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Home My WebLink About2024-12-11 Planning & Transportation Commission Verbatim Minutes_______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Verbatim Minutes: December 11, 2024 2 Council Chambers & Virtual 3 6:00 PM 4 5 Call to Order / Roll Call 6 6:03 PM 7 8 ROLL CALL 9 Chair Chang: Okay. Good evening everyone. I’d like to call to order this regular meeting of the 10 Planning and Transportation Commission for Wednesday, December 11, 2024. Ms. Dao, could 11 you please take the roll? 12 13 Administrative Assistant Veronica Dao: Chair Chang? 14 15 Chair Chang: Here. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Vice-Chair Reckdahl? 18 19 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Here. 20 21 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Akin? 22 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Akin: Here. 2 3 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Lu? 4 5 Commissioner Lu: Here. 6 7 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Summa? 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Here. 10 11 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Hechtman? 12 13 Commissioner Hechtman: Here. 14 15 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Templeton? 16 17 Commissioner Templeton: Here. 18 19 Veronica Dao: We have a quorum. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. So our first order of business tonight is Public Comment on items that 2 are not elsewhere on the agenda. Ms. Dao, do we have any public comments? 3 4 Oral Communications 5 The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 6 7 Veronica Dao: I have none for oral communication. 8 9 Female: I put one in. 10 11 Veronica Dao: Oh, you put comments in. Okay. 12 13 Female: [Is that where 1:02] we’re at? 14 15 Veronica Dao: Do you want to speak to [inaudible 1:04] comment or… 16 17 Female: Yeah. 18 19 Veronica Dao: Okay. It’s not this one then. 20 21 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Female: [Inaudible 1:08]. Thank you so much. 1 2 Chair Chang: Okay. I don’t see anything online either, so I think we can move on to the next 3 item, which is Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions. 4 5 Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions 6 The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 7 8 Assistant Director Jennifer Armer: None this evening. Thank you. 9 10 Chair Chang: Okay. Great. And then now we’re on to City Official Reports. And so – yeah. Please 11 go ahead, Ms. Armer. 12 13 City Official Reports 14 1. Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 15 16 Jennnifer Armer: All right. Give us a moment and we’ll share the presentation. 17 18 Chair Chang: And then Philip – Director Philip Kamhi [inaudible 1:42] too. 19 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Jennifer Armer: Holy cow. [Inaudible 1:52]. All right. Just briefly this evening, the next slide, 1 we’ve got some of the upcoming meetings that we have for Planning and Transportation 2 Commission. The first is we have a special meeting next week; please note that this on Tuesday, 3 the 17th , because there was a conflict from our previously scheduled special meeting on the 4 18th. That – the main item for that is a discussion. It’s just a study session for the El Camino Real 5 focus area. Then we do have two meetings scheduled for January and we have at least three 6 items. There’s another potential one for those meetings. The first meeting in January will be a 7 special meeting on January 15 to allow time for publication of the Staff Report packet the week 8 before. And that is – we have a affordable – 100 percent affordable housing project that is 9 scheduled for that. Location is 3265 El Camino Real. And then the second meeting in January 10 will be the regular meeting. On January 29, we have two different transportation-related 11 projects; the parking programs update and discussion, and a draft Safe Streets for All Safety 12 Action Plan. As you know, sometimes these things do move around but that is what we’ve got 13 listed for those meetings coming up. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Do we have anything from Department of Transportation? 16 17 Male: [Inaudible 3:30]. 18 19 Chair Chang: Oh, sorry. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Senior Engineer Rafael Rius: Yes. 2 3 Chair Chang: Commissioner Templeton. 4 5 Commissioner Templeton: Yes, I was just wondering if you could clarify what is the reason for 6 moving the date? The conflict you mentioned. 7 8 Jennifer Armer: Thank you for that request. We did have a scheduling conflict. Another activity 9 was scheduled for the Wednesday evening, and so we weren’t going to have a quorum of 10 planning commissioners for that evening. Because it was a special meeting, we wanted to 11 ensure we had a date. And we did reach out to all planning commissioners to see if we could 12 get a quorum for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. 13 14 Commissioner Templeton: But at the previous meeting, didn’t we all say that we would be here 15 on the 18th? 16 17 Jennifer Armer: My understanding was that that was an available date but sometimes conflicts 18 do come up. So my understanding was that we didn’t have a quorum for the 18th, so we shifted 19 it to the 17th. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Templeton: The survey that was sent out did not have Wednesday as an option 2 to check, just so you know. 3 4 Jennifer Armer: Okay. 5 6 Commissioner Templeton: So I don’t know how you got that information. You certainly didn’t 7 get it from me. Thank you. 8 9 Jennifer Armer: Oh, okay. Thank you. 10 11 Chair Chang: Thank you. All right, Director Kamhi. 12 13 Chief Transportation Official Director Kamhi: Yeah. And I see Rafael’s got his hand raised. I don’t 14 know if he had something he needed to… 15 16 Rafael Rius: Go ahead. It’s okay. Go ahead. I was going to introduce you. 17 18 Philip Kamhi: Okay. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah, Philip Kamhi, Chief Transportation Official. Actually, 19 we don’t have any transportation updates unless Rafael comes on afterwards to share any – 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. other than I actually want to share with the PTC that I’ve stepped down as the Chief 1 Transportation Official. And so I just want to say that serving this remarkable community has 2 been a real honor and a deeply fulfilling experience. And I want to express my heartfelt 3 gratitude to the residents for entrusting me with the opportunity to help shape the City’s 4 transportation future. And I also want to extend my thanks to the exceptional staff from the 5 Office of Transportation, whose dedication, expertise, and hard work has been pivotal to every 6 success that we’ve achieved. And I’m deeply appreciative to the support from the City 7 leadership, whose guidance and collaboration have – has made so much of our progress 8 possible. So just want to note this is actually my last week with the City. It’s really been a 9 pleasure working with the PTC and I want to thank you. You’re still with the – you’ve got the 10 capable hands of the office of – the staff of the Office of Transportation. 11 12 Chair Chang: Thank you. We’re glad to see you and we’re sorry to see you go. Well, best of luck 13 and happy holidays. 14 15 Philip Kamhi: Thank you. Yeah, happy holidays. Thank you all. 16 17 Chair Chang: Mr. Rius, did you have anything to add? 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Rafael Rius: Sure. Yeah. It’s Rafael Rius, Senior Engineer with the Office of Transportation. And I 1 also want to express my thanks to Philip for his service and being our leader for many years and 2 wish him the best of luck as well. With that, I don’t have too many updates at this time. The 3 [one 6:54] that I do have is both the Rail Committee meeting and the Bicycle Advisory 4 Committee – Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meetings for this month of December 5 have been cancelled. The PABAC cancellation is actually delaying our – us providing you with 6 the collision reports for this month, so we’re going to try to get that to you before the first 7 January meeting. And other than that, I don’t have any other updates unless there’s questions 8 or − I can take. 9 10 Chair Chang: I don’t see any lights indicating questions from the other commissioners. Thank 11 you so much, Mr. Rius. Okay, so that brings us to our first action item of the evening, which is a 12 Public Hearing/Quasi-Judicial for 4075 El Camino Way, where the PTC needs to provide a 13 recommendation on the applicant’s request for an amendment to a Planned Community Zone 14 District (PC-5116) to allow for Modifications to the Existing facility and the additions would 15 include 16 additional assisted living units and 172 feet of additional support space. So the first 16 order of business is we need to go down the line and see if there’s any disclosures and recusals. 17 So perhaps we can just start at the end with Commissioner Templeton. 18 19 Action Items 20 Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker. 21 22 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 2. PUBLIC HEARING / QUASI-JUDICIAL. 4075 El Camino Way [23PLN-00202]: 1 Recommendation on Applicant’s Request for an Amendment to a Planned 2 Community Zone District (PC-5116) to Allow for Modifications to an Existing 3 121-Unit Assisted Living and Memory Care Facility. The Additions Would Include 16 4 Additional Assisted Living Units and 172 Square Feet of Additional Support Space. 5 Environmental Assessment: Exempt from the Provisions of the California 6 Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in Accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 7 15301 (Modifications to Existing Facilities). Zoning District: PC-5116 (Planned 8 Community). 9 10 Commissioner Templeton: Nothing to disclose. 11 12 Commissioner Hechtman: Earlier this week, I met with residents – a number of residents on 13 Wilkie Lane and toured a number of their backyards to see the relationship between their 14 properties and the proposed project and they disclosed some of their concerns. I think all of 15 which are – have been contained in the written communications that they have submitted. 16 17 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Yeah, because I’ll be joining the Council in January, the City Attorney has 18 recommended that I recuse myself. So when and if this comes to Council, I don’t have any 19 conflicts. 20 21 Chair Chang: Thanks. So I’d like to disclose that earlier today, I visited the facility at 4075 El 22 Camino Way and saw that there were 14 spaces underground and I think 3 – I’ll have to check 23 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. my camera − above ground. They were occupied by building materials and furniture. And also I 1 was given access this time when I called and said I need parking assistance and they offered me 2 the Avant, which was full actually. And then the [Commons 9:53], and so I was able to go and 3 park there. I also − at 4:00 today, every single legal spot on that block of El Camino Way was 4 occupied, and as I pulled up to the Commons employee with like a Commons badge was 5 entering their car on El – parked on El Camino Way. So that was just my visit today. And then I 6 also wanted to disclose that I called to just ask about the rents for the Commons. So go ahead. 7 8 Commissioner Akin: I’d like to disclose that I attended a City Council campaign event at Wilkie 9 Way on October 20, and at that time, I spoke to many of the neighbors and toured several of 10 the backyards. I heard concerns about privacy screening, parking, development standards, 11 particularly for PCs, and the Conditions of Approval for the existing PC. That’s it. Thank you. 12 13 Commissioner Summa: And I have to disclose that I was at that same meeting and I had an 14 opportunity to speak to many of the residents and tour their backyards and see the situation. 15 And many of the same things were discussed that Commissioner Akin just mentioned. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Lu: I will disclose and also recuse myself. I was at the same event as with a 1 couple of my other commissioners and observed the same conditions from a couple of 2 backyards. I will also need to recuse from this issue as I will be joining the City Council and as a 3 Quasi-Judicial item, I need to be fully impartial when I hear it at the Council level, so similarly on 4 the advice of the City Attorney, I will recuse myself from this item. 5 6 Chair Chang: Okay. So… 7 8 Commissioner Templeton: I will jump back in here. 9 10 Chair Chang: Yeah. 11 12 Commissioner Templeton: I did not – I thought we were very careful at that meeting not to do 13 anything that we’d have to disclose. But since you all were there, I just want to let people know 14 that I was with you. Thank you. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Jennifer Armer: And through the Chair, the two recusals will need to leave the dais prior to the 1 next steps. 2 3 Chair Chang: Yes. That’s [inaudible 12:13]. I was going to invite them to exit and then we’ll let 4 you know when you can rejoin. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: Chair Chang, I’ve just realized I have one more minor – well, I don’t 7 want to characterize it. One more disclosure. 8 9 Chair Chang: Yes. 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman: There’s a letter written by a law firm that is part of our packet and its 12 author is someone I’ve known for years and years and worked across the table from him and 13 know him. And so in advance, he had called and left me a voicemail that he was submitting a 14 letter, and then later he emailed me directly a copy and I responded that I’d received it. But – 15 so that communication occurred. I also did just drive by and pull into the Commons down to 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. where that gate is on the Commons side to eyeball the situation and the parking. I did that after 1 my meeting with the Wilkie folks. 2 3 Chair Chang: Thank you. Okay. Let’s give them a second to recuse and exit. So just as a matter 4 of our – the next thing is going to be the Staff presentation but I just wanted to – because our 5 chambers are so full today, just to remind everybody that we are asking that if you would like to 6 make public comment, that you must submit the – your speaker card or raise your hand online 7 by five minutes after the Staff presentation is completed because we’re going to have to cut off 8 the list of folks who are going to speak at that point. So if you do have a public comment or 9 think you’ll have a public comment, make sure to get it in early. And before I take public – 10 before we start taking public comments, I’m going to take a look at how many we have and 11 decide on the length of time that each speaker will be given. Great. With that, could we please 12 have the Staff Report, Ms. Kallas? 13 14 Senior Planner Emily Kallas: Yes. Good evening. My name is Emily Kallas and I’m the project 15 planner for 4075 El Camino Way. This is a planned community zone addition project. The 16 overview is this is an amendment of an existing PC zone to allow for construction of 16 17 additional assisted living units and 172 square feet of support space to an existing 121 units 18 assisted living and memory care facility and site improvements, including an exterior color 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. change for the building and additional landscaping. There were prior PC approvals, 5116, which 1 is for the Avant Building and 3775, which is for Palo Alto Commons. And I’ll explain that a little 2 bit more when we are looking at the site plan. Additionally, assisted living use is not an housing 3 development project, so this proposed project tonight is not a housing development project as 4 defined by the State of California. This shows the project location. The red outline is the full 5 extent of the property. The shaded area is the portion that is the Palo Alto Commons Building. 6 As I mentioned earlier, this property contains two senior living facilities; one is the Avant, which 7 is independent living units and then Palo Alto Commons is assisted living and memory care. 8 These two sites share a driveway to separate underground garages and, of course, the site 9 backs up to the single-family neighborhood along Wilkie Way and the surrounding area. This 10 slide goes over the process that PC projects go through. 11 This began with a Council prescreening in August of 2023 followed by the formal application. 12 The Staff Review went through multiple rounds of review to address both completeness items, 13 department comments, and comments received through public hearings and neighbor 14 comments. The PTC hearings occurred in February and June of 2024, at which point, the PTC 15 had recommended this project move forward to Architectural Review Board Review. The ARB 16 hearings occurred in July and October, and on October 17, the ARB recommended approval to 17 the City Council. Tonight is the PTC recommendation and the next step after that is the Council 18 decision. Council makes the final decision on this project. And, of course, public hearings are 19 accepted at all public – public comments are accepted at all public hearings and through writing 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. at any time throughout this process. The following project changes were made based on the 1 PTC and ARB conversations at prior public hearings. We now have a Transportation Demand 2 Management (TDM) plan; this plan was designed to cover parking at both Palo Alto Commons 3 and the Avant since – it is my understanding that staff is shared between those two facilities. 4 There’s also other parking improvements that I will discuss on later slides. The plans were 5 updated to more clearly show the neighbor context, including locations of windows. The plans 6 were modified to meet the objective design standards for multifamily housing, even though this 7 is not considered multifamily housing, for privacy adjacent to single-family houses specifically. 8 Additional landscape screening was added. Sorry. 9 Noise concerns from the neighbors have been addressed both through a noise study of the 10 mechanical equipment and through a code enforcement case regarding noise that is associated 11 with the Avant building. And the color palette has been modified slightly. ARB recommended 12 that the proposed height and setbacks were appropriate to the single-family neighborhood 13 context. And additionally, ARB Chair Rosenberg is present at the meeting on Zoom if you have 14 any questions. This slide, which shows one of the sheets from the plan set, shows an overview 15 of how and where the additions to the building are. The applicant will go over this in more 16 detail in their presentation, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a sense of the proposed 17 massing and the way that the additions are being added into existing step-backs and pockets 18 around the building. This is another view of the existing building on top and the proposed 19 addition on the bottom as well as the addition of the proposed location for additional screening 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. trees. So a Transportation Demand Management plan was submitted in September, reviewed 1 by Staff. We’ve provided comments and recently received a revised version that is under review 2 with the Depar-, Office of Transportation. It has been incorporated into the Conditions of 3 Approval. Typically, for projects that require TDMs, the TDM itself gets approved by the Office 4 of Transportation as a Condition of Approval, but we have reviewed it earlier essentially for this 5 project. 6 The parking that is proposed does meet zoning minimums, so the TDM plan is not being used 7 for a parking reduction, as we often see on other projects. It is being used to manage the 8 existing parking to respond to the neighbors’ concerns. Additionally, the plans have designated 9 the parking spaces as being for visitors or staff, residents, and families. Additionally, the garage 10 now has a key access for staff into the gated portion of the garage. In terms of privacy facing 11 the single-family neighborhood, all windows meet the objective design standards located in 12 Palo Alto Municipal Code 18.24.050(D). This includes a mix of strategies; high-silled windows, 13 angled windows, and increasing the distance between windows and the property line. 14 Additionally, some of the existing build-, balconies are being removed from units as they are 15 being converted from assisted use to memory care or just because balconies are not 16 appropriate for the memory care units. And seven of the proposed units face Wilkie Way – no. 17 Nine units face Wilkie Way and seven do not as written on the slide. I don’t know what I just 18 said. Palo Alto Commons held a neighborhood meeting on August 22 to discuss landscaping. 19 The tree locations have been updated in the plan set. The Conditions of Approval can be 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. modified to specify evergreen trees versus deciduous trees. Various neighbors spoke strongly 1 about both options. And Staff believes that this is something that can continue to be discussed 2 in the Conditions of Approval. 3 Three new heat pump condenser units are proposed and have been determined to not increase 4 noise levels in the residential neighborhood. The units are set towards the middle of the 5 building with the vents pointed up and away from the residence. Additionally, the zoning code 6 has special requirements for planned community buildings. These are located in Code Section 7 18.34.150; it complies with the special requirements for height. The maximum height is 35 feet. 8 The existing building is 32 feet 6 inches and that is not proposed to change as a part of this 9 project. The interior setback requirements is 10 feet minimum when adjacent to single family, 10 and that is being met with this addition project. The street side setbacks – 10 feet are − is 11 required. No changes are proposed to the street-facing sides of the building. And then the 12 fourth one is daylight plane. For commercial uses for new PC projects, a daylight plane 13 beginning at a height of 10 feet with a slope of 3:6 would be required; however, for housing 14 projects, the daylight plane may be the same as the adjacent residential zone, which in this case 15 is R1. At the time of the initial PC, PC 3775, which built Palo Alto Commons, the daylight plane 16 that was used for that project is the R1 side daylight plane, which is 10 feet and a 45-degree 17 angle. And the proposed additions fit within that daylight plane. 18 We received a number of neighbor comments, specifically 16 neighbors signed the petition sent 19 to the PTC, ARB, and City Staff in October. The concerns listed were privacy towards the single-20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. family neighborhood, reduced natural sunlight, staff and visitor parking in the neighborhood, a 1 desire for the addition to not request any exemptions from the zoning code, a concern that 2 WellQuest, the operators of Palo Alto Commons, is a for-profit company, and the potential for 3 the additions to lower property value and quality of life in the neighborhood. Additionally, we 4 received over 30 additional emails; this included letters in support reiterating the neighborhood 5 petition concerns as well as questions about the CEQA, California Environmental Quality Act, 6 determination. The – in terms of the California Environmental Quality Act, A Section 15301 7 (Existing Facilities), categorical exemption has been prepared. The recommended motion is that 8 Staff recommends approval to the City Council based on draft conditions of approval and draft 9 findings. This concludes my presentation. The applicant team also has a presentation. Thank 10 you. 11 12 Chair Chang: Thank you. All right. Could we hear from the applicant now? The applicant has 15 13 minutes. 14 15 Daniel Bowman: Hello. My name is Daniel Bowman. I’m the architect on the project. I’m 16 working with WellQuest. And as Staff is pulling up the slides, for the amendment we are asking 17 for 16 additional units that the Council has stated that they want more housing. And then we’re 18 also not asking for the daylight plane anymore and then the – we’re not asking for parking 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. amendments to the P – existing PC and municipal code. As you can see on the screen, this is the 1 Phase 1, courtyard. We put in the proposed colors to see how it looks and we worked with the 2 ARB to adjust some of the colors. Specifically to blue, we toned it down a bit, so it’s not as 3 bright for the neighbors. Next slide. Yeah, as I was saying the amendments that we’re asking for 4 is an increase of units and floor areas as well as a two-foot encroachment on the Goodwill side; 5 not on the Wilkie way resident side and then change in exterior colors. Next slide. As far as 6 parking goes, we are per municipal code. The required amount is 90 parking spaces and we are 7 providing 102 with the ADA spots counted as 2 spots per municipal code. And then in that 8 diagram, the visitor parking is the orange spots, so there are, I believe – is it 14 or 17? I can’t 9 remember exactly. I can’t see from here. Visitor spots specifically that are supposed to be 10 designated for them. 11 And then behind the gate, it is residents, families, staff, and visitors as well, if there is a need 12 for it. Next slide. So this is the existing gate that is in the Palo Alto side and then that is the 13 phone that visitors could call if they need to open that gate and it goes directly to the lobby 14 staff. And then there is also a box with a remote control for staff and families if they need a 15 back-up that they have the code for. Next slide. Here is a view of the additions that are along 16 the Wilkie Way side. There’s also three more areas on the other side of the building. Yeah. Next 17 slide. So I was saying the daylight plane, we are not asking for a change in. We are out of the 18 daylighting plane and we – the building still steps back as it currently does. Next slide. So this is 19 some of the existing photos in between the Wilkie Way residents and [our 28:27] side, there 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 a lot of landscape trees, including some Redwood trees. And we are proposing in the – on 1 the top right picture, there is the grass. That is where we are proposing on adding more trees to 2 help screen the building. Next slide. So this is the landscape plan. The green trees are evergreen 3 and the purple are deciduous trees. 4 So we tried to balance the privacy of screening the building and the views form the building and 5 trying to limit the amount of shade that is on the neighboring site. That’s why the evergreen 6 trees are pushed as close to our building as possible and the deciduous trees, which are going 7 to be smaller, they’re going to be more closer towards it. And we worked with the neighbors to 8 communicate on each preference and we hope that this reaches a nice balance between what 9 they were each asking for. We’re also willing to still work with them if it needs to be changed 10 on that. Next slide. So with these trees − helps with the privacy screening. We are in compliance 11 with the IR guidelines that you guys mentioned to follow. And so majority of our windows that 12 we’re proposing are over 30 feet from the adjacent neighbors’ windows and a lot of them are 13 at a 45-degree angle, which also further complies with it and we – some of the windows that 14 face directly, we put a five-foot sill, which is also one of the guidelines that is part of – yeah, the 15 IR guidelines. Next slide. So I was saying, the shadows, we minimized as much as we could on 16 their adjacent site. The − most shadows, which is green, are from trees and red is from the 17 building. And most of shade is going to be from the trees and it’s going to be on our site. 18 The adjacent neighbors, only in December when it’s 90 – already 90 percent shaded, that it’s 19 going to be a little bit more shade. But overall, the building itself is not making a huge impact 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 their shade. Next slide. So this is some of the 3-D elevations with the new color scheme and 1 the massing. The one on the left is just the entrance and there was no opportunity to add any 2 units on that side of it. But the – on the right side is the Goodwill units − Goodwill side units. 