HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-08-26 Planning & transportation commission Summary MinutesPage 1
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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.
Planning & Transportation Commission 1
Action Agenda: August 26, 2020 2
Virtual Meeting 3
6:00 PM 4
5
Call to Order / Roll Call 6
Approximately 6:03 pm 7
Chair Templeton: Excellent, welcome everyone. Before we begin the meeting, I have some 8
remarks to read about the teleconference. 9
10
Pursuant to the California Governor’s Executive Order N-29-20, this meeting will be held by 11
virtual teleconference only, with no physical location. Spoken comments via a computer will be 12
accepted through the Zoom teleconferencing meeting. To address the Board, go to 13
Zoom.us/join, Meeting ID is 956 5433 9410. When you wish to speak on an agenda item click on 14
raise hand. The moderator will activate and unmute speakers in turn. When called please limit 15
your remarks to the time allotted. 16
17
Spoken public comments using a smartphone will also be accepted through the Zoom mobile 18
application. To offer comments using a regular phone call 1-669-900-6833, and enter Meeting 19
ID 956 5433 9410. When you wish to speak on an agenda item hit *9 on the phone so that we 20
know you wish to speak. 21
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.
Alright so now we go to the agenda. Pull that up. 1
2
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: I’ll start the roll call. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Oh great, thank you. 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Chair Templeton? 7
8
Chair Templeton: Present. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 11
12
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Present. 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Alcheck? 15
16
Commissioner Alcheck: Present. 17
18
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Hechtman? 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.
Commissioner Hechtman: Present. 1
2
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 3
4
Commissioner Lauing: [unintelligible] 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: I think I heard present there. 7
8
Commissioner Lauing: Yes, present. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Riggs is absent. He’ll be joining us in about an hour or so. 11
Commissioner Summa? 12
13
Commissioner Summa: Present. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Ok we have a quorum, thank you. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Excellent. Do we want to go start with oral communications for items, not on 18
the agenda? 19
Oral Communications 20
The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 21
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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. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Yes, so see there are a lot of raised hands right now. 1
So, I’d like to remind everyone that oral communications is for items that are not on the 2
agenda. So, if you’re here to speak on Castilleja please lower your hand now, and then you can 3
raise it again when we actually get to the item in about 5 or 10-minutes. Ok, it looks like 4
everyone has lowered their hand except for Suzanne. 5
6
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Great and I’ll just offer for folks who are listening in. On 7
the Zoom App, you can find the raise your hand button at the lower portion of your screen. It 8
should be just a little hand icon that you can click and your hand will raise. If you are on the 9
phone and you wish to speak you have to press *6 and that will raise your hand and let us know 10
that you want to speak. Again, if you want to speak on an item, not on the agenda, please raise 11
your hand. I do see two speakers. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Just a quick correction, is that *9 or? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Oh sorry, *9 is for raising your hand, *6 is for unmute, which you may also have to 16
press if you are muted. 17
18
Chair Templeton: Good point, thank you. Alright so Mr. Nguyen, do we have any speakers for 19
items not on the agenda? 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, it looks like we have two speakers [note – video/audio cut out]. Suzanne, if 2
you can please unmute yourself and identify yourself and you may speak. 3
4
Ms. Suzanne Keehn: No, I’m here to speak on Castilleja. I thought when it said lower hand, my 5
hand was lowered. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: N worries. Thank you. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Alright we will close oral communications for items not on the agenda and 10
move onto our next item Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions. 11
12
Agenda Changes, Additions, and Deletions 13
14
Chair Templeton: Assistant Director Tanner, any changes, additions, or deletions? 15
16
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Chair Templeton, there are no additions, changes, or 17
deletions. 18
19
Chair Templeton: Excellent. Let’s move onto the City Official Reports. 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.
City Official Reports 1
1. Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 2
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Great, well good evening Chair Templeton, Vice-Chair 3
Roohparvar, Commissioners, it’s great to be here. Coming to you again from my home as I think 4
we’re all tuning in from our respective homes. On that note I just want to let you know if you 5
hadn’t heard already, the City Manager has alerted City employees that we’ll be expected to 6
work from home probably until at least February 2021 and we’ll take stock when we get to that 7
point. We’re all hoping of course that something miracle… miraculous happens and we can turn 8
from that route sooner, but unfortunately, that’s not the direction really the direction that 9
seems that this Coronavirus Pandemic is headed. 10
11
And so, we are continuing to provide our services online through our online permitting services 12
system which allows applicants to submit applications for Planning Entitlements, Building 13
Permits. And I’m happy to report that we are seeing not quite returning to normal if you look at 14
year over year, but our permits and requests for new permits are actually up. So that is a sign 15
that folks are still building, renovating, remodeling. And so, it’s good for our local economy, 16
good for the homeowners or businesses who are endeavoring to undertake that work, and 17
hopefully, a sign that once we do get out of the pandemic we will be able to recover some of 18
the economic ground that we are losing in this pandemic. So, a little sign of hope that we are 19
happily looking at and happily taking as a sign of hope. 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.
1
I do want to encourage folks to continue to obviously wear your face coverings, but we do have 2
retailers, restaurants who are offering their food for takeout, for delivery, they’re outdoor 3
dining in both at California Avenue and University Avenue downtown. We have a plethora of 4
new parklets if you want to check those out as well. So, if you are feeling up to it, please do 5
consider patronizing our local businesses and keeping our local economy chugging along. 6
7
We also have our friends I think from Office of Transportation. Is Sylvia here? I see Sylvia is with 8
us. I believe that she wanted to give an update on some transportation items but we will be 9
bringing forward a couple items that have come to PTC to Council in the near future. Including 10
the BMR Report that you all looked at a few… I guess probably it was a couple months ago now 11
but it feels likes just a few weeks ago that we talked about that as well as a couple other items 12
that have come through here. 13
14
Of course, last week or two weeks ago the EVSE charger item was heard and was passed 15
unanimously by Council and then just this past Monday it had its second reading on the 16
Consent Calendar. And so those EVSE rules that were passed, again dealing with electric vehicle 17
charging, will go into effect 30-days from this past Monday. So, good to see that the work of 18
government is still churning, still putting together some good policies, so again we hope to see 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.
some more electric vehicle charging stations in more parking lots in Palo Alto. So, I’ll kick it over 1
to Sylvia Star Lack to make her announcement on behalf of Office of Transportation. 2
3
Ms. Sylvia Star Lack, Transportation Manager: Thanks, Rachael. I’m actually going to pass it over 4
to Philip because he’s actually able to be here, so I’m going to ask him to give the rundown. 5
6
Mr. Philip Kamhi, Chief Transportation Official: Thank you and good evening Commissioners and 7
members of the public. I’m Philip Kamhi, Chief Transportation Official, and thank you, Sylvia. So, 8
tonight I’m not joining you from home. I’m joining you from the virtual Town Hall that we’re 9
conducting on Connecting Palo Alto in our virtual El Palo Alto Room. I’m going to dip out of the 10
way so everyone can see my background but we’ve got this virtual Town Hall that we’ve 11
constructed with our consultants AECOM. And the website for the virtual Town Hall is 12
vrpaloalto.com and you can also find that on connectingpaloalo.com and I’d like to encourage 13
everyone to please go and interact with it and provide us with feedback. There’s a tutorial 14
video which will help orient you to how to use the VR environment and look forward to seeing 15
all of your comments and feedback. Thank you. 16
17
Ms. Tanner: Thank you Philip and that concludes our City Official Report, but of course, 18
available for questions from any of the Commissioners. 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 Templeton: Great. Commissioners, do you have any questions for Staff at this time? 1
Alright looks like we’re eager to move on to our Action Item. Thank you very much Philip and 2
Rachael for… and Sylvia for those updates. 3
4
Study Session 5
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 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. PUBLIC HEARING/QUASI-JUDICIAL: Castilleja School Project, 1310 Bryant Street, 1235 11
and 1263 Emerson Street [16PLN-00238]: Request by Castilleja School Foundation for 12
Planning and Transportation Commission Recommendation to City Council on 13
Applications for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) Amendment to Increase the Student 14
Enrollment Cap to 540 Students with Phased Enrollment and Campus 15
Redevelopment, and a Variance to Replace Campus Gross Floor Area. The Project 16
(but not the Project Alternative) Requires Recommendation on a Variance for 17
Subterranean Encroachment Into the Embarcadero Road Special Setback and a 18
Tentative Map with Exception to Merge Three Parcels Where the Resulting Parcel 19
Would Further Exceed the Maximum Lot Size in the R-1(10,000) Zone District. Zone 20
District: R-1(10,000). Environmental Review: Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) 21
Published July 29, 2020; Draft EIR Published July 15, 2019. For More Information 22
Contact Amy French, Chief Planning Official, at amy.french@cityofpaloalto.org 23
24
Chair Templeton: Ok so at this time if you wish to speak on the Agenda Item around the 25
Castilleja school project and you’re a member of the public, you may begin raising your hand. 26
And Mr. Nguyen will start working on that list, however, we’re going to being with Staff’s 27
presentation and then an applicant presentation before we go to a round of clarifying 28
questions. Not discussion, clarifying questions for the Commissioners and then we will have 29
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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.
public comment and then we will have our discussion. Be advised we are aware that we have 1
many interested members of the public that are planning to comment tonight and we… Staff 2
has advised us to expect that this may be continued to an additional day just so that we have 3
enough time to talk it through so just to set expectations there. 4
5
Alright, so over to you Assistant Director Tanner. 6
7
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director of Planning: Great, thank you so much, Chair Templeton. 8
So, this evening we have with us Director of Planned Development Services Jonathan Lait as 9
well as our Chief Planning Official Amy French. This project precedes my tenor here in Palo Alto, 10
but Jonathan and Amy have been here for the duration of this project. And particularly, Amy 11
French is an expert all things regarding this project so we’re very lucky to have her. So, I’m 12
going to turn it over to Jonathan who will introduce the project and particularly focusing on the 13
Planning Commission’s role tonight and in the coming hearings. Ms. French will then give her 14
presentation. We also have Katherine Waugh from Dudek who conducted the Environmental 15
Analysis and she’s supported by our Transportation Analysis from I think it’s W-Trans. Am I 16
saying it right, hopefully? I’m getting a nod there and then of course we have our many 17
comments from the public as well as the project’s sponsor themselves. So, I’ll hand it over to 18
Director Jonathan Lait. 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 Templeton: Just to quickly interrupt here, one procedural item that we may need to do 1
and I’m not quite sure on the timing here. Do we need to do disclosures? 2
3
Ms. Tanner: That’s a good question. Mr. Yang, should they do disclosures now if Commissioners 4
have received any ex parte communication outside of this hearing from parties that are 5
interested in this topic? 6
7
Mr. Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney: So, the disclosures can happen now. They can also 8
happen just before the Commission begins its comments and questions. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Ok since I’ve interrupted the flow already, let’s go ahead and do that now. 11
Let’s see, I have a randomly ordered list of people in front of me. I will try and alphabetize it. 12
Commissioner Alcheck, do you have any disclosures? 13
14
Ms. Tanner: Commissioner I think you’re on mute. 15
16
Chair Templeton: This is the part of technology that’s so fun. I apologize Commissioner Alcheck. 17
18
Commissioner Hechtman: He’s trying. 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.
1
Ms. Tanner: Vinh, can you unmute him? 2
3
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: I can unmute him from my end, he also has to unmute 4
himself as well. 5
6
Ms. Amy French, Chief Planning Official: Maybe start with someone else? 7
8
Chair Templeton: Yeah, he wants one more minute to figure it out and then we’ll go on. Ok, so 9
who’s next in the alphabet? I guess that’s you, Commissioner Hechtman. 10
11
Commissioner Hechtman: Thank you. On, let’s see, on… this is my first year on the Commission 12
and so on February 23rd I was… which is before the lockdown, the pandemic started, I was 13
invited to the home of one of the neighbors of Castilleja where I met with a group of neighbors 14
who wanted to introduce me to the neighborhood concerns or some of the neighborhood 15
concerns regarding the project. So, we had a discussion there at the home and we drove 16
around the perimeter of the school. The information that… the dialog that we had there did not 17
include any comments or concerns that I have not seen presented, sometimes numerous times, 18
in the environmental documents and in the comments on the environmental documents. 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.
And then last week on August 18th I had a Zoom conference with representatives of the 1
Castilleja School to… primarily to have them introduce themselves and their Project Alternative 2
Number Four and some dialog about. And again, the information that I was… that was 3
discussed at that meeting I don’t think that there was anything in there I haven’t seen in the 4
environmental documentation, the Final EIR that I’ve reviewed and Commissioner Alcheck was 5
with me on the Zoom call. Those are my disclosures. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright thank you. Commissioner Alcheck, do you want to try again? Maybe. 8
No, I can’t hear you. Oh yep, there you go. 9
10
Commissioner Alcheck: Good. I think my air pod is on the fritz. Ok, disclosures, we’ve done this 11
before. I think I’ve met with the neighbors but that was before the last hearing so that 12
disclosures been made. I did attend the same Zoom conference call that Commissioner 13
Hechtman referenced a minute ago and I don’t have anything to add to his comments. It was 14
very much an introductory call regarding the Alternative Four where I believe we got the 15
opportunity to basically understand many of the more complicated or excuse me, many of the 16
components of the alternative that we would of otherwise read in our Packet. So, in some 17
respects, I think it was just a second go at this presentation that the Staff has for tonight. 18
19
Chair Templeton: Ok, thank you. Commissioner Lauing. 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.
1
Commissioner Alcheck: Unmute. 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: I had met with the neighbors but that was back in mid ’19 before our last 4
PTC meeting on this. No further contact with anyone since then. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much. Counsel Yang if you can help me remember when 7
Commissioner Rigg’s returns to do his disclosures at that time and Commissioner... I mean Vice-8
Chair Roohparvar. 9
10
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: So, this single-family prior to our previous hearing on this so I’ve already 11
made this disclosure but I met with the neighbors at Castilleja then also separately with 12
Castilleja. Since then on August 6th the neighbors from Castilleja reached out to me and 13
scheduled a Zoom meeting. I met with them on August 6th, I didn’t learn anything new that 14
wasn’t already in our environmental documents or comments. They raised some procedural 15
questions and I just referred them to the Planning Department. That’s about it. The Castilleja 16
School reached out to me to meet with them but I was not able to make that happen due to 17
scheduling issues. And so, there’s no discussion other than are you available to meet and that’s 18
it. [unintelligible] 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 Templeton: Thank you very much. Commissioner Summa. 1
2
Commissioner Summa: Nothing recently, but in the last 3-years I’ve met with I believe with the 3
Casti [note – Castilleja] people at the school twice. Once with former Commissioner Monk and 4
once with Vice-Chair Roohparvar. And I’ve met in that same time period, not recently, with the 5
neighborhood group twice as well. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much. Before the 2019 PTC meeting, I met with the group of 8
neighbors and with the Castilleja representatives which we discussed at that time. And this year 9
in June 18th I met with the neighbors and August 24th I met with the Castilleja representatives. 10
During both of these meetings, no new information was discussed. Thank you. 11
12
Alright over to you Director Lait. 13
14
Mr. Jonathan Lait, Planning Director: Ok thank you. Well good evening Chair Templeton and 15
Planning Commissioners. It’s good to see all of you again. It’s been a while since I’ve joined your 16
meeting. 17
18
I wanted to just unscored a couple of comments that have already been stated about the 19
meeting tonight and our expectations and the steps ahead. I also want to acknowledge that this 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.
is an application that’s been around for a number of years. And we started our first round of… 1
there’s been a number of meetings that we’ve had, of course, Staff and residents, with the 2
applicant and amongst the applicant and residents themselves there’s been a lot of 3
conversation that has taken place. We’ve also had before the Commission meetings on the 4
environmental document which you’ll be reviewing again this evening, but last week we started 5
the first round of public hearings where we have an opportunity for community members to 6
begin to express their perspectives in a more formal settings. Last week with the Architectural 7
Review Board and this week with the Planning and Transportation Commission. 8
9
10
There’s the… there’s a number of Boards and Commissions that are involved in this project only 11
because of the different types of applications that have been filed. So, each Board and 12
Commission has its own focus in review of the project. We will, in addition to ARB and PTC, we 13
will also be making a presentation before the Historic Resources Board and all of these Boards 14
and Commissions will make a recommendation to the City Council. And then the City Council 15
will make the final decision or take a final action on the project when it is presented to them. 16
17
The… for tonight, just to maybe… if it was unclear to the public or Commissioners, what we’re 18
expecting out of the meeting tonight from a Staff’s perspective is want to present the project. 19
The entirety of the project to the Commission, have an opportunity for the public to… oh, have 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.
the applicant make their presentation, and then hear from the public comments and have that 1
information included for the record and for the Commission’s consideration. We would 2
anticipate that the public comment period would be closed if we’re able to get through that 3
tonight and start an opportunity for the Commissioners to begin to ask Staff some questions 4
and start your deliberation on the project. 5
6
The… I guess from our perspective you know that we did not include any… let me back up one 7
step. So, there’s been some conversation about what will be discussed tonight, and part of that 8
is the Environmental Impact Report. For certain… I mean we’ve heard your comments, we have 9
our consultant here and we’re prepared to talk about the Final Environmental Impact Report, 10
but we’ve also teed up the Staff Report in our presentation to enable the Commission to also 11
engage in a preliminary discussion about the requested Entitlements which Amy will get in to in 12
more detail. 13
14
So, as we… depending on what happens this evening, what we’re ultimately looking for from 15
the Planning Commission tonight is to get a sense from you, if you’re able to do that, the 16
direction that this project may be heading in. And to the extent that there’s some preliminary 17
analysis or preliminary direction that the Commission would like us to explore. We would ask 18
that in addition to continuing the public hearing, that you direct us to prepare draft Findings 19
that would be reviewed by the Commission at a subsequent public hearing. And if those are 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.
Findings for denial we would ask that you articulate some of those reasons if you’re able to do 1
so tonight. If it is recommendation or direction to draft Findings for approval, we would like to 2
understand that as well and that would also be accompanied by draft Conditions of Approval. 3
So, we would expect that if we are able to get to that discussion tonight and get to that 4
direction. We would return and the Planning Commission would have an opportunity to review 5
all of those Findings and conditions if it was heading in that direction at another meeting and 6
the public would also have another opportunity to make comment on the new information that 7
would be provided. And if not and if we’re not able to get to that then that’s fine as well and 8
the Commission could continue the public hearing to another date to continue your 9
deliberation too. 10
11
So, with that I’ll… oh and then last thing I just wanted to note and it was mentioned in the 12
disclosure comments. The project alternative, the applicant’s project alternative that was 13
submitted, is… we include in the Staff Report the written report and we’ll make mention of it in 14
the oral presentation this evening, reference to the original project and this alternative. But as 15
we heard from the applicant team last week and they’ll correct me if I’m misspeaking, but they 16
are… seem to be putting their energy behind that project alternative. And it seems like where 17
the dialog takes place about the project, that would be the focus of our efforts is to look at the 18
project alternative. I think the original project had evolved to meet that alternative where we 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.
are now. In any event, we’ll highlight both so you can understand how that’s changed in 1
response to public comments along the way. 2
3
So, Amy, I apologize for taking the long introduction, please take it away from here. 4
5
Ms. French: Ok, I wanted to (interrupted) 6
7
Chair Templeton: Hold up Amy. Sorry, Ms. French, can I interject? The presentation is… it’s not 8
showing the view that you may wish. 9
10
Mr. Lait: No. 11
12
Chair Templeton: It’s showing the notes and the next slide view. 13
14
Mr. Lait: So, Amy (interrupted) 15
16
Ms. French: I was trying to manipulate it and unsuccessfully. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Push the down arrow, you should see options under display settings at the top 19
menu bar to the right. 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.
1
Ms. French: Oh, this one, yep. 2
3
Ms. Tanner: Should give you options. Swap presenter view and slide view. Click that very next 4
down, yep that. There you go. 5
6
Ms. French: Are we good? 7
8
Chair Templeton: Oh, excellent. Just wanted to make sure we got to see your beautify slides. 9
Thank you. 10
11
Ms. French: Ok, sorry about that Jon; struggling through that. So, I think Jon covered this, I’m 12
Amy French, Chief Planning Official, also the steward of this process, project, through this City 13
process. 14
15
So, I think Jon already covered this. We have our presentation including Dudek’s, then we’ll get 16
to the applicant, this is their first presentation to the Planning and Transportation Commission, 17
and Jon already covered some of these things. How we’ll get through this tonight and then the 18
continuance. 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.
Castilleja is a middle school and high school combined, a private school for girls. This is where 1
it’s located, surrounded by residential single-family residential uses. 2
3
I’ll give you a brief context and history. Castilleja started at this location in Professorville. 4
Castilleja began in 1907 with 68 students, kindergarten through 12th-grade levels. Castilleja 5
moved to this location in 1910. They started with just these buildings, one of them is the 6
Recitation Hall that is still in place. In 1924 there were a few more buildings, again including the 7
Recitation Hall which is on the City’s Inventory as a Historic Resource. In 1924 there were 230 8
students and then in 1926 Birge Clark came and designed the Chapel Hall which also remains 9
today. This is blocking my presentation, but there it goes. This slide gives an overview of the 10
enrollment over the years. The different grade levels, the… it’s grouped by decade here and 11
showing you that there have been eight Conditional Use Permits over time. The first one being 12
in 1960, it started with a dormitory. Later the dormitory was converted into classrooms and on 13
and on. We have TDM Programs appearing in the ‘90s and TDM monitoring associated with the 14
most recent use permit associated with an enrollment cap of 415 students. 15
16
This shows the two historic buildings on campus; The Gunn building and the Chapel. In 1980 the 17
Chapel was converted to an auditorium. You can see here the Rhodes Classroom building is 18
attached to this historic building. This again is another view of the historic building attached to 19
the Rhodes Hall and then here are some views of Emerson Street. Castilleja owns two homes on 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.
Emerson Street and then this home is under separate ownership. The home on the left here is a 1
resource, a National Register Eligible Historic Resource. These two homes were found not to be 2
historic resources. This shows the Castilleja School property today. Again, the campus with its 3
buildings, three parking lots, three access points for drop-offs, and these two homes that are 4
owned by Castilleja on separate parcels. 5
6
So now project overview. Castilleja seeks to change the campus and upgrading the buildings 7
and the pool relocation. They started with a Master Plan concept in 2016 with their Conditional 8
Use Permit submittal that looked to expand below grade and keep the above grade area to 9
around what it is today. They seek an increase to a cap of 540 students over time, coordinated 10
with the phased development. 11
12
This slide shows the buildings to be demolished. I have a few pictures here. This is annoying. 13
Ok. This is the combined Arrillaga, the family campus center with Rhodes Hall that you saw in 14
the earlier photo. And the Fine Arts building here and the pool and a couple of maintenance 15
buildings. Again, these are the close up of the homes that Castilleja owns, these are the years 16
they were built and the adjacent home that is under separate ownership. Castilleja acquired 17
this know in 1993. 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.
Here’s the original project site plan that’s associated with the project as it’s called in the 1
Environmental Impact EIR. This shows how vehicles would come through the campus, all drop-2
offs coming through the garage, and then turning right onto Emerson to exit. It eliminates the 3
Kellogg driveway and retains this driveway and has school buses dropping off here as well as 4
trash services. In the project alternative this is retained, the dropped off here. Drop-offs occur 5
through the garage and here the traffic exits all ways, but the traffic is distributed and of 6
course, the homes are retained and the garage is reduced in size. The drop off location in the 7
underground parking facility has two lanes. Both the same direction for one-way traffic entering 8
and exiting. In the original project, the garage layout had more spaces and it encroached into 9
the Embarcadero setback and underneath the two home parcels. And in the project alternative, 10
the home parcels stay, the garage is smaller and does not encroach into the setback. 11
12
Enrollment is key. The request… the original 2000 Conditional Use Permit caps the enrollment 13
at 415 students. Today it’s 426 students, the request is 540 student cap with increased 14
enrollment over time. The 2013 City Action did result in these things, penalty payment for over-15
enrollment, TDM Management and implementation, annual enrollment reductions, and this 16
application to the City. 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.
These are the project components described in the Staff Report and in the plans. These are 1
common to both the project and the project alternative. This shows images of the original 2
project with the open space replacing the two homes to be removed in that project. 3
4
This shows a diagram shows the reduction of the garage for the project alternative, removing 5
the garage from the special setback on Embarcadero, removing the garage from underneath 6
these homes, retention of the homes, and these adjacent Redwood trees. This shows the exit 7
from the project alternative garage, retention of these two homes, a fence, and the exit here. 8
This is another image of the reduced garage showing the parking spaces. The project 9
alternative’s parking meets the code rather than exceeds the code. The project… the original 10
project exceeded the requirements for parking spaces on the site. 11
12
This is the summary of the project alternative that is the changed so it’s retaining more trees, 13
it’s reducing the ground floor level of the academic building and… from the project, and then it 14
enables the withdrawal of these other applications. The Tentative Map and the request for the 15
Embarcadero Road special setback. It also removes the Significant and Unavoidable CEQA traffic 16
impact of the project which we’ll hear more about later. 17
18
This project involved 3-years of construction under a phased construction plan. The applicant 19
will tell you more about that. The first phase here involves the subterranean parking facility and 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.
that landscaping and then after that increasing up to 490 students. Subsequent phases are 1
listed here and in the Staff report. 2
3
The required applications include those before the Planning and Transportation Commission, 4
the Conditional Use Permit for the 540-student cap, and intensification there with an enhanced 5
Transportation Demand Management Program. The Variance for replacement of existing Gross 6
Floor Area and these other two applications, again would not be required for the project 7
alternative. The special setback and the Tentative Map to merge the parcels. 8
9
So, the Architectural Review Board did meet last week, last Thursday, reviewed these types of 10
things as in their purview. They have not tackled the Architectural Review Findings as of yet, 11
they continued their hearing. Here’s a brief summary of the items they discussed. They 12
acknowledged the project alternative as more supported than the project, they looked at some 13
of these aspects of design including the Kellogg façade design, and had some suggestions there. 14
The tunnel, the circle, and some other things related to operations and landscaping, etc. 15
16
The HRB met last September and they’re going to meet this September. Last September they 17
looked at the Environmental Impact Report and looked at the couple of options for treatment 18
of this exposed wall. Exposed after the removal of the Rhodes Hall. 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.
The City Council of course is going to consider all of the applications and is the Board that would 1
certify the Final EIR by Resolution. So, they have the options of approving these applications. 2
3
Then in the Staff Report, we covered these topics. The CUP, the Variance, and Zoning Code 4
compliance; Packet Page 15 through 18. This just shows the General Use Permit Findings not 5
tailored to the project as of yet. These are the Findings that would have to be made for the 6
types of components covered by the CUP. Operation, enrollment cap, the pace of enrollment 7
increases, school operations, the TDM, events, and the temporary campus. 8
9
Here’s an image of the temporary campus that the applicant proposes to put on Spieker Field 10
and this one was prepared for the project, the original project design that included removal of 11
the two homes. This would have to be redesigned for the project alternative. So, the concept 12
was to have a temporary campus on top of the Spieker Field after construction of the below-13
grade garage to enable classes to continue on campus while the academic building is 14
constructed. 15
16
This slide shows the Variance, it shows the demolition, 84,572-square feet of demolition. This 17
provides the code sections that address replacement of non-complying facilities. The reason its 18
non-complying facilities is in 1998 the City adopted a Floor Area Ratio Code for the R1 Districts 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.
and at that time the campus became a non-complying facility. It is not a nonconforming use 1
because it has a Conditional Use Permit. 2
3
This is a big table with lots of data so I’m not going to go through this, but again, as I noted the 4
1998 Code established the Floor Area Ratio in the R1 Zone. It’s a formula that involves different 5
percentages for different amount of site area. 81, 384-square feet would be allowed under 6
today’s codes for a new development. 7
8
Now the project alternatives. The alternatives in the CEQA Document is the applicant’s Reduced 9
Garage Disbursed Circulation Alternative. You’ll hear more from the applicant on this and more 10
from our CEQA consultant, but this was studied in a Transportation Impact Analysis. It was 11
found to fix the TIRE Impact, which you can hear more about, on that segment of Emerson 12
where all of those cars would have been exiting because the traffic is shown exiting in all ways 13
and it reduces the project’s effects. 14
15
There were other project alternatives studied in the Draft EIR including two on-site alternatives. 16
There were alternatives that were rejected, the off-site alternatives here, and then the Final EIR 17
discuss the no garage alternative further as requested at the Planning and Transportation 18
Commission back in August of last year. The no garage alternative is Alternative Five and was 19
found to basically require more surface parking and removal of those two Emerson homes to 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.
create that surface parking lot that would be larger there and so we’ll cover that in the EIR 1
discussion. 2
3
We’ll get to that next. Just a brief history, 4-years starting with the application, moving through 4
the scoping meeting, the preparation of the draft EIR, the two hearings last summer… August 5
and September… and now the Final EIR which was published July 29th and 30th. 6
7
Ok, I’m going to stop sharing my screen and change over Katherine Waugh from Dudek. 8
9
Ms. Katherine Waugh: Alright, good evening, thanks, Amy. So, let me pull my presentation up 10
for you. Alright and then there we go. Ok so thank you again, Amy. So, my name is Katherine 11
Waugh as Amy said. I am a Senior Project Manager with Dudek and we’ve been working with 12
Amy and other City Staff and W-Trans our transportation sub-consultant to prepare this EIR. 13
And so, my presentation, I’m going to give an overview of the contents of the… really focusing 14
on the Final EIR Master Responses because those provide a good comprehensive view of the 15
topics that were covered in the draft and then the types of comments that we received from 16
the public. 17
18
So, this slide just reminds folks of the basic contents in the two different documents. The Draft 19
EIR has a very detailed project description and goes through the full range of Environmental 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.
