HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-08 Planning & transportation commission Summary Minutes1. 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.
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Planning & Transportation Commission 2
Action Agenda: March 8, 2017 3
Council Chambers 250 4
Hamilton Avenue 5
6:00 PM 6
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8 9
Call to Order / Roll Call 6:03pm 10
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Chair Alcheck: Ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to start this March 8th Planning and Transportation 12
Commission (PTC) meeting. Will you do roll call for me? 13
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Yolanda Cervantes, Administrative Assistant: Commissioner Alcheck, Commissioner Gardias, 15
Commissioner Lauing, Commissioner Rosenblum, Commissioner Summa, and Commissioner Waldfogel 16
is absent. Five present, one absent. 17
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Chair Alcheck: Ok, great. Why don't we (interrupted) 19
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Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: Actually I’m sorry, it's two absent. I believe Commissioner Susan 21
Monk is not here. 22
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Ms. Cervantes: Susan, Commissioner Monk. 24
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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.
Oral Communications 1
The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 2
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Chair Alcheck: Ok, why don't we begin with Oral Communications? I don't have any cards for Oral 5
Communications although I do have two cards for Agenda Item Number 1 which those may be for Oral 6
Communications. That's Lisa Carr and [woman off microphone]. You mean Action Item Number 2 then? 7
Ok, is that the same for Deglin? All right. Ok so seeing no cards for Oral Communications then why 8
don't we begin with the Assistant Directors report? 9
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Agenda Changes, Additions, and Deletions 11
The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 12
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City Official Reports 14
1. Assistant Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 15
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Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: Thank you, Chair. Just wanted to make two announcements one is 17
the City Council will be considering the supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on 18
March 20th and that will be coming also to the Planning Commission I think it's tentatively scheduled 19
for late March for your initial review on that. And then last night also the City Council directed staff to 20
return with a new ordinance for the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) regulations which this Commission 21
offered some guidance to the Council on. Excuse me, the Council was very appreciative of the 22
Commissioners time and effort on that project and they found it to be helpful in their deliberation and 23
they ended up moving forward with some standards that will make it I think a lot easier for 24
homeowners to establish ADUs in Palo Alto. So that will be returning in the next within the next month 25
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.
probably on Consent Calendar. 1
2
Study Session 3
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 4
5
Action Items 6
Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. All 7
others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 8
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2. 1310 Bryant Street [16PLN-00258]: The Planning and Transportation Commission Will Hold 10
a Public Scoping Meeting on the Notice of Preparation for an Environmental Impact 11
Report for the Castilleja School Expansion Project. Public Input is Encouraged. For More 12
Information, Please Visit the Webpage at 13
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/topics/castilleja_school/default.asp or Contact Amy 14
French at amy.french@cityofpaloalto.org. 15
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Chair Alcheck: Ok, let’s… what was this study session item? That's nothing. Ok, let's jump right in then 17
into Item Number 2. Staff why don’t you begin with your report? 18
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Amy French, Chief Planning Official: Good evening; I'm Amy French, Chief Planning Official. We are 20
here tonight to conduct a scoping meeting for the Castilleja School Project. This is to allow the public 21
to comment on the topics that the environmental review, Environmental Impact Report (EIR) would 22
address, would explore. Yes, can you? It’s right there. There it is. Ok and then at the bottom, here… 23
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So just quickly to go over the agenda for this item the format for a scoping meeting is as follows: my 25
presentation is going to briefly cover the enforcement and Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for Castilleja 26
School. The consultant to my right from Dudek is going to present the California Environmental 27
Quality Act (CEQA) process and go over those next steps. Then we will entertain the public speakers 28
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.
that have submitted comments cards to you on the issues to be studied or examined in the Draft 1
Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). Today’s scoping session is not intended as a forum for dialogue 2
about the merits of the project. Staff is not prepared to answer questions, details on the project itself. 3
We are here to simply receive input on what should be studied in the report. 4
5
The location of Castilleja is as shown on the screen bordered by Embarcadero Road, Emerson, Bryant, 6
and Kellogg. In the year 2000 a CUP was issued to allow up to 415 students. That was exceeded in… 7
after that it came to the City's attention in the year 2013 when the Castilleja did present us with a 8
Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan and followed up with a monitoring plan. The City 9
then allowed, conditioned the applicant to come forward with a CUP if they wanted to amend their 10
maximum cap of 415 students, but first directed the Castilleja School to study the possibility of using 11
Embarcadero Road for access to the school. So in 2015 the City did acknowledge 438 students for this 12
academic year that we're in now and allowed the delay to explore that Embarcadero Road access. 13
14
On the screen is the site and this is showing the two buildings here that are currently not on the 15
campus. They're separated by property lines. And they are one is a rental home and the other has 16
been used for Castilleja School purposes. We have a soccer field here. And this is the former Melville 17
Avenue that went through the site that was absorbed into the site some years ago. A history of the 18
Castilleja School was in the staff report. 19
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So the proposal Castilleja has submitted came in in June of last year asking for a CUP amendment. It 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.
was followed by an architectural review application and they are seeking approval of a master plan 1
associated with an increase in enrollment and they've identified three phases. One is to create an 2
underground parking garage to handle the parked cars and drop offs underground. The second phase 3
is related to a pool and moving a pool to a different location and locating it further below grade. And 4
the third is the circle area. There's a future phase for demolishing two buildings. Here's the master 5
plan concept and it shows these items that I just mentioned. This is the phase one below grade garage 6
that's proposed. It does show with these blue lines where the special setback is on Embarcadero as 7
well as the side setback of Emerson Street and you can see that the proposed garage encroaches into 8
these setbacks as submitted back in June. 9
10
I’ll just quickly go over next steps so we can get to the meat of this presentation which is the CEQA. 11
There are technical studies underway. The scope of the study could be adjusted if needed to prepare 12
a DEIR. We have several items that are still needed from Castilleja to complete the applications. This 13
is normal, a normal part of studying a project is to request additional information so that the project 14
can be understood. We have additional steps that would follow including reviews with the Historic 15
Resources Board (HRB) and architecture review board (ARB) followed by publication of a DEIR and 16
receipt of public comments, typically a 45 day public comment period followed by formal reviews on 17
the project itself all the way up to Council. I'm going to turn this over now to Katherine Waugh of 18
Dudek. 19
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Katherine Waugh, Dudek: Good evening. As Amy said I'm Katherine Waugh. I’m a Senior Project 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.
Manager with Dudek. And we've been retained by the City to evaluate the environmental effects of 1
the proposed project at Castilleja. So just briefly I will go over just kind of the key concepts under 2
CEQA and what a DEIR needs to include, and then talk about our approach to evaluating this project, 3
and then as Amy mentioned it would be appropriate to open it up for public comment so that we can 4
hear the concerns of the community and make sure that those concerns where they are within the 5
purview of CEQA are addressed in the DEIR. 6
7
So this slide just outlines the kind of the key big, big steps in the CEQA process and those where there 8
is opportunity for public input. So to start off the process we prepared an initial study along with a 9
notice of preparation. The initial study is our first look at where there could be potentially significant 10
impacts and CEQA requires that we look at the physical environmental effects of a project so it's not 11
involved in social effects and economic effects, but we really focus on the physical environmental 12
effects. And so that initial study goes it was circulated I believe at the end of January, sorry I forget the 13
dates, and so that gives the public and agencies that might be interested in the project or have a 14
permitting role in the project an understanding of the basic project description and where impacts 15
could occur, which under which topics impacts could occur. And so we've been receiving e-mail 16
comments on the notice of preparation and the initial study and then again we’ll record all of the 17
comments from tonight and those all help inform us as we prepare the DEIR to make sure that we're 18
preparing a comprehensive analysis of those environmental effects. 19
20
So they, the basic contents of the EIR to have a detailed description of the proposed project so we 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.
have a project description in the notice of preparation, but as Amy mentioned there are additional 1
details that the applicant is preparing. And so when we prepare the DEIR it will have a thorough 2
project description. There will be figures so that the public and the agencies that might be reviewing 3
the document and the decision makers at the City can really understand what exactly is proposed and 4
what the phases are and how all of those components will interact with each other and where they 5
could result in environmental impacts. 6
7
And so then the second key element of a DEIR is that analysis of where the, what the project, what 8
the project's physical environmental effects could be. We first define the existing conditions to 9
establish what the baseline is from which those impacts might be measured. And then when we do 10
find a significant impact CEQA requires that we identify mitigation measures to avoid impacts, reduce 11
them, provide compensation for them, and determine whether or not those mitigation measures 12
would be feasible to implement. CEQA also requires that we consider cumulative impacts, growth 13
inducing impacts, energy consumption effects, other components of the environmental analysis, and 14
that we look at alternatives to the project that might maybe could avoid or reduce some of those 15
impacts. Sometimes a project alternative might be able to accomplish the project objectives without 16
the need for mitigation measures and so then we would identify that as an environmentally superior 17
alternative. 18
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For this project the anticipated focus is, are the topics that are listed on the slide. So as I mentioned 20
we prepared an initial study and through that analysis we were able to eliminate some of the topics 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.
that CEQA covers from a further more detailed analysis. And so I'm happy to elaborate on any of 1
these topics should the Commissioners have questions specifically on our approach to these, but as 2
Amy mentioned there will be a series of technical studies prepared that will support our analysis. So 3
for example there will be a modeling done to determine what the air pollutant and greenhouse gas 4
emissions would be during construction of the project for each phase. There's an arborist report 5
evaluating that trees at the site and we'll use that to evaluate the effects of tree removal that would 6
be associated with the project. There's a historic and cultural resources evaluation that's underway 7
currently. And so we will have all of these technical studies to provide us with the detailed 8
information that will be necessary to determine where impacts could occur and the best ways to 9
mitigate those impacts. 10
11
Another key concept in CEQA is the thresholds of significance. How do you know whether an impact is 12
significant or not significant? And so these are the sources of information that we use to determine 13
what those thresholds might be. We look to the City's general plan standards and municipal code 14
standards as well as any pertinent state and federal regulations and use that that body of regulatory 15
governance and guidance to help us determine is an impact significant or is it less than significant? 16
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And so then this slide just reiterates that we are in the scoping process for this project right now and 18
scoping phase and so all of the comments that we receive by written comments and verbal comments 19
that are made tonight will be reviewed and will ensure that they, those issues that are raised within 20
those comments are addressed in the DEIR where they are within the this the topics that are covered 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.
by SEQA. And so the slide gives the address to provide those comments and the date, the closing date 1
of the comment period is April 15th of this year. 2
3
Ms. French: I'll just follow on that by saying the former date for comments was March 15th as 4
published in the revised notice of preparation. It was requested to be extended by the applicant 5
which we are doing. I just would in conclusion state that many, many, many emails have been 6
forwarded from whoever has sent them to me and others to the Planning and Transportation 7
Commission (PTC) as well as our consultant. And finally just to reiterate that we are again here to 8
receive input on the scope of the environmental document. It is not intended as a question and 9
answer period regarding the project itself. We are not ready to do that. 10
11
Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: Thank you. I just… thank you both for the presentation. I just 12
wanted to make an announcement to the audience. While this is a little bit light for a typical PTC 13
meeting that we have if we could ask people to scoot together on the benches a little bit more. We 14
have a number of people in the room that are standing and we're also looking for some folding chairs. 15
We usually have those laid out, but not tonight. 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Would you, staff, would you mind putting Slide 12 of this presentation up on the 18
screen. No, I'm sorry. Slide thirteen. Ok so before I invite the members of the public to speak I just 19
want to make a couple points. The first is that this is not a new process for our Planning Department. 20
We’ve, they’ve been involved in many initial studies and EIRs before. What you see on that slide are 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.
what the staff has identified as anticipated focuses of the EIR. We look forward tonight to inviting 1
people here tonight to speak and help inform the focus of our EIR and should you have areas that you 2
think we should be studying that isn't on this list we look forward to hearing them tonight. 3
4
Alright, so with that I'm going to invite the speakers up. We're going to allot three minutes to each 5
speaker. And I'm going to read two names at a time so that the next person knows that they are up. 6
So the first speaker I have is Bruce McLeod. You’ll have three minutes and after that Peter Costello. 7
Alright, how about I start with Peter Costello and followed by Roy Wang. 8
9
Peter Costello: Alright. I'm just going to read this. And with regards to the traffic flow the traffic study 10
should probably investigate Churchill all the way down to Waverly between Alma and Waverley and 11
Emerson from Embarcadero probably all the way to Tennyson or beyond. I was told that the traffic 12
study was going to focus just on the immediate neighborhood of Castilleja and in particular between 13
about 7:45 and 8:30 a.m. there's a significant bottleneck on Alma when it reduces to one lane over 14
Embarcadero. The traffic backs up several blocks before Churchill and then cars are diverting as soon 15
as it backs up they divert on to Emerson and they race down Emerson all the way down to past 16
Castilleja to Melville and then jog back over to Alma to get back into that line of cars. So I'm at the 17
corner of Churchill and Emerson and in that window of about 45 minutes there are many cars that do 18
not come to a complete stop and many of them are going in excess of forty miles an hour as they pass 19
our house and approach Castilleja. Obviously this is a huge problem because there are students on 20
their way to Palo Alto High School (Paly) on bikes. There's a swarm of bikes going up Churchill. And 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.
there's also many kids walking to Castilleja and other things so it's really a safety issue that needs to be 1
looked at as part of the study. 2
3
There's also when Paly starts up there's a significant back up on Churchill that cars are not allowed to 4
go straight into Paly. And so and then there's the trains coming so often times the cars can't go and 5
there's many bikes so many of the cars can't go. So anyways the cars are diverting over to Melville and 6
Kellog and then turning left onto Alma and coming back around. So anyways I would just encourage 7
you to include significant portions of Emerson and Churchill streets in your traffic study. Thank you. 8
9
Roy Wang: Hi, my name is Roy Wang. I live on Kellogg Avenue within the block from Castilleja School. 10
I've been a neighbor for 12 years and my daughter is currently finishing her 7th year at Castilleja. So 11
I've been involved in the discussions with our neighbors here as well as the school community so I see 12
both sides of the point of views. So as a parent and a neighbor I believe the proposed scope of the EIR 13
is appropriate. 14
15
Regarding the impact of the to the traffic and the neighborhood I would like to on the impact I would 16
like to share my observation and my perspective on the school and the expansion. So a couple years 17
ago when the issue came up the neighbors and school met quite a few times. I was involved. Parking 18
and traffic they were among the top three issues that neighbors really addressed. [And this go] 19
immediately get into action the entire community was very supportive of the school's proposals and 20
many measures were taken and most outstanding of all of them was the shuttles the school ran. They 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.
ran shuttles from Caltrain stations from neighboring cities like Woodside and Los Altos. I started 1
seeing the difference in reduction of traffic because the line, the drop of line in school at the rush 2
hours is getting shorter in length and shorter in duration. And I don't see my friends anymore because 3
they're in Los Altos, Woodside. They don't drive over to drop off anymore. Their kids are taking the 4
shuttles. And the effect is also measurable. 5
6
So my house is the second one on Kellogg from Alma so used to be that there is a 10-15 minutes 7
window the cars there's most of the time there are cars lined up to get onto Alma especially 8
somebody real easy turning to make a left turn there's a little back up. So that's the 10-15 minutes 9
window I manage not to back out of the driveway, but since Castilleja has started taking these 10
measures the effect is measurable. Today I could say that I can easily back out of my driveway and the 11
window gets shorter sometimes like for this week for the first two days even this morning I see at the 12
most two cars waiting and I can easily back out. So it proves that this school community can listen to 13
the neighbors and act to improve to reduce the impact, improve relations. So that's the fact and some 14
of the neighbors I talked to them and they agree with the observation. 15
16
So on the perspective of expansion so we're adding the about 100 students so twenty to twenty-five 17
percent of these students are from Palo Alto. They’re our own kids and they mostly bicycle to school. 18
So the remaining students let's say if half of them decide that we could not, they do not take the 19
shuttles then you would be left with say about 35 to 45 cars a rush hours. So if you look at the 20
window in about 10 to 15 minutes window, maybe let’s 20 even longer so that's about three cars a 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.
minute overall. So from that perspective I don't see this expansion would be a threat to the overall 1
neighborhood, but how that impact as small as it is is absorbed remains a challenge. So I personally 2
benefited from good education so I would like to see that the benefit being brought to more students. 3
I believe this can be done and at the same time keep [unintelligible] our neighborhood. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Alcheck: Ok, next is Carolyn Schmarz and followed by Rita Vrhil. 6
7
Carolyn Schmarz: Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the PTC. I see we have a very large audience 8
tonight. I realize that many of the people in attendance tonight are not residents of Palo Alto; 9
however they are great fans of having their school located here. Could all the residents of Palo Alto 10
please raise their hands? Thank you. Thank you and welcome to one and all. 11
12
In honor of National Women's Day and to acquaint the nonresidents I have compiled a brief but 13
wondrous look at the life of Palo Alto and its women. In 1894 the Women's Club of Palo Alto was 14
formed and they organized the first public library. In 1934 Lucie Stern magnanimously gifted the City 15
with the Lucie Stern Community Center. It is home of West Bay Opera, the Palo Alto Players, The 16
Children's Theater, the Boys and Girls Scouts, it's ballroom is host to countless wedding receptions, 17
parties, and fairs of all sorts. 1934 Josephine O’Hara started the Children's Museum. In 1951 Clare 18
Boothe Luce gifted the City with St. Ann's Chapel in the Newman City Center. In 1981 Elizabeth 19
Gamble leaves her home to the City of Palo Alto and it becomes the much loved Gamble Garden 20
Center. In 1991 the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital opens. The characteristics shared by the 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.
aforementioned locales are that they are an integral part of life in Palo Alto. The facilities are open to 1
everyone. These institutions build our community, they challenge our minds, they exercise our 2
bodies, and yes they nourish and refresh our souls. They benefit not only our city but also their 3
surrounding cities. No wonder Castilleja wants to expand here. 4
5
The problem is Castilleja is a private exclusive institution. Can our children play in your school yard? 6
No. Can our seniors walk and sit under the trees? No. Do you offer a venue for weddings, concerts, 7
theater? No. It benefits only about 100 girls and 0 boys in Palo Alto. Castilleja is a community in and 8
of itself. It does not integrate itself into Palo Alto life. It does not challenge our minds, exercise our 9
bodies, or nourish our souls. It does exercise our GPS. This project instead offers us potential for 10
more traffic, undesirable living conditions, construction trucks, buzz saws, and wood chippers 11
demolishing the trees with the end result of permanent damage to the neighborhood for Castilleja’s 12
very own private gain. So in the names of Lucy Stern, Clare Boothe Luce, Lucile Salter Packer, 13
Josephine O'Hara, Elizabeth Gamble I say cheers to them and their wonderful beautiful vision that's 14
inclusive and beneficial to all of Palo Alto and not just a few. 15
16
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. 17
18
Ms. Schmarz: They are indeed (interrupted) 19
20
Chair Alcheck: Excuse me. 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.
1
Ms. Schmarz: A blessing to our City. Thank you. 2
3
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Ok, alright let's try moving forward. When you hear the buzzer that's time 4
to wrap it up, ok guys? I’ve been nice to the first three, the next one I’m going to shut down. Ok, Rita, 5
please proceed. Vrhill. 6
7
Rita Vrhil: Ok, so I live on Channing. I'm not near the school. My daughter went to Castilleja for six 8
years graduating in 1997. Traffic was a mess there. In fact one of the girls got a Land Rover for her 9
16th birthday and drove it down the street about four houses and then look forever for parking. So I 10
know what I'm talking about here. 11
12
One of the C’s in Castilleja stands for a community and I do have to ask how was Castilleja integrating 13
or serving the community when they have been out of compliance for 14 years with their CUP. And 14
with all due respect for Amy French or to Amy French the first slide was very minimal. It had nothing 15
to do with the constant complaints of the citizens regarding the enrollment breakage of the CUP. I can 16
remember reading about it in the paper and going well this is easy to solve, you just don't let in a big 17
sixth grade class. You cut off the kids, half the kids leave when they go to high school, and you can 18
solve I could have solved this problem in three years. Instead it's been what, 14 years? And now 19
they're asking for more students. 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.
I'm concerned about this not only for the fairness issue, but because I live near a private school. And 1
honestly if one private school can break their CUP for 14 years then every private school. So why do 2
we even bother to have CUPs? Why do we even bother to have building codes? Why do we have any 3
codes at all? Why don't we just all do what we want to do? Now we know that Bryant Street is a safe 4
bike to school route. You can't tell me this isn't going to be a problem constructing this garage and it's 5
going to be noisy. It's going to change the neighborhood forever. So I think everyone who lives in that 6
neighborhood should be given the loudest vote on this situation or be listened to the closest. Because 7
parents who have their kids come to Castilleja and live in Woodside I respect your right to speak, but 8
you know what you don't have any dog in this fight. Your kids are going to graduate it's just a question 9
of how many more kids are going to be let in at the expense of the neighbors. Thank you. 10
11
Chair Alcheck: Ok I was just reminded by staff that we have a practice of asking individuals in the 12
audience not to applaud speakers in an effort to have sort of mutual respect for oppositional opinions. 13
So I would encourage you guys to withhold from clapping. Next speaker is Barbara Hazlett followed by 14
Lisa Van Dusen. 15
16
Barbara Hazlett: Good evening and thank you. My name again is Barbara Hazlett. I live at 1176 17
Emerson Street where I've lived for 37 years. So I'm a very close neighbor of the school. I believe the 18
proposed scope of the environmental impact study is appropriate as described by the City's 19
consultants. I wholeheartedly support the proposed modernization of the campus and the very 20
modest increase in enrollment. Respect, please. Having lived near the school for 37 years, probably 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.
longer than most any of you, I can attest to its many contributions to our community. 1
2
With respect specifically to the environmental impact Castilleja is a very respectful neighbor having 3
gone to great lengths to mitigate traffic and parking demands as the town has grown up around it and 4
also to manage its footprint and all areas. The administration, faculty, and students all are dedicated 5
to best efforts in this area and to be monitored and measured in my view the school provides a park 6
like buffer for the lucky residents that surround it. The school’s master plan proposes a green and 7
architecturally inspired design and asked for no additional square footage above ground. 8
9
Everywhere we look in Palo Alto there is construction and expansion. In my mind the development in 10
Palo Alto over the last several decades has brought tremendous vibrancy. Why should one of our 11
most historic and consequential neighborhood treasures, the 100 year old school, be denied critical 12
improvements and to extend its reach to a modest number of new students? To do so seems foolish 13
and very short sighted. We all need to be reminded that much like Stanford, which also is a private 14
institution; Castilleja is a nationally ranked school. How lucky are we to have these kinds of 15
educational institutions in our backyard? I believe we need to fully support the schools that have 16
proved they are the best in America. Please approve the scope of this environmental impact so that it 17
could move forward to Council and be approved. Thank you. 18
19
Lisa Van Dusen: Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Lisa Van Dusen and I am a resident of Palo 20
Alto, live in the community center neighborhood, mother of two sons who were not therefore eligible 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.
for Castilleja. But I wanted to address one very specific aspect that's listed up there which is the 1
transportation and TDM system in particular. My message is very simple, which is I believe in 2
Castilleja’s ability to successfully implement the TDM program that they've set forth. As I understand 3
it they've put forth some consequences that are very specific if they don't do that and more 4
importantly they have a track record. They have a track record of actually reducing car trips by more 5
than 20 percent since 2013 and have therefore been actually a real role model for our community. I 6
would hope that we could all do as powerful a job of reducing car trips as they have. 7
8
So that is my main message. If they do that which I believe they will and in fact could exceed that then 9
we will be all better off. And in fact the wonderful programs that are offered to the students that are 10
there can go forward with a modest increase and letting in some students that would very much not 11
have that opportunity otherwise a range of diversity that I think is important. And also just remind us 12
all that it preceded every one of us. We moved here knowing that school was here and I just think 13
that's something that we forget very often. So I just would like to say that there are lots of other 14
considerations. I'm not pretending to know all about all of them, but as you think about one of the 15
greatest impacts I think that people are talking about it is traffic and just really look at the data 16
because it is powerfully compelling and says that they will deliver on that and better it. Thank you. 17
18
Chair Alcheck: Our next speaker will be Nancy Tuck followed by Christine Stone. 19
20
Nancy Tuck: Thank you and good evening. My name is Nancy Tuck. I live at 113 Melville Avenue, the 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.
block between Castilleja and Alma, and I would echo the words of Roy Wang who said that the traffic 1
from our block entering onto Alma has really improved since the traffic measures have been 2
undertaken by Castilleja. I leave for work in the morning somewhere between 8:05 and 8:20 and at 3
most there are two to three cars waiting to get on Alma and it's just not a traffic backup. 4
5
I have I believe in the proposed scope of the EIR as described earlier by the City's consultants and I 6
have a letter signed by many of my fellow neighbors that I would like to read to you. To the PTC, we 7
the undersigned are enthusiastic supporters of Castilleja School. Many of us are close neighbors of the 8
school living adjacent to or within a block of the school. Year after year we witness the comings and 9
goings of young women who are polite and respectful. They and their families have never disrupted 10
the quality of our lives. We are proud to share our neighborhood with these hardworking Castilleja 11
girls and frankly we value the fact that this nationally top ranked school is in our midst. 12
13
We strongly support the amendment to Castilleja’s CUP to increase enrollment and to move ahead 14
with their master plan. We have been substantial, we have seen substantial and measurable 15
improvement over the past seven years in the traffic, parking, and event management. We feel that 16
Castilleja’s leadership has made a remarkable and sincere effort to be conscientious and considerate 17
neighbors. There have been many public meetings held at the school for neighbors to both learn and 18
comment on the plans as well as neighborhood coffees featuring Nanci Kauffman and Cathy 19
Layendecker, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the school. Through these we have learned just how 20
Castilleja has accomplished these improvements. They've increased their shuttle services for students, 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.
built up the bike to school program, imposed mandatory limitations on employee traffic with remote 1
parking, reduced the number of deliveries and times of day, and the list went on and on; all 2
suggestions by either neighbors or consultants who had been hired to reduce Castilleja’s footprint and 3
felt presence. 4
5
So we still have this gem in our neighborhood yet the impact is vastly improved. We witnessed 6
firsthand the high expectations Castilleja sets for its parents and student drivers. For example, a few 7
weeks ago on a rainy Friday night when the parking was on the field was impossible parents who 8
attended the middle school musical had to park at Palo Alto High School and were shuttled to the 9
campus. These parents happily cooperated because they want to do their part to ensure the quality of 10
life in the neighborhood. The new campus plans also include many aspects to continue the effort to 11
reduce traffic, street parking, carbon fuel usage, and noise while beautifying the campus both within 12
and from the curb with new trees and more attractive architecture. We like that there is a list of 13
measures against which Castilleja will be held accountable both now and in the future. We 14
understand the need for Castilleja to invest in their infrastructure in order to keep up with the 15
demands of the ever evolving top notch educational institution. 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. 18
19
Ms. Tuck: Thank you. 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.
