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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0257.093~. . . " 0 ~ ,'," , .. ' . April '2, lSI) HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL P.llo AltQ, California Attention: Poljcy and S2r~i~es Committee DRAFT DOWNTOWN URB"-tL.QESIGN PLAN Members ~f the CounCil: '" --;-'":i 5 report was prepared for tile May 4~ 1993 rne€ting of the Fol i'Cy and S2rV'IC€s Comittee At the City Council meetir.9 of February 22, 1993, the Urban Design Comittee presented the :Jraft Downtown Urban Design Plan to the Council, A publit: hearing 'Was held on the draft Plan following the presentation. Several persons spoke regarding the Plan, including three downtown property Qwners concerned about the Plan's references to pri\late property and the potentiai for these "guidelines" t.o be 'Jsed as inflexible regulatiof1s. Following Council's questioning about the intent, use and possible future revisions to th€: Plan, the Draft Downtnwn Urban Design Pian .... as referred t.o the POlicy and Services Committee on .3 9-\1 \lote. Based on comments made by indiVidual Council Members. issues to be discussed by the Policy and Services Committe~ include: 1) ReView of how the Plan and its co~cepts and g~idelines ~ere developed by the Committee ever the last four years {see staff discussion on pa~e 1 of t~e attac~ed Planning Conmission st~ff report dated Dec~mber 4. 1392J~ 2) Concerns raised by several property OWf1ers that the PTan ;s too bindif1g and could be us€d to limit flexibilitj and creativity {see pages 2 and 3 of Planning Comm~ssiDn staff rpport); 3) How to ef1Sure the Plan will be 'visionary dnd used to inspire downtown prDperty owners and merchants, rather t~an dictate the design of their projects (see pages 2 and 3 of Plannfng Commission staff report); 4) Allocating additional funds to professionally edit and finalize the Plan (see attached letter from Shirley ~ilsQn dated February 18, 1993). CHR:257:93 ----~-~--:: / The verbatim minutes of the Architectural Review Board meetings at ~hjch the draft Plan was d~sc~ssed (November S, 1992 and December 3, }992). and which were not prevlotJs1y distributed, are att;;jchp.d to this repo"rt. If you n~ed anot~er copy of the Draft Urban Design Plan, or any at~er materials related to this ltem, please contact Lori Tapley at the ?lanning Department offices. Respectfully submitted, /"'/;/" NANCY lYTLE Chief Planning Official ~~ City ~anager .// ./ .. <;//' < '7,.M';. >~, ? <'i/" ,·It /. J: {N-i KENNETH R, SCHREIBER ~ Director of Planning and Community Environment A.ttachments: CMR 174:93 dated february 18, j993, ~ithout attachments Planning Con~issjon Staff Report dated Dece~ber 4, 1993, without attachments Letter-from Shi rl ey lJi 1 son dated February] 8. 1993 Excerpt Minutes of February 22, 1993 City Coun~il Maeting Excerpt minutes {:f November 5, ]992 and Dece-:nber 3, i992 ARB Meetings tc: Urba~ Design Committ€e Chop keenan Jim Baer H€nry Gaw Erick Gilbert50n John Hackmann CMR:257:93 ":I~~,c""'" ---,-,-------'" 4/22/93 Page 2 • .. ' \ ~.--~~-----.~------------------------- ...... . " Febru.ry 18, 1993 HONORABLE CITY tOUNCIL P.l0 Alto, (alifornia PRAFT POWNTOWN URBAN DESIGN PLAN Memb~rs of t~p. CounCil: Report in B'I"~ef Th1s report ~ummarizes pu~licJ ad~isQry bo~rd a~1 Comm,ssion 'c~~er.ts and recurrmendaUons on the Drift Downtown L1rban Design Plan. !t also requests City Council review and co~nt on the draft p1an, and re:ommends City CounCil adt1ptiol1. PhCy5SiQ~ After fo~r years of hard ~ork, the Urban Design Committee has produced a Draft Urban Design PTan for consideration by the City CounctJ. Background inforaation related to the preparation of the plan, including a summary of comments received during public outreac~ to downtown merchants, property o~ners, ne~9hbors, and re~iew by th~ Arthitett~ri' Re~1e~ Board. the Historic Resources Baard and the Pub-1ic Art Corrrniss1on. is contained in the attached report to tl"!@ Phnnin9 Com.iss~u'" dited O@cemo:e:-(, lSg3. The Planning COlMlission reliiewed the Draft Plan it their meeting of December 9, 1993 and unanimously r"ec:ommendea' adoption of the plan by the Cit., Council {minutes are included in tMe Council's packet). The Uti Titles Advisory (ommission reviewed the plan at their ~eeting of December 2. 1993 (minutes attached). Significant cOlTJTlents and recolTl11endatio,"ls of the Planning COITiTI;ssion and the Utilities Ad'o'isory Comission, which are not already addressed in the December 4 Planning Commission Staff Report, ar~ summarized beiow. All of the v~Tic~s groups, boards and commiss;ons which r~viewed tne pliln expressed enthusiasm and support for the p'a~. Planning Commission Comments ENTRIES: Cancern was expressed that Alma/El Camino Real should I'IOt be emphasized as an entry to downto:;m, especially in lig;,t of the City's CKR:174:93 I I - • stated -desire to not have Alma link. to Sand Hill Road. The Kidd1efield/University et~try se'!ms to .. ark fine now. so there is discomfort ~;th the idea of emphasi2irg higher density hQusi~g in this area. (Marsh) BUILDING MASS: The pl.ln talks about how building mass shiJu~d be focused at the corners in order to anchor intersecticns. Some concern was expressed that mass does not always equat~ to an impioved pede~trian experience, and that this plan should not necessarily encourage increased building mass at the corners. (~a~sh, Cullen) PLMINEO COMMUN,TY ZONE PUBLIC BENEF1TS: The 1ist of items, which might .qualify as public beneftts for Planned Community Zone projects. needs to be comp.ared to the original list of desired downtown amenities d.a'oleloped several years ago. The pla~ sh~uld clarify that tnis 1ist has a lot of things whic:n would be nice, but would b~ lIery minimal public benefits in and of themselves. (Marsh. Cu1len) NEIGHBORHOOD PROTECTION: Protection of residential neighborhoods need~ to be emphasized more, with specific ide~s, in the discussion of transition edges. (Ojakian) lETTER FROM JIM BA£R: The Commission rec~iv~d a lett€r at the me~tin9 from Hr. Baer regarding his CMcerns and cCIll'1'f2nts on the plan. The Comission agreed 'With Mr. Baer that there should be better empnas;s of tne plan as ~guide'lne~ rather thin regulation, and that specific references to Liddicaats (i.e., private property) shou1d be removed fram the plan. Staff also agrees and sees no problem including tMese changes. utilities Advisory Commission Comments The Commission 9€ne~ally 5upported the Draft Plan and indicated that in the future they lIIould be open to discussing ways t~ impro're the app~arance of necessary utility st~uctures in the downtown. New 1~ghtin9 for the downtown area 15 a utilities CIP it~m to be implemented in the nea" future. Careful consideration of the-tipe of light fixtures used would be necessary. Next Steps staff is r~commendin9 that the City Council adopt tne Draft Urban Design Plan and direct staff to produci! a final plan incorporating ccrrrnents receh'ed by the pub1ic, boards and comrnission~ and ths Council. The City Council originally approved a budget of S25,000 to produce the Urban DeSign Plan. That money was used mostly to pay for the services of a consultant. who facilitated the early meetings of the Committee and produced a CMR: 174:93 1/18/93 ~:\an'lu"-=-. Page 2 , ! : __ ~_·_~_F~~'~ __ "'''''''''''. !I'lit ~_w __ ~<,. number of the graphics in the plan (the remainder of the graphics ..... ere produced voluntarily by Robert Fr.n~ of the Urban Design Committee). Of the total $25,000, approximate1y $4,300 remains. Staff be~ieves that this amount is suffiCient to finalize the document in tn~ following manner; Finalize graphics without making significirtt sty1e or content changes (all graphics in black and white); Produce final coyer art in t ..... o co1ors~ Incorporat! changes based on comm~nts received from !he publj~, boards and co~fssions and tcunci1; In -house xerox pri nt i r.g I 1000 cop i es . If tn! final doc~ment were produced based on the above, it would look very similar to the draft in terms of qua1ity and content. However. due to cur curren! workload, the staff resources necessary to finalize the p1al'! (il1corpo,rate comments, word processing and graphics layout), would not be avaiTable f{Jr si.x !TlOnthL Staff would anticipate releasing the final plan in late Slli1Jil.er. Recorrmendation Staff rEcommends that the City ~ounc;l: 1) Adopt the attached Negative Declaration of environmental impact; 2) Adopt t~e Draft Urban Design Plan; 3J Djrett staff to produce the final Urban Design Plan. responding to comments received from the pub1ic, boards and commisSions and thE Council. Respectfully submitted, IJh"rr~ /{T NAACY l fTlE / Chief Planning Official \ I I ~" Ci~;~~~:~~~ ~ CMR:I74:93 ~,e./~ KENNETH R. SCHREIBER 7 Director of Planning and Community Environm!nt 2/18/93 Page 3 • Attachments: Negative Declaration P1annfng Commission staff report of 12/4/92 with attachments Excerpt of ARB min'Jte' of 1l/5/92 .. d 12/3/92 Excerpt of Utilities Advisory Commlssicon Minutfs of 12'/2/92 letter from Jim Baer dated DecembEr 9, ]992 Draft Urban Cesigr. Plan (Council Memb~rs onlY) Ct: Urban [j~sigll Ccmrn'ittee Chop Keenan Jim Baer CMR:174:93 p:\e!'IW"",*"cmr . "-"....., lija/93 Page 4 - December-.. , 199:2 PLAfiN1N" COK~ISSION Pale Alto, California Members of the CommisSion: PrQject OescriQ1iQn Cit~ of :palo )lIto ~.j BOX lN50 I'~L(J .Io'.iD, CA g~'.r,] Tnis report summar~zes public, advisory board and commission comm~nts and recolMlendations on the draft Downtown Urean Design Plan. It a1so requests Planning Corrrnission review and recommendation{sl on the draft Plan that It'il1 be submitted for City Council consideration and final action in January 1993. Background In September 1981, following compl~tion and implementatiDn of the Downtown Study in 1;86 ar.d City Council poltey action on the Downt~wn Arnenfties Committee recom~endations in mid-19B7, the City Council appotnted a t2n-rnember Urban Design Co~ittee (UDtJ to prepare a Downtown Urban Design Plan. The C~uncil's objectlve was to have i design ~la~ for the Downtown Ar~a that would guide future development and identify approprjate public improvement within the context of previously approved policies and regulat~ons for the Downtown Area. The volunteer Cormllttee met extensive1y over a four·year period in developing infcnaatfClor'l and uTt1mate1y concepts and graphic ilhstratio!1s that would be ino:orporated within the d,..-aft Plar'J. This draft .plan wH completed and distributed for public revie'. in August 1992. Subsequently. members of the Urban Design Committee and staff met and discussed the Plan on six occasions in ~tober 1992, with various Do~town interest grou~s, including mercnants~ property owners, other business. owners and nearby neighbors. O·ver 700 notic~s were sent to these indivfduals and businesses announcing the availability of tnis draft Plan and the date and location of the six outreach meetings. In additfon, the draft Plan was reviewed by the Public Art Commission, Historic Resource-s 8.:1ard [HRBJ, ArchHecture Review Board [ARB]. and Utilities Advi:icry Co:m1s.sion [U'AC). All Boards and COn11l1ssions who ha:\le revie!\lfed the Plan to date~ endorse it enthusiastically. 12/04/92 Page J - ~"" The dr,aft Downtown Urban Desigl'l PTan i:i int.ended "tn enhance the qualitj of downtown and €':nsur~ that it retains its appeal anj attractiorr." ihe draft Plan emphasizes that it is intend'?d to guide dm.mtollin de .. ~lDpment aTid amE:l'1itif!s and is Dot intended to be bind'!19 or regu1,;;,t'Jr), in naturE". The Committee fo:""Waro's tfli:! Plan with the hupe that jt IIIill inspir.: pri .... ate action, rather than demana' it. The Plan can become a <:atalys"t fer advocacy for pubiic improvements ir. the Downtown. The COlMllttee acknowledges that the Phn captures SOmE ideas and concF.pts. Most concepts will undQubtedly be modifi~d. slightly or radically. in their later de~elopment. Some of tne ultimate goals are lik~ly to be accomplisned in wa~s that .ere not envisioned or antlclpated by the COrmlittee. Tnerefore, t.