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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-02-08 Planning & transportation commission Summary Minutes_______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Planning & Transportation Commission 1 Action Agenda: February 8, 2017 2 Council Chambers 3 250 Hamilton Avenue 4 6:00 PM 5 6 Call to Order / Roll Call 6:07pm 7 8 Chair Alcheck: (Unintelligible) can you take roll call, please? 9 10 Yolanda Cervantes, Administrative Assistant: Chair Alcheck, Commission Gardias, Commissioner 11 Lauing, Commissioner Rosenblum, Commissioner Summa, Vice Chair Waldfogel. He’s absent so 12 five Commissioners present, one absent. 13 14 Oral Communications 15 The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 16 17 Chair Alcheck: At this time, I want to invite anybody who’d like to speak up for oral 18 communications. The public can speak about any item they wish if they present a card. I don’t 19 see any cards. Ok, so seeing no cards. 20 21 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Agenda Changes, Additions, and Deletions 1 The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 2 3 Chair Alcheck: Let’s just move to… I don’t… we do have a… do we want to deal with the 4 continuance now? 5 6 Mr. Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: Yeah, under agenda changes? 7 8 Chair Alcheck: Yeah. 9 10 Mr. Lait: Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. 11 12 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Do we need a motion to do that? 13 14 Mr. Lait: Yes. We would look for a motion to continue it to… what was the date that we said? 15 March 8th. 16 17 MOTION 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Ok, so for various reason among others, we’re continuing the item related to the 1 Castilleja agenized item tonight to March 8th. And in are… in an effort to allow individuals in the 2 community and this Commission to attend this Mayor’s state of the City address if they wish. 3 So, I’m going to make a motion to continue that items to March 8th. Can I get a second? 4 5 Commissioner ?: I second. 6 7 VOTE 8 9 Chair Alcheck: Great. All those in favor? Raise your hand or say aye. Great. That’s unanimous. 10 We’re continuing the item. 11 12 MOTION PASSED (5-0 unanimous) 13 14 Commission Action 15 16 Motion made to continue Item 4 to March 8, 2017 PTC Meeting. Motion made by Chair Alcheck, seconded by 17 Commissioner Rosenblum, MOTION PASSES 5-0 18 City Official Reports 19 1. Assistant Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Ok, let’s begin with the assistant director's report then or meeting schedule and 1 any other items. 2 Jonathan Lait: Thank you. So, just a couple of items to report. One, I wanted to remind the 3 Commissioners, we’ve gotten a couple of responses already for the Planning Commissioners 4 Academy. I understand Commissioner Summa and Lauing are on a wait list to participate in that 5 effort and I think you’re really close to the top of that list so we’ll keep you posted when we 6 learn more about that. It’s a great opportunity to… for all Commissioners… new Commissioners 7 but also people who have been… Commissioners who have been around for a while to network 8 and get a chance to see what’s going on in other jurisdictions. We certainly encourage everyone 9 to participate in that as your time permits. We would cover the cost for your training and travel 10 and so forth. So, if you are interested in that and you haven’t told us already, then please let 11 Yolanda know and we can help get you set up for that. It is on March 1st -3rd and it’s in Los 12 Angeles. 13 A couple other quick notes. The City will be taking up the Retail Preservation Ordinance on 14 February 13th. According to your schedule, we have Commissioner Rosenblum who is the PTC 15 representative for that month so we look forward to seeing you at that meeting. And then in 16 March, we have the ADU is going to Council and… on March 6th and I believe Commissioner… 17 Vice Chair Waldfogel is the representative but I think he might be out of town that week and, so 18 I would look to the Chair to assign a backup if Asher [Note-Waldfogel] is unable to attend. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. And then finally, there’s a question about the February 22 meeting and whether or not we’re 1 going to have a speaker or if we may cancel that meeting. And if you have more information on 2 that otherwise we will send a notice out later. 3 Chair Alcheck: Yeah, I’ll probably know more about that in a couple days. 4 Mr. Lait: OK. 5 Chair Alcheck: When is the (unintelligible) moment that we would definitely want to have notify 6 people? 7 Mr. Lait: Well, for… we to notice 72- hours in advance so we would… 8 Chair Alcheck: Ok. So, if we find out in say… 9 Mr. Lait: We have time. 10 Chair Alcheck: 3 or 4 days we’re ok? 11 Mr. Lait: Yes. 12 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Then I just wanted to sort of add a comment about the Commissioners 13 Academy I attended when the… one of the years… I can’t actually remember how many years 14 ago, it was. And it was… I literally thought it was incredible. So, if you guys are on the… it 15 sounds like you're already motivated to go but it was very, very interesting. You know, I hear a 16 lot on this Commission from other Commissioners, you know, asking about what another City’s 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. do. Sometimes to deal with our… Sometimes we ask, what are other Cities doing to address 1 Item A or B that we’re dealing with and attending the Academy is a really interesting way to 2 learn about other Cities. And you make connections with other Commissioners all over the 3 State. And that can be valuable. You can reach out to them and I want… mention… we had a 4 discussion yesterday during our pre-Commission meeting about the idea of asking any people… 5 any who attended to… we can create an agenda item to discuss, maybe your topic of most 6 interest at the Academy. To come back and just present short, you know, what did you enjoy 7 learning about the most or sharing some thoughts with us. So, I… number 1, how you make it 8 off the waiting list. 9 Male: Yeah, that’s the key. 10 Yeah, that’s the key. 11 Chair Alcheck: There’s got to be a way our Planning Staff can twist some arms. 12 Commissioner Summa: I’m two so he’s either one or three. 13 Chair Alcheck: There’s… I mean, Palo Alto is… you know, they got to make room for Palo Alto. 14 So, hopefully, you get there and I’m really looking forward to hearing more about it when you 15 get back, hopefully. Ok. 16 Study Session 17 Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 2. Update on the City's Effort to Update the Comprehensive Plan 1 Chair Alcheck: With that, I’d like to…Well, do we want to get a quick update on the City’s effort 2 to update the Comprehensive Plan? 3 Ms. Hillary Gitelman, Planning Director: Yes, thank you Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Hillary 4 Gitelman the Planning director. Thank you for having me tonight to do a short update on the 5 Comprehensive Plan. I know we don’t have a lot of time for discussion today but we will 6 schedule an item for… actually a public hearing item of… for the Commission towards the end 7 of March. And we’ll make time at that… on that agenda for a lot of discussions if you’d like. So, 8 just to update you where we are. First, at the end of this week, on Friday. We’re publishing a 9 supplement to the Draft EIR on the Comp. Plan update that was circulated early last year. For 10 those who have been following this long process, the Draft EIR analyzed four different planning 11 scenarios as a proxy for… or as a way to bracket the potential impacts of the plan that we 12 ultimately develop. And when the Council reviewed the Draft EIR, they asked us to analyze two 13 more scenarios so we’re producing a supplement to the Draft EIR that analyzes those two 14 scenarios and it will be available starting on Friday. So, we’ll push out notices to those who 15 