Chair Alcheck: Next is Christine Stone followed by Bruce McLeod. 1
2
Christine Stone: Hello, my name is Christine Stone and my house is at 1234 Emerson Street which 3
would be the street onto which the garage would exit so it would have huge a impact for me. My 4
family has owned that house for 57 years and so I have a big interest in the quality of life in our 5
neighborhood. So I, what I think I would be impacted would be the aesthetics of the neighborhood. 6
You would tear down houses and over 100 trees and there would be a concrete edifice there with cars 7
coming out. That's a huge change. That doesn't feel like a neighborhood so much anymore. So it's 8
very disappointing to me quality of life is impacted, pollution, noise, the noise of tearing down all the 9
other buildings and building them and having cars, hundreds of cars coming out of there. It's not just 10
students it's the staff and so on that would be using the garage I assume. So I mean it’s disappointing 11
to me on a number of levels. 12
13
Palo Alto I've always thought was the city of trees and here's a project to get rid of many of them. It’s 14
going to make a big change in the canopy and in the feel of the neighborhood. So and to me I don't 15
understand this because the expansion isn't necessary it's just something that people want to do and 16
those people are willing to sacrifice the quality of life in my neighborhood. I would never do that to 17
them. I wouldn't if I suggested I know I’m emotional, but if I suggested to any of these people who 18
think it's a great idea let's go to your neighborhood and tear down some houses and all the trees and 19
then we'll have a cement edifice there with lots of cars coming out across the street from you would 20
you like that? Probably most of them would say oh, no thank you, but they're willing to sacrifice my 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.
neighborhood and that's very upsetting to me. So I hope you'll consider that. Thank you. 1
2
Bruce McLeod: Hi. Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to address you 3
tonight. I’m Bruce McLeod. I live at 1404 Bryant Street immediately across Kellogg from Castilleja. As 4
a parent and an educator at Foothill College I applaud Castilleja’s missions and their success. As a 5
neighbor I am appalled at this overreaching proposal from an institution that claims community as one 6
of its core values. Nothing in this proposal will significantly result in a better quality of life for the 7
immediate neighborhood now or in the foreseeable future. Despite three years of meetings with 8
Castilleja’s staff and experts and repeated assertions that what the neighbors really wanted was a 9
quiet residential R-1 setting the neighborhood benefits listed in the objectives are minimal and will not 10
begin to accomplish that goal. 11
12
As far as the scope of the EIR is concerned the initial study is minimal in scope. It does not adequately 13
address the many environmental impacts of the plan and the construction process nor does it address 14
in any way where the students will go to school or the impact of that process during construction. 15
There are assumptions made based on inaccurate information and minimal mitigating measures 16
proposed where potentially large environmental effects are likely to occur. For example, from 17
Castilleja’s environmental assessment worksheet the questionnaire asks for the total number of daily 18
vehicles yet Castilleja supplies and the City has accepted as adequate a count of vehicle trips during a 19
restricted one hour window in the drop off morning period. This does not begin to assess the total 20
impact of the school on the neighborhood. There are events in the evenings, there are events on 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.
weekends, none of which are counted in the study or accounted for. The total vehicle may impact 1
really is, needs to be noted and studied. 2
3
Castilleja correctly notes that approximately 75 percent of the buildings on the campus will be 4
demolished and rebuilt. If I proposed this level of reconstruction to my residential home the City 5
Building Department would require me to submit this as a new construction and get a new occupancy 6
permit yet the City allows this to be treated as a minor remodel because there is no new Floor Area 7
Ratio (FAR) proposed. The following areas should be added to the list of environmental factors 8
requiring further study on Page 5, Summary of the IS. Hydrology and water, this made up this box is 9
miraculously unchecked. The last time Castilleja dug deep and put in their gym they struck water 10
surprisingly despite geological assurances that they would not. They pumped water continuously from 11
that site for six months into the City storm drains, 24/7 through a six inch pipe. Thank you. There are 12
more, but I will send those to you. Thank you. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Ok, next is Carolina Abassi followed by Katie Dickson. 15
16
Carolina Abassi: Hello there my name is Carolina Abassi and I’m a Palo Alto resident. I live on 17
Hutchinson and I have three daughters and the oldest one is going to Castilleja School. Thank you for 18
this opportunity and this is my great honor to talk about this on International Women's Day. Originally 19
I'm from Ukraine and I had a little speech down here, but I've really what I want to say is a lot of 20
people complaining about the noise, the pollution, what we're really forgetting is the impact if you 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.
educate one girl. How is that going to change the world? You know the noise I wanted to talk to you 1
guys. The noise it's uncomfortable, but you can’t think of your discomfort. Think of the global. Think 2
of what these women will be doing in the future for you. 3
4
I lived in many different countries and I have to say Castilleja is one of the best schools. Especially I 5
had a personal experience with my older daughter. My daughter, my daughters went through 6
Duveneck and the older one is biking to Castilleja and I see how Castilleja goes out of its way to 7
promote the biking to school, the shuttles, and what not. So please cherish Castilleja. No other school 8
like this is anywhere in the world. It's a wonderful jam. Please I urge everybody to support Castilleja 9
and this is my pleasure to talk to you on this day, on International Women's Day. Thank you very 10
much. 11
12
Katie Dickson: Hi, my name is Katie Hanna Dickson and I'm here tonight to express my belief that the 13
proposed scope of the EIR study as described by the City's consultant is appropriate. I grew up in Palo 14
Alto. I went to Castilleja and my father still lives on Crescent Drive. My mother went to Castilleja as 15
well and my daughter is a student there now. 16
17
So I wanted to speak to you tonight mostly as a parent and to tell you about when my daughter first 18
came home from her first day of school at Castilleja a few years ago she showed me a heart shaped 19
rock. She said that the head of school Nanci Kauffman had given it to her and all of the other girls at 20
assembly that day. The rock said “courage” on it. This was a real teaching moment for my daughter 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.
and the entire school. Castilleja needed to be a better neighbor and courage Ms. Kauffman explained 1
at that assembly those years ago is what you call upon when you need to do a better job. You own it, 2
you come together, and you make it right and Castilleja has done exactly that. They've done 3
everything in their power at their cost to reduce traffic and the environmental impact on the 4
neighborhood. It’s a point of pride for my daughter and her fellow students to take the bus, the train, 5
the shuttles, to bike, to walk, to carpool to school to make sure we only make right hand turns around 6
the school, follow our specific routes, and park only on the school's side of the street. It's a point of 7
pride for the school and the students to improve Castilleja’s sustainability by reducing its consumption 8
of water, of natural gas, of electricity to help raise money to pay for ways that we can take drop off 9
and parking off the street, off the streets of the neighborhood at the school’s cost. 10
11
Castilleja students and their parents are proud to do everything in their power to be a good neighbor. 12
It's embedded in the culture at Castilleja. The upperclassman teach it to the younger students, 13
returning parents teach it to the new parents. These actions are examples of Castilleja’s commitment 14
to long term accountability and its desire to be a good neighbor. The master plan and the CUP 15
application includes new measures that will continue Castilleja’s efforts to reduce impact on the 16
neighborhood. The way that Castilleja addressed their pledge to be a better neighbor is emblematic 17
of the school with courage and community in mind. 18
19
Castilleja is a vital part of the City of Palo Alto with its nationwide reputation for producing competent 20
educated women of character who go out into the world and step into leadership roles in their 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.
communities Castilleja is an asset to the City of Palo Alto, an asset that Palo Alto is proud of and has 1
been for over a hundred years. I hope the Planning Department and the City of Palo Alto will consider 2
the merits of the proposal so the school is able to continue its proud tradition while maintaining good 3
relations with its neighbors and the greater Palo Alto community. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Next is Julie Ishiyama followed by Lisa Carr followed by term, Terrie 6
McDonald. 7
8
Julia Ishiyama: Good evening. My name is Julia Ishiyama. I am a lifelong Palo Alto resident. My family 9
has lived in the area for 65 years. I am a member of the Castilleja class of 2009. I spent seven years 10
walking to school from Lowell Avenue past a lot of other houses, closer to the school I might add, that 11
had a lot of construction going on which I was happy to step around and accommodate. This is the 12
price of living in a growing thriving city. 13
14
I would like to express my opinion that the proposed focus of this EIR is appropriate and I would also 15
ask that in determining the scope of the Commission consider three things. The first is the school’s 16
capacity and demonstrated commitment to mitigate issues surrounding parking, transportation, and 17
traffic as I believe they've demonstrated through the parking or through the shuttles and other 18
measures that they have taken and I believe would absolutely continue to do under their proposed 19
expansion. The second is the cumulative impact of other contributors to traffic and issues in the area 20
like Paly High School, like Town and Country, given the modest proposed expansion at Castilleja I have 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.
to believe that the traffic complaints of the community are attributed to other factors as well. And the 1
third thing I'd ask you to consider since we've listed land use and planning up there is the beneficial 2
use to which this land is already being put. 3
4
Castilleja instilled in me a desire to give back to my community and I strongly reject any suggestion 5
that Castilleja is not an integral part of the Palo Alto community. Castilleja’s emphasis on community 6
service and civic mindedness encouraged me while I was a student there to volunteer at the public 7
elementary school that I attended here, Walter Hays, and encouraged me to serve on my 8
congresswoman’s student advisory board and now that I'm back in Palo Alto at Law School it has 9
encouraged me to think about how I can give back to my community by helping provide free legal 10
services at the Opportunity Center. And I'm by no means some exceptional representative. My 11
classmates are doing incredible work and they're very, very proud to have been educated in Palo Alto 12
at this incredible school. So I ask you consider that important beneficial use in your consideration. 13
Thank you. 14
15
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. It’s Lisa Carr followed by Terrie McDonald. I just want to make a point that 16
when you see the yellow light that means you have a minute left. 17
18
Lisa Carr: Hi, I'm Lisa Carr. I live at 1420 Emerson. I'm also the parent of a Castilleja alum. Castilleja 19
was a fabulous school and I think to the extent all of you are speaking in support of Castilleja I agree 20
with you. I’m very supportive of Castilleja, but I think that's a diversion from the point of why we're 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.
here. We are talking about the scope of the study. 1
2
Two points there, I don't think people have really talked much yet about the aesthetic changes in the 3
neighborhood, but it will be a dramatic change. Where we live in a residential neighborhood, not a 4
multi-use neighborhood although grandfathered in by Castilleja, but I would like to specifically two 5
points, one is on the baseline look at the community. It is true that Castilleja as Julie mentioned is not 6
the only contributor to traffic and I think that needs to be part of the baseline. I have students from 7
Paly parking in front of my school every day. Until recently I also had Castilleja students parking in 8
front of my school, but I think they have maybe six to nine traffic monitors employed by Castilleja now 9
so that has stopped although I do still have a workman parking across the street. So there is already 10
quite an impact in our neighborhood from a public school students parking there. On the weekends 11
my street is end to end parked during the fall for football games at Stanford. So we already also have 12
impact from Stanford. On the so there can be a double impact so I just want to make sure we have a 13
baseline that is accurate. 14
15
As to mitigation or alternatives it hasn’t come up in this EIR, but I think since alternatives will be 16
considered Castilleja might also consider following the path of four other local private schools. That 17
would be Keys, Pinewood, Nueva, and Harker and consider if they want to expand and that's their 18
prerogative as part of their business plan that they consider splitting the campus. And then they can 19
expand to the extent they desire as these other private schools have done. Thanks. 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.
Terrie McDonald: My name is Terrie McDonald. I live on Lowell Avenue. I've been in Palo Alto for 1
somewhat more than 40 years altogether. And I have watched the community change and I would 2
empathize with the neighbors who are concerned about noise and construction for I have lived in the 3
epicenter of it. And for those who fear it I would suggest a greater degree of acceptance because it is 4
our norm. And I have come to accept the wisdom of Palo Alto in granting permits for various new 5
constructions many of which I would not personally endorse. I believe that any of us can drive 6
through the neighborhood and see homes that we would not want to live across from yet in this 7
environment, in this democracy, and in Palo Alto permits are granted for just that. So I accept the 8
greater wisdom of this community board to see that if Castilleja is within compliance that it should be 9
accepted and given the go ahead for its plan. I am also the parent of a Castilleja student and have 10
accepted that we are going to have whatever traffic there is because it is an acceptable tradeoff for 11
the good that the school provides. In terms of trees and noise and the other greenhouse issues that 12
come with construction again I defer to Palo Alto. Thank you. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Ok our next speaker will be Jeannine Marston followed by Gerry Marshall followed by 15
Martin O'Malley. 16
17
Jeannine Marston: Good evening everyone. I am Jeannine Marston. I live in the 1900 block of 18
Waverly. I am a teacher at Castilleja as I have been a teacher for 40 years. And I am a very proud 19
resident of Palo Alto. When we moved from the East Coast I told my husband I only want to live in 20
Palo Alto for the schools and for the trees. So I want to say I'm very supportive of this process and the 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.
opportunity of both sides to speak. I also want to say that I'm I have great faith in the EIR and that 1
kind of meticulous planning we see is why I am so happy to be able to live here. 2
3
I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I'm a historian involved in the Castilleja centennial 4
living here during the Palo Alto Centennial. And one of the pictures I really value is our neighborhood 5
a sea of fields except for two buildings, the Gamble House and Castilleja School. We also have a long, 6
long history of good relations with the neighbors. Josephine Duveneck used our facilities to launch 7
one of her community appeals and neighbors used to be routinely invited to events in the campus and 8
if we're not doing a good enough job at that please let us know what else we can do. 9
10
Yes Castilleja has changed as Palo Alto his changed. I get discouraged when I read descriptions of the 11
school. People are not aware of that we are now 47 percent students of color, that we have a 12
expanding tuition assistance program. We're so proud of the fact of how many students have 13
graduated from Castilleja who are the first in their family to graduate high school and go on to college. 14
I am, I support the enlargement of school because it will also as many speakers have already said give 15
us the opportunity to expand this incredible education to more girls. 16
17
I think this is basically an issue of trust and let me tell you why. So I said I lived in the 1900 block of 18
Waverly. We've had four private major construction projects going on in our neighborhood and 19
they've been very distressing in some ways. When we went to appeal to one house that was raised 20
from the bottom up also six months of pumping water so I appreciate that comment, the construction 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.
manager for the absentee landlord told us that basically they have a right to be there too and please 1
don't come again. I completely trust Castilleja to respect the wishes of the neighbors and in terms of 2
continuing our support for traffic mitigation for a lighter carbon footprint and (interrupted) 3
4
Chair Alcheck: Ok. 5
6
Ms. Marston: My point is please trust us, I think we've earned it. Thank you. 7
8
Chair Alcheck: Next is Gerry Marshall followed by Martin O'Malley. 9
10
Gerry Marshall: Thank you I appreciate this time to speak to the Commission. First of all I want to 11
thank Nanci Kauffman for all the mitigation that she has done in responding to the neighbors issues 12
with the expansion and in the last four or five years the traffic in front of our house is we're at 1301 13
Bryant Street so we're right on the corner of Bryant and Embarcadero. We’re directly across the street 14
from Castilleja. There’s a there's a flurry in the morning of about 20 minutes. There's a flurry in the 15
afternoon of about 20 minutes and then we don't even know the school’s there. So it's pretty quiet. 16
It's a great transition. They have a lot of safety guards that are out there for bicyclist as well as for the 17
parents that are picking up and dropping off. I also want to mention that when my husband bought 18
the house it was built the same time that Castilleja was built. So our homes look pretty much alike. I 19
consider Castilleja a great neighbor, they have been for years. We've lived there for over 35 years and 20
we've never had any issues. Have we seen the transitions, have we… if we ever had a problem we just 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.
had to say something and it was handled, the issues were handled and addressed by the school and 1
it's been minimal. 2
3
I also like to say that the noise factor there really hasn't been a noise factor for us. Traffic wise yes for 4
that few 20 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon, yes. I don't see that the scope of the 5
expansion of the school is going to affect much or the increase of the CUP due to the fact that there 6
are not full classrooms right at this point in time. So there won’t even be a huge factor as far as 7
increase of teachers, etcetera. So bottom line is we can't change the past. Were there issues in the 8
past? Yes, but we can look to the future and I hope that we don't disregard the future and the 9
opportunity for these young girls maybe to even be the President of the United States in the future so 10
go [Cassidy]. 11
12
Martin O’Malley: Good evening. I’m Martin O'Malley. I've been a resident of Palo Alto for more than 13
30 years. The reason that I, one of the reasons that I moved here is because the community supports 14
education and supports the institutions that provide the platform for that activity; it's a highly valued 15
part of the community. And my three daughters all went to Castilleja after attending public school. 16
And I can tell you that over a period of a dozen years that I was involved with the school and physically 17
on campus and witnessing the activities and the development of our children that there was 18
tremendous concern on the part of the school of the impact on the neighbors. And it was part of the 19
DNA of the school to be respectful of the community and to exhibit that respect locally through the 20
mitigation of parking and the noise and whatever could be done was taken very seriously by the 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.
school. And from my perspective over a period of time I saw the impact of the school in the 1
neighborhood decreasing and I personally know a lot of people in the neighborhood and I never 2
heard, I've never had a comment to me from anyone directly that there were issues with several of 3
the issues that we're talking about tonight. So I would say that as an institution Castilleja takes a 4
hundred years to develop, but it can be only a short period of time if the community does not support 5
it. And I think we should continue to do what we can to develop the platforms that our children will 6
be educated in and be able to deal with some of the issues that we have in front of us. Thank you very 7
much. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. The next speaker will be Kathleen Hughes followed by Kris Loew. 10
11
Kathleen Hughes: Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you. My name is Kathleen Hughes and I'm a 12
long time resident of Palo Alto. I'm also the Executive Director of Ada’s Cafe which is a local Palo Alto 13
nonprofit that hires adults with disabilities. I believe the proposed scope of the EIR study as described 14
by the City's consultants is appropriate. I'm here in support of Castilleja because I know that Castilleja 15
is educating the next generation of women leaders and what better day to support women's 16
education than International Women's Day. This next generation will create and generate ideas and 17
especially goodwill throughout the world just like they're doing here in Palo Alto, excuse me, and our 18
surrounding communities. 19
20
From the very beginning the entire Castilleja community embraced and encouraged my work to create 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.
Ada’s Café. Castilleja girls volunteer with us on a weekly and monthly basis. They take their 1
commitments to our nonprofit and their relationships with our employees with disabilities very 2
seriously. Recently I was at Castilleja two weeks ago when one of my employees with pretty 3
significant disabilities said to me you know when I'm here I feel like I'm at home and I know that I'm 4
always welcome here. The proposed increase in enrollment positions Castilleja to provide an even 5
higher level of excellence in education by offering academic, athletic, and extracurricular activities like 6
volunteering with nonprofits like Ada’s Cafe so that more young women and especially a more diverse 7
group of young women will get to take advantage of an education at Castilleja. So I hope the Planning 8
Department and the City of Palo Alto will consider the merits of the proposal so the school can 9
continue its very proud tradition of educating the next generation of female leaders. Thank you so 10
much. 11
12
Kris Loew: Hi, I'm Kris Loew and I live in Palo Alto. And I'm here to express my support for Castilleja. 13
Maybe I'm not so old I don't need… Ok, I believe that the purposed scope of the EIR study as described 14
by the City's consultants is appropriate. I have lived in the Bay Area my entire life and the last 20 have 15
been here in Palo Alto. And like many of you I have witnessed remarkable change and I think agency 16
[is a] commissions like yours for the tremendous task of making well considered decisions that 17
embrace the healthy growth of our vibrant and diverse city while honoring the historic institutions 18
that give Palo Alto such depth and such character. 19
20
Castilleja’s proposal gives the City a unique opportunity to do both. The plan to renew the beloved, 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.
our beloved school will honor a 110 year tradition of educating young women and it will ensure that 1
Castilleja has the facilities it needs to serve girls well into the future. It's important to look at this plan 2
in terms of street flow and trees and perhaps a view from a window. I get it, my family lives on 3
Charleston Road no fewer than six schools feed directly in front of our house and backing out of our 4
driveway during drop off times is no picnic, but big picture we support education and the busyness of 5
our street represents life. And of course we knew going in that we were buying a house on 6
Charleston. 7
8
When you assessed Castilleja’s plans though please consider who this project is for and who it 9
benefits. I'm the mother of two daughters who can, who currently attend Castilleja. They worked 10
their tails off to get there and each day we drop them off with pride and they arrive at school with 11
purpose. Beyond a phenomenal education Castilleja teaches girls accountability, responsibility, and 12
grace. These values are not merely a suggestion. Castilleja makes them a priority with time built into 13
their schedule for active and meaningful community engagement. Through these programs my girls 14
alone have sung with senior citizens, have taught dance and coding to kids in East Palo Alto, and raised 15
money and awareness for teen mental health, homelessness, and the disabled. Castilleja teaches our 16
daughters to be better citizens. They also lead by example; therefore, it was no surprise to me to find 17
that Castilleja’s plans include comprehensive methods of accountability, social and environmental 18
responsibility, and plenty of grace. I assure you that as a community and a beautiful neighborhood 19
that we respect that we're all in this together and I find it kind of fun that we're all wearing red. 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.
