HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-11 Planning & transportation commission Summary Minutes_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Planning & Transportation Commission 1
Action Agenda: September 11, 2019 2
Council Chambers 3
250 Hamilton Avenue 4
6:00 PM 5
6
Call to Order / Roll Call 7
6:10pm 8
9
Chair Riggs: Alright I’m going to call us to order. Commissioner Alcheck [note – Vice-Chair] will 10
be here, he’s running a little bit late a couple minutes late. He’s dealing with a child issue. 11
12
[The Commission moved to Oral Communications] 13
14
Chair Riggs: Oh sorry, do we need to do a roll call for attendance? My apologies so thanks 15
Steph, we can get ready [unintelligible]. Thank you. Let’s (interrupted) 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: Ok I’ll start the roll call. Ok thank you, we have a quorum. 18
19
Chair Riggs: Thank you very much. 20
21
[The Commission moved back to Oral Communications] 22
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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
3
Chair Riggs: Let’s start off with any oral communications. I have one speaker card from a non-4
agenda item from Steph Levy. 5
6
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen: Do we need to call roll first? 7
8
[The Commission moved back up to roll call.] 9
10
Chair Riggs: So, we’ll maybe get started with oral communications now. Mr. Levy apologizes for 11
jumping the gun there. 12
13
Mr. Stephen Levy: I don’t know, the 15-second delay probably ruined my (interrupted) 14
15
Chair Riggs: Alright, please. 16
17
Mr. Levy: So, I’ve sent you and Jonathan material from an HCD presentation and other notes 18
about the new arena that’s not here yet but is upcoming and I wanted to just go over that. 19
20
State law now requires HCD at the regional level to take account of past shortages and catch up 21
and they do that in two ways. I have 3-minutes, don’t I? 22
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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.
1
Chair Riggs: Yeah, you’re all good. I… sorry, I’m having to run the equipment and run the 2
meeting so I apologize. You’re… please proceed. 3
4
Mr. Levy: The first is to mitigate existing overcrowding that’s for existing residences and they do 5
that by either comparing the overcrowding in the Bay Area to the national average or to a 6
comparable region. And when they did south California that was part of increasing the RHNA 7
allocation by three-fold, triple it, and it accounted for about a third of it. 8
9
The second thing which is a little harder is they’re trying to take account of households that are 10
cost-burdened. Meaning by their measure that they spend more than 30 percent of their 11
households on income and they haven’t done the Bay Area number yet. We’ll see them in a 12
little bit but I suspect we are very high on cost burden and very high on overcrowding. And our 13
regional RHNA will be at least twice as much and that is not about more growth. None of the 14
regions so far are projecting more growth. It’s about catching up. 15
16
The second thing and that came out of a presentation from the Staff. You’ve seen evidence of it 17
for Cupertino. Under existing law HCD believes that they can go and take action against Cities 18
that willfully or abruptly or without cause turned down projects. Take Housing Elements that 19
are zoned… sites that are zoned for housing out of the Housing Element. And that will come up 20
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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.
to you down the road when you get to North Ventura and that site because it is our largest 1
zoned housing site. And if we take that out of the inventory for whatever reason I suspect we 2
are asking our lawyers to do a heavy lift. So those are the two pieces, we’re going to need a lot 3
more housing. I don’t know what Palo Alto’s allocation will be, but I doubt we’ll be more or less 4
than the regional lift. And HCD is now going to look at the sites in the inventory and the actions 5
of bodies like the Council and the Commission giving them advice that seems arbitrary in the 6
denial or downsizing of housing projects. 7
8
Chair Riggs: Thank you, Mr. Levy. So, with that I don’t have any other comments or comment 9
cards for things that aren’t on the agenda this evening. 10
Agenda Changes, Additions, and Deletions 11
The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 12
13
Chair Riggs: So, we’ll turn it over to Staff for any additions, deletions, or City reports. 14
15
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: We don’t have any deletions or additions to tonight’s 16
agenda. 17
City Official Reports 18
1. Assistant Directors Report, Meeting Schedule, and Assignments 19
20
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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.
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: I do have a few reports to make. On Monday the City 1
Council didn’t have any items from the Planning and Development Services Department but did 2
have an item from transportation regarding the XCAP and out initiative to look at grade 3
separation for the coming electrification of Caltrain. Council took a few actions. They expanded 4
some of the XCAP which is the Expanded Community Advisory Panel. Their role and so they 5
have… we’ll have a Co-Chair and Co-Chair who will have a roll in helping shape the agenda for 6
the XCAP. They will be taking votes on recommendations which is not something they 7
previously did and they’re going to be ranking the alternatives that they’re going to be having 8
against established criteria from the City Council. 9
10
Council also extended the timeline for them to present the Preferred Alternatives to April of 11
2020 so that is next spring. They did not take action on the Blue Ribbon Commission which is 12
another proposal brought forward to try to bring a different tact of solving this issue. They did 13
request that Staff come back in December after looking further at whether or not we should 14
have a Blue Ribbon Commission. And I understand also that Commissioner Templeton will be 15
representing the Planning Commission at the XCAP meetings so thank you for your service in 16
place of Chair Riggs. 17
18
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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.
Looking ahead we have a couple items on the next coming City Council agenda. Our contract 1
with WRA which is again to look at options for naturalizing Matadero Creek related to the MV-2
CAP will be going forward as a Consent Item. 3
4
And another kind of transportation-related item that the City Manager’s Office is playing a 5
strong role is looking at the Caltrain Business Plan and direction… asking for direction for Staff 6
regarding comments on that long-range Business Plan. 7
8
As far as community meetings, this evening there’s actually a 9… a September 11th Memorial 9
and vigil taking place in King Plaza. So, I’m not sure what time we’ll be leaving here this evening 10
but I may be going on as you’re exiting if you want to go out and take place… take part in that. 11
12
And then September 24th at 5:30 we’re going to have our North Venture Coordinated Area Plan 13
meeting here at City Hall. So that’s the upcoming items. 14
15
We do have our meeting, it canceled on October 9th. Last time we thought that most people or 16
we wouldn’t have a quorum because folks would be not able to attend. And on September 25th 17
we’re looking to have our meeting focused on a study session possibility on co-housing or some 18
other items. So, we’re working to solidify that agenda and that’s all I have. 19
20
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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.
Chair Riggs: So, I don’t know if we have any additional comments from the Commission in terms 1
of or questions… more so questions on that but I just want to thank Commissioner Templeton 2
as well for… I asked her to do this in my place just because I was feeling spread pretty thin and I 3
think she’s going to do a great job. I would suggest that to Staff that we have to find a way that 4
PTC interfaces with the XCAP which is not something that’s… even having sat through a handful 5
of meetings, it’s not something that’s clear to me. So I don’t know what part PTC plays in that 6
process and I think that may be part of your challenge Commissioner Templeton but I think 7
Staff, if you could continue to find windows that we can look in because I… it would be great if 8
we could have a review of the alternative as a group as well. 9
10
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, there’s just one Commissioner representing. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s 11
great. 12
13
Chair Riggs: And I would open it up if anybody else has a question feel free to ask but 14
otherwise, we’ll proceed to our agenda. 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: Just to follow up, I conveyed exactly those sentiments at the last 17
XCAP meeting so we have planted that seed and hopefully we’ll be able to find a way to share 18
that information with the great PTC. 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.
Ms. Tanner: Great. 1
2
Commissioner Roohparvar: I was just going to ask about the co-housing. Are we going to get 3
information beforehand on what that’s going to be about? Is it in here? 4
5
Ms. Tanner: Information is not in your current Packet but (interrupted) 6
7
Chair Riggs: So, if you don’t mind in terms of future agenda items, maybe we’ll just pick that up 8
after our… at the end of the meeting. 9
10
Commissioner Roohparvar: Ok. 11
12
Chair Riggs: That’s typically what we usually do but that was a great look ahead. 13
14
Commissioner Waldfogel: On the XCAP, I just wonder what are the possible outcomes where 15
PTC may need to vote on something or may need to approve something because I think those 16
are the things were, we’d really want to get an early look. So, what are the areas where 17
(interrupted) 18
19
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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.
Ms. Tanner: Well, I can follow up with the Transportation Staff to kind of zoom in on kind of 1
where are things now in terms of the alternatives. And if… as the alternatives go forward and 2
eventually, we choose one alternative, where are the rolls for PTC both as advisory and 3
providing comments? Is there a formal time for feedback but also once there is a specific 4
alternative that then gets refined, where are the moments and points where the PTC has 5
jurisdiction to actually make recommendations? 6
7
Commissioner Waldfogel: Right well I think that we have a statutory obligation in circulation 8
and so if the different plans change circulation, I think there’s things we need to look at. I just 9
think we should get an (interrupted) 10
11
Ms. Tanner: Absolutely. 12
13
Commissioner Waldfogel: We should have an early discussion about those items. 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Yeah and then we can also think if… April 30th is the deadline for the Preferred 16
Alternative, what needs to happen before then with PTC and then what’s the post-work with 17
the Preferred Alternative when that’s selected. 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Riggs: Alright, I don’t see lights or hands so we’re going to move on if that’s ok with you 1
all? 2
3
Study Session 4
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 5
6
Action Items 7
Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 8
All others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 9
10
2. The Planning and Transportation Commission Will Conduct a Public Scoping Meeting 11
to Receive and Provide Comments on the Notice of Preparation of an Environmental 12
Impact Report Evaluating a Project That Would Allow the Application of the City’s 13
Housing Incentive Program on CS Zoned Properties Along San Antonio Road Between 14
Middlefield Road and Charleston Road. The Project Also Includes the Concurrent 15
Consideration of an Architectural Review Application to Allow the Demolition of an 16
Existing 12,000 Square Feet of Commercial Space and the Construction of a Four- 17
Story Mixed-Use Building that Includes 102 Residential Units and 1,780 Square Feet 18
of Commercial Space. Sixteen of the Residential Units Would be Below Market Rate. 19
Environmental Assessment: An Environmental Impact Report is Being Prepared in 20
Accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Zoning District: CS 21
(Service Commercial). The Comment Period on the Notice of Preparation Began 22
September 4, 2019 and Ends October 7, 2019. Contact Planner Sheldon S. Affordable 23
housing Sing at sahsing@m-group.us for Additional Information. 24
25
Chair Riggs: Alright so our first agenda is a study item [note – action item], we allow for public 26
comment. I believe this is an action item, do we have to do disclosures on this? No, I don’t think 27
we do. 28
29
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: There is no formal action that will be taken tonight. 30
31
_______________________
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 Riggs: Yes. 1
2
Ms. Tanner: As Sheldon will explain we’ll be having comment on the scoping for the EIR and 3
then also a discussion of the Housing Incentive Program, but no formal action will be taken. 4
5
Chair Riggs: Great so with that maybe we’ll start with public comment. I have a handful of cards 6
who will have 3-minutes each. First off, I have John Petrilla followed by Ken Kershner. 7
8
Ms. Tanner: Chair, do you want to do the presentation (interrupted) 9
10
Chair Riggs: Oh, sorry, do you want to do the presentation first? 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Staff presentation first and then have public comment? 13
14
Chair Riggs: Yeah, let’s do… sorry folks, we’ll do that first. Apologies, I’m in a bit speed mode 15
tonight. 16
17
Ms. Tanner: No worries. We have Sheldon Sing who is one of our planners from M Group who 18
will be doing the presentation this evening. 19
20
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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.