~e Plan should be 'IIiewed as a tool and resource, rather than a requirement; an inspiration rather thin a regulation. Staff and the ."RS Ire CC:llTl1'.itted' to being .... ery flexible and open minded in their application nf the Plan. The Committee intends the Plan to be fluid and realizes that the individual .... ·ariables relatirlg' to any single property or situation will have a g,fat deal to do with the ultimate design solutions, and there is a need for creativity and responsi .... eness to those variables. For the Pian to be successful it should to be embraced by the property and business oitltners J not for<:ed upon them. rmplem~ntation;s expected over the long rather tnan the short term. Things will occur ."h1cn II/ill "date-the document and it should never become a constraint to innovation. That resu1t would be contrary to its intent ,and pyrpose. Summary of CDmments and Recommendations on tne Plan To date, most members of the public and ~ll of the ad~isory boards and commissions have been very suppo~tive of the Plan. Criticisms nave focused on severa1 areas. Us,: of the Pl an Some individuals, particularly tne major Downtown property owners Jjm Baer and Chop Keenan, ~aye expressed concern that staff and the AR3 will use the Plan ,as a regulatory device rather than a gt;ide1ine for impro .... ed qUil1ty. Mr. Saer is satisfied that the Plan will not be misU'sed if it is adopted wHh a set of instructions to st,aff and the ARB not to use the P1an as a basis to deny projects with referenc! to it. A1so, he would prefer t~at the reference to the liddicoat's building be de1eted. Mr. keenan has requested that any reference to private property and arch; tecture be removed from the Pl a.n in order to pre .... er.t another layer Df ~lonlng" for the Downtown. Staff has gone t~ some length to assure these property owners that the document will not be applied rigidly, but it is understandable that they ... in require City Council aSsurance on how the Plan will be used beforE they irE comfortabl e. 12/0V92 Page 2 Irr'hne staff and the ARB ~ntend to be flexible j" ~ppl.Ying the guidelines, It c~n~ct b~ ign~red that public space is formed and framed by the buildings which surrcund it. This is a fundamental principle of urb~n design. Deleting ali ref!rence to private proper!1 ~Duld f;!'im~fla.te the three~dimensional quality of this PTan. which j:; a primary concept being forwarded in the document. Furtnern,ore, while the major property owners are to be c"mplimented for their many si..:ccessfuT contributions to the Down to .... " , it must b€ ac.knowledged tnilt m.ar'11 AR.B applicants are not familiar with tne urban frame'lIIork of the Downtown Cllld would benefit from a document w~;ch articulates community expectations prior to designing their project. "The .a.RS reviews hundreds of small applications every year, oftentimes working 'IIith unsophisticated applicants after they have invested in Dlans. Currently the only method for reTaying community expectations in advance of t~e project desig~ is for staff or ARB m-embe)"s to verba1Ty articulate these concepts. This method is unsatisfactory and creat~s undue tension in the process. The verbal comments of an individual staff person or ARB mp.mber are often interpreted to b~ that perso~'s opinion. ratner tha~ a community expectation. On the other hand, an ilTustration i~ the Urban Design Plan can be -worth a thousand words· in explaining to a less sophisticated applicant the benefit of, for example, designing pedestrian district building corners {page 59J ~r putting a ~base on the building' (pages 60 and 61)_ Traffic Nearby residents expressed CD~cern ever in'reas~d traffic into tne neighborhoods, particul.rly if Alma Street was made increaSingly pedestrian orier.ted and canverted into a bouievard. Measures can be taken to visually de-emphasize the automobile without restritting automobile traffic flow. Tree plantings are an example. Pedestrian crOSSings will eventually restrict automDbiles, however~ and it should be acknow'~dged tnat the Alma Boulevard concept is a long-r!ng! aspiration and that further emphaSis on pede!5trhn connections, de­ emp~asizing through t~aff1c, ~ill ne~d to be accompanied in ccnj~nction with measures to address the neighborhood cancern. The intermodal transportaticn concepts now being discus~ed in the -Dream Tearn~ ~ffcrt, to eventual1,y b€ introduced to cit izens in the Comprehensive Plan process, win need to address He neighborhood concerns Dver traffic. It sho~ld be noted that until societj recognizes, through individua1 lifestyle cnoices, the flill cost cf automobiles on -quallty of life,~ there will not be a complett! re.c;olution to this CCinCl!l"'n. However, it cannot be expected that people will ever use their t.ars less if p'lanners and policy-makers do not prc~ide options to the automobile. The design of Alma currently does not prornot~ interrnodal transit. Pedestrtan access to the train and bus station is dismal at best. Bicyclists are not encouraged. Therefore) in order to provide better cholces, consideration of pot~ntial options will require thorough evaluation in the Comprehensive Plan process ~nd support from the neighborhoods. 12/04192 Page 3 7~~:~f;L -, Numer interests expressed frwstration o~er the percei~ed lack of adequ':l parking in the Downtown area. Sum-e ir,r:li~idl!als asked " •• hy some sites ~er~ identified as being suitable for parking structures while other pot~ntia.l sit .... s were ,'lot mentinned. These sites were selected due tG their adequate s.:?:e, clJnfiguratil')l1 and Tocation; howe.,.er~ it is riot the intent of the Committee to redu~e optia~s fer parK~ng snlutior.s, but ~nstead ,,0 suggest 'JpportIJnities. It \fIIas learned during the Downtown outreach that the Chamber of Commerte has a parking committee W'orkir.g on other recommended solutions to the parking deficit. The Urba~ Design Plan is !lot int'!nded to stifle those private efforts and ~ould recommerld th2lit the City remain receptive to any future proposal s. Il:Anll! Some members of thE publ ic s·jggested that the draft PTan emphasize the need to expand and impro .... e-transit, particularly in the context ti'lat improved transit ind a healthy Downtown w€re mutua11y supportive items. The Corrrnittee recognizes this need. 1n fact, tlle "Dream Team" effort, which receivet inspira.tion from ttle Urban Desfgn Plan~ is intended to worK toward emphasizing intermodal transit for the Downtown. The ideas of the "Dream Team~ will eventually be introduced into the Comprenensive Phn process. SOFA business owners sU9gested that the Draft Plan pro~ide guidelines to improve the appearance of c:utomot:ve senice businesses. Th~se guidelines are presented on pages 53 to 55. Small Buflding Expansion One architect suggested that the Plan advocate incentives for improving smaller businesses by allowing modest expansions. This concept could be explored as a folTow-up ordin~nce. A Downtown amenities bonus, similar to the s~i':~lc bonus, cou1d be maoe ava,l1able relati't'ely easi1y if tr,e policy mlkers so desired. Preser'v'at i on The HRB, in endorsing the Draft Plan, urged greater errrphuis on historic preser~ation in the final document. The Committee and staff are ~ery receptive to suggested wording for fir,al p~lb1ication. M..:6rm ~ H/04/92 Page 4 --I News Rc.d.i Staff recei .... ed a comment from a r~presentative of the rltwspaper indu!>try who felt that the discussion on newsracks. whjc~ focuses on repalring and utilizing the existing public newsracks, appears to eliminate oth~r possible arrangements for rle'wsp.aper dispTay. One of the fol1ow tiP assignments to t~is Plan will be to revise the Citj's newsr~(k regulations. Because Here is a legal frameJ.l!Jrk within whit;' cities can reguhte n!wHacks, staff does not want to preclude any reasonable alternatives prier to thorough staff and public review Qf the news rack regulation issue. Therefor~, staff recommends that the Commission should not vie~ the language in the Plan as excluding other options. Staff Recomm~ndati~n Staff recommends t~at th~ Planning Commrssion reco~nd to City Council adoption of the negative declaration and endorsement of the Urban Design Plan. Respectfully s~bm~tt!d. NANCY MADDOX LYTLE Chief Planning Off;,;.1 cc Urban DeSign CC!mIittee Chop Keenan, Keena~ la~d Jim Baer, Premier Propert)es Attachments : Historic Resources Board Minutes of November 8, 1992 Archltect~ra1 Review Board Minutes of N~vember 5, 1992 Public Art Commission Minutes of October 28, 1992, with letter from John Montgomery, Chair Draft Urban Design Plan (or.,io",ly distributed) 12(04/92 Page 5 '. " , , DOWIIoTOWN URBAN DESIGN COMMITTEE Febru.ry 18, 1593 Dear Council Members: The ,attached cost estimate is documentation of tne Dnwntown Urb3n Design COlMlittee's request for (approximate'y) $ 16,600 to ensure a timely end professional publication of the lJrban Design Plan for Downtown Palo AHo. As chair of this corrmittee. I urge you to approve tnes.e requested funds to proli;de the most necessary pol i sning of the draft into a final docum~nt, We of the conmitte.e feel strongly that text editing, formatting. grcphics work and the 3ddition ~f color are essential to the usefulness of this document oS a cOl'llllun;ciltion tool. We are hoping for a fHlished product that has more clarity, Severa.l bodies who nave revjewed this phn, the "'rcnitectlJral Review Soard, Planning Comtission and local arcnitects in particular, share: t,,;s view. As we are a11 awaf2, this project was vastly under funded from the beginnjng_ It has only been through the persevefanc~ and donations of the committee, and the inc!"'ed1t.lt! creativity and hard w~r.k of beth the c.cmmit!€e ar:d ,phnning staff, that WE: were able to get the draft completed under curr€nt filno'ing. We believe that an investment at tnis stage wi11 more than pay for itself over time 'n t~at i cl€arer document ~il1 reduce staff time in explaining concepts when workir,g with project applicants in the future. Please recognize the importancE: of producing an excellent do'~ment tnat ~ill be truly useful, one that expresses iI planning effort that the cOrMiunHj' c.an be proud of an1 inspired by. Ydiurs ruly, , / I, ~f(// k,>~/ 1-'- Shirley Wifson Cha1r, Downtown Urban Design (ornmittee FlNALIZATlO;'i OF l'RBA~ DF.5ICr-; PLA:IO COST ESTlIHA TF.5 The following budget and wCrrlc. assumes contractir:g finalizatior1 of the Downtown Urban Design Plan out tn a company .ipecia1izing in communications, to bp. ed~ted and refGrmatt~d and to sdd (olor district d;Qgr~ms. Graphics* -Produce color district diagrams {Bj c:nd re-do !:t!\'e-ral l1ne drawings Add color Basic Plan dHgrams from poster (over Art -Glossy cover in black and white .. 'ith green tree, inside ~over building key. lOCO copies Text Revisions -fncorporate comments as above, EDIT end REFORMH document for improved presentation and readibility. ready document for printer Printing -Off-set printing ;n~luding color district plans and color Basic Plan diag,ams, IOaO copies 4,100 soo 90D :,500 6,000" • All other graphics bla~k and white ~ith no significant style or content changes •• E!:timate Only TOTAL; $ 19,000 .'L.L...