Impact Analysis that’s required under CEQA. A key issue with the project is defining the baseline 1
conditions when you have a redevelopment or a remodeling or modernization type of project. 2
It’s really important to understand that CEQA has us evaluate the conditions or the impacts 3
relative to the conditions that exist at the time the environmental review has begun. So, we 4
don’t assume that the existing land uses are wiped off of the site and we start fresh. So that’s a 5
really important thing so that you understand how the impact analysis comes together. When 6
we look at thresholds of Significant, those are the… either… the regulations and policies of the 7
City as well as any applicable state and federal policies and regulations that relate to the 8
resource being studied. And that’s how we figure out what that… where that line is that an 9
impact would cross over from Less-Than-Significant to then being Significant. When we do have 10
a Significant Impact, CEQA requires that we implement mitigation measures and that we should 11
implement all feasible mitigation measures that can effectively reduce or avoid or compensate 12
for the impacts that’s been identified. And then of course project alternatives is a key 13
component as well. Looking at whether or not there are different variations of the project that 14
can be more effective at avoiding or reducing some of those impacts while still meeting the 15
objectives of the project. So, we don’t look at a completely different type of land use or a 16
completely different development scenario. We still want to be within the envelope of what the 17
objectives were for the applicant having submitted their application for a project, to begin with. 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.
And so, once the Draft EIR is out for public review and we get a body of comments from the 1
public. We provide responses to all of those comments and as you’ve seen in the Final EIR, we 2
had a lot of comments that address the same topic in different ways. And so rather than have 3
you have to flip through the document to find individual components of these different topics. 4
We’ve prepared a set of 13 different Master Responses and so that, as I said, is what I wanted 5
to focus on for my presentation tonight. 6
7
In addition to those responses, there are revisions that have been made to the Draft EIR. 8
There’s a summary table in the Final EIR introduction that gives you a great checklist of exactly 9
what changes have been made and where you can find them. So, a lot of them were cleaning 10
up some of the language to make things more clear or to provide a little more explanation of 11
certain points. We also revised some of our figures to reflect changes that had been made to 12
the original project site plans or we added a few figures to provide again just a better 13
explanation of how… what factors were considered in the Impact Analysis and how we reach 14
the conclusions that we did. And then there were also a few updates to the technical 15
appendices to support that analysis. 16
17
So, as I said the Final EIR includes these 13 different Master Responses and so I’m going to just 18
go through them one by one, but I’m trying to not get us bogged down with too long of a 19
presentation. So, I’m going to give a pretty good… a pretty high-level overview and I’m happy to 20
Page 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.
answer questions when the Commissioners are looking for clarification or during the discussion 1
portion of the meeting. 2
3
So, the first Master Response is about the project description. We just reviewed some of those 4
revisions that had been made to the original project site plans. There was some minor updates 5
to some of the… just the details of the Landscaping Plan or other specific elements within the 6
project site plans. And then we also provided some additional specificity on some of the 7
elements people had inquired about in their comments, such as some of the traffic flow and 8
how enrollment would be managed and those types of things. 9
10
We also… the second Master Response provides a more detailed history of the Conditional Use 11
Permits that have been issued for the site as Amy outlined in her presentation. We also talked 12
about the different… well, the enrollment violation… the enrollment cap violation that has 13
occurred. And then provided a little bit more discussion about how the Conditional Use Permit, 14
the Conditions of Approval that go with that permit are monitored and enforced. 15
16
The third Master Response focuses on construction or elements of the project construction. As 17
we talked about phasing, the amount to excavation that’s required to construct the garage 18
under the original project, and how that translates into traffic volumes and truck activity. And 19
then we also talked more generally about traffic… construction-related traffic and how that 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.
would be managed. And specifically added discussion about the anticipated temporary lane 1
closures that might be… that would be needed during construction to finish some of the 2
sidewalk improvements and infrastructure installation. We also talked a little bit about the 3
noise and air quality effects that would occur during construction. Those were both covered in 4
detail in the respective Draft EIR chapters. So, the Master Response just provided a good 5
summary of what those analyses… what the methodology was that was used to evaluate that 6
and what those conclusions where. 7
8
So Master Response Four is the one that reviews the project alternative which has the very 9
convenient names of Disbursed Circulation and Reduced Garage Alternative. And so, as Amy 10
explained this alternative modifies the site plan by… the primary thing is by reducing the size of 11
the parking garage and retaining the houses on Emerson Street. There’s also some minor 12
modifications to the academic building to allow for the drop off lane on Kellogg and then we 13
had a good… long discussion in there about how traffic circulation would be managed and how 14
the garage layout differs from what was originally proposed. And then highlighted the changes 15
in the Entitlement so it would be necessary if the City were to approve that version of the 16
project. 17
18
There’s also a summary of the project elements that are consistent with the original project and 19
then a discussion about how the traffic distribution would work for drop off and pick up. And 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, this was that Castilleja had proposed when they submitted the plans for this alternative, 1
they had proposed a certain percentage of trips would be assigned or families that are dropping 2
students off would be assigned to one of the three locations. And those percentages were 3
generally based on the existing assignments that they have for the different drop off spots that 4
are used currently. When we… when W-Trans conducted the Transportation Impact Analysis for 5
this alternative, they found that the percentages that were proposed would actually result in an 6
impact, a TIRE Index Impact on Bryant Street. So, W-Trans then modified those percentages to 7
find a balance that would avoid the TIRE Index Impacts on both frontages of the campus. Both 8
at Bryant and Emerson by assigning a little bit more traffic than what Castilleja had proposed to 9
going through the garage. And thereby reducing the number of trips that would be occurring on 10
Bryant Street. 11
12
This slide is similar to a lot of the information that Amy had provided in her slide show, but I or 13
in her presentation. I just wanted to reiterate that there several components of the projects, 14
between the original project and the project alternative, that remain the same. And so those 15
are listed here on… at the top of the slide and then I’ve summarized the key differences 16
between the original project and the project alternative. So again, under the original project, 17
the two residential structures on Emerson Street would be demolished and an open landscaped 18
open space area would be created there at grade. Under the project alternative, those 19
structures would be retained and no changes would be made on those two properties other 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.
than providing the existing driveway from the garage. Then the garage would be a lot… 1
somewhat smaller under the project alternative. As Amy mentioned, the garage under the 2
original project exceeds the City’s required amount of parking for a private school. The garage 3
under the alternative is designed to be much more in align with providing the amount that’s 4
required and not providing excess spaces. And then under that alternative, again we would 5
have the three drop off and pick up locations. So, there would be students that would be 6
dropped off or picked up in the garage and the traffic flow would work the same way as under 7
the original project. Those cars would all enter… excuse me, I misspoke. It wouldn’t work 8
exactly the same. Those cars would all enter from Bryant Street, they would all exit on Emerson 9
Street, but instead of being required to turn right. They would be free to turn left or proceed 10
straight onto Melville. So that’s a difference to the circulation under the project alternative. 11
Then there would also be a set of students that would be dropped off in the loop driveway on 12
Bryant Street. So, they would be dropped off closer to the front of the academic building there. 13
And then a set of students that would be dropped off and picked up at the Kellogg Avenue drop 14
off location. And then there is just a slight difference in the gross floor area of the academic 15
building and that’s really resulting from needing to pull the building back a little bit to allow for 16
the Kellogg Avenue drop off zone or location. 17
18
So, in that Master Response, after we provided a long explanation of what the alternative 19
consists of. We then did a detailed analysis of each of the impacts of the project alternative 20
Page 35
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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.
relative to the impacts that were determined for the original project. And so, I didn’t want to go 1
through every single impact in this presentation, but I highlighted these three as being the ones 2
that most relate to the public comments that have been received. 3
4
So, the first one is under the land use topic. The original project would result in a significant 5
increase in the daily traffic volumes on Emerson Street and that’s what we mean when we’re 6
referring to the TIRE Index. TIRE stands for Traffic Infusion in Residential Environments and so 7
the Disbursed Circulation Reduced Garage Alternative would avoid that impact by spreading 8
out the traffic distribution much broader compared to the original project. This alternative also 9
reducing the extent of tree removals and relocations that’s required. It’s important to 10
remember that the TIRE Index impact under the original project, that is considered to be a 11
Significant and Unavoidable impact because we had… we could not find a way to mitigate that 12
to a Less-Than-Significant level. In comparison, the tree removals were considered to be a Less-13
Than or mitigated to a Less-Than-Significant Level with mitigation measure that expresses how 14
the project plans need to be designed to ensure consistency with the City’s Preservation 15
Regulations and Tree Technical Manual. 16
17
Similarly, in aesthetics, we had concluded in the Draft EIR that the original project would result 18
in Less-Than-Significant Impacts to aesthetics because we were comparing the proposed 19
buildings and proposed campus layout and landscaping with what exists there currently today. 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, we didn’t find that there was a Significant and Unavoidable impact there with the changes 1
in views on Emerson Street. However, that is an important difference between the original 2
project and the project alternative. Is that there would be a much different viewshed from 3
Emerson Street because those two houses would be retained and the open landscaped area 4
would not be created. 5
6
And then again, transportation, the impact related to the TIRE Index appears under both the 7
transportation and the land use sections because under transportation, obviously, it relates to 8
how you're… how the roadways operate. But under the land use chapter, we had evaluated 9
that as a land use compatibility issue and how the project would affect the residential land uses 10
that surround the property. 11
12
And so then moving on with the Master Responses. Master Response Five goes over a lot other 13
project alternatives that were studied. As Amy outlined there was a set of project alternatives 14
that we had evaluated at a preliminary level in the Draft EIR but then rejected them from 15
further consideration because either they did not meet project objectives adequately; or where 16
determined to be infeasible, or were determined to not be effective at reducing or avoiding the 17
project’s Significant Impacts. So, all of these three topics that are listed on the slide were 18
considered in the Draft EIR but had been rejected from more detailed consideration. 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.
And as Amy explained, we… based on the public comments and the direction we received from 1
the Planning and Transportation Commission. We went back and looked at this no garage 2
alternative in much more detail. We still reach the same conclusion that it would not avoid or 3
reduce the project’s Significant Impacts. We found that a project alternative needs to 4
demonstrate consistency with the City’s Codes relating to parking and so we had to find 5
somewhere where that parking could go. And so, the tradeoff of not having a below-grade 6
garage is to then have surface parking within the project site and we still ended up with… 7
because of the way the campus is laid out. We found that the most logical place to put a 8
surface parking lot was where the two houses on Emerson Street are today. So, this no garage 9
alternative would not retain the houses and it would also not avoid the Significant and 10
Unavoidable Impact of adding traffic to Emerson Street. 11
12
We looked at several different enrollment cap levels that were numbers that were suggested in 13
some of the public comments and as Amy mentioned, in the Draft EIR we do have detailed 14
analysis of two project alternatives that have a slightly lower enrollment cap than what was 15
proposed. So, I believe it was 506 students instead of 540 and again, we found that these 16
alternatives would not be effective at avoiding the Significant and Unavoidable Impact that we 17
identified with the proposed project. 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.
And then finally there was a lot of comments that suggested that either Castilleja should 1
relocate or should start a second campus and split their student body the way that a lot of 2
other private schools have done and those we had rejected for a number of reasons. They don’t 3
meet Castilleja’s project objectives or their Operational Model. At least the split campus 4
doesn’t and then just the feasibility of being able to find another site that we could then do an 5
Environmental Analysis of. We were not able to locate another property where Castilleja could 6
move their entire campus too. 7
8
So Master Response Number Six goes a little bit more into detail in the land use and planning 9
impacts that we found in the EIR. Those, as I’ve kind of overviewed already, they included the 10
traffic TIRE Index Impact. We also had looked at the issues that would relate to aesthetics, 11
noise, and special events. We found that aesthetics, as I said, would not have any Significant 12
Impacts. Noise, we had found that there is a potentially Significant Impact related only to the 13
loudspeaker system at the pool and so Mitigation Measure 8a would avoid that impact by 14
ensuring that the loudspeaker system is designed to meet the City Municipal Code 15
requirements related to noise. We also found that if the school were to increase the number of 16
special events that are held, then that would also be considered a land use compatibility impact 17
because it would increase annoyance and disturbance to the neighbors. And again, this relates 18
back to the discussion at the beginning of my presentation relating to what the baseline 19
condition is and as I’ve mentioned, we look at what is currently happening. What are 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.
current operational characteristics of a land use and how would those change over time? And 1
so, Mitigation Measure 4a reduces the number of special events compared to what’s currently 2
happening and that is why we concluded that it would be a Less-Than-Significant Impact. With 3
respect to the traffic impact, we did identify Mitigation Measure 7a which simply stipulates that 4
the proposed enhancements to the TDM Plan would have to be implemented. And so that 5
helps to reduce some of the traffic impacts, but it was not enough to bring that TIRE Index 6
down to a Less-Than-Significant Level. The Master Response on land use and planning also 7
discusses these other topics that I’ve listed here. The Floor Area Ratio, again aesthetics, 8
housing, special events, and noise and construction. 9
10
Master Response Seven relates to tree impacts and mitigation. It provides a discussion of how 11
the Tree Protection Plan had been updated compared to what we had evaluated under the 12
Draft EIR. And we have a detailed table that shows some of the trees that were on site that 13
were evaluated originally have already died or have been relocated… excuse me, removed. 14
Some of the street trees had been removed by the City in the interim. So, we have a detailed 15
table there so that you can track exactly what’s happened to every tree and where a change 16
was made for… between the site plans that were evaluated in the Draft EIR and the site plans 17
that are provided in the Final EIR with respect to trees that might be removed or relocated. 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.
Another issues that’s discussed in Master Response Seven is tree canopy. So, there’s a whole 1
set of trees on the site that are not regulated under the City’s Tree Preservation Regulations 2
because they are not street trees. And they are not coast live Oak or coast Redwoods that meet 3
the City’s size criteria or they’re a different species altogether. And so, we talked in the Master 4
Response about the fact that this Mitigation Measure 4b requires that even when it’s a non-5
regulated tree that needs to be removed. That there is a requirement to do replanting to 6
ensure that there’s no net loss of tree canopy over time. And so, then we did… we also did 7
some updates to Mitigation Measure 4b to make it a little bit more clear and more closely tied 8
to the Tree Technical Manual. And some of the procedures and monitoring and recording 9
requirements that are already expressed in the Tree Technical Manual. So, we brought them 10
into the mitigation measure to make it more comprehensive so that as the project… if the 11
project were to be approved and construction proceeds. Then City Staff have an easier time of 12
making sure that the actual construction and development plans are consistent both with the 13
mitigation measure and the Tree Technical Manual. 14
15
Master Response Eight relates to aesthetics and again there’s a discussion in there about the 16
baseline conditions being the starting point from evaluating those impacts. We discuss… there’s 17
a discussion in the Master Responses that really mirrors the one that’s already in the Draft EIR 18
going… evaluating the change in views of the site from each of the four frontages around the 19
site. So, there’s a very easy discussion and you can track as you were to walk around 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.
perimeter of the campus. How would those views change? Again, tree canopy and landscaping 1
was a key issue for the aesthetics, and then light and glare was also addressed in the Draft EIR 2
and in the aesthetics Master Response. We made one change to Mitigation Measure 5a as part 3
of the Final EIR preparation which was to add a Performance Standard that’s based directly on 4
City… on the Municipal Code regarding how lighting needs to be managed so that it doesn’t spill 5
over onto adjacent properties. 6
7
The next Master Response addresses historic resources. So, we have a description in there 8
recognizing that the only historic resources within the site are the Administration and Chapel 9
Building and that the project would not adverse effects on those structures. There are some 10
modifications needed to the Administration Building as they may explain because of the 11
removal of the Rhodes Hall which is… touches the building and it’s connected to the building. 12
So, when that’s demolished that façade that would then be exposed needs to be refinished but 13
the project plans have been proposed to be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior 14
Standards; which ensures that there would not be an adverse effect to that history resource. 15
We also discuss in the Master Response and the Draft EIR the Lockey House. That was… house 16
was subjected to a review to consider whether or not it would constitute as a historic resource 17
because it’s certainly old enough to be considered a historic resource. But the degree of 18
modifications and alterations that have been made to the building over time and to the setting 19
around the building. The building itself, the front of that house faces what use to be Melville 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.
Avenue which does not exist anymore. So, there’s a number of different changes and 1
modifications that have been made that render that building no longer eligible for listing as a 2
historic resource. And then we also in the Master Response address some of the public 3
comments that had come which were two members of the public had suggested that there may 4
be a historic district that surrounds the campus in terms of the neighborhood that surrounds 5
the campus. It contains a lot of buildings that are at least 45 or 50-years old which is the 6
threshold by… at which point you start looking to see whether it might be a historic resource. 7
And so that Master Response goes into detail responding to those comments and concerns as 8
to why that’s not considered to be a historic district at this time. 9
10
Alright, I think we just have three more Master Responses to get through so I’m almost done. 11
The next Master Response is on vehicle transportation and this one is important to understand 12
that there was a change made to the CEQA statute and CEQA guidelines in the middle of the 13
process of preparing this EIR. And that is to say that we may no longer use Level of Service 14
which is a measurement of vehicle or roadway congestion as a CEQA impact. We may not find 15
any amount… any of Level of Service issues to constitute as Significant Impact under CEQA. So 16
that required a change to the Draft EIR to remove the conclusions that we had reach where… 17
regarding Level of Service. However, that’s still an important issue for the City to consider. So, 18
it’s considered a local effect under the City’s policy that was adopted recently relating to how 19
transportation impacts need to be evaluated moving forward. And then the VMT stands for 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.
Vehicle Miles Traveled. That is what the new requirement is under this change in the CEQA 1
statute and guidelines. However, there was a timeline established when that wording was 2
added to CEQA. And so, the way that this project fell in between thresholds we… and the city 3
had not adopted any VMT standards at the time the Draft EIR was published. So, that’s why 4
these new standards are also not applicable to the project or to the EIR Analysis. So, what 5
we’re… what we do have though is the analysis based on the TIRE Index as we’ve discussed 6
before and then alternative travel modes. So, transit, pedestrian, and bicycle transportation 7
and we found… as I’ve mentioned we found a Significant Impact under the original project 8
related to the TIRE index and no Significant Impacts under the project alternative relating to the 9
TIRE Index. And under both versions, we did not find any Significant Impacts to bicycle, 10
pedestrian, or transit transportation. So, as I mentioned earlier as well Mitigation Measure 7a 11
provides a description and requirement for Castilleja to implement an enhanced Transportation 12
Demand Management Plan. Some of the changes… we had had some text to that mitigation 13
measure as part of preparation of the Final EIR to really clarify how that measure would be 14
implemented. We have expressed Performance Standards that the TDM Plan must meet. Even 15
though the TDM Plan doesn’t commit Castilleja to any specific measure to reduce traffic, it 16
provides a long menu of options that can be used. What we’ve done by adding the Performance 17
Standards is saying this is how the city will know if it is being implemented in the way that was 18
intended and if they are hitting their targets. And so, we’ve also outlined some implementation 19
procedures so that the City can be assured that the process is moving the way that was defined 20
Page 44
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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.
and then a series of monitoring and report requirements. So that the City can have a 1
mechanism by which we constantly verifying that the TDM measures are being implemented 2
correctly. And then finally some enforcement measures and penalties measures to identify 3
what would happen if those targets are not being met. 4
5
So, then our next Master Response focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety. We reviewed 6
some of the existing traffic volumes. We reviewed data regarding bicycle safety in the vicinity of 7
the project. We discussed the potential conflicts with bicycle safety during construction and 8
during regular operations of the campus. And it identified how or why those impacts would 9
remain Less-Than-Significant and then we addressed some of the mitigation measures that 10
have been suggested in the public comments received on the Draft EIR. So, I’ve listed those four 11
key mitigation measures that were suggested here. One was to have staggered start times 12
which is already part of the Mitigation Measure 7a. Another was about having a crossing guard 13
to help make sure that bicyclists moving across the school’s driveways are not in danger. And 14
we discussed it through the active Traffic Management Plan that Castilleja proposes for the 15
parking garage that would be feasible to implement as… within that context. And then there 16
were comments that suggested using a disbursed drop off and pick up system would help to 17
reduce traffic concentration and therefore improve safety. Especially on Bryant Street and as 18
you know, that is now part of the project alternative that is being considered. And then finally 19
there were commenters that had suggested that the City should require Castilleja to install 20
Page 45
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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.
bicycle lanes on Embarcadero. And we discussed in the Master Response why that would not be 1
an appropriate mitigation measures under CEQA because we did not find that there was a 2
Significant Impact on Embarcadero that this mitigation would then address. And so therefore 3
there’s no nexus by which the City can require that type of an improvement. 4
5
So then Master Response Twelve addresses the garage circulation and so this is… there was a 6
lot of concern and questions about just how would it… traffic be managed using that garage. 7
And so that Master Response provides a detailed explanation of how Castilleja proposed to use 8
their Staff to ensure that traffic is moved smoothly through the garage and that students are 9
picked up in a logical fashion using radio communications. And Staff… some Staff that are going 10
to direct traffic, some Staff that would direct pedestrian traffic to make sure that there’s safety 11
and that there is a smooth process by which drop off and pick up occurs. We had in the Draft 12
EIR had identified that the garage operations would require folks to move fairly efficiently in 13
and out of their cars. And so that we had said that a 14-second drop-off… allowing 14-second 14
per person to drop off was necessary and so that was something that a lot of folks had 15
questioned. How reasonable it was to assume that that was going to… that that 14-seconds was 16
a reasonable amount of time and so W-Trans did some additional studies as part of the 17
preparation of the Final EIR to get data to ensure that that was a reasonable estimation. And 18
that’s what’s referred to in the Finale EIR as the Wheel Stop Times, so the amount of time one 19
car is stopped while loading and unloading their passengers. So, the Master Response also 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.
discusses queuing. There were a lot of concerns that the garage would be so slow… the 1
operations through the garage would be so slow that there would be a large queue of cars 2
extending out onto Bryant Street and even onto Embarcadero Road. And so, the Master 3
Response as well as the Draft EIR demonstrate that that was not expected to happen. There’s 4
adequate space within the project site to handle the queues that are expected to build up. 5
There would be queuing at Emerson Street waiting to turn right on Embarcadero under the 6
proposed project, the original project, but that would not be an issue under the project 7
alternative. And then there were questions about how an emergency response to be 8
accomplished if there was a medical emergency say in the garage and so that’s also addressed 9
in the Master Response. 10
11
And then our final Master Response Number Thirteen is regarding noise. There were a lot of 12
detailed questions about some of the terminology that was used and some of the methodology 13
that was used. And so, this Master Response goes into more detail than we had done in the 14
Draft EIR about how that Noise Analysis was conducted. It was prepared… the analysis was 15
prepared by a consultant who works on behalf of Castilleja earlier in their process to help them 16
make sure that they were getting a good design of the project. And then that was subject to 17
peer review by the noise specialist in-house at Dudek so that we were verifying that that was 18
a… that reasonable methodology and an analysis was conducted. The Noise Analysis considered 19
special events primarily looking at the events that are outdoors held on the circle and it relied 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.
on data gathered during the Gator Gathering which is the largest and noisiest of those outdoor 1
special events. So, we used that as the benchmark and evaluated what levels would occur for 2
residents that surround the property during an event such as that. Similarly, we looked at the 3
pool noise. The project and the project alternative proposed to place the pool 15-feet below 4
the elevation of Emerson Street and then to have a 6-foot tall sound wall along Emerson Street. 5
And so, we looked at whether or not that would be effective at keeping the noise levels from 6
pool activities at a reasonable level and consistent with the City’s Municipal Code and we found 7
that that would be the case. Even considering the noise that’s made by spectators but the one 8
issue that we… the data is not available to evaluate is whether the noise from the loudspeakers 9
would be compliant with City… with Municipal Code. And that is why we have Mitigation 10
Measure 8a to ensure that there are Performance Standards expressed in that mitigation 11
measure. So, when the loudspeaker system is designed, it must be shown to meet those 12
Performance Standards, and then we would know that the impact would remain Less-Than- 13
Significant because the noise levels would be consistent with the City requirements. And then 14
similarly we looked at project construction, as we everyone is aware construction can generate 15
a lot of noise, and be an annoyance. And so, we have a detailed analysis in the Draft EIR and 16
the… in the Master Response about the typical noise levels during construction. The projected 17
noise levels with… specific to the site conditions at this particular project site and then we 18
identify several different mechanisms by which these noise levels can be controlled to ensure 19
compliances with the City’s Construction Noise Standards. 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.
1
So that was our final Master Response, as I said that the beginning we had… well I guess I forgot 2
to mention that part. We have also following the Master Responses are detailed responses to 3
each individual comment. So, a comment letter was assigned a label and is bracketed so that 4
you can see how we broke down each comment letter into its individual discrete comments 5
and we have a direct response to each of those. Where we could, we referred back to the 6
Master Responses rather than repeating a lot of information. Although, there were a lot of 7
individual comments that were not captured within the Master Responses. So those got a 8
detailed dedicated response where it was warranted under CEQA. And I believe that that wraps 9
up my presentation Amy so I will hand it back over to you. And as I said I did go over things 10
rather broadly and I’m of course happy to answer questions throughout the rest of the hearing. 11
12
Ms. French: Thank you. I have just a solid slide to put up and I’m going to do that now. Just to 13
help the Commission. Let’s see if I can share my screen. Share screen and it would be this one. 14
Ok. Oh, look at this. Ok. Yeah, so this… I… shoot. Sorry. 15
16
Ms. Tanner: Well, I might suggest Amy, we’ll have the Commissioners to have I believe their 17
comments. Is that what you want to do Chair Templeton? 18
19
Chair Templeton: Did we want to see the applicant’s presentation first? 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.
1
Ms. Tanner: Yes, you are correct. So just as a… maybe an interim, just to remind the 2
Commission that these are what we’ll be focusing on. We’ll switch the applicant’s presentation 3
and then we’ll come back to the Commissioners for questions before going to public comment. 4
And then just for the Castilleja folks, just to ensure that everybody you need is on this call as a 5
panelist and nobody is in the attendee’s area. We would ask that anybody that’s affiliated with 6
Castilleja in terms of a party would speak now during this time. So, any of the Staff that you 7
have employed for this or consultants. So, do you have Nanci, everybody you need currently as 8
a panelist? Are you able to see them here? 9
10
Ms. Nanci Kauffman: I’m just looking, lets see. I have Adam, correct? Sorry, let me just go to 11
the gallery view here. I cannot see everybody. I can’t really do that. Do we have everybody? 12
Somebody’s texting me so I think then I’ll know. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Ms. Kauffman, if you’re able to see the list of panelists… I mean of 15
participants. If you click on that and you see on the panelist side, that might be easier than the 16
gallery view which you might have to page through. 17
18
Ms. Kauffman: Awe, thank you, thank you, yeah, yeah. Yep, it looks like we have everybody. 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. Tanner: Great and then I’m not sure who’s driving for you but if they go to… when they 1
share their screen, if they go to the top under display settings, they should be able to go into 2
presentation view. 3
4
Ms. Kauffman: Have you got that Adam? 5
6
Mr. Adam Woltag: Here we go, one second. I’m going to go ahead and share. 7
8
Ms. Tanner: Alright. 9
10
Ms. Kauffman: Alright and are we ready for me to kick it off Adam? 11
12
Mr. Woltag: Yep. Let’s see. 13
14
Ms. Kauffman: Great. Good evening members of the Commission and the public. Thank you all 15
for being here. I’m Nanci Kauffman, a Castilleja neighbor, and a homeowner for more than 20-16
years and the head of Castilleja School for the last 10. 17
18
Castilleja has been part of the education fabric of Palo Alto for over 110-years and with this 19
longevity comes classrooms built in the 1960s. Teaching, learning, and environmental concerns 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.
all changed dramatically since then. And our campus is therefore in dire need of modernization 1
to meet today’s educational needs and tomorrow's safety and sustainability standards. At the 2
same time, in the wake of a growing demand for an all-girls education, we are seeking a new 3
CUP to gradually increase enrollment to 540 students. We have always known that a proposal 4
to modernize our campus and gradually grown enrollment must be informed by the key 5
principle of reducing the school’s impact on our neighborhood. These objectives remain at the 6
core of our planning. As we contemplate moving forward with our project, we commit to 7
adherence to the mitigations and traffic standards established in the EIR and acknowledge that 8
we will be closely monitored. 9
10
As part of the Palo Alto landscape, Castilleja provides benefits to our community. We share 11
resources and facilities with surrounding schools including Palo Alto High School and 12
Brentwood School in East Palo Alto. Our students actively engage with Ada’s Café, the VA 13
Hospital, and many other local non-profits and as alums, they return to our community as 14
doctors, teachers, and public servants. 15
16
Over the past 5-years, Castilleja has participated in over 50 large and small meetings with 17
neighbors. The goal was always to gather feedback, seek consensus even when neighbor’s 18
priorities shifted, and ultimately to improve our campus in a way that complements the 19
neighborhood and reduces impact. 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.