Mr. Sheldon Sing, Consultant, Planner: Good evening. I do have a PowerPoint; the applicant is 1
also here and they have a PowerPoint as well. The project required an Environmental Impact 2
Report so a main component of this meeting is to be… conduct a scoping meeting and hearing 3
pursuant to CEQA. Also, a discussion of the proposal of the Zoning Amendment to include the 4
Housing Incentive Program for the CS Zone properties along San Antonio Road between 5
Middlefield Road and East Charleston Road. And the project also includes a Development 6
Proposal, however, that component is part of the Architectural Review that’s being taken up by 7
the Architectural Review Board. So specifically, we’re looking for some feedback on the Zoning 8
Amendment component and there’s some other components of the project that would be 9
reviewed by the Architectural Review Board. 10
11
Because of discrepancies with the posting of the agenda for the project in accordance with the 12
Brown Act, we can’t discuss the gross floor area definition component that we… that’s in the 13
Staff report; as well as the Retail Preservation Amendment components. So just to let you know 14
about that, we can’t discuss those items this evening. 15
16
The beginning objectives are to conduct the EIR Scoping meeting to get some feedback on the 17
study topics that will be discussed, maybe bring up some potential mitigation measures that 18
may be anticipated based on impacts and then have some discussion and feedback on Zoning 19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Amendments as proposed. We want to introduce a study area as we defined a little earlier and 1
the Housing Incentive Program. 2
3
So graphically just put it together in terms of a map here we have the highlighted areas are the 4
CS Zoned properties along San Antonio Road between Middlefield and Charleston. The City of 5
Mountain View provides the boundary to the rear of these properties. There are two X’s that 6
we include on this map, on the north X the subject property 788 San Antonio. The one to the 7
south is a hotel project, it’s under construction. So, both of these represent 2.0 FAR project so 8
projects that could be anticipated if these amendments are adopted. And then this map just 9
shows sort of an aerial view of what’s on the ground there from above in terms of spatial and 10
density. So, you do have some residential there, the Green House Project Community, you also 11
have a lot of commercial, kind of lower intensity type of development there, and then 12
Mountain View especially is more industrial. 13
14
Some pictures here, this is north from Leghorn on the project site. You can see that these are all 15
kind of more low-intensity type of use. Single-story, two-story types of buildings and this is from 16
Middlefield Road. 17
18
A little bit of overview from the project itself. It’s a… the project is proposed to be a 102-unit 19
residential mixed-use project. At this time, it will be ownership units, there will be an 20
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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.
underground garage containing some parking and some mechanical lifts, and there’s about 1
1,800-square feet of ground-floor commercial space. And then specifically what we want to 2
discuss this evening would be the amendments to the Zoning Code, extending the Housing 3
Incentive Program from where it is at El Camino Real and in the Downtown Area to this area. 4
And we’d like to establish a program that would include a waiver up to 1.5 FAR or higher 5
[unintelligible] probably 2.0 would be for the project. And also changes to lot coverage 6
restrictions, eliminating Housing Density requirements, allowing rooftop gardens to count 7
towards required open space, and to exclude the first 1,500-square feet of retail or retail-like 8
floor area from parking requirements. 9
10
Now pivoting towards the first component of the meeting is to discuss the California 11
Environmental Quality Act and really the purpose of CEQA is to disclose potential significant 12
environmental impacts of proposed actions that the City may have, identify ways to avoid or 13
reduce any adverse environmental effects, there are certain topics that are studied in an EIR 14
include air quality, aesthetics, transportation. If there are impacts, we want to consider a 15
feasible alternative to proposed actions, to foster interagency coordination in the review of the 16
projects, and enhance public participation in the planning process. So, it’s a very transparent 17
process and that’s why we have these meetings. Such as the scoping meeting, we’ll have 18
opportunity for review of the EIR in the future when it gets published. 19
20
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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.
So again, we’re in an EIR process right now. We have filed a Notice of Preparation, that’s the 1
first step that you would do for the EIR, and we’re trying to get comment from the public as 2
well as other agencies. That’s where we are and then where we go from there is, we draft the 3
EIR, we have a consultant that’s doing that. The City is the lead agency so we have a lot of 4
oversight on that. Then we would file a Notice of Availability, the draft EIR is ready for 5
circulation. We would then circulate that document, get comments from the public, it’s a 45-6
day period and we would respond to those comments, put them into a Final EIR and that goes 7
forward with the project recommendation to the City Council. 8
9
So, the purpose of this meeting, for the scoping meeting, is to inform the community and 10
certain agencies about the project and the EIR. So, we did send the Notice of Preparation out to 11
state agencies as well as any local agencies in the area, surrounding Cities, the county as well as 12
the interested people that have noticed to the City that they want to get such documents. So, 13
we do want to talk about the EIR scope and this is a really good opportunity for the public to 14
first get involved with this project right from the beginning. 15
16
So some of the issues that we’re thinking about that will be discussed in the EIR would include 17
air quality, historical resources, one of the buildings on site is actually eligible for listing and that 18
is really the main reason why this project is requiring an EIR to begin with because the project… 19
if they want to implement it they have to demolish this structure. So, therefore, it’s a significant 20
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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.
unavoidable impact. We also talk about energy, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, 1
transportation. Other issues that are not included in the EIR would be included in initial study. 2
3
So, we do welcome these comments, we have a 30-day period, we just started that this week, 4
and it will go through October 7th and we want to hear from the public. The City maintains a 5
project webpage for this project so people can visit that site and send comments to my email 6
address. Also, there are other opportunities for them to talk to me on the phone as well if they 7
want too. 8
9
So now getting to the amendment component, Zoning Amendment of the project and trying to 10
get more feedback from the Commission. There was a recently adopted program for parcels in 11
downtown along El Camino Real. This is to try to get more housing in the City and try to 12
incentives the process. And this eliminates the maximum density and creates a waiver for lot 13
coverage as well as allows rooftop gardens to count toward required open space. And we also 14
looked at waving some parking requirements for retail and mixed-use types of projects. And 15
just as I mentioned before is to extend this to this area along San Antonio Road. There… this 16
specific project site is a housing opportunity site listed within the Housing Element of the 17
Comprehensive Plan so there is some opportunity there. 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Some considerations that we want the Commission to consider is expansion of this program 1
appropriate here given the context of the area? The area is not very well served by transit so 2
it’s something to consider. There are employment centers in the area such as Google and 3
others. There is potential for being have more transit here potentially. As I mentioned 788 San 4
Antonio is a housing opportunity site. The character of the area may change. You’ve seen from 5
the photographs or you’ve visited the area it’s very low intense right now. It if goes to 2.0 FAR 6
you will get some bigger buildings out there. Are rooftop gardens appropriate in this area also? 7
The CS District on San Antonio is more auto-oriented, does a rooftop garden kind of make sense 8
given that’s suppose to be an open space area? And finally, just Staff’s put forward is 2.0 FAR 9
appropriate for the area and Commissioners may also have some other considerations. 10
11
Now to provide some further context we put together this table that shows the existing CS 12
District and what it allows. And then the HIP, what that allows for, and then what the project 13
area is or the project is proposing. And some of these are pretty similar with the exception of 14
the Maximum Combined FAR. We have a maximum in the other two areas of the City at 1.5, 15
this project has 1.97, that’s we mentioned up to 2.0 FAR. 16
17
This image is just for again context. This is the hotel project, this is a 2.0 FAR project, this is 18
under construction right now, well underway. So, this is something that a 2.0 project could look 19
like and it’s massing and its impact on the street. And then this is the proposed project at 788 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.
San Antonio. This is again a 2.0 FAR project and what that would look like on a street. As you 1
can see it’s a little bit different than a hotel project and a residential project. There’s some 2
differences in the type of design that you would see but just to provide you some examples on 3
that. 4
5
And then we wanted to put forward at least a timeline for this project. We’re just in the 6
beginning of this project and getting going. We went to the ARB last month and they got some 7
great feedback on the design of the project. And then here we are this evening with the PTC 8
meeting and the Environmental Scoping meeting. We’re projecting that there could be up to 9
two more ARB meetings, there will be another PTC meeting to get a recommendation from the 10
Commission, we’ll have another opportunity for public input on the EIR, and then finally with 11
everything [unintelligible] with a recommendation to the City Council. So, we’re projecting that 12
to be sometime in the spring of next year if everything goes as planned. So, there would be lots 13
of opportunities for the public to get involved. 14
15
And our recommendation for this evening is to conduct a scoping meeting, provide comment 16
on the project’s Notice of Preparation for the EIR in accordance with CEQA, and also to provide 17
policy guidance to Staff regarding the requested Text Amendments. With that, I conclude my 18
presentation and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. 19
20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Riggs: Alright any questions from the Commission before… just questions? Commissioner 1
Lauing and I do believe we have a presentation from the applicant as well. 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: Do you want to see that first or should I go ahead with these? 4
5
Chair Riggs: I think if you have a question you should ask it. 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah, I had quite a number of them. The PowerPoint was very good and 8
very helpful, I liked that. We see it again at some point in time and I wasn’t quite sure what the 9
verbiage meant on Page 8 where you say that the… hold a public hearing for a recommendation 10
on the policy or the legislative comment. I do understand what you say that we wouldn’t 11
comment on the project but that’s content that we’ll be getting to in the future? 12
13
Ms. Tanner: Commissioner, can you repeat where on Page 8 you’re looking? 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah Staff report Page 8 in the middle. It starts off, “additionally Staff 16
request” but it’s the last couple sentences. “At a future date, the PTC would conduct a public 17
hearing and forward a recommendation on the policy or legislative comment of the 18
application.” 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.
Ms. Tanner: So, I believe what that’s referring to and Sheldon you can correct me if I’m wrong. 1
Is that part of this application is expanding the Housing Incentive Program which is what we’re 2
kind of beginning to hear your thoughts on that today and at a point in the future you would 3
actually, as a Commission, make a recommendation. Yes, for example, we do think that we 4
should expand the Housing Incentive Program to this site or no, we don’t think that we should 5
expand the Housing Incentive Program to this site. Is that correct Sheldon, on what you were 6
thinking when you wrote that? 7
8
Mr. Sing: Yes, that is correct. 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, that is very straight forward then. I think it was maybe reading into 11
it. 12
13
Ms. Tanner: No, that’s alright 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: And then on Page 11 and elsewhere you referenced the 788 is eligibility 16
for listing on the California Register of Historical Resources. So, at this point just in the current 17
zoning what can they do with that building current state? 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Sing: There’s certain types of renovations that they can do that’s consistent with the 1
Secretary of Interior Guidelines but they can’t do really extensive types of additions to it 2
without going through a pretty major process. 3
4
Commissioner Lauing: Ok. You mentioned in your PowerPoint that we’re not supposed to 5
comment on retail relative to the scoping. Is that correct? 6
7
Mr. Sing: That is correct, yes. 8
9
Commissioner Lauing: Well my question is I think broader so I think it will be ok. There’s a 10
whole bunch of bullet points on Packet Page 12 at the bottom where we talk about amending 11
the Citywide Retail Preservation requirements. Would that be for another night that we would 12
discuss that? We’re not going to try to couple this EIR to that whole big deal because that’s a 13
big deal. 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, so we are doing… trying to accomplish two things with the meeting tonight. 16
The first, as Sheldon said, is a scoping meeting for the EIR and we want to hear comments from 17
the Commission as well as from the public regarding the scope of the Environmental Impact 18
Report. In addition, we want to have a discussion about the Housing Incentive Program. We had 19
intended to be able to discuss Gross Floor Area and the policy also regarding retail. The noticing 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.