$,QQ 10,7; Contingency 20,900 :......!...300 Remaining Budget S 16,600 REQUESTED FOP. FINAIIlING OOIiNTOWH URBAN DESIGN PLAN , ·;;~~~;r - PUBLIC HEARINGS ,. PUBLIC H~ARING: Downtown Urban Design Plan Mayor McCown declared the public Hearin9 open4 Chop Keenan, 700 Emerson Street, referred to a letter to the city council from a l"umJ:'ler of the property ownE'rs in the Downtown area (on file in t:he city Clerk's Office). He suggested the Downtown Urban Design Plan be referred back to the Urban Design Committee with direction to work with mercha.nts i:lnd property owners most affected by the plan to massage the public advocacy of the public areas. He was concerned about the "guidelines R becoming policies and ordinances having to de with architecture iI". the private property areas.. Tbe City had clearly defined zoning ord.inances and had a competent staft and Architectural Review Board {ARB)~ The process Y4S understanaable and it challenged the indlviQuality of each propertYJ the craativity of individuals, and the self-interest of proparty owners. He was concerned about the city's ml.crQmanagiug private prope.rty areas.. I.n the Emerson corridor and the area of South of Furest Avenue (SOFA), private owners expressed themselves on t.heir private property within the cc.ntext of the zoninq ordinances. As a ~esult, a seriously needed grocery store was constructed Downtown by the private sector ~ith some patience by the public sector. He encouraged COl.l.ncil to r.aturn the plan to the-Urban Design Committee to 'Work on the very strong public r ight­ of-vay aspects of the plan. JiQ Baer, 532 Channing Avenue. said in 1988 alley systems which led to Plaza Ramona were formulated in the Oownto~n Urhan Design Plan. The interior alley systems ~e~e needed to create qr~ater pedestrian flo~1 and there was also a~ ill-defined notion that there should be node5~ since 1999, the process had reached beyond the areas where it had the greatest expertise to -the Drea~ Team~ and ~~e inter­ relationship bet.een Town , Country Village, the trban Lane area, Stanfor~ University. San Francisquitc Creek, MacArthur Park, and the Red Cross facility. It. .. "as important to have significant participa.tion from interested Downtcvn property o-.mers. While property owners were promised the plan would be interpreted with flexibility. they were not confident that was currently the case at either the staff or the ARB level or that it ~ould be in 10 years when a plan was adopted and ~cved to the status of regulations. Po~ example. after expressing repeated concern that the plan would %'lot lead to flexible application of design criteria but rather 02/22/93 70-14) ,~ ____ ---<I' - -: ..... -.. ' rigid application, on January 4, 1993, 578 University Avenue, at the corner of University Avenue a~d Webster Street, ~hich housed Merrill Lynch for over 25 years, "'as before the ARB. fA motion \lias made to encourage the entry to that office be mcved to Webster Street since tt-l€ Urban Design Plan viewed Webster street as an important gateway. While the motion failed~ it .. -as the kind of thing that led to the concern about the exte~t to which the plan ~oved from a vision for the Downtown ar.d the public right-of-way into a vision for the specific design of buildings. Notwith­ st.anding Mr~ Keenan's cc!lt.'"'O.ents about the AH..E's accountability, there were periods when that might not be true, and the risk was an applicant would have to appeal to the Council. In January 1991, he, Chop Reenan, and Wa~ren Thoits attended a meeting with two City planners to determine 'Whether there '-.oIas support for the nodes, alley treatments, and urban amenities. In that meeting he and Messrs. ~eenan and Thoits expressed concerns about the impact on private property rights and requested their participation be allowed. No plan ~as drafted at that point. In September 1991, upon receiving a draft of the Downto\:o'1:"'l Urban Design Plan, they wrote letters to the city setting forth a number of problems and spoke to a couple of council Members. FroQ their exp~rience, the Urban Design Committee seemed to think it knew what was best for their collective $500 million in .... estmerlt. Despite repeated input, their requests and ideas regarding their private property were rejected. Henry Gaw re.presented eN Capital which owned 525 tTniversit} Avenue. He had seen the Downt.own Urbar. Design Plan and its various modifications although eN Capital was never consulted about it. eN Capital was pl~~inq a plaza expansion at 525 University Avenue and did not know what its plan versus the Downtown Urban Design Plan would look like. He was concerned there needed to be cooperation with various building owners ~nd urged the COW'lcil to continue approval of the matter until that occurred. Erick Gilbertson, 215 Oakhurst PlaCE, Kenlo Park, generally supported tbe. Downto\l!l Urban Design Plan but took exception 'w'ith the ~otion that Alma Stre~t between El Camino Real and the Downtow~ 'Was qenerally unattractive and hazardous. He believec! the area .·as an excellent bicycle route · ... dth great site lines, directness, and few stop signs. There needed to be more similar bicycle routes. He hoped the bridge would someday connect Alma Street from both Menlo Park into Palo Alto and. that there .. ould be a bicycle/pede­ strian crossing at Alma Street and £1 Camino Real to pull in people comi.nq from points west. The Dcwnto'WTI Urban Design Plan .needed to consider the pedestrian rights that modern design and traffic engineering did not. There needed to be 20 feet of site clearance before intersections if one was serious abo~t pedestrian safety. People with strollers had to push the stroller ou~ because oftentimes a parking space 'Was more valu2l.ble 'than site clearance. At some intersections it would help if right tUrns ~ere prohibited on red lights to keep the cars out of the crosswalks. He urged caution with the use of grade separations. HE: suggested less parking downtown and more housing in its place. Downtown property owners could make better use of available parking if fences did not 02J22/93 70-144 'L '!:- ., .. - -, surround some parking areas so these areas could be util ized at night. Jot~ Hackmann, 235 Embarcadero Read, spoke on behalf of the Friends of the Embarcadero and zaid: walkability '.as one of the i.ilost i~portant things in the desirability of Palo Alto, He associated ~ith the comments ot Mr. Gilb€rtson and said if Palo Alto vanted to improve its walkability. there needed to be :more direct limitations on the actiYity of the automobile. While the City and tax structure ... ·ould benefit trom more development, people enjoyed the activities and services offered by the variety of activities in Palo Alto, and a lot of resistance resulted from the impact or the automobile on individuals as they attempted to use the facilities. ThE Friends of the Embarcadero lidS a group of nAighbors in Professorville and old Palo Alto who sought to improve the situation on Em.barc~6e1:o Road specifically bet ..... een Kiddlp.!ield Road and Alma Street. He suggested the possibility of a traffic commis­ sion or a wheel tax. The City also needed to consider whether it should subsidize parking at all. M~yor McCoYn declared the Public Hearing closed. Council MemDer Cobb requested response from a member of the Urban Design committee regarding the issues raised by Messrs. Xeenan, Baer, and Gaw~ Shirley Wilson, Chairpezson of the Urban Design Committee, said she sympathized with the positions expressed by Messrs. Xeenan, Baer, and Gaw~ who could have been members of the committee but chose not to. In terms of 525 University Avenue, she :met twice with the management of the building, and the discussions ~ere positive and healthy about the opportunities, and no real dictates 'Were put forth~ The issues raised in the plan were exactly that--issaes to be looked at. The urban Design committee did not really care how the issues were solved as long as the issues were addressed. The issues had to be discussed, and to take offense t.1;,at an urban design i~sue 'Was raised during an urban design review did not reflect a .illin~es$ to at least look at all aspects of a problem~ Shoe expected that would continue~ In terms of 578 University Avenue, while the motion to move the entrance onto Webster street was defeated for many reasons, it did not negate the fact that the entrance location vas an issue in ter1DS of the Downtow'1l Urban Design Plan or that it shou1.d be forgotten. council Member Cobb asked whether one way to interpret the concerns expressed by the property owners was that somehow the City ~ould end up stepping over the line between .baving issues to discuss to having mandates forced upon the private property owners. Director of Planning and Community Environment Ken Schreiber sympathized ~ith the concerns as a legitimate public policy issue. While the city had the prerogative to establisn writt.en design guidelines, the Downtown Urban Design Plan for the Downtown emphasized that the document was n£.t. intended to be binding or regulatory in nature, and there was no intent for ordinances that 'Would translate specific proposals in the Downtown Urban Design 02/22/93 70-145 ~. -..,. Plan into private prope!'ty regulations. If, ovt2r time, there .... as a tendency on the part ot ~taff or the ARB to use the Downtovn Urban Design Plan in a more ri-';id way than was intended~ it wou11 be appropriate to restructure or relooK at the private sector ,;:eferences in th.e plan or even "garpage" the entire docume.nt. staff did not intend to use the plan as a set of regulations but rather as a set of guidelines, thoughts, a~d ideas people could think about and encourage. He .... as a .... are of the specific situation -mentioned by Mr. Baer at the ARB 'lfleetin9 an':l fo'!"t1.lnately the 1Ootion failed. From what staff told him, staff 'alas su.pportive of the failed moti.on and ~",olJlC! have been very concerned if the motion passed because in the context of the buildil",g it.self, it liould have led to a design situation that would probably not have been very beneficial to the. property owner or to handicapped access. He assu~ed Council he would emphasize strongly to the ARB and other bodies who might use the plan about its intent~ council Member Anaersen asked ~hat the Downtown Urban Design Plan accomplished that the zoning ordinance did not. ("hief Planning Official Nancy Lytle said th5! zoning ordinance provided a set of site development regulations and included things like floor area maximums and setbacks which prescribed msxil!lum development limits for is particular piece of property.. The Oovntown Urban Oesign Plan looked at t,he Downtown as a whole and envisioned what might be accomplished if the public and private sectors worked together to'Ward realizing 90me of the. visions articulated.. While t.lJ.e Downtown Urban Design Plan was 'Within existing zoninq, it went beyond the current zonin9 to see: how individual p~opertie5 related to the Downto_TI in its entirety. Council Me.mbe.r Andersen asked what would happen if he oirll'led 250 University Avenue and went before the staff or the ARB with a plan ~or a reaarkable upgrade vhere the Downtown Urban Design Plan envisioned an ~11ey~ Ms. Lytle sai~ it was hoped the Downtown Urban Design Plan would be embr~ced by people, al'ld people would carry fon"'ard some of its inspization into the design of hisJher project. A project migh~ then provide some of the public benefit, e.g., the a.pplication for 250 University Avenue to obtain extra floor area. council Member Andersen said the ~carrot· 'Was some of the bonuses that could be received. The "stick~ was the document. Ks. Lytle said the ·stick" was not the docume.nt so much as the approval process could act as the "stick." In terms of ho .. ' t.he Downtown Urban Design Plan .. as intended to be implemented, spe referred to page 2 of the Planning Commission's report .... hich articulated "the plan can become a catalyst for advocacy of publi~ improvements in the DOiomtovn. 'II That :$ection of the report 'Was written in response to staff's outreach efforts which had taken place over the past six months and included extensive meetings 'Wi~_ Downtown merchants, owners, and the Palo Alto Chamber of Co~~erce. The three property owners 'Who provided a report 'Were contacted throuqhout the tour-year process at various intervals, even more S~ 02/22/93 70-~46 L ------------------------- -'~lZ: ·"(;tr . lii;l· than other property owners. Th~ Urban Design committee "acknowl­ adged that t.he pl"-n captured som.:: ideas and concepts. Most concepts .. ill undoubtedly be modified slightly or radically in lQ~er development. So~e of the ultimate g~als .. ere likely to be acco&pli6h~d in ways that were net envisioned or anticipated by the Committee. 'I'herefore l the: Plan should be .... ·ie\ied as a tool and reso~ce rather than a requirement~ an inspiration rather than a reg-ulation.