commented on it and were interested in the first go around. And we will be providing hard 16 copies to the Commission as soon as we can logistically get them to you. So, it will probably be 17 next week or in your next packet. I don’t know exactly how we’ll get them to you but we will 18 get you a hard copy in addition to providing, of course, a link to the website where it will be 19 housed. The Commission will hold the hearing… a public hearing on the supplement to the 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Draft EIR and we’ve tentatively scheduled that for you for your last meeting in March. And 1 that’s the point at which I think we’ll have not only that hearing, where you’ll take testimony 2 and offer your own comments on the environmental document but we’ll schedule a discussion 3 with you about how the Commission will conduct its review of the Comp. Plan elements when 4 they come back to you from the City Council. There is a provision in the municipal code that 5 was actually adopted by the voters that sets forth the Commission’s responsibility in reviewing 6 and updating the General Plan; which is called the Comp. Plan. And the Commission had begun 7 work on the Comprehensive Plan back in 2008 and really took 6-years to deliver a draft to the 8 Council and what’s been happing in the last couple years is the Council and the CAC have been 9 working with that as a base document. And what’s going to come back from the Council, 10 probably in June, to the Commission is something pretty different than what the Commission 11 forwarded to the Council. So, we’re anticipating the Commission will really want to dig in and 12 do an in-depth review of all of the chapters or elements and provide recommendations to the 13 Council on all of those different pieces. So, what we’re proposing to bring to you at the end of 14 March, in addition to the environmental document, is a discussion about different ways you 15 might approach your review. Some of the Commissioners have suggested subcommittees. 16 Some have other ideas about how we can organize your discussions but it’s clear that however, 17 we do it, it’s going to take a concerted effort on the part of the Commission, individually and 18 collectively, do the review of what has grown into a large and complex document over the 19 course of the summer, we hope. So, more on that later. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. I also just wanted to touch briefly on the last chapter in our saga about the Comprehensive 1 Plan update which was a newsworthy and covered in the press. It was January 30{th} 2 conversation with the City Council about… involving their review of the draft Land Use and 3 Transportation Elements from the CAC. The CAC, rather than developing a set of 4 recommendations that had minority and majority opinions and votes around them, gave the 5 Council a whole series of different options… policy options. And so, the meeting on January 30th 6 was set up for the Council to choose amongst those options and there were many, many, many 7 of them. So, it was a long meeting and we did get guidance and direction from the Council on a 8 wide variety of issues. Way at the end of the evening, I’m saying like 11 o’clock at night or 9 something, the Commission suggested pulling out the implementation programs from the 10 elements and putting them in separate sections and that has generated a degree of controversy 11 that some of us… were just a little surprised at the controversy about it. Partly because I’m an 12 optimist and I’ve don’t a lot of these General Plans and I think there’s a way to accomplish the 13 Council’s goals and preserve all the good, hard work that put into the programs. And will some 14 further discussion with the Council and with the CAC and the Commission, I think we’re going to 15 build a document with all of those pieces in it that expresses our values in a way that we can all 16 get behind. And that really won't constitute a major change from the current Comprehensive 17 Plan. So, we… I’d be happy to talk about that further as well but tonight it probably not the 18 night for that but if any of you have questions offline, I’d be happy to answer them or we can 19 discuss this further when you meet on the subject again on March 29th. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Thank you. I just want to quickly add. This is going to be the most, if not the most 1 important thing that we will work on as Commissioners. And one of the things… Staff has 2 agreed to come up with a strategy of how we approach this and that is what Director Gitelman 3 is referring to; that they will present. But… between now and that presentation, if you begin to 4 formalize some ideas of your own about strategies on how we approach this, don’t hesitate to 5 reach out to Director Gitelman. Send her an email if you have some ideas of how we could 6 tackle this responsibility in a more effective way because I want us to first come up with a 7 strategy and then implement it. So, (unintelligible) any other questions about this? Go ahead. 8 Commissioner Gardias: Thank you. So, in this matter what I’d like to propose that our liaison to 9 the CAC group, Commissioner Summa if she agrees… if she could agree just to give us periodic 10 updates at the meeting of this Commission. We have these excellent updates from Director 11 Gitelman or her Staff about structural progress but what’s missing is the update of the 12 substantial changes within the Comprehensive Plan. I think that if we were to get some periodic 13 updates just about the main topics that were captured in the Comprehensive Plan or changed 14 from Commissioner Summa. We would be better prepared for the future discussions. 15 Chair Alcheck: Ok. I think that’s a good… any other suggestions, let’s make them offline. That’s a 16 great suggestion. Maybe we can reiterate it also in an email. I want to sort of… I’d love for you 17 to be able to collect any and then when we have that March 8th meeting, develop that strategy. 18 Ok. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Action Items 1 Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 2 All others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 3 3. PUBLIC HEARING / QUASI-JUDICIAL. 689-693 Arastradero [16PLN-00228]: 4 Recommendation to City Council for Approval of a Preliminary Parcel Map, With 5 Exceptions, to Merge Two Existing Parcels into One Parcel. The Exception Would 6 Allow the Merged Parcel to Exceed the Maximum Lot Area. Environmental 7 Assessment: A Draft Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration was Circulated 8 on January 19, 2017 for Public Review. Zoning District: R-1 (10,000) Zoning District. 9 For More Information, Contact Claire Hodgkins at: 10 claire.hodgkins@cityofpaloalto.org. 11 Chair Alcheck: Let’s move on to our first item… action item, item #3. Staff, will you begin your 12 presentation? 