1
We are very proud that the FEIR finds our alternative to be the environmental superior project 2
as it relates to aesthetics, sound, traffic, and tree preservation. For all these reasons, we’d like 3
to proceed with Project Alternative Number Four as our project and on behalf of students, 4
educators, and alumni, I ask for the PTC’s support in our endeavor. Thank you very much and I’ll 5
send it over to you Adam. 6
7
Mr. Woltag: Great, thank you, Nanci. I’m Adam Woltag, Design Partner with WRNS Studio, good 8
evening and thank you so much for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing 9
your comments and questions. And in an effort to help answer those questions we do have 10
some panelists here, some folks to help address those. From the school, we have Nanci 11
Kauffman, Kathy Layendecker, and Mindie Romanousky. We also have Mike Bellinger, our 12
landscape architect from Bellinger Foster Steinmetz, and a traffic engineer Robert Eckols from 13
Fehr and Peers. 14
15
So, let’s begin with a view of the existing campus looking southeast. As you can see the red 16
contiguous roof of the existing 2 and 3-story classroom building that joins with the historic 17
Gunn Building and wrap the edge of campus along Bryant and Kellogg opening the campus up 18
to the south towards Emerson and a view of the proposed campus design. Some of the 19
highlights here are about the approach that tries to balance and distribute the campus 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.
precocity to the surrounding neighborhood. You’re going to see on the left side their liberated 1
historic Gunn Building marking the prime campus entry point as it does today. 2
3
This page shows three diagrams that compare the existing and proposed building footprint and 4
height. The left diagram looks at a foot… at the building footprints. Orange indicates the 5
existing footprint and the green the proposed. Note that they roughly overlap. The proposed 6
overall building footprint is redistributed to make for a more contiguous campus, better 7
educational environments, a more sustainable design, and a better neighbor for the 8
community. Keynote two, that the actual overall proposed footprint is less than the existing 9
footprint today. On the lower right illustrates our proposed roofline is lower than the existing 10
and in fact, our design does not take full advantage of the City’s allowance for rooftop 11
mechanical equipment; which we think is a great thing as it does reduce the impact on the 12
surrounding neighborhood. 13
14
So, we’d like to discuss Alternative Number Four proposal and focus on a few key design 15
elements. As you can see here in our original submitted campus plan on the left, we have 16
received comments which we have responded to in the Alternative Number Four Campus Plan 17
and I’ll take a few minutes here to point out some of the five key changes that were addressed 18
earlier in the earlier presentation. The garage footprint, proposed in blue, has been reduced 19
from the dash orange outline by almost 13,000-square feet. And this smaller garage footprint 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.
has allowed us to preserve two houses along Emerson that are owned by the school as well as 1
reduce the impact to existing on-site trees resulting in 11 fewer trees removed and 5 fewer that 2
need to be relocated. With some subtle shifts in the massing and some interior replanting and 3
the introduction of an additional campus pedestrian entry, has allowed us to keep the existing 4
Kellogg drop off that supports an overall distributive drop off and pick up strategy. Traffic 5
engineers have studied the impact of this distributive model and concluded that a distributive 6
approach, as is the current practice, is superior to a consolidated model where all the traffic is 7
funneled through the garage. This approach mitigates the traffic impacts identified in the Draft 8
EIR. 9
10
This approach has also minimized the impacts of curb cuts along the streets with vehicular 11
egress and ingress. These results… the current curb cuts are not thoughtfully organized and 12
carefully organized to ensure for safety. Key to this design is that service and trash and loading 13
have been moved inboard, away from the street, and dropped below grade to reduce the 14
impact on the neighborhood. And these curb cuts again are part of an overall strategy that does 15
integrate bus, bike, pedestrian access. 16
17
So, let’s look at that for a moment here. We’re starting with vehicular circulation. This map 18
illustrates the distributive approach I spoke of earlier. As is the case now during drop off and 19
pick times of the day, there will be a campus attendant on the street to ensure that the process 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.
is managed safely and efficiently. Bus circulation is moved from the street to the center of 1
campus around that circle for pick up and drop off. And we think this is a much safer approach 2
and again, reduces impact of noise and congestion on the neighborhood. 3
4
Dedicated bike paths, outlined in green, are carefully designed to avoid conflict with vehicles 5
and pedestrians with access from Kellogg and Emerson Streets. One thing to note here is the 6
campus is increasing short term and long-term bike parking. So, this is an integral part of the 7
next stage of the campus design. 8
9
Pedestrian paths, in yellow, have been coordinated with proposed bike paths for safety with 10
the proposed widening of segments of sidewalk to allow for more safe integration of bike and 11
pedestrian movements. 12
13
Looking at a surface parking. There… this is a map that indicates in those red dots all the surface 14
parking stalls currently located on campus. A total of 88 and this map of the proposed design 15
illustrates a reduction in surface parking spaces to 26. So, less parking… less surface parking lot 16
area and less cars on display for the neighborhood. So, at this time I’d like to turn this over to 17
Robert Eckols, a traffic consultant, to discuss some of the traffic analysis. 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.
Mr. Robert Eckols: So, I’m Robert Eckols, I’m a Principal at Fehr and Peers and we’re a 1
transportation, engineering, and planning firm. We’ve actually worked with the school for… 2
since 2012 in terms of transportation matters and we also do bi-annual monitoring every spring 3
and fall for the school. I think Amy and Katherine have really presented some of the things… 4
some of the features behind the Alternative Four Plan. And what this figure is trying to is trying 5
to give a better idea of how the existing campus operates, what had been the original plan for 6
the Master Plan, and then the what is… what we’ve come back too in some sense is the 7
distributive system that you see on the right. In the original plan, we were really looking to try 8
to minimize how many vehicles got into the neighborhood and so we were trying to focus on 9
getting trips off of Embarcadero, through the garage, and back to Embarcadero. Unfortunately, 10
this resulted in the TIRE Impact in that section between Melville and Embarcadero on Emerson. 11
And so again, thinking through how we could kind of bring this back and distribute the different 12
loading areas. We went back to the three areas that you’re seeing now and that has mitigated 13
the TIRE Impact. So again, it’s… you can see how we reduced… in the original plan we were 14
trying to reduce some of the trips on Kellogg and Bryant and then in this case we’ve come back 15
to where we were in the beginning. Ok, Adam. 16
17
Mr. Woltag: Thanks, Robert. So just to note that this project’s sustainable goals are aligned with 18
the City’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan where we are focused on resource efficiency, 19
the use of health materials, and a commitment to eliminating fossil fuels. And this had guided 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.
our design approach of three floors of academic program, one below grade and two above, that 1
are connected together through day lit teaching and gathering spaces and landscape elements 2
to ensure an experience of comfort, health, and delight. Skylights covered teaching patios, 3
sunken gardens, and the use of interior clear [unintelligible] will help ensure good daylight 4
penetration at every floor in an effort to create a welcoming environment and reduce overall 5
energy needs. Windows and exterior covered walkways and teaching spaces bring the outdoors 6
in connecting teachers, students, and staff to nature. 7
8
This a building cross-section that illustrates, along with some of the program richness, the 9
various daylighting strategies, and indoor/outdoor opportunities we are employing to bring 10
natural light into every possible space and especially that lower level. It also helps describe our 11
use of Dowel Laminated Timber Structural System or DLT that affords for a thinner floor and 12
roof section and reduces overall building height. The school has also taken great care in locating 13
programs below grade to the lower level. So, these are types of programs that might have 14
impacted acoustical on the neighbors. So, spaces like band and chore and they’re rehearsal 15
spaces, mechanical rooms, loading, delivery service, trash, recycling, and the pool all are 16
located at that lower level. Also, take note that the design incorporates the use of a hydraulic 17
mechanical system that significantly reduces the amount of rooftop HVAC equipment. 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.
And this is a section through the upper school hub space, which is really their living, that 1
illustrates how we are approaching maximizing daylight benefit through glass curtain walls and 2
skylights into that lower garden level. 3
4
This slide just graphically illustrates our sustainability approach which could be summarized 5
that everything is working together; walls, roofs, everything, landscape. Everything has a 6
purpose to try to get to the sustainability goals. So, they look the way they do and they feel the 7
way they do because they are doing something very, very important. 8
9
As do the edges of the campus that face the neighborhood where they address entry, acoustics, 10
safety, security, service access, stormwater, and beauty. So as an example, in our roof design 11
here, highlights the daylighting opportunities you see in yellow and the energy generation the 12
photovoltaics in blue and is reflective of our desire for a design that works towards net-zero 13
energy. 14
15
And in response to the neighborhood in context that surrounds the campus, we began by really 16
understanding the campus, walking it, and also walking the neighborhood; which is absolutely 17
beautiful place, and looking closely at the street elevations. And as we studied those 18
relationships of the homes and the spaces between those homes, the textures solid and void, 19
building surface to open space, accent, and element, and the cadence of glazing at residential 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.
scale. We looked at the roof height and roofline of the neighborhood and the overall 1
comprehensive texture of the street and we layered this into how we might approach each 2
campus street edge. Not as a singular jester but taking into account how landscape and the 3
existing street trees comprise the whole experience. So, we’ll now walk quickly around the 4
campus and look at some of the proposed building elevations with trees on and with trees off. 5
Starting with Bryant, then Emerson, and then Kellogg. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: A quick time check, you have one minute left. 8
9
Mr. Woltag: Oh, I’ll rip through this as quickly as I can here. So, this is the corner of 10
Embarcadero and Bryant before and after proposed. Bryant Street view, with trees, Emerson 11
Avenue view, with trees, the Kellogg Avenue view, with trees, and just a diagram here that 12
shows we’re really taking care on the longest project elevation to look at ways to break that up 13
into different ways. So that it doesn’t have the full impact of the full length of Kellogg. Our 14
material pallet we think is a natural and robust one that draws from the history of campus as 15
well as picking up on cues of the neighborhood. And our approach to the design of an entry, the 16
new proposed entry off of Kellogg at the existing drop off and the deep express eave of the 17
second floor. Receded planter box at the Emerson corner entry and the existing view of campus 18
edge at Melville. Before and after. You see the garage entry there at the Melville intersection. 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 briefly touching on landscape, we’re really striving to reduce irrigation demands through turf 1
replacement. So, the landscape character would be more native inside at the perimeter at the 2
campus. All the proposed planting will be California natives with a dominant regional native 3
focus and the site perimeter will be working with us to handle most of our stormwater as well 4
as the interior campus through bioswales and flow-through planters. 5
6
This map illustrates our tree protection approach for Alternative Number Four and key to note 7
here is the number of trees that are being removed you see in red. And very few of them are on 8
the outside of the campus perimeter and this map illustrates our proposed tree plan. 9
Highlighting the trees to be added and relocated. Key here is that we’re adding 50 percent 10
more trees that are currently there. A few site sections that show that we’re using topography 11
to help with our stormwater management and create screens between the sidewalk and 12
building. And our design pulls from a regional planting selection that we think are beautiful, 13
resilient and will grow really well here. 14
15
And finally, this brings nature into the overall campus experience of Castilleja. It’s an 16
opportunity that provides a rich landscape to support an educational infrastructural model and 17
tells a valuable story about this place, our climate, and is central to the core values of Castilleja. 18
Thank you, that’s the end of our presentation. 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 Templeton: Alright, thank you very much. Anything else from Staff before we move it to 1
Commissioners? 2
3
Ms. Tanner: No Chair, the floor is yours. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Ok so Commissioners, if you have clarifying questions, please raise your hand 6
now and we’ll get to you in order. Alright, Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 7
8
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Just a quick clarifying question for Dudek or whomever. I know we’re… 9
you guys are proposing 90 additional special events. How many are you currently allowed to 10
have? I missed that. I couldn’t find it. 11
12
Chair Templeton: Ms. Waugh you’re on mute. 13
14
Ms. Waugh: Yeah, sorry, thank you, I noticed that. So, the campus currently has about 100 15
special events per year and that’s documented in the land-use discussion in the Final EIR. The 16
Conditional Use Permit does not specify a certain number that are allowed. It says there’s five 17
major events per year they’re allowed and the proposal is to continue those five. And then the 18
Conditional Use Permit says several other events per year and then lists a long list of the types 19
of those other special events, but does not specify. 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.
1
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Got it, ok. That makes sense now, thank you. 2
3
Chair Templeton: Ok it looks like Commissioner Summa is next followed by Commissioner 4
Hechtman. 5
6
Commissioner Summa: Ok I hope this is a clarifying question but I have two I guess. And one is 7
for…. and thank you everyone for your presentations and one is for Staff. On Slide 37 of Staff’s 8
presentation, there was a statement about the Gross Floor Area and the Underground Floor 9
Area and it said precedent to the right. And I was wondering if Staff could expand on the 10
underground area and how it’s counted? And if that’s too much for clarifying questions 11
(interrupted) 12
13
Ms. French: I can put up a slide (interrupted) 14
15
Chair Templeton: That’s fine. 16
17
Ms. French: For that, the underground garage. 18
19
Commissioner Summa: [unintelligible – bad audio] 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.
1
Ms. Tanner: Can you repeat that Commissioner Summa? 2
3
Commissioner Summa: I think it’s Slide 37. 4
5
Ms. French: Ok this is a slide about the underground garage that wasn’t in the slide deck, but if 6
you wanted to get into the underground garage discussion we have this. 7
8
Commissioner Summa: Ok that’s not the slide I was thinking of. It’s the slide that says 9
precedent on it. I believe it was 37 and I believe it was referring to… well if Staff could clarify 10
this because it’s pretty… the counting of the below-grade is pretty confusing, to be honest. 11
Yeah, precedents, that’s the one I was looking for. 12
13
Ms. French: So yes, if I’m not on mute, the project does rely on several sections of code. This is 14
the… these are the codes that talk about replacement of non-complying facilities and then we 15
have this maximum Floor Area Ratio Code. And this here says precedent subterranean garage, 16
not Gross Floor Area and precedent. So, there’s both code and precedent here and so I thought 17
I could bring up some slides about the garage because we anticipated there would be questions 18
about this if this is the right time. 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.
Commissioner Summa: That would be great if it’s the right time and if we want to get into this 1
later, that’s fine also. Whatever. 2
3
Chair Templeton: I think it’s fine to ask this question now. It is on the technical side and this is a 4
good way to make sure that we go into our public comments really well informed on this. The 5
discussion and analysis of how you may want to respond to that, I think we should off until the 6
next section if that’s ok Commissioner Summa? 7
8
Commissioner Summa: Sure. 9
10
Ms. French: So, this is a slide about underground parking. Both the project and the project 11
alternative of course feature an underground parking lot. The public comment has raised a 12
couple of issues and this is can we have a parking garage underground and yes, we have these 13
responses to that. We do allow placement below grade unless the code specifically prohibits it 14
and then these code sections don’t apply to non-residential uses. And then should… this is 15
really your question Commissioner Summa is should it be counted as Gross Floor Area? And 16
that is we find that this is not covered parking, carport, or garage and it more fits the definition 17
of basement. This has some more code sections regarding that if we want to go down that path 18
for discussion. There are some limitations on underground parking and single-family for single-19
family uses and then here’s this is the question that you asked about Gross Floor Area. So, 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.
carports and garages are included in Gross Floor Area and this is really what this code section 1
says. And then we have a private garage that basements are not included in Gross Floor Area as 2
long as these conditions are in play. So, it’s not habitable space, it’s for parking, for the 3
Conditionally Permitted Use, and we do have some other precedents in the R1 Zone Districts 4
that have below-grade garage for a Conditionally Permitted Use. 5
6
Commissioner Summa: Do you have a list of those available or? 7
8
Ms. French: Well the one in most recent memory is the… is a religious institution in the R1 and 9
this was… came through the Architectural Review Process some years ago on Manuela. So, 10
that’s one that’s most recent. 11
12
Commissioner Summa: Is… Are… there was an indication that there were others. Is that… is 13
there a… is there a situation that’s like this where the same… one project and one parcel is 14
having underground garage assessed in sort of three different ways as to Floor Area? Because 15
the classrooms are not counting as Floor Area because we’re relying on basements under the 16
footprint of a house of residents in R1 not counting which makes sense. And then the portions 17
of the basements under the school, classrooms, that are not counted as Floor Area. The 18
portions that extend beyond the footprint are being counted as Floor Area so that’s two ways. 19
And then the parking garage I think you said you were considering it a basement but it’s a 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.
parking garage, is not being counted. So that all seemed pretty confusing to me and not very 1
like the situation at Cola Meth [note – Aldersgate United Methodist] for precedent, which I 2
think is the one you’re referring to Manuela, only because the use is surprisingly different being 3
a religious institution. It’s not used as heavily every day as this is and it doesn’t have… it only 4
has a parking garage underneath it. And it doesn’t have the other uses that are also 5
subterranean so I was just wanting to try to understand that. 6
7
Mr. Yang: So, I’m just going to jump in here. I think Ms. French has presented Staff’s… one… 8
Staff’s view of this and I think this is an area where we recognize that the Commissioners and 9
Council Member may disagree with Staff’s interruption. So, you’re certainly welcome to get into 10
that. I think that’s probably more appropriate in the discussion portion of this though. 11
12
Commissioner Summa: That’s fine. I have… that’s fine with me and I had another question that 13
was about… and maybe this is one you can help us with Mr. Yang and that was at the ARB 14
meeting, which I listened to, and then in a letter from the attorney for the resident neighbor 15
group. There’s a strong argument being made therefor recirculating the EIR and I don’t know if 16
you want to get into this now. It’s just a question or if you would also like to discuss that in the 17
discussion time. And the benefits may be of recirculating it rather than getting into some sort of 18
legal delay between the two parties. 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. Yang: Sure, so I can just express that our office has reviewed this issue and we don’t believe 1
that recirculation is required under CEQA. Recirculation is typically appropriate when you have 2
newly disclosed Significant Impacts and our view nothing in the Final EIR represented a new 3
Significant Impact that was not previously disclosed and discussed. So that’s I guess the 4
approach we’re taking on this formal question of does this… should this document be 5
recirculated under CEQA. It doesn’t mean that we are not excepting comments on the Final EIR. 6
I mean we have right a hearing, we have several more hearings planned over the coming 7
months where we are soliciting public comments on all of these issues, and I imagine those 8
comments are going to weigh into the Planning Commission, the ARB, and the City Council’s 9
decision. 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Would that… if we recirculated it just to keep things moving along and 12
I’m… I don’t know anything but just wondering about what the response might be since it was a 13
fairly strong request. Would it also give us an opportunity to get the VMT Analysis? I was not 14
aware before we had the consultant from Dudek who didn’t do VMT Analysis because it fell 15
between the cracks in the timeline. Would that also be a benefit of recirculating or does Staff 16
not feel that way? 17
18
Mr. Yang: So, I don’t think that we have a reason to recirculate. And I’m not sure we would 19
have a basis to require VMT as this Draft EIR was published before the City adopted VMT 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.
Standards and that’s the timeframe that we would look at. When was the Draft EIR published? 1
So, it’s not about whether it is circulated again at this point. 2
3
Commissioner Summa: Ok, thank you. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Summa. I’d like to welcome and acknowledge that 6
Commissioner Riggs has joined us. Commissioner Riggs, we did a round of disclosures before we 7
began this presentation. Would you like to share your disclosures now? 8
9
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah sure and I’m sorry, I teach on Wednesday… every other Wednesday 10
so I apologize. I was teaching the next generation of planners and I don’t have anything to 11
disclose. I didn’t meet with the applicant and I also reviewed the Staff presentation so I’m 12
pretty caught up. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Great, thank you very much. Commissioners, please raise your hand? I believe 15
Commissioner Hechtman was next. 16
17
Commissioner Hechtman: Yes, thank you and this is a technical question for Staff and it really is 18
tangentially related to this recirculation issue. I just want to check my understanding of the 19
public’s opportunities to comment, orally or in writing, on the Final EIR. My impression and I’d 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.
like… I’ll state my understanding and then Staff can tell me if I’m missing something or if I’ve 1
got it right. So, in additional to the opportunity to comment orally tonight and I think we have… 2
I see 105 participants so I think we have quite a few members of the public that are going to 3
make comments tonight, we are having at least one more public hearing here at the PTC, one 4
or possibly two, and however many we have the public can comment orally on the FEIR at 5
those. In addition to our hearings, the ARB held one last week where members of the public 6
commented and they’ve continued to a date uncertain, but whenever it is they reconvene and 7
for however many hearings they have, the public can comment orally on the FEIR at those. 8
Then additionally, in September, the HRB is meeting and at that meeting, the public can 9
comment orally on those. And only after all three of these Committees have finished their 10
meetings, each of which will culminate in some recommendations to the Council, then it goes 11
to Council and the public can comment orally on the FEIR at that hearing or series of hearings. 12
While theoretically, I guess it’s possible this could get to the Council in maybe October, I don’t 13
see it realistically getting there till at least November. And so, during that entire time from I 14
think this was… this FEIR was made publicly available on July 30th up through October or 15
November whenever it gets to Council and really, they make a final decision, the public can 16
comment without limitation in writing. Do I have all of that right? 17
18
Ms. Tanner: I believe so. I’ll ask if Mr. Yang or Ms. French want to comment on that. 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. Yang: Yeah that’s correct. We have many public hearings planned that will all be 1
opportunities for the public to comment and of course they can submit comments in writing 2
anytime until the City Council makes a final decision. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Is it… just to jump in here and clarify. If we complete public comment tonight 5
and continue to another meeting and don’t have new information in the Staff Report between 6
now and that meeting. We would not open public comment again, is that correct? 7
8
Mr. Yang: Yeah that is something that is in the discretion of the Chair of any Board or 9
Commission or the Council. And that is probably appropriate if the reason it’s continued is that 10
we didn’t actually get a chance for the Commissioners to weigh in because of the length of the 11
presentations and public comment. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Ok, thank you. Anything else Commissioner Hechtman? 14
15
Commissioner Hechtman: No, thank you. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Alright last call for Commissioner clarifying questions. Ok, I promised I would 18
be better about breaks. We are about to go into probably 2-hours of public comment. I… would 19
it be alright with everyone to take a 5 to 7-minute break right now? Refill your waters and get 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.
ready for… ok, I’m seeing a lot of nodding. Get ready for our public comment. Public 1
commenters, I assume Mr. Nguyen will also take a break but we’re going to have to a little bit 2
of organizing when we get back just to make sure that we know who’s grouping together, who 3
wants to speak individually, and things like that. So just hang tight, we’ll be back. It is 8:00 pm 4
right now, we will reconvene [note – video and audio stopped mid-sentence] 5
6
[note -The Commission took a short break] 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, I am here. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Excellent. So about how many groups do we have? 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Right now, we have four groups who will be pooling their time to four different 13
spokespersons. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Ok and are all of those group members raising their hands? 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: I believe so. Let’s take a quick look. Ok, so tonight we have Veronica Dao here to 18
help us facilitate public comment. 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 Templeton: Thank you, Veronica. 1
2
Mr. Nguyen: Veronica will display a list of speakers in order of when they raised their hands and 3
I will be calling on people to speak in that order. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Ok, I need to know how many people… what I’m trying to determine is if we 6
have four groups of five, that 20 of our 52 people if they’re all raising their hands and that 7
would change the number of individual speakers we have. So, I’m just trying to determine the 8
number of individual speakers. Do we… can we somehow highlight which of the members are 9
speaking as groups in this list and or are we just going to handle that as we encounter the 10
spokesperson? 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Well, what are you… each group has a different number of people actually and I 13
can read off the names and check to see if they are all here. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Could we do that? Could we have a sub-bullet list Veronica if you’re able to 16
do that? And thank you so much for helping us out tonight. For the known spokespeople, if we 17
can group their (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.
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, and Veronica does have that list as well so if we can pull out that list and see if 1
you can check with your list. First of all, Veronica can you scroll down to the bottom of your list 2
to see how many people you have to see if it matches up with what we currently have? It looks 3
like more people have been raising their hand in the last minute and a half. 4
5
Ms. Tanner: I think we only have two more raised hands than we have people on the list so 6
we’re doing pretty good. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Yeah, yeah, definitely (interrupted) 9
10
Ms. Tanner: [unintelligible] 11
12
Chair Templeton: Keeping track of it. Thank you for that. Ok, so when we’re trying to decide if 13
we want to go down to 2-minutes. I think we do just otherwise we may be here very, very late. 14
15
Commissioner Riggs: Ms. Chair, I’m happy to make a motion to do that. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Ok. 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.
Commissioner Riggs: I’m sorry, I was a little late coming back with my kids’ bedtime so 1
(interrupted) 2
3
Chair Templeton: No worries, we’re just organizing right now so (interrupted) 4
5
Commissioner Riggs: I would be happy to make a motion if that would be amendable to you. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Do… I’m not sure we need a motion. 8
9
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, I don’t think we need it to do but if it’s something you wanted to do 10
as Chair. 11
12
Chair Templeton: What I’d like to do is just get a sense from the other Commissioners if you’d 13
be comfortable going down to 2-minutes for the individual comments. You can just raise your 14
hand on the Zoom if you agree with that. Ok, so I see Commissioner Hechtman, Commissioner 15
Roohparvar [note -Vice-Chair Roohparvar], Commissioner Riggs, ok. Anyone… Commissioner 16
Alcheck is saying yes. Who have we not heard from? Commissioner Lauing and Commissioner 17
Summa are you ok with that given that we’re over 50 now? Ok, ok, great. 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.
Commissioner Summa: I’m probably the only one that’s not ok, but if you guys are all… if the 1
majority of us are comfortable. I think this is such an important project and I think we’re 2
planning on continuing this anyway and I don’t know. It just seems very important to let the 3
public have their time to speak. 4
5
Chair Templeton: I agree it’s important to let the public have their time speak. I think it’s also 6
important to be respectful of all the other speakers and make sure that we have a chance to get 7
to everyone. So, what we’ll do then is we will ask members of the public to keep it to 2-8
minutes. If you need to go over to finish your sentence that’s always permissible and we do 9
have many groups that are going to be grouping their comments together into groups of 10-10
minutes. I believe we’ve got four of those as well, so I believe that everybody will have a chance 11
to get heard. So, thank you for the discussion on that, and let’s get started. Just one clarifying 12
note, if you are on this list but you gave your time to another speaker you’ll need to notify us of 13
that at that time that your name is called. You won’t get two bites of the apple on this one, ok? 14
Thank you very much. 15
16
Ms. Tanner: Perhaps Chair, maybe that’s as we go down the list in numerical order. So, for 17
example, if the first speaker was part of the second speaker’s group that person could just say 18
I’m part of Tom Kemp’s group. And then they would just be done and we know to match those 19
people together. 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.
1
Chair Templeton: I like that. 2
3
Ms. Tanner: Otherwise another way to do it would be to start with the groups but this way at 4
least it starts with people’s order of when they raised their hand and whoever raised their hand 5
first gets to go first if that’s ok? 6
7
Chair Templeton: I think that’s fine. If you’re part of a group and you’re not the speaker for your 8
group you may notice the Staff that you differ your time to whoever that person is and then we 9
will be able to keep track of all of that. So, thank you for that suggestion Assistant Director, 10
Tanner. So, let’s begin public comment now, thank you. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, our first speaker will be… and actually before I begin, I want to preemptively 13
apologize if I mispronounce anyone’s name tonight. Our first speaker will be Anna Kocher. Anna 14
if you can please unmute yourself on your end, you should get a prompt asking yourself to 15
unmute and you may share your comments. 16
17
Ms. Anna Kocher: [note -announced herself as Cindy Chen] Hi, actually my name is Cindy Chen 18
and my family lives in… on Emerson Street near Castilleja… and I just want to make sure it’s 19
working. Ok, hi name is Cindy Chen and my family lives on Emerson Street near Castilleja. 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.
Although my two daughters attend Castilleja, keeping our neighborhood safe and maintaining a 1
neighborhood feel are very important to us. I think it is possible to be both a Castilleja parent 2
and a concerned neighbor. Last year when I attended the Commission meeting, some of the 3
opponent's concerns resonated with me as a neighbor. Knowing Nanci Kauffman and her 4
leadership team, I was confident that they would methodically address each concern. After 5
several months of work, these resolutions are reflected in the Final Environmental Impact 6
Report. For example, instead of traffic flowing onto Emerson Street, Castilleja is moving to a 7
distributed drop off using current patterns to avoid traffic impacts. And Castilleja is preserving 8
two homes on Emerson Street to provide much-needed housing and protect the neighborhood 9
feel. 10
11
I really appreciate how Nanci and her team have continuously been a good partner and have 12
modified plans in response. Modernizing the campus is a long process. I have complete 13
confidence that Castilleja will continue to be a good neighbor as demonstrated by their actions. 14
Thank you so much for listening to our comments. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Tom Kemp. Tom, if you 17
can please unmute yourself from your computer and you make speak. 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.