3 There are four units that are going to be over there and − yeah. It’s the ones on the right. Next 4 slide. And so this is going to be the renders of the back Wilkie Way resident side that has the 5 additions, so the bottom is the additions and the top is the existing. And as you can see, it steps 6 – still steps back from the – each level and that it doesn’t appear as one giant mass. It’s not just 7 one giant building; it is still broken up and still has different forms that are at the scale of the 8 adjacent buildings. Next slide. And then lastly, this is the – some of the balconies that we’re 9 removing on the memory care wing, so that will further help with privacy on – for the Wilkie 10 Way residents on that side. [Inaudible 32:9], the TDM. Yeah. And then Charlene will come up to 11 talk about the TDM some more. 12 13 Charlene Kussner: Good evening Commissioners. I’m Charlene Kussner. I’m representing 14 WellQuest Living. We’re the operator of the Avant and PAC, Palo Alto Commons. We appreciate 15 the ongoing dialogue and discussion and feedback. We’ve taken in a lot of the feedback that we 16 received from the Commissioners the last meeting. So I want to just review that quickly. I don’t 17 want to belabor it with you. We’ve had four community outreach meetings with the Wilkie Way 18 neighbors over the past two years; 2023 and 2024. And we have implemented the TDM plan. So 19 the findings that were provided in the TDM, we have already implemented those. We are 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. encouraging our staff to carpool. To date, we’ve got over 25 staff members carpooling. We’re 1 looking to reduce our transportation impact by 20 percent. We are offering incentives to 2 employees for carpooling, bicycling, using public transit. We’re really promoting it within the 3 community that this is a really viable option and we’re incentivizing it. So right now, we’re 4 providing about $5,000 a month in incentives to employees who are taking advantage of this 5 program and we’re really pleased about that. We’ve also hired an additional facility member, so 6 we have another driver/valet member. So that’s an additional $3500 a month that we’re 7 spending on an additional staff member to help mitigate, and if we need to valet, we can valet 8 visitors. We’re working with our receptionists. So I ‘m glad to hear Commissioner Chang 9 actually had a good experience. 10 We have a script posted on the receptionist’s desk with how we’re to answer the phone, how 11 to be accommodating, and make sure that everyone who wants to have access into our 12 community, the underground parking is available to do so. We’ve [surveyed 34:23] all of our 13 employees on carpooling, promoting. They’ve all signed receipt of a memo outlining these 14 programs that we’re offering. And so we’re hoping to create more incentive for them to keep 15 taking advantage of this to reduce parking concerns. We’re working with the Wilkie Way 16 neighbors on the landscape. We’ll continue to do that. We’ve had various emails back and forth 17 and we want to stay open to those communications and add as necessary. So I’m here, the 18 landscape architect is on the Zoom line, we have the owner here as well, and our operations 19 team is here for any questions that you may have. Thank you. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. Does that conclude the applicant presentation? Okay. Do we have 2 clarifying questions before – great. Commissioner Akin. And please, Commissioners, let me 3 know if you have clarifying questions before we move on to Public Comment. Go ahead. 4 5 Commissioner Akin: Thank you, Chair. I have questions both for Ms. Kallas and for Mr. Yang, 6 presumably he’s on line. Starting with Ms. Kallas. For the purposes of deciding the physical 7 development standards for the project, are we treating the Commons as a residential use or a 8 non-residential use? 9 10 Emily Kallas: As far as any state laws that relate to housing and our RHNA allocation, it does not 11 count as housing. 12 13 Commissioner Akin: No, this is strictly Palo Alto. So the development standards we have to 14 apply are conditioned on whether the use is primarily residential or non-residential, so the 15 setbacks, daylight planes, and other conditions. PC 3775 refers to the Commons as a residential 16 use. And as you’ve noted, the original rear set-, the original Wilkie Way setback and daylight 17 plane can only be achieved in the code if you treat that as the side – sightline on a residential 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. use. There’s no other way to do it. So presumably, this is being treated as a residential use. But 1 further questions will depend on the answer to whether you continue to treat it that way. So 2 that’s why I’m asking. 3 4 Jennifer Armer: Thank you for that question. I’ll jump in. Jennifer Armer. [Inaudible 37:09]… 5 6 Chair Chang: Mr. Yang is also on. So… 7 8 Jennifer Armer: Yes. So we can also have our City Attorney pipe in as well. As you stated, it was 9 characterized as a residential use previously, and so as a modification to an existing planned 10 community, that – continuing with that does seem appropriate. But I will pass it off to Albert to 11 see if he’d like to add something as well. 12 13 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, if I may, postpone that for a minute just because the question I have 14 for Mr. Yang later will bear on that as well. Okay. So as I read the Staff Report, we are 15 interpreting the sightline near the Wilkie Way properties as a rear sightline now. Is that correct? 16 I see a reference on Page – Packet Page 40, which I’m using to determine that. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Jennifer Armer: So we do have on that page as referenced, the rear yard is described as that 2 that is closest to Wilkie Way. 3 4 Commissioner Akin: Right. 5 6 Jennifer Armer: Is that what you’re referring to? 7 8 Commissioner Akin: Yeah. 9 10 Jennifer Armer: Okay. 11 12 Commissioner Akin: And the reason for that question is I now want to just get confirmation. I 13 believe I already know the answer to this. To the required setbacks and daylight plane for a PC 14 that shares a rear sightline with an R1. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: Yes. And so as described on my slide regarding the special requirements – I can 1 pull that up again if it would be helpful. 2 3 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, to explain where this is going − Mr. Yang will have to help me out 4 with determining whether we, the PTC, are allowed to make the recommendation that you’re 5 asking us to make. So that’s why it’s important to understand what the requirements actually 6 are. 7 8 Emily Kallas: The requirement for a PC adjacent to single family is 10 feet under the special 9 requirements regardless if that is an interior side or interior rear yard. 10 11 Commissioner Akin: So 18.38.150(C) says the PCs with residential uses have to match the 12 adjacent R1, which means a 20-foot setback and also a different daylight plane. 13 14 Emily Kallas: The existing building was built at the 10-foot setback. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Akin: Yes, we’re getting to that later too. 1 2 Emily Kallas: Additionally, the daylight plane for R1 would be less restrictive for the rear than 3 for the sides. For the rear, it would be 16 feet and a 60-degree angle. 4 5 Commissioner Akin: Yes, although the complication there is it’s not taken at the lot line. It’s 6 taken at the setback. So you see there’s considerable uncertainty here about what’s actually 7 going to be required. And that’s why I’m asking the question. 8 9 Chair Chang: Do you want Mr. Yang to answer, please? 10 11 Commissioner Akin: Yeah. And Mr. Yang, I’m referring to 18.12.040. 12 13 Assistant City Attorney Albert Yang: Yeah. So I guess I would step back a moment and just 14 frame all of the special requirements in 1838150 more as norms and guidelines than 15 requirements because PCs are all zoning ordinances. They’re sort of equal standing to the 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. ordinance that enacted those requirements. And so while those requirements are there, there 1 is nothing stopping the City Council from approving PCs that don’t comply with those 2 requirements and they’ve done so numerous times in the past. 3 4 Commissioner Akin: Yeah. Actually, you’re jumping ahead to an issue that I wanted to get to. 5 But if it’s necessary to address that now, we can. So the rules for the Planning and 6 Transportation Commission’s evaluation of PCs, the actions we can take are given in 18.38.110. 7 Those rules give us the authority to do things like modify setbacks and daylight planes, to 8 modify any regulation that’s in 18.54 to 18.99 inclusive. It does not give us the authority to 9 modify things that are elsewhere in the code. For example, 18.38, which sets the special 10 setbacks we’re talking about or 18.12, which determines what’s needed for R1s. Yes, Council 11 can do whatever Council would like as a result of the – as a part of the ordinance that it passes. 12 But our authority is considerably more limited than that. So none of the sections of the code 13 that refer to the controversial setbacks or daylight planes in this case are within our purview to 14 modify. Now why that’s important is we now have to talk about what we’re allowed to do in 15 the case of projects that are not complying. And that becomes the next question that I would 16 have put to you but before we get to that, I would like your reaction to the comments that − 17 and questions that I just asked. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Albert Yang: Yeah. So I am going to need just a moment to do a little bit of historical research. I 1 suspect that those that referenced to 1854 to 1899 might be outdated and might be… 2 3 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, I did check on that and amusingly enough, some of that seems to be 4 the result of ordinances that were passed in order to offload Council and to put more 5 responsibility onto PTC. But you may be able to find more information than I did. Just to keep 6 going here, where this is headed is do we have the authority to accept the existing setback and 7 daylight plane as you’re proposing in the project? And the only way out that I was able to find 8 in the code has to do with the rules for evaluating projects for non-complying facilities. So you 9 could say, “Well, those are fair game. Those rules are fair game. They’re in the range, 1854 to 10 1899.” Perhaps we could approve – sorry. Perhaps we could recommend by nullifying the 11 regulation that prohibits increases in non-compliance during enlargement because the project 12 does increase non-compliance during enlargement by adding additional penetration in the 13 setback, which needs to be 20 feet, as we established earlier. However, I believe that can’t be 14 done. And again, this is another question for Mr. Yang. Because of the definition of a non-15 complying facility, which is in 18.04. The definition requires that the facility be legal at the time 16 it was constructed and we’ve established that at the time it was constructed, the wrong 17 sightline was used to determine the setback and daylight plane. So… 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Albert Yang: So I guess just on that final point, I would say that this property absolutely was 1 legal at the time it was constructed because it was constructed pursuant to a PC that was 2 approved and adopted by the City Council. And that PC included a development plan and it’s 3 the development plan that sets the development standards for a PC. So there are no separate 4 development standards other than the development plan. And as to the broader question, I 5 don’t think I’ll be able to, in this time, reach a sort of definitive, researched answer. But I would 6 just note that the PTC’s authority is to recommend an action on a PC to the City Council and it 7 wouldn’t be very much use for the PTC’s authority in that recommendation to be narrower than 8 the authority that the City Council would later have. So I wouldn’t read that reference to 9 Chapters 1854 to 1899 as limiting the standards that the PTC could recommend be modified. 10 11 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, an interesting possibility here – we often discuss the question of 12 what are the limits on PCs? And given that if there are no limits on PCs, there’s an awful lot of 13 the code that has no reason to exist, including the special conditions in 18.38.150. So this again 14 would require some historical research, but I suspect this is the limit on PCs that you have to 15 restrict the changes to what’s permitted – that the PTC has to restrict its changes to what’s 16 limited by 1854 to 1899. [Now 48:47] this is beyond my ability to judge but after going through 17 this really deep dive on all of this, I have substantial questions about whether we really have 18 the authority to do what we’re being asked to do. And that essential question is one that I really 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. believe needs to be answered – is what are we authorized to do. And in particular, cite a Code 1 Section if you can. All right. That’s it. Thank you. As if that isn’t enough. 2 3 Chair Chang: Thank you, Commissioner Akin. So we’ve got Commissioner Hechtman and then 4 Commissioner Templeton. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: So I do have a few questions but I think I need to piggyback a little bit 7 on what Commissioner Akin has just described. And I do understand the issue you’re raising and 8 I think it’s foundational to our deliberation tonight, not to receiving public comment, but to our 9 deliberation. I have not looked at the code sections together the way that you did to see what I 10 thought but it actually doesn’t matter because our City Attorney’s Office really has to give us 11 this guidance. And I appreciate that presenting this issue from the dais really doesn’t allow the 12 City Attorney’s Office to do that in an informed way here tonight. And so I don’t think we can 13 have a deliberation that says, “Well, if it’s legal for us to be doing all of this, then here’s what 14 we think. If it’s not, then here is what we think.” And so the question has been posed and I 15 think it’s a legitimate one, but I think it is going to require us to continue this matter until the 16 City Attorney’s Office can analyze it fully and provide a memo. There may be an unintended gap 17 in our regulations that you are the first to identify. And if so, we need to know it and we need 18 to know the limits on our authority. So having said that, I do think we can make substantial 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. progress tonight, and I don’t know if any of my fellow Commissioners are going to agree that 1 we can’t deliberate when we don’t know what we can and can’t recommend. 2 But I’m going to go forward as – to see how far we can get tonight. And obviously, we’ve got a 3 lot of people here in the audience and I don’t want to create a scenario where they have to 4 come back just to speak. So I’m wanting them to have their opportunity to give us their input 5 tonight. So questions. Let’s see. Trees. So eight new trees will be planted. And I guess the issue 6 is whether they are going to be evergreen, deciduous, or some combination. The Staff Report at 7 one point says that they’re going to be deciduous because that’s what the neighbors wanted. 8 We saw a diagram recently from the applicant’s architect showing, I think, six evergreen, two 9 deciduous. And that may have been prepared after the Staff Report. That could have been 10 somewhat newer. But I guess like my first question is does the City – from the City’s 11 perspective, either of those varieties would be allowable. Is that right? 12 13 Jennifer Armer: If I may interrupt just for a moment and suggest since we’ve not had a chance 14 to hear from the public, I’m keeping questions this time focused on clarifying questions… 15 16 Commissioner Hechtman: It… 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Jennifer Armer: …but there will be an opportunity to ask questions of the applicant and of Staff 1 after. If you wish to get this answer at this time, we can. I just wanted to check in on that to 2 make sure that we’re being focused with this time. Thank you. 3 4 Commissioner Hechtman: Yeah. Again, and I was trying to focus just on what our rules require. 5 Do – in this situation, do our rules require that these trees be either deciduous or evergreen? 6 Or neither? 7 8 Emily Kallas: They do not. We − our screening requirements are based on height and frequency 9 of planting like density essentially. And then there are water use-related restrictions but we do 10 not require evergreen versus deciduous… 11 12 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. 13 14 Emily Kallas: …specifically. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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: All right. Thank you. Next question. TDM. There was a version 1 available in the – as a link in the Staff Packet but I’ve heard tonight that that’s being refined and 2 I think it may have been in need of refinement. When do we expect that the refined version will 3 be provided to Staff? [Inaudible 54:22]… 4 5 Emily Kallas: Well, you said provided to Staff, so… 6 7 Commissioner Hechtman: I mean available… 8 9 Emily Kallas: …that sounded like a question for the applicant. 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman Oh, sorry. Available for Commission review. 12 13 Emily Kallas: Our intent is to have the final version approved by the Office of Transportation 14 before it goes to Council. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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: Okay. So again, I’m thinking this may be coming back to us and I’m 1 wondering if there will be a revised version if it – if that happens, I’m wondering if we can see − 2 if the TDM will be updated, revised, whatever, in time for us to see it. 3 4 Jennifer Armer: And that could be a question for the applicant to see when they expect to 5 provide that. 6 7 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. 8 9 Jennifer Armer: And then considered as part of your deliberations. 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman: I have two questions for the applicant and maybe we can start with 12 that one. 13 14 Female: [Inaudible 55:28]. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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: Yeah, that’s all right. So… 1 2 Charlene Kussner: I’m so sorry. 3 4 Commissioner Hechtman: …if you know your… 5 6 Charlene Kussner: I’m just – I apologize. I’m a little confused about this conversation because as 7 far as I am aware, we’re working with our consultant… 8 9 Commissioner Hechtman: Yeah. 10 11 Charlene Kussner: …[Elizabeth 55:43]. And we responded to Staff three weeks ago with 12 responses to their comments. So − and I thought we were complete as far as this meeting with 13 the TDM at this time. 14 15 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Charlene Kussner: Because we did respond to all the Staff plan check comments. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. So I think I’ll leave that for now. Again, I’m just looking at 4 technical questions. And I think this is a technical question. 5 6 Charlene Kussner: I – yeah, I think there was some – maybe some typos at the end like she had 7 included some language at the very end of the document regarding local retail restaurants that 8 we’re available for easy access for our staff, and it didn’t match the map. And I do know we 9 have to change that but I find that a minor revision. But… 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. 12 13 Charlene Kussner: …that’s as far as I know. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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: Okay. And then my other question for the applicant is a visitor pulls 1 up to the gate, having found that none of the parking spaces outside the gate are available and 2 they pick up the phone that’s right there and call to see if they can park inside the gate… 3 4 Charlene Kussner: Correct. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: …right? How is it that the person who answers the phone knows 7 whether or not there are any spaces available inside the gate? Are there cameras? I mean 8 what’s the mechanism? 9 10 Charlene Kussner: We do have – we have hired this additional staff person. So we’re asking that 11 we open the gate and we’re having our valet meet – go downstairs and support the visitor. If 12 there’s no parking, then the valet will park it for them and we have a lockbox, like a traditional 13 valet system. 14 15 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. All right. Thank you for that clarification. Those are my 16 clarifying questions. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Commissioner Templeton. 2 3 Commissioner Templeton: Thanks. I think all I wanted to say is I wanted to ask Albert again – I 4 thought he said that our authority is to make recommendations, is that correct? 5 6 Albert Yang: Yes, that’s right. 7 8 Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 9 10 Albert Yang: And I have been able to do a little bit more research into just the history of our 11 code. And there was sort of a significant rearrangement in 2007 after the – this provision was 12 last edited. And so my suspicion, because we don’t have an older version of our zoning code to 13 see how it existed at that time – my understanding though is that what we currently have in 14 18.40 and 42 − general standards that apply in all districts is what would have been in that 15 18.54 to 18.99 where individual zone development standards would have been in the earlier 16 chapters. And I think that makes sense conceptually because for a PC, there is no base zone, 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. right? We’re not modifying the development standards of – to R1 or the RM20. The 1 development standards are unique to the PC and it’s the other standards that apply generally 2 to all districts that might be modified for the PC specifically. 3 4 Commissioner Templeton: Awesome. Thank you for answering that. And just to recap, it sounds 5 like, in your professional opinion, we can proceed to hear public comment on this and have a 6 discussion? 7 8 Albert Yang: Yes. 9 10 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. 11 12 Chair Chang: Commissioner Summa. 13 14 Commissioner Summa: Thank you. I have a lot of – I have similar concerns to Commissioner 15 Akin’s about the questions he already asked. But I did want to ask the applicant − you’ve 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. mentioned a couple times this evening that you will valet cars if you don’t have them – if you 1 don’t have room and that you have a way to do that but where do you valet them to? 2 3 Charlene Kussner: We have – we would – we have a basic parking plan for the back area of the 4 lot, so we would double park in front of a staff member’s car. We would make accommodations 5 to keep visitor cars free and when they come back downstairs after visiting or seeing their 6 family member, we would pull their car back forward for them. 7 8 Commissioner Summa: And do you have a – currently have − not the TDM you’re working on 9 for the expansion, but you currently have a TDM, correct? 10 11 Charlene Kussner: No, we were not required to provide a TDM for our original development. 12 13 Commissioner Summa: Okay. Thank you for those answers. And for Staff, it feels the – also 14 something Commissioner Akin mentioned. But it feels like on Pages 40 and 41, the zoning table 15 and the parking conformance table, you’re kind of sometimes using commercial standards and 16 sometimes using residential. You said you don’t consider this – it is not a residential use but it’s 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. not considered residential use by the City right now, but commercial. And the parking has been 1 an issue. And I don’t understand why there are more parking spots in the Avant. It doesn’t 2 seem like they’re – it seems like there should be more parking spots in the [end 61:46] 3 required. It seems very under-parked. We know there’s – I mean every time I’ve been there, 4 I’ve parked on Wilkie Way because there’s no parking. El Camino Way has – is really – has a 5 parking problem on it. And we know also from the last meeting that the independent people 6 that come in and have clients who live – who are staying there or in rehab there, like doctors or 7 maybe hairdressers even, or people like that, they have told them − the practice was to tell 8 those people who were not staff assistance attending the people staying in the facility, to park 9 at the – in the Goodwill parking lot. So I want to know how we’re going to capture the parking 10 that is happening on other streets, on El Camino Way, and in the Goodwill parking lot to make 11 sure it’s not a problem. So I don’t know if we can really know that right now. So – yeah. 12 13 Chair Chang: Is that a question to Staff? 14 15 Commissioner Summa: Yeah. 16 17 Emily Kallas: [Inaudible 62:55]. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 2 3 Emily Kallas: I believe – yeah, that comment started with a question, which was where do the 4 parking requirements come from. And so 1852, which is the section of the zoning code that 5 includes parking minimums, the – what I’m sharing on my screen is Attachment D, the Zoning 6 Table, which as Commissioner Summa mentioned, is on Packet Page 41. Senior Housing, which 7 is the assisted living at the Avant, has a parking requirement of .75 spaces per unit. So 8 essentially, the assumption is that approximately ¾ of those residents have one vehicle. For the 9 assisted living and memory care in Palo Alto Commons, the zoning code requirement is 1 per 10 2.5 beds. Figuring out what 1 over 2.5 is as a fraction is a little bit harder than .75, but it’s less 11 than half. 12 13 Commissioner Hechtman: Two out of five. 14 15 Emily Kallas: Yeah. And so those are the requirements and what is existing does meet or exceed 16 those minimum requirements. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Albert Yang: And again just to clarify, these requirements don’t apply to PCs but they’re 2 provided here for reference only, so you can compare them to what would apply if it were not a 3 PC. 4 5 Commissioner Summa: Okay. Thank you for that. One last question is that when the Council 6 decided to start using PCs again − and we didn’t change anything in the code because we never 7 took PCs out; it was just a practice not to do it. And I realize this is a renovation, so it’s – might 8 be different. But the Council decided to call them PHZs and said that 20 percent have to be of 9 the units – 20 percent inclusionary units. So if this is – we are considering it residential even 10 though it is categorized by the City as commercial. If we’re considering it residential, shouldn’t a 11 portion of the new units be affordable as they have to be in PHZs? 12 13 Emily Kallas: No, this is specifically not a PHZ, which is Planned Home Zoning project. This is a PC 14 amendment and even during times that Council had paused PC projects, it is my understanding 15 that PC amendments could still be applied for. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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: Okay. Thank you for that. And I think those are the only questions I 1 have. 2 3 Chair Chang: Thanks. I’ve got some questions. I think that’ll hopefully be it before we go to 4 public comment. So question of Staff. Is using parking as a – like as it is currently being used at 5 the Commons allowed as storage or staging area for construction or furniture storage or – is 6 that in line with the PC that is currently in place? 