s on many pages but you can see it on 21. 16
17
Ms. Vance: Oh, I see. 18
19
Vice Chair Bower: You can see it basically – if you do a keyword search on that, every single place that 20
CC&R’s are mentioned it is put as ‘N’ instead of – what is that, ampersand? Is that the correct term? Ok, 21
other than that I don’t have any corrections. Anyone else has corrections? I don’t see any. I’m sure we’ve 22
all read these thoroughly. Do I have a motion to approve? 23
24
MOTION 25
26
Board Member Wimmer: I move to approve the minutes. 27
28
Vice Chair Bower: Second? 29
30
Board Member Kohler: I’ll second it. 31
32
Vice Chair Bower: Ok, Rodger you seconding? Alright, all in favor? Ok, that’s unanimous. 33
34
MOTION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 6-0 WITH CHAIR BERNSTEIN ABSENT. 35
36
Subcommittee Items 37
38
Vice Chair Bower: Alright subcommittee items, this is the first draft of the Mills Act. It came out – Emily 39
sent this out to the subcommittee members. It is a draft because we haven’t looked at it and reviewed it 40
but it’s a very impressive document. Thank you very much. I second Council Member Holman’s note – 41
comment earlier that you are a rare find and we are very lucky to have your energy and intelligent and 42
thoroughness in the City. The subcommittee will meet again I think in the next couple of weeks to try to 43
move this forward but this is a huge improvement. This is why we’ve never been able to move this idea 44
forward because just the discussions the subcommittee had didn’t begin to cover the amount of 45
information that’s in this document. I think we’re going – we’re actually going to be able to move this 46
forward next year. I don’t think there are any other subcommittee reports, are there? Roger. 47
48
Board Member Kohler: Yeah, I have a subcommittee – has anyone been down off California Avenue lately 49
or along the railroad tracks? You know where Fry’s is? If you start down at Fry’s and you go toward 50
California Avenue there’s now – all the big buildings are already done and there are two or three new 51
ones going up. I mean that’s going to be one continuous wall and it’s really amazing site. Then they are 52
going to start doing that new building, when is that going to start that’s going to have the parking and 53
everything? It’s just one busy place so it’s amazing. 54
55
City of Palo Alto Page 19
Vice Chair Bower: That’s an art – blame the architects for that. 1
2
Board Member Kohler: Yeah, right. I just really noticed that if you – I use to go to Keeble and Shuchat all 3
the time for all my cameras and stuff like and of course they went away. Now – then the arts and crafts 4
people had to move out because that building got changed so now they are going to be -- in part of the 5
old Keeble and Shuchat building. I’ve been meaning to go down there because it’s going to be divided I 6
think into two or three spaces so California Avenue is a real hopping place. It’s just amazing. 7
8
Vice Chair Bower: Any other comments? Board Members? Alright, hearing none. 9
10
Board Member Questions, Comments and Announcements 11
12
MOTION 13
14
Vice Chair Bower: There’s aren’t any announcements and so I would entertain a motion to adjourn. 15
(Crosstalk) Oh, everyone moved to adjourn, alright. All in favor? Good, see you next meeting. 16
17
MOTION PASSED 6-0 WITH CHAIR BERSTEIN ABSENT. 18
19
Adjournment 20