Mr. Tom Kemp: Hi Commissioners, thank you for having the public comment. So, my name is 1
Tom Kemp, I live in midtown, I’ve been here for over 20-years, my three kids when to Ohlone, 2
my son just graduated from Pally, and I have a daughter that graduated from Castilleja and one 3
that is currently there. I live about a block away from Ohlone and at Ohlone, we went through 4
1) a significant increase in attendance with the Mandarin immersion, 2) significant construction 5
with the addition of a 2-story building, and 3) the reduction of Lewis to one lane each and we 6
not have painted fish on our crosswalks. But after all that midtown is as vibrant as ever as is the 7
neighborhood within one to two blocks of Ohlone. So maybe there’s a lesson learned in the 8
case of what happened with Ohlone that we could apply to Castilleja. 9
10
I would like to speak in support of Castilleja’s project alternative known at Alternative Four. This 11
is an alternative to Castilleja’s original project. It has a smaller garage and it recommends 12
distributing drop off/pick up around campus rather than channeling all drop-offs through the 13
garage like their original project recommended. Most significantly, this project alternative has 14
no Significant and Unavoidable Impacts according to the report and is the superior alternative 15
for the PTC, you folks, to consider. So, I’m very pleased that this plan and again, be very familiar 16
with the public school and also Castilleja, this plan allows Casti [note – Castilleja] to save the 17
two homes on Emerson that were originally scheduled for demolition and also save a number 18
of trees. So, in summary, the school has recommended a project alternative with the reduced 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.
garage size and distributed drop off that is environmentally superior and with mitigation has no 1
Significant Environmental Impacts. Plus, it saves homes and trees. Thank you. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments and Veronica, can you change the phone number to 4
just the last four digits? Thank you. Our next speaker will be Glowe. Glowe if you can please 5
unmute yourself and then you may speak. 6
7
Ms. Glowe Chang: Hello, my name is Glowe Chang, I live directly across from the drop-off area 8
on Bryant Street. I feel that Castilleja is a fantastic neighbor. There are no traffic issues. There 9
are two high volume activity periods everyday lasting only about 10-minutes. It’s not barely 10
noticeable. Traffic was heavy in years past but has been dramatically reduced. Traffic 11
attendants see to traffic flow and safety to pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. How are they a 12
good neighbor? They keep us apprised of activities, respond to neighbor’s concerns, willing host 13
open forums for the most hotly debated issues, and have always presented alternatives. The 14
buildings will not be monstrous, it’s the same border footprint, it blends in with the 15
neighborhood, I applaud the alternative plan. I am proud to have a school nearby offering 16
opportunities to young women and happy to support all of Casti’s [note – Castilleja] expansion 17
efforts. Educational programs should always be supported. As neighbors moving forward, let’s 18
work together, we will be able to monitor the school’s activities and make sure everything stays 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.
within limits. Thank you, PTC, for letting me put on some makeup, even though you don’t have 1
me on video, and speak in support of Casti’s [note - Castilleja] plans. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, thank you for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Nancy Tuck. Nancy, if 4
you can please unmute yourself and you may speak. 5
6
Ms. Nancy Tuck: Hi, my name is Nancy Tuck and after hearing the comments at the 7
Architectural Review Board from my neighbors who oppose this project, honestly, I’m 8
outraged. Castilleja has made a multitude of changes to the plan to appease the community 9
and they’ve been listed by Cindy and Tom speaking before me by downsizing the garage, the 10
multiple drops off and pick up location, they’ve kept the two homes, they’ve protected more 11
trees, they’ve revamped the traffic plan for cars leaving the garage, they’ve eliminated Sunday 12
events. This is on top of the incredible traffic management system that’s been in place now for 13
years. It’s reduced the car trips back to levels last seen in 2012. For the past 5-years, Castilleja 14
has held outreach meetings where they were transparent about the plans, and the feedback 15
was noted. The changes I listed above are a direct result of the community feedback, but the 16
opposition… for the opposition the target keeps moving. Castilleja makes the request to 17
changes and new issues are invented. Nothing will placate them. They assert that Castilleja 18
does not add value to the community. Instead, they would have 51 residential homes built and 19
respected property taxes collected. I find this absurd. My daughter is a 2017 graduate at 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.
Castilleja and I bought my home on Melville the same block as several of the PQUNL Members 1
so that she could be within walking distance of the school. In those 9-years I’ve never been 2
impacted by Castilleja traffic or noise. While not everyone the block has had a daughter, who 3
benefited from the top five nationally ranked private girl school, Castilleja brings to Palo Alto a 4
reputation of top education. Families like mine, who want to own and live near the school and a 5
wealth of community services provided by the students. We can’t return Palo Alto to 1960 no 6
matter how hard we try. Change is happening all around us whether it is the train tracks, 7
Stanford expansion, Pally renovation, downtown employment growth that creeps into our 8
neighborhoods. Let’s fight to keep what makes Palo Alto special. A top-notch, educational 9
choice for young women who strive to leave the community better than it was when they 10
arrived. Let’s get this project approved and passed and underway. Thank you. Good job. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Tom Shannon. Tom, can 13
you please unmute yourself and you may speak. 14
15
Mr. Tom Shannon: So, Vinh, I’m… Alan Cooper is donating his time to me. He is not on the list. 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: I do apologize but to pool your time together you need a group of at least five or 18
more. 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. Shannon: Well, I… we followed the ARB procedure whereby the Chair of the ARB allowed us 1
to combine time. So, I didn’t contact you today thinking we would have that same procedure 2
for this, for the Planning Commission. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: It is at the discretion of the Chair. 5
6
Mr. Shannon: Well, Chairmen Templeton, could I ask you to have Alan Cooper’s time? I have a… 7
actually I thought we were going to get 3-minutes. I have a 5-minute presentation prepared 8
which I’ll try to cut back but I cannot reduce it to 2-minutes. 9
10
Chair Templeton: So, if you two want to speak together… so, excuse me, let me just pause here 11
for a moment to make sure that we anticipate any other further groups. If there’s anybody else 12
who wants to share their time it must be groups of five or more and you will be allowed a 10-13
minute presentation. Mr. Shannon, I recognize this was unexpected for you and so we will allow 14
you to differ your comments and add it on to his time. When is he in the lineup? 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: You said that your partner was Alan, is that correct? Alan Cooper? 17
18
Mr. Shannon: Alan Cooper, yes. 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. Nguyen: Yes, so I do see he’s in the meeting. He’s about halfway down. 1
2
Chair Templeton: Alan, are you prepared to go now? 3
4
Mr. Shannon: No, it’s me who’s going and I’m taking Alan’s time. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Awe. Ok. That’s fine. Let’s do it now. You have 5-minutes. Is there a way, Mr. 7
Nguyen for people to contact you if they want to make a group of five or more if they haven’t 8
already? 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: At this point there… it’s kind of tough for them to communicate to me outside of 11
Zoom. Though [unintelligible] did send me an email before the meeting indicating that they’ll 12
be [unintelligible](interrupted) 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: Chair? 15
16
Chair Templeton: Yes. 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.
Commissioner Alcheck: Can I suggest that maybe you have a quick sidebar with Counsel? I’m 1
concerned that if you allow this, then you’re setting a precedent and it’s going to be very hard 2
for you to navigate the rest of the issues that might develop as a result. 3
4
Chair Templeton: That’s a great point, Commissioner Alcheck. 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: [unintelligible] just highlight that at the bottom of every agenda since 7
I’ve joined this Commission, it specifically lays out the rules for pooling 15-minutes speaker 8
cards. It’s on [unintelligible](interrupted) 9
10
Chair Templeton: Yes, it does. Ok, so (interrupted) 11
12
Commissioner Alcheck: I am concerned in 5-minutes we’re going to have another person that 13
wants the same thing. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Yeah, let’s do this then. Mr. Shannon, if you can find three more people that 16
can join and donate their time to you, would you mind if we differ you later in the list so that 17
you can work on that? 18
19
Mr. Shannon: I don’t know how to find three people online tonight at 8:30. 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.
1
Chair Templeton: I know, I’m sorry, but Commissioner Alcheck is correct. We did lay the rules 2
out in the agenda ahead of time and it wouldn’t be fair to the others to work 3
[unintelligible](interrupted) 4
5
Mr. Shannon: Chairmen [unintelligible] amend this as 3-minutes? 6
7
Chair Templeton: You may have 3-minutes. We changed it to 2, if you want 3-minutes for this, 8
you can have it. 9
10
Mr. Shannon: I’ll try to… let me have 3-minutes, I’ll do what I can. Thank you. 11
12
Chair Templeton: But we did at the beginning of this section say that 2-minutes is the expected 13
time so please for… I appreciate you condensing it down and everyone please try and keep it to 14
2-minutes. We do have 50 speakers, we want to respect everyone’s time. Thank you. 15
16
Mr. Shannon: Thank you very much. Good evening Commissioners and Chair Templeton, my 17
name’s Tom Shannon, I live at 256 Kellogg Avenue, a 40-year resident of Palo Alto, 31-years 18
directly across the street from Castilleja. I’m one of the four authors of the memo that was 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.
emailed to you earlier today. We would appreciate your review of that detailed memo. In my 1
limited time, I would like to highlight a few important points. 2
3
Point number one, Castilleja faces a huge challenge operating a middle school and a high school 4
on inadequate 6-acre parcel, one of Palo Alto’s historic residential neighborhoods. We have 5
worked for the past 7-years seeking compromised solutions with Castilleja to preserve our 6
neighborhood, yet we are still unable to find a plan that acceptable to both parties. We have 7
suggested an alternative plan which [unintelligible] Castilleja’s traffic on their campus. One such 8
plan is included in our memo delivered to your earlier today. Did Castilleja and City Staff reject 9
these alternative plans saying that they will impair the fields, the pool, and/or Castilleja’s lawn 10
circle? The City even acknowledges in its rejection that the parcel is too small to handle 11
Castilleja’s traffic. Yet alone entertain an application for a 30 percent enrollment increase and a 12
200,000-square foot redevelopment expansion with all the traffic placed on our neighborhood 13
streets. Should there not be some compromises made on any one or more of these amenities? 14
The field, the pool, the circle in order to accommodate some of the traffic generated by the 15
school. Again, please consider the neighbor’s alternative plan included in your Packet. 16
17
Point Number two, a problem with the EIR. I heard everybody’s comments about the comment 18
period, but specifically, the current Final EIR fails to study and document the Kellogg/Bryant 19
intersection which will most likely become a major intersection to handle Castilleja’s disbursed 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.
traffic. There’s an exhibit in our written memo highlighting the significant difference between 1
the traffic pattern analyzed in the Draft EIR as compared to what is now proposed in the Final 2
EIR. We would welcome the Commission’s [unintelligible] comment on this matter. 3
4
Point number three, the school is knowing in violation of its current CUP. All of us are aware 5
that it is knowingly violated the CUP for almost 20-years, since 2001, by enrolling students 6
above the CUP cap. Can the Commission explain as to how the City in good conscious can 7
consider an expansion application to increase enrollment along with a major redevelopment 8
when the applicant is in violation of its current CUP? As citizens, we don’t understand the 9
example and precedent the City is setting. How will this be viewed and played out where other 10
conditional users seeking future amendments? 11
12
Point number four, compliances with the Municipal Code. We cannot understand how the City 13
concludes that the disbursed traffic plan is compliant with the Municipal Code? Quoting the 14
code, the proposal shall not be detrimental to property or improvements in the vicinity 15
(interrupted) 16
17
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much, Mr. Shannon. 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.
Mr. Shannon: Ok, general surrounding community. Point five, we would like to have some 1
priority in this process. We feel that Castilleja is given the highest priority and our 2
neighborhood’s priorities are given (interrupted) 3
4
Chair Templeton: You’ve been given 50 percent more time, Mr. Shannon please conclude your 5
comments. 6
7
Mr. Shannon: [unintelligible] please send the plan back to the Staff and direct them to work 8
toward the compromise with the neighbors, direct the EIR consultants to study the 9
Bryant/Kellogg interchange, and please remove… review and study our memorandum. Thank 10
you very much. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Tom for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Peter Rosenthal 13
and Peter I believe you will be donating your time Leila. Can you confirm if that’s correct? 14
15
Mr. Peter Rosenthal: That is correct. 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you, Peter. Our next speaker will be Nelson. Nelson, can you please unmute 18
yourself and you may speak. 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. Nelson Ng: Hi, my name’s Nelson Ng and I live across the street from Castilleja for the last 1
24-years on Emerson Street. And I… yesterday I sent a letter to the Commission asking them to 2
reject the current Final EIR because it’s an incomplete study of the impact to the neighborhood 3
as well as providing inaccurate information. In the letter, I pointed out seven examples but 4
today since I only have 2-minutes I’ll just talk about one which is the proposed underground 5
garage. 6
7
Originally as we all talked about it, it has Significant and Unavoidable Impact to the 8
neighborhood because it increased the traffic by over 80 percent onto Emerson. And since the 9
new alternative comes out and the alternative… the FEIR basically accepted it at face value with 10
the redirected traffic drop off making assumptions that 60 percent of the traffic will be 11
magically going to Bryant, 30 percent will go Kellogg and only 10 percent will go into the garage. 12
So magically they solved these Significant and Unavoidable issues with the project after 4-years. 13
It is just hard to conceive that by doing that they reduced on paper 92 percent of the traffic 14
going in there without any type of major studying or issuing the Final EIR. Therefore, I think that 15
this EIR… this is just one of the many examples of this EIR does not have enough of the study to 16
reflect all the impacts to the neighborhood. As well as a lot… since then, in the last year, COVID-17
19 has happened. A lot more pedestrian has been on… and bicyclists have been on our streets 18
and then downtown has been closing some of the streets which will flood into Embarcadero. A 19
lot of this study does not take into account of it. How can we have a multi-million-dollar project 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.
without any studying of what the future will look like? Therefore, I urge the Commission to 1
reject this FEIR until complete study is done before… and with available for public review. Thank 2
you. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Nelson, before you disconnect, there’s a second user in here with the exact same 5
first and last as you. Can you confirm if that’s you? 6
7
Mr. Ng: Yes, actually that was Kimberly Wong, is my wife, she was using the iPad. We had the 8
same issue during the ARB so if you can let her… because since then I asked her to sign-in on 9
the phone which is much later in the list. If she was able to get a higher place up in the list, can 10
you let that (interrupted) 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Yeah, I will add her to where she raised her hand. Thank you. Veronica, can you 13
add Kimberly Wong to… after Eduardo who’s number 9? Thank you. Ok, our next speaker will 14
be Rob Levitsky and Rob, we have… I believe you had a presentation for us and I believe you 15
also a group who will be donating their time to you. One second, please. This is quite odd, it 16
looks like Rob has disappeared from the list. Oh, there he is. 17
18
Chair Templeton: And Mr. Nguyen, we’re verifying that all of the people contributing their time 19
are in the list? 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.
1
Mr. Rob Levitsky: Yeah (interrupted) 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Rob, can you please list everyone who will be devoting their time to you? 4
5
Mr. Levitsky: Yeah, it’s George Jemmott, Angie Hyle (phonetics), Pius Fisher, Leah Rismen 6
(phonetics), Ruben Land, Netta Wang, Andrew Alexander, myself, Lisa Wang, and Ruben Land. 7
10. 8
9
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, I do see that you do have enough people in here for (interrupted) 10
11
Mr. Levitsky: In fact, I’d like to donate a couple of those three to Tom Shannon if he wants to 12
finish his paperwork later so. 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: I think (interrupted) 15
16
Chair Templeton: You guys can work that out offline but it would have to be another speaker 17
(interrupted) 18
19
Mr. Levitsky: [unintelligible] 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.
1
Chair Templeton: Another speaker because he’s already spoken. 2
3
Mr. Levitsky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Yeah, at this point Tom has already concluded his comments so I think we should 6
move onto yourself, the next speaker. So, Rob if you could please give us your comments. 7
8
Mr. Levitsky: Hello, my name is Rob Levitsky, spelled L-e-v-i-t-s-k-y, 63- year resident of Palo 9
Alto, owner of 1215 Emerson parcel adjoining Castilleja at Emerson and Embarcadero. Last 10
week when I did a presentation for the ARB, I answered questions that the ARB makes 11
judgments on. Here I will extend my remarks to the purview of the PTC. The CUP and Variances 12
related to the proposed project, but I’ll start with some of the ARB info as it provides a good 13
foundation and then gets into the requested CUP and Variances. 14
15
ARB purpose number one is to promote orderly and harmonious development in the City. 16
Castilleja completely took us, neighbors, by surprise on June 30th, 2016 with a presentation 17
showing an underground garage, or I guess it’s an underground basement now, right next to my 18
property; as well as removal of two of the three houses on the east side of the 1200 block of 19
Emerson to be replaced with underground parking basement and above that basement a 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.
private park. Whatever that was supposed to be. Just about everything in this picture that you 1
see would be removed in this plan. The two houses, protected Oaks, and the Redwoods. In the 2
garage, 16-feet below grade, this first drawing shows parking spaces right up to my property, 3
Slide 2, please. So, the house that’s outlined in red and you can see a car parking space in the 4
basement touching the property. 5
6
Next, nearly all 168 trees, including protected Oaks and 120-foot Redwoods were subject to 7
being killed or [unintelligible], Slide 3, please. Ok, here we’re quoting from the April 16th, 2016 8
Invitatory of Trees Report by Arborist Michael Bench. Among the 168 trees, there are 122 trees 9
on the Castilleja campus, there’s 42 street trees, and 4 trees on the neighboring property. And I 10
quote further, all of the 168 trees are expected to be impacted by proposed construction. Four 11
trees mentioned in the neighboring property are mine, all Oaks protected by the Tree 12
Ordinance in Palo Alto or so one would think. So much for orderly and harmonious 13
development. 14
15
ARB purpose two, enhance the desirability of residents or investment in the City. Let’s see, loss 16
of protected trees and canopy, underground concrete parking basement garage, loss of two or 17
three houses on the block, interference with the Bryant Street bike lane, ugly portable 18
classrooms for years, 5,000 dumpster loads of dirt to be removed, 100 of cement trucks, it’s 19
hard to believe any of that will enhance the desirability of residents in the area. In fact, we had 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.
several people move away because of the conflict, and houses pulled off the market because of 1
scared buyers. One Sunday afternoon after seeing Castilleja’s misrepresentation of neighbor’s 2
opposition to the garage, we collected signatures from 47 neighboring households against the 3
garage. Next slide, please. The lighted houses on that map show all the houses signed opposing 4
the garage. 5
6
Next purpose, encourage containment of the most desirable use of land and improvements, but 7
at what cost to the neighborhood? And here’s where we connect to PTC concerns, the CUP, and 8
Variances. We neighbors probably wouldn’t have objected to a compliant project but they 9
came at us with a list of demanded Variances and CUP changes. Violating the 24-foot setback 10
on Embarcadero, the 20-foot setbacks on Emerson/Bryant, destroying the two houses on 11
Emerson, merging the two house lots requiring a Variance. And here’s another one, shifting the 12
Melville Avenue public utility easement by 15-feet and building a pedestrian tunnel under the 13
Melville sewer line and that’s what that red line points too. That little dot in the center is a… 14
the Melville sewer line and 2-feet under that is this pedestrian tunnel getting you from the 15
parking basement to the rest of the school. Do you think individual people like you and me 16
could just go and get access to move the PUE? Probably not and I spoke with Mike Sartar [note 17
– phonetics] and Dean Bachelor of utilities for the last 10-years and they’ve never given any 18
kind of easement away like that. 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.
Then there’s the Variance for the Floor Area Ratio. You hear Variance request Mindie 1
Romanowsky, the land attorney for Castilleja, prized hardship in their Variance request blaming 2
the lot shape as an excuse for a FAR Variance. Well, Castilleja did not complain about the shape 3
of the lot when the City gave… City of Palo Alto gave them Melville Street in 1992. Now they 4
want out of having to follow the FAR rules for coverage. They also want to get planning to allow 5
an underground garage where not allowed in R1. And if an underground garage were allowed it 6
would have to be under a building, which it’s not, and the square footage would have to be 7
counted which it’s not. That’s another 35,000 to 50,000-square feet in the calculations we save 8
[unintelligible] to you. 9
10
ARB purpose four, enhance the desirability of living conditions on the immediate site, Slide 6, 11
please. Next slide. Hello? Well, there’s suppose to be a picture… there we go, a picture of the 12
100 to 120-foot Redwoods and the Oaks enhance the desirability to the neighborhood, but 13
slicing and dicing through the roots of other protected trees through other various pipes and 14
walls and high voltage transformers doesn’t make for a very good life for these trees. Palo Alto 15
people care deeply about trees, especially Oaks and Redwoods, and believe that the rules 16
protecting trees should be even tighter than what’s in the Tree Manual. I spoke with Dave 17
Doctor on Monday and he was really upset that this issue with the trees at Castilleja wasn’t 18
addressed upfront. He was the Planning Arborist from 1997 to 2017 and looked at every project 19
that came through planning. He would sit down and look at the site, where the trees are, and 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.
help the builder figure out a way to work around nature. Dave said, designing with nature in 1
mind was the intent of the Tree Ordinance. What we have here at Castilleja in this first iteration 2
is designing with no trees in mind or trees that have little chance for survival. Here’s but one 3
example of interfering with the Tree Protection Zone, next slide, and this is for tree 89, which 4
many of you will recognize on the Emerson side, and here’s what they propose, next slide, 5
please. So, the red arrow points a little dot in the center which is the center of the tree. You’ll 6
see this big circle around the tree. Most of the Tree Protection Zone has been sliced and diced 7
with a large high voltage electrical transformer vault on a concrete pad, a sidewall of a 8
swimming pool, a set of stairs, a fire access road, a trenched water pipe, bicycle parking. This 9
may be 70 or 80 percent of the Tree Protection Zone being violated versus 17 percent which 10
caused all the uproar at City Council over the Oak on Webster Street. Many of you might have 11
watched the Council meeting a week ago Monday when over 30 residents spoke in favor of not 12
violating the Tree Protection Zone of an Oak on Webster Street. And no one spoke in favor of 13
the supposed property rights of the builder to kill the tree and there are other lots… there are 14
lots of other trees subjected to similar TPZ encroachment in this design. As far as the trees are 15
concerned there are at least a dozen that should have been studied by the EIR, but without 16
justification, the Planning Department tried to hide that from the EIR calling the trees Less-17
Than-Significant and thus not even studying the trees in the Biological Resources Section of the 18
EIR. So, what happened was the EIR came and said well you can do whatever you want with the 19
trees because they take the position that if there’s any reason to cut a tree then there’s every 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.
reason to cut every tree. So, you can cut a tree down, a protected tree, if it’s hazardous or dead 1
and the EIR takes the position well if you can cut a protected tree for this, you can cut a 2
protected tree for an excuse like what they use which is we want to put a building there. It 3
didn’t have to be this way but it was a failure of the initial study to protect at-risk trees. 4
Another issue is they come up and try to just mitigate by cutting trees and looking on this table 5
for Mitigation 4b. Well, they’ll go about and say we’re going to just plant… look on the table, 6
how many trees do we have to buy, and where can we stuff them in 7
[unintelligible](interrupted) 8
9
Chair Templeton: Mr. Levitsky, your time has expired. Please wrap it up. 10
11
Mr. Levitsky: 120-foot canopy. Next slide… I’m done. Thank you. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Alright thank you. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Ok our next speaker will be Eduardo. Eduardo, if you can please unmute yourself 16
and you may speak. 17
18
Mr. Eduardo Llach: Yes, thank you. Dear PTC Members, I want to thank you all for the hard 19
work to continue to improve our lives in Palo Alto. I know the hours and sacrifices you’re 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.
making. I’m in support of Castilleja and Alternative Four being discussed today. I urge you to 1
support Alternative Four because this proposal by Castilleja was judged to be the 2
environmentally superior option. With this alternative plane along with the required 3
mitigations on mutation Castilleja had… can achieve its goal of enrolling more students while 4
bringing no new cars to the neighborhood. Alternative Four, the school found a way to save 5
homes on Emerson as well as many trees. A win-win for everyone. The plan presented in the 6
last 2-hours addresses the environment and traffic issues in an impressive manner so why are 7
we doing all this? I support Castilleja because my grandmother graduate from Castilleja 103-8
years ago. The school gave her a unique education and made her independent and successful. 9
So, she could raise my father and my uncle as a single mother back in the 1950s. As her first 10
grandson I learned from her so thank you, Castilleja. My wife Terri went to a similar all-girls 11
school in Menlo Park and she too saw the ability of being able to focus on academia and get the 12
benefits on all girl’s education. We chose to send our kids to Pally next to our home and it was a 13
great school for them. My son who needed IEP helped throughout, graduated from USC Film 14
School so thank you Biron Jordan and Pally. But Castilleja provides a choice that parents and 15
students can make because Castilleja has all girl’s education and Pally’s broader opportunities 16
afforded by a school that’s five times highs. With a greater high school enrollment, Castilleja 17
can offer the same opportunities to more girls. Including those from under-resourced schools 18
who are supported throughout the school’s very generous tuition assistance program. So, I urge 19
you to support Castilleja and Alternative Four. Thank 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Eduardo for your comments. Our next speaker will be Kimberley Wong. 2
Kimberley, if you can please unmute yourself and you may speak. 3
4
Ms. Kimberley Wong: Hello? 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. 7
8
Ms. Wong: Ok my name is Kimberley Wong and I’ve lived here for 24-years. My family here 9
since 1900 so according to the Palo Alto Municipal Code a Conditional Use Permit will be 10
granted only if it will be not detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety, general 11
welfare, or convenience. I feel like Castilleja’s project violates all of these conditions. Slide one, 12
please? 13
14
The original plans call for all cars to enter into a garage off the bike safety boulevard which will 15
cause Significant and Unavoidable Impacts. The second alternative allows for a better flow but 16
with three drop-offs the traffic flow will still be messy and can endanger bicyclists. How can it 17
be decided that this is not significant? The PTC should request a full Traffic Study of Alternative 18
Four for real-time counts, not alternated drop off percentages to make their numbers work. 19
Personal safety is my biggest issue. At Bryant and Embarcadero on my bike, I have seen many 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.
close calls with cars screeching around the corner for late pickups. I was surprised to see that 1
the Finding that a safety concern involving bicyclist has not been demonstrated. Based on a 2
Bryant Street Collision Analysis, based on CHP records between March 2015 and 2018 that 3
could find only one single non-injury collision with a car and not a bicycle. However, there was a 4
serious accident that was overlooked during this period. On February 13, 2018, causing backups 5
both ways for hours. The Palo Alto Weekly Article, Tow Injured in Embarcadero Road Collision, 6
states that the Fire Chief as a manual scooter smashed underneath a vehicle and a bicycle 7
missing its front wheel. Both men were injured and hospitalized and the Casti [note – Castilleja] 8
teacher on the scooter was hospitalized for several more days. Given that this major collision 9
was completely omitted from the report, I wonder how many other accidents were not 10
included. I suggest that these reports be expanded beyond the original scope and restudied. 11
This is how one incident can impact the neighborhood’s living quality of life. Thank you. 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Kimberley for your comments. Our next speaker is Michael Goldstein. 14
Unfortunately, Michael is no longer in this meeting so Veronica if you can maybe highlight him 15
and then we’ll see if he’s in later. Maybe his computer disconnected or something. I’m not sure. 16
Maybe he’s just gone. Our next speaker will be Roger McCarthy. Roger, if you can please 17
unmute yourself, you may speak. 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.