13 Mr. Lait: Yes. 14 Chair Alcheck: Let me just. I see there are people in the audience but I don’t have any speaker 15 cards. If any of you are interested in speaking, please get a card, fill it out and hand it up here so 16 that we have it. 17 Ms. Claire Hodgkins, Project Planner: Good evening Commissioners. I’m Claire Hodgkins and I’m 18 the Project Planner for this project. The proposed project before you today is a proposed 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. preliminary parcel map with exceptions to allow for the merger of two lots located at 689 and 1 693 Arastradero. And an exception is requested to allow for a larger lot size than the maximum 2 allowable in the R-1 (10,000) zoning district. The applicant has applied for separate permits 3 which are not part of the Commission’s purview for construction and use of a new private 4 school for up to 60 students ages 3-5. The new school would also provide breakout space for 5 students at the existing Bowman School. Total enrollment of those sites will not exceed the 6 currently permitted 300 students at the existing Bowman School. So, the resulting parcel would 7 be 54,894-square feet and the allowable lot size in this zoning district is 19,999-square feet. 8 Here we have a quick overview of the existing lots. So, this is a location map that shows you the 9 proposed project outlined in Yellow, with the two lots and it also shows you the location of the 10 existing Bowman School just north… west… sorry… northeast of the project site. The site shows 11 surrounding uses. It should be noted that the several adjacent properties have large lot sizes 12 that exceed the zoning code requirements as well. For example, the lot for the Terman 13 Apartments to the east, that multi-family residential area is approximately 122,000-square feet. 14 And the lot for the church immediately to the north is 43,000-square feet. 15 So, there are two larger policy considerations to be made. One is related to the lot size 16 exception. This requires that the findings be made for an exception and Staff has outlined those 17 Draft Findings in Attachment C of the Staff report. The second is related to loss of housing. Staff 18 has summarized its analysis of this consideration in the Staff report as well. And Staff’s 19 conclusion is that the project on a whole is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. So, it’s recommended that the PTC recommend that City Council adopts the Mitigated Negative 1 Declaration for the proposed project and approve the Recreative Land Use Action approving 2 the merger of 689 and 693 Arastradero Road, based on the findings and subject to conditions of 3 approval that were outlined in Attachment C of your Staff report. And that’s all. 4 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Alright, I’m going to open… oh, ok. Would the applicant care to present 5 their… 6 Mrs. Colleen Reilly, Project Manager: Good evening. 7 Chair Alcheck: Just before you start, how much time do I a lot to the applicant? Remind me. 8 Mr. Lait: 15-minutes. 9 Ms. Reilly: I would just say that we are not going to add to the presentation. We support what 10 Staff has presented. We’re here to answer any questions. I am the Project Manager for the 11 Bowman School project and we have the Civil Engineer and the Architect and the legal counsel 12 for any of the issues about housing. So, any question we would be happy to take them but we 13 support what’s been presented. 14 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Thank you. Ok. Then at this time, I open… I don’t have any speaker cards so 15 I’ll leave it open for the time being. And would anybody like to… I see, hold on. I have… that Ed 16 or…Oh, we have a speaker card. Ok, great. Why don’t… Is it Ron Schrotenboer, is, that, right? 17 Hard to read this handwriting. Ok, would you please approach and you have 5-minutes. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Mr. Ron Schrotenboer: My name is Ron Schrotenboer. I am a member of the Church which is 1 right next to this proposed lot and per say, I don’t think the Church has any difficulty with 2 combining these two lots or necessarily have the school there. We have a comment that we’ve 3 made in the past with respect to the preschool and that is relating to the proposed gym that’s 4 fairly close to the lot line. We have a nursery school or preschool that operates 5-days a week in 5 the church building and in the… well, back from the road side, which is… when you look at the 6 map that you had your picture up there, when you looking to the north, it’s to the east side on 7 the lot. It’s next to the lot line which would be next to the school and the concern of the school 8 is, with respect to the shade or the blocking of the sun basically, from the size of the gym that’s 9 being proposed there. I think that that’s not part of what you guys are approving tonight so… 10 but I want to make that comment that we have that concern. We hope that that’s addressed at 11 the appropriate place in the appropriate permit process but wanted to make sure that that was 12 stated. And if it’s not part of this issue which appears it’s not to me, then it’s just the… for 13 information piece of item. 14 Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Maybe, Staff, you could just take a minute to outline this process. For 15 example, tonight we’re not really reviewing any layout of how this lot would end up looking but 16 maybe you could sort of identify for the public how that timeline would work if this process 17 moves forward. 18 Ms. Hodgkins: Yeah, of course. So, we have an application for this process, the Preliminary 19 Parcel Map with exceptions which will be reviewed by the Planning and Transportation 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Commission. And then forwarded onto Council assuming a recommendation of approval. And 1 there are separate applications that have been applied for architectural review and this 2 commenter's concern I think would be addressed as part of the architectural review process as 3 well. And then there is also a Conditional Use Permit that’s been applied for, for the use of the 4 sit. So, tonight we’re only looking at the Preliminary Parcel Map with the exception for a larger 5 lot size however, the shading studies will be part of the purview of Architectural Review Board. 6 And right now, the timeline… the ARB hearing is to be determined but we would be looking to 7 go to ARB next to hear from ARB and then finalizing with City Council the lot merger. 8 Chair Alcheck: Let me ask… let me ask two questions. One, would you mind putting up on the 9 screen the criteria for the findings we need to make today. Yeah. 10 Ms. Hodgkins: Yes, of course. So, I actually put them into four different slides but the findings… 11 Exception 1 findings is there are special circumstances or conditions affecting the property. 12 Chair Alcheck: Actually, you know, why don’t we do it like this? What page does that start on? 13 12, ok. 14 Ms. Hodgkins: It’s on Attachment C. 15 Chair Alcheck: No, I just want everyone to have it sort of handy. So, if you’re following along 16 with the slides, it starts on page 12 and we can leave that one up there. We have it in our 17 Attachment C as well. And then my second… Just a quick clarifying question because this just 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. popped into my head. This… these are findings we have to make because it’s currently zoned 1 R1? 2 Ms. Hodgkins: Yes. 3 Chair Alcheck: Identified on the map that multi-family site with 100,000-square feet that’s 4 adjacent to it? These apartments. 5 Ms. Hodgkins: Yes. 6 Chair Alcheck: What are those zoned? 7 Ms. Hodgkins: They are zoned RN-30. 8 Chair Alcheck: So, I’m just curious, if this site as merged was zoned RN-30, would we need to 9 make any findings? I mean, if these two parcels would have to already be zoned R-30 but if… 10 I’m just curious to know if you have to go to this length to determine these exceptions if the 11 site was zoned… I guess more appropriately for its size. 12 Ms. Jodie Gerhardt, Manager of Current Planning: So, the exception… Jodie Gerhardt, Manager 13 of Current Planning. So, the exception is to the lot size. This is an R-1 (10,000) zoned property, 14 has a maximum lot size of 19,999. 15 Chair Alcheck: Which both lots already exceed. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Ms. Gerhardt: Correct. And, so if we were looking at the RN-30, I was just trying to look up the 1 maximum size for that and I don’t know that… yeah, I don’t know that there is… there is a 2 minimum size and so you’re right, that it would be… there wouldn’t be this type process if it 3 was zoned differently. 4 Chair Alcheck: I’m just curious, is that within the scope of this? Like if we… it’s not? 5 Mr. Lait: No, that would be a rezone application. That’s not what the applicant is (interrupted) 6 Chair Alcheck: It’s separate? 