7 8 Emily Kallas: No, we were not aware that the parking spaces were currently unavailable. 9 10 Chair Chang: But it’s been the case since we first – since the very first time. 11 12 Emily Kallas: At the beginning of the project, there was a building permit on file to do some 13 interior remodeling work, but it was my understanding that that work has been fully 14 completed. So I don’t know if the applicant has anything to add to that or if you want to open 15 that option. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Oh, hang on for a second. I just wanted to ask if it was an allowed use. But it 1 doesn’t sound like – or expected use or in compliance with the PC. I also noticed in our code 2 that – our PC code, that it says that once every three years, somebody from Buildings would go 3 inspect the PC to make sure that it’s compliant. Is that something that’s been done for this 4 property over time? 5 6 Emily Kallas: I am not aware of that being done but not only within the context of this project. 7 I’m not sure it’s been done on a widespread basis for PCs. 8 9 Chair Chang: Oh, okay. I was surprised to see it myself. So 18.38.160 says, “Each PC district are 10 to be inspected by the Building Division at least once every three years for compliance with the 11 regulations and conditions of the ordinance.” So, okay. So probably not for this project then. 12 And then a question about the Staff comments − the TDM. Do you know what – is it possible for 13 you to summarize for us what the comments were? Because I would love to understand if they 14 were adequate. And maybe the real follow-on question is were those comments addressed to 15 Staff’s satisfaction with the revisions that were provided by the applicant? 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: The management techniques proposed in the plan, such as how information about 1 public transit is going to be disseminated and how surveys, etc., are going to be used to manage 2 trip demand does meet the Office of Transportation’s requirements, but there are a couple of 3 questions about how the trip generation rates have been determined. So we know that the 4 plan includes a lot of good options to achieve that 20 percent reduction but the exact number 5 of trips that that 20 percent would be equivalent to – 6 7 Chair Chang: In other words, what’s the baseline. 8 9 Emily Kallas: Yes. 10 11 Chair Chang: Okay. And is – for the TDM, are we expecting the TDM to include the baseline trips 12 for everybody who uses the facility, visitors, residents, staff, and as well as non-staff caregivers? 13 Is that the expectation of a TDM? 14 15 Emily Kallas: The TDM is based on the ITE, International Transportation Engineers; I’m guessing 16 what that stands for. But the international standards for trip generation based on land use. And 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 there are assumptions that are made as a part of that with regards to how it includes staff, 1 resident, and visitor trips. But that is the baseline that is being used for this and all projects. 2 3 Chair Chang: Okay. So in other words, for assisted living, there’s some sort of standard number 4 that’s used, probably based on the size of the development, and then a 20 percent reduction is 5 meant to be applied based on that theoretical number, regardless of what the actual usage is, 6 right? Because presumably some assisted living might generate a lot more traffic and others 7 might generate less. So it’s a theoretical baseline. Is that what you’re saying? 8 9 Emily Kallas: Yes. 10 11 Jennifer Armer: So the numbers from the trip generation manual are based on studies of each 12 different type of use of how many trips they use and that does get updated on a regular basis. 13 For this particular case in terms of a 20 percent reduction, I’m not sure what the TDM specified. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: We are looking into the fact that the TDM – or that the ITE does provide options to 1 base the baseline on the number of employees versus the number of beds. And so we are still 2 looking at which one is more appropriate in this scenario. 3 4 Chair Chang: Okay. And then I’ve got two questions for the – or a couple questions for the 5 applicant. So my first question’s for Mr. Dan – I’m sorry, Dan, I missed your last name. 6 7 Daniel Bowman: Bowman. 8 9 Chair Chang: I still… 10 11 Daniel Bowman: Bowman. 12 13 Chair Chang: Willman? 14 15 Daniel Bowman: Bowman. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Bowman. Thank you. So sorry about that. 2 3 Daniel Bowman: That’s all right. 4 5 Chair Chang: So it’s for Mr. Bowman. I was wondering if you could just show us the plans and 6 show us which units would be assisted versus – assisted living versus memory care. 7 8 Daniel Bowman: Yes. So the memory care is only going to be on the first two floors; it can’t be 9 on the third floor. And it’s going to be the uppermost… 10 11 Chair Chang: Maybe we could pull – Ms. Kallas, could you help him out by pulling up… 12 13 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: …something so that he isn’t holding up − so really I’m interested in like you 1 mentioned that you’re going to shift the uses around a little bit maybe and if you could explain 2 that to us as well, as specifically for the new units facing Wilkie, what those ones are going to 3 be used for? 4 5 Daniel Bowman: So for the ones facing Wilkie Way, I believe there’s two that are going to be 6 memory care units and then the rest of those ones are going to be the AL units. There’s not 7 going to be a shift in the memory care – the existing. I believe the balconies is the one that you 8 guys are thinking of. We can’t have memory care residents on balconies, so we’re just removing 9 those balconies. 10 11 Chair Chang: So they’re not currently being used for… 12 13 Daniel Bowman: Yeah, they’re – right now, they’re just walled off. But now, we’re going to get 14 rid of the balconies and… 15 16 Chair Chang: Understood. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Daniel Bowman: …put in a window. 2 3 Chair Chang: Okay. So presumably, it’s the units on the far end then that’s sort of that memory 4 care end of the building then? 5 6 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. The smaller wing, yeah. 7 8 Chair Chang: Okay. Thank you. My other questions are regarding the parking, so it’d be great if I 9 have Ms. Kussner, is that [inaudible 73:28]? 10 11 Charlene Kussner: Yes, perfectly done. It’s a hard German name, so thank you. Yes. 12 13 Chair Chang: Okay. So are – where are staff instructed to park right now? 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Charlene Kussner: So staff, depending on the shift – so the NOC, the overnight shift, we want 1 them in the rear of the parking garage. And usually that’s not an – it’s the NOC shift, so it’s not 2 an issue. During the day shift, when the early AM shift comes on, they park in the garage, at the 3 very back end of the garage. They take those spaces up leaving the spaces towards the entry 4 door in the garage open for visitors. 5 6 Chair Chang: And then what about how does the Commons handle the numerous like carers 7 that may come? The folk, the caregivers, the… 8 9 Charlene Kussner: So right now − I confirmed with our operations and Jenny is here, but 10 typically, we have during the week three to five outside caregivers come in for specialized 11 services needed. They’re usually there for less than an hour. They come and meet with their – 12 the resident, provide services, and then they exit the building. And we monitor that with check 13 in and check out. 14 15 Chair Chang: And do you have a sense of how many visitors you have per week? 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Charlene Kussner: Jenny, do you – I could ask Jenny, our – she’s our Assistant Executive 1 Director. Just a moment. Jenny, come forward. 2 3 Chair Chang: Just a clarifying question on the caregivers. When you say three to five caregivers, 4 that’s at any given time or over the course of the entire week, there’s… 5 6 Charlene Kussner: During the course of the week. It – they’re not that extensive. Caregivers 7 outside of our community are not as frequent as you might think; it’s kind of specialized 8 services. We provide all caregiver – we try to provide the majority of caregiving to our residents 9 inhouse. 10 11 Jenny Huynh: About… 12 13 Charlene Kussner: Yeah. 14 15 Jenny Huynh: We have about 8 to 10. Most of them take care… 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Charlene Kussner: A day? 2 3 Jenny Huynh: A day, yeah. 4 5 Chair Chang: Eight to ten a day. 6 7 Female: Can you state your name for the [inaudible 75:52]? 8 9 Jenny Huynh: Jenny Huynh. 10 11 Chair Chang: Jenny. Thank you. Okay. I’m just – this is probably something I should have 12 disclosed earlier. I’m not quite sure how to handle it. Like I have personal knowledge that 13 doesn’t quite match with this. So I had a friend whose parent was – stayed – or was a resident 14 this year – earlier this year. And had a 8-hour-a-day… 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Charlene Kussner: Caregiver. Outside caregiver? 1 2 Chair Chang: …outside caregiver who came but wasn’t registered through the – I think she 3 signed in through the visitor log. 4 5 Charlene Kussner: All of our visitors are checked in at the front desk. 6 7 Chair Chang: Right. She signed in as a visitor [rather 76:37]… 8 9 Charlene Kussner: Okay. 10 11 Chair Chang: [Inaudible 76:38] have been − so it’s – I mean am I correct to say it’s difficult to 12 under-, to know if the visitors are really visitors in the traditional way that you might think or… 13 14 Charlene Kussner: Well… 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: …they might be… 2 3 Charlene Kussner: …we can’t [police 76:51], right? 4 5 Chair Chang: Right. 6 7 Charlene Kussner: People are sovereign beings. We can’t police how they’re signing into our 8 registry… 9 10 Chair Chang: Right. 11 12 Charlene Kussner: …but we’re hoping they’re being honest and forthright with who they are. 13 14 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Understood. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Let me see if my – I think I had one more 1 question but I might be done. Okay, I think that’s it. 2 3 Charlene Kussner: Okay. 4 5 Chair Chang: Thank you. 6 7 Charlene Kussner: Thank you. 8 9 Chair Chang: Okay. So at this time, we would move on to Public Comment. I would like to know 10 how many comment cards we have, Ms. Dao. And I’ll take a look online also to see what we’ve 11 got. [Inaudible 77:26]. 12 13 Veronica Dao: I have 26 cards and 4 raised hands on Zoom. 14 15 Chair Chang: Okay. So given the number of – and are any of those groups of five? 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Veronica Dao: Oh, and one group of five. 2 3 Chair Chang: One group of five. Okay. So given the large number of commenters, I’m going to 4 reduce our time per speaker to 2½ minutes. And what I would ask is that if you are commenting 5 on something that somebody else has said as well, to please be economical with your words 6 and indicate that you are also in agreement rather than fully stating everything that you might 7 say. So − Ms. Dao, I have four on line, is that right? 8 9 Veronica Dao: Correct. Yes. 10 11 Chair Chang: Okay. Great. And so if we can take – because we’re not going to add additional 12 folks at this point either. So everybody’s – you’ve got a stable list now, correct? 13 14 Veronica Dao: Yes. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. Okay. Let’s go ahead with the Public Comments. 1 2 PUBLIC COMMENTS 3 Veronica Dao: Okay. First on Zoom, from Jayashree. 4 5 Chair Chang: So we’re going to do the Zoom first? Is that correct? 6 7 Veronica Dao: Yeah. 8 9 Chair Chang: Okay. So the first on Zoom is Jayashree. 10 11 Jayashree: Hi. My name is Jayashree. I live on 4054 Wilkie Way. And right now, the people in 12 the audience, they are going to [inaudible 79:16] everything technically with other things, 13 which we [inaudible 79:21] object. But I’m not going to cover that. I assume that they will cover 14 it. But my main concern is the decrease in property value. We are concerned about our 15 property value depreciating. And then the prices are going to [inaudible 79:35]. The proposal 16 for the single – in the front side of El Camino Way is not facing the [inaudible 79:41]. It is too 17 costly to build it on the other side. [Inaudible 79:50] to our property value, which is 18 depreciating. That is really unfair. That’s what I think. Then the second point, which I [inaudible 19 80:00] so much [inaudible 80:02] and with [inaudible 80:04] coding and the zoning, whatever 20 they’re using. It seems like really conveniently they are using it as their convenience [inaudible 21 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 80:13]. And the third point is the parking is too definitely [inaudible 80:25]. It seems to be a 1 [inaudible 80:26] in the carpooling and [inaudible 80:29] the valet they’re proposing. [Inaudible 2 80:34]. Those are things like a fairy tale story. They’re proposing it but not necessarily it is going 3 to happen. And [inaudible 80:46] the parking issues every day and everything [inaudible 4 80:51]… 5 6 Chair Chang: Jayashree? 7 8 Jayashree: …and [inaudible 80:53]. 9 10 Chair Chang: Jayashree, thank you for your comment. We can’t hear you very clearly. I don’t 11 know if it has to do with the position of your microphone, so perhaps you could speak a little bit 12 more slowly and make sure that you’re speaking near your computer microphone or your 13 phone microphone. 14 15 Jayashree: Okay. Oh. Can you hear me? 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Oh, that is much better. Thank you so much. 1 2 Jayashree: Sorry about that. Yeah, so I’ll just repeat what I said quickly. The property value is 3 definitely an issue because this is what we feel that our value − property value is depreciating. 4 Definitely because of all the [additional 81:40] things. But we know that existing units [inaudible 5 81:43] but still the new value – the new additions are going to again depreciate our own value. 6 And when we proposed it to Palo Alto Commons, “Why can’t you build it on the El Camino 7 Way,” and their response was that side will be too costly for them. Then why should we 8 consider their – the cost of anything [inaudible 82:05]. I mean that is [unfair 82:07], what I feel. 9 Then the commercial and residential coding, zoning, whatever the Palo Alto Commons is using 10 it. It seems very convenient but to their advantage and convenience, not to [inaudible 82:20] 11 actual zoning and [inaudible 82:24] codes, which they should really follow. And the third thing is 12 that [inaudible 82:30] the carpooling options she’s proposing. It feels really like as a fairy tale 13 story they’re proposing. I know they cannot do it mandatory but it doesn’t – it’s not going to 14 work. I mean the [inaudible 82:44] we will ask them to do carpooling. 15 16 Chair Chang: Jayashree, your time is up. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Jayashree: Yeah. 1 2 Chair Chang: Your time’s up. 3 4 Jayashree: But… 5 6 Chair Chang: Thank you so much… 7 8 Jayashree: Yeah. 9 10 Chair Chang: …for your comment. 11 12 Jennifer Armer: And through the Chair, this speaker did provide written comments as well, so 13 part of the materials that you have reviewed. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. Okay. Can we have our next speaker, Ms. Dao? 1 2 Veronica Dao: Yes. Next on Zoom, from Jennie. 3 4 Jennie: Yes. Hi. Can you hear me clearly? Before I… 5 6 Chair Chang: Yes, we… 7 8 Jennie: …start. 9 10 Chair Chang: …can. Thank you. 11 12 Jennie: Okay. Great. I think tonight we have talked about codes and legal requirements but I 13 like to emphasize commitments. I think you all are aware that in 1986, the Commons made a 14 commitment to the neighborhood to – in order to build as a concession, they are building the 15 way it is built today. And it’s limiting the damage to the quality of life of its neighbors. However, 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. now they are making that – they’re breaking that promise because they want to make more 1 profit and – which will further damage the quality of life that they have promised to minimize. 2 Another issue is parking, which has been raised many times. Only after we the residents raised 3 the parking issue did the Commons come up with some plans, such as [inaudible 84:04] with 4 carpool and public transportation. I want to know if these subsidies will be permanent or will it 5 be withdrawn after this is over. I ask that because one of the neighbors spoke with an 6 employee and that employee said they have been told not to park on Wilkie Way, to park on 7 second street instead just for a few months until this is over. This is very underhanded. 8 Residents on Second Street have noticed more parked cars parked on their block. We also have 9 observed people parking on Maclane and walking to the Commons just to avoid parking on 10 Wilkie. All these point to the fact that the Commons have not provided sufficient parking even 11 before the additional units they plan to build. 12 So how can we trust a company that is breaking its commitment they made 38 years ago? And 13 also tried to hide its parking problem. The Commons need to be held accountable for 14 permanent practical parking solution rather than just showing on paper that there’s sufficient 15 parking spaces. What’s shown on paper is very different from reality when the parking spaces 16 are not easily accessible. Lastly, I would like to emphasize the Commons can build elsewhere on 17 its property, so to keep its commitment made 38 years. But the response from them was that 18 it’s too expensive to build that way. So their intent is to be able to build cheaper by breaking 19 the promise they made to the neighbors 38 years ago, and as a result, further damaging their 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. quality of life. This really doesn’t seem very right to me; it doesn’t seem ethical to me. If this 1 were approved, we’re really essentially valuing a private company’s profit over people’s quality 2 of life. That’s all. 3 4 Chair Chang: Thank you so much. And I’m very grateful for you keeping at the 2½ minutes. Our 5 next comment, please. 6 7 Veronica Dao: Next is J. Randall Toch. 8 9 J. Randall Toch: Hello. Can you hear me okay? 10 11 Chair Chang: Yes, we can. 12 13 J. Randall Toch: Hi. Okay. My name is Randy Toch. I’m with the Law Firm of Hoge Fenton and we 14 represent a couple of the neighbors on Wilkie Way. I don’t want to repeat the content of the 15 letter I put in but I do want to emphasize the fact that everybody is reading this as a zoning 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. change because that’s what the application is. And we’ve heard all kinds of mitigations, [and 1 possible 86:32] and maybe this helps and maybe it doesn’t. But at the same time, Staff is 2 claiming that this is exempt from environmental review under CEQA because it’s a mere 3 addition of 6600 square feet of building when that is actually the only thing we haven’t talked 4 about tonight. So I really want to emphasize that environmental review is absolutely essential 5 in order for everybody to have a fair hearing, a reasonable study of what is going on, and then if 6 there’s a zoning change with that, the appropriate mitigations can be built in after getting 7 public opinion and public input. Also there are a couple of things that are interesting. Number 8 one is the fact that 5116, the 2011 statute, had a specified parking ratio of .9 per unit, which if 9 according to my math, would be 109 currently and would be 122; however, that provision was 10 eliminated in the amendment, but I haven’t heard much talk about that. 11 And also the 5116 required compliance with Chapter 18.38, which is where a lot of the 12 concerns are being raised, and that is conveniently eliminated from the proposed resolution as 13 well. So in every event, I am just encouraging this to be sent back to Staff for appropriate 14 environmental review and appropriate public input as to the environmental impacts. Thank 15 you. 16 17 Chair Chang: Thank you, Mr. Toch. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Veronica Dao: Next is Natacha. 1 2 Natacha: Hi. I’m Natacha. [Inaudible 88:21]. 3 4 Chair Chang: Natacha, we can’t hear you. We’re having that same issue, so if you could please 5 make sure… 6 7 Natacha: Oh, okay. Sorry. 8 9 Chair Chang: Oh, much better. That is much… 10 11 Natacha: Can you… 12 13 Chair Chang: Yes, that is a huge improvement. Thank you. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Natacha: Can you hear me now? 1 2 Chair Chang: Yes. 3 4 Natacha: Okay. So like I said before, the parking proposal is not sustainable and I think there’s a 5 lot of discrepancy on the number of private caregivers. I am – first – I have firsthand experience 6 with the number of private caregivers who park right in front of my house. And I don’t have a 7 parking garage, so I rely on my front side of my house to park. And I would highly recommend 8 that the Commons really get – do a big survey to find out the number of private caregivers who 9 are going to the facility every day because there’s a big discrepancy. And I’ve seen these people 10 and I spoke with them and they’re good people and they’re just here to work. And even some 11 of them apologized to me for taking my parking space because it’s obvious when I come home, 12 I can’t find a space to park. So I think for me, parking is a big issue. And I don’t believe that this 13 whole valet parking is sustainable. So I think we need a better solution with the parking. Thank 14 you. 15 16 Chair Chang: Thank you, Natacha. Next speaker. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Veronica Dao: Yes. It’s to our in-person speakers. First is Lisa. 1 2 Lisa: I wanted to just talk about Palo Alto Commons. I had some questions from I believe it was 3 – is it Charlene that had presented earlier about – I wanted to clarify – I think it was September 4 that Palo Alto put up signs that there would be surveillance in the garages. Is that being 5 reviewed? 6 7 Chair Chang: Unfortunately, our format for public comment isn’t a Q and A. So… 8 9 Lisa: Oh, I’m sorry. 10 Chair Chang: …[inaudible 90:20] one way. 11 12 Lisa: Okay. Yeah. This is my first time. 13 14 Chair Chang: But you can definitely raise the questions. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Lisa: Okay. Yes, I wanted to ask that. And the reason why is because the fire – there’s fire 1 hazards in this very building. On the − all three floors, the garage, and the two floors up into this 2 building have expired elevator permits. They’re fr-,actually, they look fraudulent but I don’t 3 have my glasses and I can’t see. So I feel kind of amiss having somebody come up and talk 4 about other parking garages if the ones that we’re sitting on right now aren’t being monitored. 5 And I was wondering is this one of the parking garages this woman is representing? I wasn’t 6 totally oriented to where – what company she’s part of. But I just wanted to put that out there. 7 And yeah, that was it. Thank you so much. 8 9 Chair Chang: Thank you. 10 11 Veronica Dao: Next is Michel [Quinn 91:23]. 12 13 Chair Chang: Is Michel here? Oh, thank you, Michel. 14 15 Michel Quinn: Hello everyone. And thank you. I think it’s time for us as a community to look in 16 the mirror so to speak. We’re quibbling about parking and slight shadows and small things. And 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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’re suppose to lead. We’re supposed to be liberals. We’re supposed to be welcoming. Are we 1 living up to that value system right now? I don’t think we’re even close. This [be it 92:09] 2 provided by a for-profit company or not is a moral good. It’s housing for some of the most 3 vulnerable, isolated members of our community. We should have our fingers on the scales of 4 this, not against it. The entitlement is incredible. Parking. You don’t own the street. I’m a New 5 Yorker. I’m a homeowner in that city. I don’t own the street. Mayor Bloomberg does not own 6 the street in front of his lovely brownstone. None of us do. The threat of a va-, what I believe 7 was a veiled threat of a CEQA lawsuit is a waste of time and in bad taste. And if you want to 8 preserve CEQA for the future, the best way is to cut down on the frivolous lawsuits. I just want 9 to observe something really quickly. I mean I’m a liberal and we just lost an election that we 10 should not have lost. We lost it because we sent the message to the country that we cannot 11 govern and we cannot deliver and that we are a [elitist 93:21]. Let’s look in the mirror. That’s 12 what we’re doing right now. Hi neighbors. Thank you. 13 14 Chair Chang: Thank you. 15 16 Veronica Dao: Next is our group by Kevin speaking on behalf of Austin, Celine, Carly, and 17 Adrian. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay. So as a group, they have 10 minutes, is that correct? 2 3 Veronica Dao: Yes. 4 5 Chair Chang: Thank you. 6 7 Kevin: Hello Commissioners. I won’t waste my time with an intro. I think everyone knows who I 8 am. I have a slide deck that Emily – I sent to Emily, so what – I guess I’ll just say next slide. Is 9 that appropriate, Emily? Okay. 10 11 Emily Kallas: Give us a moment; we’ll get there. 12 13 Kevin: Yeah. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: Just get to the correct tab for you. 1 2 Kevin: As long as you don’t count my time starting from now, right? I’ll also try to keep it brief. I 3 know there’s a lot of other speakers today. Okay. I can just skip to the next slide. I want to 4 provide some historical context for you all. So this zone here, this piece of land was originally 5 zoned to protect neighbors. And this is based from a Council meeting from September 21, 1987. 6 In 1978, this piece of land was downzoned to protect the neighbors over intrusion and it was 7 used to create a transition between the residential and commercial neighborhoods in Palo Alto. 8 Next slide, please. At the time, the developer was to respect the neighbor’s wishes. This is from 9 a neighborhood meeting from June 23, 1986. The neighbors – so this is [inaudible 95:07], the 10 developer. The neighbors have his assurances that project will not exceed current zoning 11 standards in terms of height and comparable density and mass. I understand that RM2 was 12 designed as a buffer between commercial and single-family residential, and we’re try to respect 13 that under our project for PC application. Next slide, please. So part of – throughout this 14 discussion, there was significant concern about third floor impact and visitor parking. Surprise, 15 surprise. Sounds exactly like what we’re doing today. This is an ARB meeting from July 1987. 16 Part of the discussion was – and the agreement was to develop this step-back. This one, two, 17 three step-back that steps far from the – closest from the property line outwards. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 you can see in the quote here, we did not have that before the meeting with the 1 Planning Commission; this is – and we have eliminated third-floor units. The whole purpose was 2 to eliminate some of these units and adherence neighborhood concerns. Next slide, please. I 3 just want to follow up from that meeting and read quote, “As compared with the earlier plan, 4 notice the low units adjacent to the single-family neighborhood. And notice the breakup of the 5 back elevation against the property line. There’s always been concern for the wall of the 6 building. We feel that we have adjusted significantly.” Today, the current plan is to infill those 7 exact units that were removed from the plan in 1987. Next slide, please. What a contentious 8 issue, the daylight plane. Next slide, please. Yeah, so won’t go into the details of the code but 9 I’ll – next slide, please. In summary, this is a chart made by [Paul DuCommun’s 96:48] lawyer, 10 which kind of pretty clearly indicates based on whether for residential or non-residential uses, 11 what this section of the code indicates as this – I’ll – I know there’s a lot of discussion about this 12 but we believe that this is commercial use as per RHNA standards in the state of California. Next 13 slide, please. I want to talk a little bit about the daylight plane impacts from the plans. And so 14 this diagram that’s provided from the architect shows the difference between the 3:6 daylight 15 plane in which we believe is the correct daylight plane, and the 10 foot, 45. 