Not a meeting goes by when Nanci Kauffman, our head of school, doesn't remind us all of our 1
commitment to our neighbors and to our aggressive traffic management plan. We know the stakes. 2
We want nothing more than to provide a happy, assessable, and engaging learning environment for 3
future generations of women to learn and become good neighbors themselves. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Alcheck: The next speaker will be Dan Chapman followed by Deglin Kenealy followed by William 6
Powar. 7
8
Dan Chapman: Good evening, my name is Dan Chapman. I live in [sounds eight although ultimately] I 9
was born in the old Palo Alto hospital. I'm Superintendent of Building and Grounds at Castilleja School 10
and responsible for our TDM program. I've been at Castilleja for over 26 years. Under Nanci 11
Kauffman's leadership Castilleja implements an aggressive TDM plan. Since 2012 we have reduced 12
traffic by 20 percent. The introduction of two student school busses, a carpooling program, off site 13
employee parking has contributed to the reduction. On average 10 percent of both students and 14
employees ride a bike to campus and there are 11 percent fewer single student drop offs. We also 15
have 46 percent increase in Caltrain ridership. In addition with a few exceptions all employees are 16
required to not bring a car to campus three times a week. To manage these programs we have 17
increased on street monitoring during morning drop off and the afternoon pick up. Daily we count the 18
number of students who take the bus, ride my bike, and take Caltrain. We have weekly coordination, 19
calendar coordination meetings to be sure we have the least impact to the neighborhood as possible. 20
Weather permitting we also use our softball field for overflow party for events. These actions are an 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.
example of Castilleja’s commitment to a long term accountability and to deserve a good and a desire 1
to be a good neighborhood. Thank you for your time. 2
3
Deglin Kenealy: Good evening. Good evening, I'm Deglin Kenealy. I am a resident of Palo Alto living on 4
Channing Avenue directly across the street from St. Albert the Great Catholic Church, Elizabeth Seaton 5
School, down the street from the Palo Alto Adventist Church. Prior to this I lived 10 houses down from 6
Oak Knoll Elementary in Menlo Park. The large, at that time it was the largest elementary school on 7
the Peninsula and spent two and a half years under construction so I can certainly empathize and 8
sympathize with the residents near Castilleja. 9
10
I would like to point out a few things that in my mind it is, I'm here to speak not for me because I do 11
not I no longer have a child at Castilleja. I don't have any other children that will be attending 12
Castilleja, but I am here to speak on behalf of the 100 or so girls who may not be able to attend 13
Castilleja if this project is not approved. Education of young women changes lives whether that is in 14
the Middle East in Africa or even in Palo Alto. I personally witnessed Castilleja take a young smart, but 15
also conservative and cautious young girl who had a love of musical theater and would rather stay at 16
home than go have a sleep over at a friend's house and transform her into a global citizen who is now 17
studying computer science at Stanford and who wants to serve others. This desire to serve others 18
came from her trips through the school to Africa and India seeing the plates of young women who did 19
not receive the educational opportunities afforded to the girls of Castilleja. Ultimately the decision for 20
my daughter was one to sacrifice what could be things that might get her, make her better off in the 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.
world and to sacrifice part of her life for the benefit of others. I realize that it is a difficult decision to 1
have the construction and traffic that could occur, but the long term benefit of 100 additional women 2
being educated by Castilleja is a global changing event. I would like to thank the committee for 3
review, for their review and I believe that the scope of the EIR is appropriate. Thank you. 4
5
William Powar: Good evening, my name is William Powar. I live at 1310 Emerson Street which is 6
across the street from the school. We've lived in that block since 1981. We previously lived in what is 7
now the Lockey House that is part of the school. I supported the school when they petitioned the City 8
to give up the easement on Melville to turn that into a playing field. So I have been around the 9
neighborhood for 36 years, a little over 36 years and had been a supporter of the school. 10
11
In terms of the EIR scoping there are a couple of issues I think that need to be addressed to extend it. 12
Number one in Ms. French's description of the project maybe I missed it, but the school has proposed 13
a total rebuilding of the school. Tearing down all of the existing buildings as part of a phased, multi-14
phased plan and I believe that should be included as part of the scope, not just the increase in 15
enrollment and the underground garage. In addition I believe the baseline should be defined as the 16
existing CUP, not the situation given they've been in violation for over 15 years. I also believe the 17
consultant should speak to the neighbors about specific noise and other concerns that we have that 18
may be impacted by the redesign. 19
20
One issue and it may seem relatively minor to the Commissioners, but the pool is going to be moved 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.
much closer to Emerson Street as I understand the proposal. And they do have water polo matches 1
there. If any of you have ever attended a water polo match you will know that it is a constant battle of 2
whistles and it makes it almost impossible to do anything outside during a water polo match. 3
4
My last point is that I'm questioning whether the school has provided sufficient detail in terms of a 5
building plan in order to address some of the impacts particularly given the tens of thousands of cubic 6
feet of earth are going to be moved in building the underground garage, in lowering the footprint of 7
the campus as part of the overall rebuilding, and I think perhaps the Commission should ask the school 8
to provide more definitive plans before they can address many of these concerns here. Thank you 9
very much. 10
11
Chair Alcheck: Ok our next speaker will be Bill Ross followed by Catherine Garber followed by… well, 12
I’ll start there. 13
14
Bill Ross: Good evening. I'm a Palo Alto resident. I would join in the remarks by the last speaker, but 15
only after I note that 22 years ago I contributed what then I thought was a proportionate amount of 16
money for tuition for somebody who I think profited from the Castilleja educational experience and is 17
a productive member of society now. Having said that I think that we all have to acknowledge this is a 18
controversial project and I think if there's an objective accurate environmental review of it that that 19
will facilitate resolution consistent with the existing regulations. I think there is an inherent ambiguity 20
in the project description that needs to be clarified, not only with respect to construction as 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.
mentioned by the last speaker, but also with respect to how can this be subject to the subsequent 1
exercise of discretion in a TDM. What is it? It's undefined. 2
3
I would suggest that there needs to be an examination as to the baseline for the air quality, 4
greenhouse gas, and traffic impacts. It's not clear from the references quoted that it's consistent with 5
the latest standards from the Building Industry Association case after remand from the Supreme Court 6
to the appellate court to the trial court. I also think that on the traffic component that it would be a 7
better way to look at this project to understand its full impact if not only levels of service was the 8
method of analysis, but also vehicle miles traveled and I think the constrained hours of review is 9
meaning peak hours is inconsistent with the conditions of both Embarcadero and Churchill during 10
those times. Construction impacts are mentioned many times in the initial study: air quality, noise, 11
aesthetics, land use, but it's not clear what the basis for analysis is. It seems to be implied that part of 12
it is the construction management plan that's been utilized by this City over the last several years and 13
has proved to be unacceptable. I would suggest that that not be included in evaluation of the impacts 14
because it's not clear what the actual standards are for the construction impacts. I think that's going 15
to be one of the critical issues that's faced and as a method of mitigation I don't think it meets the 16
definition of feasibility from the outset. Those are the comments that I have at this time. Thank you 17
very much. 18
19
Catherine Garber: Hi, my name's Catherine Garber. I'm here to support Castilleja’s proposed scope for 20
their EIR. I'm a mother of two boys and a past member of the Citizen's Oversight Committee for the 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.
school bond in Palo Alto. I’m here to talk very briefly on three of the topics: the land use, the traffic, 1
and the cultural resources. I moved here to Palo Alto for two reasons, great housing and great 2
schools. And part of what makes the school so good is the variety that there's public and the private. 3
4
All of our schools have had extensive remodeling and additions since I've been here to address seismic 5
and other life safety upgrades, to provide for accessibility, to implement new technologies, and for 6
expansions. Yes, neighbors are impacted. I especially feel for the woman who is across from the 7
proposed new garage entrance, but these changes are on a whole I think good for the community. 8
Regarding traffic I've been really impressed with Castilleja’s management of the traffic. I drive and 9
walk and bike through that neighborhood every day and I have witnessed the vast improvement of the 10
traffic over the years. And then lastly just briefly on serving the community touching on a point 11
someone else made. I've been to quite a few events at Castilleja as a member of the community. 12
They hold quite a lot that are open to the public. I live next to Jordan and they've got events in off 13
hours too and sometimes there's a lot of traffic in my neighborhood and my driveway gets blocked. 14
Well that's when I suck it up and I'm just being a good neighbor. So thank you. 15
16
Chair Alcheck: My next card is for Nanci Kaufmann. I see it's attached to a card from Jim Pickett, Bill 17
Burch, Kathy Burch, Kathleen Tandy, and Kyle Bordeau. I'm assuming that that's… that those other 18
card holders are relinquishing their time to Nanci Kaufmann. Nanci Kaufmann you’ll have 15 minutes 19
to speak. 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.
Nanci Kaufmann: Thank you very much. Oh, thank you. So I appreciate this incredible opportunity to 1
gather as a as a community. It's we live in a time when having a place where divergent points of view 2
can be expressed in this way I think is it’s very powerful and it speaks to a level of intellectual 3
engagement here in Palo Alto that makes me feel very proud to be a citizen here. And I am a neighbor 4
of Castilleja School and I have been the, I have been a neighbor for 19 years and I am been the head of 5
school for the last 7 years. And what I'd like to do is give a quick overview of how we have been 6
thinking about this plan in terms of impact because this is it’s a pretty significant endeavor. It is as we 7
see it, it is truly an investment in maintaining our presence in Palo Alto in a way that is sustainable. 8
We've been here for over 100 years. I suspect that I mean Castilleja was here before anybody in this 9
room I suspect it will be here long after us. My job and my goal is to ensure that that is the case so 10
let’s see, how do I? Oh, I came out of it. Maybe you can do, set that up for me? And I want, sorry, I 11
want to… you can tell I'm an Apple person. Yes. Roll that. Thank you very much. 12
13
So there is a vision behind why the school is doing what they're doing. And we are, we have a strategy 14
for enrollment that we believe will ensure that we can survive and thrive in Palo Alto. We want to be 15
in Palo Alto I think for the same reasons that everyone wants to be in Palo Alto. It's a vibrant 16
community and it's as you've heard tonight our engagement in the community is a very important part 17
of our mission of our school which is actually to teach young women and to empower them about the 18
role that they can play and that's what sets them up to be leaders. We need to modernize our 19
learning spaces. This is something that is law, actually long overdue at the school. We are goal is to 20
actually minimize and I will show you some pictures in a minute, minimize the sort of physical 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.
footprint that we have in the school and to minimize the traffic and the parking impact on the 1
neighborhood. 2
3
We also, you also heard tonight about the demand for a Castilleja education. Unfortunately, our 4
acceptance rate for our high school is at nine percent. And with this increase it's our hope that we 5
would be able to get it up to over 20 percent. I just want to make sure that everyone knows a little bit 6
about the school and I'm not really don't need to go through these things because I think you've heard 7
these things tonight already from other people about the diversity, about the fact that we really are a 8
leading institution in girls' education not just locally and not even nationally, but we do get people 9
from literally all over the world coming to see what we're doing at Castilleja and that would be China 10
and India and Australia and so forth. I also want to reiterate the important role that we play in our 11
community. Again it’s part of our mission and it is something that for us to leave Palo Alto and to give 12
up that opportunity would really be a tremendous loss for our curriculum and our program. 13
14
Fifty percent of Castilleja students arrive at school by some means other than a Single Occupancy 15
Vehicle (SOV) and that, we're very proud of that accomplishment. That's only in the last few years 16
since we've really embarked on, since I came forward by the way I just want to clarify because I did 17
come forward to the City of Palo Alto to say Castilleja School is over enrolled. What would you suggest 18
that we do? And at that time the suggestion was you need to step back, think about your future, plan 19
for your future, and think long and hard about what you plan to do over the next 20 to 30 years and 20
come back to us with a comprehensive plan. It was only after that and we haven't had any complaints 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.
about Castilleja was what I was told at the time by the City. Once I came forward to the neighbors and 1
let them know that we were indeed over enrolled and that we were going to embark on this plan 2
neighbors did file a formal complaint and we did pay a fine of $265,000 to the City for that over 3
enrollment. So I just want to be, thought it would be important to mention that. 4
5
The other thing I want to tell you because I do think that this is a model for Palo Alto, 100 percent of 6
our employees are required to participate in our TDM plan. They may only come to work two days a 7
week in a SOV. If for some reason as Dan mentioned there is some exception around childcare or a 8
physical disability or something like that we do make an exception and we ask those people to 9
somehow participate in traffic duty or in some other way. 10
11
So I really want to talk about positive impacts because I think this does relate to the kind of study that 12
will be done in terms of the impacts culturally and it explains why we've made some of the decisions 13
that we have in the plan. There the architecture, the landscape which I'm going to show you in a 14
minute is designed really to improve the neighborhood as well as I know there's been lots of 15
controversy around trees on campus and there are very few trees impacted in our current plan. 16
We've taken very seriously feedback. We’ve modified our construction quite a bit. Environmental 17
sustainability will be a huge part of this program. Our goal in our new facility is to actually be a leader 18
in that we’ll be a model for other building projects in Palo Alto. 19
20
I particularly want to talk when I talk about positive impacts I want to talk about this expanded green 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.
space that we would like to create on the campus which will be open to our neighbors. I also want to 1
say actually do you mind bringing me a cup of water, my bottle of water? I wanted to let neighbors 2
know that our use of our campus is limited by our CUP and what that means by the way is we're not 3
allowed to have use of our campus for public purpose. We are not, it's not permitted under our CUP 4
because that's believed to be an inconvenience to the neighbors. So just want to be clear on that fact 5
that we would open our campus far more if we ever had a CUP that would allow for that. 6
7
Anyway in this what you can see here is this public park that we would like to have open to walking 8
neighbors, in other words bringing no cars into the campus. We are moving and any tree that gets 9
moved or relocated will be moved towards the perimeter of the campus which will again improve the 10
neighborhood. Now it's not going. Oh, maybe because of that? I got it. I got it. I got it. Thank you. 11
Ok. I think this is really important because we as a… we are open actually. We want this 12
environmental impact study to study every possible way we could reduce impact in the neighborhood. 13
That is our goal and our plan is actually driven by that desire to minimize adverse impacts. 14
15
We plan to reduce traffic and parking, reduce deliveries, we have a plan to relocate pick up and drop 16
off underground. This is something that neighbors asked us to think very long and hard about getting 17
as many cars off the street as possible. We've proposed reducing our number of events, our hours of 18
operation, and of course our environmental sustainability plan which will reduce our consumption of 19
natural resources. 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.
I want to say something about the parking garage because this is something that early on in this 1
process neighbors told us they wanted more than almost anything else. In fact people said over and 2
over again this was promised to us by the last head of the school, this is what we want, and I even 3
recall one neighbor saying just give us the garage you can have a thousand students we don't care just 4
get the cars off the street. What we've done with this proposed garage I think it's very important for 5
you to see the residential feel of the single lane driveway that comes out onto the street. The garage 6
is not a mammoth garage. What we've done is taken all of the on ground level parking and moved it 7
underground. So there will be very little surface parking maybe parking for visitors only and by 8
eliminating all those parking lots on campus that's where we get the green space to create the park for 9
the neighbors. But I would hope that I know there've been many pictures floating around about what 10
the underground garage might look like and I’m pleased to share with you what the plan is there. And 11
that where that driveway is coming out of the campus there is currently a driveway right there and 12
ok... 13
14
It's been mentioned several times I know that trust is this huge issue around Castilleja and we have 15
proposed more accountability than I think would ever be required because we know that we have to 16
prove that we will be held accountable. We want to have a plan that is not dependent on our 17
promises, but the promise we, I think by what we've accomplished we've shown with our with having 18
our even our director of the TDM being here. We're so committed and we our families embrace it, but 19
we want to be sure that if there's any change in leadership at the school there would always be this 20
accountability that it's not dependent, this is not a personal commitment, it's a public commitment 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.
with a significant number of outcome based consequences that would go far beyond what the City 1
would typically require. 2
3
So in closing I really do want to stress once again that we have a lot of trust in this environmental 4
review process. We're grateful for the City's level of expectation around ensuring that if we can grow 5
our school, if we can meet the growing demand for the kind of education that we provide, we had our 6
admission meeting today it's so it's just it's awful to have so few spots for so many amazing young 7
women who are so eager to have this this all girls experience. So if we can do it and reduce our impact 8
even more, make the neighborhood a better place, anything you can tell us and share with us for how 9
to do that we will welcome. So I want to thank you. And one other thing I want to say is I really 10
admire you because I often say it's easier to criticize a decision than to make a decision. And I find 11
myself in that position often and so I appreciate that the decisions that are easy to criticize are the 12
hardest decisions. And so thank you for the work that you do on behalf of the City. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Our next speaker will be Rob Levitsky followed by Kimberly Wong followed by Alan 15
Cooper. 16
17
Rob Levitsky: I've learned that, this is Rob Levitsky, 1215 Emerson Street. I've owned the house next 18
door to Castilleja for the last 25 years and it hasn't been a particularly problematic event. However, 19
this proposal crosses the line. Disability of the neighborhood, they want to destroy our block, knock 20
down two of the eight of, two of the eight houses on the block, violate all kinds of setbacks. When 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.
Amy mentioned at the start of this thing this thing called the Notice of Preparation it's kind of a slick 1
little paragraph talking about all the rules they're going to violate. They start by violating the setback 2
on Emerson Street for an underground parking garage exit, on Embarcadero where there's a 24 foot 3
set back, and it goes on from there. 4
5
We live in a very pretty city and it's that way because we have community values and those values get 6
imbedded in municipal codes. So we have codes, the setback, how far your house gets to start from 7
the edge of the street. And another particular one in our City and you can see that tree on the seal, 8
we care about trees and we have ordinances that protect the trees in Palo Alto especially oaks and 9
redwoods. So the Castilleja proposal would violate just about all of these codes and they sort of taken 10
the position with this project that they can do whatever they want. They can just violate any setback, 11
cut any tree, and basically gave Rob Steinberg carte blanche to just build whatever he wants. And 12
what he proposed on June 30th of last year was something that did not take into account the trees at 13
all. 14
15
So based on the all the data that we have from Castilleja this map here shows every tree they want to 16
cut. Amy is this correct? I'm still using that same data. Using that same data the blue ones are oaks 17
they want to kill, the yellow ones are redwoods, and the rest are various other trees like Deodar 18
Cedars which brings us to the EIR worksheet where it talks about trees and there is no public benefit 19
to cutting down 75 trees. And so I'm imploring this group to make sure that all the regulations 20
corresponding to trees in the City of Palo Alto are followed. Thank you. 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.
1
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Ok, Kimberly Wang followed by Alan Cooper followed by Winter 2
Dellenbach. 3
4
Kimberly Wang: Hello, my name is Kimberly Wong and I live at 1260 Emerson Street opposite the 5
Lockey House dedicated to Castilleja’s founder Miss Mary Lockey. The Dudek initial report mislabeled 6
1235 as the Lockey House, but the Lockey plaque at 1263 proves otherwise. I hope that they will 7
correct this. 8
9
The Dudek study 313 states no impact to housing, but we need further studies for the following 10
reasons: removing the Lockey House and neighboring home will reduce this short block of eight homes 11
to six with a very long wall and a garage exit. I request that the EIR bring in the HRB and ARB to jointly 12
evaluate the impact of losing homes on this block which looks and feels like an extension of the 13
Professorville just north of the campus. They should also provide discretionary review on aesthetics of 14
the entire project in terms of massing and fitting in with the surrounding neighborhood. 15
16
[Gustav Lowmister] built the campus, many Professorville homes, the Castilleja administration 17
building, and perhaps the Lockey House. In the name, Dames and More study, Sanborn Maps, past 18
research and City records there are different build dates and parcel numbers. Because of these 19
discrepancies I ask that the EIR provide full historical evaluation of the Lockey House with peer review. 20
And with the correct research and build date I would like the EIR to determine whether the Lockey 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.
House is eligible to be on the National Registry as the neighboring buildings 1215 Emerson and the 1
administration building at 310 Bryant, 1310 Bryant. 2
3
Lastly I would like the EIR to consider alternatives to demolishing two homes where there is such great 4
need for housing. They can explore benefits of robust shuttling, our increased robust shuttling of 5
students and staff to satellite parking away from the already congested Embarcadero corridor, 6
benefits of turning the Lockey House into a historical museum to showcase the 100 years of Castilleja 7
history and retain housing for out of town visitors as is done presently. In closing I would like the EIR 8
to have a full historic evaluation of the Lockey House in terms of date built, architectural significance, 9
and its notable inhabitants. I would also like the EIR to study alternatives to razing the homes. And 10
lastly I would like the ARB and HRB to study the impact of removing homes to the aesthetic and 11
cultural fabric of the neighborhood. Thank you. 12
13
Alan Cooper: I'm Alan Cooper. I live across the street from Castilleja on Kellogg Avenue. And with my 14
background in geology and geophysics I would like to be specific about the EIR and I feel that the 15
current geotechnical study that was done in January 2017 is too limited in scope and did not address 16
the, collect sufficient geologic information to address significant questions. Questions such as how 17
would the Castilleja a site respond to a great earthquake magnitude 7.5 if they excavate forty percent 18
of their site and down to a depth of 15 feet. Would severe ground motions of the excavated site 19
increase the likelihood of liquefaction failures thereby compromising the structural integrity of the 20
garage and the new structures that will be built? Would structural failures of the garage and building 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.
walls cause land movements that would damage roads and homes adjacent to Castilleja? These are 1
potentially serious problems. Hence I ask in the EIR that an enhanced geotechnical evaluation be done 2
for the Castilleja site extending out to the road and the first row of houses around Castilleja. 3
4
And the evaluation should include two parts. First is a detailed three dimensional geologic mapping 5
survey to a depth of 75 feet with a resolution of 5 feet using standard geophysical mapping remote 6
sensing techniques. These would be augmented with additional course core samples collected. The 7
radar mapping would image the shapes and extents of the sand and gravel bodies that have potential 8
for liquefaction. The seismic data would provide the [sheer] wave velocities to help evaluate those 9
liquefaction potential. Geologic cores are needed to ground truth both radar and the seismic data. 10
11
The second aspect of the geotechnical evaluation is a detailed three dimensional seismic engineering 12
study to predict how all the existing and proposed structures on the Castilleja property would respond 13
to a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. Would ground failures on the Castilleja property result in failures to 14
adjacent roads and homes especially along Embarcadero Road adjacent to the garage? The 15
engineering evaluation should incorporate all the three dimensional geologic data. The additional 16
geologic data and engineering evaluations are needed because even with a good engineering practices 17
there is potential for serious damage to the proposed garage, to new buildings, to public roads, 18
adjacent homes, and to the safety of the students that may be there during that earthquake. Thank 19
you. 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.