was not adequate in order to have that discussion this evening so we are able to talk about the 1
HIP policy and kind of the broader housing policy. Which is the bulk of the project is housing 2
and so in some ways may perhaps be the more pertinent one, to begin with, but we could 3
return at a later time to talk about the Retail Preservation and as well as the Gross Floor Area. 4
5
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, thanks and on Page 14 you reference the 300-room hotel that’s 6
currently under construction. There’s one hotel right because I heard from some sources there 7
might be two hotels? 8
9
Mr. Sing: There’s actually… it's one property with two hotels. They’re two different brands. 10
11
Commissioner Lauing: Oh, that’s right, two brands, ok. And then on middle of 14, you talk 12
about other amendments proposed would further incentive housing and assist in clarifying 13
development standards that have been vague and problematic. So, are you using this as an 14
opportunity to change some of the wording in the original HIP? 15
16
Mr. Sing: That is correct. 17
18
Commissioner Lauing: Alright I won’t ask my question on FAR or parking so that’s all my 19
questions. 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 Riggs: Alright I think we’re ready for the applicant’s presentation. 2
3
Mr. Ted O’Hanlon: How long? 5? 4
5
Chair Riggs: I think we usually give the applicant 5-minutes. 6
7
Mr. O’Hanlon: Alright, thank you Commission. I’m Ted O’Hanlon, I’m project manager, I’m 8
representing the owners of the site and the project. I appreciate your time and looking at this 9
project and your questions following up. 10
11
This is an overview of the property from the satellite. When we saw this property about 2-years 12
ago for the first time our thinking was this was an excellent residential, multi-family 13
development opportunity for a couple of reasons. We purchased it about a year ago or 15-14
months ago. We purchased it as a developer without the Development Entitlements in hand 15
and that’s kind of speaking to what we believed about the site and what we believed about the 16
region and the support and need for more housing and we wanted to control our own destiny 17
in doing that. We saw within the existing community the Greenhouse across the street planned 18
community that was built in the 1970s which has about 220 units consisting of 3-bedroom and 19
2-bedroom units. We see up the street at Charleston and San Antonio the Taube Koret Campus 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.
and Oshman JCC which has more residential units. The Moldaw Senior Center with about 150 1
units and the Altaire townhomes which is a mix of 4-bedroom and 3-bedroom townhomes and 2
there are about 90 of those. 3
4
We also looked to say who’s going to live there and we look at jobs. And this particular location 5
has an excellent proximity to a lot of great job opportunities. We all know about Google but if 6
you look at the dots, these aren’t all Google. There’s about six of the medium size dots there… 7
our TDM consultant had done this map… and four of the larger dots and those comprise I say 8
about 2,500 to 5,000 different jobs with a 1-mile radius of this site. 9
10
We looked at the accessibility of the property. It’s easy to consider that this property is very 11
close to 101, a major thoroughfare. It’s located on San Antonio Road but we also thought a little 12
bit further about how this site would live and breathe for residents and we considered the 13
walkability of it. The walkability score of the property is 78 and it’s well served by existing retail. 14
We have the Charleston Plaza and the Charleston Shopping Centers and the Regensdorf 15
Shopping Center. And these offer supermarkets, restaurants, and other shopping opportunities. 16
Most advantageous of this site is the bike-ability score which is an 86 and if you look at the 17
North Bay Shore Plan that Mountain View’s been working on for the past 5 or so years and the 18
amount of units that they plan to add but also the office spaces that they add. This site if you go 19
down Leghorn Road to Regensdorf and over the 101 overpasses on a Class Two bicycle lane 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.
gives you 5-minute bike ride access to that building that’s under construction across from the 1
amphitheater. So, we see some real advantages with the proximity that the site offers. 2
3
We started looking at development scenarios. We went with the cookie-cutter what the zoning 4
would allow which you see in the first column that would have… that would yield 16 units of 2-5
bedroom variety because there is an RM-30 max on that. It would also have the 40 percent 6
commercial spaced divided between retail and office. We looked at it a little bit differently. We 7
originally approached the City Council with the pre-screen in October of last year with a request 8
for a rezoned to RM-40 and using State Density Bonus Law. You can see that in the second 9
column. The yield of that would have been 48-units and we had a mix of 2-bedrooms and 1-10
bedrooms. In March we looked at 1.5 FAR and in May we looked at 2.0 FAR reasoning that we 11
want and need housing in the City. And if a Marriott Hotel could utilize 2.0 FAR and other 12
residential opportunities could utilize a 2.0 FAR on El Camino. It would make sense to do that 13
on San Antonio. We see San Antonio Road as a very much akin of El Camino Real. It's classified 14
by Caltrans as the same, it’s a straight shot to the San Antonio Caltrain railroad station which is 15
has accessibility as many sections of El Camino Real. We… of course, I’ve already touched on 16
the bike-ability, walkability, and the access to 101 that exists as well. 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.
I’ll not talk about the Retail Preservation Waiver for another day but the main message here is 1
Palo Alto has some very strong goals to built 3,000 units in 10-years, 300-units a year. We’re 2
proposing 102-units in this project and we think it would be a great fit. Thanks. 3
4
Chair Riggs: Alright I’m… I’ll dare do this. Any questions for the applicant before we turn it over 5
to the public? 6
7
Commissioner Waldfogel: (off mic) One point of clarification. 8
9
Chair Riggs: Point of clarification, go ahead Mr. Waldfogel. 10
11
Commissioner Waldfogel: I saw on Mr. Sing’s slides; these are described as ownership units. Are 12
these ownership or rental in your plan? 13
14
Mr. O’Hanlon: You know the… it’s lending itself more to a rental project at this point with the 15
degree of studio units and 1-bedroom units. When we were proposing more of a 2-bedroom 16
unit format it made sense as a condo. We haven’t finalized that and we haven’t been required 17
to finalize what that intent is. We do know regardless; we do have to provide 15 percent of the 18
units as BMR whether those are ownership or rental units. 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 Waldfogel: Thank you. 1
2
Chair Riggs: Alright, if you don’t… please stick around because I think we might have other 3
questions later on. 4
5
Mr. O’Hanlon: Of course, thank you. 6
7
Chair Riggs: Thank you so much for the presentation. Alright with that we will start our public 8
hearing or we’ll allow some public comment. So, my apologies for jumping the gun earlier, I 9
didn’t have my Co-Chair [note- Vice-Chair] to run the timer for me so I was a little scattered as a 10
result. So, John if you could make your way up, we’ll start off with you and then Ken Kershner 11
we’ll have you after. Thank you and you’ll have 3-minutes. 12
13
Mr. John Petrilla: Good evening. Thank you for providing this opportunity to speak. My name is 14
John Petrilla, I lived at Greenhouse One so it’s across the street. I… since the question before 15
the City and before this Commission is whether or not to increase… apply HIP and make the 16
waivers for density and all the waivers that have been proposed. I’ll speak to that and I’ll 17
concentrate… since this is the Transportation Commission, I’ll concentrate on the effects on 18
transportation. 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.
So, the basic question is this a good area for new high-density housing? And if you make these 1
waivers and changes for this project then you can expect that the properties on the rest of 2
the… on that block will also request similar changes and you will be hard-pressed to deny that. 3
So instead of talking about the 102-units here, if you scale that to the rest of just that block it 4
will be more like 250. You can do the math and there’s been some excellent maps provided. 5
6
So, then what’s the effect on or what is the neighborhood elementary school? That’s the 7
Greendale School, it’s about three-eights of a mile away, it’s across two busy streets. So, it’s 8
unlikely that you’ll have elementary school children will be walking on their own because they 9
have to cross both San Antonio and Middlefield. If they do walk on their own the most likely 10
route is to be… is through the Greenhouse property which is private property but it’s the most 11
direct route. The middle school is JLS, it’s about seven-eights of a mile away, that might be 12
bikeable. Again, you still have to cross the two busy streets and again the most direct route is 13
through the Greenhouse property. 14
15
Shopping, I guess I disagree with the previous speaker. I don’t think there’s that much shopping 16
nearby. There are… the stores that he mentioned or the shopping centers that he mentioned 17
are more like specialty stores like REI. There is a Costco, there’s a wine and beer store but the 18
only grocery store is a high-end grocery store, Piazza, and it’s a full-service grocery store but it’s 19
on the high-end sale. It’s not like a… to go to a Safeway you’re at least a mile away and you’ll be 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.
in Mountain View or in Mid-Town. Dining is limited in the area, again most of it’s in Mountain 1
View. There’s not a whole lot of family dining. There’s a very nice Japanese restaurant right next 2
to our property. 3
4
Parks and recreation, there are two parks within a half to three-quarters of a mile in Palo Alto. 5
And that’s 5-minutes? That’s 3-minutes already? Ok, I have a list here that I can supply. 6
7
Chair Riggs: That would be great. If you could just provide it to the… to Staff they’ll get us 8
copies. Alright, so Ken Kershner followed by Joan Larrabee. 9
10
Mr. Ken Kershner: Good evening. My name is Ken Kershner. I’m here on behalf of the Silicon 11
Valley Bike Coalition and I’d like to advocate for a Safe Routes to Work analysis and program to 12
be added to the EIR scope. The developer mentioned that there was many employers within a 13
1-mile radius so a Safe Routes to Work Program analyzes the commute shed immediately 14
around those employer campuses, where employees live, where their residences are in kind of 15
a heat mat format and then it overlays a protected bike lane network. The academic research 16
shows that unless you have a protected lane network where the bike lanes are physically 17
separated from the cars you don’t get the mode shift from bikes and scooters and people 18
continue to drive nearby even though it’s a very short distance. So, if we are really talking about 19
this kind of dense housing here, I think it’s mandatory that the analysis include a Safe Routes to 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.
Work Program that includes protected bike lanes on San Antonio and within that commute 1
shed of each of those employers. It’s well within the scope of what Nelson\Nygaard could do 2
for the developer but we’re not going to get that kind of mode shift unless the employees who 3
commute feel safe getting out of their cars. And they don’t feel safe unless they are physically 4
separated from the cars. There’s also a Caltrain stop nearby, there’s VTA nearby so this can be 5
useful for commuting to transit in a mixed-mode mentality and forget… to get that kind of 6
behavior shift getting people out of their cars, we’ve done car-centric development here for 7
120-years. And its’ time for affirmative action on bike lanes that are useful for scooters and 8
bikes to get people out of their cars and commuting differently. Errands can be also done this 9
way so it’s this triangle of land use, transportation, and housing. And if we’re going to be car-10
centric it’s not going to scale. The density is just going to just be congestion. Even if they’re EVs, 11
they have to be micro-mobility solutions with protected bike lanes. 12
13
I also want to suggest that an analysis be done on lowering the number of parking spaces 14
actually in the development. So that you’re forcing residents out of their cars and relying on 15
micro-mobility. Thank you. 16
17
Chair Riggs: Joan Larrabee followed by Doug… sorry, W. Storkman. 18
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.
Ms. Joan Larrabee: Good evening. I’m Joan Larrabee, I live at 777 San Antonio Road for over 30-1
years. I am quite in favor of housing. I spoke when the underlying zoning for Summer Winds 2
was changed from housing to commercial and I endorsed the first proposal for the 2-bedroom 3
units. Now it’s sort of been growing like topsy from 20 to 40 to 60 and now it’s up to 102. 4
5
These are some pictures that I took yesterday. San Antonio Road is no comparable to El 6
Camino. El Camino is six lanes, San Antonio Road is only four. It does not have a bike lane; it has 7
a shared bicycle something or other. I have never seen people on bikes on that road. I use to 8
bicycle over to the Shoreline Park but I don’t do it anymore. It’s not safe but it’s bike route, it is 9
not a bike lane. You can see its only four lanes with a very narrow median island. And you can 10
see how narrow the lanes are because there’s a car driving right over the bicycle marking that 11
says it’s shared. Remember that San Antonio road is the only exit from 101 that allows trucks so 12
it’s not safe for bicycles. It’s hardly safe for pedestrians and cars but it’s the only… all of the 13
other exits from 101 say no trucks. You go down to San Antonio, the cars go on San Antonio to 14
Alma Street and then from there they go up and down Palo Alto. 15
16
This is quite common. This is… I took this from the driveway from the Greenhouse and across 17
the street is Leghorn. And you’ll notice that the traffic signal for coming out of the Greenhouse 18
and for the drivers on Leghorn is green. But you can see that there’s a car stopped right there 19
and quite often it’s quite full of cars. And I understand from the neighbors they hear quite a lot 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.