Mr. Roger McCarthy: This Is Roger McCarthy. I live at 650 Waverley Street which is a few blocks 1
from Castilleja. It is a historically significant home and I’ve lived in Palo Alto for over 20-years. 2
I’ve never set foot in the place, I’ve never had any connection with Castilleja, I’ve never sent 3
any children there. However, I was the Chair of the Committee a Membership for the National 4
Academy of Engineering 2-years ago and tasked with the job of finding a class of about 85 that 5
would represent the United States in a way that could advise the government as is the role of 6
the National Academy. Part of that was trying to find qualified women in the STEM fields, 7
particularly in engineering, and at that, I was a total failure. And today, like my predecessors, 8
the National Academy of Engineering remains primarily old white men. These people at 9
Castilleja have hit upon an amazing solution. I have submitted written remarks to the PTC that 10
can show all the academics studies that support the comments I’m going to make; but 11
overwhelming, the studies have shown that all-girl schools graduates… girls in these schools are 12
six times more likely to study math, science, and technology and three times more likely to go 13
into an engineering career. One other speaker mentioned that Castilleja is in the top five. I’ve 14
sent the Committee a citation that shows that Castilleja is number one and best all high schools 15
in America for women. Castilleja is part of the solution of the gender inequality structure we 16
have in the country and when I hear opposition based on no trees. We are ignoring a problem 17
that is dramatically more important to the nation and we should be on these Castilleja people 18
to double the enrollment, not beating them down to nothing. Thank you. 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. Nguyen: Thank you Roger for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Christina G. 1
Christina, can you please unmute yourself? 2
3
Ms. Christina Gwen: Good evening, I’m Christina Gwen and I speak both a neighbor too and a 4
teacher at Castilleja. First, as a neighbor, let’s be clear there are no clogged streets around 5
Castilleja during non-COVID times, there are no backups, there is no loss in quality of life by 6
living around the corner from this school or across the street from this school. In fact, this 7
mission-driven school that is committed to educating women speaks to a larger purpose which 8
contributes to the Palo Alto experience and to the quality of life here. Given the complexities 9
and challenges of our world and our moment, we want schools like this to expand their reach. 10
Right now, 54 students at this identify as people of color, there are 20 languages spoken at 11
home, there are 9 student-led affinity groups to celebrate diverse identities and cultures, and 12
parallel parent affinity groups to support and connect families. We have a significant 13
commitment to first-gen students in their families, helping families navigate if independent 14
school is new terrain and opening access beyond Castilleja. Anti-racist leadership teaching and 15
remain embedded in our social justice programming. We have equity and inclusion 16
practitioners in residence serve as consultants on anti-racist teaching and learning and support 17
our community throughout this moment of racial reckoning. This is an institution committed to 18
shaping a better future for all and we, the community, should feel compelled to support it. 19
Thank 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Christina for your comments. Our next speaker will be Carolyn. Carolyn, 2
can you please unmute yourself? 3
4
Ms. Carolyn Schmarzo: I’m unmuting. Can you hear me? 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 7
8
Ms. Schmarzo: Ok. I, Carolyn Schmarzo, I live at 1550 Emerson Street, I’ve lived here for off and 9
on for 22-years and Palo Alto is my home and I have attended three Castilleja neighborhood 10
meetings. At these meetings I keep hearing testimonies, I keep hearing… I am not a perspective 11
parent and I’m starting to hear it again. Please, that’s not the issue. I don’t care if it’s a school 12
taxidermy, I do not want 650 students and how many teachers in my neighborhood? That’s the 13
size of a medium-sized company. It’s the size of Cliff Bar. Now at this meeting, I only asked a 14
question once. I asked Castilleja to give me three reasons why the City of Palo Alto and its 15
property tax-paying citizens should embrace this project and the answer was [paused]. Yes, that 16
was the answer, there were no reasons. The silence was defining. By their own admission, there 17
are no reasons for the City and its neighbors and its residences to embrace this expansion 18
project. Please say no to this greedy grab of a proposal. Let’s remind you it’s $50,000 a student. 19
Please be greater than zero. Thank 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Carolyn for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Hank Sousa and 2
Hank, I believe we have a presentation for you. If you can please unmute yourself, you may 3
speak. 4
5
Mr. Hank Sousa: Unmute. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Hanks going to have 2-minutes. He’s a speaker on behalf of himself. Hank, are you 8
there? 9
10
Mr. Sousa: Yes, I’m here. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, whenever you’re ready, please. 13
14
Mr. Sousa: Ok. Good evening Commissioners, the neighborhood group PNQL has been 15
suggesting an authentic program of shuttling to replace the school’s single-car drop-off. The 16
school says there are no available parking lots in Palo Alto, but Kiss n Ride drop off spots don’t 17
require purchase of parking lots. Drop off spots could be utilized in areas the school has 18
reached an agreement with. The photo collage shows several examples of possible spots. 19
Starting top left and going clockwise. Shoreline Athletic Fields in the Rhensdorf/Charleston area 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.
featured a looped driveway and is a little east of 101. Sandhill Lola Ranch Road is just west of 1
280, Baylands Athletic Field Embarcadero and Gang just east of 101 has lots of room, last one 2
where its dead ends at El Camino Real just south of Palm Drive is close in but avoids the Town 3
and Country mess, Lord’s Grace Christian Church at San Antonio, Bay Shore, and 101 has a big 4
parking lot. We would like to see contracts between the school and the parents of students 5
who either drive themselves or are dropped off. Many other schools do this successfully. Once 6
public transportation makes a safe come back and the school teaching students in person, it 7
should be part of the TDM. 1,400 daily car trips are simply too many into our small 8
neighborhood streets. Part of a successful reimaging of the school should include the question 9
what is the benefit to the neighborhood? If the school embraces the Kiss n Ride drop off spots, 10
the benefit will be clear. A large reduction in the 1,400 daily car trips will please the neighbors 11
and the environmental benefits from Green House Gas emission reductions. Plus, the school’s 12
emphasis on STEM teaching fits right into the model many of the girls will entering upon 13
graduation from college and that is the use of alternate models… modes of transportation to 14
get to work. Please recommend this 21st century way of commuting as a complement to the 15
green buildings the school is proposing to construct. Thank you. 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Hank for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Terry. Terry, I 18
believe you indicated that you will be pooling your time to Andie Reed, is that correct? Terry, it 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.
looks like you’re using an older version of Zoom so I actually can’t unmute you. Instead, I will 1
have to promote you to panelists just for a quick second so you can unmute your microphone. 2
3
Mr. Terry Holzemer: Yes, I’m [unintelligible – static] donate my time to Andie Reed. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for confirming that. Ok, our next speaker will be Chi Wong and Chi 6
Wong, I believe you will be donating your time to Leila. Can you confirm that that’s correct? 7
8
Mr. Chi Wong: Yes, that is correct. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, thank you. Our next speaker will be Jolie Kemp. Jolie, can you please unmute 11
your microphone and you may speak? Jolie, if you’re there can you please unmute your 12
microphone? 13
14
Ms. Jolie Kemp: Yes, hello. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 17
18
Ms. Kemp: Ok, hello everyone, so my name is Jolie Kemp and I’m a Castilleja alum from the 19
class of 2017. I’m also a lifelong Palo Alto resident so I’m here to talk to you a little bit more 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.
about Castilleja’s report. Particularly from the point of view of commuting via bike. So, as a 1
lifelong [unintelligible – audio cut out] around the age of 13 and it was a great experience. And 2
every day when the weather allowed I would meet up with my Castilleja best friend and 3
neighbor and bike to school together through Old Palo Alto and on Bryant Bike Boulevard. And I 4
often saw many of my Casti [note -Castilleja] classmates biking to school as well, along with 5
many teachers walking along Bryant to get to school. There was and is even more so now today 6
a culture of biking and cycling to school at Castilleja. So, I would like to highlight a few key ways 7
in which Castilleja’s FEIR continues to reduce the number of cars coming to school and 8
encourage this culture of cycling. So, I have a couple of specific examples which you can also 9
find in the report. So, as a result, as it relates to the garage, you’ll find that cars will only enter 10
the garage by taking a right turn from Bryant Street. Therefore, they will never cross or 11
interfere with the bike boulevard traffic in any way. Also, the project alternative also ensures 12
that any vehicle queues for accessing the below-grade garage will be fully contained within 13
campus and will again, not impeded bike lanes. Furthermore, moving parking below ground 14
also makes cycling safer as there won’t be any parked drivers opening doors as bicycles pass 15
which has definitely been a problem me in my time. And more thing to note is that Castilleja 16
traffic monitors always watch for cyclists, helping them whenever possible, so in conclusion the 17
report definitely confirms there is no impact on bicycle safety. And in fact, bicycle safety is 18
actually improved by there being fewer curb cuts or driveway entrances on Bryant Street than 19
there are now. So, thank you so much for your time. 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us Jodie [note – Jolie]. 2
3
Chair Templeton: Mr. Nguyen, could you clarify the people that we’ve skipped and didn’t note 4
that their time is donated? 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, so Netta Wang actually donated their time to Rob Levitsky and so 7
(interrupted) 8
9
Chair Templeton: And Julia, Mary, and Rita? 10
11
Mr. Nguyen: Julia is no longer on this… in this meeting so (interrupted) 12
13
Chair Templeton: I see. Ok, I just… I didn’t see the annotations there and I didn’t know why we 14
missed them. Ok, thank you. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Ok. I do see Mary Sylvester. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Sorry, I do see Julia, Vinh. I do see Julia Zeitlin. She’s right below Aileen Lee and 19
above Bill Power. 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: One second, please. 2
3
Ms. Tanner: I may be hard because it’s not in alphabetical order in the attendee list so that can 4
be challenging. 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Ok so she must have lowered her hand and re-raised it at some point. Let me get 7
to her real quick. I’m sorry, where did you say it was? I can’t seem to find my (interrupted) 8
9
Ms. Tanner: If you look down one, two, three, four… maybe about 10 or 12 people, she’s 10
between Aileen… her… on my computer she color is blue of her little… and has a JZ initial. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, ok, I do see her now. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Ok, Julia, can 13
you please unmute yourself and you will have 2-minutes to speak. 14
15
Ms. Julia Zeitlin: Good evening Commissioners. My name is Julia Zeitlin, I live in Palo Alto and 16
just today started 9th grade at Castilleja. As co-founder of the Silicon Valley Sunrise Movement 17
Chapter, I can also share the perspective of an environmentalist. With the help of Castilleja 18
faculty and Staff, I’ve been able to help lead my fellow classmates in initiatives that combat 19
climate change. Last year on September 20th I led the school in a walkout in solidarity with 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.
global climate strikes. Last spring, I began working with our culinary team to start a food waste 1
reduction initiative. Castilleja faculty has always supported this work along with countless other 2
examples. Castilleja’s Master Plan and visions and environmentally conscious fossil-fuel-free 3
campus with resilient vegetation, recycled water infrastructure, efficient ventilation, and 4
electric shuttles. The new campus itself will help educate the next generation of learners on 5
how to be stewards of the environment. A campus with environmental sustainability at its core 6
will raise awareness of severe issues such as the destructive wildfires that we all currently 7
facing. Not only does the Master Plan mitigate climate impacts to the fullest extent, but the 8
plan creates the opportunity to further emphasize sustainability in the school’s curriculum. 9
Environmental experts will say the most sustainable building is no building at all. However, the 10
current Castilleja’s buildings that will be replaced are close to 60-years old. This project is 11
needed. The new buildings will be much more energy and water efficient and can serve as a 12
model for other schools. Castilleja’s new Master Plan surpasses the standards that in the S/CAP 13
legislation with even more comprehensive solutions for a clean and sustainable future. It’s my 14
pleasure to support the Castilleja’s, Master Plan. Thank you. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you, Julia, for your comments tonight, and thank you Rachael for pointing 17
out where she was in the list. Our next speaker will be Mary Sylvester. Mary, you had indicated 18
to me that the following people would be donating their time to you. David, Patricia, Nancy, 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.
Winter, Bill, and Gavin. I don’t see Gavin in this meeting, but you still do have a group of five so 1
we will give you the 10-minutes. If you can please unmute your microphone, you may speak. 2
3
Ms. Mary Sylvester: Good evening Commissioners, Chairperson Templeton, PTC 4
Commissioners, City Staff, and Vinh. Thank you so much for your heroic efforts tonight in trying 5
to coordinate this rather cumbersome process. The focus of my comments tonight are twofold. 6
7
Number one, how does Castilleja’s expansion plan benefit, Palo Alto? Is there a benefit to the 8
health, safety, and welfare of the community, to our environment, to our local economy, and 9
the overall quality of life in this community? On balance I say there is not. Secondly, if they're a 10
compelling public interest that would necessitate making any and all the exemptions to Palo 11
Alto’s law and precedent that Castilleja’s asking for and warranted by… is it warranted by you to 12
recommend? Particularly the Green House Gas promoting underground garage which is by far, 13
in my estimation, an outlier. I think we should have really creative, innovative students like Julia 14
who we just heard from, and the excellent at Castilleja’s student come up with a plan that does 15
not include a Green House Gas polluting underground garage or a heavy reliance on individual 16
cars. 17
18
Background, Castilleja only 25 percent of Castilleja’s students come from Palo Alto. 75 percent 19
of the others commute from other communities; 7.5 miles or greater. The school operates on 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.
6.2-acres of prime residential real estate in Palo Alto for which the school pays no tax. Castilleja 1
maintains several real estate properties in the neighborhood which it does pay tax on. An 2
interesting phenomenon that it owns five individual homes in a neighborhood. 3
4
Next Castilleja operates under a Conditional Use Permit, a CUP. This is because it is a non-5
conforming use because of its nature, size, and scope. It is not a residence. The party operating 6
under a CUP may not do anything but jeopardizes the health, safety, and general welfare of the 7
adjacent properties or the citizenry. Possessing a CUP is a privilege, not an entitlement. One 8
would assume that the holder of such a privilege has earned the public trust, but has Castilleja 9
with 19-years of over-enrollment? Many years of which were not publicly reported. This school 10
has lost the confidence of many of our citizens in qualifying for recommendation a new 11
Conditional Use Permit. 19-years with over $12 million of unaccounted for revenue and the 12
school only paid less than a 1 percent penalty. In what world does this occur? By the terms of 13
Castilleja’s 200 Conditional Use Permit, 415 students maximum are allowed. 14
15
Now Castilleja’s requesting a 30 percent increase in enrollment, an additional 125 students. 16
While the school has been out of compliance for these last 19-years they only began to reduce 17
their enrollment as a result of the neighbor’s attorney taking action on this. And when the 18
school was called out by the City Attorney and City Manager, they bulked at having to abide by 19
the law. 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.
1
Castilleja is asking favorable treatment not only under the Conditional Use Permit but under 2
multiple planning and zoning documents. The Zoning Code, they’re asking for an increase in 3
their Floor Area Ratio and being creative, to put it mildly with how they’re counting square 4
footage. An underground garage, which they’re calling a basement because they know it’s a 5
non-conforming use in a neighborhood and they don’t want to have to count the square 6
footage of that space. 7
8
Also, Palo Alto’s Comprehensive Plan is being both the letter and the spirit of the plan is being 9
undermined by the Castilleja plan. Our Comp Plan by our citizenry calls for walkable streets, a 10
beautiful thriving tree canopy, and the building of neighborhoods and communities. This 11
project serves to undermine that with 3 to 5-years of major construction. Neighbors are not 12
going to be out walking, bicyclists are not going to be out cycling. This is going to be a noisy, 13
dangerous neighborhood during the period of construction. 14
15
Also, our Tree Protection Ordinance is being undermined by this plan. We, in this community, 16
value a thriving tree canopy and we’re losing five to seven protected Oaks and Redwoods. Also, 17
Palo Alto’s Sustainability Plan is being undermined by this project. We are being asked to 18
tolerate a Green House Gas omitting underground garage as well as cars that will be attracted 19
to the garage for easy parking and drop off. This is not necessary. There are creative solutions 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.
many other schools are utilizing. Finally, our Bike Safety Plan. How is an underground garage 1
entrance on a bike safety route that has… is to guarantee children and teens safe riding to 2
school going to be protected? 3
4
I would not like to say this plan is an anomaly. Up and down the San Francisco peninsula we 5
have private schools that have split their campus when they choose to grow. One middle and 6
one upper school and Miss. Waugh, I would like further commentary from you as to the 7
conclusionary remarks you made that land is not available to divide Castilleja’s campus. I work 8
with families and Staff from six private schools on the San Francisco peninsula. All those schools 9
have split, several have robust shuttling programs and several do not allow students and Staff 10
to drive to school. So, what is the vital public interest being served to justify these dramatic 11
changes to our Zoning Code, our Comp Plan, our Sustainability Plan, our Tree Protection 12
Ordinance, and our Bike Safety Plan? Nothing. There is no compelling public interest to justify 13
this plan as creative and sustained in the Environmental Impact Report and I request given the 14
changes made by Castilleja after the DEIR that the plan be recirculated. And finally, 15
Commissioner Templeton [note – Chair Templeton] I would like to go on record that I believe 16
my comments from the DEIR were not adequately addressed as to the metrics used to measure 17
traffic. I requested that metrics be used under Vehicles Miles Traveled as well as with Level of 18
Service and I did not see this. When Castilleja is (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
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 Templeton: Thank you, Ms. Sylvester. Your time has expired. 1
2
Ms. Sylvester: I know. When Castilleja’s up and running in several years they will be required to 3
abide by Vehicle Miles Traveled. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Templeton: I appreciate that. Before we continue, Ms. Dao would you mind scrolling 6
down on the list to show those that are waiting that we’ve captured their names. There’s some 7
anxiety amongst our speakers around this issue. Ok, and you might want to double-check. It’s 8
possible we’ve missed a couple on there so I appreciate all the work you’re doing. I know this is 9
our first time doing this process so thank you for your patience to members of the public. And 10
we will double-check that list and make sure that everyone who has their hands raised is added 11
to the list. I would also like to request… to remind the members of the public that all comments 12
should be addressed to the Commission and not to individuals. So, please keep that in mind as 13
you continue. Thank you very much. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Chair Templeton and yes, there are a couple people with their hands 16
raised who raised their hand after we created this list. So, they’re not on this list but we’ll make 17
sure to call on everyone who has… who currently has their hands raised. 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.
Chair Templeton: Yeah, everybody is waiting such a long time because we have so many 1
speakers. I just want to make sure that they know we’ll get to them. Thank you so much, Vinh. I 2
appreciate that. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Ok our next speaker will be Rita. Rita, if you can please unmute your microphone 5
and you may speak. Rita, I see you have unmuted your microphone, you can speak whenever 6
you’re ready. Rita, if you are unable to speak we will have to move onto the next speaker. Ok in 7
the interest of time we’ll go back to you at the end to see if maybe perhaps you were having 8
some computer issues. Our next speaker will be Barbara. Barbara, if you can please unmute 9
your microphone you may speak. 10
11
Ms. Barbara Hazlett: Can you hear me? 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 14
15
Ms. Hazlett: Thank you. Good evening Commissioners. My name is Barbara Hazlett. I have lived 16
near Castilleja School on Emerson Street, just across Embarcadero, for over 40-years. I feel 17
lucky to live near this important institution. We all need to be reminded that much like 18
Stanford, Castilleja is a nationally ranked school. How lucky are we to have these kinds of 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.
educational institutions in our backyard? Schools are a public good and Castilleja is undeniably 1
good. This is the overriding compelling public good. 2
3
Specific to this hearing, I want to speak about the building design and say how pleased I am 4
with the proposed plans. Importantly, the Final EIR states that Castilleja’s plans are consistent 5
with the City’s Comp Plan. Including maintaining and prioritizing the residential neighborhood 6
around the project. Further, the FEIR states that the new building design, including the garage, 7
improves the aesthetics of the neighborhood. The schools have carefully… the architects have 8
carefully studied the surrounding homes to select materials that mirror them. I’ve looked at the 9
renderings on Casti’s [note – Castilleja] website and the landscaping blends the buildings 10
beautifully into the surrounding neighborhood without increasing any Floor Area Ratio. 11
Castilleja’s modernization greatly improves on the current aging structures we see on campus. 12
All of us as immediate neighbors will benefit greatly from this design. 13
14
Regarding transportation matters, the school has a robust TDM plan which is monitored and 15
measured by independent audit. The underground garage is in direct response to neighbor’s 16
requests to mitigate street parking and traffic noise. 17
18
Inclusion Castilleja should have the opportunity to modernize and expand enrollment as had 19
Ohlone, Pally, Addison, and Stanford. Please support the school’s plans and ensure that inspired 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.
architectural and exceptional education continues as a foundational and timeless value in Palo 1
Alto. Thank you. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Barbara for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Andie Reed and 4
Andie you had previously indicated that the following people will be donating their time to you. 5
Cathy, Gwen, Terry, Suzanne, and Elaine and I do see that all of them are currently in the 6
meeting. If you can please unmute yourself, you may speak. 7
8
Ms. Andie Reed: Thank you, Vinh. Great job tonight. Good evening Commissioners. Below I will 9
provide you with the PNQL neighbor’s response to the Final EIR. We appreciate that in the 10
Disbursed Circulation Reduced Garage Alternative, the school is taking into consideration 11
neighbor and DEIR concerns about vastly changing the face of the neighborhood and provides 12
instead to retain houses and hopefully many more trees and residential character. However, it 13
includes an underground garage with entrances and exits in the same busy corners of very 14
commuter active arterials; Embarcadero and Bryant, Embarcadero and Emerson and aiming 15
down the short block of Melville to wait for a traffic break at Alma. This plan also includes an 16
addition to garage access driveways, two drop off loop driveways at Bryant Street and Kellogg 17
Street and doesn’t mention, although they appear in the plans, how these would interact with 18
the school driveways at Kellogg and Emerson and the delivery and bus traffic into another 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.
driveway on Emerson. It does not solve the problem of 1,477 car trips per day. That tells us that 1
the school will disburse them around as mitigation. 2
3
The FEIR also produced a No Garage Alternative A, I’m calling it NGA, which always for surface 4
parking and reduced classroom building and enrollment. However, we don’t agree with the 5
FEIR that the only way to avoid an underground garage is to teat down houses and trees and 6
pave most of the Emerson side of the property. The goal of any no garage alternative 7
mentioned at the DEIR hearing was supposed to be less destructive, not more. This alternative, 8
NGA, increases adverse aesthetics and loss of community character by replacing houses with 9
paved parking lots. Increased removal of trees and increased potential for adverse noise. We 10
don’t think this report takes this alternative seriously. 11
12
The entire project and all its potential environmental impacts depend on the enrollment 13
number that City Council grants to the school. If we set aside Castilleja’s insistence on the City 14
permitting 540 students and focus on how a lower enrollment number would work. It appears a 15
very good solution contingent on retaining houses and trees. We will call it No Garage 16
Alternative B. PNQL urges the PTC to adopt changes to NGA and recommend our No Garage B 17
Alternative. We requested the PTC consider NGB which equitably solves almost all of the 18
neighbor’s problems and satisfies almost all of the school’s goals. We recommend an 19
enrollment of 450 students versus the requested enrollment of 540 students. Castilleja’s 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.
demand for 540 students is a 30 percent increase over the current use permit enrollment cap of 1
415 students. NGB’s 450 enrollment cap would allow the school an 8 percent increase which is 2
the same percentage increase granted in 2000. This works especially well for a school that 3
advertises itself on its website a small and intimate with classes limited to only 14 students and 4
a seven to one ratio of students to faculty. This still allows for a sizeable enrollment in 5
comparison to any other private or public school in the City of Palo Alto. Regarding students per 6
acre, it is almost double any other school. 7
8
The FEIR states a lower enrollment level does not achieve one of Castilleja’s goals. However, 9
the FERI does not and cannot properly contend that Castilleja has a legal right to 100 percent of 10
whatever enrollment it requests. Nor does it claim that the school has a right to 100 percent of 11
each and every goal that it is seeking. Otherwise, Cities would have necessity be legally required 12
to grant permits for 100 percent what all developers requested. The EIR should have honestly 13
and factually considered the alternatives. Looked at enrollment levels approaching what 14
neighbors could find palatable and assume that the City would use it’s fair and just discretion. 15
16
Mandatory shuttling, the FEIR should have considered other methods of controlling traffic more 17
consistent with today’s standards. Just relying on voluntary steps taken by parents, as advanced 18
in the EIR, is not adequate. NGB would depend upon a much more robust traffic plan. 19
Mandatory shuttling would easy almost all the traffic issues. An example of an up to date 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.
solution to the TDM and use permit for a very similar school in Los Angeles, Archer School for 1
Girls, who’s Conditions of Approval where submitted to the City of Palo Alto during the Draft 2
EIR comment period. Archer exists on 6.2-acres and like Castilleja it has 430 students, it 3
operates with eight buses and 80 percent of students’ bus to school. They meet up with the bus 4
or shuttle at Kiss and Ride lots to ride together to school. This places the ominous on the 5
parents and the school to make the transportation plan work. Instead of forcing neighbors and 6
commuters to live with the problems. Certainly, Castilleja would prefer to let parents do 7
whatever they feel like and not be bothered complying with use permit conditions. However, 8
there has to be recognition that Castilleja decided to enlarge in this one neighborhood without 9
expanding to another campus. The cost of that decision should not be born by the neighbors. 10
Already Castilleja expects the neighbors to live adjacent to and near a very industrial appearing 11
campus inconsistent with their neighborhood. 12
13
Parking, surface parking as exists will support 450 students as extrapolated from the NGA 14
teaching stations discussion in the FEIR and occurring to Muni Code. The mandatory shuttling 15
program will not only dramatically reduce traffic but it will reduce parking needs by all students 16
who would otherwise drive. So, all surface parking is prioritized for Staff and faculty using off-17
site parking as need as is the case now. Staff and faculty of course would be able to use shuttles 18
as well. 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.
Advantages to school, neighbors, and Palo Alto. NGB advantages to the school. NGB would 1
reduce the cost and construction time for the project because it’s size would be smaller. The 2
current parking spaces would remain. There would be some redesign of the proposed new 3
buildings as is in NGA. The school would solve the transportation problem through a system 4
that is mandatory and required by the City via the Conditional Use Permit rather than one 5
where parents can blame the school if they don’t like the system. The school would stay the 6
size that would allow for easily pivoting between hybrid and online education now and into the 7
future. The NGB proposed size would allow more preservation of trees and the houses that 8
would soften the look of the school and its surroundings. Students would start their day at 9
meet up lots to join friends on the bus and arrive at the school on the ground level. Enjoying 10
the visual benefits of the trees, the historic Gunn building, the circle, the new building, and the 11
landscaping rather than being underground. 12
13
Advantages to the neighborhood. The amount of traffic and the duration of peak periods would 14
less dramatically with mandatory use of shuttles and buses for the mandatory uses of buses 15
and shuttles for the majority of students who do not live near the school. Palo Alto commuters 16
would not have a traffic backup to deal with when going to work. The overall appearance at the 17
school would be softened by removing the industrial-like garage. Including the problematic 18
entry and exit on to residential streets. There would be less need for so much new construction 19
square footage, reducing the appearance of an office park typesetting. The neighbors would 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.
have some assurance that what their neighborhood would look like and that the school would 1
remain at a predictable level. Disruptions from construction would last a shorter period of time 2
and the neighbors could develop better and more effective communication with the school. 3
4
And finally, NGB advantages to Palo Alto. The City could maintain choices and education for its 5
residents without going all-in on a development that may not last due to changes over time. 6
The citizens of Palo Alto would have a much easier time on Embarcadero and Alma without the 7
single-occupancy vehicles that the current plans would bring into those streets. Palo Alto would 8
avoid investing in this project by granting a permit for a very large private school on a small 9
piece of land that then succumbs to a multitude of looming challenges. Pollical, financial, 10
demographic changes, public health risk, and finally imagine the savings in City Staff time from 11
continuing disputes between the neighbors and the schools. 12
13
We encourage the school to move the girls out for 2-years to another location, save Palo Alto 14
the eyesore of 10 portables, rebuild their school, and move the students back in to enjoy new 15
buildings with mandatory shuttling and an enrollment level and events limits that are 16
compatible with the site and with the neighbors. Thank you for your consideration. 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.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you, Andie, for joining us tonight. Angie had donated her time to Rob and 1
Winter had donated her time to Mary. So, our next speaker will be Aileen Lee. Aileen, can you 2
please unmute your microphone from your end. 3
4
Ms. Aileen Lee: Can you hear me? 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you 7
8
Ms. Lee: Thank you for allowing us to speak tonight. My name is Aileen Lee, I’m a Palo Alto 9
resident of over 15-years, our family lives on Churchill Avenue which is near Castilleja School 10
and also on the southern board of Pally High. I’m also a Castilleja parent and Board Member. 11
Living on Churchill, I’m very familiar with traffic and safety and parking challenges when people 12
are getting to and from a school like Pally. In contrast, as a Casti [note – Castilleja] parent for 13
the past 3-years, I’ve been blown away by the measures the school has taken to decrease 14
traffic, to engage and be considerate of neighbors, and to take neighborhood concerns into 15
consideration and revisions on the proposed project. I can attest neighborhood consideration 16
has become a huge part of the school culture. Casti [note- Castilleja] has added bus routes, 17
shuttle service to and from Caltrain, off-site parking for employees among different mitigation 18
efforts. Whenever there’s a meeting or event at school, there are extensive communications 19
about being considerate to neighbors about parking and suggestions to bike, carpool, or take 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.
private or public transportation. And whenever you arrive on campus for an event, the first 1
people you see are traffic monitors to ensure consideration. As a result, traffic levels are 2
consistently down 25 to 30 percent and I know the school is committed to keeping them this 3
way. 4
5
The way Casti [note – Castilleja] has handled neighborhood engagement and traffic mitigation is 6
a contrast to Pally High and Stanford. They both generate massive amounts of traffic and 7
parking issues on the Churchill corridor and just from daily attendance, plus events, and 8
construction, and games. Castilleja's consideration of the neighborhood and the decrease in 9
traffic they have led seems dreamy in comparison. 10
11
Many people including our family chose to move here because of schools like Castilleja. They 12
have demonstrated integrity, commitment, and leadership in traffic management and I hope 13
the PTC will support Castilleja’s application given their most recent extremely accommodating 14
proposal. Thank you. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Lisa Van Dusen. Lisa, can 17
you please unmute your microphone? Lisa, if you’re there you should be getting a prompt 18
asking you to unmute your microphone. Ok Lisa, if you do not speak we will have to move onto 19
the next speaker. 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.