Chair Alcheck: Our next speaker will be Nelson Ng followed by Carla Befera followed by Dave Lyons. 1
2
Nelson Ng: Hi, my name is Nelson Ng. For the last 20 years I have my family and I have been living at 3
1260 Emerson Street. I heard a lot of speakers commending the Castilleja as such a great neighbors 4
and for the last 20 years we have not also tried to be good neighbors to Castilleja have not been 5
complaining anything about it until last July when I find out that the proposed garage exit with 6
hundreds of cars would be spilling out into my front door. And that is a example of a good neighbor; 7
however, I diverged from my from my speech. 8
9
As an immediate neighbor Castilleja, of Castilleja who lives here 24/7 I feel it's important to 10
understand the total impact of Castilleja traffic. Therefore I'm requesting all study to be 24/7 for the 11
streets around Castilleja. The oops, the specified a street is this, here is the streets of what is 12
proposed right now as being study; however, let’s see, what is… However, the blue one is proposed to 13
be studied. The red ones are the ones that should be studied. And yeah, can you make it into full 14
screen? Continue. Thanks. So to establish a baseline of the data it should be compared with the 15
traffic of what is allowable for the single family R-1 neighborhood not the existing condition. This 16
determines the true impact of Castilleja traffic to the surrounding neighborhood. 17
18
The study should measure traffic with and without Castilleja in session. Some neighbors surrounding 19
neighbor have observed that 90 percent of traffic reduction on the days that Castilleja is not in session 20
while Palo Alto school are still in session. Studies also measure traffic during summer with and 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.
without Castilleja in school, in session. Many more data point needs to be included in different 1
seasons and weather conditions should be collected. 2
3
As immediate neighbor I have observed that the events of activities on campus have significant 4
cumulative impact to the neighborhood. According to the school calendar and events tracking of the 5
neighbors Castilleja has over 100 events for the current school year. In a submitted application 6
Castilleja is proposing to have ninety events with 100 to 700 guests and no limit for events with less 7
than 50 guests. Just proposed events alone is already 7 to 12 times more events than other private 8
schools in the area. We need to have in-depth study and analyze the impact of these events in 9
comparison to other school. A more extensive studies the current [W tran] proposal is needed. I ask 10
the EIR to expand the number of streets, intersections study. Set up 24/7 monitor and analyze the 11
events and not to mention the five plus years of construction traffic to measure the true impact of 12
Castilleja expansion to the neighborhood. Thank you. And again (interrupted) 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. 15
16
Mr. Ng: What is on here is that, is the blue one is what is [unintelligible]. The blue trend is 17
(interrupted) 18
19
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. 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.
Mr. Ng: Proposed to study and the right one is the one that is being (interrupted) 1
2
Chair Alcheck: Our next speaker will be Carla Befera. 3
4
Carla Befera: Thank you. My name is Carla Befera and my family has lived across the street from 5
Castilleja for 49 years. We ask the Planning Commission to include several additional measures for 6
study in this EIR. In the interest of brevity I will only include a few in my comments and submit the 7
others in a written statement. You're welcome. 8
9
If I may direct the Commissioners to Page 5 of the Dudek report there are some additional items which 10
we believe should be checked. Mandatory findings of significance is not checked. It is incumbent on 11
the Planning Commission to determine whether the cumulative impact of the current growth plan in 12
addition to past activities constitutes a mandatory finding of significance. We point out that in 13
Castilleja’s 109 year history at this site including many remodels, additions, and more than doubling 14
the size of its original student body there has never been an environmental review. We believe the 15
past effects and those of the reasonably foreseeable future constitute overburdening of this R-1 16
neighborhood. 17
18
Hydrology and water quality is not checked. The last time Castilleja a dug in order to build its current 19
underground gym despite geological studies to the contrary it encountered ground table water which 20
it had to pump around the clock 24/7 for some six months. As you can imagine this caused enormous 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.
disruption of peace and habitability for neighbors and we're still not clear on what effects this 1
displacement had on Foundation stability for nearby homes. Palo Alto has since ruled that this type of 2
water displacement is dangerous. In addition the impermeable garage roof will impact runoff in an 3
area that already backs up in rainy weather. We ask that this extremely large project to be reviewed 4
in depth. 5
6
It should also be noted that we find the soil displacement to be grossly underestimated in the project 7
plan in terms of cubic yards as well as depth and these alternate facts should be corrected before an 8
extensive study is made. Public services is not checked. Since this project is increasing substantially 9
the number of people driving into and out of Palo Alto four car trips per day to deliver and retrieve 10
students 73 percent of whom are not residents how will that and the 30 percent increase in students 11
and staff affect services such as traffic control, fire, police? The impact has been minimized in this 12
report, but we ask how will our residential streets be physically maintained with this increased traffic 13
including the oversized buses used for transportation and the enormous trucks required for the 14
planned construction. Since the school is a nonprofit entity which does not pay city taxes we believe 15
the cost burden will fall on resident taxpayers and would like these effects and their impacts studied in 16
depth. 17
18
We would also ask the Commissioner to look carefully at the proposed bikeways station presented as 19
a community good. Neighbors whose impact, input was not solicited on this issue question if this area 20
may instead become a public nuisance offering a place for non-bike riders to loiter, bathe, sleep, 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.
gather at inappropriate hours and encamp. We have seen no plans for monitoring this area with a full 1
time staff. The Commissioners must be well aware of the complexities of creating public spaces which 2
are well intended, but have unforeseen negative consequences. We ask that the EIR fully study the 3
potential impacts. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Alcheck: The next speaker is Dave Lyons followed by Mr. Akinoza. 6
7
Dave Lyons: Good evening and thank you, my name is Dave Lyons and I'm a resident of Palo Alto at 8
1159 Lincoln Avenue. And really quickly I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I spent in my 9
formative years in a suburb that, very much like Palo Alto. I spent my college years in Cambridge, 10
Massachusetts a school… a city which is completely focused from my perspective on education and 11
higher education of probably the highest nature. I moved to Palo Alto 29 years ago to come to 12
Stanford University. I've been a resident here for almost every one of those years since. I've worked in 13
downtown Palo Alto for 15 of those years. 14
15
This is to speak in support of the EIR for Castilleja. Fundamentally essentially my years in the 16
community I've been aware of Castilleja and mostly because of the positive comments from my 17
friends and colleagues. Things like what a great school, those girls go on to be great leaders, you know 18
you've all heard that, but that the importance of that in the community is extremely important to me 19
and one of the main reasons that I live here and bring my family up in this in this environment. 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.
I've dedicated my career to design and engineering and I’ve held leadership positions and in firms 1
based here in Palo Alto, IDEO and Tesla Motors. I, through that experience I've become enamored 2
with two overarching principles that are in a mindset for sustainable competitive advantage. Now 3
those two principles are a commit, first of all a commitment to excellence and the second a 4
commitment to continuous improvement. I believe that every individual will be benefited by the 5
commitment to those principles in their personal and professional life. The community itself will also 6
benefit from that and we also look at how those are cherished and can grow a sustainable future for 7
ourselves and for our families. 8
9
My daughter is a sixth grader a Castilleja and before that she attended public school, Walter Hays in 10
Palo Alto. I have I have children currently attending Jordan and Walter Hays so I get out in the traffic 11
and live this. Sorry. 12
13
Tolu Akinoza: Hi, good evening. Thank you for all this opportunity to address you. My name is Tolu 14
Akinoza and I would like this evening to urge you to support Castilleja’s plan to modernize and expand 15
the school. And I think you should do this because of the impact that the school has not only on City, 16
but also on the impact on training girls and helping provide support for women throughout the world. 17
I'm a resident Palo Alto and I'm also a parent of two girls who are both in the middle and high school 18
at in Castilleja. I’m also are a former Commissioner of the City of Palo Alto helping to look at our 19
libraries and the renovation projects that we did over the last couple years. So I am very familiar with 20
the burdens of trying to make decisions that counterbalance desires of different groups within groups 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.
of residents in the City. 1
2
But today I'd really like to I think it's appropriate that we're discussing the future expansion of 3
Castilleja on International Women's Day. Castilleja and my experience and from my daughter's 4
experience has been really great at trying to build up those young women and trying to give them an 5
education that allows them to have impact not only in their city, but also throughout they take that 6
same that impact and what they learn they take it out with them for the rest of their lives and 7
everywhere that they touch. The girls have a lot of impact throughout the City, right? It's not an 8
insular community that only has provides access to a small group of people in in Palo Alto, but we 9
educating our girls our the daughters of Palo Alto who also take that education and almost on a 10
daily/weekly basis are going out to impact the institutions inside whether it's through mentorship or 11
trainings or a lot of activities that they go out and help and help other parts of Palo Alto. 12
13
As a parent my experience regarding traffic has been that whenever there is an event or whenever or 14
just looking at attending school my girls bike to school every day. So they because the school 15
encourages strongly I can tell you the amount of emails I get from Nanci and the rest of the school 16
saying don't park here, make sure that you follow the traffic guidelines, and it is it's their really, really 17
strict and really so much about helping to grow, helping to manage (interrupted) 18
19
Chair Alcheck: Thank (interrupted) 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.
Mr. Akinoza: So I just want to close I really would encourage you to support (interrupted) 1
2
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. 3
4
Mr. Akinoza: Castilleja’s plans. Thank you so much. 5
6
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Our next speaker is Diane Guint followed by [Keith Bennett]. 7
8
Diane Guint: Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to address you. I want to 9
echo something that Head of School Nanci Kauffman said. I very much appreciate the work that you 10
do because this is a vibrant and growing community and in order for the community to grow you have 11
to make wise decisions on behalf of the community. 12
13
I'm here to support the scope of the Castilleja proposal. And I say that as a former parent of a 14
Castilleja student, a former Member of the Board of Castilleja, and also as a 27 year resident of Palo 15
Alto. I live in South Palo Alto. I live one block from the Ross Road YMCA. I live next door to a house 16
that has eight Facebook engineers living in a house that was not designed for that kind of occupancy, 17
but people work here. It's a place that people want to be and all of us in the community have to 18
recognize and honor the fact that this is a popular place, but in particular I want to say that what 19
Castilleja does and what Castilleja offers is extremely unique in our community. They truly work to 20
succeed at their mission to train young women leaders. 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.
1
And I cannot think of a single other example of another institution that has gone to the lengths that 2
Castilleja has gone through under Nanci Kauffman's leadership to make sure that they that the school 3
is considerate of the neighbors. I don't think there is any other place where although it is not required 4
there are signs out across the street from the school in front of other people's houses that say don't 5
Castilleja’s community don't park on the side of the street. No one tells the eight Facebook engineers 6
and their many, many guests that they can't park in front of my street, in front of my house, nor would 7
I want them to do that. But Castilleja is extremely committed to its neighbors. So I think that the 8
success that Nanci and her leadership team have had and that the community have taken the 9
concerns of the neighbors very seriously and the opportunity to train and educate other additional 10
young women leaders is an extraordinary opportunity. And I thank you for your wise decisions and I'm 11
counting on them. Thanks. 12
13
[Keith Bennett]: Hello my name is [Keith Bennett]. I'm a, I live in Palo Alto for about a quarter of a 14
century near Jordan Junior High School. But I'm here and I have no affiliation with Castilleja 15
whatsoever. I am here on behalf of Save Palo Alto’s Ground Water and I would like to address some 16
specific issues in the EIR related to hydrology. 17
18
So most of us aren't very aware of the water that is under us here, which we have a lot although 19
people are somewhat more aware of it now because of the recent City actions related to dewatering 20
restrictions for basement construction dewatering. This report says there's going to be no impact on 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.
groundwater; however, there is underground construction. Without knowing the details of the 1
construction and the construction method I think it's impossible to make any claims about how much 2
ground water you're going to take out. For a project of this size it could be 50 to 100 million gallons. 3
That is not insignificant on the scale of natural recharge of groundwater within Palo Alto. 4
5
Secondly we are not at all aware of what our groundwater does when it rains. It turns out that the 6
aquifer and the soils under us take much more water than our storm drain systems probably by about 7
a factor of three to the Bay. When you have underground construction in this aquifer which is pretty 8
fluid or pretty porous this underground construction blocks these flows, it can be engineered so that 9
they don't block the flows or they have minimal impacts on the flows, but unless you think about it 10
you can start building up a bunch of dams just like sticks in the creek. It doesn't make a big difference 11
until the ground water comes to the surface. When it comes to the surface then everything becomes 12
impervious. 13
14
Another point is there's a complicated relationship between the shallow levels and the deeper levels 15
of the aquifer and there is increasing intent to use water in the deeper parts of the aquifer for 16
municipal purposes including in East Palo Alto. So one thing that should be looked at is to what extent 17
a large impervious structure affects the deeper aquifer recharge. Those are the main points that I'd 18
like to make. They can all be addressed I believe, but only in the context of a detailed design for the 19
underground construction including the construction method. Thank you. 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.
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Next speaker will be Chi Wong followed by Annie Yamashita followed by 1
Sara Cody. 2
3
Chi Wong: Good evening, Commissioners, thank you for your time. My name is Chi Wong. I live on 4
1336 Emerson Street across the street from Castilleja. And I’d just like to ask the Commissioners to 5
consider the CUP permit in this whole process and what the original number was designed for. I’m 6
concerned around this issue from the perspective of fairness and justice and I’d like to have that 7
reviewed in the report as well. Thank you. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Annie Yamashita. 10
11
Annie Yamashita: Good evening. My name to Annie Yamashita and I live across street from Castilleja, 12
Bryant and Kellogg, and I'm a long turn resident of Palo Alto. Today I've been here and I hear a lot of 13
things Palo Alto, yes I'm very proud of the school, no doubt. There’s a lot of excellent things that the 14
school are doing. Also because Palo Alto is not just because the schools, is also because we are also in 15
the middle of the Silicon Valley with these leading technology. 16
17
Lately I heard I study and heard [unintelligible] a lot about Internet of things, how much this 18
technology will change our life. Artificial intelligence will be better than human. They were also 19
scientists, engineers as believe in this and doing their best every day with hard work. So I'm also 20
looking for I’m very exciting with this new technology. It will change our life tremendously such as 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.
auto electric car and auto driving car. They were saying the car this year already started put in the 1
market, but in the next 10 years we will have very good self-driving car. We don't, I'm looking forward 2
to that. I don't need to have a car of my own. I don't need to drive the car by myself. And I can save 3
the garage, the parking space, and they were talking about they can save lots of parking area to 4
become a park, to have a [unintelligible] natural for our lives. 5
6
So as you know Apple’s iPhone came to the market just seven years ago and it changed our life 7
tremendously. So in another 10 years how can you image what kind of life we're going to 8
[unintelligible] I very believe will change largely. So in five years do we really need to have a gigantic 9
underground parking space? And why don't we utilize those money to strike even better education 10
not only for rich families daughters, but for many intelligent women’s in a society in Palo Alto in 11
society all over the world. Thank you very much. 12
13
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Our next speaker is Sara Cody. 14
15
Sara Cody: Good evening, Commissioners, my name is Sarah Cody. I'm a lifetime resident of Palo Alto 16
and my father in fact one day sat in your seats. I live at the 300 block of Kellogg and I've been there, 17
lived there since 2001. And I just want to make certain that this isn't a debate about whether 18
Castilleja provides a fabulous education has wonderful people, there's no doubt that it does. This is 19
really about the impact on the neighborhood and health and safety. 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.
The issue that I want to bring to your attention that I'm most concerned about is around bicycle safety 1
and I think that there's an area that should be checked I think that's under recreation or at least an 2
expansion of looking at traffic. Palo Alto is a model for the Safe Routes to School program. I work for 3
the County and we've actually given awards to the City for fabulous work in safe and active 4
neighborhoods in the Safe Routes to School program. The Bryant Bike Boulevard is very, very, very 5
important. It's the main bike corridor students who live in Downtown Palo Alto transit on that bike 6
corridor to reach Paly and Jordan. And my concern is that the underground parking garage which will 7
draw an additional 140 cars along the bike boulevard to enter there will tangle with the students who 8
are transiting to public school. And I don't think that this has been sufficiently studied. There's also 9
the issue of the impact on traffic for the High School, both Churchill and Embarcadero it's a very 10
congested area for cars and some bikes as well and I think that this proposed expansion will make 11
quite a mess. 12
13
And my other concern just to echo an earlier speaker is really about really about fairness. And my 14
estimation this is really a private interest, a private school, that trumping public interest and health 15
and safety for the neighborhood. And I really hope that the City doesn't reward ten years of violations 16
of the CUP with an expansion. And I think that the fact is that perhaps Castilleja has outgrown its 17
current site and maybe needs a satellite site. Thank you. 18
19
Chair Alcheck: Our next speaker is Mindie Romanowsky followed by Lee Price. 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.
Mindie Romanowsky: Good evening, my name is Mindie Romanowsky. I apologize for my 1
handwriting. I am a local land use attorney and I represent Castillaja School. I first of all want to 2
express my gratitude to the members of the public here this evening and the neighbors who have 3
been meeting with us, living with us all these years for all the feedback we've received over the years 4
and tonight. I really want to also express my respect for all of you who have respected this process 5
and listened to the Commissioners and staff to provide feedback regarding impact which is really the 6
goal here tonight to ensure that we get an environmental document that is comprehensive, to ensure 7
that it acts as a guide post for this project if it is approved. 8
9
Castilleja understands the integrity of this EIR process and takes it very, very seriously. We want an 10
objective process. We want to clear standards. We want clear methodology and because of that we 11
really, really welcome this feedback and we are here to make sure that it is included in the scope. 12
13
The school even though this is the beginning of the formal process, the school has been committed to 14
hearing about impact long before this process has been initiated. For a number of years as you've 15
heard from the head of the school Nanci tonight we have met with the neighbors to hear their 16
concerns. We have been in dialogue to elicit their feedback and their feedback has really driven much 17
of our proposal before all of you and it will continue to drive it. Examples of this include impact 18
reductions that the neighbors have requested including the underground parking garage, noised based 19
uses to be attenuated such as waste disposal, deliveries, noise from the pool, all of these things are 20
things that we have incorporated to reduce impacts. 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.
1
I see my yellow light is on. I will just end with the fact that on our own volition we have made a formal 2
request to extend the comment period through April 15th to enable sufficient time to study the recent 3
feedback we've heard tonight and in the last number of days so that we can respond to this feedback, 4
we can continue to incorporate changes, we can ensure that the scope of the methodology and the 5
content of the environmental information will be fully and comprehensively studied so that we all can 6
have an EIR that we can feel good about when the decisions are ultimately made. Thank you so much 7
for your time. 8
9
Lee Price: Good evening thank you for this opportunity to address the committee. My name is Lee 10
Price. I've lived in Palo Alto for close to 55 years on and off, 37 years in my present house at 1445 11
Bryant which is kitty corner to Castilleja at Kellogg. I'd like to express very strong agreement with all of 12
the speakers from Castilleja who have advocated for the school. I think Nanci has done a tremendous 13
job in attracting students, educating students, involving them in nonprofit volunteer work and so 14
forth, but I do agree with some of the other speakers that the question is not the students and the 15
question is not Castilleja itself, the question that you are addressing is should Castilleja be in its 16
present location. 17
18
As I understand it CEQA is a required process that Palo Alto as a city has to undertake and there are 19
certain steps, but I do question whether that’s sufficient, whether the EIR by itself is covering all the 20
alternatives. I even believe that your consultant mentioned that one of the last steps in CEQA is the 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.
possible recommendation of alternatives that might avoid or remediate some of the problems that are 1
uncovered in an EIR. So my question is whether there isn't a better possibility here? Would it be 2
possible to have the same school, the same students, the same teachers, the same volunteer activity, 3
the same involvement with Palo Alto, but at a different location? I really think the scope of the CEQA 4
report that you're looking at should have this addition. Is this the right location? 5
6
I in fact would like to encourage an expansion of Castilleja to even more than 550 students. They have 7
proposed going from 438 to 550 because there are an additional 100 students that they would really 8
like to accept. Why not go to 650 or 750? But isn't there some property, some land within this 9
general area of Silicon Valley, not necessarily within Palo Alto City that would offer a much better 10
opportunity, a greater acreage? I went to a private school myself so I'm very familiar with the problem 11
they're looking at, but my school had 50 to 100 acres, plenty of room for ball fields, for multiple 12
buildings, expansion, no parking problems. We have a lot of issues that have been addressed by all of 13
the neighbors include myself and I just question whether the scope of the CEQA shouldn't be 14
increased to include the possibility of an alternative location. Thank you. 15
16
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Our next speaker will be Kerry Yarkin followed by Rob Steinberg. 17
18
Kerry Yarkin: Good evening, Commissioners. Our family owns two parcels on Churchill which has been 19
in our family since 1963. And I'm going to follow the last speaker basically with his comments. 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.
Well first of all I invite you all to go tour some private schools, some beautiful private schools in Menlo 1
Park. St. Joseph’s, maybe go over to Bellarmine, see some of these beautiful private schools and I feel 2
that Castilleja is now currently at 73 students per acre. I feel that they've outgrown the space. I think 3
that they, if they want to go to 540 I think they should go up to 750 students and I think they should 4
look seriously at other proposals because I have a friend and her daughter was on the waiting list and 5
they sat through the summer getting all their funds together and she didn't get in. And she was very, 6
very disappointed. And I think 20 percent, I think they say 20 percent of the girls there want to go up 7
to that level of acceptance. I think they should go much higher. 8
9
And I commend the school and the girls and the education. It sounds amazing. Why are we boxed in 10
here on the small campus, 73 students per acre. So I would encourage the Board Of Trustees, Nanci, 11
and the school not necessarily split the school, just think outside the box. Make it an amazing place 12
and I've actually been touring some schools up in the Santa Rosa area, private schools. They’re 13
amazing and they have some acreage and there's plenty of… Castilleja used to be a place where the 14
girls had plenty of space and plenty of trees and places to play and I feel like they're just being 15
squished in there. So that's what I think should be done. 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Is Rob Steinberg here? 18
19
Rob Steinberg: Good evening, Commissioners; my name's Rob Steinberg. I'm an architect in the 20
community and I'm actually I'm optimistic about our meeting tonight. I'm optimistic because I think 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.
everybody here is here because we love Palo Alto and we love our community that's developed 1
around us. And I think that that's that shared value is a good place and a good common thread to 2
have as we move forward and explore these different eyes, ideas. 3
4
I am here to encourage you to approve the focused EIR, the scope of it. And I say that for two reasons. 5
One is I have been a neighbor, I live a few blocks from Castilleja for the last 35 years and so I think I 6
have a sensitivity to the impact of that, but more importantly I'm the architect that has been working 7
with Castilleja. And for almost three years Castilleja has met monthly or every other month with 8
representatives from the neighborhood to talk about these kinds of issues. And I've been part of that 9
for the last 18 months and during that period we have methodically asked the neighbors and we've 10
identified all of the issues and we've looked at all of the variations and ways of solving it that we could 11
come up with. And they are exactly the same issues that we've heard tonight and are that were on 12
the list from the EIR consultant. Transportation and traffic, land use and planning, noise, the biology 13
resources, the cultural resources, and the aesthetics. So I would encourage you to approve the scope. 14
Let's move forward. Let's we've talked about this, we've identified the issues, let's move forward and 15
get into the detail and see if we can't find a common ground to make this a win-win. Thank you. 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Ok, that's the last card I have if there are no other cards I'm going to shift this discussion 18
up to the Commission level. What I'd like to do tonight is essentially have one round of comments. 19
Our goal here is to provide some input specifically as it relates to the environmental impact study and 20
what I'd like to hear if there’s anything that you feel that staff needs to include in their review that 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.
hasn't been addressed tonight. I'll say for the sake of the audience that our staff has taken copious 1
notes on all the items you've raised. If they pertain to the environmental impact they will be included 2
in an assessment and addressed. And our goal here tonight is to identify any areas that they may have 3
overlooked. And I think that in large part many of you have done that. 4
5
And so I'm going to give Commissioners a few minutes each to raise any other topics that you feel 6
haven't been raised tonight. And I want to encourage the Commissioners to avoid a discussion tonight 7
about the merits of this project or about the design or about even its environmental impacts because 8
we haven't really gotten to that period of time yet. That is not tonight’s objective. Ok? So if you don’t 9
mind Eric would you lead us off and we’ll just go down? 10
11
Commissioner Rosenblum: First thanks to everyone for coming out. It's clearly an issue that raises a 12
lot of passion. And I think to me this is an issue largely around the traffic and parking weighed against 13
the value of having a world class girls' school in our community. It’s clear that Castilleja is special, but 14
of all the issues that are raised tonight and their talk about hydrology, trees, etcetera and I'll get to 15
those in a moment, often when neighborhood's come here as en masse it is around traffic and 16
parking. 17
18
So my first few comments in terms of what I want to see beefed up in the report going forward is 19
around the TDM program. And in particular my initial read of the TDM was that it was very light. And 20
Amy thank you for sending the additional link so I was going through the TDM materials that were 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.
submitted in 2016. They’re more substantial, but I would say that it needs to go even farther. So the 1
beauty of Castilleja is they already have historical record of what they've achieved through essentially 2
requiring all staff to participate in TDM and strongly encouraging students to participate and they've 3
already achieved some pretty good results. The question is how does this extend to the future? And 4
often with TDM programs there is some low hanging fruit and so you can get people that live nearby 5
and in Los Altos, etcetera you can run shuttles to concentrated areas and when you look at the scatter 6
map of where the students all live they're going to be some areas that are going to be hard. And so at 7
some point the juice gets harder and harder to squeeze. 8
9
And I think that the neighbors would want to have a confidence that someone has really gone through 10
each pocket of students and they do have a credible model of how each of them is going to get there 11
and what incentives they’re going to have in place. And based on my read of the TDM program that I 12
just looked through a lot of that is being addressed, but that's the area that I would like to see dug into 13
and really make the model transparent. How are these assumptions come up with and specifically 14
what pockets of students are being targeted? And as examples what does the mode share look like by 15
student pocket meaning how many kilometers from school before you start dropping off in the 16
efficacy of different modes? Is there a difference in terms of students by year? So when students get 17
their own cars for example are they reluctant to give them up? So are juniors and seniors driving at a 18
rate that parents dropping off or they may be more willing to take alternative transportations before 19
they have the right or the feel they have the privilege to have their own car for example. 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.