7 Mr. Lait: Yeah (Unintelligible) 8 Chair Alcheck: Alright, then it’s not worth even thinking about. Ok, in that case, I have a light 9 from Commissioner Gardias. Is that…did one you turn your light on? I don’t have a light. Ok, it’s 10 just this thing doesn’t always line up right. Ok, so why don’t we start with Commissioner 11 Rosenblum and we’ll just go down. Ok? 12 Commissioner Rosenblum: Yeah, thanks for the report. I found the finding section in 13 Attachment C pretty easy to follow and I am also in agreement with Staff’s findings. The piece 14 that I struggle with though is the traffic analysis. And in particular, there was an odd thing that 15 I’m wondering if someone here could speak to. And let me just pull it up from my notes. Give 16 me one moment. So, there was an evening delay at Arastradero Road and Georgia Avenue 17 intersection that would go from 21 to 28 seconds approximately. And so, I know we’ve had 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. discussions around using level of service as a metric and warnings about that but dropping a 1 grade from C to D and yet, the traffic count in the evening peak hour was estimated to only be a 2 net generation of 17 cars. So, that was lower than the morning count and so I found this a little 3 bit strange that actually, there was a fairly large delay caused of predicted to be caused in the 4 evening. And I’m wondering if I’m reading this correctly on the traffic report and I’ll go to the 5 table that I’m referring; one second. 6 Chair Alcheck: (Unintelligible – off microphone) 7 Commissioner Rosenblum: I’m looking at the difference between table 4, which is Bowman trip 8 generation for Arastradero campus which is on page 7, where at peak hour, 17 out, 13 in, net 9 new trips. And then on Table 6 intersection LOS and delay existing… and existing plus project 10 conditions, which is page 10. That the PM peak hour at Arastradero Road and Georgia Avenue 11 had the largest impact from this project. So, all other intersections had an impact of below 4 12 seconds. Only this intersection had an impact about 7 seconds which in and of itself is not 13 massive although, I’m just curious because that was also the lowest number of cars that was 14 predicted was outbound evening. And so, I don’t know how that was calculated. I looked at the 15 appendix and I’m not an expert reading the calculations so I’m not sure how that happened? 16 And I would say, by the way, Arastradero in the evening is difficult and so this relatively small 17 addition if it does add that level of delay would be concerning. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Mr. Lait: I don’t think the applicant brought their traffic consultant and we actually don’t have 1 our traffic consultant here as well. 2 Commissioner Rosenblum: Ok. 3 Mr. Lait: What I would suggest is we take that comment and follow-up after the meeting with 4 our consultants to make sure there was not an error in that. I will say that the Architectural 5 Review Board is still in its review of the application and we can vet that out there. Also, the 6 maps going to go to the Council. And between now and the Council, we can identify if there is 7 any discrepancy in that issue. 8 Commissioner Rosenblum: Ok, that was my only question. My comment is I think that a lot of 9 our purview and I appreciated what findings we need to find but I think that one of the major 10 concerns that we would have is just traffic generation and I think that’s what the neighbors 11 would be concerned about. So, really digging into the traffic report and making sure that we 12 understand the assumption and we feel good about the assumptions would be important to 13 me. That’s it for me. 14 Commissioner Summa: I appreciate that because I noticed that too and I’m probably less well 15 equipped at reading those charts underneath. I was concerned about the traffic because I’ve 16 heard a lot of residential concern about traffic on Arastradero. And I just wanted… I was 17 surprised we didn’t get more communications from the public and I just wanted to double 18 check that there was only that one communication. Which surprises me and I checked with 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. people who live nearby and they seemed to feel the outreach was more than adequate and 1 that the school is a welcome part of the neighborhood so that was good for me to hear. But I 2 think it would be good to make sure that there’s not an error or something in the traffic report. 3 One of my concerns about the merger, not that anyone would intend, at the school, would 4 intend for this to happen but sometimes projects just don’t happen the way they are 5 anticipated and I don’t know if we can condition the merger to be specific only for this project. 6 Like if the merger happened and there’s another lot and they don’t do the project. So, I don’t 7 know if that’s a possibility? 8 Mr. Lait: So, we actually had that same thought as well and we had conversations internally and 9 we don’t believe that there is that opportunity to impose a condition like that but beyond that, 10 we started thinking about, ok, well even though we… even if we can’t impose that kind of 11 condition. What’s the… what are we trying to solve for? What is the problem we are trying to 12 solve for if the project falls through? And at the end of the day, if the lots do get merged and for 13 whatever reason, the school decides not to proceed with the project. It’s still a residentially 14 zoned parcel and there are residential developmental standards that would still limit the size of 15 a home. So, a home… there’s not going to be an advantage for a feature owner of the property 16 or for Bowman School or a feature developer to keep the lot size necessarily large because our 17 code still caps the size of a home to… you know, a maximum square footage. There would, I 18 would think, an incentive still to restore the lots to their original subdivision lines so that you 19 could sell two homes and make that available on the market. So, as we thought that through, 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. we weren’t coming up with the thing that we were trying to protect against and maybe you 1 have an idea of what it is that we haven’t thought about and we would be happy to understand 2 what that is. 3 Commissioner Summa: I was more concerned… it seems like a logical place for denser housing 4 actually, with the apartments behind it. So, I didn’t want to lose the upper… I mean, somebody 5 could put a house on it and have a gigantic, you know, yard basically. But I mean, I guess that 6 would be up to the owners but I think it’s a good potential site as long as the people in the area 7 didn’t object for a denser zoning designation. 8 Mr. Lait: Right and that was another thought that we had to was what if… because there is that 9 large multi-family property nearby. That would be a legislative change that somebody would 10 have to seek and this it would come to this Commission to go from R-1 to RN whatever and that 11 would also have to go to the Council. So, there would be opportunities for public engagement 12 through that process as well. 13 Commissioner Summa: Ok. And the only other and I know this isn’t in our purview but just an 14 observation that it might be nice in the CUP to limit the number of events. I think they current 15 have four events where they have to have parking in the neighborhood because they are larger 16 events. And I think it might be nice to address that in the CUP so it wasn’t open ended. Actually, 17 that’s it for now. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Commissioner Lauing: Yes, first I had a couple questions. One is if we know the current 1 ownership of that land? I got some preliminary information from Jonathan but if we could just 2 know who owns it and what the status is? 3 Ms. Reilly: So, 693 is owned by Bowman School currently and Steve Pierce Family Trust, I 4 believe is 689. 5 Commissioner Lauing: I didn’t get the second part. 6 Ms. Reilly: Steve Pierce Family Trust is 689. 7 Commissioner Lauing: So, there is an agreement in place to purchase that for owning? 