1
Chair Templeton: Looks like she’s unmuted now. Lisa? 2
3
Ms. Lisa Van Dusen: Yes. 4
5
[note – several people talked at once] 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. 8
9
Ms. Van Dusen: Ok, great. My name is Lisa Van Dusen and I appreciate the opportunity to speak 10
about this proposal. And I’m pleased that finally there is indeed a clear and positive path 11
forward for this the school and the community. 12
13
I have three points. First that Alternative Number Four truly provided a superior, sustainable 14
solution. The one that includes distributive drop off and smaller garage. It has clearly emerged 15
as the superior solution from all standpoints. It addressed the full spectrum of concerns 16
including traffic impacts, tree preservation, and integration into the neighborhood, among 17
others. At the same, this alternative allows this 100 plus year-old Palo Alto institution to 18
updates its campus to align with state of the art 21st-century education and its goals for modest 19
growth of its student body. And all of this makes for a sustainable approach for the community 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.
and for Castilleja. As a global center for innovation, we know that staying the same is actually 1
not feasible. So, this represents a win, win, win option for the community, the school, and an 2
inspiring example for what is possible for future projects. 3
4
The second thing is that Castilleja has listened, responded, and serves as a model. I appreciate 5
that they have listened and responded to so many competing constituencies and have done so 6
over an extraordinarily extended period of time. I have watched as they have modified plans, 7
conducted studies, invested in consultants, and otherwise demonstrated a serious commitment 8
to crafting a plan that works for everyone. I know that people that live near the school and that 9
it is a factor. I think what Aileen shared is true from everything I have also witnessed. People 10
move to the area, the school proceeded all of us, and it will outlast all of us hopefully. So, if we 11
don’t support the school we risk hindering this enduring institution and potentially losing it 12
entirely which I think would be a huge loss. We need this to be the land of yes and, and not the 13
land of no. I hope that in fact, this Commission will green light this project. Its times to move to 14
the many other priorities that are [unintelligible](interrupted) 15
16
Chair Templeton: Your time has expired Ms. Van Dusen. 17
18
Ms. Van Dusen: Thank you. 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. Nguyen: Ok our next speaker Prevention and Treatment of Traumatic Childbirth is no 1
longer in this meeting so we’ll move onto the next person. It looked like Terry Rice is also no 2
longer in this meeting as well so our next speaker will be Patricia Wong. Patricia, can you please 3
unmute your microphone and you may speak. 4
5
Ms. Patricia Wong: I have already donated my time to number 16, Mary Sylvester. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Got it, ok, thank you. So, our next speaker will be Nancy Strom and Nancy, 8
actually, it looks like you had donated your time to Mary as well. And our next speaker will be 9
Leila. And Leila it looks like you have several people donating you time; Jim, Chris, Carry, Chi, 10
and Peter. 11
12
Ms. Leila Moncharsh: That’s it. 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: And they’re all here so you will get your 10-minutes. Thank you. 15
16
Ms. Moncharsh: Thank you. Good evening members of the Commission, I’m Leila Moncharsh 17
and I’m a land-use attorney. I’ve been [unintelligible – audio cut out] since 1993 and I’m located 18
here in Oakland. [unintelligible – audio cut out] experience working with neighborhoods on 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.
issues very similar to what we see here. I’ve represented numerous neighborhoods with issues 1
of disputes with private schools in Northern California. 2
3
I wrote a letter which I gather you have already received so I’m not going to repeat everything 4
that’s in that letter, but just highlight a few points for you. [unintelligible] there was issue about 5
the underground garage during the ARB. One of the Commissioners noted that there’s a policy 6
in your Comp Plan or we call it a Peer General Plan. They’re [unintelligible -audio cut out] 7
enforceable as far as what their policy says. Cities have to comply with them and you have one 8
that seems to suggest that underground garages should be encouraged for every place. But I 9
went into your Comp Plan to really look at that in the Palo Alto’s Comp Plan and it’s very 10
interesting actually. That isn’t at all what the policy does. You have to look at all of the policies 11
and all of the texts above a policy and below it in order to get it into text… into context. And 12
what that policy is really about is having to do with your business and your employment zones. 13
It was never the intension of whoever wrote that or how it was written to indicated that 14
underground garages should be encouraged in R1 single-family residential zones. It’s pretty 15
from the text, but part of what you have there which is very interesting is Palo Alto has one of 16
the strongest [unintelligible – audio disturbance] SOVs, Singe Occupancy Vehicles, policies or 17
set of policies that I think I’ve ever seen. And the relevancy of that to this project is that you 18
really don’t underground garage because it encourages SOVs… use of SOVs. And actually, the 19
plan that the school now prefers does the same thing. The Archer Use Permit actually came out 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.
of this office here in Oakland and did a survey around both Northern and Southern California. 1
And I was looking for how [unintelligible -audio disturbance] these schools have approached 2
reducing SOV use which your Comp Plan requires. And the Archer’s permit is a pretty good 3
example of one that I think would work very well here. To simply to mandate that you change 4
over from the SOV approach and you get into requiring a substantial percentage of the students 5
to arrive by car… by shuttle or by bus and that reduced [unintelligible – audio disturbance] 6
problem. 7
8
Reducing the enrollment, it’s interesting because usually a school [unintelligible] reason why 9
they want a certain number of students. Sometimes they’ll say we want everybody to enjoy the 10
wonderful education that we have here. When what they really mean is they’ve got a financial 11
necessity. The thing that’s going to be different about this school is and it’s not saying that. It’s 12
not indicating that it’s got any reason for the 540 number and that being the case, it seems like 13
you have a lot of room to reduce that down to something more reasonable. When you do 14
reduce it down, what happens is everything else reduces. The number of trips reduce, 15
everything goes down and it takes the pressure off your City Council to be able to come up with 16
a permit and a good TDM. 17
18
There’s some problems with the EIR that I covered. One of them that I want to point out though 19
is that the queuing issue. The queuing issue actually came up in the Draft EIR. I didn’t 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.
with it. The EIR preparer came up with it and one of the problems was that when you line up to 1
go down into the garage. If the queue gets too long because students don’t get out of the cars 2
fast enough or get in them fast enough. Then you have a backup and a traffic problem and I 3
noticed that in the FEIR the EIR preparer tried to handle that by interestingly enough coming 4
here to Oakland and looking at what Bentley School does. I’ve had that neighborhood for years 5
and also looking at one other school and trying to measure the amount of time along 6
[unintelligible] it takes for kids to get out of the car and into a car. The 14-second estimate 7
didn’t make any sense to me. I mean I’ve studied and watched many of these queues over my 8
career and kids don’t get out that fast. Anybody with a teen knows what can happen that backs 9
up a line. So, they came up with a chart, and in my letter over on Page 8, I tell you what 10
happened with that chart. First of all, it doesn’t support the 14-second amount of time and 11
then the second thing is they’re recommending that you have seven monitors, traffic monitors 12
that will make this all go faster, but three of them are kids. So, you know a lot of problems that I 13
point out in here, where I’m showing that there’s not adequate evidence to support 14
conclusions. They just make a conclusion of you know you get four adults and three kids and 15
they’ll make it go down to 14-seconds. You know that’s not adequate for an EIR. 16
17
One other thing that I want to point out which actually I’m borrowing from the Chairperson of 18
the ARB. At the end of this you’ll notice I have a section about the portables called the modules 19
I think or somebody does. And the Chairperson pointed out that [unintelligible – audio 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.
disturbance] good idea and gosh, is he right. The problem with them is they go on the 1
campuses and they never come off. And I… too look at what this was and these are two-story 2
temporary buildings and the plan is to have 10 of them and I strongly suggest you not do that. 3
On a personal note, when I was in the 4th grade my preschool had a portable put in. Not just for 4
me, for everybody, and the whole idea was it was going to be temporary. Well, they did work 5
on the school building and as kids, we always felt we never got to go to the real school building 6
because we always had to go to the portable. And you know I’m almost 70 and when I drive by 7
that elementary, do you know that those portables are still there. They’re not attractive and it 8
would be a good thing to get them out. 9
10
On recirculation, [unintelligible – audio disturbance] what’s going on is you got a huge amount 11
of text here in a short bit of time and I’ve pointed out just a few things that I found, but I can 12
see that a few more problems here with this EIR. And it’s… if that continues, obviously and 13
they’re not straightened out in the hearings then what’s going to happen is you have to 14
recirculate as to the problems that are here. And the City Attorney agreed, it has to be a 15
significant new impact but you got a significant new impact because you now have a new 16
alternative. So, on the one hand, the new alternative is supposed to be less impacts, but in 17
some ways, it doesn’t. It actually increases impacts and the neighbors are talking about that. 18
They’re identifying the traffic impacts are going to be worse based on their experience with 19
their neighborhood and the traffic pattern, which is legitimate. They don’t have traffic 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.
engineers to say that and I point out a couple other things. You’ve got more impacts, but again 1
at the end of the day, if you want recirculation and that you want to move the process along 2
and you don’t end up like some of the situations that I go to and have had for years. I’ve had 3
one piece of property that was a private school, it’s been in my practice now since about 1995. 4
That long because they cut the… the problems come up over. You want to do that then the 5
answer would be to lower the enrollment down [unintelligible – audio disturbance] number 6
and also take out the underground garage because it’s not really going to help the problem. The 7
problem is Green House Gases that you’re [unintelligible – audio disturbance] to with this 8
project and your policies for Palo Alto don’t allow that. They’re very strict. As I said I was 9
surprised to read how strict they are and switch over to a mandatory Kiss and Ride, mandatory 10
bus usage to guarantee that the numbers coming in there are not coming in SOVs. So, thank 11
you very much. I hope this all is helpful to you. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Ms. Moncharsh. Just to interject here, we are going to close the 14
hand-raising for public comments here shortly. So, if you do intend to speak, you need to raise 15
your hand by ten till so that you can be added to the list and then we’ll be closing the list at that 16
time. Thank you. 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.
Mr. Nguyen: Ok our next speaker is Leah Brickson. Unfortunately, I don’t see Leah in this 1
meeting anymore. Let me check. Yes, it looks like she has left so our next speaker will be Emil 2
Lovely. Emil, can you please unmute your microphone. 3
4
Mr. Emil Lovely: I think I did. Am I live? 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, was can hear you. Thank you. 7
8
Mr. Lovely: Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity and the honor to address 9
the Commission. And I just want to say I appreciate your hard work and all your thoughtfulness 10
around this. I know this is not an easy process considering what we’re going through with the 11
pandemic. 12
13
I have lived in Palo Alto for 27-years, my wife and I live on Lincoln, we’re in Crescent Park, we 14
have raised three beautiful daughters. It’s been a blessing to raise them here in Palo Alto. 15
Unfortunately, two when to Pally and one went to Archbishop Mitty. So, why I’m on this call? 16
Because I really do firmly believe that Castilleja is a light for our community. I’ve gotten to know 17
a lot of the students there because they’re friends of my daughters. I’ve gotten to know a lot of 18
the parents I’ve worked with them at Stanford and truly what happens at Castilleja as well as 19
Pally and Gunn is an interactive dynamic with the community which produces leaders. And as 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.
we’ve all seen over the last several years, there is a great need for female leaders in this 1
country, and when you look at the legacy at Castilleja graduates. They go on to do bigger and 2
better things. So, I think Castilleja has worked very diligently on these projects with a TDM, with 3
all the mitigation, buses, and shuttles to work within the confines of Palo Alto. I think we need 4
to work with them because we need the ladies that they’re going to produce for our future, for 5
the future generation, and it’s just been a pleasure to be a part of this community and I’d like to 6
see them continue to thrive. So, that my spiel, and I hope you guys have a great evening. 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: Ok thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Jim Fitzgerald. Jim, can 9
you please unmute your microphone? 10
11
Mr. Jim Fitzgerald: Sure, can you hear me? 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 14
15
Mr. Fitzgerald: Great. Hello, my name’s Jim Fitzgerald, and I’m a 30-year resident in Palo Alto. 16
There are countless wonderful things I could say about Castilleja as an institution, an 17
exceptional neighbor, and a Palo Alto treasure; but I’m here today to bring attention to the 18
extra effort the school’s taken to preserve the campus tree and campus aesthetic appearance. 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.
Most of us in Palo Alto appreciate the effort our community takes in keeping Palo Alto true to 1
its name with a rich and mature tree canopy. In this spirit, Castilleja has always maintained a 2
tasteful and green campus that fits nicely in the local neighborhood. It should not surprise 3
anyone therefore that Castilleja in the proposed project alternative lays out a plan that 4
increases the aesthetics of the campus and the overall campus canopy. The project alternative 5
that the school’s proposed adds 103 trees to the campus, it leaves and reallocates 139 trees 6
and this place… this plan preserves 16 additional trees compared to the original plan. I think we 7
all would… can appreciate and I particularly appreciate their attention to saving the beautiful 8
Coastal Redwoods and the California Live Oak Trees that give our region its distinctive appeal. 9
10
Taking these actions will make an already beautiful campus even more green, enhance the 11
entire surrounding of the neighborhood. Castilleja’s commitment to a quality environment for 12
their girls attending the school and in a steep desire to enhance the environment for the entire 13
neighborhood come together very nicely in this plan. Combining with the moving of the parking 14
garage underground, Castilleja will become a stunning and green location representative of the 15
finest of Palo Alto. So, really, I think any objective judgment of this plan will acknowledge that 16
Castilleja has really gone above and beyond to meet the wishes of the neighborhood and the 17
City. And it creates a beautiful and ecological environment equal to the school’s worldwide 18
reputation. Thanks for the time. 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. Nguyen: Thank you Jim for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Sarah Sands. Sarah, 1
can you please unmute yourself? 2
3
Ms. Sarah Sands: Yes. Good evening. I want to thank you to all the Commissioners and Staff for 4
all of your time and energy in helping our City work through this project. It is… it’s been a long 5
process but it’s been wonderful to make it to this point in the process. 6
7
My husband and I have lived in Palo Alto for 17-years and two of our daughters have graduated 8
from Castilleja. In addition, our third daughter has finished middle school there and will start 9
high school there tomorrow. Additionally, I should mention I’m currently on the Board of 10
Trustees. 11
12
Our experience at the school has been one of which we have watched our daughters bloom. 13
Castilleja provides a place and opportunity for young women to grow. This modernized campus 14
will be a big improvement from the current outdated facility. Out society needs more strong 15
women leaders and I’ve watched Castilleja be part of inspiring girls to become those leaders. A 16
very important value to our family and I believe to a great many people in our community is the 17
ability for young women from under-resourced families to also receive a Castilleja education. 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.
The extensive tuition assistance programs invite access to Castilleja for many. I’m proud to be a 1
member of the… a City as vibrant as Palo Alto that includes this amazing opportunity for young 2
women. Thank you for your time. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Just to interject, I noticed that one of our panelists has their hand raised. Is 5
that for public comment or is that a legacy? 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: I believe she has her hand raised to give the 3-minute rebuttal as part of the 8
applicant’s team after the public comments. 9
10
Chair Templeton: After the fact, alright thank you. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Ok our next speaker will be Neva Yarkin. Neva, can you please unmute yourself on 13
your computer? 14
15
Ms. Neva Yarkin: My name is Neva Yarkin and I live on Churchill Avenue, two blocks from 16
Castilleja. My family has owned this property for over 60-years. Traffic in Palo Alto has 17
continued to increase for years. Castilleja’s expansion adding another 125 more women 18
continue this traffic increase if approved. This will affect all of Palo Alto. 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.
I’m not a fan of parking garages for the following reason. If I had a daughter at the school, I 1
would not get stuck in the parking garage or the traffic surrounding the school. I would drop my 2
daughter off one block north of Embarcadero or one block south of Churchill so I could rush off 3
to work. I’m sure others would do the same. 4
5
Our lives have also changed with COVID adding to the picture. Would any of you let your 6
daughters take the train to school now with COVID in the air? Private cars will be the only 7
option which means more traffic. 8
9
Construction could take 5-years. Hundreds of big cement trucks will have to follow the 10
construction route in Palo Alto which is taking Alma to any side street close to the construction 11
site. I emphasize, to any side streets. One outcome for a big construction project site would be 12
lane closures which happen on Embarcadero. An example of one lane closure during 13
construction is happening now at Oregon Express Way during the day which has lasted for 14
months. Traffic is a nightmare. 15
16
Another disserving aspect of this project is that Castilleja will continue to teach classes in 17
portable buildings on top of Spieker Field while construction is going on. Trucks, cars, students, 18
bikes from Castilleja, plus all the sane from the City of Palo Alto. How will that work? Thank you 19
for your time. 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.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Neva for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Bruce. Bruce, can 2
you please unmute your microphone? 3
4
Mr. Bruce McLeod: Thank you, Vinh. Thank you for this opportunity to the PTC. I’ve lived and 5
worked in Palo Alto for the past 50-years and immediately across from Castilleja for 20-years. 6
I’m a parent, an educator, [note – audio cut out] support the goals of the school, but I cannot 7
support this proposal. 8
9
In the early… in an early public meeting after Castilleja had disclosed their 15 [unintelligible – 10
audio disturbance] over enrollment. Nanci Kauffman argued that enrollment of 448 students 11
was the ideal pedagogical size for the school. Based on 64 students in each [unintelligible – 12
audio disturbance] grades. Now you’re asked to consider 540 students. What happen to 448? 13
14
As for floor area, Castilleja already exceeds the allowable FAR of over 81,000-square feet for 15
this site. It seeks a Variance to add over 30,000-square feet above grade classrooms plus 16
another 30,000-square feet of below-grade basement with cars that would not normally be 17
allowed. When questioned tonight, even the City Planner could not clearly explain how the 18
Staff thinks this is allowed. 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.
As for process, Castilleja and the City Staff have rushed through a Final EIR that [unintelligible – 1
audio disturbance] plan with as described tonight by Dudek’s representatives’ significant 2
alterations from the original submittal. Yet no public comment period occurred when these 3
plans appeared. The latest revision to the proposed plan returns traffic into the neighborhood 4
streets. A pattern that Castilleja’s first traffic consultant admitted did nothing to reduce car 5
trips. Robert Eckols clearly concurs by using the same ploy to mitigate the TIRE Impacts on 6
Bryant and Emerson. Redistribution however is not really mitigation. My question to the PTC 7
and City Staff. Why should the school continue to send traffic into three neighborhood streets 8
when there’s an available adjacent major arterial route? If there is to much traffic for 9
Embarcadero, why isn’t it too much for the neighborhood? Please reject this overreaching plan. 10
Thank you. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Bruce for your comments. Our next speaker will be Carla and Carla I 13
believe you have a presentation for us. 14
15
Ms. Carla Befera: Yes, can you hear me? 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 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. Befera: Whoops. Thank you. I’d like to echo earlier comments. After the public EIR 1
comment period expired, Castilleja submitted a revised plan. With all deference to Mr. Yang, 2
I’ve not heard a good explanation why there was no public comment period for the revised 3
plan. Surely this is not acceptable. 4
5
As you can see by the illustration this revised plan exacerbates the traffic impacts on all 6
adjacent streets and as was acknowledged earlier, increases the TIRE Index on Bryant which is a 7
major bike boulevard. According to Table MR52 in the FEIR, the school anticipates 1, 477 car 8
trips per day. Let me repeat, we’re talking about 1,477 car trips per day not including traffic 9
related to the 95 events the school seeks. The impact of those was not studied. 10
11
Additionally, the Palo Alto Muni Code stipulates four parking spaces per teaching station for a 12
high school. This out of date code fails to consider that in this century almost all of Castilleja’s 13
driving age high schoolers drive to campus. Some 200 driving age students would have no 14
option other than parking on neighborhood streets. 15
16
Finally, under the EIR mitigations, there’s no strict definition in the EIR as to what constitutes 17
peak hours. If Castilleja were to exceed the daily peak hour limit, they could simply move a 18
portion of their student drop off outside the published hours and then bring themselves into 19
compliance. We request that you deny approval of this plan at this time and refer the project 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.
back to City Staff to establish a new EIR comment period on the revised plan and review some 1
of these unstudied aspects. Thank you for your time. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Carla for joining us tonight. Our next speaker is Bob. Unfortunately, Bob 4
is no longer in this meeting so we’ll move onto the next speaker which is a phone caller with 5
the last four digits 6842. You will get prompted to unmute yourself by pressing I believe *6. 6
7
Mr. [note – unknown first name] Mackelheny [note – phonetics]: Hello, can you hear me? 8
9
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 10
11
Mr. Mackelheny [note – phonetics]: Great thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. 12
My name is [unintelligible] Mackelheny [note – phonetics] and I want to build on Roger’s earlier 13
comments about the dire need for women in STEM. He is absolutely correct that the all-girls 14
environment is a game-changer for creating women scientists. It has made all the difference for 15
my daughters and friends who are passionate about robotics and chemistry. 16
17
From there I’d like to say that I’m so impressed by the care and time that has gone into this 18
independent objective Final EIR. The response to a draft report was a year in the making. Thank 19
you to everyone on the City Staff who has taken so much care with this study. The process has 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.
yielded a fact-based analytical report that outlines a positive path forward with no significant 1
impacts. And I urge you to honor that process and support the project alternative from 2
Castilleja. Throughout this process, Castilleja has made thoughtful changes and response to 3
feedback on the draft report and comments from the community. These include downsizing the 4
garage and parking by 30 percent, retaining two homes to preserve housing and the 5
neighborhood feel, returning to a multi-drop off/pick up plan to disburse traffic, protecting 6
more trees, and doubling down on TDM to prevent more cars coming to campus. After 5-years 7
and over 50 community meetings this is an excellent compromise and the Final EIR recognizes 8
the hard work that went into all of the changes and improvements. Castilleja now has a plan 9
with no Significant Impacts. 10
11
The Final EIR also supports the underground parking garage over on-street parking. The garage 12
with its reduced size and modified traffic pattern helps restore the neighborhood feeling and 13
will not increase trips to campus because daily trips are capped. The sustainability measures for 14
yet a campus that has immediate improvement to the neighborhood and the environment. 15
Within all the climate change that we see around us every day, it’s time to take this important 16
step forward. The campus buildings are inefficient and modernization improves quality of life 17
and reduces environmental impacts. Please support this thorough and thoughtful Final EIR. 18
Thank you. 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. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Jeff Levinsky. Jeff, can 1
you please unmute your microphone? 2
3
Mr. Jeff Levinsky: Ok, can you hear me? 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. 6
7
Mr. Levinsky: Alright. Good evening Commission Members. I sent in some questions about why 8
the underground garage is not being considered as Floor Area? I appreciate Chief Planning 9
Official French’s comments earlier this evening to better explain the City’s position. In 10
particular, she said that the underground garage is not being considered by the City as a garage 11
or as covered parking. That seems odd because the R1 Code does refer to underground garages 12
but let’s ignore that. Rather she said that the City considers it a basement. She then put up a 13
slide showing part of the basement law for R1. That’s Law 18.12.090 of the Municipal Code and 14
she displayed Part B which indeed states that basements should not be included in the Gross 15
Floor Area calculation. However, I didn’t see her show you Part A of the law. It’s in my letter 16
on… in your Packet Page 81. Let me read you the first few words of that law. It says, A) 17
Permitted basement area. Basements may not extend beyond the building footprint. So, 18
because the City considers the underground garage as a basement, it much also require that 19
the underground garage be located completely under a building footprint. It’s not. It's under a 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.
playing field. Although Mr. French did have a slide saying Part A doesn’t apply to non-residents, 1
the law itself doesn’t say that. It has a Special Exemption for some main residences but the law 2
specifically says it applies to other structures too. Else ware in our code for non-resident or 3
exemptions for non-residence are very explicit, there’s no such language in that law. 4
5
In short, since the City says the underground garage is a basement, it doesn’t meet the law 6
governing where basements can be in R1. How the applicant wants to then proceed is unclear 7
but putting it under the playing field is not legal and show be removed from your consideration. 8
Thank you. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Jeff for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Parag Patel. 11
12
Mr. Parag Patel: Good evening and thank you PTC for including me and having me speak. Just to 13
check, my wife Mora Oomen, whose name was on the list earlier. Ok, you have her there. 14
Thank you. I’m the father of a 13-year old who’s going to be an 8th grader at Castilleja starting 15
this week. I live in Midtown Palo Alto. We’ve lived here for over a decade now. I also went to 16
school in this area. 17
18
First off, I’d like to say if you look at the revisions that Castilleja has made in the last 12 to 24-19
months, they’ve shown extraordinary effort to address systematically a lot of the concerns that 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.
have been raised over the years. There was concerns about cars via aesthetics and so they were 1
moved underground and so on and so on. Including the distributive drop off, reducing the 2
garage size, saving homes and trees, and constantly encouraging everybody associated with the 3
school to be biking, sharing cars, or walking. I think it’s an extortionary effort that the school 4
had demonstrated and it feels like goal post keeping changed on it which is probably 5
something… a moving target like that is tough nail down. 6
7
Second thing I’d like to say is if you look at the Castilleja footprint, there are many schools 8
across Palo Alto. The Castilleja footprint is not inconsistent with other schools. If you look at the 9
traffic, the flow, the noise levels at other schools, all of which are smack in the middle of 10
neighborhoods. What Castilleja has and is proposing is not inconsistent with the other schools. 11
It would be a shame if the City would apply extraordinary standards to one of the few all-girl 12
schools in the area. 13
14
I’d like to conclude by saying that Palo Alto has always been known as a center of education 15
and intellectual life. And Castilleja’s mission squares perfectly with Palo Alto’s history and 16
reputation. And I think this is a historic opportunity for the PTC to further opportunities for girls 17
and help create the next generation of leaders. It would be ashamed to get bogged down in the 18
weeds and miss out on that big picture. Thank you. 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. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Heidi. Heidi, can you 1
please unmute yourself? 2
3
Ms. Heidi Hopper: Can you hear me? 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 6
7
Ms. Hopper: Great. My name is Heidi Hopper and I am a resident of Palo Alto. I’ve lived here 8
since 2003. Also, a parent of two graduates of Castilleja and a Board Member at Castilleja. Over 9
the years… over the last 7-years I’ve attended most of the neighbor meetings that have 10
occurred and I’ve had direct feedback with neighbors request the garage be built. And I actually 11
have evidence of that in an article that I saved from the San Jose Mercury News where they 12
were quoted as saying that they would really like an underground garage and that would make 13
them support the project. So, as we can see the neighbor’s changed their minds over time on 14
what it is that they really want. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: I’m really sorry, but are you speaking on behalf of the applicant? 17
18
Ms. Hopper: No, I am a resident of Palo Alto. 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. Nguyen: Ok, sorry. I thought I heard you say that you are a Board Member on Castilleja. 1
Thank you, sorry. Continue. 2
3
Ms. Hopper: So, I’ve witnessed over the years that Castilleja has really, really tried to redesign 4
things and make things work for the neighborhood. I really think we need to support this… the 5
last iteration that we have seen in the records. The Alternative Number Four gives us 6
everything that we need in order to support this project and its much-improved aesthetics. it’s 7
rebuilding the classrooms that are really needed. All of the other local schools Pally, Gunn, 8
Keys, both public and private have modernized campuses and Castilleja really needs to do that 9
to support the women’s learning and growing needs for that community. So, I’m asking you as 10
Members of the PTC to consider supporting this project. Thank you. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be the phone caller with the 13
last four digits 5505, but after that will be another phone caller with the last digits 0412. Will 14
the phone caller with the last four digits 5505 please unmute yourself and you may do so by 15
pressing *6? 16
17
Ms. Kathleen Foley-Hughes: Hi. Good evening to all the Commissioners. Thank you for the 18
opportunity to share my support for Castilleja. My name’s Kathleen Foley-Hughes and I’ve lived 19
in Palo Alto for 30-years. And then some of you may know, I’m also the founder of Ada’s Café. 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.
We are a Palo Alto-based social enterprise that employs 37 adults with disabilities in our café 1
and catering business. Ada’s Café has worked closely with Castilleja students for the past 8-2
years and I want to state clearly what an asset Castilleja is to the Palo Alto community. Castilleja 3
students who work with Ada’s are thoughtful, smart, optimistic, caring, responsible, and deeply 4
engaged. Castilleja’s community partnerships in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto have included 5
Ada’s Café, Brentwood School, the Palo Alto VA Hospital, the Downtown Streets Team, and 6
several more. No other school in the area has made a commitment to local non-profits. 7
8
Given the contributions that Castilleja to the Palo Alto community, it is frankly 9
incomprehensible to me when people suggest that Castilleja should move or that Castilleja 10
shouldn’t be allowed to increase their enrollment. The school is educating young women to be 11
our country’s future leaders, to be compassionate citizens in our communities, and to be the 12
change-makers that are greatly needed to make our world a better place. I see this every day in 13
my interactions with Castilleja students and I am imploring you to create opportunities for 14
more girls. 15
16
Palo Alto is renowned nationally as a leader and innovator and as a City reveries education and 17
that reputation is due in part to Castilleja. Castilleja’s commitment to community is truly 18
making a difference to real people and the overall goodness of our City. Everything I’ve read in 19
the Castilleja proposal (interrupted) 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.