I agree with many of the participants tonight that the extent of the study should be probably broader. 1
There are a number of schools that are causing traffic impacts and looking at that in total all the way 2
down to Churchill I think will be important to let the community know that we're taking this more 3
comprehensively. A couple other comments, the design of the garage I think is critical. In the 4
materials the model that was used to discuss how much queuing would be at the garage entrance was 5
based on the current drop off. You use two different lanes to establish your baseline. One that had 6
two lanes and one that had one lane and it was mentioned that the one lane which obviously has 7
slower drop offs would be used as the baseline. I'm a little bit skeptical that the behavior of cars once 8
they enter a garage is the same as the behavior of cars at grade level. So I think they were slower and 9
I think they'll take longer to get in and out. And so I would love to see if the consultants have any 10
information on the behavior of cars in underground drop off spots and whether or not the model is 11
accurately representing what would happen. Because again I think a lot of neighbors are concerned 12
there’s going to be a long queue of cars trying to get in and out of the garage and so again to go for 13
that specific concern. 14
15
And then finally or actually not quite finally, almost finally, penultimately, are there parking related 16
issues? This is a neighborhood with Residential Preferential Parking (RPP). Are… is or I'm sorry. RPP is 17
not yet established in this neighborhood, yeah? So then the parking related issues are going to have 18
to be addressed and so this is something where I would advise staff to look at the potential parking 19
impact during the construction period in particular. If there's going to be over the next say six years 20
spill over parking because the garage isn't yet built you have disruption on campus and there may be 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.
displacement of cars. 1
2
Then finally related to this is a more detailed description of what the construction period will look like 3
in particular a number of people have brought up the Bryant Safe Routes to School, but any 4
neighboring streets during the construction period what level of disruption we would expect and what 5
the mitigations are for specifically in the construction period. So in terms of the EIR itself these would 6
be the major areas of that I would like to see beefed up. 7
8
In terms of areas that I trust staff and the experts hired by the City, but we heard over and over and I 9
just took some notes. Yeah there are comments like tearing down of hundreds of trees. I didn't see it 10
on the report. I think it just needs if there are people here who believe that it needs to be highlighted 11
what claims by the community are correct or to what extent if they're off they are off. Hydrology and 12
water it was referenced a number of times that previous project had necessitated huge amounts of 13
pumping. Again, that should be referenced. If that did happen what the cause of it was, if it didn't 14
happen then why is this a why is this believed by the community and what is different now? And the 15
scope of construction, there have been comments like this is a complete rebuild of the entire campus, 16
why is this not being considered new construction? I think again being precise about what exactly is 17
being reconstructed and how is that considered by the City when the construct an EIR. And those are 18
my notes. 19
20
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Thank you. 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.
1
Commissioner Summa: Hi, I also want to thank everybody for coming out, a lot of very passionate 2
people here this evening. And I agree with most of the comments of Commissioner Rosenblum. Of 3
Page 13 of our presentation the only issue that people didn't express concerns about were 4
tribal/cultural resources so, so that's good. We don't have to worry about that, but in addition I think 5
people would like much more done about the trees. And I agree that there seems to be differing, I've 6
heard different opinions about how many trees are being removed so anything we can do to clear that 7
up for the public. And in general I think making this the I think will help… what? I know the 8
[unintelligible]. 9
10
I think it will help Castilleja in their goal to really mitigate impacts and be a good neighbor because 11
that's what they seem to want to do to make this the strongest, most complete, comprehensive report 12
we can. That said I think we want people asked for mandatory findings of significance to be studied. I 13
think population and housing if I'm correct that might fall under the number of students per acre that 14
was referenced by a couple of speakers. Public services were asked to be considered. Hydrology and 15
water quality over and over again and also recreation. And I think that falls into also into comments 16
that the students were just too squished in at this location which gets me to another request and I 17
think that the environmental impact, the environmental review is supposed to study which is 18
alternatives. And a couple speakers at least mentioned the alternative of creatively expanding the 19
campus. So there should be some study of that I think. 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.
Also I guess bike safety would be studied under transportation and traffic. I think there could be an 1
emphasis on that. And I do believe that the traffic study should be expanded. Many speakers spoke 2
about the fact that the focus was too narrow being focused just on peak times and they didn't think 3
that was representative of the traffic impacts that they were noticing. 4
5
And then the real tricky one I think is construction impacts. And I don't know if the EIR specifically 6
usually looks at construction impacts, but it's I think it's a very important thing because that can be 7
very overwhelming and we've had lots of complaints and concern about construction impacts 8
especially really long projects. And I think that Commissioner Rosenblum mentioned the a phased 9
total rebuilding of the school. I actually didn't think that was what I read or heard of so maybe that 10
could be clarified also for the public. 11
12
So trees, transportation, traffic, parking, construction, hydrology, land use and planning, I heard 13
people mention a sense of fairness which I believe is the CUP itself and that would be under land use 14
in planning. And a little bit about noise; specifically I heard I've heard a couple people mention the 15
water polo games. I think that if that can be clarified that they'll be less noise from that because the 16
pool is being put underground that would be helpful. And I appreciate a member of the public who 17
really asked for a very detailed geological report on the impacts of putting so much underground in 18
this one location. So I think that, I think that's about it and I think that would result in a in good 19
information for everybody involved. Thanks. 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.
Commissioner Lauing: Thanks to all the comments. We not only have residents here, we are resident 1
experts. So folks like commenting on the geology and the water tables and so on was very, very 2
helpful. I'm not going to repeat all of the fine comments that both my colleagues just made because I 3
actually agree with every single one of them. We might just have a discussion when we're done with 4
our comments here of which one of these you guys are all comfortable in rechecking or additionally 5
checking; for example, the hydrology if that makes sense to add you might be giving us some feedback 6
on that one. 7
8
I guess one alternative that could be considered, but it may be precluded by financing and other 9
considerations is instead of having a six year construction plan maybe do more all at once which would 10
be tougher, but it would get more condensed. So that may be another alternative. Otherwise I won't 11
repeat. Very good. 12
13
Commissioner Gardias: Thank you. I mean first of all thank you very much for coming tonight. Guys I 14
mean this is much better than Goldberg's or World News with David Muir or some other stuff, so just 15
trust me. So and I hope that you're going to come again and we have a next meeting in two weeks 16
and there will be more, more similar items and so thank you very much for your engagement. But I 17
also want to mention here this is significant date to me as well. [Dan Chapman] I know that you're 18
reading your text. I think this is you know besides of this that this is International Day of Women I 19
don't know if you realize, but it's been like 20 years since we did the renovation of the of Castilleja 20
back then when [John] paid for it. So congratulations. 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.
1
There is a couple of comments that I would like to add to this what my colleagues mentioned. I mean 2
first of all there is a [unintelligible] timeline that's in the in the documents. I’d be wondering to see I'd 3
like to see 10 lines, 10 years’ timeline included in these documents to understand the expansion 4
forecasted expansion of Castilleja. So that's number one. 5
6
Number two is that environmental in EIR report I'd like to see a speed, I don't know if it's custom and 7
I'm addressing this to Dudek, if it’s custom to split the significance of different findings on the project 8
itself and operations. I think that they are lumped together today and when I'm looking into some of 9
the geology for example I'm looking I'm finding landslides which I'm not really sure if that relates to 10
the construction of the campus or if it’s going to or if it relates to the operations which I think that 11
there should be no [unintelligible] for operations. It’s just an example, but when you go through a 12
number of the check boxes some of those they don't make sense whatsoever. I can show you after 13
the meeting which I mean in detail, but pretty much there is a blend of those two and pretty much it 14
just hazes the understanding. 15
16
A… another item is that I also thought I would like to also add to the observations of some that were 17
asking about including in the study some campus alternatives, but I will add some other come 18
comment that I think that pretty much CUP is a constraint itself on operations of a school. I believe 19
that it limits it's operations as far as I know a high school and Castilleja is a pretty much example for 20
many other private high schools. It’s a thriving cultural community and I think that pretty much that 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.
CUP with the constraints of hourly operations it just limits this what this institution could be providing 1
to the girls that are studying there. So not because of some other reasons that were mentioned, but I 2
think that pretty much you may be limiting yourself by wanting to be in this location. I would 3
encourage you to maybe expand the campus within the Palo Alto because I think it's a great brand. 4
You fit here naturally and very well, but I find that this is a constraint that if you look at your growth 5
over beyond the five years that's currently in the documents you might find maybe beneficial to a look 6
at some other location somewhere in the neighborhood. 7
8
And then also when I was looking into the alternatives and then CEQA tells us specifically about the 9
ranges of the alternatives that need to be studied. So besides of this of another eventual campus 10
location which may happen, which may not happen alternatives that are currently in the plan they 11
pretty much within one range. They are not within the ranges that CEQA requires. They are within 12
the range of accessing the campus currently from Embarcadero or some other turns from 13
Embarcadero to the campus. There are some other routes that have not been studied on the 14
drawings that are attached and they should be looked into. Like for example, access from Kellogg 15
using maybe partially Embarcadero with the turn to Emerson. Also restoring maybe access from 16
Melville that's being pretty much hidden within the campus plan, but that’s another opportunity. So 17
that may just give you set of other ranges how to disperse the traffic and how to get to the campus 18
without using Embarcadero itself. This exhausts my time. Thank you very much. 19
20
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Thank you, Commissioners. I so there are a few, I'm not going to I think it's almost I 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.
think it's almost impossible to add to the list, but I do think that there are a few things that we could 1
benefit from. For example in as we evaluate the land use and planning impacts I think that readers of 2
this report will benefit from some level of analysis that provides context of how we operate other 3
facilities like this one in this or other parcels like this one in the City. For example I think nearly every 4
single one of our schools, public and private, operate within an R-1 district. There is no school zone 5
and so I think as we approach for example our land use and planning impacts some relevant 6
description of how schools operate within our land use framework would be helpful. I think also to 7
some extent we could benefit from some information regarding let's say our larger schools in the 8
areas growth patterns over the last 50 years. I'd be very interested to know how that growth has been 9
accommodated if it's been there. 10
11
You know the… for all the members in the audience this is the first time I think in the five and a half 12
years I've been on this Commission that we've had in an initial study scoping session on an EIR and the 13
purpose really is so that we get this right. And that there aren't issues that we didn't evaluate and we 14
don't want to be in a position in six months’ time where someone goes well you didn't look at this or 15
you didn't give us an opportunity to suggest that you look at this. In many ways when we identify an 16
impact here there will be a process to identify how to mitigate that impact at a later date. And I think 17
to further sort of our appreciation of the process any amount of context that we can provide in these 18
categories could help. 19
20
And then the other thing I want to mention is with respect to transportation and traffic. And this is I 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.
think this is an impossible question to answer at this point, but I want to suggest that it bears some 1
analysis is: how do we when we consider new construction projects in this City we often talk about 40 2
year, 50 year, 60 year life spans of the of the projects that get built. And how do we evaluate our or 3
the constraints that are placed on our streets and on our neighborhoods with respect to traffic in a, in 4
the framework of a very evolving relationship with the car is essentially what I'm referencing. I it's not 5
so much that kids won't be dropped off, they'll be dropped off. That won't change, they have to find 6
their way from school from home to school, but the very nature of the way the residents commute on 7
a daily basis could change dramatically over the next 10 years with this sort of advent of automated 8
driving and this ongoing discussion that's happening in the marketplace with respect to car sharing. 9
And I'd be surprised if anybody in this room hasn't had a conversation the last year about well, will I 10
need two cars in my family in five years or will we borrow a car 2 hours a day instead of using it 2 11
hours a day and parking it for 22. So I think there's got to be some discussion where we have a 12
alternative analysis of well ok, what does it look like in five years if every resident in the neighborhood 13
has one less car and theoretically no car? There is a car that drives by and they just jump in. This 14
isn’t… I mean I'm not this isn't make believe anymore. This stuff is currently being sort of designed 15
and in this area. 16
17
So I just there's got to be… one speaker talked tonight about this idea of the parking garage and why 18
are we building a parking garage if in 10 years we won't really be parking cars. And this has been an 19
ongoing discussion that we've had about the City’s… I've had discussions with staff about the notion 20
that we're going to build a parking garage on California Avenue that's going to be multiple story, 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.
stories tall and then what happens in 10 years if everybody if cars don't stop moving and they never 1
get parked. Anyway so I’d be really interested in seeing some and I don't know that that's possible, 2
but I think it's worth at least a paragraph saying there is a lot of uncertainty here. And because of that 3
level of uncertainty it's really difficult for at least me as a Commissioner to accept any statement that's 4
just like this is going to be terrible forever because cars are going to be all over the street. It's really 5
hard to accept that premise because of so much uncertainty. 6
7
Ok, so with that I think we've provided, we've done our objective here. A lot of people asked tonight 8
for us to make a decision or to make a recommend something. That's not happening tonight. Tonight 9
it's going back to staff. They will then continue their work on this and it will return and there will be 10
more opportunities to learn about the impacts and have more discussions about many of the things 11
involved here including the CUP and I really would welcome all of you to attend those meetings and I 12
really appreciate all of your feedback. 13
14
Ok so before we start the next session we're going to take a five minute. Let me just add, let me add 15
one more comment. There are two Commissioners that aren’t present tonight and there may be a 16
few more comments and what I would like to do is if any of the Commissioners who aren’t here have 17
important information for staff or other comments you want to make I would encourage anybody to 18
email Amy French. This is the period has been extended to receive comments and I'd encourage all of 19
you to do that if there are things you think still need to be considered in this impact study. Ok, with 20
that I close Agenda Item 2 and we’ll break for five minutes and begin with Agenda Item 3 after the 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.
break. 1
2
Motion: There was no motion made for this item, it was a public meeting only. 3
4
The Commission took a break. 5
6
3. PUBLIC HEARING / QUASI-JUDICIAL. 3877 El Camino Real [14PLN-00464]: 7
Recommendation on Applicant’s Request for Approval of a Site and Design Application 8
to Allow the Demolition of a 5,860 Square Foot Commercial Building and Construction of a 9
new Mixed-Use Project. The Project Includes a Three-Story 35-Foot Tall, 4,027 Square Foot 10
Mixed Use Building and 17 Two-Story (29’-8”) Dwelling Units (Flats and Townhouses). 11
Parking for the Project is Provided in a Basement and Includes 62 Parking spaces. 12
The Project Also Requires a Design Enhancement Exception to be Considered by the 13
City Council. Environmental Assessment: A Mitigated Negative Declaration was circulated 14
on March 6, 2017 and the comment period will end on March 27, 2017. Zoning Districts: 15
CS and RM-30. For More Information, Contact the Project Planner Sheldon Ah Sing at 16
SAhsing@m-group.us 17
18
Chair Alcheck: [Already speaking when recording starts] The… our Commission meeting. There we go. 19
And begin with Agenda Item 3 which is a quasi-judicial public hearing on 3877 El Camino Real. I have if 20
there is anybody that wishes to speak on this item please make sure I have a card from you. Yeah, just 21
a second. Yeah, actually go ahead if you have something to say before we start this item? 22
23
Commissioner Gardias: Sure, yes. I mean because of the because of my spouse, my wife, [head of or 24
sole] source of income, income from EID Architects I have to by law I have to recuse myself from this 25
topic so thank you very much for coming and I have to leave the room. Thank you. 26
27
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Ok, this would be a good time for me to ask if there are any other 28
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.
Commissioners who have to make any disclosures about this item. 1
2
Commissioner Summa: So I did meet with members of the public on this item, two of them including I 3
was very happy to be able to have a conversation with the grandson of the original builder of the 4
building and operator Silvestre & Sons Iron Works. So that was very informative. Thanks. 5
6
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Staff would you kick it off? 7
8
Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: Thank you, Chair. So Sheldon Ah Sing is going to is a Contract Planner 9
for the City and he will be making the presentation on project. 10
11
Sheldon Ah Sing, M Group: Thank you and good evening. I’ll do a PowerPoint presentation. The 12
applicant is also here with their PowerPoint as well. 13
14
So just a little bit about the project, it's located along El Camino Real. It's a three quarter acre site. It 15
does have an interesting L shape to it or a boot shape to it. The existing site has a vacant restaurant 16
building along El Camino Real and then behind it is a surface parking lot that has access also along 17
Curtner Avenue. The proposal is to demolish the existing building, raise the existing parking lot, and 18
other improvements and construct a new mixed-use building along El Camino Real and townhouses 19
behind. 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.
1
Some site characteristics, the subject property includes two zoning districts along El Camino Real. It is 2
the Service Commercial District and then the back side of the property that also fronts Curtner is the 3
multi-family RM-30 District. It is a flat piece of property and surrounding the property is commercial 4
along El Camino Real and also multi-family behind that does correspond with the existing zoning. 5
Mainly there are some low intensity development along El Camino Real, a lot of surface parking lots, 6
one and two-story types of buildings built a while back. 7
8
The project does request and have a number of requests. The one before you this evening is a site and 9
design that is reviewed by this Commission and the City Council. You’ll be making a recommendation 10
to the to City Council. It does also include affordable housing on the site, two units. I'll mention that 11
later more in detail. So you have a density bonus concession and that's allowed by law, by state law 12
also by local ordinance, and they are requesting additional square footage. 13
14
There is architecture review and that's reviewed by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the City 15
Council. The Board will make a recommendation to the City Council in that case as well as there’s a 16
Design Enhancement Exception (DEE) that's reviewed also by the Board and the Council. It is for a 17
deviation from the rear yard setback in the basement, in the parking basement. And that’s a deviation 18
from the 10 foot setback to 6 feet and I’ll also going more detail about that. So the City Council in the 19
end will take the recommendations by the Board and this Commission and make the final decision. 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.
So for the site and design these are just the key issues are and these are just kind of summary of the 1
findings that the Commission would need to make. The construction operation is compatible with the 2
surrounding that's why I kind of have some of these pictures here up from the project plans, but that's 3
in the findings. Consideration of the project not only in the construction that's addressed in the 4
projects’ conditions of approval as well as the mitigation measure and then also compatible with the 5
operation of the site itself being a commercial building with residential as well as residential behind it. 6
And then ensure the desirability of the investment in adjacent areas. You have a lot now that's a vacant 7
building for a long time. This new building will maybe revitalize the area so that's something to 8
consider. And ensure sound principles of environmental design are used with the parking for instance 9
being below ground it does alleviate some of the design above ground more flexibility to provide some 10
open space for the project. And then the project will be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and 11
there are a number of measures, of Comprehensive Plan policies and goals that the project is consistent 12
with and those are in your packet. 13
14
So this is a summary of the site plan itself and you can see on the left side of the slide is El Camino Real 15
then the upper part is Curtner. And the property is that has that unique shape, the L shape. And you 16
can see where there’s the CS zoning designated and then the RM-30 behind it. The site is accessed 17
from El Camino Real one way going down into the garage and then you can come out or you can go in 18
along Curtner Avenue so the idea is when you get out on Curtner you can make that left turn back on to 19
El Camino Real at the signal there at Curtner. 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.
The project does include a mixed-use building along El Camino Real that includes two levels of 1
commercial and then you have six residential flats there in that building. There is also at the ground 2
level some open space components, some areas the plaza areas for gathering and the and then that 3
links sidewalks, walkways over to the residential component which includes five buildings. One of 4
those buildings is a triplex. The others are duplexes, but they're all townhouses in nature. Two stories. 5
6
The basement plan this just shows the parking is below the trash is also a component is below. In this 7
case here you can see the deviation from a 10 foot setback to 6 feet is along the bottom of the slide. So 8
that's the rear setback there. In doing so what that does it allows the site to now have the required 9
backup distance for the drive aisles in that basement area and again that frees up space on top on the 10
surface so without having to provide parking on the surface everything is now provided the parking is 11
provided below and all the setbacks on the top are at a minimum or greater in this instance and then 12
below you won't even really see the reduced setback. 13
14
So this shows a little bit about the massing, the scale of the area. The top photo is taken from the El 15
Camino Real perspective and you can see that yes, that building, the mixed-used building is a larger 16
building comparison to the surrounding, but you have to consider that building does include both 17
commercial and residential so trying to fit all that into that area that's the type of building that you 18
would get. In conversations actually this evening with the adjacent property owner Starbucks 19
unfortunately couldn't hang out as long because of the previous item. He did mention to me that he 20
was proud of the building. It looks it's a very good design. It does allow for their, that side of Starbucks 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.
to have enough visibility. It's a lot better than what was there now. So I’m just kind of relating kind of 1
what, what that gentleman said. 2
3
And then you have the Curtner Avenue side and you can see where the project does provide sufficient 4
setbacks there. It is consistent with some of the massing and height of those multi-family buildings. 5
Just a close up of the mixed-use building; the applicant will go into greater detail about some of the 6
details of it, but it does include some composite wood. You can you can see the plate lines for the 7
commercial are taller that's ideal, that's what you want to see in a mixed-use building and then at the 8
top you see the residential units there and then behind it you have some more residential units, but 9
you're not can't really see at this point. And at the ground level you can see where the project provides 10
a clear entryway as well as has those open space plaza areas to gather. The townhouses are have 11
similar themes in design, but they are different and you can recognize that this is a residential unit 12
versus a mixed-use unit. And then you can see some of the landscaping themes that they have there. 13
14
It’s important to talk about the affordable housing on the site. The Palo Alto zoning code does require 15
15 percent of the amount of units to be provided as affordable housing. In some cases there are whole 16
numbers, some cases you have fractions so they would provide the whole units onsite and a payment 17
of in lieu fee for any fractional number. In this case the project requires 2.7 units so they're providing 2 18
units onsite, 1 unit in the CS zoning district, the mixed-use building in the other unit is in one of the 19
townhouses. And then the payment of the fee would be the balance and that's a requirement there. 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.