of yelling and screaming and cursing and name-calling but this happens all the time. The subject 1
property is the far left, over there where they want to build right to the sidewalk and the 2
driveway would be on Leghorn which is only two lanes wide. And I’ve seen as many as 20 cars 3
stacked up on Leghorn waiting for a chance to get onto San Antonio Road. Sometimes they are 4
going through three and four signal changes. And there’s a car trying to make a U-turn and with 5
the new hotels they’re all going to be making U-turns at Middlefield Road and Leghorn. And you 6
can see how long it’s going to take him to make that turn. So, that’s what I’d like you to 7
consider when you start putting in housing that is bigger than the site. I have no problem with 8
housing (interrupted) 9
10
Chair Riggs: Final word Ms. Larrabee. 11
12
Ms. Larrabee: I’ve been endorsing it. 13
14
Chair Riggs: We have to move on. 15
16
Ms. Larrabee: Right. 17
18
Chair Riggs: Mr. Storkman followed by Mr. Starrett or Pat Starrett, sorry. 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. W. Storkman: My name is Warren Storkman. I’m a resident of Palo Alto for the last 60-years 1
and I’m registering a complaint against the proposal for the 102-units here that would like to be 2
built on the San Antonio Road. It’s… San Antonio Road is not going to be enough to 3
accommodate what’s being proposed for whatever the various things we got. We’re getting 4
two force unit hotel… a motel there and they didn’t give any access. They all have to drive up 5
and pass the unit, make a U-turn on Middlefield to go back down to the entrance of that hotel. 6
Drastic. This is going… San Antonio Road is going to be gridlocked from there all the way up to 7
El Camino in short while. You don’t have enough room for all the traffic that you are thinking of 8
approving these projects and I’m complaining about the one that is on Leghorn. That’s mainly 9
my problem. He lives on Leghorn and San Antonio and he wants to put 102-units in there. The 10
cars are not… I don’t know if you folks use San Antonio but I live only a couple blocks away from 11
it and its now a tragic situation. You got all those people coming down from Los Altos and the 12
road is just bumper to bumper and you’re going to create a stalemate. You’re just going to have 13
a grid on that damn road from San Antonio… I mean from 101 all the way up past El Camino. 14
Cars are just going to be parked there, that’s going to be a parking lot. So, but I’m complaining 15
that you shouldn’t approve that gentlemen’s… that he wants to make 102 apartments here on 16
Leghorn and San Antonio. It won’t work. You got… you can’t handle the cars. Just think… think 17
of really… really think seriously about the traffic on that road. You cannot accommodate all the 18
things that these people want and use San Antonio. There’s not enough room or doesn’t move 19
fast enough. I can assure you; I’ve been there for 60-years or 60-years [unintelligible]? Well, 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.
anyway, I’ve been living there for 60-years so give a little thought. San Antonio isn’t ready for all 1
the stuff that you… these people are asking for. I promise you. [unintelligible – off mic] that 2
hotel that they’re building there now (interrupted) 3
4
Chair Riggs: Mr. Storkman if you’re going to continue your comments, just please talk into the 5
mic so we can hear you. 6
7
Mr. Storkman: Oh, yeah, I was going to say that those four buildings that they’re building their 8
you guys approved here just short while back. They’ll be bankrupt in 2-years I promise you that. 9
I promise you that. They can’t handle it. Goodbye 10
11
Chair Riggs: Thank you. I’m sorry Ms. Starrett, I apologize for that for saying Mr. Starrett and I 12
believe after that we have Steph Levy and that’s the only cards I have. If someone else wants to 13
speak if you could just fill out a card and give it to me. Thank you please go ahead. 14
15
Ms. Pat Starrett: Sure. Patricia if that helps. I’m going to introduce you to Plan B. Where’s Plan 16
B? It's not here. It should be. What I’m going to address is whether it’s renters or homeowners. 17
I don’t know if you got the feedback from, I believe it’s the Architectural Review Board. One of 18
the neighbors lives in a condominium where they have the nesting. Is that what you call it? 19
Nesting? Stacking? She said that one blip, if one does… if one of these things doesn’t work the 20
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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.
company that can fix them, the only company, is 2-hours away. So, if you’re waiting to go to 1
work, you know that you’re going to be late. Not only before they get here but… so if that 2
happens two or three times, you’re not going to be too happy going up and down in that. So, 3
then you’ve got the possibility of 48 cars needing to park somewhere. I know I have no… I’ve… 4
ok I lived in North Palo Alto and 20-years ago I moved to the Greenhouse so I know town. I’ve 5
seen Planning Commissions come and go, I’ve seen City Councils, I’ve been involved in every 6
election happily. I love Palo Alto. I’ve been here since 1962. If I didn’t… my children went to 7
these schools. So, I would like to know where you plan to put 48 cars if they do not use that 8
nesting? Who’s going to repair it? How long will it take? How much time will they have to get to 9
work? Whether you have children or not I really suggest that you come and show me where 10
those cars, even if it's 10 which right now you already… you can do something but should you 11
do it? There is always that choice, it doesn’t mean you have too. You really have to consider 12
these are people. The apartment is not going to go across the street, the person is here. I would 13
really love to have you come and show me. I’ll meet you night, noon in the morning, noon at 14
night, where are 48 cars going to park if they can’t park in that place? 15
16
Children walking to school. My… I taught school in Palo Alto. I know this block. I raised three 17
children but it was in a neighborhood. It wasn’t on a busy street and you saw… I can’t tell you 18
how my heart aches to think of children crossing those streets. Try it yourself. Take a child; your 19
own a grandchild, borrow one, but try at school time and see what it’s like. Reality is 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.
reality is. You can’t just blow it away. Thank you very much for your attention. Palo Alto is great 1
and I know you’ll be thinking about what we’ve all had to say. Thank you. 2
3
Chair Riggs: Thank you, Patricia. Steph Levy followed by one additional speaker. Thomas Irpan. 4
5
Mr. Stephen Levy: The way of the world is that opponents come to these meetings. Neighbors 6
and people who are angry and you know that. So, my wife graciously on our 42nd wedding 7
anniversary arranged a schedule so you would at least hear one person who thinks that the HIP 8
in this area is not only necessary to protect us from lawsuit but is actually a good idea. 9
10
You have a bunch of people concerned about traffic. I am concerned that we have a Housing 11
Incentive Program that is not in any way going to meet our current target which is about to get 12
doubled. I don’t want this City to get sued. Jonathan tells me that though we have no 13
applications for the existing HIP, he’s beginning to hear hopeful signs that we may get some, 14
but that’s not 300-units a year or the 600-units that we will be having soon. 15
16
You all who were here when Hilary was here should remember that our Housing Element has 17
sites that she knew where not financially feasible and will be subject to lawsuit under the new 18
law. One of the things that hardest for residents and Council and Commissions to understand 19
we had a presentation from the Turner Center before COSA. Projects have to pencil out. If you 20
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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.
make conditions that the projects don’t pencil out you don’t get the housing and HCD will 1
consider that willful disregard of the commitment to housing. I don’t live on San Antonio; I 2
don’t know what the traffic is. I live downtown, but I know that every City up and down this 3
peninsula has residents complaining about the traffic. I know that traffic is terrible every place 4
but Palo Alto is not special. 5
6
If HCD in reviewing Cupertino where all the residents there said the project was terrible. It’s 7
going to destroy the City and in reviewing Hunting Beach where they said affordable housing 8
would kill the City; had to listen to every legitimate resident complaint we would get no housing 9
built so that’s the situation you’re in. I ask you how are you going to meet our housing goal 10
without at least opening up incentives for what looks like could be a reasonably large number 11
of units and then work like hell to solve the traffic problems here and every place. 12
13
Chair Riggs: I have Thomas Irpan. I’m sorry if I’m mispronouncing your last name. If it’s… I 14
haven’t… apologizes. 15
16
Mr. Thomas Irpan: Well, thank you for the time. We have lived in Greenhouse Two for the past 17
20-years and we welcome additional housing because of the ongoing problem. However, this 18
particular project is proposing 2.0 FAR which is similar to the hotel that was nearby. I’m pretty 19
sure that you probably remember during the hearing for that hotel we all show up. There is no 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.
one from the Greenhouse approve that. Joan is here and everybody is here so I was wondering 1
what the… what comes up here? Why this 2.0 FAR is being proposed again and then if you 2
approve this what happens to the next lot? We have so much problem already. That’s the only 3
question I have. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Riggs: Thank you, Thomas. Seeing no other comments and not having any other cards we 6
will close the hearing and bring it back to the Commission. Before we get started with our 7
deliberations, I want to refer back to… Sheldon, if you could back us up like nine slides to your 8
slide EIR issues preliminary. And I just want to frame kind of our scope tonight which is first off, 9
we are scoping the EIR. So, what many of the things that have been mentioned by the public, 10
they are going to be covered right? We… these are already issues that were preliminary so our 11
roll and the Planning Commission really is what should the EIR consider? Its already considered 12
so to talk through options, ideas and if you just go to your next slide because I think these two 13
slides really work together in terms of what our role is tonight. Everything that the public 14
discovered… submitted tonight and said tonight becomes part of the record. If other people 15
want to submit comments but please submit comments and feedback by the 7th. So those of 16
you that are taking off, if you have additional things please submit them but the… this is kind of 17
our scope tonight in terms of scoping the EIR. And I want to just ask Staff too, I think that the 18
other thing that you’re really interested in is the aspect. Our opinion on the Housing Incentive 19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Program and whether or not that we would… we think that it’s right to think about putting that 1
or thinking about that in this location. 2
3
So, am I right in kind of framing it as what should the EIR consider but also this policy? What are 4
our thoughts about this policy? 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, that’s correct Chair. 7
8
Chair Riggs: Apparently, I’ve reached my own time limit so I just wanted to provide those two… 9
that dichotomous relationship for us. Clearly, you may have other things that you all want to 10
talk about but I think that structure is important for us starting out. 11
12
And if you don’t mind, I think I want to be… try to be deliberate in terms of our first round of 13
comments because we may be all over the map in terms of what we do. So maybe I’ll just start 14
with Commissioner Lauing and go down the line in terms of comments and questions. Take all 15
the time you need and then we’ll go free form after that if people want. Does that sound 16
reasonable? Ok, so Commissioner Lauing the floor… unless Commissioner Templeton, you hit 17
your button. Is there a question about that process? 18
19
Commissioner Templeton: (off mic) That was from last 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
Chair Riggs: Ok so we’ll start with Commissioner Lauing and then Commissioner Roohparvar. 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, there’s quite a number of restrictions that we’ll all try not to cross 4
the line. And I know one of them is FAR but I just want to ask the factual thing about that is as I 5
understand from Packet Page 21 the project with HIP is 1.93 and that’s the existing HIP 6
maximum; as it exists; having nothing to do with San Antonio? 7
8
Mr. Sing: So, if you’re applying the HIP downtown and the El Camino it’s 1.5 combined non-9
commercial and residential. 10
11
Commissioner Lauing: 1.5. 12
13
Mr. Sing: So, we would be looking at expanding that in this area to 2.0. 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, that’s what I wanted to be clear because I was confused as to if this 16
column was the existing HIP. So, I don’t think we have an existing HIP then; standards for the 17
existing HIP. 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: We do have standards for the existing HIP. I think what Sheldon is saying is that we 1
would have to even alter those existing standards. One we’d have to apply it to this area. The 2
HIP is not applying to this parcel to my understanding and two, to reach this proposal that 3
we’re talking about tonight or that the project sponsor has presented. We would need to even 4
expand it further so that it’s beyond the 1.5 combined. 5
6
Commissioner Lauing: Ok so there’s not a chart in here or an attachment that lists the existing 7
standards but in this particular case 1.5 is the standard and this project would take 1.93. That’s 8
what you said. 9
10
Mr. Sing: Yeah, the standard is the 1.5 and we’re seeking to expand that. 11
12
Commissioner Lauing: And as I understand we can’t talk about that tonight in terms of our 13
thoughts about the standard? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: You can talk about the HIP. It was the Retail Preservation and the Gross Floor Area 16
Amendment that they are also requesting. So, the Housing Incentive Program is far game 17
including the FAR. 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, ok, good, that’s what I wanted to know before I cross any deadlines 1
here. So, I think certainly the starting point if we’re going to expand a given program, HIP would 2
be apply the normal standards of this chart for everything. To that area and see where it fits or 3
doesn’t fit and we don’t have the benefit of that chart. So, an initial reaction would be is it’s 4
been mentioned and I’ll mention it in a minute that the issue of basically no transit there right 5
now and constrained parking and no train station and so on. I don’t know why we’d instantly 6
liberalize the current standard of applying the HIP. So that would be my view on that issue. 7
8
So, I really appreciate the public comment. It was very helpful and very informed. All of it, every 9
single speaker. There’s no question that Palo Alto needs hundreds more housing units. 10
Sacramento is making that point to all of us loudly every day and we’re obviously landlocked 11
and have certain limits on where we can build in this City. We’re not going to be having a lot 12
more land so I think we have to be creative and flexible about looking for other areas. That was 13
the whole point of the Housing Improvement Program; to get people, get developers to build 14
and we allowed those constraints. So, I think that does include taking a second look at prior 15
decisions such as the Land Use Element in the 2017 Comp Plan that says we should build in the 16
San Antonio corridor. So, I think it’s perfectly logical, in fact probably necessary to do that if 17
we’re going to find a place to improve our housing project… housing inventory in any 18
meaningful way. At the same time, we obviously have to mitigate any unnecessary collateral 19
damage. Everybody… every neighborhood as one speaker said is suffering traffic congestion, 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.