16 17 As you can see here, many of the units in the back are not compliant with the 10 foot, 3:6 18 daylight plane. And also as I want to point out on the right diagram, it is a wall, right? The 19 second-floor unit would be exactly flushed with the first-floor unit. You would lose the step-20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 on that with this particular slice. There are nine different slices all deferred to the 1 architectural diagram for more information on that. Next slide, please. So this is a picture of 2 what it looks like at around noon on the 9th of December earlier this year. So as you can see at 3 noon already, it’s – you can see that there’s – it’s going to soon have not enough sunlight in the 4 backyard; this was taken from one of the neighbors’ houses. And I just want to point out that 5 the building on the right is currently second floor and that would have an additional floor on 6 top of that. Next slide, please. Here is another second-floor unit that is adjacent to a neighbors’ 7 house and that would also get an additional unit on top of that. Next slide, please. This is 8 another photo from a neighbors’ backyard. As you can see here, this is about – actually about 9 20 feet away. So in the new units, − in the new plans, there would be a unit actually closer – 10 well, it’s not actually quite a unit. 11 12 The Staff Report says that if decreased from 18 to 16 units; however, it’s actually that the 13 purpose of the area has changed. So the building that’s going to be extended here on the first 14 floor, closer to the property line here, is now considered an office. So there isn’t as much 15 reduction in the building plan as you would perceive from an 18 to 16 unit reduction. You 16 actually just see that some of them have been converted to offices. And so I also want to refer 17 that the Staff Report says that no additional units will be built along the back on the Wilkie Way 18 side on the first floor. Those two units will actually be offices. Next slide, please. This is a photo 19 from my backyard and actually mine is the furthest away from – compared to many of my 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. fellow neighbors, and that would also get an additional third floor as well. Next slide, please. So 1 in the 6-12 PTC Meeting from earlier this year, Ms. French had said that she would help provide 2 diagrams or comparisons with a 20-foot setback as discussed during the PTC meeting. I was 3 unable to find those and so I attempted to make my own rendition of them. As you can see on 4 the bottom, there’s a 21-foot setback and so I approximately tried to draw out where that 5 would be in the two diagrams that I provided previously. Next slide, please. So why is it a 10-6 foot 45? 7 8 Well it’s because the plan was originally attempted to comply with the nearest district, which is 9 the RM-2 District, as I quoted from the City Council Meeting above and I won’t repeat the 10 bottom quote for time’s sake. Next slide, please. So what is the correct daylight plane? A very 11 contentious question. Based − from our opinion, based on the fact that this commercial facility, 12 this should be a 10-foot 3/6 angle. But even if we were to assume that this is residential, 20-13 foot setback – I know there’s still some discussion about that. The Staff Report says that no 14 units would be able to be built against the Wilkie Way side as designed currently. While PCs 15 have flexibility for some rules, we do not believe that PCs should be able to subvert the rules 16 for the section that created PCs in general. Next slide, please. So the Staff Report also uses the 17 10-foot 45-degree angle because this is what the PC ordinance in 1987 said. You know what 18 else was legal in 1987? Smoking on airplanes. If I tried to do that today, I’m pretty sure I would 19 be thrown in prison. So I – what I’m trying to say here is that the whole point of the municipal 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. code is to protect the residents and we should be using the current state of the code. Per Staff 1 discussion previously, there is no PC amendment process in Palo Alto, and that creating a PC – 2 like amending a PC is just like creating a new one. 3 4 And so we should be using the standards as of today. Next slide, please. So we recommend that 5 the applicant only build the seven internal units to be in compliance with the current municipal 6 code. Next slide, please. Parking. We’ll just move to – next slide. We’ll just kind of go through 7 five slides pretty quickly here. Yeah, just like a couple pictures of the parking. I won’t go into 8 specifics. So the Palo Alto Commons – there are many conversations with employees [in which 9 102:06] four in October, one in November for my personal self, that there’s some fear of 10 retribution about commenting publicly and on the record to me about having parked on Wilkie 11 or on Second. And so in addition, we had some discussions with some private nurses as well 12 that are actually not allowed to park in the Palo Alto Commons garage based on their official 13 parking statement [inaudible 102:31]. We’ve also seen that these folks tend to wear scrubs and 14 so that’s how we help also identify them or with Palo Alto Commons logos as well. Next slide. 15 Oh yeah, I guess you’ve moved pretty far. So now let’s talk about the bus. So this is the Palo 16 Alto Commons bus. It’s parked on Wilkie. It should be just a coincidence, right? Next slide, 17 please. Oh, here are three more photos from three more days. Probably just a coincidence, 18 right? Next slide, please. There are 27 separate incidences in which the bus was parked. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 The Palo Alto Commons logoed bus is parked on Wilkie throughout October and November. 2 Next slide, please. Oh, where else can the bus be? The bus can be in the visitor parking. Next 3 slide, please. As well as here are some of the construction equipment that previous 4 Commissioners have also mentioned. In addition, we went to – the report – oh, we’re – I’m 5 running low on time but I just want to say that there are folks that have reached out to me that 6 said that they cannot find handicap parking because it’s either blocked by the bus or the 7 construction equipment. Next slide, please. So we recommend that the existing parking issues 8 be resolved before the project continues in the process. Next slide, please. We want to trust 9 but verify in terms of the TDM. We’d like to see stronger assessment, monitoring, and 10 enforcement of the TDM, including third-party anonymous surveys of workers and visitors, 11 third-party monthly TDM compliance assessments, an escalating schedule of penalties for non-12 compliance, and to assess the visitor/ staff impacts on residential neighborhoods in terms of 13 parking. Next slide, please. Oh, yeah. So kind of in conclusion, the municipal code serves to 14 protect the citizens of the town. We believe that if this project were to come to the PTC today, 15 it would not be approved as designed. We suggest the following improvements that I’ve 16 mentioned in my presentation as to – in order to allow the project to continue. Thank you. I just 17 want to be respectful of time. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 1 2 Veronica Dao: Next is Patty. 3 4 Patty Irish: Chair Chang and Commissioners, I’m Patty Irish and I live at Channing House on 5 Webster. The Commons was built by the Reller’s to serve our community. It has 121 units as 6 you know and they went − want to add 16 more. It has been about two years that they have 7 gone from one Commission to another as well as the City Council. And I think they have 8 responded to the key concerns expressed and now it is time for you to give them full approval. 9 You can nitpick with all of this stuff that you – I mean and we can never have anything move 10 forward. The quality of care residents receive there will enable 16 more to benefit, and I think 11 that’s something I hope you will really think about. Think about the people that live there, the 12 people that work there, the people that are served in such [inaudible 105:51] really amazing. It 13 is – I consider this the best direct admit facility in our community. Channing House did a survey 14 of, especially dementia care, and we – it was the only place we visited up and down the 15 peninsula and including [Inaudible 106:10] County. Many of the residents living there, lived in 16 large homes here earlier in their lives. And some of you may seek out these services when a 17 family member needs special care. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Please vote – please think about what they’re doing. Yes, they’re a for-profit but you can bet 2 they’re not getting rich on this kind of service. This is truly a service to our community and I 3 hope you will affirm the building of 16 additional units, so 16 more people can be served in this 4 quality care. Thank you. 5 6 Chair Chang: Thank you. 7 8 Veronica Dao: Next is Mona. 9 10 Mona: Hi Commissioners and City Staff. 11 12 Chair Chang: Speak into the microphone, please. 13 14 Mona: Oh, sorry. This [things falling 107:17] off. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: It’s a recurring problem. Thank you. 1 2 Mona: Can you hear me? 3 4 Chair Chang: Yes, we can. 5 6 Mona: Hello. My name is Mona. I live in 4040 Wilkie Way. So today, I’m trying to – I raise the 7 questions – as right now, Commons is already in violation of their current use permit. Their – 8 the PC is a conditional use, so whether in their – [inaudible 107:41] violation is noise, emission, 9 to the Wilkie Way. On the neighborhood, they are – from the [Avant 107:48] or from whatever. 10 This has been going on for years and years. It’s been [emit 107:53] at 70 dB noise constantly to 11 the neighborhood – Wilkie Way neighborhood. And then they’re also – okay, so there’s the PC 12 3775. There’s conditions they need to reimburse the employee for the transit pass. They 13 suppose – [posting 108:13] a sharing carpool for the employees and also they supposed to 14 provide annual report to the City regarding the occupancy, vacant status, number of – an age of 15 occupant, number of employees and the residents who will be using the parking. So if we have 16 these for over the 35 or some years, we should have a statistic data, who and how the garage 17 was used. Currently, we don’t. We have a guessing. We rely on Commons and the Commons 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. being repeatedly refused to getting a data. I went to the City and talked to Emily and this – 1 Emily says the City never had any data regarding the report. Annually is required by them 2 [inaudible 108:56] use permit. So they – so to me, I believe that they need to cure all of these 3 discrepancies at this violations before they can apply for anything to the Commons. 4 5 Regarding the current expansion − so what they do is right now, they’re pretty much a 6 backfield. The 35 years they promised to the residents. So they did a steps design. But right 7 now, they are pretty much backfield all the steps. So this is a impact to our neighbors and 8 there’s ambience of light. Everything is a [inaudible 109:33] to our environment. So this 9 [inaudible 109:35] should be required for the CEQA study instead of – they should not be 10 exempt. And also they’re in violation of the daylight saving plan – daylight plane. So we still 11 believe this has always been as a commercial property; it’s not a residential. Should not be 12 treated as a residential and should not be cherry-picked. What is the benefit for the Commons? 13 The law should be the law. It should be adhered, obeyed by everybody; otherwise, why do we 14 need the law? Law is everyone supposed to obey. And they, Commons, can now be above the 15 law. They need to follow the law. I hope the PTC can actually enforce it. Thank you. 16 17 Chair Chang: Thank you. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Veronica Dao: Next is Reed. 2 3 Reed: Hello. I live on Second Street. My neighbors asked me… 4 5 Chair Chang: Please speak into the microphone. 6 7 Reed: Hello. I live on Second Street. 8 9 Chair Chang: You can move it up too, so you don’t have to hunch over. 10 11 Reed: Right. 12 13 Chair Chang: There we go. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Reed: My neighbors asked me to come tonight and I want to thank all the caregivers at Palo 1 Alto Commons. It’s a hard job, it’s underappreciated, and it’s work that needs to be done. I 2 think they deserve to have parking at the Commons. They shouldn’t be made to be enemies of 3 the neighbors because they have to park on the street and not have access to parking or being 4 asked to carpool in instead of driving their own cars. I bet at the end of a hard day – because 5 their day is hard, it would be nice to get into your own car and drive home. I – this is a for-profit 6 company. Let’s not kid ourselves. This is about making money. All right? At the end of the day, 7 this is a business. WellQuest Living is owned by FJ Management. Flying J Truck Stops. That’s 8 what FJ Management does. They merged with Pilot Truck Stops in 2010 and they now own Pilot 9 Truck Stops along with Berkshire Hathaway. In addition to WellQuest Living, they own Big West 10 Oil, Crystal Inn Hotel Suites, and Maverik-Adventure’s First Stop. It’s a best in class convenience 11 store brand. So this is just another business for a private equity company as another way for 12 this private equity company to make money and diversify their cash flow stream. Let’s think 13 about the employees. Let’s think about the neighbors here. And this sounds like it’s a 14 commercial property, not a residential property. Let’s act accordingly. Thank you. 15 16 Chair Chang: Thank you. 17 18 Veronica Dao: Next is [Inaudible 112:24]. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Sean: Madame Clerk, [Inaudible 112:36]… 2 3 Veronica Dao: Yes. 4 5 Sean: …is going to give me her 2½ minutes. 6 7 Veronica Dao: Oh, okay. 8 9 Male: Oh, I don’t know if [inaudible 112:44]. Is it my turn? Okay. 10 11 Veronica Dao: What’s your name? 12 13 Sean Cottle: Sean Cottle. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Veronica Dao: Oh, okay. Sean. 1 2 Sean Cottle: Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Sean Cottle. And as my colleague, 3 Randy Toch, said earlier this evening, this project should go through the environmental review 4 process to address several aspects of the plan. Let me give you a few examples of the items 5 that should be reviewed. First, there should be an environmental review and analysis of the 6 applicability of the Municipal Code Section 18.38.150E as Commissioner Akin pointed out as 7 well as several of the Wilkie residents have pointed out this evening. The drawings A5.11 and 8 A5.12 titled Exterior Building Sections Daylight Plan, at pages 61 and 62 of the plans, use a 45-9 degree element for the daylight planes; however, the municipal code basically calls for a 26.6-10 degree element to be used for the daylight planes next to the Wilkie residents. The last – 11 excuse me. The draft record of the land use action in Attachment A – Attachment C does not 12 address this issue. Moreover, Attachment D, the Zoning Comparison Table, at Packet Page 40 13 states that the daylight plan for lot lines abutting one or more residential zone districts other 14 than RM-40 and PC zone comply. As you have read and heard in the past and are hearing this 15 evening, there’s a dispute whether the daylight plane angle that is used by the architect 16 complies with the Municipal Code Section 18.38.150E. This issue requires environmental review 17 and analysis. Second, the draft of the record of land use action does not adequately address 18 Policy L6.7 in Section 4 Funding Number One. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 This is at page packet 31. Policy L6.7 in Attachment C states, “Where possible, avoid abrupt 2 changes in scale and density within residential and non-residential areas and between 3 residential areas of different densities.” The Commons in response says that, “The proposed 4 addition does not add additional height to the building, which borders single-family residential 5 neighborhood.” Actually, the project does change the scale and density by adding to the 6 structure in close proximity to the residential area. Also, as we all know from the drawings, 7 additional height is being added to the front – to the first floor and second floors of the 8 building, which should be studied through the environment review. Third, Subsection D of 9 finding − Number 2 in Section 4, should also have an environmental review. This finding states, 10 “The project has a unified and coherent design that Subsection D provides harmonious 11 transitions in scale, mass, and character to adjacent land uses and land uses designations.” The 12 report goes on to state on Packet Page 32 that, “The proposed addition is consistent with the 13 existing height and existing PC daylight plane, which combined with new landscaping and 14 privacy measures for new windows will maintain an appropriate mass and character adjacent to 15 the residential neighborhood.” The proposed additions actually increase the scale and mass to 16 the adjacent land uses. 17 18 Chair Chang: Excuse me. You’re up on time. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Sean Cottle: I thought I had five minutes. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: Two and a half. 4 5 Chair Chang: We had to cut it down because of the large number of speakers. 6 7 Sean Cottle: But my 2½ minutes combined with Ms. [Wang’s 116:33] 2 ½ minutes equals 5 8 minutes. 9 10 Albert Yang: I’m sorry. You can only combine time when you have five speakers who are 11 donating their time to you. 12 13 Sean Cottle: Well I – it’s fine. Again, these are just a few examples that should require 14 environmental review. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Mr. Yang, we got folks in chambers who are willing to combine time, so – who 1 haven’t been – who are not on the speaker. 2 3 Sean Cottle: It’s okay people. I’m finished. I finished my comments, so thank you very much for 4 considering what I’ve had to say tonight. 5 6 Chair Chang: Thank you. 7 8 Veronica Dao: Next is Shashank. 9 Shashank: Hello. Thank you for your time. I’m Shashank [Inaudible 117:27]. I live on 4054 Wilkie 10 Way, which is directly behind the Palo Alto Commons. In interest of time, I won’t go into details 11 of what – of all the issues that have been brought up by our Wilkie Way neighbors, but I want 12 to say that I do agree with them. The p-, the issues of parking, the daylight plane, the reduced 13 sunlight, loss of privacy, and loss of property values directly impact us. And these issues are 14 very near and dear to us. And it cannot be just dismissed as petty squabbles like someone said 15 before. So we really urge the PTC to consider these very seriously as they impact all of us that 16 live in the shadow of the Commons. And I want to express my opposition to this expansion that 17 the Palo Alto Commons is proposing. Thank you. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 2 3 Veronica Dao: Next is Natalie. 4 5 Natalie: Hello. Can you hear me? I am also a resident of Wilkie Way and actually my house is 6 right next to the Palo Alto Commons. I’d like to express my appreciation for my neighbors and 7 to say that I agree with the points that we’ve been making. The issue of parking is an ongoing 8 and unfortunate situation. I’d like to point out that it’s a problem right now and no additional 9 units have been built yet. So even without having an addition, we have constant parking 10 problems. I have tremendous sympathy for the people who are helping – for the healthcare 11 carers who come and have to see clients and patients. And I have personally spoken to a few of 12 them about the parking, and they’ve all been very apologetic and I say, “I’m really sorry. I don’t 13 blame you. But it would be nice if your workplace could provide easily accessible parking.” So it 14 is an ongoing problem. I do think that it is contingent for Palo Alto Commons, which is 15 operating as a business, to provide reasonable parking. And as I mentioned, it’s already a 16 problem. Adding 16 units with no parking for additional staff, visitors, or clients seems rather 17 unreasonable. Thank you. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 2 3 Veronica Dao: Next is Daniel. 4 5 Daniel: Hello. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for offering your time tonight. And I just want to 6 [inaudible 120:33] everyone’s been saying about the concerns. I don’t want to waste your time 7 by repeating them, but I’d like to propose like a different point of view for all the concerns that 8 we’re raising as neighbors. These things, such as privacy, parking, and also sunlight’s axis are 9 not just concerns about us for neighbors on the Wilkie residents. But more even for the seniors 10 who are living in this complex. And some of the solutions I was looking at today in a 11 presentation, including building the trees nearer to the residents’ area, and I was just thinking 12 in my head, what would that be for someone like a senior who is going to be living in that unit. 13 If my window is right next to a tree, I very suspect that somebody will get access into my unit. 14 So in a sense, these things that we see from Palo Alto Commons, the discrepancies, these issues 15 that we [inaudible 121:24] is not only [inaudible 121:27] concerns. It’s also aimed to improve 16 the qualities for everybody in our communities. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 I want to say that without improving the current situation, without addressing the current 1 problems that our neighbors have, by building more units and not really having a plan about 2 how to address even the potential risks and potential issues those could bring, it’s not 3 responsible. And it’s not good for the seniors. It’s not good for the neighbors. And I don’t think 4 it would set a good example for anyone that’s coming to Palo Alto and trying to do things in 5 similar fashions. And yeah – that’s all my comments and thank you so much for your time. 6 7 Chair Chang: Thank you. 8 9 Veronica Dao: Next is Jenny. 10 11 Jenny: Good evening. I’m also the resident of Wilkie Way. 12 13 Chair Chang: Can you please speak closer to the microphone? You can move it and adjust it. 14 15 Jenny: Oh, okay. All right. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: That’s better. Thank you. 2 3 Jenny: Yeah. I’m also the resident of Wilkie Way. I agree with all my neighbors’ comments and 4 daylight planes and parking and other issues. And I’m here to just oppose Palo Alto Commons 5 expansion project as of today. Thank you. 6 7 Chair Chang: Thank you. 8 9 Veronica Dao: Next is Michael. 10 11 Michael: Hello everyone. So I’m here. I’m also a Palo Alto resident in Wilkie Way. And I’m here 12 to support my fellow neighbors’ comments and oppose the [inaudible 123:19] Palo Alto 13 Commons. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Veronica Dao: Next is Amie. 2 3 Amie: Amie Ashton, Executive Director of Palo Alto Forward. Many of our members have 4 written letters of support and I’m supporting the project because our organization recognizes 5 the essential need for this type of housing fills in our community. Ask anyone at La Comida or 6 Avenidas or Channing House, and they will tell you that with an aging population, we need 7 more facilities like Palo Alto Commons and the Avant here in our cities, where loved ones can 8 be close by and cared for. The project meets parking and daylight plane requirements as 9 outlined in this Staff Report. Revisions have been made to try to accommodate neighborhood 10 issues. This TDM plan is – it’s quite remarkable in terms of what I’ve even seen for other 11 projects in Palo Alto. I understand not everyone’s completely satisfied, but we also have a 12 responsibility to our broader community to build housing, especially housing for those of 13 special needs like this. This modest expansion should move forward to the City Council with a 14 recommendation of approval; that’s what I’m hoping for. Thank you very much. And again, I 15 think just speaking for the larger part of our community, I think everyone when I sent the email 16 out that this project was going through so much process for a fairly modest expansion, people 17 were just surprised and – so I really hope you’ll consider the needs of our community and 18 balance that and push this forward to Council. Thank you. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 2 3 Veronica Dao: Next is James. 4 5 James: Hi. Thanks for the opportunity to comment on the proposed expansion at Palo Alto 6 Commons. I live at 4080 Wilkie Way. I’ve been there for 21 years with the Commons as a 7 backyard neighbor. I support the expansion of senior assisted living facilities generally. I’m glad 8 that the public comments has proposed seven interior units and I can honestly support that 9 despite parking [inaudible 125:40] for that; however, the proposal for the nine additional 10 external units exacerbates existing massing and visual impact issues. And even from our house; 11 family room, bedroom, backyard, we kind of – it’s pretty easy to visualize and it’s just not the 12 shading thing that some people have said. It’s hard to describe but basically adding two floors – 13 our particular home is nestled between two 2-story additions and in the middle is a 10-foot, 2-14 [inaudible 126:10] on the first floor. So we have three large things coming at us. What we lose is 15 ambient light and a view of the sky, which I think has some importance and I don’t know how 16 you quantify that in a shading study but it makes the house feel much more closed in and so 17 forth. That’s really part of the concern there. The other thing that’s interesting is walking. I got 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. out of the driveway, walked toward the house, looked over my house, and I could actually – I 1 realized how [hulking 126:41] the expansion would be even with our – we have a couple 2 deciduous trees that provide some cover. 3 4 It’s only 6800 square feet but it feels like it’s all kind of in the wrong spots as far as turning the 5 Commons into a large brick behind our house. So I also want to say we appreciate the fact that 6 the Commons has improved the landscaping, window plans to address privacy in [recent 7 127:09] memory units. But for us, we still have large concerns on massing, closeness of the 8 existing – of the new units to our backyards. I don’t fully – I have to confess I don’t fully 9 understand the daylight plane and setback implications but it seems like there’s some flexibility 10 there. Even if it was built at 40 − 10 feet and 45, that doesn’t mean that today you have to 11 follow that same standard; you can – it seems like you can have existing [construction 127:40] 12 have one standard and the new construction have another. A lot of folks have already 13 mentioned parking; that is an issue. We sometimes get – it’s not we walk a couple hundred feet 14 down from our house. The biggest issue is making sure you don’t get run over when you cross 15 the street if you’re on the opposite side. And with regards to parking, I hope the PTC will put 16 together specific legal requirements to hold Palo Alto Commons accountable, so that whatever 17 they promise, it will reduce parking congestion before you approve the project. So I want to 18 thank you for listening to my recommendation to continue this discussion on this proposed 19 project, and especially to explore reductions in number, size, and placement of units. Thanks. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 2 3 Veronica Dao: Next is Ellen. 4 5 Ellen: Honorable members of the Planning and Transportation Commission, I am a longtime 6 resident of this neighborhood. I recall when the Commons was developed and designed to 7 maximize its capacity. It had huge debates how the three-story complex would impact the 8 neighborhood and how it would impact adjacent properties. It took much compromising to 9 agree with the building mass, giving up a rear 20-foot setback for open air space with staggered 10 stories, and a 10-foot setback ensuring the adjacent neighbors this is the extent of building. 11 Thus, we agreed on color, night sky, privacy, landscaping, number of units, number of parking 12 spaces, along with the agreement for reports of occupancy annually and commuter passes for 13 employees. The Palo Alto residents were to have a priority in occupancy as a benefit to the 14 public as well as providing a monetary amount to Palo Alto. Unfortunately, this has not been 15 tracked and many promises have been broken along with the actual impact I have experienced 16 personally. I’ve had to tolerate crowded street parking, blocked driveways, traffic congestion 17 and no parking at the Good Will, apparently due to the lack of parking at the Commons. Their 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 seems to be closed by a gate. This is the current situation. Their new proposal goes 1 against the compromise made in the past. Any future expansion would need to be outside the 2 20-foot setback as originally zoned, not the 10-foot compromised setback agreement. I oppose 3 this project expansion in the rear. 4 5 All the work we did in the past was to ensure property owners their legal right to light and air. 6 Any expansions should be done in the front. The proposed expansion impacts the vast – are 7 vast and frankly must be thoroughly studied. The reports do not reflect all the circumstances. 8 From train horn reflective noise off a three-story wall or the additional emergency sirens at 9 different times of day or the weather conditions, night sky impact of three-stories on neighbors, 10 a complete landscaping study used to reduce the impacts and precise shadow study to include 11 roofs are a must for neighbors’ solar panels to work. This addition will only exacerbate the 12 existing problems and will create new environmental issues, which need to be studied. Their 13 mitigations are not enough for this size of a project with the 13 percent increased capacity 14 facing a residential one-story community. It is wise that this project be thoroughly investigated 15 and have a proper EIR at any rate. There is so many issues not covered or taken into account. 16 The massing of the addition is in direct opposition to the past agreement. The massing of any 17 additional building needs to… 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: You’re up on time, so if you just finish up, please. 1 2 Ellen: Okay. Use the correct setbacks and not take advantage of the compromise we made to 3 allow the building as it is today. Thank you very much. 4 5 Chair Chang: Thank you very much. 6 7 Veronica Dao: Next is Deborah. 8 9 Deborah: Hi, I am a Palo Alto resident of 60 years. I am here to speak in support of this project. I 10 had not anticipated doing so. I don’t have strong feelings about senior housing, but upon 11 hearing the presentation earlier, there were a number of items that came up that I wanted to 12 bring to your attention. One of them is [inaudible 132:43] when we were – our neighborhood 13 was trying to get permit parking [inaudible 132:48] it needs to be citywide. We need a citywide 14 permit parking program and he was right. If that had happened, this would not be a problem 15 now. If this neighborhood had permit parking, they wouldn’t be having this problem. So that’s 16 something that I’m hoping you’re willing to consider. Oh, number two – so 15 years ago, was it? 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Palo Alto residents shot down the senior housing on Maybell. I’m like, “What were they 1 thinking?” It’s like, “Oh, you can’t build it there. Well, you can’t build it here.” It’s like you can’t 2 have your cake and eat it too either. And I think that’s really what Palo Alto residents want and I 3 find it very frustrating. But even more important is – I’ve watched the debate go on for decades 4 now about where housing can and cannot be built. And the verdict is out, which is, “We’re 5 going to build it in El Camino. We’re going to build it on [Inaudible 133:44] Avenue. We’re going 6 to build it on these narrow quarters. 7 8 We’re not going to allow it to be built distributed citywide,” which means certain 9 neighborhoods are getting very heavily impacted and this Wilkie Way neighborhood is getting 10 impacted way out of proportion relative to the rest of the city between the Maybell being shut 11 down and between this decision to not allow dense building elsewhere. No, it’s not fair but we 12 as a city have made this decision and I think, “I’m sorry, you got to stick by it.” And if the 13 problem is not this development, the problem is very different. And I think it needs – you 14 should address the real problem, not stop a development that’s very reasonable, in my opinion. 15 And the last thought is that I wish the residents of the city would care as much about climate 16 change as they do about parking. Thank you. 17 18 Chair Chang: Thank you. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Veronica Dao: Next is Nishanth. 2 3 Nishanth: Hello. Just to give some context, I’m reading a letter on behalf on someone who 4 wanted to remain anonymous. So with that, here’s the letter. I often visit a patient at Palo Alto 5 Commons. I am submitting this anonymously because the patient is concerned that this letter 6 could affect how they are treated by staff at the facility. Only once can I ever remember finding 7 a place to park in the visitor lot for Palo Alto Commons. Sometimes, a van belonging to the Palo 8 Alto Commons is parked in one or more of those spaces. Another visitor space is reserved for 9 future residents and that’s not intended for those visiting current patients. Construction 10 materials or other obstructions sometimes occupy other spaces and then there are always cars 11 I presume belong to other visitors in what few spaces remain. Not finding a spot in the visitor 12 lot, I then have to exit back onto El Camino Way. There are never any other free places to park 13 anywhere alongside El Camino Way because you can’t park in many stretches and the rest are 14 already filled with cars, probably belonging to customers of Goodwill. The same is true for West 15 Meadow, so I end up parking on Wilkie Way. I heard that neighbors on Wilkie are protesting 16 being used as the effective extension parking lot for Palo Alto Commons, and I’m sorry that I 17 contribute to their problem. I reached out to them and I’m grateful that they will submit this 18 letter. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Please note that there are no handicap parking spaces in the Palo Alto Commons visitor lot and 2 this adds to future problem. When I brought with me a visitor who is mobility impaired, I had to 3 drop that person off, park on Wilkie, and then literally run back to attend to them. There are a 4 couple signs in the Palo Alto Commons visitor lot indicating one can call for parking assistance; 5 however, to place a call safely requires me to first park somewhere. Since there’s no place to 6 park in the visitor lot, that means I have to park on Wilkie. Once I’ve done that, there’s no point 7 in calling. So the signs don’t help at all. I’m sure the staff at Palo Alto Commons wants their 8 patients to receive visitors. But by having seriously inadequate visitor parking and no handicap 9 spaces, they are making it much harder for me and others to visit. Fewer visitors – or fewer 10 visits is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of those living at the facility. I urge the City to 11 insist that Palo Alto Commons visitor parking be expanded to meet its present needs, so that I 12 and others no longer need to park on Wilkie. Furthermore, if the number of rooms at Palo Alto 13 Commons is to increase, so should the visitor parking accordingly. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Next is JP. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 JP: Hello. My name is JP and I’m a lifelong resident of Palo Alto. I’m here to oppose the 2 expansion of Palo Alto Commons as is. I’m sympathetic to the need for senior housing in Palo 3 Alto. Having lived here my whole life, I’ve seen how the city has progressed over the past 18 4 years I’ve been here. I want to be able to live here too; however, I’m worried about the 5 precedent that this project sets. By allowing this project to go forward as is, it would override 6 many of the rules that are set to protect residents. I want to be able to grow old in a 7 community that resembles the one I grew up in. I also want to address the previous comments 8 on the parking permit. Per staff, the Palo Alto Commons wouldn’t be able to purchase these 9 permits on Wilkie way as well. Finally, I’m just here to say that I agree with the neighbors’ 10 concerns. I would also like to add, since parking has been a [inaudible 138:19] of this discussion, 11 I would like to recommend a book Paved Paradise to everyone. It talks about how parking has 12 shaped the modern American landscape throughout the suburbs and the big cities; It’s a great 13 read. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Next is Mircha. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Mircha: I am a resident in Jacob’s Court; it’s a neighborhood that – adjacent to Wilkie. And I’ve 2 been in the discussions, probably 10 years ago, when was built the Avant. And since then, I 3 have no more daylight in my backyard. With this – all the discussions to [inaudible 139:15], I 4 was somewhat reconciliatory. I thought we’ll have enough light. No, I’m in the dark. And I’m 5 sympathetic to my neighbors on Wilkie. They will be in the dark. Same for the comments about 6 parking. It’s never enough parking on the street since those developments. So I’m totally 7 supporting to not contribute to this problem and I’m against expansion. Because you accept 8 now, City of Palo Alto, this expansion, what will limit them in 10 years from now to say, “We’ll 9 build two more floors on the other one.” Because this is what they wanted initially. They came 10 – first project was five floors there. We fought them hard 10 years ago and there are three 11 floors. It’s much too close. All this discussion about trees doesn’t make sense. The trees 12 contribute to the shade. So I’m in the dark. I have no street parking. Please don’t approve this 13 expansion. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Next is Andie. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Andie: Thank you, Chair Chang and Commissioners, for bringing this project, to giving us the 2 availability to speak to it. My name is Andie [Reed 140:57] and I live in Old Palo Alto. This 3 project asks for an amendment to a PC from 1989, which would infill which what was 4 intentionally left as air and sun space back in 1989. All the neighbors have done just such a 5 wonderful job. I will stick with parking and the TDM. Please note that the parking analysis done 6 by Hexagon is unreliable. Clearly, one can always come up with some kind of a metric that 7 shows that parking is not problematic based on non-sensical evidence. In this case, what the 8 study shows is that the garage is underused. Only half of the parking spaces underground are 9 typically used per this study. If this facility had no parking problem, visitors and employees 10 wouldn’t be parking on Wilkie Way. Although, with more units, there will be more 11 convalescence and thus more attendance and visitors. There is no proposed increase in parking. 12 The Wilkie Way’s residents’ experience as evidenced [by 141:59] their letters and speeches as 13 well as friends I know who visit there often testify that Wilkie Way is already used for overflow 14 parking and that’s before the expansion. It’s not encouraging that even hearing now that many 15 of the underground spots are unavailable. And they’re in an application process. So I find that 16 so discouraging. And also hearing the discussion about the draft TDM makes me nervous. 17 Traffic demand management plans can be sketchy. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 included in the packet feels generic and it sounds like it’s going to be the TDM. It’s 1 checking all the right boxes. It’s like it’s moved – it’s moving backwards from what is needed at 2 this project but not what will be supplied. It uses soft terms like may provide penalties. My 3 neighbors – my neighborhoods’ experience with TDMs is that we got left in the dark as the 4 applicant’s TDM was signed and set in stone without the neighbors’ knowledge and input. And 5 discussions at the last City Council meeting regarding, “We’ll see how it goes. We’ll make 6 adjustments along the way,” were disregarded. I would highly recommend that the PDC require 7 neighbor input into the TDM before it is finalized. The TDM should include methods to track 8 parking in the neighborhood, requiring employees and directing visitors to park underground, 9 and sending overflow to Avant’s additional 42 spaces. Monitoring and recording should be 10 provided by a third party with review by the neighbors and measures for enforcement or 11 penalties determined and put in the document. TDMs can end up being words gathered to 12 solve problems near the end of the projects’ approval process that end up not holding water 13 but get institutionalized. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Next is Maegan. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Maegan: Hi. I’m Maegan and I’m a lifelong Palo Alto resident. I’m very sympathetic for senior 2 housing. My grandparents live in like assisted living community, so I understand the concerns 3 and like the project. But I do oppose the project as it’s currently designed. Despite the many 4 discussions about parking, there are only two out of the 55 pages − are − in the TDM plan, 5 address parking. And I think that things about the parking plan are like – the study is really hard 6 for you to try to figure it out. I think it could – at any given point, yes, there could be like 50 7 percent availability but that’s – that could just be at like an odd hour or − it doesn’t account for 8 like the more high-demand hours. And given that we already have a parking issue today, there 9 should just be monthly assessments just to figure out how exactly the Palo Alto Commons 10 community is using the parking on Wilkie Way or Second Street, and just with a strong 11 escalating schedule of penalties for non-compliance just so that Palo Alto Commons is aware of 12 what – how exactly the parking on Wilkie Way is being used. Because, as of now, it’s been a lot 13 of finger pointing. That’ll be it. Thank you. 14 15 Chair Chang: Thank you. 16 17 Veronica Dao: Next is Janis. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Janis: Hello. I’m also a lifelong resident of Palo Alto and grew up in a planned community. And 2 some of my biggest oppositions to this is, as a planned community, trying to amend what their 3 initial rules were. Since there’s no amendment process, they should be viewed as a new 4 planned community and follow the current rules that are in place within city government about 5 new developments. I’d expect similar rules if the planned community that I grew up in decided 6 to make any changes, that they would have to follow the current building codes that are in 7 place. I also think that they should be viewed as commercial real estate and would need to 8 follow those similar regulations that are in place. Palo Alto has a lot of regulations and if there’s 9 nothing to enforce those, then what’s the point of having them in the first place? So this 10 planned community should be no different from other development projects within the 11 commercial space. Thank you. 12 13 Chair Chang: Thank you. 14 15 Veronica Dao: Next is Lily. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Lily: Thank you. My name is Lily [Lee 146:57] and I live at 4080 Wilkie Way. I’m going to try to 1 avoid repeating other comments. I want to agree with the comments that have been made by 2 our neighbors expressing concerns about the intrusiveness of the new plans and about parking. 3 I do want to say that I do support senior assisted living, and therefore, I support the seven 4 proposed interior units. I remain concerned about the additional nine external ones. And we 5 noticed that in the latest version of the plans that there were an addition of two rooms; one is 6 10 foot, 1 inch from our back fence, another one is 10 foot, 9 inches from another neighbors’ 7 back fence. These two rooms appeared in the summer version of the plan and this would be 8 about twice as close to our back fences as the current building is now. I understand that as the 9 PTC, it’s difficult because you’re trying to balance competing benefits to the entire community. I 10 believe it’s important to be creative and talk about solving problems and finding compromised 11 solutions. So I want to appreciate all of you who have visited our backyards and thank you to 12 Emily for answering so many questions and thank you to WellQuest actually for making some 13 changes to their plans. However, I want to remind the PTC that in June, you motioned that the 14 ARB should, “Consider the feasibility and relative benefits to the residents of Wilkie Way of 15 increasing the setback for newly-constructed units to 20 feet to meet 1838150.” 16 17 Thank you for making that motion. I was really glad that you did; however, that didn’t happen. 18 I didn’t hear any options discussed to reduce size, configuration of quantity of the second-floor 19 units, or of the third-floor units. I just heard that the proposal would not leave enough space for 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. second-floor additions to be usable as units and would not support the third-floor units. 1 However, I believe there could be room to talk about could we have a reduction in the second-2 floor units to step them back but then maybe they could still support third-floor units that could 3 be stepped back a little more. And so I think smart architects could come up with some options 4 to consider that haven’t been discussed before. Also, turning to another area. I noted that 5 there’s – you’ve heard from other neighbors that the Palo Alto Commons had failed to submit 6 annual reports about occupancy and we just have some concerns about a pattern of not 7 following through on commitments. I saw that in the ARB meeting that ARB member, Baltay, 8 had noted that they failed to submit a parking plan as required by PC 3775. 9 10 Chair Chang: You’re up on time. 11 12 Lily: Oh. 13 14 Chair Chang: So if you can just wrap up, that’d be great. 15 16 Lily: Okay. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. 2 3 Lily: Thank you very much. So in conclusion, I just wanted to suggest that for the TDM plan that 4 there be third-party, confidential surveys and enforceability mechanisms, including report 5 backs routinely. Thank you very much. 6 7 Chair Chang: Thank you. 8 9 Veronica Dao: And our last speaker is Huibin. 10 11 Huibin: I saw Charlene’s here. She probably doesn’t like me to say something. [Inaudible 12 151:01]. 13 14 Charlene Kussner: [Inaudible 151:02]. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Huibin: Thank you. All right. So okay. PTC members and also Council member Summa. And first 1 of all, I would like to follow up the construction plan the architect just showed us. So, I have to 2 remind you guys when you design a construction, you’re not designing an individual 3 construction. It’s in a densely-populated neighborhood. It’s not facing a jungle or desert. So it 4 sounds pretty obvious, right? Here is an example, 10 years ago, I believe – so this was the 5 design that passed the inspection and included [inaudible 151:42] exhaust pipes facing my 6 backyard that generate 24/7 noise and a foul smell of emission in the past 8 to 10 years, all 7 right? So which is – I already complained several times and I would like to show you guys again 8 − so what that sounds like. Did you hear anything? Good. Did you hear the difference? This is a 9 noise Palo Alto Commons gave to me in the past 8 years, all right? If someone feels it’s 10 tolerable, please go visit my backyard. All right. So after several conversations over the past 10 11 years – well here I do need to give credits to Charlene. They finally starting to reroute the pipes’ 12 openings but after three months, the pipes’ openings were moved 2 feet away from original 13 pipes. So you still [can hear 152:58] the noise like this. Are you seeing much improved? 14 Unfortunately, in Palo Alto [inaudible 153:09]. Sorry. 15 16 So in the Palo Alto [inaudible 153:16] it just asks, Palo Alto Commons, are we [inaudible 153:20] 17 addressed noise concern? I’m speechless. Okay. You guys can make the judgement. So here, I 18 demand the Palo Alto Commons to take it seriously and quickly to solve this problem, to submit 19 a detailed plan and a timeline of completion to the City and to the Code Enforcement 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Department [inaudible 153:47]. So after completion, there should be no additional noise and 1 emission to my backyard, to my neighborhood − Wilkie neighborhood and to the Palo Alto City. 2 Thank you. 3 4 Chair Chang: Thank you. Thank you to all the neighbors for coming and thank you to all the 5 other public speakers for sharing your thoughts with us. I think what we’re probably going to do 6 is take a short break. But I did have a question for Staff quickly. I realize that I neglected to ask 7 Chair Rosenberg some questions, which all these public comments reminded me of. But I 8 believe she may have left already, is that correct? I don’t see her there. Because if – I was going 9 to suggest that if we did have questions for her, that my colleagues and I could ask her those 10 questions now before we take a break, so that she can be released. 11 12 Jennifer Armer: No, we don’t see her online anymore. Sorry. 13 14 Chair Chang: Okay. I might see if she might come back for a little while. All right. So with that, I 15 think we’re going to take a 7-minute break and then we’ll come back. Okay everyone, we are 16 back. So a couple things, I realize that I forgot to let – give the applicants three minutes for 17 rebuttals. So let’s take care of that. So three-minute clock is up. All right, here we go. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Charlene Kussner: Oh, goodness. I appreciate and I’ve taken copious notes. I took notes from 2 every speaker. I have lots of discrepancies or things that I could make a rebuttal to. I would − I 3 guess suggest that maybe I just respond to your questions. I will clarify two things that are 4 sincerely offensive to me. And so I feel as an operator and a quality operator in this city and 5 throughout this state, we do not do retribution to our residents or our staff. We are a – we are 6 an above-the-line company. Yes, we are for-profit as I believe everyone in this room has some 7 [inaudible 168:00] of profitability in their lives to support them. And we honor that. We do not 8 condemn our staff or our residents for speaking out. We have a resident council meeting every 9 month. All residents are encouraged to come, speak their word, we listen to them, and we work 10 with them on issues that are affecting them. So we are a quality operator. We’re inspected by 11 lots of regulatory bodies every year. As far as the comments regarding our financial part, we 12 have a loan with FJM, which has now been satisfied, so they are not a part of our company. 13 WellQuest Living is a standalone company providing care – quality care throughout the state. 14 15 We have many lending partners that we get loans through and that’s our personal – that’s our 16 private business. So I don’t see how it has a place here. So I’m open to answer questions from 17 each of you. I don’t want to go into all the rebuttals that I have at this moment, but I’m ready to 18 respond with feedback. Thank you. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Thank you. Okay. So I just wanted to quickly pause at this point because Ms. 2 Armer has told me that I should check in. Thank you for the nudge. On – I wanted to quickly 3 check with the Commission to see how we feel about whether we’re going to be starting the 4 second item later on tonight or not. The second item is – and if we do not do it tonight, then it 5 would be pushed to our special meeting next Tuesday likely because it is a – it does have a 6 deadline. So that would be Staff’s preference that if we didn’t do it tonight, that we did it next 7 Tuesday. So I’d like to get a sense from my colleagues. 8 9 Commissioner Summa: I’d like to say that it is not the case, but I think it’s likely the case that we 10 won’t get to it because of time. 11 12 Commissioner Akin: I’d like to try to do it tonight. I think we can pull it off and it would be 13 advantageous to Staff. 14 15 Commissioner Hechtman: So I’m flexible. The meeting we have next week − it’s just a single-16 study session, I believe. This Item 3 tonight is scheduled to be an hour. When I was working 17 through it, I was thinking that that might be an underestimate. And so to me, I don’t know 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. when we’re going to finish this item but I think there’s probably a lot to say in our discussion, 1 and I’m expecting maybe we’ll be done by 10, maybe. And that’s a late hour to start something 2 that I expect will run 1½ hours or so. So, if it’s the will of the Commission, I’ll stay all night, but 3 to me, it’s making sense to move it to next week. 4 5 Commissioner Templeton: I suspect after we’re done with this item, we will be – there appears 6 to be a lot of energy in this discussion and I think it’ll take a lot out of us to start a new item 7 that we’ll have to get into a lot of nitty-gritty details. So I would suggest that we do put it to 8 next week. I will say I’m really surprised about how all of the timing is working out. We can save 9 that feedback for later but to have all the scheduling issues around something that’s going to 10 end up just being a study session is weird. But we can talk about that later. 11 12 Chair Chang: Okay. So that sounds like it’s likely that we’re – go ahead. 13 14 Jennifer Armer: Just through the Chair a suggestion, if you wish, you could invite the other two 15 planning commissioners to rejoin for this discussion as to whether to… 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Let’s do that. 1 2 Jennifer Armer: …discuss the final item on the agenda. 3 4 Commissioner Templeton: And also I’m wondering why if it’s something that had a tight 5 deadline, we didn’t do it first. 6 7 Chair Chang: I assume it was because we were wanting to – we knew that there’d be high 8 interest and we wanted to make sure that the members of the public did not have to stay super 9 late. So… 10 11 Commissioner Summa: I’m just wondering if it’s still good timing for Staff to do it next Tuesday 12 instead of tonight. I mean do you still have enough time? 13 14 Jennifer Armer: We will be able to proceed. That goal was to have those zoning changes 15 completed, I believe, by the end of December. But if we do have a recommendation from 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Commission and therefore, can show that progress and have it scheduled for Council, 1 we do feel comfortable with that. 2 3 Chair Chang: Okay. Thank you. Welcome back, Commissioner Lu and Vice-Chair Reckdahl. So 4 the question is whether we start the second item late tonight, likely 10 p.m. or later, or 5 whether we try and do it next Tuesday. If you have opinions about it. 6 7 Commissioner Lu: Yeah, I’m not sure if there’s a high number of public speakers for the next 8 item. And if we would want to give them a chance to give public comment and then table our 9 discussion. It’s hard to read the room in like extemporaneously but that would be my only other 10 consideration. Otherwise, I think it’s totally fine to punt this to next week. I think it works for 11 Staff. It probably works better for us. And it would probably lead to a better conversation. 