- - Council Member Andersen s.aid emphasis had been placed on Cowper Street, and he asked whether that emphdsis ~ould add to the problem of congestion already on that street. He had heard that some people in the area were deeply concerned about the extent of traffic:. Ms. Lytle said traffic congestion and people activity ~ere slightly difterenta The idea or being able to move the a~~omobile in and out of a parking structure at that node ~as important, but there ~i9ht be steps the City could take that would be more efficient in combination with private actions, e.ga, valet parking. It ~as ~~e kind of "making it h~ppen" place that the Plan envisioned for the end of towna Council Member Andersen asked how the document would work in conjunction vith the Compreh~nsive Plan process. Ms. Lytle said the document cou~d be a resource for the Co~prehen­ sive Plan AQvisory Committee (CPACj, could be coordinated vith the future improvements goals identified elsewhere in the co~unity, and could be used to balance ideas in the Plan against other community-wide objectives in order to make recommendations to the counciL The Plan had already led to some thinking about the transit depot and the proposal for a design charette, vhich also had potential if the Council desired to have CPAC conduct further consideration. Ms. Wilson said there had been discussion about ~hether the Plan should be an appendix to the Comprehensive Plan. The Urbdn Design Committee believed it should not be done because the Plan shoulQ not be caught up in a legal system and should be flexible. Vice Hayor :Kniss said since the C01Uprehensive Plan had gone through a number of hearings and discussions by elected policymakers, the Plan being appended to the Comprehensive Flan 'Would net be a discussion pOint. Ms. Lytle replied the process followed in the Plan ... -as not the same as the legal process for the Comprehensive Plan. Ms. Wilson ~as referring to a concept that came up early on and .as abandoned by the Urban Design committee. Vice Mayor Kniss was concerned that the document might appear to look as though it had real validity. She asked how the document could be kept as a vision and as s.omethir_g that evolved over a four-or five-year period and not fall into the category of a 02/22/9) 70-147 ~ 11 l f! , I 1 ;;~~iF-i - 'b~~";:: . , person being told that his/her praject did not fit into the vision or the dr-eam. Ms. Lytle. said the Council needed to spell out clearly unde:-the section of the document that said ~Ho~ does this document get used­ What is its purpose and intent?" that the Plan .... -as not intended to be ussd ~s a regulatory tool. Vice Mayor K..'1.iss was concerned the Plan might take the City doW'n a path that the Council might not ~ant tc go dO~1 particularly since the compre.~ensiye Plan process had just begun and t~e "Dream Team~ had not been discussed. Both of those issues led into a particular direction that the Council had 'not discussed at length }'et~ Council M~mber Huber understood the docu~ent 'Would change over time. He asked if the plan ilere adopted, how the cha.nges would, if any, be made and how thoce changes would be incorporated into the Plan. Ms. Lytle replied after t,he Comprehensive Plan effort was out of the waYr it would be time to relo~k at the Downtown plan and ether areas and bring those areas up to date. The document should: be a tool that did not become outdated, did not work against the City'S purposes, and helped to accomplish goals rather than stand in the way of qoals. council Member Huber asked if many people came to the City with a twenty-first or tventy-second century design but that was not the right architecture at the ti~e, when the City would say that that deSign miqht be the way the Downtown vas headed. Ms. Lytle. said there was a process in place for individual applicants to present their rationale to the ARB. If a person had a better solution or knew specific lnfor.mation about the property that negated whatever the Plan said about the property, it would be appropriate to bring it forward to statf first and then to the ARB~ The ARB was flexible and understcod those var-iables had a more direct implication on the exact development of a property than the conceptual vision. The vision was meant to ir.spire people~ not to direct people. The idea would not ~ork by itself, and the private applicant would have to make the idea come alive, but it might not come alive exactly as the Committee had envisicned. Mr. Schreiber said there vas an annual Downtown monitoring process tul-J.e Council instit\ited at the end of the Downtown Study in 1986. The Planning Commission reviewed the annual Downtown report several weeks ago, and it would be sent to the council in the n~ar future. It would be appropriate if the DOYntown Urban Design Plan was ~pproved to require, as part of that annual monitorinq proce3s, an assessment be made by staff of the number of applications and their relationship to the Oowntown urban Design Plan. The council had an annual meetinq with the ARB, and as part of that process, the ARB usually provided the Council with an update on its activities during the past year, i.e., the number of applications, trends that the ARB sa., etc. It would also be appropriate, as part of that annual Council/ARB process, to ask staff and the ARB to comment on 02/22/93 70-14B - the status of the Downt.c>'W'rl Urban Design Plan in terms of the applications that were seen during the year ..... hich "'ould help provide a form for individuals both on the Council, ARB, anc! the public to maX2 observations, additions~ or co~rections. council Member Hubgr ~sked if a person had a piece of property that they vanted to develop a~d the vision presented ~as not the same as 'What was currently proposed in the Doomtown t.!rbar! Desiqn Plan, W'hethel' someone would indic::ate that their plan did not comply with the Downtown Urban Design Plan. He asked how much hassle a person would have to go through before approval vas received if a person said Wno~ to all those ~~idelines. Ms. Lytle said the Planning Department provided customer service, and staff tried to put applicants on an agenda proI:lptly~ get him/her to the ARB within time lines that ~ere p~blished, ~nd keep him/her on a schedule because staff recognized that time wa~ ~oney. 'lhe staff's goal 'Wa.s to provide 'resources that would help t.he applicant be successful i~ that process. Even if a person did not share that vision, staff forwarded the application as qlJ.ickly as any other application. The ARB was willing to entertain individual visions with as much enthusiasm as it entertained all applications. Hr~ Schreiber said that situation often occurred. The City had design expec~ations for El Camino Real and other areas which had emerged over time based on the actio~s of ARB, Planning Commission, and the Council on various applications. Staff had guidelines that were provided to applicants which indicated that if an applicant tiled an application by a certain date, he/she could count on being on an ARB agenda by a specified date. Applications that had problems of inconsistency with past City actions or expectatio~s might take longer through the review process if the applicant decided he/she needed to do some modifications before going to the ARB~ SOme applications went to the ARB ana received comments that lea to changes a't .. c. other applications had been regardea as good ideas and had gone through the process. Co~cil Member ~~e6ler believed developers had nothing to fear if t..~e vision for the El Cemino Real island erlunciated in t.be lS7€. Comprehensive Plan versus the reality of ~hat had emerged in the meantime was any indication of how stringently guidelines -were upheld. The draft document ..,3S before t.he Council after going through several advisory boards and commissions, wno ~ad made a substantial number of cOlMlents, and. it 'Was the intent of th-a-staff to incorporate those comments in a final version. She expected once the COUncil got through a preliminary round of questions of a IIIore generalized nature I there 'Would probably be a number of speci.fic comme:"lts and questions raised by the Council. She believed the plan ~ould require a substantial re_~ite of portions ot the document. She asked how the xew'l:ite would be done and 'Whether the document should be brought back. through a public process befors the Council finalized the document. Ms. Lytle said staff's impression of the process 'Was that the comments received would no~ result in a substantial rewrite~ 'With the exception of the CO!tL.iILcnts made tJy the ARB which .bad to do with 02122{93 70-1019 - the budget request. The Urban Design co~mittee ~as very f~rm that the document should be reforutatted: into a 1lJore professionally edited version that 'Was thinner and had useful graphics. The primary comments received from other groups na:! more to do 'With minor changes to date. Unless the Council desired otherwise, staff would not be able to make those minor changes and return with a tina.l document for another six Itonths. Mr. schl"!I=dber said between tne development mO!"',i tor-irlg side of the Plan."li::g Department -and the Comprehensive Plan effort re=~ntly initiated, there was little staff time available for the project or any other type of special study. Tha six-month estimate wa~ based (.In the time Senior Planner Lori Tapley would np.ed to tit the ~ollow-up work into the lulls bet~een the Stanford West/Sand Hill Road/stanford Shopping Center double Environm~~tal Impact Report (ErR} process~ Staff was not available to do the follow-up 'Work on an onq~in9 basis. XOTIO. ro R.UER: council Member Fazzino moved, seconded by Kniss, to reter the Downtown urban Design Plan to the Pclicy and S~rvices Committee. council Membex Fazzino was concerned that there ~as a significant number of questions regarding the content of the report. It seemed foolhardy after the Urban Design Committ~e had spent six years on the issue for the Council to dismiss the item in an hour and '3. half. He believed some concerns had be~n raised by Messrs. Baer and Xeenan and others, but instead of establishing a new public process, it W?uld be best for the COUncil to have the Policy and services ,P&S) committee review the document and bring the matter back to the Council for final consideration. It had been a tremendously valuable exer=ise on the part of a large number of committed people, and he was not t~oubled that it would De used as a ·stick-and saw it as a vision Qocument and a document that vas consistent with the current Comprehensive Plan. He hoped, when the Council approvea the neTa' Comprehensive Plan, tr,at it 'Would then review that vision docu~ent to ~ake SUl"e it was consistent with the policies of the new C':Jmprehensive Plan. :fe said as a me.1:ber of the P&S Committee, he .... as .... ·jlling to cOlIl1!lit ertra hours to serious consideration of the document. Council Member Andersen said the document made reference to the use of various square footage incentives to encourage developers to follow those guidelines and asked whether those incentives would have to be in the forzc of an ordinance and if so, wh~ther· something would be created considerably more than guidelines. Ms. Lytle said the Planned community {PC} zone change ordinance allowed those incentives to be utilized which was the process being used currently. An idea came up during the outreach process that there might be something a little less ominous than the PC process 'Which would allow similar incentives but at a minor level. ,C.C·:'. Council Member Andersen said there were a lot of things about the document that he found exciting. He was impressed by the amount of work and creativity that went into the document but was concerned 02/22/93 70-150 ····L·"·. , ,.,,-.. - that the document might be viewed as binding in the context of the private developer who had creative ideas. He .as alsc concerned thE vision Of the ARB might not be the ultimate vision of a private developer and good ideas ~ould be lost. He hoped the P'S commit~ee ~ould explore how to make certain the doc~ent vas not ~indinq or regulatory. He ~as not persuad~d that the current document vould not be that ~nd the City's role should be explored in ~etail ~ith regard"to ho~ the process might ~ encouraged anc s~imulated in public domain areas. The assessment district was one area, but there might be other areas that could be explored so that it might be moved along in more rapid manner. He want..