some have parking problems, this certainly describes the San Antonio corridor already; even 1
before the two new hotels come up. But the Zoning Amendment has initial appeal because in 2
the macro area and I know this doesn’t speak necessarily to that neighborhood but in the 3
macro area we do get 102-units in our housing inventory. And that compares to the one or two 4
new units that we generally discuss sitting up here listening to applicants. 5
6
So, but the critical part is how do we address some of these difficult problems. So, I’ll just very 7
briefly talk about some and then talk about the two big ones to the extent that I’m following 8
the rules here. We won’t talk about retail. The historical building, obviously that will be on the 9
EIR. It needs study. That may be a minor problem or not. It’s certainly not an architectural 10
marvel so that would be one item. The school comments were absolutely right on. If this is 11
going to grow then we have to know where the kids are going to school. That said, it’s 12
dominantly studios and not to may 2-bedrooms so at the point where somebody starts a family, 13
they might be creating turn over there. Can’t add anything to the excellent comments on 14
biking. It has to be safe, it’s not right now. Our biggest need in Palo Alto in my view has always 15
been that for… is for low-income housing and the idea in this project is 15 percent BMR. There 16
will be discussions about that in the next year about moving that up for developers and more is 17
better in that regard. So, it could be… if you could fit in a few more of those, that could be a 18
basis of negotiation in other parts of this thing. 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.
So, the two huge parts… issues here that have to be addressed are the mass transit issue and 1
the associated issues with parking. We’ve kind of called these projects parking light. We’re 2
hoping that people don’t need as many cars as they will but the points, I want to make here is 3
that the… there’s not only no mass transit, there are no neighborhood amenities so people 4
have to drive. There is about 100 percent of resident activity will be auto trips which is exactly 5
what the CS Zoning documents and unlike more neighborhoods, there’s no overflow street 6
parking. So, there’s no safety valve in case there’s not enough places for folks to park, there just 7
isn’t. So, I think the above two issues will guarantee gridlock and that’s the ones that we have 8
to look at in terms of mitigating within the EIR. So, one of the suggestions here is that 9
mitigation… comments are welcome on mitigation numbers to avoid or reduce environmental 10
effects. The Staff report suggests that a number of these big problems are going to be intended 11
to be mitigated by a TDM Program. Well this would have to be a Barry Bonds on steroid TDM 12
Program like we’ve never seen before to address what’s going to happen here in terms of 13
congestion and gridlock. This is not one where you can just hand out Clipper Passes to the 14
renters and say good luck with that. Yeah, I think it would have to be very robust, it would have 15
to have a lot of ongoing investigation from the developer, and oversight enforcement by the 16
City. So, I think this includes things like frequent shuttles to the train station, to the bus stops, 17
perhaps up to San Antonio Shopping Center at the El Camino intersections. So that those folks 18
can move in a created mass transit where there is no mass transit right now. And I’ll not talk 19
about parking except to say that there are other options there such as leasing some of the flat 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.
areas there from other businesses to add to the parking inventory that might be necessary in 1
order to mitigate these problems as this goes forward. 2
3
One issue that I keep thinking about though is that we may not be able to apply all of the 4
standards of the HIP Program simply because of this. And so, we might have to have a second 5
kind of HIP Program and it comes back to one size doesn’t fit all. Every neighborhood is not the 6
same so one outcome of the EIR could be bad from the developer’s standpoint, but we have to 7
come up with some different standards to allow some inventory to be built there. If not 8
according to the requested standards that are in our chart. 9
10
So, it’s appealing to look at, support the look, it would really increase our housing inventory, 11
but there’s some major hurdles there that the EIR is going to have to dig into. Thank you. 12
13
Chair Riggs: Alright Commissioner Roohparvar and then followed by Commissioner Alcheck 14
[note- Vice-Chair]. 15
16
Commissioner Roohparvar: So, thank you for your presentation. I’m going to focus my 17
comments on the EIR. I see that you’ve flagged the top six issues the EIR should study. One 18
other one that you might consider would be hazardous and hazardous materials given its an 19
industrial area. That could present some issues there. 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
I actually live very close to… not within 500-feet but close where I use San Antonio and the 101 2
a lot. Definitely, transportation and traffic is an issue. It gets very congested getting onto the 3
101. I think some key intersections would be San Antonio and Charleston, Charleston, and 4
Fabian Way, you get a lot of grid lock down San Antonio, up Charleston and down Fabian Way 5
turning left on Charleston towards the 101. Especially during commuting hours. It starts around 6
4:00ish afternoon and then in the morning around 8:00. It’s worse in the afternoon than in the 7
morning. So those are I think intersections that should definitely be studied. I think that’s my 8
comments for now. 9
10
Chair Riggs: Alright Commissioner Alcheck [note – Vice-Chair], thank you Commissioner 11
Roohparvar. 12
13
Vice-Chair Alcheck: I have some question for Staff and then I’ll make some comments. So, do 14
we have any information… I’m guessing we don’t but I’m going to ask anyway. Do we have any 15
information regarding the standards that Mountain View implemented down the street for the 16
project on the corner of San Antonio? And it sorts of starts at El Camino and it comes almost all 17
the way up to (interrupted) 18
19
Ms. Tanner: The San Antonio Village? Is that (interrupted) 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
Vice-Chair Alcheck: Well, actually it’s not… part of (interrupted) 2
3
[note – unknown female speaker:] (spoke from the audience off mic) It’s down to 4
[unintelligible](interrupted) 5
6
Chair Riggs: Excuse me, we have to have order. I’m sorry Miss, you can’t comment right now. 7
8
Vice-Chair Alcheck: I’m interested in sort of (interrupted) 9
10
Chair Riggs: Excuse me, you’re going to need to excuse yourself. Please, please, I’m sorry. 11
12
Vice-Chair Alcheck: I’m trying to understand sort of what the residential building standards 13
were not just for the project in I guess… what do they call it? The Crossings, the village there 14
but also across the street off of Fayette and Miller and I think California too. 15
16
Ms. Tanner: I don’t think we have those available right now. Correct me if I’m wrong on that 17
Sheldon. We don’t have those available right now. 18
19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Alcheck: I think it would be appropriate to sort of at least understand what’s going 1
on, on that… in that section. When I… it wasn’t that long ago when a majority of the Council 2
sort of suggested that this was in a… this… our section of San Antonio wasn’t suitable for 3
residential. I think to some extent Mountain View has clearly demonstrated that San Antonio is 4
suitable for high-density residential. And so, I’m thrilled that the Council is exploring this idea of 5
expanding the Housing Incentive Program. I’m not surprised that than applicant sort of brought 6
it to them. 7
8
I’ll sort of address some of the comments here. I think there’s the way San Antonio has been 9
and the way we understand CS Zoning now and there’s what’s been happening in reality there. 10
You know if the read the CS Zoning definition, you’d think wow, this would be a great location 11
for an Orchard Hardware Supply. That was an unbelievable build out that Osh [note- sounds 12
like] did and it did go bankrupt there. I suspect that the hotel will probably do great considering 13
the cost of hotel rooms in our area and yet a lumber yard/hardware store couldn’t even cut it. 14
And it’s essentially (interrupted) 15
16
Chair Riggs: (off mic) It’s going to be an ACE now. 17
18
Commissioner Roohparvar: (off mic) Yeah, [unintelligible](interrupted) 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.
Vice-Chair Alcheck: It’s going to be an ACE and then for how long? And you know the 1
interesting thing is that if you go to a Google map for example and I know this not just because I 2
Google mapped it today but also because I’m really familiar with that area and you just type in 3
the word school. The market is demonstrating that in fact, this is an area that’s suitable for 4
schools. Right, we have the Imagination Lab School, Greendell is not far away, Athena Academy, 5
Gideon Hausner is right there. That’s a kindergarten through 8th grade; Palo Alto Prep; the JCC 6
has a preschool. I’m not surprised that the walkability score is so high because you’ve got the 7
JCC Community Center. And then it's only around the corner from Cubberley which we’re also… 8
you know this is not on tonight’s agenda but we’re exploring using it as teacher housing and a 9
major expansion of community resources. So, you know I’ve said this in the past, I don’t think 10
there’s a parcel in Palo Alto that’s not suitable for residential housing. I would suggest that 11
every square inch of Palo Alto is more suitable to residential housing than any square inch off 12
the 680. I think that we’ve got to start considering this entire area… if we could come to the 13
agreement here that Palo Alto represents some epicenter of the bustling Silicon Valley it has to 14
be confusing that there’s like this congested parking lot for used and new work trucks off San 15
Antonio right in the heart. I have to assume maybe that Hedgehold [note – Hengehold] owns 16
the land. I don’t know how that pencils out. I suspect that Mountain View’s parcels will begin to 17
flip rapidly as a result of the projects they are doing down the street. And if we don’t sort of 18
provide some incentives our… the parcels in Palo Alto will remain either neglected and 19
uninvested in and we won’t achieve our other broader goals with respect to housing. 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
So, I think we need to sort of think long and hard about what… I think exploring the HIPs 2
application to the CS Zone is very interesting. I wouldn’t even stop there. I would explore 3
whether this entire area is zoned appropriately. I’ll just say this, to have a kindergarten through 4
8th grade across the street from another, I think… I don’t know what Athena is. Down the street 5
from four pre-schools that are all right there within half a mile of this intersection. Next to a 6
working… work truck dealership like that strikes me as sort of a zoning problem when you have 7
those types of uses right next to each other. It’s not surprising that private educational 8
institutions have identified this area as suitable because they want to get close to all the 9
residents there in the community. 10
11
I think the biking concerns are really interesting. I don’t know many… I now bike to work two to 12
three times a week and I do almost everything… I have to go here from to… across through Los 13
Altos and I do everything I can to avoid San Antonio because it’s quite busy. I think that the City 14
should think hard about what measures it could take to bolster the biking safety on San 15
Antonio. I do think that… we had a representative of the biking organization, I’m blanking on 16
(interrupted) 17
18
Commissioner Roohparvar: [unintelligible – off mic] 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.