8 Ms. Reilly: That’s correct. That’s correct, yes. 9 Commissioner Lauing: And if this fell through, that owner would do something else with the 10 land? 11 Ms. Reilly: That’s not my understanding that they were going through with that purchase. 12 That… 13 Commissioner Lauing: Ok. My second question is in a couple of places here it talks about the 14 property right of the petitioner and that was on page 14 in the packet B2. The exception is 15 necessary for preservation and jointment of a substantial property right of the petitioner. And 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. then just another case where on page 26 Item 2, it talks about Bowman’s right to build a school 1 so I would like to understand legally what that means? 2 Mr. Lait: If you can… so, on packet page 14, you’re referring to the findings that need to be 3 granted, is, that, right? 4 Commissioner Lauing: Under the exceptions of B… 5 Mr. Lait: Yes. 6 Commissioner Lait: …Item #2. 7 Mr. Lait: Ok. Ok and then you were also referencing another section as well? 8 Commissioner Lauing: Page 26, Item 2. 9 Mr. Lait: Ok, so on both of these instances we’re talking about the Parcel Map exception 10 findings. 11 Commissioner Lauing: Right. The second one says it’s necessary to preserve Bowman’s right to 12 build a school on the site. So legally, I would just like clarification on how that right is granted? 13 What’s the City’s stake in that? Etc. 14 Mr. Lait: Ok. So, I’ll start this and then Albert may amplify. If the… what we’re doing here is 15 we’re trying to demonstrate that the need for the variant or the need for the exception and we 16 acknowledge that with this finding and this particular sentence that there… that schools are 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. conditionally permitted uses on the property. Subject to a review process and that review 1 process is the Conditional Use Permit. And so, the interest here or the concern that’s been 2 expressed is that to achieve the… that goal of building a school on the R-1 zone is difficult 3 without the exception because it would limit the school uses or that the project objective to put 4 a gymnasium and some of these other school facilities on the property. And so, that’s the effort 5 that we’re trying to get at. Is they have a… 6 Commissioner Lauing: The second thing you said was what they would not be able to do? That’s 7 different than they have a right to build a school. So, that’s exactly what I’m trying to clarify. 8 Mr. Albert Yang, Senior Deputy City Attorney: Yeah so… Albert Yang, Senior Deputy City 9 Attorney. I think that this wouldn’t a… we’re not referring here to what we might consider a 10 vested right to develop a property into a school because obviously, school uses are only 11 conditionally permitted. It just a…I think we were just recognizing that it is a use that is 12 conditionally permitted. It’s not something that is, you know, entirely forbidden in the zone. 13 And that in our analysis for that conditionally permitted use to be successful… most success, a 14 merger is necessary. 15 Commissioner Lauing: Right so it’s not inalienable, so to speak, and the school is already on the 16 property that’s there. We’re talking about just another expansion. Excuse me. 17 Mr. Lait: Yes, so the school is not on the subject property but it’s within 500-feet of the subject 18 property. There’s an intervening lot and I think, some houses between… 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Commissioner Lauing: Right. So, what you’re saying is… if I just summarize both of you, I think I 1 heard that if it were to receive a conditional use, then they would have a right to do… to do X, 2 Y, and Z. Right? 3 Mr. Lait: I guess if they received the necessary City approvals inclusive of this Parcel Map and 4 the Architectural Review Board application and the Conditional Use Permit. If all those get 5 approved, then they’ve got this right to build. 6 Commissioner Lauing: Right. So, currently right now relative to the no pun intended, to the 7 expansion area. There’s no right that we have to recognize from a legal standpoint. 8 Mr. Lait: That’s correct. It is an application before this Commission, subject to these findings. 9 That’s what…with respect to the specific Parcel Map merger, it’s based on not only these 10 expectations findings but also the Subdivision Map findings. And if the Commission is able to 11 make those findings, the project goes forward onto Council. If the Commission is unable to 12 make those findings… well, it still goes onto Council but it goes on with a recommendation for 13 denial. 14 Commissioner Lait: Yeah. Ok. So, and then in various places, it talks about that there would be 15 restrictions on the academic interest that the school wants to pursue and phrases like that. So, 16 not to be unfriendly about that but is that… that’s not an obligation that the City of Palo Alto 17 has. It’s just what they want to achieve there right? 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Mr. Lait: That is their project objectives and if one were to attempt to align those project 1 objectives to the exception finding criteria, that’s the story we’re trying to tell there. But you’re 2 correct, the City is not in a position where like you know, others may argue differently but there 3 is… there are alternatives that the applicant could explore. If the Commission weren’t able to 4 make that finding. 5 Commissioner Lauing: Right. Including completely different locations or… 6 Mr. Lait: That’s right. 7 Commissioner Lauing: …and x’s or whatever. So, I just want to clarify that just to make sure that 8 I knew and we knew because there’s so much discussion of rights and restrictions in their 9 expansion that I just wanted to know if there was any obligation from the City, which I did 10 presume that there was. 11 So, one of the things that is of concern is sort of just land use priorities. Just a principle we 12 always talk about, you know, we need more land for everything because we’re landlocked. And 13 looking at this particular parcel for potential other opportunities, you know, could make some 14 sense. I don’t know where we are in the timing of all this but there just isn’t any more land. And 15 we need land for housing and we… in the Master Plan for parks which is in front of Council, we 16 need a lot of new parks in certain areas. That… which is something I’m quite familiar with. You 17 know, it could be an interesting area for a small park. So, in the analysis here, we don’t seem to 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. be considering any other alternatives for that land. All be it, it’s not owned by the City so the 1 seller can do whatever he wants. 2 The other thing is that we are taking away homes. I agree that perhaps there’s a way to replace 3 those three somewhat substandard homes from the report, maybe with 6. So, instead of, you 4 know, eliminating 3 homes, we might be illuminating 6 possible really nice homes or even more 5 dense if we wanted to go for a zoning change. 6 And there are other phrases in here about how we believe that the Comp. Plan talks about 7 getting schools close to housing and can’t get back in the framers head when it was being 8 written. I don’t know if that applies equally to private schools and public schools. You know, the 9 latter of which are obviously, more the responsibility of the City so that would be a concern. 10 Just to point out that the verbiage in the report suggest that there aren’t going to be any more 11 total number of kids there. Which is true because the cap is at 300 but the current is 237. So, 12 we’re going to get 63 more kids and maybe 62 more cars bringing kids there. So, the traffic that 13 Eric brought up is real and that might be without the increase of the 63. Ok. 14 Ms. Reilly: Can I just clarify that it’s actually just an additional 40 students. The 20 are already 15 on the existing (unintelligible) site. Just for clarification. 