-xl the public/private partnerships concepts explored in more detail ~ith respect to the varsity Theatre. Council Member Simi tian said. there was !! request for support for additional funding an~ asked whetb2r that request should also be referred to the P&S committee. He 6upported the motion and said an urban design plan was a good id.ea, and the Urban Design COlDlIlittee had done a good job. The fundam.ental notion to have some design vision for the Oownto~n 6~ou1d not be lost~ He agreed ~ith the comment by Ms. Lytle to tr~e Planning Commi9~ion that ~for the plan to be successful, it should l:le embraced by the property and business owners, not forced. upon the&.A ~hat ~as the compelling argument for the referral to the P&S Co~ittee. The referral did not sU9gest any conclusion about the process that led th~ council to that point n~r did it suggest any conclusio~ about what would cOlle out of the referral~ He believed going an ertra mile in order to generate a little more support .fr·om the property owners downtown .. ould be worthwhile4 He re.called the com:nent ~y Y...s~ Lytle that -it was a plan designed to inspire and not direct-when he read under architecture for the Civic Cross AXis District that Warchitectural style of new structures should reflect and compli­ aent the zeQiterranean style of the district, although ~bey need no~ mi:mic. Use of stucco, masonry, clay tile roofs, and light co~or palettes of whites, creams, and liqh~ paste~s are encour­ aged. W Most people ..,oula thin); that .... a.s more i!1 the way of a direction rather than an inspiration in terms of the specifiCity offered for a particular projec"t. The P&:S COllUDittee needed tv discuss how to sort out the tension betwe.en project speCific visions arA visions £or the entire Downtown 4 JlU:I!ll ANI> SECONDER AGREED TO IIiCORPORATE Xl/TO THE XO'I'IOll that a request for additional funding be referred to the .Policy and Services Committee4 Council Membe.r Rosenbaum encouraged the Orban Design Committee. He referred to page 2, paragraph 1, of the Downto .. m Urban Design Plan which stated, ~In September 19B7, the City council appointed a ten member Urban Desiqn comnittee to prepare this plan. Initial direction provided DY the Council was to produce a comprehensive document of policies and guidelines describing the physical form of Downtown Palo Alto. The plan was to be in a form that could be used to help developers and aesigners in understanding the expecta~ions and objectives for do~ntown development~· The Urban Design Committee had done exactly that. The Committee, with one exceptio!'!, vas made up of design professionals, ~'Id" the City 02/22/93 70-151 L - r council Members in 1981 asked for the right things. He was concerned that at the last n::.ornent it appeared some 5ignif icant Dowr.to~n property owners were not enthusiastic. A good example vas the Barren Park Drainage Plan vhich w~s ~eferred to the Finance committee. Staff had done ~ great deal of work on the plan, b~t there were many people .ho were unhappy. Eventually, a plan .as achieVed that was workabl~ for everyone. He hoped the same thing would happen ana he er.couraged the P&S Co~ittee to work with the urban Design Committee and tbe Oo...-ntOii11 people and comE' up with scn:ething that 'Would work. If there were disagreements .. he ..... an-ted to see those dif.agre~ments caz'efully spelled out and then the council could make a final decision. council Member Cobb said :mc:tny times when the Council referred an issue to a standing committee, it ~as because the council did not want to deal with the issue at that time. council Member Rosenbaum had touched the right nerve. He balieved it was a good idea to refer the issue to the P&S Committee, although he believed the Urban Design Committee had done an excellent jOb and had provided ~ome ideas that could be very exciting for the city. He believed the P'S COmlIlittee should focus on the issues presented, and it should not be a time for another presentatiQn. He hoped the people who had expressed concern that evening would take those concerns to the P&S committee and 'Would work with the ColtlD.ittee to resolve those concerns. rr there 'Were other issues besides those ~ai5ed that eveninq, he hoped those issues ~ould also be brought up so the Committee could resolve substantive issues and then return to the Council for a final Qecision~ co~~cil Member Buber supported the motion anc also supporte~ the DoWntown Urban Design PlaM4 He was the Planning commission's appointee when the process got underway, and the Council's direction was understood at that point. He believed Council Member Cobb's suggestion regarding the focus of the ~eferr81 to the P&S Committee W8S excellent. He oid not think it should be referred to the P&S Committee for redesign. The Council either hought into the vision the Urban Design Committee presented or it did not.. He believed if it were ref~rred to the P&S committee, it should be done in the context ot solving the basic issues that ~ere raised by Messrs. Baer and Keenan and others with rega~d to the guidelines and whe~~er additional money should be allocated and then leave it at that. Vice Mayor Kniss said it would be a disservice not to allow the vision ideas expressed in the Plan a chance to be considered in a different light. The framework was excellent and would provide the P&S Committee with an opportunity to thoroughly review the issues addressed. May::>r McCown said it was important to work through the issues raised that evening. She did not agree ..... ith the breadth of JioI'..r. Baer's suggestions that the document should refer only to public areas and not concern itself with private areas because that was unavoidable with any plan the City envisioned, e.g., the Downtown Plan or the Comprehensive Plan. When the City wanted to artiCUlate a vision in the communi ty, the City spoke about t."le 02/22/93 70-152 . , goals and hoW' private property OIo.'l'1ers could be encouraged to develop their-land in conj',J.nction with t.hose visions. She said it did not :cake sense to sayan urban design plan should el iminate all reference to concerns about private p~oject5. A challenge for the P,S Committee would. be how to articulalt~ an integrated \'"ision without it being a re~lirement and the language would have to be considered to determine how that could be achieved. The Council was often in the position of spencinq m~ch of its time reacting to things and ofte~ ~poke about wanting the opportunity to be pr"Active and try to define for people, who \Were interested in helping the community achieve its vision, what the Council would like to encourage people to do. She said that ~as what the Plan was trying to achieve and believed the conce~ns co~ld be worked out and th~ right balance re~ched so the document could he used in the community .. XOTICN PASSED 9-0. Mayor McCown asked the City Manager ~hen the item would be before the P&S Committee. City Man~ger .June Fle!L~n9 said possibly early April 1993. Staff would notify the interested people when the issue wa,s before the P&S committee .. • NEW/OLD BUSINESS Agenda Item No.2 NOV9!T'lber 5, 1992 Arch;t'!ctural Review Board Excerpt Downtown Urban Design Plan... Reviewa:1.d r~ommendation to City CotL."1cil. Thomas Hise-Could staff tell us what your expectation of the Board is on tr.is item~ what type of action you would like us to take, what our timing is, and whethe:r WE need to take action today. I didn't have time to give this item the kind ofre\oiew I would like to have given it. Shirley Wilson-l am here tonight to present to you our draft of the Urban Design Plan, which has ~. four rears in the makirtg. It's a very exciting time f,.,)! trois committee. We havt:' worked very hard on it. We've had some turnover in t.~e committee, but some people have been there from th.e begin.Ping and maintained their enthusiasm throughout the whole thing, which is fabulous. I have tv.,·o C'"umrnjttee members hNe torJght, Tony Ca....,.asco and Brul'e Fukuji. Nancy Lytle and George Zimrn.erman have also worked ""iti.. us. One of the reasons it has been so difficult is tha ... there has been information in a Jot of different file drawers a:rld it has been hard to pull togetheT. How the staff got it i}.is far is short of a wirade and I'm thankfuL We no .. \o~ have SO!l"lethi::ng we can wOTk ....nth. It is a very working document and should be taken as such. The committee asks fOT your L'1.put and U you are supportive .. ·we a,sk for yeur support. Nancy Lytle--I would like the ARB to make a formal recommendation tOnight. November 5, 1992 Excerpt - _________ . ________________________________________________ -" ______________ ._OA ... > ~~---- Ms. Wilson-·At the time that this item comes before tne Plar.r,ing COMmission and City Council if aroybody is so mo .... ed to speak in support of t..'1e com."TIlttee, WI;? would appreciate that This plan is a vision. Vve hope it is a catalyst toward positive modific..ations to the dcn ..... ·ntQ'; ... "11 ('lIea and positive development for the downto ........ n area. What it isn't, is a rigid plan. Jt is not a set of regulations; it is a set of guidelines. We thir'.k it ha.s a life of its ov .... n, that it could change O\'er time. \Ve dor(t went it to gather dust on a shelf, nor do ....... e wa.'1t it to become so rigid that everyone thi.·1ks t.."1af if it isn't on page 35, you Cai, 't do it, because ilia t's not the intenf of this, The intent 'was to put for-..h ideas of urban planning that we think the development of the downtown can really work wen around. WE' had a comm.ittee with a very broad range of background and e:xperienc€J which we hope was a microcosm of what the inferests were in the downtown, There 1,vere tlm.;s when we had special concerns about larger land developers or retaHers and we invited guests to rome and talk v..>]:th us about their ·views of the dovro.tov.'l1 area, The goal of thi~ carne out of the Dov,tnto1-vn Am~nities Study. It was our goal to have a • .. 1SUal urb~n design plan for the downto'Vw"n area. It has been a long dream of mine, and I think it is .something that tho? City will benefit tremendously from. As you all knowJ we'\·e worked with proJects where we have meshed and got some planned concepts out there and we've approved several projects th2.t had urban design implications .. and they are plugging into this already, which is exciting. The proces!:J we went through was to fIrst sit around and brainstorm what we liked and didn;t like about Palo Alto-what we thoug:ht was charming, and """hM we thcug..1tt didnrt work \.'ery well. Then \ .. ~e took that subjective material and started walk.ing the streets, \Ve in\'en to:1l'd the entire dO\·mfo ...... '11. Every build.lng. every alley has been iooked at and thought about. We came up l\ith some goais, based on an evaluation of whaf we have, We looked at the potential for development; we looked at things we really wanted to save a..""1d we came up \',dth L~ese goa!sJ which aTe stated as the vaI:.l.ed prindp-<:ls a~ LP,e beginning of this document J as well as some urban design L::;sues, w:!'