Vice-Chair Alcheck: Yes, and I think that he’s exactly right. That if we… if you can’t encourage 1
that transition without providing a greater sense of safety. And I think if we are motivated to 2
encourage these sorts of housing developments that rely on bike trips to some extent to reduce 3
the reliance on vehicles. Then we have to as a City sort of think about what steps would need to 4
take to make that possible. I think there was an email from Steph Levy, he didn’t really touch 5
upon it tonight in his remarks (interrupted) 6
7
Chair Riggs: (off mic) [unintelligible] his comments earlier. 8
9
Vice-Chair Alcheck: Yeah, oh, maybe I missed that. That I thought was particularly interesting 10
which is that we may not even have a choice to some extent because we have to identify so 11
many opportunities to develop what will be our future RHNA allocation; which is anticipated to 12
be much, much higher, significantly higher than it is right now. And when we go through that 13
process of identifying those sites all over the City that could theoretically host such and such 14
units. I have a feeling that it’s… I mean there could be essentially push back up until that day we 15
get our RHNA allocation. And the day we get our RHNA allocation I assume that the Staff will be 16
directed from the top levels of our local government to identify as many spots on San Antonio 17
they possibly can because I don’t even know how we’re going to find the number of parcels to 18
do it if… with San Antonio included based on sort of the suggested estimates on what our RHNA 19
allocation will be. 20
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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,
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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
So, I think the questions that I have are number one, are the parcels that we are looking at, this 2
study area, significantly different than what you know what you were talking about, potential 3
environmental issues. Are they significantly different than the sites that Mountain View 4
greenlighted down the street? Do we have to reinvent the wheel? Can we begin to look at their 5
EIR and understand the issues that they looked at? I think that would be really helpful to be 6
perfectly honest, to see what the Environmental Impact Report was for those. These projects 7
are massive, I mean they’re… this 100-units, those are 2,000, 2,600. I mean I don’t know what 8
the one on Lafayette is but I’m guessing it’s 200, 300 or 400. So, I think it’s not clear to me that 9
all of those are the same project. I think some of them are actually separate and it would be 10
interesting to understand what impacts they… how they resolved those issues because we can 11
decide whether or not… our Council and our Commission and our community really can at least 12
have some input into how Mountain View balanced some of those issues. 13
14
You know I didn’t look at the project. It’s funny, the first picture I saw of the project was when 15
you put it on here and I thought oh, that looks really good. I didn’t even crack this open because 16
it just seems a little premature to be looking at the project and sort of outside the scope. But I 17
think that if we’re talking about kicking off this process, I think we have to start exploring these 18
options and I would support… I know we’re not looking for any formal action but I would 19
support Staff’s getting involved. Taking the steps to essentially kick off the application of the 20
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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
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HIP to this entire study area and exploring that with speed because there’s a benefit to having a 1
property owner in the area that’s motivated. Now that I’m looking at the set of plans, you could 2
argue they’re quite motivated because they’ve spent a lot of effort of drafting some specific 3
ideas. And I think to some extent it’s always hard to be the first project in a study area like this 4
because you don’t have anything to compare to. So, I think again, this is why I think it’s super 5
important that we understand where the intersection between Palo Alto and Mountain View 6
occurs and get a broader perspective. Because I think what we’re likely to see and it sort of 7
depends on the market in general but how does the rest of Mountain View start to transition 8
around our sections and what impacts that’s going to have and how are we going to satisfy our 9
housing goals? Ok, that’s all I have to say but I am excited. I don’t know that I need a second 10
round. 11
12
Chair Riggs: Ok I’m going to say just two things before I had it to Commissioner Templeton 13
which are my kind of stepping out of my Chair role comments. I think applying the Housing 14
Incentive Program here across the study area is reasonable. I do think that many of the issues 15
that were brought up are… will be assessed as a part of the proposed areas. 16
17
One thing that I want to caution the Staff about doing this is letting a very US perspective of 18
having to have Class One separated bikeways to drive mode shift, drive this discussion. That is 19
actually not found in literature. That is a very specialist cyclist that will use a Class One 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.
[unintelligible] and that is actually a very non, for example, European perspective. So, the idea 1
of modal separation is a very US creation and so (interrupted) 2
3
Vice-Chair Alcheck: [unintelligible – off mic] 4
5
Chair Riggs: Let me finish, please. 6
7
Vice-Chair Alcheck: (off mic) No, just say… I would just like (interrupted) 8
9
Chair Riggs: They understand what I’m saying and I’m saying it for the record Commissioner 10
Alcheck [note – Vice-Chair]. 11
12
Vice-Chair Alcheck: (off mic) I would just like to understand. I just… if you could parse that out a 13
little bit so I know what you mean. That’s all. 14
15
Chair Riggs: I would appreciate not being interrupted (interrupted) 16
17
Vice-Chair Alcheck: Sorry. 18
19
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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
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Riggs: But you can ask me a question and I will answer it later. I also feel like that this is 1
one of the situations where you have to ask the question whether or not you build the 2
infrastructure on the roadway before you build the density. Which is a chicken or egg question 3
because you need the density to use the infrastructure. So, I think there’s to a certain degree 4
there needs to be a look at the entire bike/ped network in this area as you densify but I don’t 5
know that the project needs to be held up… specific project needs to be held up on the account 6
of that. Back to the Commission.... if Commissioner Alcheck [note -Vice-Chair] would like me to 7
explain what a Class One bikeway is, it is basically a dedicated bike path that would be set apart 8
from the roadway. And the reason I’m suggesting that is basically you’ll probably never achieve 9
the LOS that you would need on San Antonio and still have the room for a dedicated bikeway 10
but we can… that is not for us to design here from the dais. That is for the transportation 11
consultant to look at as a part of the transportation component on the EIR. 12
13
Vice-Chair Alcheck: (off mic) So it’s like not a good goal you’re saying? To push for that scenario. 14
15
Chair Riggs: Simply having a Class One bikeway dedicated bike path does not drive the regular 16
everyday commuter. They’re going to bike either way. That drives a different population 17
segment that may or may not live in a studio or a 1-bedroom. 18
19
Vice-Chair Alcheck: (off mic) Got it, thank you. 20
_______________________
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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1
Chair Riggs: Thank you. I apologize for snapping at you when (interrupted) 2
3
Vice-Chair Alcheck: (off mic) No, I just (interrupted) 4
5
Chair Riggs: Interrupted me but we need to respect one another. Commissioner Templeton. 6
7
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. I have a few questions. First one, just a technical 8
question on your proposed next steps list of the different Commissions that will be seeing this 9
project. You said that the EIR will… Draft EIR will be ready after the Planning Commission sees it 10
again. Would we be seeing it again to look at the Draft EIR or…? 11
12
Mr. Sing: I think the idea is to have that comment period be at the same time as you’ll be giving 13
recommendation to the Council. 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: Ok so we’d have a chance to look at it at the meeting. 16
17
Mr. Sing: Yeah, it’s was just a matter of putting the bullets may be side by side or so, whatever 18
(interrupted) 19
20
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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
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Commissioner Templeton: That’s fine. 1
2
Mr. Sing: But anyway, it just worked out that way. 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: I think it would be really helpful if that were available for us. Thank 5
you. Do you know what the FAR of the developments, the residential developments of the JCC 6
are that were mentioned? The Taube Koret and there was a senior area and a (interrupted) 7
8
Mr. Sing: I don’t know but I think the idea is when we’re going forward, we will be doing a 9
comprehensive study of FAR and potential densities in the area. 10
11
Commissioner Templeton: I think it would be really interesting because I think that those 12
communities have been really welcomed by Palo Alto and it would be a nice comparison to see 13
the densities there and all that. Great, thank you. 14
15
And then just a correction about Greendale is nearby, but I believe it’s just a TK so the nearest 16
neighborhood… transitional kindergarten and not a full elementary. So, the nearest 17
neighborhood elementary I believe would be Fair Meadow so that’s quite a ways away. That’s 18
over on Meadow. There is also Hoover off of Charleston which is an opt-in school, a lottery-19
based. So, it’s potential that if families were living in this property that they would need to go 20
_______________________
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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quite a ways to get to elementary school. And I think that’s just being on the border of the City, 1
right? 2
3
About the Safe Routes to Work, I agree with several of the comments here and I understand 4
what Chair Riggs was just mentioning. I’ll throw in there that I worked for a long time for over a 5
decade at the campus over there on Shoreline in Mountain View and had tempted to use 6
Charleston as a bike route and that was terrifying. And so, I do know that we have some 7
improvements in the Charleston/Arastradero project so that will be… the improvements are 8
coming. Most of them are here, I think there’s another phase but that area will be improved. 9
Do we know if there’s any intention to do any similar types of improvements on San Antonio 10
that are already planned? 11
12
Ms. Tanner: I would have to talk with our transportation Staff about what’s in our Bike and 13
Pedestrian Plan and kind of what they are foreseeing in that area. But it’s certainly something 14
that we would want to consider, especially in the EIR, what are the plans for improvements 15
there. 16
17
Commissioner Templeton: Yeah, I think that’s… it sounds like that… that we all agree that 18
should be in the scope for the EIR so I would love to see that. Yeah, especially given the high 19
_______________________
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volume of car traffic on that road. Would I want my family members riding on it? I certainly was 1
a little nervous myself. 2
3
I would also… just one other angle of that would be having the HIP area expanded to the 4
section we’re talking about between Middlefield and Charleston on San Antonio, would that 5
justify future projects if there’s not one already on the books. In other words, can it… do these 6
two things feed each other in a way? I don’t know if that’s part of the (interrupted) 7
8
Ms. Tanner: Can you repeat your question, I’m sorry? 9
10
Commissioner Templeton: Sure. If we increase the… if we do the HIP Overlay between 11
Middlefield and Charleston as suggested, would that… if there’s not already a San Antonio bike 12
improvement project on the books. Would that then justify one because we’ll have more 13
residences in that area? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: To say that perhaps if there’s this development, other developments, there could 16
be a way to get to enhanced bike facilities along San Antonio? 17
18
Commissioner Templeton: Right. In other words, a positive outcome of having more residences 19
is there might be improvement on the roadways. 20
_______________________
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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1
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, I think that speaks to Chair Riggs kind of infrastructure first or housing first 2
kind of proposing. 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: Ok so another consideration given that this project has limited green 5
space and it will be across the street from the beautify Greenhouse property. You guys do have 6
a lovely neighborhood. I would like to understand the impacts on that neighborhood. Will 7
people be… people who aren’t residence be enjoying that space more and how will that impact 8
the current residents of the Greenhouse neighborhood? So, it’s very attractive and it might be 9
the place to go if you needed green space and you didn’t have it on your own property. So, we 10
need to think about that and understand that. 11
12
Thank you to Commissioner Roohparvar for mentioning that it’s an industrial area and I’d really 13
like to understand the hazardous environmental impact there so that sounds like that will be 14
included in the scope. 15
16
And then similar to the infrastructure improvements regarding the bike path, just trying to 17
understand the public transit that will be investigated as part of the EIR. What… how does that 18
work? Is that only going to be looking at existing plans or would we be able to include 19
mitigations that improve public transit in that area? 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,
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1
Mr. Sing: I mean there’s certainly the existing what they call a project EIR and there’s some 2
cumulative that we’d have to look at… cumulative study that we’d have to look at but we’ll 3
have to investigate that. So, these are good comments [unintelligible]. 4
5
Commissioner Templeton: Ok great. I would love to see potentially expanding the cross-town 6
shuttle, to have stops that go as far to serve these new residences should they happen. And on 7
that note, I… just to answer your questions on the considerations page, I’m inclined to support 8
the HIP expansion in this area. I would love to see this potential become a reality of more 9
transit; rooftop gardens already exist in the area over at the JCC. It’s beautiful. I’ve been to City 10
events that have been hosted there and I don’t know about the FAR. I need more information. 11
Thank you. 12
13
Chair Riggs: Commissioner Summa. 14
15
Commissioner Summa: Thank you. So, thank you for the Staff report and to everyone who came 16
out tonight. I think it’s interesting to think about this area transitioning to a residential 17
neighborhood and I guess in thinking about it and going and looking at the site. I think it 18
would… I think there is an opportunity to do it holistically and sort of make sure we get the 19
_______________________
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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things we want there. And that would be sort of maybe a mini area plan or something like that. 1
Doing it sort of piecemeal might mean we don’t get the things we want. 2
3
I think the speakers tonight brought up a lot of the various obvious problems and traffic and 4
parking being the most important probably and what goes along with that is safety. I wouldn’t 5
want my children crossing the streets until they were… it’s a pretty scary street to cross on foot 6
I have to be honest. So, in that way then I think about do we want to plan some kind of park on 7
that side of San Antonio. Those are the kind of things that I was thinking about. 8
9
In terms of this specific project, I think it’s intriguing to consider expanding the HIP to this area. 10
However, I would… I think I agree with Commissioner Lauing that since we haven’t had a lot of 11
experiences with our HRP [note -HIP?] we should probably keep it at the same development 12
standards which is makes sense to me. 13
14
I think another thing is we have to assume families are going to be living here. Even in… 15
because of the cost of housing here, they’re… families will be living in potentially studios as 16
they already are in Palo Alto. So, I think it’s really important to plan for children and families. 17
18
I think we have to also acknowledge that the reason I think there’s private schools located close 19
by is because this is some more affordable commercial rents and so we will be displacing those 20
_______________________
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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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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people. I’m not sure they’ll all be able to find a place to stay in Palo Alto and I know that that 1
kickboxing studio is very, very popular, and important to a lot of people. So, for instance, I think 2
we have to think about that. Not that we shouldn’t do it but we have to think about it. 3
4
I don’t think that… I think Greenhouse is private and I don’t think anybody would be able to use 5
that. So that’s… so it’s pretty limited in terms of recreation close by, especially since I believe 6
there will be children living here. 7
8
I also don’t understand exactly how a TDM works in residential. When it’s in an office situation 9
you kind of… you can make rules for your employees. It’s harder to make rules for people that 10
are independent. 11
12
And I really worry about under parking this particular site. There’s literally no other place to 13
park. I don’t know where… if people didn’t have a parking spot on-site, I don’t know where they 14
would park. 15
16
And I’m… I would prioritize… well, I don’t know how the parking is going to be portioned out or 17
but I would prioritize parking spots on-site for all the BMR units. And the reason I say that is out 18
of the sense of fairness because I think BMR tenants are… have an… have been waiting long for 19
a place to live in Palo Alto and they don’t have much of a choice. So other people who live there 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.