16 Commissioner Lauing: Ok, thanks. So, in summary there, we’re some housing that’s there, 17 maybe more. The Staff report says that it’s de minimis. This sort of creep issue is of concern. In 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. (unintelligible) we have feature creep and you try to add more creeps. In parks, sometimes they 1 try to take a little bit of park because they say well, you know, it’s only a little bit and there are 2 plenty of parks; which there isn’t. And now we’re doing it with houses so that’s of concern. 3 There’s the traffic concern and then the use that may be private schools are different. There’s 4 already a school there. It’s not like we’re saying it’d be great to have another private school so 5 the alternative use of that space is a question. Thank you. 6 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Thank you. We will spend as much time as we need to on this item. I just 7 want to make sure we’re aware of the time. It’s 10 to 7. Ok, Commissioner Gardias, do you 8 want to comment? 9 Commissioner Gardias: Sure. Thank you. Thank you very much for your review and the 10 applicant or project manager and others related, thank you for coming and presenting this to 11 us. If you could tell me more about the houses that are currently on the lot. So, I can just 12 imagine that they are being led by the Pierce family that owns the land, right? And those 13 families, they pretty much would move out at the time when the merger is approved, is this 14 correct? 15 Ms. Reilly: Sure. The houses have gone through a historical review and had no historical 16 significant to the National or State of California. There was… they were built, one in the 30s and 17 I think two in the 50s. They have been abandoned for a while. One’s a garage and a house on 18 689. Pardon me, 693. The 689-lot had a house that was somewhat inhabited for a renter. Again, 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. no significance historically. Not… the first two on 693 are in great disrepair and unhabitable. 1 The other is below standard housing but not historical significant or architectural significant 2 either. 3 Commissioner Gardias: But we’re losing two buildings in Palo Alto. 4 Ms. Reilly: No, I appreciate that. Yeah, I was just… 5 Commissioner Gardias: Two living spaces. 6 Ms. Reilly: No, I appreciate that. 7 Commissioner Gardias: So, another question… I was just getting to the core question. So, with 8 the new building that you’re going to erect on the site with a gymnasium and a children’s 9 house. There will be a need for more Staff, presumably? 10 Ms. Reilly: Actually, it’s just an addition… a single Staff person for that site which would be a 11 receptionist. The other Staff people are within the Terman site currently. 12 Commissioner Gardias: So, ok, so there will be just one… 13 Ms. Reilly: One additional. 14 Commissioner Gardias: …one extra. One additional headcount. 15 Ms. Reilly: Exactly, that will be added to the payroll. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Commissioner Gardias: I was getting with the questions pretty much doesn’t your Staff need 1 housing in Palo Alto. So, you’re losing two houses. I’m not interested in just preserving some 2 buildings. That was not my intention. I was just interested in just opening your mind to pretty 3 much build housing for your Staff. That I don’t know if your Staff lives on… in Palo Alto or 4 maybe not but we are trying to with different efforts to also to open below market rate housing 5 for the teachers to lure better teachers to Palo Alto. I don’t know if this school has such a need 6 but that’s an opportunity. 7 Ms. Reilly: Currently everybody on the Staff has housing and lives within the area. Some in Palo 8 Alto and some in the surrounding. 9 Commissioner Gardias: Ok, so my second question is about the shading that [the] gentleman 10 raised here. If you could just show us the map… show us the map and then point at the area of 11 concern that he was expressing… that he was alluding too. 12 Chair Alcheck: I actually don’t want to get into that. I don’t want us to explore the layout of the 13 plan because the plans are not submitted and I don’t want to treat the plans as currently drawn 14 as even remotely final. So, I actually would prefer if we didn’t explore that. 15 Commissioner Gardias: I understand but I still would like to carry my question because you 16 know, I don’t know what’s… I’d like to understand it as opposed to just setting it aside. So 17 (unintelligible) (interrupted) 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: (unintelligible) I’m not suggesting that we’re going to set it aside. I’m suggesting 1 that this isn’t the forum and I’m… I don’t want to allow it. I don’t want us to explore a topic that 2 is not relevant to the criteria of which we’re reviewing this subject tonight. And I know in the 3 past we’ve done that but I really want us to stick to the criteria and the topic of review. You will 4 have an opportunity if this moves forward to look at items like that under the (unintelligible) 5 and the Architectural Review Board really is the place for us to that. And one of my goals this 6 year is to make us efficient and the only way I can do that is if we stick to the topics for which 7 we are responsible. 8 Commissioner Gardias: I can… I will go along with your ask. I understand what it is but just to 9 argue for the purpose, I will remind the review from the Park Avenue where pretty much that 10 the shade that was… that was caused with the umbrella that was placed on top of the 255 Park 11 Avenue was not… went through architectural review but under CEQA and loss of access to light. 12 It was under our purview but I will go along with your proposal. So, I’d like to… so that I believe 13 answers my question but I’d like to make a suggestion here because there is, on page number 14 13, there is a comment about… it just talks that the site will be constructed with smaller single 15 story residential style buildings at the front. Which I understand that this is a jester toward 16 neighborhood to somehow blend with the neighborhood. That may also be beyond the purview 17 of this Commission but we have some not very successful stories of that and I can just as an 18 example give you two project. One is the development of the housing on the Stanford property 19 where pretty much it was requested that there would be a mix of the buildings and it doesn’t 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. really look up to the Palo Alto standards that we have now are policies. And then also we had 1 another review that was also on the Stanford grounds, where pretty much there was a request 2 to… the housing would be resembling a mix of styles if I remember correctly, which was pretty 3 much in both cases. That request was pushing the development Agency of Stanford University 4 to build houses that would pretty much not be built under normal conditions. And we can see 5 that it doesn’t look today because it’s just sort of artificial and so when I see a statement like 6 this, I understand that you’re trying just to be nice for the neighborhood but I’m not really sure 7 if… you know I’d rather see the building looks like the school because then pretty much it just 8 reflects the truth of the architecture. So, thank you. 9 Ms. Reilly: I was just going to say, I’m happy to respond or the architect could for the 10 suggestion. Actually, (unintelligible) (interrupted) 11 Mr. Lait: Actually Chair, if I may (interrupted) 12 Chair Alcheck: This is not the right time for that conversation. Ok. So, let me begin with my 13 comments. Let me start with the easy one. I thought that this report was very well written so 14 for all the Staff members involved. This is one of the absolutely, best-written reports. It was 15 very clear. It was very specific and direct and I think that it added our understanding of the 16 topic tremendously. I hope all reports will use this as a template. 