1
Chair Templeton: Your time has expired Ms. Foley-Hughes. 2
3
Ms. Foley-Hughes: Can I say one more thing? 4
5
Chair Templeton: Yeah, go ahead. 6
7
Ms. Foley-Hughes: Anyway, I ask you to please support Castilleja’s application to increase their 8
enrollment to 540 students. Thank you so much. 9
10
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. It looks like the user number 60, CSA 11
ResourceChair left and rejoined the meeting as a slightly different name, number two at the 12
end. So, I will call on that person to see if they have anything to say. CSA ResourceChair, can 13
you please unmute your microphone. 14
15
Ms. Tricia Suvarie [note – phonetics]: Yes, I’m here. My name is Tricia Suvarie [note – 16
phonetics]. So dear Commissioners, my name is Tricia Suvarie [note – phonetics], I live in the 17
Duveneck - St. Francis neighborhood. I am addressing you in response to the positive news 18
about the Final Environmental Impact Report for Castilleja’s modernization. It is very exciting 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.
that there is now a new alternative that is both environmentally superior and has not 1
Significant Impacts. 2
3
I attended the Planning and Transportation Commission hearing last summer and I am so 4
gratified that Castilleja has addressed the core concerns that I heard voiced there. With the 5
much smaller garage design and disbursed drop off, Castilleja has retained homes to keep the 6
neighborhood feel, preserved beloved trees, and eliminated the traffic impacts. Bravo to 7
Castilleja for developing this excellent solution and thoughtful compromise. 8
9
I appreciate the time and care that went into studying the Finding in the Draft Environmental 10
Impact Report, listening to neighbors, and responding creatively. I look forward to seeing our 11
community come together around the good work Castilleja has done as the project is now able 12
to move forward into another phase. 13
14
Even more, I am thrilled that Castilleja’s enrollment increase is supported in this report. Now, 15
more than ever, offering this unique educational opportunity for a more diverse set of young 16
women is a mandate for a City like Palo Alto. While there are so many things we can disagree 17
about as we watch our state, nation, and planet struggle through the pressures of current 18
events. Education is always part of every solution for a better future for all. Thank you for 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.
considering my comments and I urge you to support Alternative Number Four for Castilleja. The 1
plan with a smaller garage and distributive drop off. Thank you very much. 2
3
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will the phone caller with the last 4
four digits 0412. You may unmute yourself by pressing *6. 5
6
Mr. Tony Hughes: Hello, hey, am I unmuted? 7
8
Ms. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. 9
10
Mr. Hughes: Thank you so much. Hey, this is Tony Hughes. I’ve lived in Palo Alto since 1955. 11
Thanks for giving me a chance to speak tonight. When I went to Pally there were 500 students. 12
Today there are 2,000 students. Stanford enrollment over the last 10-years has grown from 13
1,500 to 20,000. Sale taxes at Town and Country Village have increased over 65 percent over 14
the last 10-years. I guess, by comparison, Castilleja proposed increase of 26 percent in 15
enrollment hardly seems like the straw that’s breaking the camel’s back given these other 16
improvements and encouragements in the congestion that people are talking about earlier 17
today. 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.
But let me talk about a different approach here and that is that the highlighted… I want to 1
highlight the impressive and ground-breaking sustainability features of Castilleja’s project 2
alternative. This plan establishes new standards for environmental sound construction and 3
design in Palo Alto. As you may know, California has outlined new goals to reduce Green House 4
Gas emission by 80 percent by 2050. Palo Alto zoned Sustainability Climate Action Plan aims to 5
meets to meet this goal by 2030. Castilleja’s project alternative surpasses both of these 6
aggressive agreements with even more comprehensive solutions for clean and sustainable 7
future and that’s important to all of us. Key elements of that program are environmental 8
friendly aspects such as fossil-fuel-free spaces with the exceptions of science labs, complete 9
reliance on site-generated energy features like on-site solar and heat recovery, sustainable 10
upgrades to transportation infrastructure, bike parking, charging stations for electric vehicles 11
which you don’t see at Pally or Town and Country, with additional electric shuttle routes, 12
drought-resistant landscaping, preservation of trees, construction of… construction only using 13
non-hazardous responsibly resourced green materials, and the old campus buildings will be 14
disassembled to maximize reuse and recycling utilizing building materials from the old campus. 15
So Castilleja program I think is clearly demonstrated one of Palo Alto’s key values that you’ll 16
look and you’ll see it in all of the materials of our commitment to environmental sustainability 17
which is very important. 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 think the last thing I would say is that I Castilleja is a key piece of our puzzle here. For those of 1
you who remember Harker School which left the area between… in Community Center 2
between Rinconada and Ulnar Park (interrupted) 3
4
Chair Templeton: Sorry Mr. Hughes, you’re over time. 5
6
Mr. Hughes: Oh, great, thanks very much. Well listen, I appreciate the opportunity to speak and 7
I hope you all have a good night. Thanks so much. Buh-bye. 8
9
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Rebecca Eisenberg. 10
Rebecca, can you please unmute yourself on your computer? 11
12
Ms. Rebecca Eisenberg: Hi Commission, thank you very much. As a feminist, a woman who in 13
STEM, and a woman who studied engineering at Stanford. I am offended and appalled by the in 14
rationality and duplicity of Castilleja’s official position requiring it to comply with a law like the 15
rest of us. It is somehow an attack on women in STEM. How dare you. No one wants to kill 16
Castilleja, no one is keeping Castilleja from increasing its enrollment, no one is otherwise trying 17
to harm Castilleja. All we are trying to do is insist that Castilleja follow the law like the rest of 18
the residents in Palo Alto. The law very clearly provides that the lots that Castilleja lies on, 19
unlike the lots of all the other schools that Castilleja points too, are zoned for residential. If 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.
Castilleja just would move to a lot that is zoned for schools like all the other schools, including 1
even the public schools that it points too for comparison. If Castilleja would just move to a Palo 2
Alto lot that is zoned for schools, it could literally do everything it wants and still serve Ada’s 3
Café and still help women in STEM and still do all the wonderful things it claims it does that I no 4
longer actually believe it gives the duplicity of its presentations over the course of the past 20-5
years. 6
7
There are dozens of availed lots south of Stanford for Castilleja and if Castilleja cannot afford to 8
move to alternate locations then why did Nanci Kauffman, on behalf of Castilleja, sign in free 9
will represented by expensive lawyers an agreement in 2013 that I urge you Commission to look 10
at. In these agreements documented in a series of letters, Nanci Kauffman very clearly agreed 11
that if she did not reduce enrollment to 415, not 440 anything but 15, she would agree that the 12
school would undergo hearings to have the permit revoked. You’re supposed to be revoking 13
this hearing now… this permit now. Please follow the contracts and the law and please, please 14
honor the community. Thank you very much. 15
16
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you Rebecca for your comments. Our next speaker is Cathy W. Cathy, can 17
you please unmute yourself? 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. Cathy Williams: Hello, good evening, my name’s Cathy Williams, and I think it’s incredible 1
to ask a 100-year old school to move away because it sits in a residential area. I think the school 2
was here way before any of us are here. I live on Bryant Street in Old Palo Alto, quite close to 3
Castilleja, and I would like to express my support to the school’s revised plan because I think it 4
reflects the genuine effort by the school to compromise and find an outcome that is acceptable 5
for itself and for the neighbors. 6
7
It’s unfair to object to even… to every plan the school is proposing as some of the neighbors 8
seem to be doing. Just like we can’t oppose a neighbor’s remodeling proposal no matter what 9
they do. The school has a place in the neighborhood, just as each neighbor does, and we should 10
strive to find a path forward that works for everyone. Just as we would with the neighbor who’s 11
remodeling their home. 12
13
I learned that Castilleja is now making a genuine smaller and is able to conserve 16 more trees. 14
In revising their plan, Castilleja is going to plant 103 new trees, leaving the… and relocating 139 15
trees and removing 18 trees due to drought or aliments. I think is a reasonable plan and you 16
will leave the school with a bigger and healthier canopy. As a neighbor who often walks by the 17
school, I particularly appreciate the beautiful canopy that defines Palo Alto. Thank you Castilleja 18
so… for recommending a plan that takes care of our trees and does its best to find a balance 19
between the school’s need and the desire of the neighbors. So, we can’t just say no to every 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.
proposal. It’s simply unfair. We have to be reasonable. That’s why I support this plan. Thank 1
you. 2
3
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker will be Mora Oomen. Mora, can 4
you please unmute yourself? 5
6
Ms. Mora Oohmen: Yes, good evening Commissioners. My name is Mora Oohmen, I’m the 7
parent of an 8th-grade student at Castilleja, I have been a Palo Alto resident for the last 13-years 8
and an active community members as well. I strongly support the thoughtful, well-researched 9
proposal presented by Castilleja School to modernize its campus, increase high school 10
enrollment, and reduce its impact on the neighborhood. 11
12
I’d like to comment this evening on the school’s tuition assistance program which I’m familiar 13
with as a volunteer for Castilleja’s Parent Association. Contrary to some public comments that 14
have suggested that Castilleja is only available to the 1 percent, I would like to highlight the 15
robust tuition assistance program for families who cannot afford the cost of tuition. The 16
school’s tuition assistance program expands opportunities to more students and thereby 17
impacts more lives. In fact, increasing Castilleja’s enrollment to 540, you will provide access to 18
more young women from diverse backgrounds. Here are some helpful details on the tuition 19
assistance at Castilleja. 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.
1
Castilleja was founded in 1907 to equalize educational opportunism for young women. That 2
tradition continues today as Castilleja works to increase enrollment and offer this educational 3
opportunity to more young women. 26 students currently enrolled at Castilleja will be the first 4
in their family to go to college, 22 percent of enrolled students receive tuition assistance. The 5
Castilleja community has created a $3.3 million annual tuition assistance budget which has 6
increase dramatically in recent years to expand opportunity. Support includes everything from 7
tuition, uniforms, books, field trips, trips to visit colleges for seniors, and more. During the 8
COVID the school significantly increased assistance for families who needed support with 9
technology and other unexpected needs. Castilleja’s new Master Plan within increased 10
enrollment will also offer increased tuition assistance to continue to make this transformational 11
education experience assessable no matter a family’s financial circumstances. Thank you. 12
13
Ms. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight and there are no more raised hands. So, Chair 14
Templeton, that concludes public comments for this evening. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Is Sulev Suvari still there? 17
18
Ms. Nguyen: Sulev is no longer in this meeting, unfortunately. 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 Templeton: Oh ok, alright so we have completed. Thank you very much. Thank you to all 1
the speakers who have come out and listened to the Staff Report and the presentation and 2
shared your thoughts. We have had a really good 2 ½-hours of comment. I’d like to turn it back 3
to Commissioners to determine what our next steps will be. The options I see and I’m open to 4
other suggestions are (interrupted) 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: [unintelligible] 7
8
Chair Templeton: Yes? 9
10
Commissioner Alcheck: [unintelligible] 11
12
Chair Templeton: Oh, we need to do the response? 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: Rebuttal, yeah. 15
16
Chair Templeton: That’s right. I’m getting ahead of myself. Thank you so much Commissioner 17
Alcheck. Alright, so I see that we have a response from Mindi Romanowsky. A rebuttal. 18
19
Ms. Tanner: And reminder Mindie you have 3-minutes for your rebuttal. 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.
1
Ms. Mindi Romanowski: Thank you. Can you hear me? 2
3
Ms. Tanner: Yes, we can hear and see you. 4
5
Ms. Romanowski: Hi, good evening. Good evening Commissioners and members of the public. 6
Thank you for your time this evening. I know it’s late and we really do appreciate the feedback. 7
My name is Mindi Romanowski, I am a partner with the law firm of Jorgenson, Siegel, and 8
McClure and Flegel in Menlo Park. As Castilleja Land Use Attorney, I would like to comment on 9
a few legal assertions that I’ve heard that were either incorrect or require clarification. I will be 10
submitting a formal letter prior to the next PTC hearing on the project to address the legal 11
issues raised and to ensure that there is a clear record of legal support for this project. And I 12
know I only have a short period so I’m going to try to hit a few issues and the rest will be in my 13
letter. 14
15
First, the garage, based on community comments further clarity appears needed around the 16
legality of a below-grade parking facility in a residential zone. The garage, which was proposed 17
at the suggestion of neighbors I will emphasize, is a below-grade parking facility, not a 18
basement. I have studied Palo Alto Municipal Code and a literal read of your code prohibits 19
underground parking for residential uses, but not prohibit underground parking facilities for 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.
non-residential uses in the R1 Zone. This is very consistent with the precedent mentioned by 1
Staff earlier. Your code also does not require that below-grade parking counts towards GFA 2
when constructed to support a Conditionally Approved Use like a school. Not only does your 3
code not prohibit the underground garage, but your Comp Plan with due respect to Ms. 4
Moncharsh is very clear. Goal Number T or Goal Policy T 5.6 strongly encourages for all new 5
developments of all types to put in a below-grade parking for all types of uses. In fact, Goal 5 6
encourages attractive, convenient, efficient, and innovative solutions for all users. That would 7
include a school. Thus, the City would be well with your discretion to find that the underground 8
garage is consistent both with your code and Comprehensive Plan. 9
10
Secondly, I want to just touch on recirculation. There is nothing in CEQA that requires 11
recirculation of this Final EIR. Recirculation is required when significant new information, 12
information regarding substantial adverse environmental effects of the project, or a feasible 13
way to mitigate or avoid an effect including a project alternative, that the project’s proponents 14
have declined to implement. Here there are no new substantial adverse environmental effects 15
identified. The attorney for PNQL and Ms. Moncharsh suggest that there is evidence for new 16
Significant Impacts, the record does not support this assertion. As noted by the presentation 17
this evening by Dudek, the City Staff, and W-Trans, all of them analyzed it and… the potential 18
impacts of the project alternative, and these observations that are coming in are without 19
substantial evidence. Without identification by these experts who studied the issue in 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.
objective manner of any new substantial adverse environmental effects, there is no basis for 1
recirculation. Further, the introduction of Alternative Four is not a basis for recirculation simply 2
because it was introduced after the Draft EIR. The CEQA Law clearly provides that when a new 3
alternative is introduced in the FEIR that’s feasible, mitigates or avoids an adverse 4
environmental effects and the applicant is agreeable to implementing the alternative. That the 5
recirculation is not mandated or required by CEQA. These changes in the FEIR are not 6
something of concern, but a textbook example of how CEQA is working to effectively analyze 7
the project. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Ms. Romanowsky. 10
11
Ms. Romanowsky: Thank you. I’m sorry that I ran out of time. I could say a lot more. 12
13
Chair Templeton: We look forward to your letter. Thank you. 14
15
Ms. Romanowsky: Of course, and thank you for your time and your service. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Alright, sorry about getting ahead of myself folks. Any other business before 18
we decided what the Commissioners… how the Commissioners want to proceed? Ok. So, we 19
have a few options and of course, I’m open to other ideas but one option would be to see if 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.
there are any urgent comments that need to be made this evening and to agree to limit 1
ourselves. We clearly have a lot more to discuss that I’m concerned that the hour is getting late. 2
If we do want to have a round of discussion we may want to take a break first. It’s been 2 ½-3
hours since our last break. However, there may be some interest in having our discussion 4
altogether in… we clearly do need to continue. We won’t be able to fit it all in this evening so 5
we could also forgo the comment this evening and have everything on the continuance. So, 6
who would like to weigh in on… oh, it looks like Ms. Tanner. 7
8
Ms. Tanner: The only thing I want to just… for the Commissioners in terms of scheduling, we do 9
have availability at our next hearing, which is September 9th. We only have one item which is 10
estimated to be about an hour. So, we can continue to our next hearing as opposed to the 11
September 30th hearing which was suggested in the Staff Report, but we could resume this 12
earlier than September 30th. 13
14
Chair Templeton: And in that case, public comment is now closed so we would be able to jump 15
right into our discussion. 16
17
Ms. Tanner: Right. 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.
Commissioner Riggs: I’d make a personal request to… that’s my birthday so I prefer to be able 1
to celebrate with my family, but if possible and not spend all night on this topic, but I’m fine 2
going as late as we need to on this tonight if that’s preferable for the Commission. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Commissioner Alcheck has a comment followed by Commissioner Lauing and 5
Commissioner… Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 6
7
Commissioner Alcheck: So, I’m of two minds here. I agree, it’s late, and I know that we’re all 8
volunteers here, but I… my impression is that the Staff is asking us for direction as to whether 9
they should begin preparing a draft Findings. If we don’t begin the process of shedding light on 10
how we feel about this then they can’t do that for our next discussion. Which makes me think 11
that that would mean that there would three Planning Commission meetings devoted to this 12
topic. And I’m uncomfortable with that because we’ve been working on this since 2015 and to 13
put that into perspective. I think 15 different Commissioners have participated in hearings on 14
this topic. One of the topics that came up today was about this idea of moving the goalposts 15
and so I would suggest that maybe it’s worth… and Staff… Assistant Director Tanner can give 16
me some guidance here. But if she thinks we can wrap this up in one meeting at our next night 17
then ok but if that’s not the plan I think that pushing this into September and then what I 18
imagine will be October seems unreasonable. And Billy, I… happy birthday. Hopefully, you spent 19
most of the day with your family in quarantine like the rest of us and so that… and maybe your 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.
kids are in bed already. So, we can just sort of focus on this for maybe an hour, give them some 1
direction and then not have three meetings on this topic. 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: No, no, it’s the 9th, the 9th is my birthday. I don’t want to meet on the 9th. 4
9/9 man. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Thank you for your comments Commissioner Alcheck. Commissioner Lauing. 7
8
Commissioner Lauing: I think this is a complicated and obviously controversial agenda item and 9
I don’t expect that it’s going to be wrapped up in an hour. So, I’m pretty reluctant to start this 10
important thing at 10:35 at night. So, I would like to take it up again at the next meeting. And if 11
you’d like a motion to continue, I’m happy to make that, but I’d like to hear other comments as 12
well. 13
14
Chair Templeton: I appreciate that. Yes, let’s do hear from others and we’ll come back to you. 15
Vice-Chair Roohparvar followed by Commissioner Summa and Commissioner Hechtman. 16
17
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I hear Commissioner Alcheck’s comments, but I agree with 18
Commissioner Lauing. I mean it’s late, I want to be able to dedicate full attention to this and I 19
don’t think this is something that’s going to get wrapped up in an hour, unfortunately. I do… I 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.
am not going to be here on September 9th. I have a pre-planned absence but if you guys want 1
to proceed to that, I don’t want to stall this. If you guys want to go ahead and proceed without 2
me on the 9th that’s fine or if we continue to the 30th I’ll be there. Those are my comments but 3
yeah, I would support a motion to continue this. It’s late. This is not going to get wrapped up in 4
an hour. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much. Commissioner Summa. 7
8
Commissioner Summa: So, I could either way but I appreciate it. It is pretty late to start 9
something this complicated and I can’t imagine we would have… we would be at it long enough 10
to give Staff much direction. That being said I also… and I think spending three meetings on it 11
would be fine. I had a conversation with Director Lait about this where he was totally open to 12
maybe going more than two meetings, maybe three. He just wanted it to get fully vetted in the 13
public so I’d be happy to continue it and I’d be happy… if… as flexible as Staff can be to find a 14
date other than one where two of our colleagues have conflicts also. So, a different Wednesday 15
or a different day that would… if we can look… depending how busy Staff… how that works for 16
Staff really. 17
18
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much, Commissioner Summa. Commissioner Hechtman. 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.
Commissioner Hechtman: So, I think I understood Staff to say earlier that our options for the 1
next meeting, if we’re coming back on September 9th, that would not be a meeting where 2
they’d be presenting draft Findings. They need more time than that and before they could do 3
that they need direction from us. And while I think maybe we could give them… the 4
Commissioners could give then a tentative thumbs up or thumbs down to prepare Conditions 5
for Approval or Denial tonight, I don’t really think that that’s the base level of information that 6
Staff’s looking for. I think they want some detail to help them shape the Findings and I do think 7
that it’s going to be more than an hour for the seven of us to weigh in and provide that level of 8
detail tonight. 9
10
So, but I do think that what we could do that might be productive tonight is for example in 11
listening to the comments I did identify four discreet questions that I want to ask Staff in 12
response to some of what we heard from the neighbors. And maybe some of you have some 13
discreet questions too which we could just ask tonight so that Staff can be ready to respond 14
both to us and the neighbors who raised them when we come back. Whether that’s the 9th or 15
the meeting after that. And so, I’m willing… I think we could do that in a lot less time tonight 16
and so I would put that on the table as a productive thing to move forward with tonight. 17
18
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, I (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
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 Templeton: Oh, who’s speaking? 1
2
Commissioner Riggs: This is Riggs. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Riggs? Alright, go for it. 5
6
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, it was Riggs. Yeah, I mean I guess I’ll add, I have a more 7
substantive… I mean when I step back from this EIR I feel like there is a… and actually, 8
Commissioner Waldfogel mentioned this when we heard this last. I feel like there’s a pretty 9
glaring alternative missing still and I’ll be… I just can’t… I’ll be pretty candid about that. It is… 10
and it came up in some of the comments as well. So, I mean I just… I still feel like there’s a… it’s 11
a variation of the no project but the… there’s pretty clearly the public is asking for an off-site 12
alternative. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Ok so let’s hold that for a round of comments. I wanted to weigh in here as 15
well. I think that we just consumed a tremendous amount of information on top of the 16
information we’ve all been studying over the past several weeks. And I for one appreciate the 17
chance to let it sink in and to process it and to be able to dive into the details and the nuance of 18
what was conveyed in public comment. So, I’m not sure this time of night is the right time to do 19
that. However, I agree with what Commissioner Hechtman said, that was definitely my 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.
intention about having another round just for handling those immediate questions and 1
preparing Staff when they do come back. That these are the kinds of questions we’re going to 2
want to know more about. 3
4
We’d have to agree to limit ourselves so that we don’t get out of hand. There’s so many… so 5
much going on here. We do need to have enough time to process it and go all the way through 6
it. I also… as far as whether we continue to next week or to the 30th if we’re going to have two 7
Commissioners not fully available on that date I would be reluctant to choose that date. How 8
does the 30th look for everybody? Do we have any planned or known absences for the 30th? No, 9
it doesn’t look like it. Ok. 10
11
Commissioner Alcheck: If… just a quick question. If we’re going to have this over three meetings 12
and it would take them more than a week or two to work on the Findings after they get our 13
input. Then I would not… I would suggest… as much as I love Commissioner Roohparvar [note -14
Vice-Chair Roohparvar] to be there I think we can… she can send comments in via email and we 15
can provide Staff our comments on the 9th. I’m not… I understand that it’s late but I am loath to 16
push this out because we might have some planned absences. I feel like the Commission needs 17
just a small number of people to do it. It needs its quorum to do business and Giselle [note – 18
Vice-Chair Roohparvar] can participate electronically and then she can read the minutes and 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.
she can still vote on the item when it comes back to us presumably Staff, early October? I mean 1
if we met on the 9th how long would it be before (interrupted) 2
3
Chair Templeton: Hold that thought though. Staff originally suggested the 30th. We were the 4
ones that were trying to push it up to the 9th. 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: Well, I’m just suggesting that if we’re not going to do anything tonight 7
then why would we push it to the 30th for the follow-up? I think maybe Staff had that idea 8
because they wanted the 4-weeks to do the work but if they don’t… if there’s no intention for 9
Staff to do a lot of prep before the 9th or the 30th for that matter because we haven’t given 10
them any direction. Then maybe we could have that slot that Assistant Director Tanner 11
mentioned on the 9th and give them the direction and they’d have the time to then work on the 12
next (interrupted) 13
14
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I can submit comments. That’s not a problem. I can submit comments, 15
read the minutes, and then vote. That’s no problem for me. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Director Lait or Assistant Director Tanner would you like to respond? 18
19
Mr. Lait: Yeah. 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.
1
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, I (interrupted) 2
3
Mr. Lait: Yeah, thank you. I’m sorry (interrupted) 4
5
Ms. Tanner: Go ahead, Jonathan. 6
7
Mr. Lait: So, I think… I appreciate all of the comments and the late hour and we obviously, we 8
concur. It is a little bit late to engage in a deep conversation about this. The continuation makes 9
sense and we would like to have as many Commissioners present as possible for the 10
conversation. I don’t know how individual Commissioners are… how their schedules are. We 11
could continue this to next week. I might ask Vinh if he can look at the City calendar to see if 12
there’s any conflicts on any other City meetings that might be taking place but we don’t 13
necessarily need to be bound to your regular schedule. And I do share Commissioner Alcheck’s 14
concern about continuing it to September 30th. One I think you lose a little bit of the 15
conversation that you heard this evening from the public the longer that carries on. So, I would 16
ask if next week might be feasible and if that’s not feasible then we can even explore different a 17
day of the week too so we have options. 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: To that point, if we don’t want to get into scheduling now. If next week’s great and 1
we can get a thumbs up, we can just say that. We can also have a motion to a date uncertain 2
but knowing that it would be before the 30th and we would work with you all in the intervening 3
time to find that date so. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Heads up, the only conflict I have is the XCAP meeting goes that day, but 6
that… this is my priority and I can let them know. 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: And likewise, I teach on Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 7:30 so I just… I’m 9
team-teaching so I don’t know. I have to talk with my colleague, my co-professor on this so I 10
may be working until 7:30ish. 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Well it is a special meeting if we had it on a different day and so we can adjust the 13
time according to what the body decided. 14
15
Commissioner Summa: I actually have a conflict for… are you talking about having it on 16
Wednesday the 2nd? I do have a conflict. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Commissioner Summa. So, we could… if there a motion or if the group decided we 19
could work to know that we wanted it before the 30th to find a date that works for everybody 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.
and have a special meeting. And the motion would be to continue to a date uncertain because 1
we don’t know the date but we would understand that the goal is to have it sooner rather than 2
later. 3
4
Commissioner Alcheck: Did I misunderstand? Is the 9th not an alternative also? 5
6
Mr. Lait: Yeah, it sounds like you might be missing at least one, possibly two Commissioners on 7
the 9th. 8
9
Commissioner Alcheck: Oh, who is the second Commissioner not available on the 9th? 10
11
Chair Templeton: Riggs. 12
13
Mr. Lait: Commissioner Riggs. 14
15
Commissioner Riggs: I’m available, just wouldn’t prefer… I’d prefer to perhaps spend time with 16
my family so I’ll make it happen if I need too. 17
18
Commissioner Alcheck: But the 9th is a regularly scheduled meeting date. 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.
Commissioner Riggs: Yes, I’ll be there. 1
2
Mr. Lait: Ok. So, yeah, we’re happy too and even on the 9th if you wanted to celebrate early we 3
could even start that a little bit later or earlier too so. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Commissioner Lauing ahs a comment. 6
7
MOTION #1 8
9
Commissioner Lauing: I would just like to move the continuance of the meeting to the 9th or 10
earlier and just take it from there in terms of scheduling, but we’ve always had a real problem 11
when we try to do a last-minute special meeting because we all have busy calendars. So, I’m 12
thinking it probably has to go to the 9th. 13
14
SECOND 15
16
Commissioner Alcheck: I would second that but can allow the question session? 17
18
Commissioner Lauing: Sorry? 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.
Commissioner Alcheck: I would second your motion but can we allow this session of… this 40-1
minute questions session or whatnot. 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: That’s not my motion. So, you guys can debate that but I think 4
(interrupted) 5
6
SECOND WITHDRAWN 7
8
Commissioner Alcheck: Are you amenable to (interrupted) 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: I think Bart [note – Commissioner Hechtman] you said you had like four 11
questions that I thought the speakers were outstanding in terms of identifying a lot of issues 12
and I’ve got about 14. So (interrupted) 13
14
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yeah, I have a lot too. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Alright, so, so the question is… now is how to proceed? Do we continue now 17
or do we have a round of questions and then continue, right? That’s what we’re discussing. 18
19
Commissioner Riggs: Ms. Chair, I mean I think Ms. (interrupted) 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.
1
Chair Templeton: Hold on, hold on. 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: Tanner… oh. 4
5
Chair Templeton: I think we have a motion though. Did we get a second? 6
7
SECOND 8
9
Commissioner Summa: I’ll second it. 10
11
Commissioner Riggs: I mean I know I want to speak against the motion. Is Ms. Tanner provided 12
a very reasonable proposal which was to continue to a date uncertain which could… I mean I 13
think (interrupted) 14
15
Chair Templeton: So (interrupted) 16
17
Commissioner Riggs: Staff would explore a potential date which could be (interrupted) 18
19
Chair Templeton: Hold on just a second. 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.