Being consistent with state law and the zoning ordinance there is a concession that they are allowed 1
and that is for additional square footage and in this case that amounts to 2,600 square feet (sf) and 2
that's consistent with what the code would allow. There are other incentives such as parking, but the 3
applicant’s not requesting any parking relief for this project. But they do have a surplus of parking. 4
5
Just a little bit about the open space and connectivity. As I mentioned before someone can come on 6
the property from El Camino Real, walk through the plaza area, congregate there, and then they can 7
walk through the balance of the property as well and so there's that mingling and connectivity between 8
the residential component and the mixed-use commercial component. And then there's a couple blow 9
ups there of the actual plaza areas. There's these grassy bound areas where people can gather. Some 10
outdoor seating and then there's a good transition there between the mixed-use and the residential 11
[unintelligible] component. 12
13
As part of the project the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) you guys just had a great 14
discussion about that previously. This project has a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND). That 15
document is out for circulation now and started Monday and it ends March 27th. So there are some 16
potential significant impacts to biological resources. There are mitigation measures in place to take 17
care of those regarding nesting birds and potential roosting bats and those are pretty common 18
mitigation measures that you see on projects. So after review of the project and this document the 19
Commission would recommend adoption and provide any comments necessary on that document. 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.
So just going forward the next steps it would be to complete the environmental document circulation 1
period, the City would respond to any comments that we would receive on those. Then we have the 2
ARB meeting that's on April 6th and they would recommend architecture review as well as 3
recommended DEE and then all that goes forward to the City Council. We don’t have a date yet until 4
after we get past the Board and they would decide on everything: the site and design, architectural 5
review, the design enhancement, and also adopt the MND and the mitigation measures. 6
7
So with that the recommendation is to recommend the City Council adopt the MND and approve all the 8
site and design application to allow the construction of a mixed-use project based upon the findings in 9
the conditions of approval. And that includes my presentation. I’d be happy to answer any questions 10
you may have. Thank you. 11
12
Chair Alcheck: Let me ask staff a quick question. Is do we are we allowing time for the applicant to 13
speak? 14
15
Mr. Lait: Fifteen minutes for the applicant. 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Ok. 18
19
Mr. Lait: I should say up to 15 minutes. 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.
1
Chair Alcheck: Alright, why don’t we have the applicant speak at this time and then the Commissioners 2
if they have questions can address them to staff. 3
4
Stuart Welte, EID Architects: While the presentation is being loaded I can go ahead and address you. 5
My name Stu Welte and in the interest of time I know you've been you've put in quite a long evening 6
already. Appreciate your time for yet one more project this evening and we're proud to bring it 7
forward to you. We've worked for decades here in Palo Alto. Our office is in Palo Alto and we focus as 8
a firm on sustainable zero energy buildings. Our office building as a matter of fact here in Palo Alto is 9
the first zero energy commercial building in Palo Alto. And we're passive certified, etcetera. So we 10
have a lot of first zero energy buildings through the Bay Area. So we tried to bring those kind of 11
qualities to all of the designs that our clients are willing to bring forward. 12
13
On this particular site we have a somewhat of a complex site in that it's in its orientation and its zoning 14
and we've worked very carefully for many years with Planning staff on the project and on determining 15
what is the best fit for a mixed-use project in this neighborhood on this site. With that in mind we… 16
Yeah. I was using the… oh, page up. Ok. Page down. Thank you. So and by the way so I am going to 17
try to just make a brief introduction and then Mark Wommack an architect in our office will provide 18
more detail. And we also have our landscape architect and the owners here if you have questions, 19
specific questions for any particular part of the project. 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.
The we did a very long initial study CEQA review, historical study. We had two historical studies with 1
multiple consultants and worked with the City’s Historical Department to determine whether or not 2
there was any historical significance onsite because we that was a concern that we brought to up from 3
the beginning. And we went so far as to examine even the metal brackets and components and hinges 4
and sort of the some of the little bits of metal work that were onsite and we have all of that cataloged 5
and numbered etcetera. And it was determined through that exhaustive study that none of it was his, 6
had historical significance despite the fact that the [DeSilva] family had started, had lived on the site 7
and worked on that site many, many years ago. But all of that had changed and there's nothing left of 8
significance from their heritage. 9
10
So with that we moved forward with the idea to eliminate that blighted pro, that blighted building and 11
the essentially 100 percent paved parking lot that's there now. And what we would like to provide is 12
underground parking to because the City is very clear that despite the fact that we're in this transition 13
time and we really want to create pedestrian friendly walkable cycling neighborhoods and connectivity 14
through the city which we really try hard to do and foster we also unfortunately are caught in this time 15
frame generation where we also have to provide adequate space for vehicles. And so we do, we 16
provide both. Additionally we work hard to find that mix. We work on a lot of projects strongly with 17
staff and with the clients to develop the right proportion of commercial and residential use for the site 18
because that's that is what makes a site vital. That's what brings vitality and life to a site where people 19
can have the opportunity to provide some of their life daily services very close to where they live. 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.
In addition we're try, we would like to the commercial aspect and the residential aspect on Curtner, but 1
especially the commercial aspect on El Camino to revitalize El Camino a bit, a lot at a time. We are 2
providing a building that welcomes folks into the site. Brings you into a courtyard area and allows for 3
areas to mingle and to interact. To have a quick cup of coffee or to actually sit down and do some work 4
on a laptop. There's places to meet. There’s different types of interfaces there between the public and 5
private to allow those interactions to occur in multiple levels. 6
7
On the affordable standpoint we're trying to keep the units small, smallish. And in order to keep them 8
affordably priced even if they're not technically affordable units and then in addition to that provide 9
the actual affordable units to the low income demographic. And in doing so provide that in a way that 10
allows variety there as well and equal use of the site. So we have each different type of unit is also 11
offered as an affordable unit. By allowing some of it to actually be built onsite and some of it to be 12
provided as an in lieu feed then the allows the City to take those funds congregate them with other 13
funds and use those to provide affordable housing in other areas of the City that they feel is important 14
for even the very low income which often comes with other services as well. 15
16
The in terms of materials and sustainability, green design we will be well above the green rate or green 17
point rating system. We always are. Everything we've done in Palo Alto in fact everything we always 18
do. By the way we won the because of the that effort that we put into sourcing those materials locally 19
and using a good combination of weather resistant, fire resistant, maintenance low maintenance, low 20
water use type of products we actually won the Governor's Award a few years ago for a project that we 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.
did so for sustainability. And that was a highlight in sort of a highlight in our career. We have won 1
several awards, but that was the biggest one. And it was for [unintelligible] just doing those little 2
things. All those little things add up to create a project that really is truly sustainable. So with that I'll 3
go ahead and turn it over to Mark in our office who can provide a little bit more detail about the actual 4
interface between the components of the design. Thank you. 5
6
Mark Wommack, EID Architects: Good Evening. I would like to also make a brief presentation, excuse 7
me, brief presentation here. I'd like to use this time to sort of fill in the gaps in between what you see 8
on the paper to try and give you perhaps a clearer picture of what we're trying to do and where we've 9
been. 10
11
As a Stuart has talked about the existing building, Compadres Restaurant, it closed down in 2008. The 12
site has been vacant since then. The building itself is at the end of its economic life cycle. It's been 13
subjected to a number of renovations over time and is really just not a viable structure anymore. And 14
though sweet we decided that there really was no way to incorporate it into a overall redesign into the 15
property. 16
17
The overall neighborhood itself you can see again here the site in green is multi-family. I think it's 18
important to clarify that because we have had some issues in the past with acceptance of the density of 19
this neighborhood. It's really kind of an unusual pocket of multi-family in a corner of Palo Alto that 20
really has largely just single family homes in it. 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.
1
The site itself is a very challenging site. In addition to this somewhat unusual configuration the really 2
narrow frontage along Curtner which has to be our primary circulation point of ingress and egress at 3
only 60 feet wide that really presents a limited range of options in terms of our ability to design 4
solutions that will allow us to access the site for both automobiles and pedestrians and to build a viable 5
and desirable community. 6
7
The neighborhood itself is a neighborhood in transition. Immediately adjacent to our site on a vacant 8
property there is now a six unit townhome project, a full three stories that is built to the front yard 9
setback and at the maximum height limit. Significantly more massive in bulk than what we're 10
presenting in our plan. Immediately across the street is a project that was developed a few years ago 11
that included six total units of townhomes grouped into two buildings at two stories. 12
13
The site itself as Sheldon was saying is really scaled well to fit within the immediate neighborhood, not 14
really overbearing any of the properties, the comment having been made about it being more intensely 15
developed than the rest of El Camino Real is true, but this is a corner of El Camino that has largely been 16
forgotten in time. There are a lot of buildings like the Quick Lube next door which is in a repurposed 17
post World War II Quonset hut and there's a lot of surface parking which is not really the common, the 18
norm if you will, for El Camino Real in the City and probably not long for existence as demand pushes 19
these properties into higher and better uses. 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.
The I want to take a brief period of time to just quickly go over where we've been on this because an 1
awful lot of effort has been put into this project. Starting back in 2013 working with both Development 2
Review Committee (DRC) and ARB, multiple hearings from both of those groups to reach a point where 3
we're proposing what I think is a really high quality design solution for an incredibly challenging 4
property. The original configuration of the building had a two-story commercial building in the front 5
with a two lane access for the garage down below both inbound and outbound traffic. The site 6
included also two lanes inbound and outbound on Curtner and the idea was is that the commercial 7
parking would be more or less segregated from the residential parking and that the property would 8
then transition into two multi-family townhome buildings configured in the back part of the property. 9
10
We went through several design revisions with in consultation with staff to make changes to the 11
project. The first change was the elimination of the driveway from El Camino Real. There was initially 12
quite a bit of feedback about that not necessarily working well with the way El Camino Real was 13
supposed to function. The building the site plan itself began a process of evolution where we shifted 14
first away from a simply commercial building to the mixed-use project with flats in the front and then 15
an evolution of the units in back breaking down into smaller and smaller masses as we addressed 16
concerns raised by different stakeholders within the City. We ultimately came forward with a design 17
that presented the mixed-use building in the front with a courtyard oriented on the north side of the 18
property and a two-story townhome configuration if you will on top of a podium deck that was raised 19
half a level above grade. The at that time the setback on El Camino, on Curtner was 20 feet. The 20
courtyard was as you can see here was located on the what is actually the southwest corner of El 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.
Camino Real. And we had at that point 10 flats or 8 flats and 10 townhomes. This section which shows 1
the elevation near Curtner shows the townhomes on a podium level that's that strong dashed line, 2
raised half the level above grade. 3
4
We moved forward from that point in time with further comments from staff to reintroduce the 5
driveway on El Camino Real. This was thought to be necessary to really adequately address traffic 6
needs to get in and out of this property. We arrived at a solution where only traffic that would be 7
inbound would use this driveway. All traffic leaving this site would exit on Curtner where they had the 8
advantage of a signal intersection at Curtner and El Camino Real to be able to get back into the flow of 9
traffic on El Camino Real. 10
11
The current site that you're looking at evolved further to include a 65 foot setback on Curtner. Now 12
this is in a neighborhood where almost everybody is at 20 feet. So this represents a significantly 13
greater setback on Curtner than exists on any of the other properties. The orientation of the mixed-use 14
building was reversed to accommodate the driveway access and aligned the public area on the 15
southeast corner. This also was done to address some of the concerns raised by the owner of 16
Starbucks who wanted to make sure that our building didn't block or hide his establishment from view 17
from people moving up and down El Camino Real specifically from traffic coming down from the City 18
center. We arrived at a solution that incorporated 6 flats and 11 townhomes. 19
20
We have I'm going to move quickly here to talk about how the public spaces create generous open 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.
space. Here we're transitioning from Curtner into the common spaces on that area. On the I’ll just pass 1
by that. On the El Camino Real we're using landscape elements to soften the impact of the driveway 2
aisle in. We immediately having done that transition into the public open common open spaces of the 3
project behind that. Landscaping elements are used to make this a really attractive and viable space for 4
the residents to use. The open space weaves its way through the project creating vistas that control 5
your views and create intimate and human scaled areas of the project. And we finish the public open 6
space areas with design elements of both landscaping and hardscape to create that attractive 7
environment. I see my time is up so I'll stop now. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Ok. At this time I'd like to invite the speakers to approach and speak on this item. I 10
would like to limit time to three minutes a speaker. So can Julian Silvestre please come up? 11
12
Julian Silvestre: Hello, thank you for letting me speak. My name is Julian Silvestre, I’m the grandson of 13
Gonzalo Silvestre who built the building known as Compadres, but it's also Silvestre Iron Works. I think 14
there's some misconception that the building has taken on there's been a lot of modifications and it's 15
not the same structure as it was when my grandfather built it in the thirty's, but that's simply not true. 16
17
I grew up in that building and I can tell you that the building is virtually the same on the inside and the 18
outside. There were some metal parts added, some brackets. I guess the person that bought that 19
wanted to turn it into a restaurant and asked my grandfather to make some added brackets for to 20
make it look a little bit better, but the floor, the adobe building itself, and all the everything else in 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.
there is virtually the same. There's also a mural on one of the walls that was painted by I'm not sure 1
what the name of the artist is, but my grandfather worked with countless architects and famous people 2
back in the day. And I don't know who painted it, but I know that it's covered by paint in there so that 3
might be something that could be looked into. And I just ask the Council that they take another look at 4
this property and its historic value to the City of Palo Alto and its significance to the history. So thank 5
you very much. Appreciate it. 6
7
Chair Alcheck: Ok our next speaker will be Winter Dellenbach. 8
9
Winter Dellenbach: My name is Winter Dellenbach. Hi, I live in Barron Park. This needs to go to the 10
Historic Resources Board (HRB). You put all of those up the ARB, the City Council, and all that, [uh-uh]. 11
There is an extremely inadequate four page letter from an architect saying that this doesn't, is a not a 12
historic resource. I have been involved with saving the Varsity Theatre which was slated for demolition 13
and I tried very hard to save the Park Theater in Menlo Park from demolition. Lost that one partially 14
with the Varsity Theater lost the film use, but it could return to that. 15
16
I know something about reports for establishing historic resources. They're usually 100 page, 200 17
pages long. This is four pages long. The criteria, the City criteria was set out and then pretty much 18
everything about the Compadres, the Iron Works were then ignored. Silvestre’s iron work is seen in the 19
downtown commercial district in the signature works that makes a great downtown historic district 20
what it is in the Spanish revival buildings down there. It's all over the place and of course is in Menlo 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.
Park in the Allied Arts buildings because the very famous artist and architect Pedro de Lemos came to 1
Silvestre and had commissioned all of that work. And if you don't know who Pedro de Lemos is he lived 2
and died in Palo Alto. He was himself extremely famous and you should Google him and his longtime 3
association with Silvestre’s is part of the reason that this building is significant. 4
5
It is also it's not even mentioned in this report, this inadequate report, that there are actual adobe walls 6
there. These are probably the only adobe walls left in Palo Alto. We lost the Juana Briones House of 7
course. It doesn't even mention this which is probably a very good indication of how inadequate this 8
report is. There's also board and bat construction, it doesn't mention that. It's very rare to have that 9
surviving in Palo Alto at this point. We have heard from the grandson that the that most of the building 10
actually is intact. The mural by the way his grandmother would talk of his association with Diego Rivera 11
which is I know it seems wild, but Diego Rivera was in the Bay Area of course and the style of the mural 12
sounds like something that Rivera [may have is this] needs to go to the ARB, CEQA demands it. This is 13
not discretionary under CEQA. The ARB must establish if this building is a historic resource or not and if 14
this historic evaluation this little four page thing has is valid or not. 15
16
And I want to say one last thing is that I live in Barron Park and in South Palo Alto we don't have that 17
much historic buildings because of the way our City evolved most of it's in North Palo Alto, not all. And 18
in Barron Park this is on El Camino the King's Highway this is his, it very likely a historic resource and we 19
do not take lightly in Barron Park and in the Ventura neighborhood that this City is going to take short 20
cuts I'm not going to go to the HRB and take one of the our few historic buildings and just going to 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.
demolish it. We are offended. And we want this to go to the HRB. 1
2
Chair Alcheck: Ok our next speaker is Bob Moss. 3
4
Bob Moss: Thank you Chairman Alcheck and Commissioners. I agree that the building has historic 5
validity whether it's historic enough to be preserved or not I'm not going to try to guess. I think the 6
HRB should make that a decision. So that's one of the issues I think has to be handled appropriately not 7
just dismissed. 8
9
Now as far as the proposed design is concerned I think it needs some modifications. It's better than 10
some of the things I've seen proposed for the site before, but I'd like to see at least a two or three foot 11
deeper setback along El Camino and more landscaping along there. We're trying to improve the 12
appearance of El Camino and one of the things that we're looking for is improved landscaping. And I 13
think the landscaping that’s proposed for this site in general is inadequate. 14
15
Second if the building is moved back then the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) should be reduced 16
proportionately. Don't just preserve it. We're trying to get the site to look good and the building to be 17
appropriately sized and losing a few dozen square feet of FAR in order to set back far enough from El 18
Camino isn't the big game impact or a significant problem for the developer. Shouldn’t be. 19
20
I think the open space on the site also should be improved. It should be larger. What they've got 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.
doesn't look like it's going to be enough so people are actually going to want to use it. 1
2
And finally I think that it's important the ground floor retail be retail not offices. And if possible I would 3
like to see something imposed on the development approval that severely fines anybody who violates 4
the retail use of the ground floor and allows it to be used for offices. We've had too much of that along 5
El Camino already in sites which are supposed to be retail only. And when I ask the staff what's going 6
on they say well, we're looking into it. Well they’ve been looking into it for months and nothing has 7
happened. So let's stop it from happening to begin with. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Thank you. Our next speaker is going to be Dorothy Bender. 10
11
Dorothy Bender: Hello, my name is Dorothy Bender and when I step outside of my house I can see 12
Compadres. I've lived in my house for 40 years. I had my retirement party at Compadres a few months 13
before it closed. I am so hoping that we have a community as Bob said something for our community 14
on El Camino Real. 15
16
On December 19, 2013, I spoke before the ARB when this item was first proposed and I mentioned a 17
couple of the Comp Plan points that I hope will be taken into consideration. Program L33 of the Comp 18
Plan discusses South El Camino. It suggests some design interventions to give a more coherent image 19
to the street. Note that to the left side of Compadres is Nine Minute Oil so it's not a beautiful, it's not a 20
beautiful place. I know Starbucks is there, but we too bad that Nine Minute Oil is there. 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.
1
Two-story structures with retail oriented street frontage and rear parking should be encouraged. 2
Improvements should be focused on retail nodes. Council acknowledged that retail services play a vital 3
role in the livability of Palo Alto. Diverse retail services spread throughout the city are as essential, are 4
an essential element in providing residents with shopping convenience. 5
6
On March 16, 2014, I met with the Silvestre family. Many of them were there including Julian and we 7
discussed the Compadre’s site. The family believes the structure is built of adobe with dirt from the 8
Stanford Hills. The structure originally housed a blacksmith shop and display room. The main rooms 9
are modified, but still reflect their original form. The raised area in front of the shop was for customers 10
to admiring, to admire the offerings even when the shop was closed. The wall over the brick reportedly 11
once displayed a fresco by Rubio which has been painted over. An announcement in the San Jose 12
Evening News on Wednesday November 20, 1940, describes an exhibit of frescoes by the Mexican 13
artist Arnaldo Rubio to be held at 3877 El Camino for national artwork. 14
15
Finally I'm curious that we are, that this item has come before the Planning Commission before the 16
ARB. The ARB had many, many instructions on the design and somehow something has been skipped. 17
I don't understand it, but I see that April 6, 2017, there will be an ARB meeting. 18
19
We're talking about a underground garage and I'm concerned about water tables and perhaps we 20
should have a geological study of the impacts of building that underground garage. I know we're very 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.
close to the flood zone in that part of Baron Park. My house is not in the flood zone, but four houses 1
away is the flood zone and four houses and then we get to El Camino and then we get to Compadres. 2
Thank you. 3
4
Chair Alcheck: Our next speaker is Greg Gatwood. 5
6
Greg Gatwood: Good evening. I was wondering if it was possible to bring up a site plan of this 7
proposed structure? I’m here because well, for selfish reasons. I live at 399 Curtner which is a single 8
family residence right next to Compadres and the parking lot comes on two sides of our house. And I 9
just really didn't see any mention of our structure. It kind of lumped into the multi-family units and the 10
apartments. The three story high six unit structure at 405 Curtner which is in the process of being built 11
now was mentioned. It’s a three story structure and our house is between that and the this proposed 12
building. Gabriel Court almost across the street from us, across the street from this structure as 13
mentioned and I'm not sure if the description of this neighborhood or the street as one in transition is 14
accurate because three or 405 Curtner I think is a first building. I take that back. Gabriel Court I think is 15
the first new building in that street and I don't know how many years. 405 was a second one and so I 16
don't see a lot of transition. Maybe I'm misinterpreting this. 17
18
And I’m also wondering how we are going to be impacted by the traffic. I notice there is an in and out 19
access through the Curtner basement and I’m just kind of wondering what’s going to happen to 20
Curtner? Already the traffic backs up a little bit exiting on El Camino from Curtner and with 62 more 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.
parking spaces that have to exit on Curtner where are they all going to go especially if they're leaving at 1
the same time. The entrance going into the parking lot downstairs part of El Camino looks like it will be 2
backing up one lane of El Camino because it is such a sharp turn I think you would have to almost come 3
to a complete stop before turning right into this parking lot area. I’m just wondering have traffic 4
reports been done? Am I questioning this at the right time? Should I come back on April 6th and ask 5
about it, but I think maybe now's the time to ask these questions. Retail or office, I hope that's 6
addressed well. 7
8
Just for the record Nine Minute Oil and Lube is not a Quonset hut. It is a metal building that looks 9
similar to a Quonset hut, but maybe the ARB will... I did not know it was a historic building. This 10
building [unintelligible] your grandfather built and very nice. I think that’s all I have to say. Thank you. 11
12
Chair Alcheck: Ok, our next speaker is Judy Gittelsohn. 13
14
Judy Gittelsohn: Hi, good evening Council, Commissioners. Thank you. I live together with Greg in the 15
single family house that is going to be wrapped around by this new project. And I support going to the 16
HRB and looking into Compadres. We've been in the building and it's a beautiful building so I just want 17
to underscore that. 18
19
My two big concerns are the exiting traffic on Curtner. Right now Curtner is becoming much more high 20
density than it was when we first moved there. And the single, the street is so narrow as has been 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.