17 I think we’re here tonight because this property…these properties are improperly zoned. I 18 don’t think we would be here tonight if they were zoned correctly. They…and so while we’re 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. talking about the topic with land use, I think it’s important and Staff please sort of add anything 1 to this statement. But it’s my impression that all schools in Palo Alto are CUP. We don’t have a 2 school zone so every school that operates in this City, operates under a Conditional Use Permit. 3 Mr. Lait: Not every. There are areas like (sofa?) for instance, where schools are permitted by 4 right. 5 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Alright. Would it be safe to say 90% of them? 6 Mr. Lait: I don’t have a percentage. 7 Chair Alcheck: Ok. 8 Mr. Lait: Elsewhere I believe that a CUP is required. 9 Chair Alcheck: Yeah, so everywhere outside of (sofa?). In order to operate a school; preschool, 10 high school, middle school, public school, private school, their operating under a CUP. And I 11 think that’s important because the way our City provides for that use is by allowing it in 12 residential neighborhoods and by doing it with a Conditionally Use Permit. So, again, that 13 Conditional Use Permit is actually isn’t up in front of us tonight and so the dialog that we’re 14 having about merging these parcels, we could theoretically discuss this in… with any use of the 15 land. We could talk about would this… would we support this parcel merger for any use? The 16 findings though are and I agree with Staff’s sort of conclusion here. The findings are satisfied 17 though because of the use that’s proposed. And one item that came up in our pre-Commission 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. meeting was if we were concerned about an alternative use in that space, we could condition 1 our approval tonight of this preliminary map. We could condition it upon the submittal of… help 2 me out here. 3 Mr. Lait: I think the idea was that the Parcel Map approval would be valid only to the extent 4 that the applicant was able to obtain other discretionary entitlement such as the variants, the 5 CUP and the ARB. 6 Chair Alcheck: That is a method for essentially elevating concern amongst the Commission of 7 well, what if this doesn’t work out for them and then we have one big parcel and somebody 8 going to build a big mansion on it. I will just say this. That would be… it I could… if this for some 9 reason doesn’t work out and I hope it really does for you, then I would be supportive of 10 rezoning this site as RN, whatever, 30 or whatnot because again, I think these parcels are… 11 there not zoned appropriately for where they are; either separate or combined. And had we 12 rezoned this, in conjunction with a parcel merger, then maybe we wouldn’t have to make these 13 findings. But I’ll just add a few more comments. I feel comfortable that the findings have been 14 satisfied. I won’t go through each of them because I think they're very well out in our Staff 15 report but I am persuaded by the logic… the same logic that Staff was persuaded with. 16 And I want to add that I don’t think that it’s relevant to our decision tonight how many students 17 at this school are residents of Palo Alto. I don’t think that’s a relevant… I’m not going to ask that 18 question. I won’t stop you from asking but I don’t think it’s relevant to whether this parcel 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. should be merged for the purposes identified in the Staff report. And I would suggest that while 1 there are many potential uses for a site like this. We are reviewing the project that being 2 brought by the owner or future owner of the two sites. And I think it’s always important to 3 appreciate that notion. That the individual bringing the application has their own vision for the 4 property they own. And when we talk about the housing element and we zone sites for the 5 housing and you know, you often hear Cities sort of hides behind this political comment well, 6 we don’t have to build them, we just have to zone for them. Which is an often used… my point 7 is that we don’t get to decide where our housing is built. The property owners and the City get 8 to make that decision based their sort of aspirations but we have to create those opportunities. 9 This particular lot, the notion that a single home or two homes could come how, I think, add to 10 the or… they could add to the fight against the housing crisis. I just think is not necessarily 11 persuasive. I think that there was a sentence in here where they called it a de minimise lost and 12 I agree with that. I think we have to again, appreciate that our school system in general, is 13 largely supportive by a CUP process. And it sounds to me like you have a very crowded 14 institution and what you’re doing is expanding space so that the largely current number of 15 students can enjoy what looks to be a much better asset. And I think that’s why I didn’t find the 16 traffic concerns to be dramatic. 17 I want to make one other point which I will make for the benefit of all future comers. I heard 18 through the grapevine that you guys had a tremendous outreach process and that the 19 neighbors were largely in support and that fantastic. Sometimes the neighbors are not in 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. support. That doesn’t necessarily mean a project isn’t appropriate but I will say this, I believe 1 that our… often times our review bodies can be very skeptical and having neighbors present to 2 reiterate their support is always helpful. So, moving forward I would encourage you to do that 3 because their voices are often very hard to ignore. I am prepared to make a motion in support 4 of this lot merger and based on the findings. And I would add a condition, like I suggested 5 earlier, which would be that it be conditioned on the… is there any way we can put that 6 language up maybe? 7 Mr. Lait: Yeah, we can read it into the records. 8 Ms. Hodgkins: (unintelligible – mic not on) Oh, sorry. Prior to approval of the Parcel Map, the 9 applicant will obtain all required entitlements for construction in use of the school. 10 MOTION 11 Chair Alcheck: Ok, so I move that we recommend approval of the proposed Preliminary Parcel 12 Map Application with that condition in an effort to elevate concerns of what could if for 13 example, this project did continue. Which would essentially result in the exact same situation 14 we have now. Are there any seconds? 15 SECOND 16 Commissioner Rosenblum: I second that. 17 Chair Alcheck: Great. I don’t need to speak to it more. Would you like to speak to the motion? 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Commissioner Rosenblum: I concur that Staff in making our purview clear in Attachment C, 1 each of the findings for both the variance required and the PTC oversite requirements… that 2 they are very well laid out and I can’t find any one of them that I would take issue with. With 3 regards to the discussion of whether or not this is the best use for that piece of land given the 4 priorities of Palo Alto. I agree that this is a little bit of a slippery slope. I am always advocating 5 for more housing, more housing. A denser housing project was the subject of a referendum in 6 Palo Alto not far from there. So, it’s unclear to me that that neighborhood even wants a denser 7 housing project and I personally also, just don’t think it’s the right place to add density. It’s not 8 a major transit hub. It’s already quite congested. It’s not the place where I’d be advocating to 9 add more density and so expanding an existing school facility that’s next door to Terman, across 10 from Gun, near other uses. And I would finally agree that one of the core matters is that if you 11 look at the other land uses, a large cemetery, a high school, a middle school and others, it does 12 seem odd that you have this one patch of R-1 that is right there. So, I’m not… I do feel that we 13 just have an unusual designation for that parcel and so my second in this is that I feel that Staff 14 did a good job of outlining both our purview and the basis for the exceptions. And therefore, I 15 think we should move to except Staff recommendation. 