12 13 Chair Chang: Thanks. 14 15 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Yeah, I agree that… 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay. 1 2 Vice -Chair Reckdahl: Like Commissioner Hechtman said I don’t think we get out of here before 3 10 or get done with this thing before 10. And that’s going to be a late time to start a new item. 4 5 Chair Chang: Okay. So then I think the decision is that we would push it to next week. My 6 question – I don’t know how we can assess how many public comments there are for that. 7 Maybe we – is it possible to take public comment for – I mean people have been – if they are 8 here for that, they’ve been here all night. 9 10 Jennifer Armer: Yeah. I’m going to invite Albert Yang to… 11 12 Chair Chang: Opine on this one. 13 14 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Jennifer Armer: Yeah, to speak on this one. I think we can continue it to the next meeting 1 without taking public comment and it’s probably better to at least let people know at this point 2 rather than waiting. 3 4 Chair Chang: Okay. Then I think – I mean – I don’t see Mr. Yang but what I’m going to say is 5 because usually the order of operations is that we have a Staff presentation, and then 6 Commissioner questions, and then Public Comment. And I don’t think given the density of the 7 next item that it makes sense to have a Staff presentation separated by a week at the late hour 8 that it will likely be tonight. So I think that we would just maybe – should − do we move right 9 now to continue it to a date? 10 11 Jennifer Armer: No, we would do that vote once we get to that item… 12 13 Chair Chang: Okay. 14 15 Jennifer Armer: …on the agenda. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: But we can let people know. We can let the members of the public… 1 2 Jennifer Armer: Right. 3 4 Chair Chang: …know that we will… 5 6 Jennifer Armer: That is the intent. 7 8 Chair Chang: …be – the intent is to continue the second action item to next Tuesday. 9 10 Jennifer Armer: Correct. 11 12 Chair Chang: All right. Mr. Yang, did you have something that you wanted to add? 13 14 Albert Yang: No. I was just going to say it’s at the Chair’s discretion. And… 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Perfect. Thank you. Okay. And now I have to ask our two Commissioners to excuse 2 themselves again. All righty. So I guess I’d like to just open it up to comments from the 3 Commissioners then. Light it up. Commissioner Akin. 4 5 Commissioner Akin: Thank you, Chair. So I’d like to start with shadowing. The shadow diagrams 6 are wonderful. I really appreciate having those in the designs. But they can also be misleading 7 because a lot of natural light comes from the part of the sky where the sun isn’t even present. 8 And if you block the visibility of the sky, you lose that light, even if you haven’t created an extra 9 shadow in the sense of blocking the direct light of the sun. I think one of our public commentors 10 took care of this better than I can, but if you look at Section H in Page A5.12 of the plan set, 11 you’ll see a good example of how the new construction plots big chunks of… 12 13 Chair Chang: Ms. Kallas, could you please pull that up for us? 14 15 Commissioner Akin: …a view of the sky. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Which page was it again? 1 2 Commissioner Akin: That was A5.12. 3 4 Chair Chang: A5.12. 5 6 Commissioner Akin: So − and while that’s coming up, I’ll just wrap up the comment. Imperfect 7 as it is, really the only tool we have to deal with this factor is the daylight plane. That’s why we 8 have to make sure that the daylight plane is being respected to the maximum extent that the 9 code permits. And I think the code’s intent is pretty clear here. So the 45 degrees at – no. 10 A5.12. So looking at the upper left, you can see how the new construction while staying within 11 the 45-degee daylight plane, nevertheless blocks off a substantial amount of visibility of the sky. 12 So I await Counselor Yang’s discussion at some other time about what kind of changes we’re 13 permitted to make but the code’s intent here is pretty clear that there should be more daylight 14 plane than this. The second discussion item is the TDM plan. I found it really disappointing and 15 that this is a consistent problem we have with TDM plans that we have to find some way to 16 address. The baseline parking demand measurement is pretty much useless because it only 17 counts vehicles at the driveway. And that’s not the total commute demand or the total parking 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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. Now I understand what is being done with the instituted transportation engineers’ 1 estimates but the validation for those estimates comes from the two counts according to the 2 TDM plan. So that’s why that validation has to be right. 3 4 And the second phase of that is the enforcement of the TDM plan is ineffective for the same 5 reason. Because there is no way to determine according to the plan as it exists today what the 6 actual commute demand or parking demand are because those things are spread out. I’d like to 7 point out that that creates a – the combination of these things creates a perverse incentive to 8 park on the streets because not only does that reduce the trip count that’s measured on the 9 property, it also increased the chances of meeting the TDM plan goals even though the parking 10 and transportation have not changed. Just as a final comment on this, the TDM plan really 11 needs to say the one simple thing, which is people visiting and working in Palo Alto Commons 12 must park on the property and are not allowed to park on nearby streets. And that’s not a legal 13 requirement from the City. That’s a policy of Palo Alto Commons that the TDM plan needs to 14 establish. I think that’s it for now. 15 16 Chair Chang: Commissioner Hechtman. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 wanted to start with a question for Mr. Yang, if he’s available. So 1 Mr. Yang, Staff has prepared and we’re proceeding on a CEQA exemption. A letter’s been 2 submitted challenging using that exemption and I am wondering if – I think the letter just came 3 in yesterday. I’m wondering if Staff has had an opportunity to review it sufficiently to determine 4 if Staff’s position has changed on our application of CEQA regarding this project. 5 6 Albert Yang: Yes, we’ve had a chance to review it. And we disagree with its conclusions. In 7 short, this is a project to – and proposal to construct 16 more units and a part of that – the 8 process for that is amending a PC ordinance but – and we agree with the contention in the 9 letter that a zoning ordinance – an ordinance change is a project. We agree. This is a project. 10 We just believe it’s an exempt project under the CEQA guidelines. And the CEQA guidelines 11 section that we’re relying on includes not just construction but also the permitting process and 12 this – that’s the process that we’re in right now. 13 14 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. Thank you. And then also for you, Mr. Yang, in terms of the 15 issue Commissioner Akin raised earlier. You’ve provided response after a little bit of thought 16 and I wondered if, 1½ hours having gone by, whether you’re comfortable with that response or 17 do you want to elaborate or add to it in any way? 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Albert Yang: I’m comfortable with the response that I provided earlier. I think the basic concept 2 remains the same that the standards in 1838150 are – they are norms and guidelines but they 3 are − don’t need to be binding. And so they can be persuasive and important points of 4 reference. But the PTC is not – can recommend that something different from those be 5 approved. 6 7 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. Thank you. So in this round, I want to really just focus on a 8 couple of specific issues before I talk in another round about the larger project. The first one I 9 want to talk about is trees. I’m a little confused about the trees because we have a diagram 10 shows a mix of the two kinds. Our Staff Report says that a decision has been made to go with 11 deciduous, although none of the residents – the local residents here took time, I think, to 12 mention the type of tree they want here. A lot of their written correspondence indicated that 13 they wanted evergreen. So – and in fact, I haven’t found anyone of the neighbors that said they 14 wanted deciduous. And so – but I think this is a simple issue. I just think there needs to be 15 communication. When I look at the tree plan, I can’t quite tell – but my thinking is the parcel 16 that is next to the trees – and it looks like four or five of the eight are clustered behind one 17 parcel. I think that person – those owners should put in writing, so we don’t have disputes, 18 whether they want evergreen or deciduous. And I think that the applicant should honor that 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. wish. And I haven’t heard anything that the applicant has a preference either way other than on 1 this issue to satisfy the neighbors’ concern. So I’m hoping that that can be pretty smooth. 2 3 And I would ask that that process take place before this go to Council − in whatever form it’s 4 going to Council, so that it’s not an issue. They can focus on other issues. The other thing I want 5 to talk about in this round is the TDM. So this is kind of an odd TDM because most of our TDMs 6 are really focused, “Hey, you got a lot of traffic coming to the site and we’ve got to find ways to 7 tamp it down.” And that’s important here. But really the tool of a TDM is being employed here 8 because of a parking issue. So it’s really a TDM lending itself to a parking management plan. 9 And so – and I think it needs to be more robust in that aspect. I think – one thing that troubled 10 me when I went by, I think that – if I’m understanding where the seven surface parking spaces 11 are, not the ones down in the garage, but on the surface, I think they were all occupied by 12 construction material and maybe a couple construction vehicles but mostly construction 13 material. And thinking forward, if this project is approved, whether it’s 7 units or 16 or any 14 number in between, there’s going to be a lot of construction. And there’s going to be materials. 15 And there’s going to be trucks. 16 17 And while normally we have kind of some uniform construction conditions on our approvals, 18 here I think we need to recognize that there are 57 parking spaces and every time a 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. construction truck parks in one or puts its load of timber in one is there’s one less to be used by 1 the staff and the visitors and the residents. And I think we have to have a solution for that in 2 the TDM that compels the property owner to basically bear the weight of solving that. And if 3 that means during construction, renting an off-site parking site and shuttling its staff to and fro, 4 so be it. But I think that really needs to be built into this and I think that applies long term to the 5 notion that some of those spaces in the garage appear to being used for storage. So that can be 6 the owner’s choice if that’s how they want to do it but the consequence is they have to provide 7 an alternate off-street parking space somewhere else and be able to demonstrate that to the 8 satisfaction of the City. And the other thing I want to mention on the TDM − I think that the 9 monitoring is the first time in 3 years and then at least every 3 years after that. 10 11 I’d like to see that first monitoring moved up to 2 years, if not all the way to 1 year, to have a 12 check-in kind of up front. And then what I’d like to see after that – because that process is 13 expensive and it’s time consuming. I’d like it to be after the initial one every 5 years or earlier at 14 the discretion of the Director of Planning. So if there are neighborhood problems that arise, the 15 Director of Planning can call for something earlier. So those are my comments for this round. 16 Thank you. 17 18 Chair Chang: Commissioner Summa. Then Commissoner Templeton. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Summa: Thank you, Chair. And I want to start out by thanking all the members of 2 the public who have come out to speak this evening and the applicant. And we all agree – so I 3 don’t think anybody in this room would disagree what a super addition this business is to Palo 4 Alto. With that said, I share the same concerns about the TDM that my two colleagues have 5 already shared. And I would like to point out that they are unreliable as being monitored in any 6 way across Palo Alto. We’ve had this problem over and over again, like we do with PCs being – 7 the original intention was to go out and check them every three years and I don’t know when 8 that stopped happening but I’ve never known it to happen. So we have these processes. They 9 sound good on paper but they’re only as good as our execution and following up on things. And 10 I think that the one gentleman who I think left the room with the noise issue, which I 11 experienced myself in person, he’s been trying to get code enforcement to help him with this 12 for a year. And I know that’s not a topic tonight but it’s something that both the applicant and 13 the City need to show the will to fix. It’s really – he can’t use his backyard at all. It’s not okay. So 14 then I want to go on and speak about my favorite section of the PC code, which is 103815O, 15 which is called Special Requirements. 16 17 Our City Attorney − and I’m not going to argue with him about this, interprets it in a way that is, 18 I believe, new. And it’s also novel when you call something a requirement to consider it a 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. guideline. We have other places in the code – in our code that explicitly use the word guideline 1 because it’s something we like but we don’t feel we can compel it. And I think that goes along 2 with the other – another big issue for me is that the notion that they would be able to retain 3 development standards that were development standards at the time it was built – the PC was 4 approved but are no longer our current development standards. I think the public has a right to 5 what is currently written in our municipal code and we need to change it if we’re going to 6 interpret it differently. I have never heard of any other expansion or addition to a building that 7 was – where it was said, “Oh, you don’t have to use the current code; you can use what was the 8 code when it was built.” I mean that is a chaotic notion and I don’t believe we do it generally. I 9 do believe that the daylight plane is inadequate the way it’s interpreted and the notion for the 10 public when this was negotiated, I guess, 14 years ago or something like that, it was explicitly 11 done to make a deal with the public to get a project that was good for the City and good for the 12 business that wanted to open it. 13 14 But it was also explicitly done with a step-back to leave areas open and filling in the step-back. 15 Because if I’m remembering correctly from our previous meeting, it’s a less expensive solution 16 than putting it on – putting the additional space on the front of the building. That is not a fair 17 solution. I don’t think it’s a really good solution. And what if they come back sometime in the 18 future and say, “Oh, we want to put more units here,” which is great for us to have these beds 19 for people to use. And they – the only place they have left is to put it in the front. I mean I will 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. feel like a little silly. So I think we have to work hard – much harder to get to a point where we 1 can find something that’s fair that follows our rules – that follows the rules as they’re currently 2 written in our code. And I couldn’t agree with my colleague more about construction logistics. 3 That is a nightmare of a situation already. The parking over there. And it’s very hard for me to 4 see the photos of the van – the Palo Alto Commons bus, I mean, being parked on Wilkie Way 5 repeatedly during this application time; it’s just disappointing to me. So I think that that is 6 where I will leave it for now. Thank you. 7 8 Chair Chang: Commissioner Templeton. 9 10 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. A bunch of great comments tonight. I guess I want to ask 11 Staff – start with asking a question of the Staff about to what extent are you guys brokering a 12 negotiation between these parties before it comes to us? 13 14 Emily Kallas: As the applicant − as Charlene mentioned in her presentation, there were a 15 number of community… 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: You don’t have to do that. It’s fine. I mean you can just – I was here. 1 I heard it. But I’m asking because I specifically want this question addressed right now. 2 3 Emily Kallas: Yeah, so I attended one of those community meetings. I believe I only attended 4 one; the others didn’t work with my schedule. But in addition to that, I’ve responded to a lot of 5 [neighbor 194:25] comments. We’ve taken those and we have turned them into guidance. It 6 definitely is true that the original PC ordinance required a TDM plan that as far as we can tell 7 was not followed through on. So that is the primary reason why a TDM plan is required now, to 8 Commissioner Hechtman’s point that this isn’t what a TDM plan is often used for. The 9 landscaping has been modified. The Architectural Review Board also considered all of the 10 neighbor comments and considered which setbacks and daylight planes they believed were 11 appropriate. 12 13 Commissioner Templeton: But what I’m getting out is does the City take ownership of making 14 sure that these parties agree on how to go forward on this? 15 16 Jennifer Armer: I can jump in on that. City Staff’s role is to make sure that the applicant is aware 17 of public comment… 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 2 3 Jennifer Armer: …and often we are encouraging them to address those comments to respond 4 as much as feasible. Our evaluation role is based on the regulations but we do work to try and 5 ensure that there is active conversations between them and the neighbors, that they are doing 6 outreach, they’re listening, and that they are responding at least in some way. And then 7 bringing those responses to the Planning Commission and ARB as part of your consideration to 8 see whether there is something that you feel, especially with a discretionary project like that – 9 this, that needs to go further. 10 11 Commissioner Templeton: So do you think that by the time like it’s coming to us that you guys 12 have dealt with this as far as you can of… 13 14 Jennifer Armer: Yes. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: …the negotiation parts. Okay. And is the City’s involvement based 1 on like something like public benefit or do we have any kind of established guidelines about 2 how deeply the City cares about this project? 3 4 Jennifer Armer: Generally, with any project whether it’s an addition to a single-family home or 5 something like this or a larger project, Staff is working with anyone we hear from with 6 comments to make sure they understand the process, how they can participate, how they can 7 provide comments, and then making sure that the applicants are responding to those 8 comments. There are times when we can enable changes in the project and there are other 9 times where the applicant chooses not to make additional changes. So on this one, our Staff has 10 worked hard to try and get the applicant to respond and in many cases, they have. But clearly 11 not to the full extent that the neighbors would like. 12 13 Commissioner Templeton: Yeah, that’s really helpful. I’m thinking about the comments my 14 colleagues have made and how having guidelines that – this is not the right word. Things that 15 are written down that don’t be – that don’t seem reliable when we are putting them to the test 16 or how seriously we take this. Is this a firm line or is the guideline like – that’s a legitimate 17 question on our part. And it’s − something I’m thinking about is how those kinds of decisions 18 would be helpful if Staff has made those decisions to let us know sooner, so that we – I mean 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the line is and this is not the first time, right? 1 There’s multiple bites of the apple here and it’s a lot of conflicting information, so it makes it 2 really hard for us to be fair to all the parties. And when we go and reference something so that 3 we can say, “Well, it says here, this is fair.” And then the more ambiguous, the harder that is. So 4 my comments at this point are this project is clearly intended to be not only a benefit to the 5 business but also a benefit to this community. But I’m also hearing from the neighbors that 6 there’s some mismatch in expectations about what the benefit to the community is versus the 7 cost to the community, right? 8 9 And so we have to understand how to weigh those things. And so it’s very frustrating to hear, 10 well this is – these people think they have these rights and these people think they have these 11 rights. And we don’t know. We have nothing to rely on to base our decision on, so – or our 12 recommendation on because that’s really what the limitations of this body are. More later but 13 just thank you for going through that with me. 14 15 Chair Chang: All right. I will add my comments and questions here. So first of all, I just have to 16 say I’m incredibly disappointed on two fronts. One, the last time we saw WellQuest here, we 17 made very specific − we made it pretty clear pretty unanimously that we wanted the parking 18 addressed. And I have now gone for the third time in my role as a Commissioner to visit, and 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. while things have incrementally improved, I find it shocking that while a project – while there’s 1 an application in process, that there’s a whole bunch of parking spaces not being used as they 2 should be that could probably solve a good lot of the problem. So that’s my first 3 disappointment. I am glad to see – I’m glad to experience that when I called today I was invited 4 into the parking structure. So that was good. At least it’s not in flagrant opposition to what was 5 in the packet as it was last time. The second thing that I find really disappointing is that we 6 asked – our motion asked to please make a consideration of setting things back – setting the 7 new development back, understanding that regardless of what happened in the past, there’s an 8 existing building there and that existing building needs to be grandfathered in. But the new 9 develop-, the new additions do not have to be. And yet, we got a one-paragraph answer as to 10 why that was the case, and I still don’t understand it. 11 12 So that leads me now to a question. I would like to hear from the applicant again and maybe 13 Mr. Bowman, the architect, is the best person to speak to this. When you showed the 14 elevations and you said, “Well, we can’t do construction here in the front.” I would like to 15 understand why. I would also like to understand – so that’s my first question. The second 16 question is why is it that the compromise that was suggested by the PTC cannot be enacted. I 17 understand that it can’t be enacted if your role is to have the same number of units of the same 18 size but why? So I’d like to – more of an explanation. And then – well, let’s just start with those 19 two. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Daniel Bowman: Okay. So for the first question, why can’t we put more units in the front? So 2 there’s an existing line of units, so one you can’t get pass those units to build more units. Two, 3 there’s – you can’t really build over the existing parking because you need to put columns 4 where the parking spaces are, so you would lose that parking. And then you would also need to 5 be able to have a staircase to exit to be able to – for fire, and so you wouldn’t be able to do that 6 with the existing parking down below. And you need to have an ambulance height of 14 feet, 7 which you can’t fit with the floor to floor what it is right now. 8 9 Chair Chang: With the [which 202:53]? 10 11 Daniel Bowman: The floor to floor. For ambulances, you need a certain height, so you wouldn’t 12 be able to do the first and second floors. You’d only be able to get to third floor and above. 13 14 Chair Chang: So it’s not so much that it’s not feasible; it’s just not cost. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Daniel Bowman: No, it’s not feasible. And – no, I said even with the amount of money you could 1 throw at it, you can’t solve that issue. It’s an issue of you would lose parking, which they have 2 addressed. That’s an issue. So you’d lose the seven spots in the front to be able to build five 3 units over them. 4 5 Chair Chang: Okay. But maybe – I mean again in the realm of compromise like – let’s be clear 6 here. What I heard is although 90 percent of our discussion today was about parking, the 7 parking wouldn’t be an issue – well, I mean existing situation is an issue. But if we weren’t 8 talking about new units at all, we wouldn’t be here. So really the elephant in the room – and if 9 you look at the neighbors’ petition, out of the six points, five of them have – are not about 10 parking. So really it’s about the nine units in back and if there were a compromise, maybe that 11 would be okay. We don’t know because that’s not been explored. Yes. 12 13 Daniel Bowman: We did compromise, so that’s the seven additional units that aren’t on the 14 Wilkie Way. We found extra spots to move some of the units. Before we had more than nine in 15 the back, so we limited about three or four units in the Wilkie Way side and moved it onto the 16 other side in the interior courtyards away. So we did compromise before. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay. And did you ever look at having the offices that are added to the back now 1 on the front side somehow? 2 3 Daniel Bowman: We have not on that one. The additional offices are within the existing PC 4 code. So that one – we can look – we’ll look at putting those offices on the – not on the Wilkie 5 Way side but we – yeah. 6 7 Chair Chang: Can I also understand – so why don’t you take – so I think you’ve addressed the 8 first question… 9 10 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. 11 12 Chair Chang: …about development on the front. 13 14 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Yeah. If you can address the second question about the kind of compromise that 1 was proposed here at the PTC last time where we would do essentially like limit the new 2 construction to 20 feet back from the… 3 4 Daniel Bowman: Yes. So looking at that, the rear setback is actually not on the Wilkie Way side. 5 Per municipal code, this is considered a corner lot because there is two different… 6 7 Chair Chang: That aside – code aside, because it’s abundantly clear that we make – we can do 8 whatever we want here apparently. So let’s just say that we want to have 20 − all new 9 construction set back by 20 feet, why can’t that be done again? 10 11 Daniel Bowman: Okay. So you’re – so we’re throwing out municipal code, we’re making things 12 up as we are right now. 13 14 Chair Chang: But we were trying to do a compromise, right? 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Daniel Bowman: Yeah. So the 20 foot – the reason we can’t do 20 feet is because you can’t fit 1 an extra unit on the second floor. You won’t get any units there. And if we can’t build on the 2 second floor, we can’t build on the third floor, so all those nine units are gone. 3 4 Chair Chang: Could you do – could you use that space for office, for example? 