indicated, but leaving Curtner going to El Camino waiting for the stoplight that's very slow I'm not sure 1
if that's changeable the cars are backed up beyond our driveway trying to get out of El Camino. So if 2
you have cars exiting from a commercial project 60 some cars are all exiting on Cutner that is just 3
unreasonable that they could possibly even take a left at that juncture. 4
5
The other thing that I want to point out and I don't know if this has any bearing, but there's a beautiful 6
fan palm in the southeast corner of the property and I just want to regard that. I feel that this project is 7
really overbuilt for even with the considerations that I appreciate that they've made. It is just with the 8
commercial coming out of Cutner and with the number of units in there it's just a little too high density 9
for the location and I hope as well that they consider backing up the retail and giving El Camino a little 10
more frontage. When we walk which is pretty much every day in front of the Nine Minute Oil and Lube 11
invariably someone is exiting Starbucks and almost hits us. So the exit of the Starbucks drive through 12
and the entrance from into this new project just looks like it's going to have an accident every five 13
seconds going in there and it is as Greg said a very sharp turn. Thank you. 14
15
Chair Alcheck: Ok. That was our last speaker. Oh, right. The applicant has what is it, five minutes? 16
17
Mr. Welte: Thank you very much. So the it has been a long process. It's been many years as was 18
mentioned. There have been exhaustive historical studies done and we have worked with the City's 19
Historical Department and Historical Manager Matthew on staff. We've worked with several different 20
historical consultants and everyone has determined that there is no historical mural. There is no 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.
historical actual Adobe in this building. So there is a, there is a difference of opinion there, but the 1
people who are the historical consultants who do this for a living say that the building is not historical 2
and we believe them because from our experience as architects we have been around a lot of Adobe 3
structures as well and this is not Adobe. It’s concretious cementitious materials. 4
5
The setbacks that we are required to have along El Camino Real are complex. There's a certain 6
proportion of the building that is required by the El Camino Design Guidelines to be within a certain 7
proximity of the street and then other portions which are preferred to be set back and we are meeting 8
those guidelines. We have set the building back even further and we've actually begged staff to allow 9
us to do so. So we have set the building back further than what normally is allowed. Along Curtner 10
we've set the building back vastly more than anybody on the street and that is very evident in this site 11
plan here. The little building that they're speaking of, the little single family home is actually more 12
forward and closer to the street than our building. So we have, we created a much larger interface 13
there between the street and the and the entrance to our building partly to foster this idea of cycle, 14
cycling, walking meeting each other at the mailbox, all those kind of things. See, little seats are there. 15
The bicycle storage is made so that when you get to your front door you have a bicycle storage closet 16
right at your door. So it makes it very easy to cycle, etcetera. 17
18
Mark did you have any other items to add to that? But we have been, we have been very careful. We 19
have been working very hard to address ARB. Oh, we have been to ARB twice as a matter of fact. 20
We've been to ARB twice and with and part of the progress and through the ARB comments was that 21
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
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originally as we mentioned we had a building with an entrance on El Camino and then the ARB 1
suggested maybe that wasn't the best thing so we took it off. And then we came back with that and 2
then ARB said well, we need an entrance at El Camino. So we put the entrance back on and so we've 3
been trying to keep up with the what's right and what's wrong and instill our experience and our design 4
ability into the project. 5
6
I think the key is that the this part of El Camino really wants to be revitalized. It really could be a 7
wonderful part of the City and it has begun a bit, but it is it has been lacking attention for many 8
decades. And that is evident in the inability to really come up with a clear description for instance of 9
the buildings on this street. Most of the building facades along the street are have been [kip] bashed 10
basically through decades and they're almost indescribable except to say that they are they incorporate 11
elements of sort of the will of the person who happened to be building it at the time and whatever 12
addition they wanted to add on to it that day. So that's sort of what this portion of El Camino is. So the 13
to foster… El Camino Real is complex. It wants to be a business thoroughfare; it also wants to be a 14
retail corridor. We have… and they want us to foster somehow we want to bring back that walkability, 15
pedestrian ability to meet each other, to congregate, to have multiple sizes of congregation spaces and 16
meeting spaces, lounging, business, etcetera. And that's what we're providing. And this would be a 17
way to do that. 18
19
The ground floor is retail and the upper floor is commercial as well and then the units are tucked at the 20
very top and then behind. And so and then we transition that public community space the El Camino 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.
thoroughfare walkable corridor with the commercial open space which then transitions to the private, 1
one of the private congregation open spaces and then transitions to the site from there. So we have 2
this transitional architectural space that we're creating. Thank you. 3
4
Chair Alcheck: Ok, thank you. I know it's late, but bear with us. I really appreciate the comments that 5
were provided. I know that you, some of you have been here for a very long time tonight. And what I 6
would like to do is give our Commissioners an opportunity to ask staff and questions and make 7
comments on what's before us. So I think at this time I need to close the hearing, the public hearing, 8
excuse me, and why don't you kick us off? Ok, I can kick us off. 9
10
I have a few questions for you. Let's talk about process real quick. And maybe Deputy Attorney Albert 11
Yang can answer this or Assistant Director Jonathan Lait… is it, should we be having a discussion tonight 12
about historical significance of this site? Is that, is there is that process going to happen at a 13
subsequent sort of review or is it within our site and design review? 14
15
Mr. Lait: Yeah I would say that you can certainly have that dialogue about the historic preservation. 16
That you're making a recommendation on a project that is a discretionary application. It's we've done 17
some environmental analysis; part of that environmental analysis is the historic conclusions that we've 18
made. We can talk about that. So yeah, I'd say that's within your realm to consider that. I will also 19
note that it will go to the ARB and then they’ll also have that opportunity. It’ll also go to the City 20
Council and they’ll also have that opportunity. 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.
1
Chair Alcheck: I guess my question is outside of your recommendation on this the historical significance 2
on what sort of expertise are we supposed to evaluate this? 3
4
Mr. Lait: Right. 5
6
Chair Alcheck: We don't typically get involved in those sorts of determinations and aside from your 7
conclusion how do we address some of these comments? 8
9
Mr. Lait: So thank you for that. And I think if the Commission believe that there was some kind of flaw 10
in the analysis, understanding you don't have the specific expertise in that, but I mean you're familiar 11
with data analysis, collection, report writing, and the conclusions. I mean that we can talk about how 12
we got to our conclusion and if you thought (interrupted) 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Yeah, why don’t we do that? 15
16
Mr. Lait: [Unintelligible] faulty process we can that's probably warrants a discussion and so I'll turn that 17
over to Katherine in just a moment, but I will say that the applicant I think initially prepared a historic 18
analysis for the project site. It is one that was peer reviewed by our historian, our staff historian. I 19
think there were several iterations of that review. We I don't know that we got to a place where we 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.
were we thought that was conclusive or not. I don't remember because it was a while back, but I do 1
know that Dudek our environmental consultant had done its own peer review. So we had a report that 2
was prepared by the applicant, peer reviewed by our staff, and also reviewed by Dudek and the 3
conclusions on that review were such that this particular property did not, was not of any historic 4
significance. 5
6
And I’ll note that because it came up in the public testimony about the HRB the HRB really does not 7
have a role in this, in the processing of this application. A site and design application such as this the 8
process is to come to the Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC) first with conceptual plans 9
and if the if the PTC thinks that the project is heading in the right direction you make a 10
recommendation and forward that on to Council, but along the way the project would go to the ARB 11
and they would look at the things that they focus in on. And then it would go to the City Council. HRB 12
gets involved when there are buildings of I forget the exact terminology like a significant building. And 13
a significant building is a defined term in the code and it speaks to certain properties Downtown or 14
elsewhere in the City that are Category 1 or Category 2 buildings. These are really significant buildings. 15
This particular building did not rise to that level certainly and we're saying it fell short of even 16
consideration of significance. That it does not have an historic significance. So if you want we can dig a 17
little more deeply into that, but (interrupted) 18
19
Chair Alcheck: No, no. 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.
Mr. Lait: That’s sort of the process that we went through. 1
2
Chair Alcheck: I think that's probably sufficient for me. If other Commissions have questions about it I 3
just had one more sort of question about this area which is: is this the typical process? If someone was 4
going to apply for a project on a specific site that had a building this old would they typically submit 5
their own sort of peer review document and is this essentially how we process all such? 6
7
Mr. Lait: It's how we… so yes and no. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: There had to be a determination that it's not significant and I'm just trying to 10
(interrupted) 11
12
Mr. Lait: Right. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Understand if it went through your typical process of making that determination. 15
16
Mr. Lait: It did and I will note that there like many things over the last couple of years our Department 17
has been trying to make some improvements to our process, the application of our code, because 18
we've heard some of the criticisms from the community and from the Council about how we how 19
business has been conducted. So after this, since this application’s been filed today if the application 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.
came in we would not accept an applicant prepared historic report, we would consult with our 1
consultants and we would prepare that report. There's pros and cons for doing that, but we're basically 2
preparing all of the technical reports now. That said, sure. Thank you. 3
4
Katherine Waugh, Dudek: Again, Katherine Waugh again with Dudek. We actually did, Dudek’s 5
architectural historian prepared a brand new report for this project because the applicants submittal 6
was not adequate, didn't go into the level of detail and the background research that's necessary to 7
adequately evaluate whether a building is eligible for listing on the California Register, the National 8
Register, or subject to the City's standards. So we do have a 50 page report that goes in some detail 9
through all the of those findings and it's an appendix to the initial study. 10
11
Chair Alcheck: Ok. And the conclusion though is (interrupted) 12
13
Mr. Lait: Not a significant resource. 14
15
Chair Alcheck: Not a significant… Ok, I'm satisfied with that. I will allow my Commissioners to ask you 16
other questions about it. Before we jump to whoever would like to speak next can you just tell me the 17
timeline here because I want to understand when this project first came to the City. 18
19
Mr. Lait: So Sheldon can probably get some of the more precise dates. I recall the application coming in 20
in 2014. Ok, and there was a prelim before the ARB I understand now in 2013. So it's been going 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.
through a process and I think there's probably been a number of reasons for various delays and 1
iterations some perhaps on behalf of the City, some perhaps on just waiting for revised plans to come 2
in, and on the applicant’s side. I don't have a full chronology of the events though. 3
4
Chair Alcheck: Ok, no I'm just trying to get a sense for whether there's a sense that anything here was 5
not given adequate time for review and it sounds like there's been in the exceptionally long amount of 6
[unintelligible]. I’m just I was just trying to assess whether or not any part of this was rushed. Ok. 7
Those are all my questions. I want to give you guys an opportunity to make questions and comments. 8
So go ahead. 9
10
Commissioner Summa: So I have to say that I was kind of aware of this project several years ago. I was 11
at the prelim meeting and our staff report says that was the only meeting that this had so far. Am I to 12
understand it actually had official ARB review another time and that was just an error? 13
14
Mr. Ah Sing: I believe there was another subsequent meeting, a formal ARB meeting. 15
16
Commissioner Summa: Ok. So could you get the date on that? I would have been interested in also 17
consulting that. I went back and watched the original prelim and like I said I think I was at that prelim 18
for one reason or another and I remember reading the initial historic review and finding it very lacking. 19
So I read this one which is from Archives In Architecture, but is this the original one? 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.
Mr. Ah Sing: Yes. 1
2
Commissioner Summa: I think this might be a second one. 3
4
Mr. Ah Sing: That would be the first one. The one that is associated with Dudek is a part of the 5
appendices of the environmental document. It's being circulated now. So (interrupted) 6
7
Commissioner Summa: And did we have access to that in our packet? Because… 8
9
Mr. Ah Sing: So I did just check the website. It looks like some of the links aren't updated with the most 10
current. So can, we can fix that for sure during the circulation period that we have. 11
12
Commissioner Summa: Ok, but I am concerned about the materials that I had for review for this 13
meeting then. And based on so I want to preface this with saying that I understand very much that this 14
has been kicking around for a while and it's very difficult site, but based on this architectural review I 15
spent a lot of time researching the building and going and looking at it. And I consulted a well-known 16
architect who at least part of that building is Adobe. The reason I believe this building was passed over 17
for architectural significance was because of the time of the Dames & Moore study it was not quite yet 18
50 years old. So no building under 50 years old would have been considered at that time. It's now 78 19
years old. It is probably from my research which I wish I'd had the Moore, the Dudek document over 20
the weekend because I spent a lot of time on this. Because the more I looked into it the more I was 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.
remarkably moved by its historic significance. 1
2
This is a building, this is a type of use that was once very common in this area and is iconic actually to 3
one of the most important architectures in the area which is Spanish Revival. I mean you look out at 4
the Ramona Historic District and Mr. Silvestre’s work is all over it. Pedro de Lemos chose him to do all 5
the work at Allied Arts. This, his work is all over; he worked at Stanford Hospital, he worked with Birge 6
Clark, he worked with Stedman. It is at least partially an original Adobe building. Like I said I it's such 7
an old this part of Palo Alto was annexed so late into the City that this was likely to be the first structure 8
on this site. The picture in the photograph from the Palo Alto Historical Society which is the only 9
photograph they have shows the original wall sign that was painted on the exterior building which is 10
still there which is a large red arrow that says “Iron Works.” I mean in terms of historic significance I 11
don't think it gets much more important than that. 12
13
And if this is truly, obviously I'm not an expert, but I'm here on this you're entrusting me to look at 14
these things and I think this could be a terrible mistake. And I'm sorry that it hasn't been caught earlier 15
in the process for the applicant, but I think we need to have HRB review of this and I think we need to 16
have more public discussion about this so that more people can be made aware of this and involved. I 17
can't emphasize the potential importance of this building strongly enough. And it is in its original state I 18
believe as far as the exterior of the building. I have no idea what's in the inside because this report only 19
spends almost less than one page on the actual building. It goes into a lot of general history and 20
background about the area so I would I don't know if all my colleagues share the interest in historic 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.
structures that I do personally, but I think we all have a responsibility to maintain them as a very 1
important resource for everyone in Palo Alto. So I would recommend that we reconsider the historic 2
status of this building at this time. And I have other comments, but I'll leave it at that for now. 3
4
Chair Alcheck: Ok, here's what I'm going to suggest we do. I'm not comfortable with relying on… I’m 5
not comfortable relying on the assertion that you're making simply because I feel like we have to trust 6
the process by which our City follows. And I can certainly appreciate that the 50 page report that our 7
staff mentioned tonight you didn't get a chance to review, but I don't want us to ignore its existence. 8
And so I appreciate that you feel that this other study which is the first one is sort of inadequate, but 9
there is a second far more in-depth study. And while we don't have it or while you may have not had 10
an opportunity to review it I don't want to ignore its conclusion. What I would like to suggest we do is 11
perform a site and design review on this item and at the conclusion of that review we can entertain a 12
discussion about making a recommendation that the City Council review the historical significance of 13
this site again. But the notion that we would essentially dispute the experts in the room and their 14
conclusion on an area that we typically don't have any sort of expertise and oversight is I'm 15
uncomfortable with that. 16
17
So what I would like to do is review this project as if this building was not significant as concluded by 18
our experts. And at the conclusion of that review and sort of looking at the findings that we need to 19
make let's entertain it, we can entertain a discussion and we can see if other Commissioners sort of 20
share your concern that maybe some secondary analysis needs to take place. And I'll ask for one point 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.
of clarification which is let's assume for a minute that I don't, it's my impression that we can't direct this 1
application to the HRB, but that may not be accurate. And I don't know on what grounds we would 2
because I don't know that we can, right but… no it doesn't it go to the HRB. It only goes to the HRB if it 3
has a specific legal designation and at this time it doesn't have that designation and so there is no at no 4
point in this process would it go to the HRB. My question is: is can a Planning Commission make... drive 5
this to the, can we make that designation and push it to the HRB? That's one question. And second 6
question is: in an effort to avoid that very unique scenario could we entertain a discussion after we 7
review this from a site design perspective that would recommend that Council consider whether or not 8
to have the HRB review it? 9
10
Mr. Lait: Ok, yes. So there, so you definitely could do the latter. You could make a recommendation to 11
the City Council saying that you would like them to pay particular attention to the historic analysis that 12
you have some concerns about the findings and the conclusions and you make a recommendation that 13
they send it to the HRB. I believe that they might have that authority if they felt that that was 14
necessary. I don't believe that the Planning Commission has the authority to direct this project to the 15
HRB. It's not set forth in the code. And so I think that answers your question (interrupted) 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Yeah that does answer my question and I'm comfortable with that and I think we should 18
be comfortable with that. My hope tonight is that we can do a site and design review of this project 19
and on the assumption that it doesn't have any historical significance and give City Council the 20
opportunity to have that review recommendation with them so that if they choose to the same… if they 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.
make the same determination that the experts have made and decide not to sort of provide, give this 1
site any historical significance worthy of reconsideration then they had least can move on with our 2
recommendation. So I'm what I'm essentially trying to do is move this project along with the review 3
that I think we are capable of providing and we can make that recommendation at the end if there's a 4
majority in favor of it that would ask Council to consider the historical significance. 5
6
Mr. Lait: Right. Can I just offer one other (interrupted) 7
8
Chair Alcheck: Yeah, go ahead. 9
10
Mr. Lait: Ok, thank you. So I think a dialogue even though you may not be experts on historic 11
preservation I don't think that prevents you from having a conversation or dialogue about it. But I will 12
say that we've just released this environmental document this MND. It's open for public review. We 13
are in the public comment period now. This is the kind of feedback that we would like to get from the 14
Commission and also from the public and so the public comment period ends on March 27th and so we 15
will be taking those comments in and looking at that. 16
17
Now I do think that unfortunately we did not provide the historic information that you needed in terms 18
of the links on the website. I guess we just found out that that was not available. So I first apologize for 19
that. We we’ll make sure that we've got all that information available for the Commission and the 20
public when these things are getting published. That’s important that information be available. So 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.
again I apologize. I think that you may find that if you take the time to look at that document which is 1
50 pages that perhaps some of the questions that you had by reading the short report may be 2
answered. And in fact I don't believe that there's a conclusion in the Dudek analysis that the project 3
does not have any, it was not any portion of it, I don't believe the conclusion is that it was not made out 4
of Adobe or that some elements of the building are still there and have some elements of Adobe. What 5
we’re saying is that I maybe not getting the terms accurate, but the integrity of that structure has been 6
compromised over years of remodeling and additions and so forth that it's lost its historic significance. 7
And so but I think the comment is a good comment and we have the note and we’ll look at that and see 8
if it's not fully addressed in the analysis. 9
10
Chair Alcheck: Let me just ask a process question which maybe some of the other Commissioners would 11
be interested in which is during this open comment period and analysis the historical significance is 12
continuing to be reviewed and then who would essentially review that I guess those findings or 13
responses at the end of your comment period? When does that, who come, where does it go before? 14
15
Mr. Lait: So staff will look, staff will review the comments that we receive on the document and we will 16
check the document to see if it requires any kind of change or alteration. If we feel like the document 17
sufficiently addresses that then we won't make any change. The decision making body is the City 18
Council. They are the ones ultimately who will decide whether the historic conclusions are adequate 19
and whether they can support the environmental analysis. 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.
Chair Alcheck: Ok, so here's what I'm suggesting. I'm not suggesting that this commentary isn't 1
valuable. What I'm suggesting is that I don't want it to derail our process. I would like us, it sounds like 2
staff appreciates your concerns and what I would absolutely would like to know is whether or not other 3
Commissioners share those concerns because that is relevant as well. But I would like to do conduct a 4
site and design review on this site that essentially operates on the premise that the conclusion that 5
Dudek made was correct so that we don't have to essentially have a process where we send this out 6
which I don't even know that we can to any HRB, but I don't want to have it go to Council where they 7
say no we don't agree with your finding and then they send it back here and we have to have design 8
and review again. I'd rather them decide if there is a recommendation here to have a historical 9
significance review that they at least have all the information. So with that would anybody like to sort 10
of kick us off on our site and design review? 11
12
Commissioner Summa: I would. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: Ok, go ahead. 15
16
Commissioner Summa: So just so you know my reading site and design review would definitely include 17
C. and D., it would definitely include historic significance. It's in the historic significance saving buildings 18
is in the Comp Plan so it is part of site and design review in my opinion, but I can speak to other aspects 19
of the project first and then we can go back to my concerns about historic Adobe building. 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.
So I also have well this is a question I guess for staff. So and it’s a question about the concession. So I 1
understand the state law so they didn't want a density bonus they wanted a concession to get extra 2
square footage, is that correct? And there are findings that are supposed to be made for being 3
consistent with the state density bonus law. Are those findings that staff makes or that we're supposed 4
to make? 5
6
Mr. Lait: I don’t know that there is any findings of fact like you have a finding of fact for site and design. 7
If they meet a certain criteria or… yeah, if they meet criteria, the thresholds, then they are eligible for 8
bonuses or concessions. And… 9
10
Commissioner Summa: Ok. So they are required on the site to have two Below Market Rate (BMR) 11
units. Is that correct? 12
13
Mr. Lait: Yes, based on the 17 units that are being provided based on the City's threshold it's a 2.7 14
(interrupted) 15
16
Commissioner Summa: Correct and they’re paying the percentage the 0.7 in in lieu fees. So they're 17
providing two. So if they're required what I didn't understand and you can just explain this to me 18
quickly and I'll move on. What I didn't understand is if they're required to have two BMR units why 19
they also qualify for a concession that gives them extra square footage. 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.
Mr. Lait: Ok. I'll try to explain that the best I can. So our local ordinance, excuse me, our local 1
ordinance establishes the requirement for onsite affordable housing units and the number that ends up 2
being provided in this development is two. And so 2 divided by the 17 that are provided results in 3
some eleven percent of the units being available to deed restrict it lower or moderate income. State 4
law provides that if you provide 10 percent of your housing project to deed restrict it to moderate level 5
income you're entitled to one concession. And our local zoning code has a menu of concessions that a 6
developer could take advantage of; one of them is the one that they've asked for which is the floor area 7
to provide for the housing, the affordable housing units. 8
9
Commissioner Summa: Ok. So the answer to that is they've… Ok, I think I understand that. 10
11
Mr. Lait: Yeah in meeting our local standard they’re automatically going to be eligible for some kind of a 12
bonus under state density bonus law. 13
14
Commissioner Summa: Ok. I also had a question about the parking and the parking for the retail I think 15
limits the use to… it couldn't be a restaurant. It has to be a shop because a restaurant has a higher 16
parking ratio. Is that correct? 17
18
Mr. Lait: Restaurant has a ratio and I may need some help on this of like 1:65 for the eating, eating 19
area. The balance of the space is 1:200. Yeah, it's got a… it's got a more intense parking requirement 20
than a typical retail. 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.
1
Commissioner Summa: So this would have to be a? 2
3
Mr. Lait: Retail store not a restaurant. 4
5
Commissioner Summa: Yes. And it was somewhat confusing about the upstairs, the upstairs 6
commercial space. Is that actually retail or office or are they going to decide? 7
8
Mr. Ah Sing: So the way it's parked it's retail and that's the way it’s labeled in the plans; however, it 9
could be office. Office has a lower parking ratio. 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Ok. 12
13
Mr. Ah Sing: So it would have to depend on the market. 14
15
Commissioner Summa: I also had a typical site and design question so that the refuse containers are 16
underground for both the commercial and the residential. How are those going to be accessed by the 17
trucks, garbage trucks and whatnot? Will they be brought up to the surface or because it's pretty tight 18
site. 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.
Mr. Ah Sing: Yeah it’s typical that the bins be brought up to the street level to be serviced. 1
2
Commissioner Summa: So it seems like there's room on Curtner for that, but I don't understand quite 3
how that would happen on El Camino where there would be service. That's just an observation. Let’s 4
see… Parking. And other than that I had a concern about two of the members of the public that lived in 5
the house that was kind of landlocked by this construction and the other new construction and their 6
concern about cars pulling out onto El Camino, no cars going in on to El Camino because they only go in 7
and a concern that there would be a backup there. And I would like to point out that there's already a 8
backup there frequently from the Starbucks because it's a drive through Starbucks. And there's often a 9
backup like around the next cross street to El Camino which is Ventura. So I think those traffic things 10
should be, those traffic considerations should be looked at pretty carefully given that the Jiffy Lube has 11
cars pulling out, this is going to have cars going in, and on the other side of it there's cars going in and 12
out and often backing up across Ventura along El Camino. So I think that should be looked at very 13
carefully. 14
15
And I think the concerns of the people living in that single family home should also be taken pretty 16
seriously because I think they're being pretty impacted. And I have actually made two visits to the site 17
so I've been there a lot over the weekend. And I have noticed that about the Starbucks backing up at 18
other times. So I'm not sure what the solution is that just bringing that to your attention. And I'll leave 19
it at that until for now. 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.