-Jch \ve felt ''w~ere importanf to reinforce. The context for our evaluation was livability, economic viability, and aesthetics, all taken noUn statistical termsJ but as intuitive feelings for what is good for businesses. We tried to give it all framework The mOie we talked about buildings in the beginning, the more we realized that wasn't th.e big issue, but that one of the biggest issues was the infrastructure of the City, the open space of the Ieft-over 2 November 5,1992 Excerpl ,. - space. Parks, publJ.c living rooms, alleys, relationships of buildings fe, open SpdcE' as far as mass was oor.cemed. So, we ended up ..... ith it docllment that really tends to concentrate more on that, even lL"ough there are some ~rcrutectural. guide-lines in the plan, whicll aren't tc..'O different from what we operate 't",-jth all the tiIT'.(, an}"' ...... y . • ''le saw a lot of room for deve10pment in the downto\lvn area that is already tlwre. There.is a lot of unGer-utilized space in L'rte do\v-nto\l\'I1, particularly on our side streets. One of L~e reasons we feit our slde streets don't work ,',,-ell is that a lot of our buildings on the most intense corridor of Unh:ersit:y A, .. err..l€', don't turo comers very V\.rell. There's nothing that interests you.in going around the corner. That is a..'1 arcltite<.1ural i~sue and one t:...1.at this Board can perhaps address as developments C("~me along. liVe discussed that in detail in the document. We wanted to establish a strong seme of "'plaC€'." "\-"le wan',ed to give people a sense of psychological comfort in the downto\\Tl, a sense of ldentifying €'asLly ",riLh meeting places. There are things that most of the population won't identify with on a consdous level, but we know as designers L'1ey really have an imparl Just as the circulation system in a home or in an office building h,ave impact and can be a very exdting experie.."1cer that can be true of the downto'WIl also. We feel Palo Alto is a little "blu."TY'" that way right now. It isn't clear. TII.e. Civic Center cross-a:::C€3S that was begun vdth Plaza Ramona, we all know gives a very dear identity to that part of town.. Hopefully when it's continued across University Avenue and through the other building wall, we "",·m have a very str()ng axiai ce:lt('r to the do~'TItown where there~s a crossing. People wiU identify with that. Hopefully there v.iIl be things out on the ~idewa1k or the public right-of-v.'ay th.at MIl b€ vlsibly no!:iceabl~ to people walking up and do'V\'TI the aw:nues so that they ,,\--ill reoogJ'llze that as a cro55L:1g. ft is very important for t.~e dm,'IHo\\'n City Center jdea and \lery helrfulin getting better scale to a retail linear corridor that is a little bit too long. So, the plan is not meant to be mandatory. It's meant to be a guideline. It's meant to be used by the ARB, the Plan.'"ling Commission, and the City CounciL This familiarity that the re:viewing boards and the community and developers vvill have should be a real great opportunity {or pubbc and private cooperation. It should be the optimal opportunity for us to ..... ork together and to be hE'ading in the same direction. VVhen a big project comes along on a site that we want clo~ure of an open space on, everyone will fe",l much more comfortable about it. It should really November 5,1992 Excerpt 3 -. ---~ empower ilie entirecoIT'.ffi'.mi:y to Cl)ntim.::'2 to l<:eep downtown Pa.lo Alto alive and '>ita!. Nancy Lytle-In the beginning ..... 'ith Starlord we developed Univt."rsity Avenue; it was the original flat for Uni·.rersity Park and it remains the core of the dm .. 71to\'\"TI, One of the main concepts in the Urban Design Plan is to reinforce UnivHsity Avenue retail cote. How can t..'1at be done? There are maro.y ways.;and one is already in the capital improvement program, which is a lighting Flan throughout the dO;''!1toW"n. The Utility Department is currently working on Ughting all of the different districts. Religh ring of the dovmto\ ... -n should then help to reinforce all of OUI dLo;tricts, but in particular Vruversitr A venue. We ,,·;an t to improve a sense of e:.1.tty at either end. This tra.'1sparency shows the dO",,'Tltown automobi1e entries. There is one at University Circle and the primary residential entry is at Middlefield ROnd and University Avenue for automobiles. 0:1 the district chapters you will see secondary entries marked as well. There are also t .. ..."o noted h~Ie, one down at the Alma Street/EI Camino intersection and the other doVl."J1 near the TO'wn and Country area. The Ci"ic Center cross~access is a concept t..;at was introduced to all policy boards and decisi.on-ma"kers during Jim Baers project. It is the concept of IinkL.lg the Civic Center with the Senior Center.and a possible plaza ca.'"I1e from this committee and it is one of the main r.mdamentals of the Plan. You can S~ it beginning to be realized when you walk along University Avenue and get a look at that through Piaza Ramona to City Hall. ,"Ve hope that 'SOmeday there \0Jl be architectural statements, as sho,,"'TI in the Pla.'l., out on University .. .-\venue denoti!lg that as a very important pa!"i of town. Another very important area is at Cowper Street and University A ven uel l:"here we're talking about creating ano~her City Center, e: commerciaJ center that would focus on improvements tf) 525 University Plaza and that entire b10ck area, utilizing the people generation pofential of the "t,.vebster /Co\'\>per garage to create a node at that area and maybe even bringing in the Vars.ity lbeater renovations that would take place tr.ere and doing for that end of tOhTa what the Stanford Theater has done lor the other en d. Next we have the Alma Boulevard concept (referring to transparency). The retaking of Alma from the automobile-dominatt~d feering L .... at it nas nov',,' and rnaldng it a 4 November 5, "'t9~2 Excerpt , - -.. boulevard that is more friendly to people and one that allm··.rs for a crossing to our transit depot on the other side, to the urban lane area, to lhe El Camino onHnkl and eventually linkages to StarJord Finandal Center. lhie is encouraged in th€'. PI.a..'1., although the Plan hasn't gone that far, ,-,ie have another effort that is underway. ] was part of a discussion yesterday that is thinking about haw we can create better linkages. One of thE keys to that is Alma Street. \Ve have plans for a bicycle boulevard along Alma Streef, improvements in Lie Joint Powers Board, a parking area. that could make it more friend!y to Feople, and a real vision about the train depot. By the way, this tree power program that Jack Sutorius has talked about is a -potential way of imp1ementing some of the landS{'aping rt:>quirements that. are talked about in the Plan. Finally .. the diagram (or the entire dm·,mtov.rn plan. which indicates the pedestrian linkages that are talked about the throughout the Plan and the improvement of aUey systemsl 'botL"1 placed alJeys and secondary aJJeys.-SO that peopiz are more inclined to take shortcuts that many of us already utilize them for, b particular~ pedestrian connection to L"\e train depot. It is a critical part of the Pla.'1. GIOr1O\ Humble of our office dtd the diagn,rns. She took a conc..ept that Jim Gill once sketched out \.,rfth a pen all,a turr.ed HU.!lI1 into pins. \Ve thought peopie eouid wear them to the hearings_ I'm delighted with it. It has become a symbol of the rubllc/ private partnership that is being requested through thi:; ,,;sion and a promotional tool. Chairman ~b.ser-I would like to knm,"" what that little "glitch" is en Un~versi.ty Ave.-"ue. Is tha.t f...lst poetic licens.e, or d~ UniverSity Avenue actually do that? George Zimmerman-It was strictly poeti( license. lYe should also ackno'wJ:edge the late John Monrc.'o'e for his inspiratiOI'L Bruce Fukuji-ConceptuO'JJy when we ..... ere working on the plan after four years there was always a question about how do you get to the details of this plan when you have these general ideas. \\~e sort of &plit things up between having a district map and actu.ally identifying areas that have ur-ique characterrstics and separating that out from the overall ideas ~".'e were trying fo achieve from an urbd.-'1. design point of view. November 5, 1992 Excerpt 5 -' If you were to look at a typical d!strir:::t, for insfance University r"..\,enu€, there is a common structure for how all of these districts are organized. (I am referring to page 27 of the draft plan.) v.,re made g~ne!"al observatior.s when we did our inventory at\d toured around downtov.'1l. From that we generated specific goals bas=d on our observations and these goa!s are basically valu€-:5-tatements that relate to the guiding prI .• -.,dples that arE in the-€,1!iy patt of the Plan. After tha t, a!1other part is actually the map, which visually focu$eS a.ttention on w1:\at the aspects are that we are locking at:n the Plan. The next section is spedfic guideiines and they fonow the format of what we call the "1egenci" or "key," which we"ve used in ever}' single district. At the be~il1ing of the section it talks aooL"!t districts and actually g0e5 through and defines what all of the different attributes are rJj go through these indi .. idually and show hov," they relate to the overall idea a..,d goals that are part of the district, so that they pull together the urban design frame\'VOrK that we're using whe..."'\ we look at each district. University Avenue is the retail core of the dO\\-7ito ..... 71. Tne first goal is to try and reinforce and maintain that. There have been several issues that came up ",,\~ith doing that The idea of reinforcing this as a retail corridor is really reinforcing if from Alma Street to Co .... cper Street a5 the main focus. Thls is a traditional area (referring to transparency) and this is predominately more of a residential-oriented area, So, from CotoVpel' Street to Alma Street yeu have en.'1ancements fer ground tloor uses and transitions made to the streets that are perpendicular to it. If you start by encouraging retail to happen along Emerson Street, Ramona Av~ue~ Byroi..1. Strl'et" florence Avenue, or 'v'\J'averley Street, you ca.'1 pull that retail around the corners. That "las the first idea. The 5emnd wing was to create some focal points along Uruversity Avenue becauS€ some of these block'i are really quite long. '\Then you look at it from Cowper Street to '''laverley Street, or Waverley Street to Byron Street, on the s.outh side of the street you have a really long block; on the north side they are broken up into smallEr blocks, So at SOIDe point" it is actuallr quite a ]ong walk. \Ve thought maybe we should dosomet.. .. ir.g to break that 'Jp or create some attention or focus activity. There are some r,atura! locations to have that -Emerson Street at Ramona A venue, or B)'7on Street, a..d looking at trying to encouragE something to major focal points, the Civic CentEr cross-access, which is trytl'.g to come up with an idea to see if there is a sense of place o!" a stronger focus or cen fer to the downto\oVn~ and also looking at what Ms. Lytle was talking about, thls parking garage, whlch generates a lot. It's not reaHy a destination, but people arrive 6 November 5, 19'92 B<cerpt , ; at th.af locatioil to go to other pla,E's in the do" ... ntov,rn. 