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who pay market rate will be making a choice about whether or not it’s convenient for them to 1
have a car or two cars or whatever it needs. 2
3
So, I had a question, can a protected bike lane… a member of Silicon Valley Bike Coalition I think 4
talked about a protected bike lane. Is that something that can be looked at? The feasibility of 5
that in the EIR? 6
7
Ms. Tanner: Can we look at that Sheldon in the EIR? 8
9
Mr. Sing: I mean I think it could be explored. I don’t know… it’s not something that’s proposed 10
by the project or… it’s something that we’d have to look at. 11
12
Commissioner Summa: Ok. 13
14
Ms. Tanner: Yeah and I think that to your point around kind of and I think Commissioner 15
Templeton’s point as well. You know we would want the facility to be continuous so having a 16
stretch of bike lane in front of one project doesn’t get you very far. And so, thinking about what 17
is our bike plan look like? What do our Capital Improvement Plan look like for this area in terms 18
of bike facilities? Trying to understand is there a way to connect the two if there are plans for 19
_______________________
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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better bike facilities here? It’s definitely something that we as Staff can certainly look at, even if 1
it’s not part of the EIR, and work with the applicant on. 2
3
Commissioner Summa: Yeah ok. So, and I appreciate the comment from a member of the public 4
made about puzzle lifts. I know people that live with puzzle lifts and they are a real bummer 5
when one person doesn’t close their gate correctly and then the whole bay is locked down. So, I 6
think… you know I’m sure there’s different brands and some are better than others but I just 7
want to mention that I think it’s important to make sure that that’s going to be very functional 8
for everyone. 9
10
That being said I’m intrigued by the idea of transitioning this area to kind of a new residential 11
neighborhood. 12
13
Chair Riggs: Commissioner Waldfogel. 14
15
Commissioner Waldfogel: Thank you. It’s always fun to go last. I’m actually used to going last. If 16
you have a name that starts with W, you get used to it over the years. I want to thank Staff and 17
the applicant for bringing this project forward and also bringing this district change discussion 18
to the PTC. I don’t think I heard many comments from my colleagues that I disagree with so I 19
think so far this has been a pretty productive discussion. 20
_______________________
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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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
I have some short comments about the EIR scope and then some longer comments about the 2
HIP. In the EIR scope, I’m just going to ask a heretical question which is what’s the minimum 3
scope fastest process that we could go through? The reason I ask that is I suspect that the last 4
90 percent of analysis on this project will get us 10 percent back and I know that there’s a 5
required government process. We have to go through it but I would really hate to… I’ll amplify a 6
comment that Commissioner Alcheck [note- Vice-Chair] made. I mean I would hate to miss a 7
financing window because of our multi-step process and because of EIR or other obstacles. So, 8
if there a way to make this… if we decide we want to move this forward, is there a way to make 9
this move forward pretty efficiently? 10
11
Ms. Tanner: I think and I’ll ask Sheldon to chime in as well, because the 788 San Antonio is 12
eligible for being registered on the National Register, it’s demolition which this project would 13
necessitate makes it a significant and unavoidable impact. And I believe that impacts the level 14
of review that is needed by this project. I’m not sure what you’re… if you want to maybe say a 15
little bit more about the timeframe that you are seeing for the project and when we’ll be 16
coming back. 17
18
Mr. Sing: Yeah right so we have to do the EIR but also what’s driving the timeline is we have to 19
do traffic counts to facilitate the traffic study and we are… so we have to wait. The schools are 20
_______________________
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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in session, Stanford has to be in session and then we can do the traffic counts. So, then we have 1
to look at a draft of that and complete the rest of the analysis. So that’s why we’re saying 2
springtime is probably when we can come forward with this EIR. 3
4
Commissioner Waldfogel: So, what I would encourage is if there’s any way to expedite that 5
process. I mean the developer has an interest in expediting the process and there’s a way to 6
collaborate, I would encourage those things to happen. I don’t know if it’s possible or not and 7
obviously there are steps, we have to go through but as I said, I’d just hate to miss a financing 8
window. Market shifts on us and you know how this stuff goes because we actually have a 9
history of zoning approvals where projects don’t actually happen and I just wouldn’t want that 10
to happen here. 11
12
Relative to the HIP, I’m actually pretty excited about this. This is the first project I’ve seen in a 13
couple years on the PTC that’s proposing housing at scale which is very exciting. It’s all housing, 14
no office, that’s exciting. It has a solid BMR component. I mean we could whine and have ask 15
for a little bit more but I’m pretty happy to get what we’re getting here. You know last meeting 16
we saw a flag lot project that’s taken 2-year of Staff time to maybe produce one luxury unit. 17
This is different, this is pretty cool. I’m excited about that. I think this district makes a lot of 18
sense for a HIP, these blocks of San Antonio, and I also agree with several of my colleagues. This 19
is a chance to think comprehensively about the future of the San Antonio corridor. We’ve 20
_______________________
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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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.
piecemealed a couple of hotels, a Mosque, a JCC. I mean they were all bigger scale. The GM 1
district on the northside of San Antonio has larger-scale buildings and that has an 2
indeterminate future right now which was traded last year. So, we really don’t know what will 3
happen there. So, I agree with my colleague Commissioner Summa’s comment about an area 4
plan process. I don’t think we should condition anything here. I mean this project should be de-5
coupled, this EIR should be de-coupled from an area plan discussion but it’s a chance to get 6
beyond the EIR scope and look at some of the amenities that we care about. I’ve heard several 7
good ideas. I think some of them are beyond EIR scope but they would certainly fit into an area 8
plan scope. And if we looked at that, if we thought about it as a potential new residential 9
district, I mean it’s exciting. It’s an area that’s a mile from Google, it’s a mile from Caltrain, and 10
it currently frankly looks somewhat underutilized. Auto rental shops, trucks, there’s a garden 11
material depot over in the GM District that is adjacent to this. There’s a bunch of empty 12
industrial buildings on the northside of this district so this is a great opportunity. I think that if 13
we spin up an area plan process, it’s a chance to look even possibility even a little more broadly 14
than just the specific CS section that’s under discussion today. So, I would support HIP for the 15
CS section but I’d also, if it’s appropriate, if this is something that needs a motion, I’d be happy 16
to make a motion recommending some process. I don’t know exactly how we would stand that 17
up. 18
19
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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.
I also just want to make a side note comment about schools. There’s actually some ambiguity 1
about what school district this parcel is in. The PAUSD District Map shows the district line 2
actually passing through the parcel, dividing the parcel. I’ve had some other conversations with 3
the… I just had a brief hallway conversation with Mr. O’Hanlon who said that that may be an 4
error on the PAUSD Map. I don’t know the answer to that but it’s either PAUSD in which case, 5
Commissioner Templeton’s comments are correct about proximity to schools or it’s somehow 6
split down the middle. And then I had some conversations with people who know how this 7
works and apparently, it’s a dialog between the two districts and the county to sort out where 8
this would get sat. But that’s… I think that probably be out of our scope tonight. 9
10
The other thing is if we look at the area plan, there are a lot of amenities that we may want to 11
happen here whether it’s bike lanes. You know I don’t have a dog in whether it’s protected or 12
unprotected but this is a mile from… as I said earlier a mile from the Google plex, a mile from 13
the Caltrain. One could imagine shuttles or transit. One could imagine an eventual need for a 14
school or park. Especially if you think about the totality of, I think it’s 100 plus acres in this 15
district if you arrogate those districts. So possibly it’s a business improvement district model 16
because you need money to do those things so again, I would just encourage us to think big. 17
18
On the parking concerns, I am less worried about the parking issues for this building than I have 19
been for HIP elsewhere in town. I really urge the developer to get the parking right but I think 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.
that this is… I think getting the parking percentages, the parking distribution lifts versus 1
tandem, etc. it’s completely market risk. And I just don’t feel like I have a dog in that one so I 2
put it on the developer to get it right. What’s that? A lot of dogs? I like dogs. 3
4
Let’s see, what else can I say about this? A lot more notes but I want to… so yeah, so that’s… I 5
mean my take away is if we’re going to do it, let’s figure out how to be efficient. And let’s ask if 6
there’s a bigger process we can run in parallel that’s not necessarily gating this to really 7
understand the potential for the district. 8
9
Chair Riggs: Alright, thank you Commissioner Waldfogel. Any… and if we do… I don’t know that 10
we do need a motion but maybe you could provide some guidance but… on that but I just want 11
to make sure that if anybody else has any comments that are still burning, that we put those on 12
the record and give you the feedback that you need to do this which I think you’re going to 13
answer my question. 14
15
Ms. Tanner: We do not need a motion on this. It’s just to hear comments which you guys have 16
given great feedback both on the scope and also on the HIP questions. Sheldon, are there any 17
other questions you would have for the Commission? Areas they haven’t covered that you were 18
curious or what to hear their feedback on? 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. Sing: No. 1
2
Ms. Tanner: Great. 3
4
Chair Riggs: Well I’ll just add one to answer, Commissioner Templeton that this was a Class 5
Three bikeway in the Bike Plan from 2012. I checked that before the meeting so this has always 6
been planned as a shared bikeway but the nuance there is that it was never intended that 7
people would make this a commuting route. Palo Alto has a very defined, similar… it’s very 8
similar to Berkeley in this way. It focuses commuting on bicycle boulevards and I think that’s 9
what the applicant represented in terms of the way that it doesn’t obfuscate the responsibility 10
to provide a corridor… a crossing over San Antonio. But typically, what we’ve done is that we 11
would focus people on less-trafficked roadways from a bicycle planning standpoint. And yeah 12
those are in the bike plan, they're illustrated as purple and in this project diagram, they are 13
illustrated as purple as well. 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: Great. 16
17
Chair Riggs: So just provide that clarification and that actually may be something that as a part 18
of whatever the traffic consultant does consider connectivity with the existing bike boulevard 19
network or the existing soft Class Three bike network. Which is what we do when we guide 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.
bikers through for example the Fair Meadows circles and Greenmeadow on some of the less-1
trafficked streets. 2
3
Ms. Tanner: That’s great. 4
5
Chair Riggs: Ok any other comments from the Commissioners? Staff have any additional 6
questions for us? 7
8
Ms. Tanner: No this is very helpful. Thank you. 9
10
Chair Riggs: Ok I think that concludes this item. Thank you all for being here, we really 11
appreciate it, and feel free to submit additional comments by the 7th to… in terms of the 12
scoping to the Staff. They’d really appreciate that as well. 13
14
Commission Action: No action was taken by the Commission. 15
16
Approval of Minutes 17
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 18
4. August 14, 2019 Draft PTC Meeting Minutes 19
Chair Riggs: So, our next item is approval of the minutes. Any comments, changes or do I have a 20
motion to approve? 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
MOTION 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: So, move. 4
5
SECOND 6
7
Commissioner Summa: Second. 8
9
VOTE 10
11
Chair Riggs: Ok so it was moved by Commissioner Lauing and seconded by Commissioner 12
Summa. 13
Commission Action: Minutes approved. Motion by Lauing, seconded by Summa. 14
15
Committee Items 16
Chair Riggs: I don’t believe we have any Committee items unless we have an update from 17
Ventura or if Commissioner Templeton what’s to update from the first XCAP meeting. 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.