16 Chair Alcheck: Ok. Thank you. At this time, I want to take a vote. I’ll allow any dissensions to 17 speak to their dissent. So… 18 Commissioner Lauing: I just want to ask a question of the motion maker. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Ok. 1 Commissioner Lauing: In the scheme of things, how do you feel that this a benefit to Palo Alto 2 residents and students regardless of what the mix is of students in terms of where they live? 3 Chair Alcheck: Yeah, so I think you know…. I think the criteria I’m using is essentially the 4 framework of our Comprehensive Plan. And so, I… you know we have policies in our… goals in 5 our Comprehensive Plan about locating schools close to housing and the way that I see this is I 6 see that we have a very successful school in Palo Alto that wants to be more successful. And 7 this effort is essentially an upgrade. And I mean, the notion that they only have to hire… I mean, 8 we heard it tonight, right, but the notion that they only have to hire one individual suggests to 9 me that they intend to spread out. And if there is even one student at that school who's a 10 resident of Palo Alto, right? What we’re essentially doing and correct me if I’m wrong but this is 11 also a preschool? Right. So, we don’t really provide preschool education in Palo Alto. Right, it’s 12 not a… there is no public… correct me if I’m wrong, there’s not public preschool in Palo Alto. I 13 don’t think there’s a public preschool in the State but I may be wrong. And so, these institutions 14 are providing education to the youngest in our community. It will be delightful if all your kids 15 were from Palo Alto but there are lots of Palo Alto preschool to choose from but the notion 16 that this one can continue to thrive suggests to me that it would benefit Palo Alto. And so, if for 17 example, this institution has more space and more resources to succeed, maybe it will be even 18 more appealing to the residents of Palo Alto to send their kids to school there. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Benefits a tricky word but I guess the more important, sort of, conclusion I’m making is that 1 each of the exceptions is sort of satisfied. Each of the conditions are satisfied and that’s why I 2 made my motion. Ok. Alright. At this time, I want to take a vote. 3 Commissioner Summa: Can I? I had my light on. 4 Chair Alcheck: Would you like to make a comment? Ok, go ahead. 5 Commissioner Summa: So, I’m really close. The only finding I have a problem with is 3, the 6 granting of this exceptional will not be detrimental to the public well fair. That’s been 7 somewhat alleviated by knowing that even the traffic report was based on 60 and I understand 8 really, the reality is 40 new students and one Staff member. So, it would even be less but I just 9 hope going forward in the review process, a better understanding of the impacts on 10 Arastradero can kind of considered because it is a really… a street that really impacted. So, 11 that’s the only finding and I really appreciate Commissioner Lauing’s contemplation about loss 12 of housing but I do also agree that the owners of the property want… this is a conditionally 13 allowed use and the owners of the property want to build a bigger school so I think I’m able 14 unless anybody else has comments to dissuade me, to support the motion. 15 VOTE 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: I won't take any more comments to dissuade you. No, I’m just kidding. Ok, at this 1 time I would like to take a vote. All those in favor of the motion on the floor, please raise your 2 hand and say aye. Ok, that unanimous support. 3 MOTION PASSED 5-0 4 Chair Alcheck: At this time, I would like to close… I guess I have to close the public hearing and 5 also end that item on the agenda. The public hearing is closed on this item. 6 Commission Action 7 Motion: Recommend Approval of the Preliminary Parcel Map with Exceptions to the 8 City Council Based on Findings and Conditions Provided in the Staff Report and the 9 following added condition: “Prior to approval of the parcel map, the applicant will 10 obtain all required entitlements for construction and use of the school.” Motion 11 made by Chair Alcheck, seconded by Commissioner Rosenblum; motions PASSES 5-0. 12 13 4. 1310 Bryant Street [16PLN-00258]: The Planning and Transportation Commission Will 14 Hold a Public Scoping Meeting on the Notice of Preparation for an Environmental 15 Impact Report for the Castilleja School Expansion Project. Public Input is Encouraged. 16 For More Information, Please Visit the Webpage or Contact Amy French at 17 amy.french@cityofpaloalto.org. ITEM CONTINUED TO MARCH 8, 2017 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Item number 4 has been continued. 1 Approval of Minutes 2 Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 3 5. January 11, 2017 Draft Planning & Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes 4 5 Chair Alcheck: So, I’d like to quickly… is there a motion to approve the minutes from January 6 11th? 7 8 MOTION 9 10 Commissioner Lauing: So, move. 11 12 Chair Alcheck: Second? 13 14 SECOND 15 16 Commissioner Summa: Second. 17 18 VOTE 19 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Chair Alcheck: Thank you. All those in favor of approving the minutes from January 11th, please 1 say aye. Raise your hand. Thank you. That unanimous. 2 3 MOTION PASSES 5-0 4 Commission Action 5 Motion: Approve the Minutes of January 11, 2017. Motion made by Commissioner 6 Lauing, seconded by Commissioner Summa; motions PASSES 5-0. 7 8 Committee Items 9 Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 10 11 Chair Alcheck: Ok, I’m going to continue. Any discussion on Committee, Commissioner 12 questions, and comments or announcements. Until our next meeting in an effort to allow 13 everybody here to attend the State of the City if they so choose. Ok? That’s the conclusion of 14 our meeting. Thank you. Time is 7:14. 15 Adjournment 7:14PM 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission 1 Commissioner Biographies, Present and Archived Agendas and Reports are available online: 2 http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/boards/ptc/default.asp. The PTC Commission members are: 3 4 Chair Michael Alcheck 5 Vice Chair Asher Waldfogel 6 Commissioner Przemek Gardias 7 Commissioner Ed Lauing 8 Commissioner Eric Rosenblum 9 Commissioner Doria Summa 10 11 Get Informed and Be Engaged! 12 View online: http://midpenmedia.org/category/government/city-of-palo-alto or on Channel 26. 13 14 Show up and speak. Public comment is encouraged. Please complete a speaker request card 15 located on the table at the entrance to the Council Chambers and deliver it to the Commission 16 Secretary prior to discussion of the item. 17 18 Write to us. Email the PTC at: Planning.Commission@CityofPaloAlto.org. Letters can be 19 delivered to the Planning & Community Environment Department, 5th floor, City Hall, 250 20 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301. Comments received by 2:00 PM two Tuesdays preceding 21 the meeting date will be included in the agenda packet. Comments received afterward through 22 2:00 PM the day of the meeting will be presented to the Commission at the dais. 23 24 Material related to an item on this agenda submitted to the PTC after distribution of the 25 agenda packet is available for public inspection at the address above. 26 Americans with Disability Act (ADA) 27 It is the policy of the City of Palo Alto to offer its public programs, services and meetings in a 28 manner that is readily accessible to all. Persons with disabilities who require materials in an 29 appropriate alternative format or who require auxiliary aids to access City meetings, programs, 30 or services may contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at (650) 329-2550 (voice) or by emailing 31 ada@cityofpaloalto.org. Requests for assistance or accommodations must be submitted at least 32 24 hours in advance of the meeting, program, or service. 33