'We also looked at ""'hat the potential is for doing .some improvements doVlo,,"" here at this point (referring fo transpareJl~) to be another focal point. The next goal is to try to enhance the qualif1:es on University Avenue to make it an exciting outdoor pedestrian experience. A lot of that has to do with public amenities. We already have S0me capital improvemen~ initiated, but also \\lhen we met with the merchants last week they re.::tlly seemed to lNant to g€t rid of those concrete bunker:; that were installed at some point during the 1970's. It wa.s par:. of that old bus route. Th~y are unattra.:tive and this seerr.s lilce an opportunity to pull them cut and to !ncrea.se visibility from the al!tomobiles and pedestrians. The merchants really support that al".d we agree. That is a perfect example of pubHc L"'l1pro-.rements that could be enhanced or modified in such a way to ~upport creating better pedestrian environment. The idea of pulling people out of t.."te street and ha'vlng a sidewalk cafe life and vitality that "'.,'QuId take place is to encourage the amount of pedestrian use of those streets. TIle key place where we are Jooking at encouraging thaf kind of t.h.ing.. you already see it on Waverley Street a.nd in Lytton Plaza, and specifically looking at the Civic Center/Coswell Plaza connecti"n and how this area can berome a much higher level of pedestrian use. Especially on the north side of University, connecting up to the Sen.ior Center and Ccswell Plaza and taking advantage of this other idea about aHe)'''W"iiys and easements. This whole idea of entries and your ser..se ot entry and tI)ing to rei.ruorce Lltat, is really ar. interesting question because when you draw it from 101 along Universily Avenue, it's primarily a tree lL'1eQ boulevaId. Your initial experience i~ enteIing a residentia1 area. As you'r!' d..";\':..ng along.and you step a~ the signa1 at Middlefield Road, in terms of land use this is the dividing line ~t'" ...... een purely residential and other mixed uses, which take p!ace to the west. We \.,rere wondering about what kind of entry we should have, whether it should be an architectural thing or just a Jandseape frjng, and part of what 15 great about Palo Alto is the fact that there are such pervasive and mature trees and street plants. """hy don't 'we just allow that idea to continue as you ride toward downto .... 'TI instead of trying to do more architectural or other type of treatment. Tr-is is \· . .rhere the v~hides enter, but really the pedestrians entry is more at Webster Street and this would maintain and enhance it in tenns of having strl.>f't trees, landscap!ng and setback.~. Lytton Gardens is set back 20'-25' with landscaping and trees. "\-\o'e are encouraging higher November 5, 1992 Excerpt 7 • I ~ i i 4 I - density housing on these S!tt'5 over on this s~d-.?, south of Un.i\'er5~ty Avenue, to create that kind of landscape entry. Then Wheil. you reach \\'"ebster, havEng it more of a pedestrian-orient~ entr~y lvhere at that point you realize there are commerdal buildings on both sides of trle street and yo~'ve really entered do·wntov.'n. On the other side._ we tried to fig'..1TE' 01.!t what to do to eru'1a.T1Ci? how you get from downto ...... 'TI. from the train depot or as you are ddvirtg. It is unfortunate to use. a tr.msportation submerged thing. It'~ difficult for pedestrians .Jnd it's confusing to motorists for the first time. Trying to make some improvements here to try and help signal that you are entering downto ...... '1\. Part of that would be h"..;\( we are 100king at landscape lrnpl ovements on the medians, removing the first row of parking that you have for on-street parking and perhaps mili!lg those more pedestrian-oriented areas and some kind of other pedestIian-orientro uses to enha."1ce that as a formal f'...nrry. You alre.edy ha .... e t.1e architectural feature of the curved walls on both sides, perhaps we can ha ve them on the south side on a rugher sca1e_ Those are the district goals. This transparency shows that this is an entry, this shows this is the retail core, and this is the troU'..sition to residential. Here'-s the map. We had to decide at some point where to rut it off. \-Ve thought WE' should include the block beyond Lytton or Hamilton SO you can see the context when referring to the Inap_ TIlese basically outline all of the specific main ideas that 'He want to try and encourage. This is one of the great ideas about the Plan. People anive and if they cf'dde they don't want to go do .. 'v"l1. University Avenue beca'JSE' there is too mUG; CO:1gestion, so they decide to go oo,',..n Lytton or Hamilton. As theoy go down ei'L'1er of those avenues L"1 either direction, there would be parlcJng at the surface lots, wruch are \isible, or there would be parkir.g on tne stre€'L Then there is the whole question of how do you get those people from streets to L'\i" r~tail conida!. One of the ideas ·",,'"e came up with was taking adv:mtage of the existing service alley system and make improvements in such a way as it 'becomE'S more pedestrian-oriented. \\!hat happened at 250 University A"!'nue is fantastic embodiment of the spirit of what we were tryhi.g to do in terms at involved experience that you .see and are familiar with here, to tly a."1d "pedestrianize" the alleys through either opening up ground floor uses on the alieys, or adding other public amenities such as landscaping, lighting or pa .... i.ng. I think i~'s a really interesting opportunity because it's part of the. existing 8 Noverrober 5, 1992 Excerpt infrastructure. The merchants that i-ve met with last \'/eek C!.ctu3Uy reaDy liked ,;he idea. "i-he owner on Ramona Street has that very n.k--e double rai.r.bow building and she is always having to cIE'an the alley next to 1":. People com:.tantly use that alley as a pedestriaI"l connection to get to Lytton Plaza, to placl'·5 where ther park on Hamilton A venue or 'tl'1e Civic Center garage. She already sees the pedestrian use5, so she would really support the idea of enhancing it in some way. That l\'as exciting to..:-hear. That in a nutshell is what you see here. TheTe are other things like destinations a.'1d landmarks. Obvioll,:ily whE"n you think about University Avenue, there are great landmarks -Stanford Theater, Varsiry Theater. Y-le want to uy and enhance ;o.nd maintain those as people do other architectural improvements ,\itrun a district. The whole id~a is we~re not suggesting the Plan should ha ve specific ideas about w ha t buildings should look likp~ but that when somebody is doing an improvement, tIlat there~s an opportunity here that tft.2re is public support for it based on how this plan is developed, whic..~ might be more thal"l. what they are thinking aoo:1t, a..-,d the other thing is to be ~itive to the context of what already exists. In a lot of places there are some wonderful arc.i.itectural context to be !"t:""Sponsive to. Especially looking at Ramona Street The wh~lJe idea is to maintain some sensitivity to the character th.at is part of the district through this plan so thaf people underst~i.d the vocabulary for jt and start to look at the detail ... that define what makes that architecture interesting. This transparency has quite a few symbols. The bladr. heavy lines outline something that is rather controversial in our plan. \. ..... ~e'Te looJ·dng at how to -encourage stronger building \+olumes. I know there is a ~:1 FA...~, bUI tlle idea rs th2t on certain intersections we would like to se-e tt,e comers held as being really strong, and other intersections we would like to delete from the comer SO that there is actually space as you are approaching the interse...""ticn. This building acrtY.'.s from Xerox is a great example of the renovation that has created open space. As you go in as a pedestrian and delete tnerl:"!, you come in off of El Camino and it narrows beca.use you have a median strip with trees in it right in t.."e center and it i:; very congested in a spaLiaI sense. As you get to that interse-.:tion it opens up and becoml."'5 wider. That relief we think would be very important in terms of how you enter. So this is an. embodiment and the work is really exciting to see. That's what the hea .... y lines represent. November 5,1992 EJ:cerpl 9 ' .• -..•....... L- ". - The last thing are theSE arrO'INS. Basical!y they are areas where WE' \··lQuld like to continue seeing enhanced ground floor pedestrian-oriented type of things­ windows for v."indow shopping.. benc..1,.es, etc. so that you encourage bringing retail off of University Avenue onlo the side streets and so that you start seeing mo:-e activity on the streets. That is the summary of &.e distrjcts~ t..'h.e synbols \ .... e are using. a.'1d the way it is organized. The only thing that isn't included here and th.JJ is in the report under district guiding principles is on page 22. It is a fairly fmportar.t idea, actually, on edges. One of Ll-te hardest thing we had to figure out was what to do v.ith the edges and in some pJaces the edges are very dEar. On Alma Street there is a very hard ecige where the railroad track defines the edge or the dov."ntown. Then when you are at University Avenue, you ,.\'onder where th.e edge is beho.'een there and the residential neighborn(){)(j. 'Where does that start? That was a much softer edge. So we looked at ideas about hmo,' you transition from commercial areas to these residential areas, The whole idea was to reEnforce the idea t..hat the commercial focus, Lytton and Ham.iHon, and beyond that it really traJ"1.sitions at different rat2s to reside.."1tial areas, One of the things we're looking at to do is on page 17, the transitions of landscaping. This idea is important. Vle looked at the landscaping and sid€\\o'a!k pedestriiUl experien(:e of the dov.rnto\'\-Il, and then there~s the lanoscap!.ng sidewalk pedestrian experience in t.he residential area. We rated it over four different levels as a way to look at how you handle curb cuts, or landscape median, or where the tree shr>uld go", or how much the bu.ildings shouJd be set ba(:k. IT you read through this it is pretty straightfor¥,tard. The ma!."( idea is that as you get to residential areas, you inc'ease t.."'"l.e a."'110unt of publk landscaping that takes place in the right-of-way. \Ve feIt very strongly fr,..at wac; something that was achieva~Ie and would be a nice addition to how to link up dO\-VTItown and at the same time not ha ve dovvnto\',.T. seem too obtrusive to the residential area.. George Zimmennan-I would like to summarize the five key areas that are highlighted in the Plan as means for implementation; there isn't one set way to implement it. I will also reaffirm \ynat Ms. \Vilson said, that this plan is not to be regulatory; it's intendt."'rl to serve as a guideline. 1t isn't intended to be a bible tr,at sits on a shelf; it's intended to be fluid and hopefuUy it wm be l.Jpdatt...-d and modified as changes are necessary over time. 10 NoyemberS, 1992 Excerpt - '.' . TIle five key areas identified in the back of the Plan, beginning on page 73, for imphamentation would be: (1) through assessment districts, {2) matching capital funds, (3) through Planned Community Zone changes, (4) through City ordlnances, and (5) day-tl>-day implementation. Let me discuss each one briefly. 1. As--qssment districts. The sugg~tion for an assessment district would esserttially be a business improvement district. Do'h'TIto ..... 'l1 had one experiE"nce ""ith a business improvement district about ten years ago and it was not successful. Th-e reason it wasn't successful is that it started from the top dO ...... "'"n, fl\ther than from the bcttom up for a ground swell of 5UpPOt't. "Business improvement districts can be suCC\.~Sf-"'ll in h\.·o majcr areas. One is to supplement ongoing aty maln tenance and also to complemen t capital expenditures for certain types of fixtures. rve mentioned other groups with whom Ms. \Vilson and [have met. 1 had the opportunity to be i~ Ne" .. ' York last April and even ventured info Times Square and stayed in Times Square where I haverl"t been in ten years. I was a."'Tlaz,ed at not only the new development U1at had occurr.aa. there, but "how effectively it had bet-n de~nt>d up. I spokev-.'ith the hotel manager where I was staying and I asked what happened. He said a business hnprovement district had beE?n formed in Times Square for tw"a years. It was initiated by the family who mv-ned the New York Times and it has been successful. One felt relatively safe, The streets were relatively clean. Sign_g. was becoming uniform. One may not agree " ... -ith. some of the design guidelines, because they are trying to create 2. Las Vegas affect, but t..."he pow.t is, business improvement districts, if they have the support of the affected businesses a..""ld pruperrj O\l~ ... nersy can be successful. 2. Matching capital funds. There are th.r~e SO\.!.l'ces identified in the Plan: (1) using some a5St."Ssrnent districts, i.e., business improvemenf district funds, (2) private donationsy or (3) use of some of our CIP f1..mds. Not necessarily in the context of matching fundsl I'd like to point (Jut that in our current eIP there is a do~rntown lighting plan. So some of 01..J.r implementation strategies are already goL'lg to take place. 