1
Commissioner Riggs: In the pray tonight so. 2
3
Chair Templeton: Hold on, hold on Commissioner Riggs. So, let’s let the person who made the 4
motion, the person who seconded and then we can have our discussion if that would be 5
alright? Commissioner Lauing, did you need to say any more about your motion? 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: No, I tried to be sensitive to folks wanting to move including started with 8
Commissioner Alcheck wanting to move faster. So, I was trying to put that constraint on it but 9
(interrupted) 10
11
Chair Templeton: Ok thank you. 12
13
Commissioner Lauing: That’s all. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Commissioner Summa? 16
17
Commissioner Summa: I think it makes sense at this point to just continue it to the next 18
available date with (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
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 Templeton: Ok, thank you. Commissioner Riggs, you wanted to speak against the motion. 1
2
Commissioner Riggs: I just think that Staff’s recommendation of… trying to find a date before 3
the 9th where we could accelerate the discussion was actually a pretty damn good suggestion. 4
And I thought that (interrupted) 5
6
Commissioner Lauing: The motion (interrupted) 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: That that was a pretty good… I thought Assistant Director’s Tanner’s 9
suggestion was great. Continue to a date uncertain and try to find a date prior to the 9th but 10
that’s not the motion on the floor which is my understanding. 11
12
Commissioner Lauing: No that is the motion. I said to the 9th or sooner. 13
14
Commissioner Riggs: Ok. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Seems compatible. 17
18
Mr. Lait: So, we’re not going to be able to go sooner. If we… you need to continue to a date 19
certain if it’s going to be before the 9th because we have noticing requirements that we have to 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.
coordinate with the paper and produce the mailings. So, it’s either to a date certain between 1
now and the 9th or we can continue it to the 9th. And then if the 9th is not acceptable then that’s 2
when Ms. Tanner’s recommendation would come into play that we would work with the 3
Commissioners to see where we can find a date sooner than the 30th. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Alright, any other discussion on this motion? Commissioner Alcheck followed 6
by Commissioner Hechtman. 7
8
Commissioner Alcheck: Is it… I mean there are only seven of us. Is it worth the exercise of 9
seeing if Thursday, the next week works? I mean I’m just tossing out dates right now but do we 10
want to go through that small effort to see what days next week might work? If not then the 9th 11
or whatnot. 12
13
Chair Templeton: I have a conflict on the 3rd. I will not be able to attend. 14
15
Commissioner Alcheck: Ok, then I would suggest Commissioner Hechtman, that while I would… 16
I would like to hear your questions, maybe you could send them to the secretary, and then they 17
could share them with the Commissioners. And Staff could still get the benefit of having them 18
and prepare answers to them before our next meeting. I consistently believe that we should 19
utilize that option to send Staff our questions before hearings so that they can get us answers. 20
Page 181
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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, if you’re open to that and we make… and this motion passes without an opportunity to ask 1
any questions tonight maybe you would consider doing that. 2
3
Commissioner Hechtman: Am I up Chair Templeton? 4
5
Chair Templeton: Yes, I was muted but yes, you are. 6
7
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok, alright, I’m open to that idea. I was intending to oppose the 8
motion solely because again I want to… whenever it is we come back for the next meeting. I’m 9
going to have… I’m going to want answers to these questions that members of the public asked 10
and what I don’t want to happen is Staff is to say we’re going to have to go look at that. So, I 11
can send those if… I thought this was more of a public way to recognize the speakers who asked 12
the questions and let them know that they were heard, that their FEIR comments after the 13
release of the FEIR were heard and are being pursued, but I can send them by email if that’s 14
what… if that’s the will of the group. 15
16
VOTE 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.
Chair Templeton: Alright so just to clarify, if you want to have a chance to have a round of 1
discussion vote no on this. If you want to continue it now without further discussion vote yes on 2
this. Is that right? Ok. Let’s have our vote, Mr. Nguyen. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, I’ll take the roll call vote. Commissioner Alcheck? 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: Nay. 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: I’m sorry was that a no? 9
10
Commissioner Alcheck: No, no, no. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Hechtman? 13
14
Commissioner Hechtman: No. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 17
18
Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 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. Nguyen: Commissioner Riggs? 1
2
Commissioner Riggs: No. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 5
6
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yes. 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 9
Chair Templeton: You were on mute Commissioner Summa. 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Sorry, yes. 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Chair Templeton? 14
15
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: You’re the deciding vote. 16
17
Chair Templeton: I love you guys for putting me in this spot tonight. I do feel the need to have a 18
quick round of questions. I do want to continue it. I’m going to vote no so that we can have the 19
questions. They should be brief and any further questions that fit into your time should be 20
Page 184
_______________________
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.
emailed, but I will vote no so that people have a chance to be heard. I apologize Commissioner 1
Lauing and Summa. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Ok the motion fails 3 to 4. 4
5
MOTION #1 FAILS 3(Lauing, Summa, Roohparvar) -4 (Alcheck, Hechtman, Riggs, Templeton) 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright, we are going to… does anybody one want a break? Alright, we’re 8
powering through. Round of questions starting… oh. Assistant Director Tanner, you had 9
questions or comments? 10
11
Ms. Tanner: I just want to make sure the expectation is we will be writing these questions down 12
and we’ll come back with answers. We will not be answering them now or is that (interrupted) 13
14
Chair Templeton: That is my expectation as well. 15
16
Ms. Tanner: I just want to confirm that. 17
18
Chair Templeton: Alright so we’re going to start with Commissioner Hechtman. Anyone else 19
who has comments please raise your hand. 20
Page 185
_______________________
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 Hechtman: Thank you and these are I think quite brief. 2
3
Chair Templeton: 5-minutes or less. 4
5
Commissioner Hechtman: I’m going to seed my time somebody else. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright. 8
9
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright, so Mr. Shannon asked… made a statement that the FEIR 10
failed to study the Kellogg/Bryant intersection. I’d like to hear from Fehr and Peers whether 11
that was so. If so, why? If not, maybe just a point to record where it was studied. 12
13
Second Nelson… I thought his name was Nelson Ng said that Project Alternative Four assumes 14
the traffic distribution among three drop off points without any basis for it. So again, I think 15
that’s a traffic engineer to tell us whether that’s true. If it’s not to perhaps point in the FEIR 16
where that’s explained. 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.
The third one is the attorney for PNQL pointed to Palo Alto’s SOV Policies and said that those 1
discourage garages. So, I’d be interested in… I didn’t really catch the flavor of that in the Staff 2
Report. I’d be interested in Staff’s view on that. 3
4
And then the last point, I thought her name was Carla Befera, I might mispronounce that, said 5
that the traffic impacts of the 95 events were not studied. So again, I’d like to know if that issue 6
was addressed in the FEIR and if so, maybe just a quick reference to where people can find that 7
information. Those are my questions, thanks. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Very compact. Thank you so much, Commissioner Hechtman. Alright, next is 10
Commissioner Lauing followed by Riggs and Roohparvar. You’re muted. 11
12
Commissioner Lauing: Commissioner Hechtman you got part of my list so we’re going to be 13
really efficient. There was also a comment on the Kellogg side needs… the Kellogg side traffic 14
needs a look and so I’d like to just hear what that’s about. The ARB also said the Kellogg side 15
needed some modifications so if we can get that information from the ARB. 16
17
I’m trying to limit my questions just relative to the… some of these comments we heard. Let’s 18
see, are we right now tracking any of the TDM at Casti [note -Castilleja] would be a question? 19
Page 187
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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.
And the one letter was written that there are no net new trips at this point so I wanted to drill 1
down on that a little bit. 2
3
Let’s see, ok, there are a couple of comments that two things that are related. One said that 4
this is creating precedent which would potentially apply to other private schools. So that’s 5
something that needs to be investigated. 6
7
I appreciate the comment on COVID spacing but if there’s any provision for that, understanding 8
that COVID is not going to be here forever. That’s all for now. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you very much. Commissioner Riggs followed by Roohparvar 11
and Summa. 12
13
Commissioner Riggs: I’m going… if you can give me 2-more minutes. I’m going to be much more 14
efficient. I’m just actually… I had one more thought. I was just… I want to be most efficient 15
(interrupted) 16
17
Chair Templeton: Ok. 18
19
Commissioner Riggs: So, I’m going to (interrupted) 20
Page 188
_______________________
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 Templeton: Pass? 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: You can come back to me in 2-minutes? 4
5
Chair Templeton: No problem. 6
7
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Ok. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Roohparvar. 10
11
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Ok, so I’d like to see what the layout of the temporary campus on 12
Spieker Field is going to look like with the project alternative and a better understanding of how 13
long it’s going to be there. 14
15
I’d like to learn more about whether there’s a proposal on what can be done with the 16
Kingsley/Alma local impact? 17
18
And I’d like to know more about whether since the 2013 City action has Castilleja been in 19
compliance with the restrictions that have been put on it and have been following those. 20
Page 189
_______________________
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 Templeton: Alright, thank you. We’ll go to Summa and then come back to Riggs. 2
3
Commissioner Summa: Ok, so many good questions from members of the public. I wanted to 4
know… this is not in order of importance. Well, primarily I do think that there is a lot of 5
confusion about the subterranean below-grade FAR and I do not believe we currently have a 6
way to not count that FAR. So, I want that to be explained better and I want the… any 7
precedent to be found because I don’t believe that COLA math on Manuela is a good precedent 8
for that. 9
10
I would like to… some have already been mentioned. Oh, somebody mentioned not having the 11
temporary school site during construction but finding an alternate place for the students to go 12
during that time and I think that’s something that should be looked. 13
14
I think the impacts of Green House Gases and single-occupancy vehicle trips associated with the 15
garage a legitimate concern. 16
17
I would like to know if the Department of Urban Forestry evaluated the trees that were going to 18
be kept. The Redwood trees behind I think it’s the Lockey House or the other house that Casti 19
[note - Castilleja] owns. The proximity to the excavation and the wall for the garage because it 20
Page 190
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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.
looked really close and if it’s going to take half of the roots going in one whole direction 1
whether it’s actually possible. I understand the intention is to save the trees but is that actually 2
possible. 3
4
The EIR evaluated the number of events and this was something I believe the… a consultant 5
from Dudek said. The number of events… not from the number of the events that are allowed 6
in the current CUP, which is not being followed, but the number of events they’re actually 7
having which is dramatically more than is allowed in the CUP. So that doesn’t seem like the 8
right way to do it to me because it suggests that the increase of events is minimal as opposed to 9
huge. Currently, they’re allowed five main events and several others, but I think she said they 10
worked off like 100 events. So that doesn’t seem correct. 11
12
For me to be comfortable with this project and the CUP, I think we have to really find a way to 13
craft a CUP that the City and the school can enforce together because that has not been done 14
for basically two decades. 15
16
Do I have other notes here? It's hard to do in this way kind of fast. So that’s… I guess that would 17
be a partial list. Oh, oh, my other big question is I understand that the redistribution and the 18
introduction again of surface drop off spots avoids the TIRE Impacts because it’s more scattered 19
but it does nothing to reduce the number of trips coming to the school on a daily basis. So, I 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.
think the environmental review is not to avoid one way of understanding the impacts, which is 1
the TIRE Impacts which is a specific way, but it doesn’t reduce the overall number of trips. So, 2
it’s not really reducing the impact for people in the neighborhood and the redistribution creates 3
more tension on the bike route and the other sensitive routes nearby. 4
5
And finally, I do think that in all shuttle except for essential workers or a mostly shuttle for the 6
students and teacher’s alternative should be looked at quite seriously. Buses or shuttles but the 7
idea that people aren’t going to be taking single occupancy vehicle to the trip and I think that 8
would ultimately help the school that’s very crowded on a small site with the number of 9
students they want. 10
11
I guess that’s enough for now. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much and remember you can… if you want to prepare Staff 14
you can always send your questions ahead of time or just bring them to the next meeting. 15
16
Commissioner Summa: I have a problem with us sending questions into Staff because as 17
Commissioner Hechtman mentioned that takes it out of a public review process and this is 18
obviously, on both sides, the public is very interested in this. So, I think it would be better 19
(interrupted) 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.
1
Chair Templeton: I definitely think that whatever questions you send in, you would want to 2
them also publicly discuss. I think it was more of a courtesy so they would be prepared with a 3
response and be more efficient when they respond to you, but that is optional of course. 4
Commissioner Riggs followed by Commissioner Alcheck. 5
6
Commissioner Riggs: Mike [note – Commissioner Alcheck], I could use a couple more minutes. 7
I’m just trying to get my thoughts really efficient if you want to go before me. 8
9
Commissioner Alcheck: I’ll jump in. I’ll just first… on the… respond to that. Normally when 10
Commissioners send in questions, Staff circulates the questions to the rest of the Commission 11
and it becomes public record. And then is immediately included in the Staff Report for the 12
following meeting. So, rest assured that not only is it extremely efficient to provide Staff 13
questions ahead of time for precisely the reason that Commissioner Hechtman mentioned 14
which is that they don’t say we’ll get back to you. It also becomes part of the permanent record 15
and if… we can even make it… Chair Templeton can make it part of something that she 16
highlights if it really becomes an issue I think ahead of meetings. 17
18
I am not going to touch on the EIR. I don’t have very many questions. I’ll reserve the right to 19
send a question if I come across one. I’ve really never seen such a comprehensive EIR in my life 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 I am good there. I will… I’m… hopefully I’m creating to much work for you Ms. French but I 1
do have some questions in anticipation of the conversation we’re going to have on the 2
Conditions of Approval. And I hope you’ll be amendable to looking into some of these things 3
and I’ll just tick some of them off. I would like to know how many schools in Palo Alto are in R1 4
Zones and I know it works differently for public schools but let’s just say, all schools and maybe 5
the public schools will be the only ones that are technically zoned R1. But I think it would be 6
nice to have a table of just how many schools are in our neighborhoods to just give a sense for… 7
it’s my impression we don’t have a school zone and a couple speakers talked to that idea 8
tonight and I think it would help if we had a reference point. I’m also interested… and this is 9
hopefully not too much work some sort of appendix that details the conditions currently 10
enforced on those said schools. Whether they’re preschools, kindergartens, maybe even 11
daycares. What are the conditions currently in place? Are there noise conditions that exceed 12
our standard Noise Ordinance? Do we have requirements regarding the number of events 13
these schools… these what I expect to be mostly private schools can have? I think it would be 14
helpful to have that and I mention that for two reasons. Number one, it would be a good place 15
for us to start, and number two, I have some concerns that are based off the length of this 16
process that… I shouldn’t say concerns. I want to make sure that this school isn’t treated any 17
differently than the other schools in our community for any reason at all. And I think that if we 18
don’t say to ourselves well how many portables does Palo Alto High School have before we say 19
that they can’t have any portables, I think we’re running into a problem. So, that would be a 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.
perfect example. Do we have a condition that says a school can’t have a portable or a certain 1
number of portables and then to what extent does Palo Alto High School or Gunn High School 2
have portables? I know Gunn High School recently did some work and Palo Alto’s planning on 3
doing some work and I know that they’re not subject to our ordinances in the same way that 4
private schools would be in an R1 Zone. But I think it begs comparison just to have an idea of 5
what’s happening a mile away at a non… at a co-ed school. 6
7
And then I think the last question I would have about the conditional use is I think it would help 8
if we had a little bit more of a history lesson on why Staff has moved to this Variance approach 9
as opposed to the historical process for using a Use Permit to create all the flexibility necessary 10
in building structures that support the school’s use. And I’m… I don’t think it would be difficult 11
based off the EIR in the Staff Report to make a Finding for a Variance. It just strikes me as odd 12
that the approach that has been historically utilized is being abandoned and so I think we need 13
a little bit of review of why that is. And it would be interesting to me, in particular, to know 14
when was the last Use Permit used for this exact purpose? To allow development that exceeds 15
any of our zoning codes. Was it in the last 10-years? What made that school different than this 16
school? And I ask this because I’m reminded of the First Baptist I will call it debacle which is 17
where we went down a road, got to the finish line, and then switch the script. And ultimately 18
couldn’t make the Findings as easily but struggled to and I want to avoid that. So, there is a part 19
of me that would like to better understand the history and also more than that, when was 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.
last time we did it? How many current private schools maybe in the last 15-years have 1
developed their properties with Variances as opposed to Use Permits; or Use Permits as 2
opposed to Variances? And is this the first instance where we are making this new requirement 3
and if it is, what was the rationale for going down that road? And I think that would be the end 4
of my questions for you guys. Thank you. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Thank you. Commissioner Riggs are you ready? 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: Yes, thank you for being patient with me. I do want to try to be efficient. 9
So, maybe contradicting Commissioner Alcheck again, I just or a little bit. I… one of the things 10
that struck me just meta assessment of the EIR is that if we looked at from a land-use 11
standpoint, from a highest and best use standpoint, the land use of this site is most… is best 12
served as housing. It’s actually not as a school so I… this is problematic to start off with. I think 13
we have to acknowledge that and I don’t feel like the EIR acknowledges that at this point. It 14
doesn’t acknowledge the General Plan conflict that this site presents. 15
16
And I… so I’m going to start big and then filter down to some nitty picky stuff, but on that topic 17
the no garage alternative is unacceptable. It’s completely oversimplified. It dismisses the 18
alternative far to simply. An off-site parking alternative is not considered and if we wanted to 19
drill down further the questions that need to be added are it’s problematic because it doesn’t 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.
consider an off-site alternative, or it doesn’t consider any type of alternative shuttling of 1
people. I mean it was mentioned multiple times this evening and in our past hearing but it’s 2
also… there is the no project alternative is completely oversimplified. There are other 3
alternatives. Just last night Hoover Elementary School in PAUSD decided to not to renovate one 4
of the houses in… one of the public schools in South Palo Alto. We’ve heard a project at 5
Cubberley. We know there is PAUSD land potentially that could be provided for a public/private 6
partnership. So, there is multiple school sites that could be used in Palo Alto and it’s not clear to 7
me that there’s any… been any thought or effort by the applicant to explore even some of the 8
larger parcels or partnerships with some of these other entities. And at least it’s not gestured in 9
the EIR so I think that needs to be acknowledged. These things need to be written in the EIR as 10
a part of… is that the no project alternative because the no project alternative could be on an 11
alternative site or a site that is a potentially creative site. And that’s… to me that’s a glaring 12
omission. 13
14
Another glaring omission is and I think this came up that this study… I mean hybrid education, 15
flex schedules, that came up in I think in Andie Reed’s comments. The idea that some of the 16
traffic could be mitigated by off-peak scheduling of classes; hybrid scheduling classes, virtual 17
classes. I’m in higher ed, this is the new reality so I do believe this is something that is glaringly 18
omitted. 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.
Filtering down to more details. I think the underground parking right now there needs to be… I 1
mean what needs to be done in terms of questions about induced demand in parking. I think 2
the EIR at this point doesn’t address induced demand at this point from just having the parking 3
on site. And I think as well… I mean so next comment. 4
5
The… one of the things that concern me is we’ve had… you know the sites been in violation of 6
their Conditional Use Permit for a number of years and so I believe the cumulative traffic 7
impacts aren’t being considered. So particularly when we think about if the site comes into 8
violation again, what are the traffic impacts, and those have not been modeled. So, we know 9
the site has been in violation of the past so have we done a Sensitivity Analysis to see that what 10
happens when they exceed by 10 percent, and what does that do to these intersections? I think 11
that’s a big consideration that is warranted here. When we had… we have had clear violations 12
of policy with the City in the past. 13
14
And then a question to me is at the end of the day, to is a really detailed question that I heard 15
over and over from the public is the tree preservation piece. It’s not clear to me that those 16
trees are going to survive and I didn’t see detailed analysis of that. 17
18
Chair Templeton: Great, very, very on time so I appreciate that. I echo the comments of both 19
Commissioner Alcheck and Commissioner Riggs. This does bring to mind some of the questions 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.
that came up around how the First Baptist Church CUP played out. So, we really want to work 1
through these and resolve them I think before we send it further. So, I appreciate the chance to 2
do that. 3
4
My questions are I am concerned about the legality of the garage. The material that has been 5
presented to us so far and perhaps we just went through it very quickly. It’s entirely possible 6
that that’s what it is but I want to make sure that we establish whether or not it’s legal very 7
clearly. Not only for our benefit in making our recommendations but also for that of the public 8
to by into this proposal, right? It’s very important. 9
10
The question about the lifespan of the modular buildings is a really important angle that we 11
need to address and that may need to be baked into the CUP. 12
13
I’m also intrigued about the zoning question as well. Why have we not discussed if this is the 14
appropriate zoning for this site and this use and approaching it through the Variance? I’m sure 15
there is a good reason but it might be worth being more explicit about. 16
17
And I agree with Commissioner Riggs that the no garage alternative felt very dismissive to me 18
as well as one of the people on the Commission who request to explore it. I was expecting 19
something more sincere. The no garage alternative wasn’t explored in earnest and I feel 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.
frustrated about that but I also understand there’s limitations to what we can do. But perhaps 1
through our discussion, we can explore it a little bit more than what we have had presented to 2
us thus far. Particularly around the needs of transit. I know that the goal of the school is to be 3
as green as possible. I think the presentation really clearly reflects that in the design, in all the 4
things they’re working on, but I don’t find the garage as green as the rest of the proposal. I 5
especially feel that including and focusing on transit and biking would be more aligned with the 6
goals that they set out. So, I’d really like to understand more how the garage plays into that or 7
if there are better alternatives that are no garage alternatives than what we’ve been presented 8
with. So those are my questions. 9
10
Alright, well thank you, everybody. I think its time to close this item unless there’s any other… 11
ok. So, great job to Mr. French and to Staff for preparing this presentation and all the work 12
that’s gone into it. I know it’s been a years-long endeavor. We are getting closer and we look 13
forward to having a chance to really chew on all of the aspects and discuss it together in-depth 14
when we are fresher than we are at 11:20 at night. So, thank you and we will see you soon. 15
Next item is approval of the minutes. Did anyone send in any corrects? 16
17
Commissioner Riggs: Well I just want to a… hey, Chair Templeton? I want to publicly 18
acknowledge you, that you ran a great session there. That was not an easy meeting to run so I 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.
want to publicly acknowledge that that meeting management there. That was kudos to you, 1
outstanding. 2
3
Commissioner Alcheck: We still need a motion to (interrupted) 4
5
Chair Templeton: Oh, thank you. Oh, right we can’t close that item without the motion to 6
continue. Thank you and I appreciate that comment. 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: Motion to continue. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Seconds? 11
12
MOTION #2 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: I’d like to make a motion to continue to the 9th. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Oh, Commissioner Riggs just made the motion. Do you want to (interrupted) 17
18
SECOND 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.
Commissioner Riggs: Sorry, no, I’ll second. 1
2
Chair Templeton: You’ll second it. Ok, so Alcheck made the motion? 3
4
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, can we… Alcheck, can we ask Staff if they can reach out and see if 5
there’s an available date to (interrupted) 6
7
Commissioner Alcheck: I think what the problem is, is that if we don’t pick a date between now 8
(interrupted) 9
10
Commissioner Riggs: Oh, they’ll notice. Ok, I’ll second. 11
12
Commissioner Alcheck: And I just want to say [unintelligible](interrupted) 13
14
Commissioner Riggs: All good, all good, all good. I may not be able to (interrupted) 15
16
Commissioner Alcheck: [unintelligible](interrupted) 17
18
Commissioner Riggs: I’ll second your motion. All good, don’t worry. 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 Templeton: Alright, just for the record would you like to clarify your motion 1
Commissioner Alcheck? 2
3
MOTION RESTATED 4
5
Commissioner Alcheck: I’d like to make a motion to continue this item to a date certain. The 6
September 9th meeting that is scheduled for us. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Excellent and that is seconded by Commissioner Riggs. 9
10
Commissioner Riggs: Seconded, Riggs, yeah. 11
12
VOTE 13
14
Chair Templeton: Ok. Alright, shall we take a vote? 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, Commissioner Alcheck? 17
18
Commissioner Alcheck: Yah. 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. Nguyen: Commissioner Hechtman? 1
2
Commissioner Hechtman: Yes. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? Commissioner Lauing? 5
6
Chair Templeton: We can’t hear you. 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: You’re muted. 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: Alright, I clicked, yeah. Yes. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you. Commissioner Riggs? 13
14
Commissioner Riggs: Yes. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 17
18
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yes. 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. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 1
2
Commissioner Summa: Yes. 3
4
Mr. Nguyen: Chair Templeton? 5
6
Chair Templeton: Yes. 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you. The motion carries 7-0 and FYI there are no minutes to approve at this 9
time because the July 29 meeting was canceled. 10
11
MOTION PASSED 7(Alcheck, Hechtman, Lauing, Riggs, Roohparvar, Templeton, Summa)-0 12
13
Chair Templeton: Oh ok, ok, great. So, we’ll just strike that from our agenda and move onto 14
Committee Items. 15
16
Commission Action: Motion to continue by Lauing, seconded by Summa. Fails 3-4 (Alcheck, 17
Hechtman, Riggs, Templeton against) 18
19
Commission Action: Motion to continue by Alcheck, seconded by Riggs. Passes 7-0 20
Approval of Minutes 21
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 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.
Committee Items 1
Chair Templeton: I guess I’m on a Committee. I can share some Committee stuff. The 2
discussions are underway about the Churchill Crossing on the railroad XCAP Committee. So, we 3
had our first round of discussion today and we listened to and closed public comment on that, 4
but we will be entertaining the evaluation of each of the three remaining alternatives. And 5
you’re invited to join them if you need things to do before this meeting. They are on 6
Wednesdays in the afternoon. You can find the time on connetpaloalto.com. And I’m not sure if 7
I have that right. I’m very tired so if… it’s connecting maybe. It might be connecting Palo Alto. 8
Alright, so any other Committee items. Commissioner Summa. 9
10
Commissioner Summa: Oh, I was going to say and Rachael can correct me if this is incorrect but 11
we are trying to still find a time for our next NVCAP meeting which I think will be… well then, 12
we won’t be meeting. It will be going back to Staff to come up with two alternatives. Is that 13
correct Rachael? 14
15
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: That is correct that we are still looking for a date and 16
then we’ll probably have another meeting in the future, but we’ll start probably our regular 17
monthly meetings. But we’ll have a little bit intervening time where we probably won’t meet 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
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Summa: My understanding was after this next meeting, which hasn’t been 1
scheduled yet, Staff would go into their secret workroom, their cone of silence, and craft two 2
alternatives. And then they’ll probably bring them back to us at some point (interrupted) 3
4
Ms. Tanner: Yeah but it will probably more than a month that will happen when we bring them 5
back to you guys. 6
7
Commissioner Summa: And I did want to mention one other thing that’s a procedural thing, is 8
that except for oral comments we… our procedurals call for 5-minutes for speakers which may 9
be reduced to 3-minutes if there’s a lot of speakers. So, I sent that to the Chair during the 10
meeting but I didn’t want to interrupt the meeting, but we should be more careful because in 11
the past we have had that question. That very rule because it gets left… it gets misprinted on 12
our Staff Reports and I mean if people want to change. We should go through the process of 13
changing it, but it really is kind of not kosher to reduce it two when it says five and three if 14
there are a lot of speakers. I just wanted to mention that. 15
16
Commissioner Alcheck: I think the first Page of this Packet specifically says that the Chair may 17
reduce the allowed time to speak to 2-minutes or less to accommodate. 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.
Commissioner Summa: Yes, but that is inconsistent… there often mistakes on our Staff Reports 1
in our Packets that differ from our procedural rules which we have not changed. It’s just a 2
mistake that comes up all the time. I don’t know why. Oral comments is less so if we want to 3
change that (interrupted) 4
5
Commissioner Alcheck: [unintelligible] 6
7
Commissioner Summa: Pardon me? 8
9
Commissioner Alcheck: Are you saying the rules say different? 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Yes. Our procedures. 12
13
Ms. Tanner: We can take a look at that. 14
15
Commissioner Summa: I mean its group (interrupted) 16
17
Commissioner Riggs: I got to be up at 5:00 am for a call from the Netherlands so if… can we 18
accelerate? 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 Templeton: We’re… yes, we’re going to wrap it up. So just to close the loop, 1
Commissioner Summa we followed the rules that were printed on the Packet this time and she 2
rightly points out that there are some inconsistencies. So, that’s something that we’re asking… I 3
believe she’s asking and I’m agreeing with her to follow up on. And let’s find out what’s 4
inconsistent and put it in front of the Commission to fix. So that we can be consistent going 5
forward. Alright, is that Commissioner Summa? Thank you. Thanks for bringing that up. Alright, 6
so we’re going to move onto Commissioner Questions, Comments, Announcements, and future 7
agenda items. 8
9
Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 10
11
Chair Templeton: I’m hoping that if anyone has planned absences in the next two months, let 12
us know, and you can just email Vinh about that. Alright, any other comments for this item? 13
Alright, then this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all very much for hanging in there and thanks 14
to all the public comments that… commentaries that hung around as well. 15
16
Adjournment 17
11:20 pm 18
Page 209
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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.
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
Commissioner Michael Alcheck 5
Commissioner Bart Hechtman 6
Commissioner Ed Lauing 7
Commissioner William Riggs 8
Vice-Chair Giselle Roohparvar 9
Commissioner Doria Summa 10
Chair Carolyn Templeton 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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