5 6 Daniel Bowman: We could but that’s not… 7 8 Chair Chang: What you want to do. 9 10 Daniel Bowman: We need the units. We’re trying to increase housing. 11 12 Chair Chang: Well you would like more units in order to like… 13 14 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Because I do understand that’s the goal but… 2 3 Daniel Bowman: Yes, the goal is more units to help more people. Yes. 4 5 Chair Chang: Okay. Another question. If you could review for us – and we’ve heard this before 6 but I’d love to hear it again. I want to make it clear that what the Staff Report says, in my view, 7 wasn’t a complete summary of what City Council’s opinion was starting very back at the pre-8 screening, so long before this was ever here at the PTC. City Council was pretty unanimous, 9 immensely excited about having more assisted living and more senior housing. I think we all 10 would love that in a vacuum, right? That’s what we would love; however, also there was 11 definitely at least a majority opinion on the City Council saying, “But we really are concerned 12 about the impacts that this would have on the backyard Wilkie Way neighbors.” So they were 13 asking, “Can we do a fourth story?” And the support for the concept of – there was this 14 unanimous support for the concept of additional units for senior living but not necessarily 15 unanimous support for the project as presented at the time. So if you could just talk to us a 16 little bit more about the fourth story option or the challenges of doing some – doing – shifting 17 the development of the new units. 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Daniel Bowman: Yeah, so we looked at the fourth floor issue and so there’s many things that 2 came up. One, it’s a 40-year-old building. Adding a fourth floor structurally is going to be really 3 hard, if not impossible. I’m not a structural engineer but that is very extensive structure. An 4 elevator, you would have to be able to replace [inaudible 208:04] that one. But the big thing 5 was the stairs. So there’s three possible stairs you could pull from. One would be on the front 6 side, so we could use that but you would need to have a second stair for fire code and that 7 would be along – closer to the Wilkie Way side. So instead of having three floors close to them, 8 it would be a fourth floor. So it wouldn’t solve the issue of – and pulling it back, it would make it 9 worse. Does that make sense? 10 11 Chair Chang: Yeah, but it would make it for that one corner, correct? 12 13 Daniel Bowman: Yeah. 14 15 Chair Chang: [Inaudible 208:33]. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Daniel Bowman: So it would make one corner but then one neighbor would have a four-story 1 building closer to their house versus the existing three-stories that does step back. 2 3 Chair Chang: Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That’s helpful. Okay. Thank you for answering the 4 questions. So in response − like my thoughts about this again − because really the issue to me 5 and we’ve heard from the neighbors too, it’s not the seven units. And they’ve even said, “Oh, 6 whatever parking impacts occur from the seven units, we can live with that because we do 7 understand that this is a benefit.” But I think it’s really the massing that we’re hearing about. 8 And that’s what the complaints say. It’s the massing. So what bothers me about this is we’ve 9 got one organization − one company saying we want to build more units to serve more clients 10 but this isn’t out of – truly out of the goodness of our hearts. It needs to be a [inaudible 209:36] 11 financial concern, right? But it’s potentially not feasible but definitely more expensive to build 12 these units on the front side of the building. And instead, what we’re going to do is shift the 13 impact to neighbors and that concerns me. I know and I’m very pleased that WellQuest found 14 additional places to put some of the units but there’s also the – if this is a discretionary process, 15 and they want – and you want 14 units or 16 units or whatever it is, there’s another 16 compromise, which is to simply not build [certain 210:28] of the other units. So I don’t – it’s not 17 an all or nothing and that’s just something that I would point out. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 while – I mean again I don’t – I haven’t been made privy – like the numbers haven’t been 1 shared to us. There is a technically-feasible option where you would lose that second-floor unit 2 but maybe it could be used for something else and then things could be shifted around and 3 you’d still have third-floor units. They’d be a little bit smaller. So it concerns me though that 4 essentially we have one party saying, “Well, I can’t do what I want to at the cost I want, so I’m 5 going to do it somewhere else and shift the cost and ship the burden to somebody else.” And so 6 I will − then secondly, I just want to say that aside from the parking impacts, which are not 7 pleasant for the people who live there, there’s a safety impact that concerns me quite a lot. So I 8 live in the neighborhood, not near – not too close but I commute through there. And that area 9 is what – where our Gunn High School students commute. It is a parking nightmare. It is a traffic 10 nightmare. The streets are narrow. And as a result of everybody, not just clients and visitors of 11 the Commons, needing to circle there to find parking, What we have is all this circling. It’s a 12 really difficult place to turn around. If you find your way all the way − if you make it all the way 13 to El Camino and you go, “Oh my gosh, I have no parking spaces.” Like you can’t get back 14 around. 15 16 It’s very difficult there. And the last thing we want is more traffic, like people circling there, 17 looking to parking. Because as I was there today at 4:30, there were all these students biking 18 there. And it’s just dangerous. So we need to solve this area. It’s only going to get worse with 19 the lost of El Camino parking. And that’s coming and when this project first started, that wasn’t 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. part of the problem but now it is also. And so it is not just a parking issue; it is a safety issue for 1 our students on bikes, lots of them, hundreds of them that go through there. And at a 2 minimum, I would like to see WellQuest fully utilize their parking spaces for parking. I’ll leave it 3 at that right now. Commissioner Templeton. 4 5 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. I hope it’s clear to everyone here that this is a – we’re 6 very impassioned. Thank you, Chair, because I agree with a lot of what you said. I think it’s 7 important to acknowledge that. It’s also important to acknowledge that it’s not possible for 8 everybody to get what they want. And that is now evident that no matter how many times you 9 come back here, we’re going to have some dissatisfied parties or some dissatisfaction on both 10 sides, and it is very frustrating. And I understand what you said about nobody’s retaliating 11 against anybody but you tell that to all of us because we get the calls after. We get the calls 12 after from ang-, people that are angry that we’re trying to navigate the situation, that you’re 13 not navigating effectively. And it’s really frustrating because I want to see that the services you 14 provide expand. I want to see that. I also want to see the neighbors treated fairly. And it is not 15 possible for both of those things to exist in the current configuration that we’re considering. So 16 please consider that perhaps some of the things you‘ve heard are true on some level even if 17 you’re not fully aware of how it’s playing out. People are very passionate about this project one 18 way or the other and are advocating in their best way but maybe not the way you want them 19 to. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 So I would propose that as we figure out how we’re going to move forward that we understand 2 that a parking plan has to be part of the solution and that we think about any changes that we 3 make to the requirements, not the – that nature of moving the goalpost because we have 4 talked to them several times and they have come back addressing many of the things we 5 requested, not everything we’ve requested. So that’s probably where I’d like to start 6 formulating a solution. Thank you. 7 8 Chair Chang: Commissioner Summa. 9 10 Commissioner Summa: I was just going to add with regards to the safety − the bicycle route 11 school [inaudible 215:40]. That a member of the public did send us photographs and there’s 12 also a problem with people − because the parking is so in need there. Parking in the bike lane. I 13 mean it’s really scary that that’s the [safe 215:55] route to school. And there’s also a brand new 14 building that was stalled for years that looks like it’s nearing completion, which as I recall is 15 under-parked, and that’s going to be competing for parking now in the same area where – and 16 there’s no parking on El Camino anymore. And that block of El Camino − the stretch of El 17 Camino along El Camino Way is always parked. So I think we’ve got a real nightmare here and I 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. think it’s very lucky we haven’t already had problems. So I just wanted to pile on and add those 1 two things because the – there’s going to be even more competition for parking in this area 2 when that building is finished. 3 4 Chair Chang: Commissioner Hechtman. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: So I want to talk about the structure now. I’m going to start with a 7 few questions to help me make sure I understand the layout. So what I’m – when I look at the 8 plans, I see on the Wilkie Way side, there are two first-floor additions; each is just slightly under 9 90 square feet. And maybe Ms. Kallas will pull that up. 10 11 Emily Kallas: Yes, that’s correct. 12 13 Commissioner Hechtman: Yeah. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: The first-floor additions proposed to be used as office; one is 85 square foot, the 1 other is 87. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. All right. It – and those are office use? That’s the idea, correct? 4 All right. And then the second floor, the Staff Report says that the – one of the adjustments 5 perhaps made since we last saw these plans, was that the second floor was stepped back to – 6 approximately 2 feet. And so I read that. At least one of the neighbors who showed an image, 7 the image at least portrayed a pretty flat face of first, second floor. And so I guess I’m looking 8 for confirmation that there is a step-back there for all of the new second floor. 9 10 Emily Kallas: Yes. Let me see if maybe the next page shows that a little more clearly. There it 11 was. Yeah, but certainly there is a page where the second-floor additions are dimensioned. 12 They’re all approximately 12 feet. I believe the section where it showed that it was flat is 13 specifically for the addition that is at the end of the building, not facing Wilkie Way. 14 15 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: Yeah. 1 2 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. Thank you. And then of the nine units facing Wilkie Way, how 3 many of those are third-floor units? 4 5 Emily Kallas: Five of them are third-floor units. Four of them are second-floor units. 6 7 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. All right. That’s helpful. So at my house, I have four backyard 8 neighbors; one on each side and two in the back. Because the next block over is kind of slid 9 over. And when I bought that house almost 30 years ago, I did not anticipate that all four of 10 them could build a 16-foot tall ADU 4 feet from my back fence, but they can. They absolutely 11 can. And if they do that, it will unquestionably affect my air and my light and unquestionably to 12 some extent affect what I would call my quality of life. And I think our state legislators when 13 they imposed that base regulation as implemented by our City, they knew it would have these 14 sorts of impacts but they recognized that there was a tradeoff that had to be made if California 15 is going to move forward because we have a desperate need for housing. And the ability to 16 provide housing historically had been somewhat held back at the local level by the concept of 17 quality of life. And so in many instances, the state has now stepped in to force our hand. And as 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 go through this process of becoming more dense − and we have to because basically we 1 have to find a way to share our city with more people. And we are all going to feel in one way 2 or another some of the weight of our very local environment changing. 3 4 And so I appreciate what the neighbors along Wilkie − what their concerns are and I don’t – I 5 would never deny that there is going to be a change there if anything’s approved on that 6 backside. But my belief is that we all have to – this is one of the contributions we all are going 7 to need to make to keep living in the city as it becomes more dense. We’re going to have to 8 accept some of these things. And when I look at this particular plan, and having visited the 9 neighborhood, my impression is that the second-floor units aren’t – again to my eye, a 10 significant impact in terms of loss of light because behind where those units are going to be 11 built, there’s already a wall. So that wall is coming closer by the width of the unit. And similarly, 12 the third-floor additions that I was able to discern are all built attached to – there’s no new 13 third-story element. It’s really expanding existing third-story elements. Those, I think, will have 14 some effect because those will go up into the – they will block view of sky and so that will have 15 some effect. Those are set back 20 feet, which is a number that some of the Commissioners 16 had talked about, starting much lower, of course. But I don’t deny that those are impacts that 17 are associated with this design but those are within the daylight plane that was… 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Female: I have not eaten a meal in three days. 1 2 Commissioner Hechtman: Yeah. 3 4 Female: I’m going to leave right now. [Inaudible 223:31]. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: All right. Thank you. 7 8 Female: Yeah. I don’t like to be talked over and I really would appreciate it if you do not do that. 9 Do you understand me? Don’t stand up. I’m leaving. [Inaudible 223:46] macaroni and cheese. 10 Do not forget to look at this back table. If you want to know why all the presidents and 11 everybody else wants to know what you’re all doing with plastic surgery. 12 13 Commissioner Hechtman: So when this project was approved in 1987 or – and maybe built in 14 ’89, a decision was made in this PC, and incidentally, my understanding in my work of PC zoning 15 is pretty much as our City Attorney described. It’s an opportunity to create flexible zoning. It 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. doesn’t match anything in the City. You can use different elements of your existing zoning as 1 guidance but you can pick and choose to make the best project. And I don’t even know for 2 certain that back in ’87, they were required − because it’s a PC zone − to use this particular 3 daylight plane, but they did. And to me, it’s – it makes sense and it’s consistent to continue to 4 apply it now, and when you do, all of the new structures conform to it, which is not true when 5 this plan first came to us. There were protrusions into it. Those have been pulled back to honor 6 that. And again, this is a different world than it was in 1987; they didn’t have the housing 7 pressures that we have now, and I think that this is a kind of housing we very, very much need 8 and there aren’t many places to add 16 assisted living units. Obviously, at that scale, you can’t 9 just build that small place, so it’s – you’re talking – you’re looking to – somebody’s going to 10 have to add on or build a brand new one. And I do think finance – this notion of, “Well, you 11 should build them somewhere else. And so what? Maybe it will cost you more money.” That is 12 – that’s not how the world works. 13 14 Every – we need a lot of housing coming into the city and every unit that gets built between 15 now and the end of these RHNA cycle is going to be built by somebody who wants to make a 16 profit. Every one of them. That’s how things get built. What’s important to us is that they be 17 high quality to the extent they follow our rules and be appropriately located. But they have to 18 be financially feasible, so we can insist that they move it to the – make a fourth floor on the 19 front and if that’s a money loser for them, then we just don’t get the housing. So I don’t think 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 that’s really the best way to focus on this. So Staff has commented in the Staff Report that 1 this project conforms to our rules and regulations, which for a PC, I think that really they’re 2 saying to the – even though they’re not required necessarily to conform as a PC to these 3 aspects, they do anyway if that zone applied, then − rather than a PC, which makes up its own 4 rules. So I also take stock of the fact that the ARB approved this design unanimously. And they 5 are concerned as you know with more than just how does it look. It’s how does it fit within the 6 community, within its surroundings, and so I thought they did good work. And so I’m supportive 7 of their recommendations and the Staff recommendation. 8 9 Chair Chang: Commissioner Summa. 10 11 Commissioner Summa: Thank you, Chair. I appreciate some of the points that you’ve just made, 12 Commissioner Hechtman. But I think what’s different about this than your property − since you 13 referenced your own property − is that this is a very vulnerable place where two zones abut. It’s 14 really important, I think, that we have – that we protect the people closest abutting adjacent 15 right next to this. And that’s the difference. I mean you live in – since I happen to know which 16 house is yours, you’re surrounded by R1. I think it’s – and that’s why these transition zone rules 17 and the setbacks and daylight planes is so important because it makes a harmonious situation 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. where the zones abut. Interior to a zone is a different situation, I feel. And I do not feel that it is 1 – well − and I also – I will remind everyone this is not – Staff is sort of viewing it as residential 2 but it’s actually commercial. It doesn’t help with our housing allocation. It is very expensive 3 housing, so it doesn’t help with what I think is a true housing problem in California, which is the 4 affordability of the housing here or the lack of affordability. So I just – I don’t know. I don’t – I 5 also am – I’m having a hard time making the findings on Packet Page 30. And I’m puzzled by the 6 – I’m not an architect but I’ve been in a lot of parking garages and I’m puzzled about the 7 comment of losing parking spaces if you were to build over it because of pillars. 8 9 I mean usually the structural elements are in the interstitial space you got to have anyway 10 between cars, so that you can open the doors and get out of them. So that’s a puzzling question 11 to me. And I would say that what it feels like you’re doing is saving money for this project and, 12 as the Chair said, we’re not privy to all the financials, so we have to guess on a lot of this. But it 13 definitely feels like you’re going to make their houses less valuable because I have been behind 14 these houses and this building really looms and that’s with the step-backs that were intended 15 to be there. And it’s going to be really looming a lot more. So tho-, I’m still not convinced and I 16 think all these questions – I think one hard thing that I see happen over and over again in my 8 17 years on the Planning Commission is that projects – and I don’t know what happened here; I’m 18 not saying that. But the applicants aren’t listening to the Staff and the review process. They – 19 and making enough changes. They want what they want and it gets so far down the road and 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 we feel like it’s unfair to say no to something which is not really a balanced, good project 1 in that location. So it’s very hard for me to support this as wonderful a use as it is and we all 2 agree as I said. 3 4 Chair Chang: I’d just like to say that I also don’t think that I can make the findings for all of the 5 units. I can do it for some of them but not the ones on the backside from Wilkie and I really 6 wish I could have heard from the ARB a little more about how they made their finding. But as 7 that is not possible tonight, I don’t think that I can support [every 232:02] − all the units. So I’m 8 not seeing other lights and what we need to do is – when we look at PCs, we need to look at 9 the findings. And so what we need to do is say whether we can recommend it according to the 10 findings or not. So is there anybody who would like to make a motion? 11 12 Commissioner Akin: So I assume the process will be for us to move the Staff recommendation 13 and then see how the vote goes and people will speak to their no votes if there are? 14 15 Chair Chang: You do not have to start with the Staff recommendation. You can start by saying 16 that we – you can make a motion that we do not recommend or… 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: Or per finding. 1 2 Chair Chang: Or per – or by finding. 3 4 Commissioner Akin: Is that useful to have a breakdown per finding? Staff? Ms. Armer or Ms. 5 Kallas? Is it useful to have a breakdown by finding? 6 7 Jennifer Armer: What we would recommend is that if one member of the Planning Commission 8 were to make a motion and that motion would be either to recommend approval or 9 recommend denial. It could also include recommend approval with modifications. And that it 10 would be based on whether you feel you can or can’t make the findings. If you are 11 recommending denial, then it should include specifically which findings you don’t feel you can 12 make. You do not have to talk to all of the findings but as much detail as you can provide. If you 13 are recommending approval, then you would need to speak to each of the findings either 14 recommending the description provided by Staff or any changes you would make to that. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Akin: Okay. And chang-, by changes, just to be clear, you don’t mean substantive 1 changes, you mean changes in justification? 2 3 Jennifer Armer: Correct. The finding itself does not change the explanation for how you feel you 4 can or can’t make the finding. Is what might be modified based on the beliefs of the 5 Commission. 6 7 Commissioner Templeton: What if we just talk through the findings first before you make a 8 motion and we can just go through that? Because I think honestly that is – we’ve been talking 9 around it but we haven’t specifically been addressing those. 10 11 Commissioner Akin: I think that’s a good approach. 12 13 Chair Chang: Sure. I just didn’t know if we wanted to speed things along but if – do you want to 14 start, Commissioner Templeton? 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: Do I desperately want to speed things along before I fall asleep on 1 my tablet here but – sure. I mean the… 2 3 Chair Chang: Turn to Page… 4 5 Commissioner Templeton: Normally, I would start with finding… 6 7 Chair Chang: Start with Page 30, right? 8 9 Commissioner Templeton: Yeah, we’re on Page 30. Normally, I would start with 1 but 2 is the 10 one that I want to start with, so pardon me for going out of order. But there are benefits that 11 are not otherwise attainable elsewhere and that is expanding this world-class service for this 12 type of care that’s located in our community. I don’t know where else we’d put it, right? Except 13 expanding this site. And that is – that’s the existential question we’ve been wrestling with 14 tonight is, “Well, you have to put it here because it’s a great service.” But other people are 15 saying, “Well, we can’t put it here because it’s here.” But I don’t know where else we would put 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. it because that’s the existing site. So I would love to hear other people’s thoughts about that. 1 But I think that Number 2 is pretty obvious. 2 3 Chair Chang: I’m not seeing any lights. Well, I will go. I cannot make – so I can certainly make 4 the first finding that the site is so situated in the user’s – that it needs a PC in order to do this, 5 sure. I can’t make the second finding. I don’t have guidance enough here to make clear like how 6 I trade off public benefits versus – like there is some public benefit but it’s a public benefit that 7 is very different from say a park or a grocery store or a train because it’s not actually accessible 8 broadly to the public. There is quite a hurdle – a quite expensive hurdle. It’s not care that most 9 – that many people can afford. I called for the rents. And this is rents only, 91 – 8300 to 9100 10 for a one-bedroom; 7450 a month for a studio. And that’s just the rent; that’s not the 11 assessment of care as one data point. My family friend who had a – somebody there this year, 12 it was $11,200 for that person with moderate level of care. I mean – so that’ s just one data 13 point. But it is quite pricey. It is definitely something that’s needed but how do I balance 16, 14 14 additional units versus… 15 16 Commissioner Templeton: Do we take price into… 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: But… 1 2 Commissioner Templeton: …consideration for something like this? 3 4 Chair Chang: …who – right. And it’s unclear to me, right? It’s unclear to me because we don’t 5 have that guidelines. But I don’t think that there’s sufficient public benefit in or-, and it’s not 6 clear to me that it’s a public benefit in that there’s a price of admission. If somebody were to 7 build a gym and say, well, you can only go if it’s – if I pay a membership, and we sort of had the 8 discussion here one time at the PTC… 9 10 Commissioner Templeton: Well, we have gyms like that. 11 12 Chair Chang: Right. No, but is it clear – is that a public benefit? And so we don’t… 13 14 Commissioner Templeton: We just spent the last six months talking about doing that for the 15 public with the gym. So I… 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Not for one that was paid for necessarily. We didn’t know that there would be a 2 price of admission charge and we’ve talked about that philosophically. 3 4 Commissioner Templeton: There’s a price for admission to [inaudible 238:57] a pool. I mean we 5 have public things that cost money but… 6 7 Chair Chang: Yeah. 8 9 Commissioner Templeton: …I hear your point. 10 11 Chair Chang: Yes. So I mean there’s a different level here and I don’t know where that is and in 12 my judge-, in my estimation, I can’t make that finding and I also can’t make the third finding. 13 Because I don’t think that this compatible with existing potential uses on adjoining sites or 14 within the general vicinity based on what the neighbors have been saying as well as based on 15 our own code and ordinances that say what a PC is supposed to do. And that it’s supposed to 16 mirror certain – like a R− if it’s adjacent to an R1, then it needs to mirror that on the setbacks. 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 as a result, I can’t make the findings for the back nine units, I believe it is. So those are 1 my thoughts on – with respect to those findings. We have Commissioner Akin. I don’t know 2 what the order was. Commissioner Akin, Commissioner Summa, and then Commissioner 3 Hechtman, I believe. 4 5 Commissioner Akin: Okay. First a question. Do you also want comments on the architectural 6 findings or are those considered cast in stone? Cast in concrete. 7 8 Chair Chang: I think we can [whatever 239:47]. 