Commissioner Rosenblum: Yeah, I wanted to ask questions about the variance that's being asked for on 1
the basement setback. What is the reason for a basement setback? So what is it, what are the possible 2
negative consequences of violating the 10 foot setback in a basement? I understand it much more 3
where visible at ground level, privacy considerations and having a buffer, but what is the reason to have 4
a basement setback? 5
6
Mr. Ah Sing: I think one of the things is to consider the adjacent trees on different properties in the 7
area. It could be if you're trying to get close to another property with the foundation it might get a 8
little tricky there, but there's no like physical kind of aesthetic difference. 9
10
Mr. Lait: Yeah, I think that’s right. I think it's a couple things. One, opportunity for recharge into the 11
groundwater and also making sure there's adequate landscaping opportunities and tree roots and 12
things like that. 13
14
Commissioner Rosenblum: And in the study of this of this plot were any negative repercussions 15
anticipated from the six foot setback from the basement? So now that I understand what we're looking 16
for were there are concerns about neighboring properties reduced opportunity for landscaping from 17
those properties, etcetera? 18
19
Mr. Lait: No I… no. 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.
Commissioner Rosenblum: Ok. I wanted to just give a couple words about this project. I first I agree 1
with the process which is I do think we have to trust the City process. I don't think it really is up to us to 2
be our own HRB and I think that we want to have the City's process be respected as much as possible. 3
4
The project itself I think is delightful personally. I was doing street view navigation through the area 5
and personally if I lived in that area I think I'd feel quite happy that the Jiffy Lube and the Nine Minute 6
Oil Change etcetera is getting a high quality multi-family unit that's beginning to anchor a neighborhood 7
that has something beyond oil change and other auto service and can start to be the anchor of a small 8
community. And so while I reckon, I do recognize the concerns anytime you have people that does 9
bring cars and it brings traffic and it brings other potential negative effects. I did want to just say from 10
the dais I know that we focused on some of the concerns around the project. I thought that the project 11
design was very clever given the unusual space and given some of the constraints that are being dealt 12
with. Also I was surprised by normally applicants come before us and look for reduced parking. In this 13
case parking is exceeding the amount that was necessary. They look for additional density bonuses, 14
etcetera. The bonus that is being sought is well within the scope given the two BMR units being 15
provided. So I personally really just want to understand the one variance being requested and now that 16
I understand that I feel quite supportive of this project. 17
18
Now having said that about process I do think it's legitimate that City Council could determine that 19
enough people have come forward with concerns about the historic nature of this building that they 20
would request additional review etcetera. And I do understand that members of the community have 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.
brought up concerns that they may feel need to be looked into. I do think that the City has a process 1
for determining whether or not a building rises to the level of being sent to the HRB and I feel 2
comfortable that. But anyway I have no questions. My one question was really about the variance 3
being requested. 4
5
Chair Alcheck: When Commissioner Rosenblum when you say variance do you mean the DEE? 6
7
Commissioner Rosenblum: I’m sorry, yes. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Yeah. Ok, I'm going to jump in and quickly make a few comments too. So first of all I 10
honestly can’t remember the last time we looked at a multi-family project. I can’t remember it was 11
Maybell or the Page Mill project. And the reason why, reason why I say that is because it's delightful to 12
be considering a housing project on this Commission. And it's delightful because I think maybe more 13
than any other volunteer in the City we are acutely aware of the housing crisis. It's a big part of our the 14
world of our work. And so the notion that we are finally considering a residential multi-family project 15
that has some component of BMR housing is really refreshing. We've had all these conversations about 16
and I'm speaking to this from the sense of how does this project sort of affect our Comprehensive Plan 17
goals and policies and I'm sort of speaking from that point of view here which is that we've been talking 18
as a city so much about slowing down office growth and we continue to see projects office space. And 19
finally we get a project for residential housing and of course it has some retail and commercial because 20
it's got ground floor retail requirements. 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.
1
I think I one of the things that I found very informative about your presentation was just how much 2
multi-family is surrounding this site. That was even though I drove by this site and I did my own little 3
review I didn't appreciate how just how many apartments are in the area. And I think actually it would 4
be helpful as you move through this process to add to your presentation maybe the number of units on 5
each of those sites. And I think that's important because it highlights the density. 6
7
Being involved in this process up here you see a lot of projects and this is absolutely one of the most 8
complicated sites I've ever seen. And just in the last few weeks we've had a chance, I've had a chance 9
with some of the Planning staff to speak with developers of affordable housing about what sorts of 10
parcels they look for and we did sort of an aerial review of parcels in Palo Alto. And there were a 11
significant like it was just amazing how few these affordable housing developers felt were possible. 12
They needed 50,000 sf minimum plates to be able to achieve and they need to have at least four or five 13
stories, they've got to create something like 40,000 to 50,000 sf of living. It was and then they went 14
sort of through the parcels in Downtown and along El Camino and it was… they're very few. So the 15
process of actually building multi-family is going to require this sort of absurdly complicated layout. 16
17
And so I want to suggest to you that I think that your creativity and your effort are very much... I think 18
should be welcomed in our effort to address our housing need and also our other sort of efforts which I 19
know that we don't typically refer to El Camino right now as the Grand Boulevard and that initiative is 20
sort of I don't know what's happened to it unfortunately. But the way that we're going to create sort of 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.
a better environment in specifically in this part of El Camino is by bringing people there. And your 1
investment, this the owners of this parcels investment, is going to encourage the investment by the 2
individuals who will end up living in this space and their foot traffic will drive improvement of the assets 3
around. I wouldn't be surprised if the Nine Minute Lube station was also short, shortly evolving. 4
5
Ok, so let me just address the DEE. It's not really part of our review tonight, but I think that it was a 6
really interesting question about why there's a setback in general and I think that the answer is very 7
relevant. I did in reviewing this I did sort of wonder if even though I think this is an sort of a great 8
example of what a DEE opportunity is there there was it did cross my mind that could there be a 9
process by which this exception could be granted in exchange for one additional BMR unit? Maybe if 10
they instead of paying the 70 percent of the 2.7 percent, 2.7 BMR they allocated one more BMR unit 11
and then the City granted them that enhancement exception. I don't know if that's possible, but 12
certainly an opportunity to sort of encourage a greater number of affordable housing units on the site 13
would be welcomed by me. 14
15
I think there's sort of one other element I want to address here which is just there was some discussion 16
in the packet about the how it relates to its adjacent properties. And I one thing that I think would be a 17
bit info and this sort of goes back to what I said to the applicant earlier in their presentation, I think 18
there's some real benefit to understanding the age of the other multi-family buildings. And the reason 19
why I mention that is because there is this point in a multi-family buildings life 50, 60, or 70 years 20
where the owner of that multi-family building is very likely to consider a renovation or potentially new 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.
construction. And I think that whenever we review sort of the context of the site it's important to 1
appreciate like how many of those sites are likely to evolve in the near future, in this building’s near 2
future or lifetime. Ok, so I'm going to just end there and suggest that I would very much support a 3
Motion to recommend approval of this proposed project, but I won't there's no Motion on the table. 4
I'm not making one, but I'm just letting you know where I stand. 5
6
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, thanks. I entirely support Eric’s comments. I thought they were really spot. 7
This is really a frankly an amazing project in a ridiculous setting and it also improves the neighborhood. 8
So for all those reasons and you designed in there those gathering spots and so on and also I just think 9
the architecture looks terrific. But there's so much going on in there that's a positive to all of the kind 10
of hot issues that we're trying to solve so I think that part works really well. 11
12
I'm surprised that you didn't go for the 22 units and the 3 low cost housing units. I presume that was 13
just a financial decision in terms of how it's being marketed and so on. If that's a tweak and you want 14
to consider that, that would be great, but then we get another low cost housing. 15
16
I think there is comments in here that the traffic patterns have been addressed. So again in sort of 17
terms of trusting the process I'm not sure that questioning that at this point is the case, but there are 18
65 more parking spaces there so. Appreciate the comments about maybe maintaining the building, but 19
if it sat empty for nine years that building in its current that's enough pause. That building in its current 20
state is not really marketable for another tenant so there's a lot of just data there month by month. So 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.
I think it’s overall a terrific creative approach there on the ugly space that it’s in. 1
2
I thought from Page 272 that this was intentionally going back to the ARB. Oh, ok. So alright. So I 3
thought in your later comments you were saying it actually isn't. So that is? Sorry? 4
5
Mr. Lait: I was making a distinction between the and I may have misspoke because I do it all the time on 6
this. HRB, the Historic Resources Board, versus the ARB, the Architectural Review Board. 7
8
Commissioner Lauing: Ok. 9
10
Mr. Lait: It will go to the ARB. It's not going to go to the HRB. 11
12
Commissioner Lauing: So that's consistent. 13
14
Mr. Lait: Thank you. 15
16
Commissioner Lauing: So I think that is a built in safety net for the historical concerns. In the same area 17
there can I just ask clarification that this is exempted from the interim retail conversion ordinance, but 18
it's there isn't one now. So it's no longer interim. 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.
Mr. Lait: Yeah well technically it's interim. It will become permanent in another… yeah; it's close, but 1
(interrupted) 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: Right, but so assuming the timing works out for this (interrupted) 4
5
Mr. Lait: Yeah. 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: They will be required to have ground floor retail? 8
9
Mr. Lait: No. They’re providing… Well, they're required for the code purposes, but they're not required 10
to preserve the retail under the interim ordinance. But there will be retail on the ground floor. 11
12
Commissioner Lauing: Ok. 13
14
Chair Alcheck: It will be the same result? 15
16
Mr. Lait: Less I think the restaurant's larger than the replacement and so that was a provision of the 17
interim ordinance that you had to do a one for one replacement. So I think [unintelligible] trying to 18
remember these numbers. I think it was like 9,000 roughly for the restaurant and I think they're 19
proposing like 5,000 or something. Is that close? It's less than what was proposed. It's less than what 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.
the restaurant space is today. 1
2
Commissioner Lauing: OK. So again I'm not going to repeat other Commissioner’s comments so I'm 3
comfortable that this is a very strong project. So I'm going to move that we approve, but we're not 4
going to knowingly ignore existing documents or possible risks to the history of Palo Alto. So if we can 5
have language on there that says “consistent with appropriate review of historical status” or words to 6
that effect that’s how I'd like to have it read. Have it written, excuse me. 7
8
Chair Alcheck: Ok, why don’t I make a suggestion here if you don't mind? You want to make a Motion 9
to recommend and then maybe you can suggest some language that you would be comfortable with? 10
11
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah. 12
13
Chair Alcheck: Where we can have a Motion on the table. 14
15
MOTION 16
17
Commissioner Lauing: Right so I can just dictate one from the text here as opposed to you trying to 18
write down what I just said. So I move the approval of the proposed project to City Council based on 19
findings subject to conditions of approval for site and design review. And also subject to review of 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.
potential historical significance. 1
2
Chair Alcheck: Staff are you comfortable with that wording? Can somebody read that back to us? 3
4
Mr. Lait: I think I can get like 90 percent there. So we have a Motion to recommend approval of the 5
proposed project to the City Council based on the findings subject to the conditions and approval for 6
site and design review and subject to the appropriate historic review analysis, something to that effect. 7
8
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah, review of potential historical significance. 9
10
Mr. Lait: And review of potential historic significance. Ok. 11
12
Chair Alcheck: Do we have a second? 13
14
SECOND 15
16
Commissioner Rosenblum: Second. 17
18
Chair Alcheck: Ok. There is a Motion on the floor. Ok, would you like to comment on this? Would you 19
like to suggest an amendment? Ok. I’ll entertain any amendments at this time. 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.
1
Commissioner Summa: So thank you very much for that. My concern I want to make it clear that my 2
concerns about the historic status of the building do not negate my appreciation for the applicant 3
bringing this project forward. I'm also serve on the Comp Plan committee and one of things we are 4
very much looking for are mixed-use buildings that are residential and retail. So it fits the bill there. I 5
really appreciate that. I was just sort of blown away by the other issue. 6
7
So now back to your Motion. I'd like to make a Friendly Amendment to make it stronger. I would like 8
to make and I would like it to say something to the effect that we that it should only be that our 9
recommendation is condition on the approval that there is a thorough review of the and up to date 10
review of the historic status of the building. And one of the reasons I feel really strongly about this is 11
because we didn't have the information given to us to review it for this meeting. And I did two site I 12
went down there twice. I took pictures. I went to Historical Society. I just don't think that's strong 13
enough the way it's stated so… 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: I don't see a lot of difference between what I said and what you said so… 16
17
Chair Alcheck: Let me ask a quick question, clarifying question. 18
19
Commissioner Summa: Ok. And I thought we were going to have a discussion. 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.
Chair Alcheck: I think your language is essentially… yeah, no. So, hold on. For the purposes of 1
clarification we can make a Friendly Amendment. Or I mean if he chooses to accept your Friendly 2
Amendment. If he doesn't I would still entertain a Motion after this Motion if you'd like to make it that 3
somehow addresses your concerns also. Just so you know like if for example you wanted to make a 4
second Motion tonight that recommended that when City Council review this project they pay close 5
attention to the historical significance analysis that’s in there, something to that effect I would this is 6
not your only opportunity is what I’m saying. 7
8
Commissioner Summa: Ok. 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: I don't think we need to go there because I think we're agreeing and I'm just 11
saying if you want to a stronger language make it really stronger language. 12
13
Chair Alcheck: Ok so if that's the case then my clarify what I was originally going to ask you if for a little 14
clarification here which is you suggested that “conditioned on a thorough analysis of its historical 15
significance” and I just I want to understand whether you mean an additional sort of review outside of 16
this document that we haven't had a chance to review or whether you mean that you want some City 17
Council to pay (interrupted) 18
19
Commissioner Summa: So I can’t I mean I can't review a document I've never seen. So how would I 20
know what to say about that document? I would even think it would be appropriate to continue this 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.
based on the fact that we did not have all the information to make a good decision. And I would like to 1
say that the historic status is fully part of D. to ensure that the use will be in accord with the Palo Alto 2
Comprehensive Plan. Policies L51 through 59 all deal with historic buildings and preserving them. And 3
if this is truly if this didn't get the spotlight that it really needed to be evaluated properly which is what 4
I'm concerned with I think it's a potential devastating loss to the entire community. That so that I don't 5
know how to get where I want to, but I might not be able to support a Motion that doesn't take into 6
consideration we didn't have all the information to make this decision. 7
8
Commissioner Lauing: The Motion is intended to say that we have to have all suitable information and 9
it's passed along to both the ARB and the Council and that they should be looking at that. But I'm not 10
saying that we should continue this so that we should look at it. 11
12
Chair Alcheck: Ok so. 13
14
Commissioner Lauing: It seems like as long as we alert the folks that there's a there's other information 15
to consider and there is public comment that suggests otherwise then (interrupted) 16
17
Chair Alcheck: I think so let me say this (interrupted) 18
19
Commissioner Lauing: Someone can look at that, but it's not particularly in our purview. 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.
1
Chair Alcheck: Let me say this, I don't disagree that the that our Comprehensive Plan and our site and 2
design review implicates that our that the determination of historical significance is an important one in 3
this process. I'm not I don't want you to for any for a second to think I don't agree completely with 4
that. My concern is that I don't know on what basis we would disagree with Planning staff’s 5
determination even if for example let's say there… here I would be, I'm wondering if you would be 6
comfortable with… 7
8
Mr. Lait: Can I make a suggestion? 9
10
Chair Alcheck: Yeah I would love a suggestion. 11
12
Mr. Lait: So it sounds like and just for the record we're perfectly fine if you guys want to challenge our 13
recommendations. That's what we do we make (interrupted) 14
15
Chair Alcheck: Well it’s difficult because we haven't reviewed it. 16
17
Mr. Lait: Sure. I understand. And but I think there's a something for we have a Motion that has been 18
seconded for a for basically to move the staff report with this historic consideration. It sounds like 19
Commissioner Summa is talking about a Substitute Motion to continue the project so that you can have 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.
time to review the historic reports and then make your recommendation on the project. So that could 1
be a Substitution Motion that you put out there and then there's a question to see if it's seconded, if 2
there's a second for it, and then you would vote on that Motion. If it fails, if it passes then you know 3
we'll get you that report and we'll come back in a couple weeks and we'll go through this again. If it 4
passes or if it fails then we're back to the original Motion and you can (interrupted) 5
6
Chair Alcheck: Alright well let me ask the maker of this let me ask you. Are you making a substantive 7
motion or a substance, a Substitute Motion or are you making a Friendly Amendment? 8
9
SUBSTITUTE MOTION 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Given the advice from staff just now I think it makes more sense for me to make 12
a substitute motion. I think it's cleaner so I'm happy to do that. 13
14
SUBSTITUTE MOTION FAILED 15
16
Chair Alcheck: Ok. I'm going to suggest that you've made that Substitute Motion. Is there a second? 17
Ok, so seeing none the original Motion is still on the floor. Would anybody like us to read that Motion 18
again? Ok. 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.
Commissioner Summa: Sure. 1
2
Chair Alcheck: Jon will you read that Motion, Assistant Director Jonathan Lait will you read that Motion 3
for us one more time? 4
5
Mr. Lait: It's a Motion by the Commission to recommend approval of the proposed project to the City 6
Council based on the findings subject to the conditions, subject to conditions of approval for site and 7
design review and review of potential historic significance is what I have. 8
9
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Would, hold on. Would the maker of the Motion like to speak to his Motion? 10
11
Commissioner Lauing: Not further. I'm not tied to the second half of the language. If there's something 12
that “strengthens” it, but to me it's clear. 13
14
VOTE 15
16
Chair Alcheck: Would you like to speak to your Motion? Ok. Alright, what I'm going to do at this time 17
I’m going hold the vote and then I will give any opportunity to anybody to speak to their dissent if they 18
decide to dissent and I will entertain any other Motions if you'd like to make one. Ok so all those in 19
favor of the Motion on the floor please raise your hand, say aye. Great. That’s three. All those 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.
opposed? One. Yeah, yeah. So we have three in support and one abstention. 1
2
MOTION PASSED (3-1, Commissioner Gardias recused, Vice-Chair Waldfogel absent) 3
4
Commissioner Summa: I said no. 5
6
Chair Alcheck: Oh, excuse me, one I didn’t mean abstention. One dissent. Would you like to speak to 7
your dissent? Please do. 8
9
Commissioner Summa: Thank you very much and I don't mean to I just can't make the findings. I can't 10
make the findings for site and design review either: C. to ensure the sound principles of environmental 11
design and ecological balance shall be observed and D. to ensure that the use will be in accord with the 12
Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan. I would love to have been able to make that finding tonight and move a 13
worthy housing project forward, but I don't find myself in the position to be able to make those two 14
findings. 15
16
Chair Alcheck: Ok. Would anybody like to entertain any other recommendations tonight? Ok, alright so 17
seeing none I’m going to close this quasi-judicial hearing. 18
19
Motion: Move Recommend approval of the proposed project to the City Council based on 20
findings subject to conditions of approval for Site and Design review and review of potential 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.
historic significance. Motion made by Commissioner Lauing, seconded by Commissioner 1
Rosenblum; motions PASSES 3-1 Commissioner Summa against. 2
3
Approval of Minutes 4
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 5
6
4. February 8, 2017 Draft Planning & Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes 7
8
Chair Alcheck: And the next item we have on our agenda is to approve the minutes from February 8, 9
2017. Would anybody like to make a Motion to approve the minutes? 10
11
MOTION 12
13
Commissioner Summa: I’ll make the Motion to approve the minutes. 14
15
Chair Alcheck: Second? 16
17
SECOND 18
19
Commissioner Lauing: Second. 20
21
VOTE 22
23
Chair Alcheck: Great. All those in favor approving the February 8, 2017, minutes please say aye. 24
That’s four in favor. 25
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.
1
MOTION PASSED (4-0) 2
3
Motion: Approve the minutes of February 8, 2017. Motion made by Commissioner 4
Summa, seconded by Commissioner Lauing; motions PASSES 4-0 5
6
7
Committee Items 8
Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 9
10
Chair Alcheck: Are there any committee or let me just lump this all together. Are there any items that 11
Commissioners would like to comment or announce? Was there a Comp Plan meeting between this 12
meeting and the last? Would you like to talk about it? If there’s this period of time is for any 13
Commissioner to sort of address anything that’s somewhat relevant to our job. So absolutely. 14
15
Commissioner Summa: Ok. So if the, if my colleagues are interested Commissioner Gardias had asked 16
me to briefly report on Comp Plan meetings. We had a Comp Plan meeting... 17
18
Chair Alcheck: Ladies and gentlemen if you could please exit quietly while we're sort of concluding our 19
meeting here. We really appreciate it. 20
21
Commissioner Summa: A week and a half ago it had two significant items on the agenda. One was 22
after the one was the discussion about the City Council's action on the Comp Plan on January 30th. 23
And the second one was the Business Element. The discussion about the City Council's decision about 24
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.
the Comp Plan on the 30th was kind of lengthy actually and most of the 14 voting members that were 1
there all but 2 were dissatisfied with the Council's not necessary not all the decision, but the process 2
and the procedure that took place. And the Business Element is going to go back to staff and then 3
come back not to the subcommittee, but actually to the whole group for another look. So that's the 4
gist of it. 5
6
Chair Alcheck: Ok. This will be our last meeting as a incomplete Planning and Transportation 7
Commission (PTC). At our next meeting we will be joined by our newest Commissioner, Commissioner 8
Monk, so that's exciting. And our next meeting is on... what is it? When is our next meeting? Ok, well 9
we’ll look it up online. 10
11
Jonathan Lait, Assistant Director: March 29th. 12
13
Chair Alcheck: There you go. Alright, this meeting ended at 11:03 with a record turnout. Thank you. 14
15
Adjournment: 11:03pm 16
17
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.
Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission
Commissioner Biographies, Present and Archived Agendas and Reports are available online:
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/boards/ptc/default.asp. The PTC Commission members are:
Chair Michael Alcheck
Vice Chair Asher Waldfogel
Commissioner Przemek Gardias
Commissioner Ed Lauing
Commissioner Susan Monk
Commissioner Eric Rosenblum
Commissioner Doria Summa
Get Informed and Be Engaged!
View online: http://midpenmedia.org/category/government/city-of-palo-alto or on Channel 26.
Show up and speak. Public comment is encouraged. Please complete a speaker request card
located on the table at the entrance to the Council Chambers and deliver it to the Commission
Secretary prior to discussion of the item.
Write to us. Email the PTC at: Planning.Commission@CityofPaloAlto.org. Letters can be
delivered to the Planning & Community Environment Department, 5th floor, City Hall, 250
Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301. Comments received by 2:00 PM two Tuesdays preceding
the meeting date will be included in the agenda packet. Comments received afterward through
2:00 PM the day of the meeting will be presented to the Commission at the dais.
Material related to an item on this agenda submitted to the PTC after distribution of the
agenda packet is available for public inspection at the address above.
Americans with Disability Act (ADA)
It is the policy of the City of Palo Alto to offer its public programs, services and meetings in a
manner that is readily accessible to all. Persons with disabilities who require materials in an
appropriate alternative format or who require auxiliary aids to access City meetings, programs,
or services may contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at (650) 329-2550 (voice) or by emailing
ada@cityofpaloalto.org. Requests for assistance or accommodations must be submitted at least
24 hours in advance of the meeting, program, or service.