1
Commissioner Templeton: I think that Rachael provided an adequate update on the XCAP but it 2
was a pleasure to go there and to see the proposals. And I encourage any members of the 3
community who want to see what’s being discussed to check out the cool videos and 4
renderings of the proposals. Thanks. 5
Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 6
Chair Riggs: Alright so questions, comments, agenda items from Staff. I think Commissioner 7
Alcheck [Note – Vice-Chair] wants to mention something and then I’ll talk future agenda which 8
would be the next one we have, the 25th. I think there was a question on what that would 9
entail. 10
11
Vice-Chair Alcheck: For all the viewers out there, Tuesday, September 17th the Santa Clara 12
County Educator and the School Employee Housing Town Hall will be taking place. I think 13
Simitian is involved in this event and also Supportteacherhousing.org is involved and the Santa 14
Clara County of Office of Education is involved. There is an RSVP, I think if you Google if you can 15
find it. If you go to supportteacherhousing.org you can find it. It’s from 4:30 to 5:00, there’s 16
going to be a resource fair and then from 5:00 to 6:30 there is going to be a Town Hall with Bay 17
Area school employees and also the Santa Clara County Supervisory Joe Simitian on the dais. 18
So, if you’re into teacher housing or the housing impacts on our local teaching community this 19
is a good event for you. Next Tuesday September 17th. 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 Riggs: Alright, before Commissioner Summa I think Commissioner Waldfogel (interrupted) 2
3
Vice-Chair Alcheck: Sorry, one last thing. That’s in San Jose, Santa Clara County Office of 4
Education is hosting it at the Ridder Park Drive location. 5
6
Chair Riggs: So, we’re going to not make Commissioner Waldfogel last. Did you have your light 7
on? 8
9
Commissioner Waldfogel: (off mic) I do. I have some agenda comments [unintelligible] 10
(interrupted). 11
12
Chair Riggs: Ok Commissioner Summa. 13
14
Commissioner Summa: Oh, I was just going to let you know that California… Preservation 15
California is having a webinar that I was planning on taking on September 25th. So, I guess I will 16
be busy, it’s also my birthday, and it's how to… it’s specifically focused at how to… how 17
preserving a building and adaptive reuse can be the most lucrative option for a property owner 18
so I think it will be interesting. 19
20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Riggs: Great, thank you so Commissioner Waldfogel, I do want to explain the 25th before 1
you comment on the agenda. 2
3
Commissioner Waldfogel: Please do. 4
5
Chair Riggs: Yeah so based on suggestions and discussion that Commissioner Waldfogel and I 6
have had for a while and based in the spirit of kind of what we’ve been doing this year in terms 7
of exploring new and creative items. I asked a certain type of housing developer, a co-housing 8
developer to come and tell us what they’re doing. The idea of co-housing is basically creating 9
units that aren’t perfect fit for zoning, that allow for people that are willing to sacrifice a shared 10
bedroom or a shared kitchen, common space area for lower cost. To basically have a more 11
affordable unit so they’ve been… I think the company that we’ve asked to come tell us what 12
they’re doing has 500-units in the Bay Area and Los Angeles right now. And so, the idea here is 13
just to understand what it is and if it might be something that we want to have a bigger 14
discussion about here in Palo Alto. So, we’ve invited this company Star City to come and tell us 15
what they’re up too. They actually have a pretty large project that’s entitled and going forward 16
in San Jose currently so and that’s in the spirit of kind of what we took on as a goal this year. 17
Just to kind of bring in innovative ideas and thinkers into our City as a part of our Commission 18
and this is something that Commissioner Waldfogel introduced me too. I did not know what it 19
was and I’m actually glad he did. So that’s it, what’s what we’re working on for September 25th. 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.
It would just be an open discussion about that, that specific item. We don’t have any other 1
items on the agenda. 2
3
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Yeah, it would be listed as a study session. 4
5
Chair Riggs: So, Commissioner Waldfogel. 6
7
Commissioner Waldfogel: Well, thank you for making that happen. I think it will be interesting. 8
It actually could feed into the area plan discussion if we get to that. A question for Rachael, on 9
Packet Page 6, we’ve been carrying a couple to be scheduled items for half a year or longer on 10
co-working office models and SB-50 briefing. I mean the SB… if we got to an SB-50 briefing it 11
would probably be broader than an SB-50 at this point. It would probably more of a legislative 12
update but I just wonder is there any intent to do something with these or should we just strike 13
them from our list? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Well I would be interested to know the Committee’s… Commission’s interest in 16
continuing them. I think in terms of legislation, the legislative session is closing on this Friday in 17
Sacramento before… part of the 2-year cycle. So, it could be timely to think about what is 18
coming out of this year’s legs [note -legislation] session, especially after things go to Governor 19
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Newsome and he [unintelligible] and assign them. So that might be timely towards the end of 1
the year to look at that. 2
3
As far as the co-working and office model, we could approach that similarly to what we’re doing 4
the co-housing as a study session if we wanted to think about having some speakers come in. 5
I’m not sure what the intent was of its placement here but I’d love to know what the 6
Commission’s interests are. 7
8
Commissioner Waldfogel: Ok can I just speak to what the… and thank you for the first part. And 9
also, we should realize that there are somethings that will come back in January so we’ll be… 10
you know we should be tracking those and anticipating them. On co-working, the intent there is 11
that co-working potentially is a higher intensity office use than even modern… than even the 12
modern offices that we’ve seen. And it would be useful for us to understand how does that 13
work? What is the model because I think we are… we have at least one major co-working 14
company that’s about to go public that has taken over a space on Park Boulevard? And I just 15
think we don’t really know very much about intensity. We don’t really know how many people 16
that that will entail, what services need to be around it, what the right transportation models 17
are to support it, and so I just think that getting a sense of how that works would help us to 18
think about it. 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.
Ms. Tanner: We can certainly look at those and work the Chair and Vice-Chair to schedule 1
those. 2
3
Chair Riggs: Alright, sorry, I have Commissioner Templeton, Commissioner Lauing. Before I even 4
do this, I do want to confirm before I forget because it's on my mind that we did… I want to 5
reiterate that we did cancel the October 9th meeting which was… is Yom Kippur if I’m not 6
mistaken? So, I believe we determined we would not have a quorum that night. Commissioner 7
Templeton. 8
9
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you for clarifying that. Yes, I was looking on Packet Page 6 of 10
the future meeting dates. So, both of these are no longer our future intentions, right? 11
September 25th has changed and October 9th is not… is canceled? 12
13
Ms. Tanner: Ok. 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: And just for the record, Chair Riggs I was wondering is… for the study 16
sessions on these new topics, the one you’re proposing for the 25th. Is it best to do that on a 17
night when we don’t have other agenda items or would we want to move that to a 18
(interrupted) 19
20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Riggs: The… can you clarify? The… what you see in your Packet, the olive discussion is not 1
ready for prime time. 2
3
Commissioner Templeton: Right and you just proposed an alternate agenda item for that day? 4
5
Chair Riggs: Yeah so, I’m saying that we would have a short meeting that night. The issue… so if 6
we don’t have a meeting that night, we will not have another meeting until the end of October 7
and I don’t… I would like to try to have a meeting on September 25th. And I think it’s ok to have 8
a lighter meeting so I’d like to try to do that if we can. 9
10
Commissioner Templeton: Ok thanks for clarifying. 11
12
Chair Riggs: Oh sorry, Commissioner Lauing. 13
14
Commissioner Lauing: Yes, other kind of left-over agenda items that I don’t want to sound like 15
a broken record but actually, at the end of ’18 there was still some work that got going on the 16
PONE Rack [note – sounds like] then BMR. And it was supposed to be ready early in the year 17
and we’re almost out of this year. So that’s the ’18 Housing Work Plan and we haven’t started 18
on any of the ’19 Housing Work Plan items. So, if that’s the case, that’s the case but it would 19
just be good to get an update on that. 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
Ms. Tanner: Certainly, we can do that and we can even bring maybe not as a full item but even 2
a brief or like in a short memo that can just update you on where we are on some of the 3
Housing Work Plan items. So that you don’t have to wait until scheduling an even more robust 4
item but certainly we want to keep on pace what are we doing with our housing items and how 5
is the work plan going. 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah and then did you get any update from the Transportation Officer as 8
to when we might see those at least nine recommendations that he wants us to look at? 9
10
Ms. Tanner: I’m meeting with Phillip next week to talk with him about how we want to work 11
collaboratively as Staff and the Commission and kind of how they see their upcoming items 12
coming out for the rest of the year. So, we can know what we expect for the rest of 2019. 13
14
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah because there’s only four more meetings so alright, thank you. 15
16
Chair Riggs: Well I think that like [unintelligible] Commissioner Lauing is that I had an offline 17
discussion with Director Lait that our agenda will be busy for the rest of the year, but we are 18
seeing an uptick. Alright seeing no more other lights I guess we are done. It is 8:08 and we are 19
adjourned. 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.
Adjournment 1
8:11 pm 2
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission 1
Commissioner Biographies, Present and Archived Agendas and Reports are available online: 2
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/boards/ptc/default.asp. The PTC Commission members are: 3
4
Vice-Chair Michael Alcheck 5
Commissioner Ed Lauing 6
Chair William Riggs 7
Commissioner Giselle Roohparvar 8
Commissioner Doria Summa 9
Commissioner Carolyn Templeton 10
Commissioner Asher Waldfogel 11
Get Informed and Be Engaged! 12
View online: http://midpenmedia.org/category/government/city-of-palo-alto or on Channel 26. 13
14
Show up and speak. Public comment is encouraged. Please complete a speaker request card 15
located on the table at the entrance to the Council Chambers and deliver it to the Commission 16
Secretary prior to discussion of the item. 17
18
Write to us. Email the PTC at: Planning.Commission@CityofPaloAlto.org. Letters can be 19
delivered to the Planning & Community Environment Department, 5th floor, City Hall, 250 20
Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301. Comments received by 2:00 PM two Tuesdays preceding 21
the meeting date will be included in the agenda packet. Comments received afterward through 22
2:00 PM the day of the meeting will be presented to the Commission at the dais. 23
24
Material related to an item on this agenda submitted to the PTC after distribution of the 25
agenda packet is available for public inspection at the address above. 26
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It is the policy of the City of Palo Alto to offer its public programs, services and meetings in a 28
manner that is readily accessible to all. Persons with disabilities who require materials in an 29
appropriate alternative format or who require auxiliary aids to access City meetings, programs, 30
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24 hours in advance of the meeting, program, or service. 33