9 10 Jennifer Armer: You are – that is among the findings that are listed… 11 12 Commissioner Akin: All right. 13 14 Jennifer Armer: …that you are considering tonight. 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Akin: Okay. Just checking to make sure. All right. So in general, I support nearly 1 all the findings, so I’m just going to run through the ones that I have objections to. My concerns 2 with planned community Finding Number 3 are the same as Chair Chang’s. It’s not clear to me 3 that the new development is compatible with the existing uses on the adjacent sites. And 4 originally as I wrote my notes, I said nor is it compatible with the requirements of the code, so 5 now we say it’s not compatible with the loosely-defined guidelines of the code. I’m also having 6 trouble with architectural review Finding Number 2D; this is about transition in mass and 7 character. That also appears to be inconsistent with the code guidelines. And it’s certainly – 8 based on personal observation, it’s not harmonious with the adjacent R1 uses. And the concern 9 there is that I think that’s already true to some extent but the project increases the degree of 10 the inconsistencies substantially. I also have trouble with architectural review Finding 2E. It’s 11 hard for me to understand and I wish the ARB chair was here. But it’s hard to see how living 12 conditions in the adjacent residential areas are enhanced. I would say they’re degraded in 13 terms of natural lights certainly, and parking and traffic issues possibly. It’s a little hard to say 14 because the TDM isn’t defined well enough to see how much support is actually there for that. 15 16 And that leads me into architectural review Finding Number 4. It’s not clear that this is a 17 functional design because the traffic and parking issues haven’t been addressed and the TDM 18 doesn’t address them. Ms. Armer. 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Jennifer Armer: Sorry to interrupt. I did actually get some clarification from Mr. Yang and he 2 advised that your focus really can just be on the three findings for the planned community. That 3 the architectural review findings really are more the purview of the ARB and I apologize for that 4 misdirection. I’m used to a Planning Commission that does both. 5 6 Commissioner Akin: Okay. I suspected that might be the case but – all right. So to wrap − yes, I 7 have greats suspicions about things that are outside my purview but of those that are inside my 8 purview, I have a lot of trouble with planned community Finding Number 3. 9 10 Commissioner Summa: All right. Then I won’t tell you anything about the architectural review 11 findings, but I will tell you that I cannot make Finding 2 and I cannot make Finding 3. Finding 2 12 about the public benefits, I actually thought – but maybe I’m wrong. I read that the three public 13 benefits offered for the existing Palo Alto Commons – those were – I thought those were – 14 when I read the Staff Report, those were at the initial time back 14 years ago. Those aren’t 15 being suggested as public benefits for this addition, right? 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Emily Kallas: Yes. I don’t know if Mr. Yang has any input on why that’s part of the format of the 1 ordinance. 2 3 Commissioner Summa: Well, so anyway, those are public – oh, sorry. 4 5 Albert Yang: Oh, I guess I would just say we – you can. We consider the benefits of the project 6 as a whole, including the existing structures but you do not have to. 7 8 Commissioner Summa: Okay. Yeah, because I thought those things like the 100K − it’s not 9 million − to [Avenidas 244:26] was something that happened once in the past and they’re not 10 offering that again. So outside of that, I don’t find public benefit here. And I’m – it was kind of 11 surprising to me because recently we had a very small project on a very small lot on a little 12 street called Ellsworth and for the new PC, which is a little lot that broke off from the old PC – 13 just to sum it up really quickly, we had six public benefits. And I just – I don’t see the public 14 benefits here. So that is a real problem for me. And then I just – it’s not possible for me to 15 consider it compatible with the rest of the neighborhood. It’s certainly compatible with what’s 16 on El Camino Way but not with the other part of the neighborhood. So thank you. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Commissioner Templeton. Oh, sorry. Commissioner Hechtman. Then Templeton. 1 Thank you. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: So you know what? As I read these three PC findings, it’s pretty clear 4 to me that at least the first two were designed with a new PC in mind. And that’s why, I think, 5 it’s a little bit of an awkward fit here because we don’t have a new PC here; we have an existing 6 PC that we’re amending. And that doesn’t happen maybe often enough in Palo Alto for us to 7 think about a separate set of findings for them. But I think as we look at these findings, we have 8 to keep that in mind that we have to adapt what was really for a new project − to adding to an 9 existing project. And so I think for me − again the project is to add 16 units to a 121-unit facility. 10 And so the site is so situated that if you go someplace else, it won’t allow the proposed 11 development. Well, that’s true here because this is the only place where the 16 can be added 12 to the 121. And again, it’s an odd fit here because really what these first two findings are meant 13 for with a new PC is do we really have to use a PC here, right? If there’s some regulations we 14 have, some other zoning district, that this concept − that we can make it fit. And it's only where 15 it won’t fit in a traditional zoning district that you need the flexibility of a PC, and so that’s why 16 you have these findings. 17 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 that’s why I think it’s not a good fit here but Finding 1, we meet the intent. This is the place 1 to add these units as a PC amendment to an existing structure. And the second is really kind of 2 more of the same. Its development will result in public benefits that you can’t get somewhere 3 else in a more traditional zoning district. And again, that’s true because the possibility to add 16 4 units is presented to us really only here in this PC. So it’s an odd fit because it’s existing but 5 that’s what it means. And in terms of public benefit, I think it’s pretty clear now in the law of 6 Palo Alto. And I was trying to remember if it’s actually stated in the housing element that 7 housing is a public benefit. Period. Housing is a public benefit. And that’s not housing that the 8 public can go into because that’s not housing. There’s no housing that the public can wander 9 through. It’s all going to be housing for particular individuals who benefit from that housing and 10 the cost is also not relevant because we need housing at – for members of our community at 11 every level. And that includes assisted living facilities for people who can’t afford care and we 12 need assisted living facilities for people who can afford the best care. We need the whole range 13 and all of it is a public benefit. So I think Number 2 can be made. 14 15 And then Number 3, I do think, for the reasons really expressed in the Staff Report, that this 16 development with its meeting of the daylight plane applicable to this development, that’s really 17 what establishes its compatibility, is by honoring that plane and staying within it. It provides the 18 amount of air and light guaranteed by that plane. So that’s why I think in this transition use, 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. which I agree with Commissioner Summa that this absolutely is, that’s what makes it 1 compatible. Thanks. 2 3 Chair Chang: Commissioner Templeton. 4 5 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. I really like what you said about Finding Number 1; this is 6 the only place we’re going to add these. You said it much better than I did in my flailing about 7 to try and get that point but you absolutely nailed it. For Finding Number 2, just thinking about 8 some of the things that have been discussed here tonight, and particularly the comments that 9 Chair Chang made, I’m wondering if we can understand public benefits in a way that we can 10 make it clearer to all the parties involved and what role can we play as the Planning 11 Commission in helping direct that. So the two things I’m thinking of are the parking program. 12 We should establish a parking program for that part of Ventura and the Company that would 13 benefit from it should make sure that that doesn’t cost the residents for that program. That 14 would be a public benefit, right? Instead of having to pay the $50 fee for your little sticker or 15 whatever, you have that covered for some period of time while establishing the program. So 16 that’s a possibility. And the other is thinking about the uses of the street that will be affected. 17 On the public side of the street, on El Camino Way, you’re right, like students are using that, 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. people who are going to Gunn and Keys and other neighborhood uses as well as the business 1 uses. 2 3 If that area needs to be improved, let’s make that part of the project too and find ways to figure 4 that out and make sure – like if those two things were addressed, the benefit to the public 5 would be very clear, right? The neighbors would not have people parking in places where they 6 shouldn’t and the area affected by this development would be safer. So those are some 7 possibilities that we could suggest to Council instead of kind of completely putting the brakes 8 on it. We could say, “This would be a better version of this project.” Right? That’s something 9 within our capabilities. So if we were to enhance some of the public benefits and make it not 10 just the preexisting benefits but also the additional ability to serve more people in the 11 community but also to make sure that the impact on the neighbors is minimized and that it’s 12 safer for all the users of that street because it will be more congested or whatever reason we 13 want to give for that. So that – it – if that was the case, we could do Finding Number 2 and for 14 Finding Number 3, everything that Commissioner Hechtman said is – I second that. Thank you. 15 16 Commissioner Summa: Are you talking about establishing a residential parking permit program 17 in the neighborhood as part of this project? 18 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Templeton: Well, I don’t know that we can do that but we could recommend 2 that as our feedback if we send this to Council. 3 4 Commissioner Summa: I don’t think so actually because the residential parking permit program 5 rules are all laid out. And it has to start with the residents requesting it and satisfying it and 6 going through a lot of – it’s all – I don’t think we can do that as part of this project. 7 8 Commissioner Templeton: I – we don’t have to accomplish it now. I’m just saying that that – 9 those are ways to sweeten the pot and we have a lot of active residents here who would be 10 happy to hear from experienced people… 11 12 Commissioner Summa: Yeah. 13 Commissioner Templeton: …[inaudible 253:28]… 14 15 Commissioner Summa: But it’s a really… 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 1 Commissioner Templeton: …set those up. 2 3 Commissioner Summa: The program is all laid out how you apply for it and we as a Commission 4 can’t do that. They have to initiate it and it takes – there’s a lot of work you have to do, so I 5 don’t think that can be part of the benefit. 6 7 Commissioner Templeton: You mean right now? 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 10 11 Commissioner Templeton: Yeah. 12 Commissioner Summa: So… 13 14 Commissioner Templeton: So – but I’m – what’s happened is it’s come to us several times and I 15 just want to make sure that people know there are ways to negotiate this through, and I don’t 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 us to look like we’re somehow trying to shut this down because it’s an interesting 1 program, assuming we get this – resolve some of these issues. And Staff is doing their best but 2 it’s really up – as you mentioned, it’s up to the Commons and the neighbors to resolve this. So 3 you’re exactly right. 4 5 Chair Chang: All right. Do we have a motion? Commissioner Akin. 6 7 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on a couple of things. The other problem 8 with the residential parking permit program in this area is that since there are no commercial 9 parking lots, you would have to sell permits for commercial use. So there are a few guarantees 10 here in addition to… 11 12 Commissioner Templeton: I think that’s an interesting problem for our Commons’ folks to 13 consider, right? Like how that – it would affect them, right? 14 15 Commissioner Akin: Yeah, just – I’m just trying to be clear about there are more issues here 16 than that are obvious on the surface. And it affects – would affect not only Palo Alto Commons 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 others in the area. I – speaking to Commissioner Hechtman’s comments on Number 3, I find 1 it – I understand the logic that you’re using to conclude that because the daylight plane 2 requirements are met, that that is sufficient and necessary to meet the requirement of – to 3 meet the finding. But ironically, it’s precisely the choice of the daylight plane that convinces me 4 that this finding is not met because it’s not the daylight plane that is recommended in the code 5 for use in this situation. It’s the version of the daylight plane that was created incorrectly for PC 6 3775 based on the assumption that this was a side lot line, and as we know, it’s a rear lot line 7 and different conditions should have been applied. So it’s – I understand your logic but I find it 8 amusing that it is precisely the same factor which convinces me that I can’t support the finding. 9 10 Chair Chang: All right, colleagues. Do we have a motion? 11 12 Commissioner Summa: I didn’t prepare one but I can try. 13 14 Chair Chang: All right. I can do it too but I want to… 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 would like to advance this project with seven units and specifically the 1 ones that do not face Wilkie and – so that would be the difference. And I think that we need to 2 have some more control over the TDM. I guess that would just say that the TDM should come 3 back to us. Because we just know that TDMs are not really enforceable. If – they are really truly 4 suggestions unlike requirements. But – so that would be – so my motion will be to advance the 5 project with a recommendation that sev-, that it have the seven units that do not face Wilkie 6 and not the other nine. 7 8 Chair Chang: And that the TDM would return to us. 9 10 Commissioner Summa: And that the TDM would return to us. 11 12 Chair Chang: I can second that motion. Okay. 13 14 Commissioner Summa: Would you like to ask me if I want to speak to my motion? 15 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Would you like to speak to your motion? 1 2 Commissioner Summa: No, because I think I’ve spoken enough already. But thank you. 3 4 Chair Chang: Ditto for my second. Commissioner Templeton. 5 6 Commissioner Templeton: Yeah, so you’re suggesting that we move this project forward with 7 seven instead of whatever they started with like 18. 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Sixteen. 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman: Sixteen. 12 13 Commissioner Templeton: Sixteen today but – is that correct? 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Yes. 1 2 Commissioner Templeton: Okay. It’s interesting because it’s going to be hard to navigate how 3 to object to that, so what I would suggest is is there any way you could have more than seven? 4 5 Commissioner Summa: Well, I haven’t been given any information that shows me how to put 6 the other nine without really negatively impacting the lives of people on Wilkie. So seven seems 7 – the 7/9 split was suggested by many of the Wilkie residents themselves and Council can 8 always add it back or the applicant can try to find a way to say, “Well, we’re not happy with 9 seven but we think we can do it with a few more, maybe.” 10 11 Commissioner Templeton: So it’s not the number that you’re going for; it’s the impact on the 12 Wilkie residents that you want to reduce. If there was another way to do that and it was 16, it’d 13 be fine? 14 15 Commissioner Summa: Yeah. 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: Okay. 1 2 Commissioner Summa: If they can come back with a project that keeps the seven that are not 3 facing Wilkie there and if they want to add more in some other way, but that would – they 4 would have to take that to Council. 5 6 Chair Chang: I have a question for you, Commissioner Summa, about your motion because 7 there’s units and then there’s office space also. 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Yeah, I didn’t really address the office space. 10 11 Chair Chang: Right. So I wanted to see if − when you said nothing facing the neighbors, if that 12 was what – we were unclear in our motion about the offices [inaudible 259:54] better on the 13 backside. 14 15 Commissioner Summa: I don’t think the new offices – I realized that right after I said it. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay. 2 3 Commissioner Summa: So yeah. So thank you for bringing it up. I will amend it to say the offices 4 that get – on the first floor that get closer to Wilkie and the nine units that faced Wilkie Way. 5 6 Chair Chang: So essentially you’re saying you would approve – you would recommend 7 forwarding for approval to the Council all the non-, all the construction that’s not facing Wilkie 8 Way? 9 10 Commissioner Summa: Yeah. 11 12 Chair Chang: Okay. 13 14 Commissioner Summa: And I wish that we had had in the plans, like numbered or lettered units, 15 so I could be more specific but that wasn’t presented to us that way. 16 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay. So if that’s your amendment then, I would second that amendment too. 2 Okay. And then Commissioner Hechtman had some comments. 3 4 Commissioner Hechtman: Yeah, so I’m seeing the direction this is going. I did hear the Assistant 5 Director of Planning say that if we’re going to make an affirmative motion, which yours is, we 6 need to make the findings. Staff has prepared some findings on Page 30 but I think you have to 7 modify those a little bit to conform to your motion. So for example, in Finding 1, the findings 8 say 16 additional units for a total of 121. I think you have to drop those numbers down by 9, 9 right? If you want to make that finding. In Item 2, I heard your comment regarding the past 10 public benefit and that’s – and we heard Mr. Yang say you can consider it but you don’t have to. 11 So it seems like your version of Finding 2 would be to strike the first sentence and just talk 12 about the public benefit of seven rental units. 13 14 Commissioner Summa: I agree that the findings should be edited a little bit to fit the motion. 15 16 Commissioner Hechtman: Okay. And then… 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Female: [Inaudible 262:00]. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: [Inaudible 262:00] we have to give Staff guidance on how you want 4 to do that. So I’m… 5 6 Commissioner Summa: Okay. 7 8 Commissioner Hechtman: …trying to help you out with that. 9 10 Commissioner Summa: Okay. 11 12 Commissioner Hechtman: And then I’m going to leave 3 to you. It may be − for your seven-unit 13 motion, it may be written in an acceptable way. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Templeton: But your point is to – we should explicitly make the findings of all 1 three to send this forward. Thank you. 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: Yes. 4 5 Commissioner Summa: Okay. Do I have to put that officially in the motion? Or can… 6 7 Jennifer Armer: Yes. 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Okay. 10 11 Jennifer Armer: Please do. 12 13 Commissioner Summa: So also in the motion would be that Findings 1, 2, and 3 have to be 14 edited to fit the situation, and specifically in 1, that would change the number of units from 16 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. to 7 and it would strike the past benefits. And then I don’t think you have to change anything in 1 3. 2 3 Chair Chang: Three’s okay? 4 5 Commissioner Summa: Yeah. So… 6 7 Commissioner Hechtman: You have a reference to 16 in two places to change to 7? The… 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 10 11 Commissioner Hechtman: …part you’re keeping. 12 13 Jennifer Armer: We can adjust the numbers based on the initial motion. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Okay, so then that’s an amendment to the motion, correct? So I need to second 1 the amendment again. 2 3 Jennifer Armer: Thank you. 4 5 Chair Chang: Okay. I am not seeing additional lights. So let’s just take the vote on this motion 6 then, I guess. 7 8 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Akin? 9 10 Commissioner Akin: Yes. 11 12 Veronica Dao: Chair Chang? 13 14 Chair Chang: Yes. 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Hechtman? 2 3 Commissioner Hechtman: No. 4 5 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Summa? 6 7 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 8 9 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Templeton? 10 11 Commissioner Templeton: No. 12 13 Veronica Dao: Motion carries 3-2. 14 15 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang; Would you like to speak to your no votes? 1 2 Commissioner Hechtman: Well just briefly. I made it clear before the motion that I think all 3 three findings can be made for the 16-unit proposal. And I think even if you were looking to 4 take out your scalpel, I think it’s really hard to justify not making all three findings retaining the 5 4 second-floor units on the Wilkie Way side because I thought those were minimal impact as I 6 think is true with the office, although I don’t know how passionate the applicant is about 7 retaining those. 8 9 Commissioner Templeton: I also would have supported had we not struck 9. I think seven is too 10 few for this particular opportunity. We really need this [inaudible 264:51] to expand in Palo 11 Alto. Thank you. 12 13 Chair Chang: Okay. So I think we’ve finished this item. That brings us to our second action item 14 for the evening where I believe what we need is somebody to make a motion to continue it to a 15 date certain, which would be next Tuesday, the 17th. So… 16 17 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. 3. Recommendation on an Ordinance Implementing Programs 3.3A, B, and D and 1 3.4A-D of the Housing Element, Including Modifications to: 1) Chapter 18.14: 2 Housing Incentives to Update Regulations for the Affordable Housing Incentive 3 Program (AHIP) and Housing Incentive Program (HIP); 2) Section 18.40.180: Retail 4 Preservation; and 3) Modifications to Base Zoning Districts Throughout Title 18. The 5 Addendum to the Comprehensive Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR), 6 considered by the City Council on April 15, 2024, analyzed potential environmental 7 impacts of the 6th Cycle Draft Housing Element including Programs 3.3 and 3.4. 8 9 Commissioner Hechtman: So moved. 10 Chair Chang: Okay. Would you… 11 12 Veroncia Dao: We need Commissioner… 13 14 Chair Chang: Do we need to call… 15 16 Veronica Dao: …Lu and – yeah. 17 18 Chair Chang: Do we need to ask if Commissioner Lu and Commissioner Reckdahl can come 19 back? I think… 20 21 Jennifer Armer: We can check to see if they are still here. 22 23 Chair Chang: Yeah, Commissioner Summa – oh, they are troopers. Okay. So we have a motion 24 on the table, which is to continue the second action item, the third item to a date certain, 25 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. which will be next Tuesday, December 17. And Mr. Hechtman has made that motion and I will 1 second that motion. Do we have any discussion on that motion? Wonderful. Let’s take a vote 2 on that, please, Ms. Dao. 3 4 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Templeton? 5 6 Commissioner Templeton: Yes. 7 8 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Summa? 9 10 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 11 12 Veronica Dao: Vice-Chair Reckdahl? 13 14 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Yes. 15 16 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Hechtman? 17 18 Commissioner Hechtman: Yes. 19 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers. 3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers. Veronica Dao: Commissioner Lu? 1 2 Commissioner Lu: Yes. 3 4 Veronica Dao: Chair Chang? 5 6 Chair Chang: Yes. 7 8 Veronica Dao: Commissioner Akin? 9 10 Commissioner Akin: Yes. 11 12 Veronica Dao: Motion carries 7-0. 13 14 Chair Chang: Okay. Our next order of business is approval of minutes. We’ve got the approval of 15 the draft verbatim and summary minutes for October 30, 2024. 16 17 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 18 4. Approval of Planning & Transportation Commission Draft Verbatim & Summary 19 Minutes of October 30, 2024 20 21 Commissioner Summa: I’ll move to approve. 22 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Oh wait, we’ve got another set actually. 2 3 Male: We’ve got to split them. 4 5 Chair Chang: We’ve got to split them. All right. So, Commissioner Summa moves to approve the 6 draft verbatim and summary minutes for October 30, 2024. Do we have a second? 7 8 Commissioner Akin: Second. 9 10 Chair Chang: Did you miss it? 11 12 Commissioner Summa: No, not October 30. 13 14 Chair Chang: Discussion? Let’s do a – I’m allowed to do a voice vote, right? Okay. All in favor? 15 Aye. 16 17 Commissioner Summa: Aye. 18 19 Commissioner Templeton: Aye. 20 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Akin: Aye. 2 3 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Aye. 4 5 Commissioner Lu: Aye. 6 7 Chair Chang: Opposed? Abstentions? 8 9 Commissioner Hechtman: I abstain. 10 11 Chair Chang: Commissioner Hechtman abstains. So this motion passes 6-0-1. All right. Second 12 set of minutes on the docket is the draft verbatim and summary minutes of Oct-, November 13. 13 14 5. Approval of Planning & Transportation Commission Draft Verbatim & Summary 15 Minutes of November 13, 2024 16 17 Commissioner Hechtman: Move approval as revised. 18 19 Commissioner Akin: Second. 20 21 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Chang: Discussion? None. Okay. All in favor? Aye. 1 2 Commissioner Templeton: Aye. 3 4 Commissioner Akin: Aye. 5 6 Commissioner Hechtman: Aye. 7 8 Commissioner Lu: Aye. 9 10 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: Aye. 11 12 Chair Chang: Any opposed? 13 14 Commissioner Summa: I’m – no. But I’m going to abstain because I think I missed that meeting. 15 But I’m sorry I forgot to double check. 16 17 Chair Chang: Okay. So it sounds like the motion has passed 6-0-1 also. 18 19 _______________________ 1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually. 2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes 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 Questions, Comments or Announcements 1 Chair Chang: All right. Final order of business. Commissioner Questions, Comments, 2 Announcements, or Future Meetings and Agendas. And I did have one thing that I wanted to 3 say which is after the grueling manual recount, I am really pleased to congratulate our two new 4 Council members who are here in our presence today. So Commissioner Lu and Vice-Chair 5 Reckdahl, congratulations. So yay, hooray. And we hope we’ve got a direct line to you now. 6 7 Vice-Chair Reckdahl: It’s not going to matter though. 8 9 Chair Chang: All right. That was my little comment. Does anybody else have anything else that 10 they would like to add? 11 12 Commissioner Summa: I’ll just add my congratulations to the same two people. 13 14 Chair Chang: Okay. With that, our meeting is adjourned. And I will see you in six short days. 15 Adjournment 16 10:32 PM 17 18 /ls 19