3. Planned community zone change. }"1osf of you on the ARB are aware of some of the examples of fhe public benefi ts that have been derived from the PC zone changes. We have Plaza Ramona and the enhancement to the alley and the creationcf t.io,.e courtyard for that deve-1opment. We have lhe refurbishing of the November 5,1992 Excerpt 11 ',' , t _. Civic Cent€T Pla?.a, hopefuEy to make it more user-friendly. The necessary expenditures for that improvement have resulted from the donations made from the PC zone change frum the old PacTel building at 529 Brya."1t Street. That's been a very effective mechanism to date. 4. City ordinances. I want to emphasize that the suggested ordinances would be very focused in nature. For example, an ordinance to re~ulate the proiiferatio!l of newspaper racks) which would not only address !he safety issues, but also the aesthetic concerns. 5. Day-to--day implementation. \l\l here we are ~oday is an example of how the Plan can be used for day-to-day implementation.. Not onIy for applicants and staff~ but also fOT members of the ARB to use the Plan as a guldeline. Again I would emphasiZe "guideline/' and not as a bible. I'm sure members of the public .. particularly from the design and dEvelopment community when the economy rebounds, "'till fmd that this Plan \'\-ill sen'e as an f'XCl.'Uent guideUne for ideas as to how develop and wilere. I would also like to mention where we are going with the public-review proces5. We are doing two types of outreach. One is voluntary, Ms. Wilson and her team, including several of us on the staff a..,d members of the very dedicated Urban Design Committee, haye met on six occasions \vitb various dcwnto\'o,'T\ groups over the last several weeks. Now we have been meeting with the various advisory boards and commissions. Two weeks ago we met \o\.ith the Public Arts Commission. Yesterday we met v..iLlt the Historical Resources Board. Today 'we are meetlng with tr.e Architectural Review BoarD, and in Li.e early part of December we · .... ;11 meet , .. --ith the Legal Adv"lsory Commission. The two principal pl.lblic meetings subsequent to the advisory board reviews ",,"'ill be the Planning Commission in December and the City Council in january. The rornments and recommendations that we are receiving from these various informal outreach meetings, as well as the recommendations that we hope we .. 0Jl Te;:eive from the ARB ""ill be tran<;mitted to the City Cou..,cil. The draft plan will be mooified to reflect Coundl-improved changes. We will print up a new document and that v,.;11 be the Plan that "'ill be distributed to members of the publk, staff, and the advisory boorU'ds to be used. '\IV E' aTe excited about it. 1 think it is an extraordinary and opportune time for this plan to come oul The economy has been on the dm ... "11-rurn and development activity has been somewhat reduced. '\Ne hopefully expect that sometime in the near future 12 November 5, 1992 Excerpt :,.~.·.··~.····L···· -:-,';:: . ' .. . . ~ ~~f:; ":_£":;7 '-i .;:''1-- -~-----------------------------------~ ....... ------ the e.:onomy will reooW1.d and this \ ... ill serve as an exceIl~nt too! to improve and enhance do~.to"Ym Palo Alto . Nancy Lytle--There is one point that I would like Ule ARB to cover in your com."l1ents. It 1s one of the highest items of contro\'e;sy and it has to do \",rith the Boud's authority to implement these guideliner.. For property O\'\'l1ers, in particular~ we have heard concerns t.'1at both staff and the Board \\'ouId t."\ke these guidelijJ€'S and tum tho<=!m i..'1.to reg-.llations. They would become tools for requiring property owners to implement wha~ is in the Plan. ] think the ARB needs to comment on fr.af.. Oearly guidelines can be used to reinforce Board decisions. rt is talked about in the document that tS one way of implementing these things. The philosophy 0; how they would be used by the ARB needs to be SL1bntitted by the ARB. Tony Carrasco-The reason I participated in this process is that fhrough D1 y 12 years of experience on the staff and then cn the Archltectu.ral Review Board] conti. ... luowly heard almost a conser,sus of what should happen downto ..... :n .. but it wasn't written anywhere. W~ did review buildings, for instance~ in L.'1is corridor (referring to transparel'.cy) looking at them in more detail than buildings farther out. but no where was it WTitten that was what we were going to do. This documeJ1t,. I think, is a compilation of that ki."ld of f(>f>lmg. Applicants would say~ why didn't you tell me thaf was what the Board was going to say. From my perspective, I t..~ught of it as an ARB-kind of docwnent. Something that WE> anticipate and rut into this as a living document the experiences that,"l€ find competent that are COIning through your review process. Because it's a living document. it isn't regulation. These are-our experiences of ",,-hat we find .. ,,then we review projects. wanted to reinforce what Ms. lytle said. H isn't regulation, it's :nea:r"1.t to be a guideline. This isn't even a ~'should ~.' issue; it is a "rn~ybe you might want to consider'~ the"'...e issues. Ms. Ly!le-These are opportunities. Michael Lyzwa--First of all,. I think the Urban Design Plan is a marvelous idea. trunk it is an idea that's greatly overdue for whatever reasons~ \'Ilhether it was political, economic~ or ,,\-'hatever. ] don't like to use the word "plan'" as we use it, because I think most people bad<. away th.l' moment you use the word "plan." Maybe the word "concept" should 'be used. Concepf is what the staff and No .... ember 5,1992 Excerpt 13 - comrTl.:ttee are talking 3.00ut; they're falking about fle.xibility. ld.e>as, forums, but they aren't saying this is absolutely, positively, the law and you havE: to implE'ment it. This urban design concept is fabulous because it allo\\'s 11.') to begin orgarjzing ...... ·hat ] think is missing presentlYr and what I think we have been striving for from decade tu deca<de. That is a concept and a theme. Those are missing. There really isn't a strong theme through dO· ..... 7l.tmvn Palo Alto that you can re!ate to. 1j.Ve have identified the pluses and L'1e t.hings that we really liKe. I want to digress for a moment. Any of us who havE had a chance to travel a little bit t..~rough Europe have seen there are f..o many marvelous urban design lessons to be learned in Europe. One of the dtiesr for irutaJ1.C'er that is .... eh;cle-free is Venice. For obvious reasons you (an't get cars in thpre. VVhat that does is give you a wonderful dty that has pedestrian--oriented spaces. It always has p.lemer.ts of surprise. It has very powerful vertical elements in certain ar12'a5. and It fs relatively open. It has terrific plazas. You walk through narrow streets and you come to a large plaza. There are fountain .. , there are sounds~ there are smells of the food being cooked. People eat outside. There is music even a couple of blocks away that you c;an hear because of the acoustics. People live in the dty. I think for a very long time in concept we were very arrogant towards the old world,. especially in western civilization. We have .:ars~ they donrt have cars. We have skyscrapers; now ' ... ·e're going to create a solid concrete dty and world. That's exactly what we've oeated. I wouId like for us. besides hav.ing this marvelous beginning, is maybe ~ven add to it the ideas of having flexibie vehicle uses on University Avenue. For instance,. if you go to Gciden Gate Parkon a Sundayrcars are r.ot aHm.'I,"ed. The first thing that happens is pe-:>ple walk in Ute streets. They don't '; .... aIk on the sidewalksi they all seem to v.r.:mt to walk on the streets. I think we inherently hate vehi;:ie'S. We really dislike them. Even when we Viere kids we were told, don't run in the street 'because you'll get nm over by a car. This is a major problem. Psychologically. even in a place like Unlverslty Avenue, yourrc always thinking., where do I cross, 'where are the sidewalks? Howam] going to navigate from one side of the strept to the other? Maybe we could consider the possibility, if not the whole University A .. :enuer certain blocks at flexible hours so that vehldes would not be allowed. For instance, past 6:00 pm. On nice summer nighfs people wouid love to venture out onto the streets and be able to walk and it would allow more outdoor seating for certain 14 November S, 1992 Exc~rpt -.. restaurams. 1 'would give it a little bit more ima.gination. I ~:now thafs gDing to be far-retched and very dIfficult to sell. Ms. Lytle--Some of the street faire concepts are along those lines. They are closing the street this Sunday, as [under<tand it. Thomas Hise--Therc ar.:? a number of communitio?S v.'ho de it one night a week. San Luis Obispo does it one night a week and it's changed. L;,eir dOv."'IltC'w .... n tremendously. People who have never gene to the downto ....... -n now go more oEter. ~use they've had good experiences on Thursday rught. Mr. Lyzwa-Just that type of idea. Something that d"""n't cost much money, but something tha.t would add immet"isdy to the concept that you've already established. To talk about very briefly and to mention, and not in any regulatory way, bur to mention the idea of using tre~. The idel of maybe using fountains. Again, I don't meaIl fountains because of water conservation tha~ we need thousands of gallons of water~ but just the sound of faUing water sometim.es is delightful. Flower gardens. Sct.:JphlIes. Areas that a.re quiet versus ope.n areas. Anytime you go to these older cities you discover small areas that are delightful. They are-quiet They are without people. llleIl. you walk a blocl.-: over and there are hundreds of people. Things like that I think W~ should encourage, at least in a written fann. It doesn't have to be very graphic, but.in a v.rritten form in this proposal that would get us to think in the future, so that when someone comes in ,'lith a proj<..u, we could entertaL'1. these issues and see-if it would become feasibie or possible in Palo Alto, I think we have to emphasize-the separation of pt'>d'estrians hom veJudes. Thi.;. is something very fundame.ntal. We have tc someho-; .. • try to organize our concept to encourage tha t in possible form.. Also the issue about vertical elements. Becau..-"e o( the great success Pale Alto has had in the pa,:, especially in the 1980's, with growth and people being concerned about how we 'wilJ accommodate future office space, future automobi~~s.l think what we inadvertently created was a relatively flat height limit. We've sort of controlled. w.at by saying you couldn't go beyond this certain height. I'm not at al..l ronvinred iliat is the best concept. In. area.s that you ouU~ned, 1 think it would be advisable to allow a taller building to playoff tho5e forms and then to step down and not to limit ourselves to that single height. I would like for liS to talk a. little about scale change on fop of everything that you've done in a very subtle 'Nay. November 5,1992 Excerpl 15 : .. '.; , .. '''~' ., - --------~---~-~----------------------~.------------------~-----.- Again; [thi.nk the Committe€' has done a superb job, I'm sorry to hear that it took four years, [can understand .... ·hy it did ta...k:e that long., but I just hope: it doesn'! take anotht:r four years to get it through. r t,..l·dnk it's marvl'io'J.s and it's gofng to be a terrific tool. If we have this in hand and "..re have these ideas and t.~e energy is there, it .,..,ill be so much m0Te helpful in the future. I think yuu've all done a faiY'.llous job. Ms. Wilson---It's ir,te!e5ting you brought that concept up., because 1 t was one thlng we didn't discuss. There is quite a bit of discussion m the do<ument aOO!.1t building mass and. strong (('mers. We have done it in sort of a timid way, SO l'm encouraged by what you had to say, We haven't tried to breakthrough any existing regtllations that the City now has. VVe really felt this document as a first step in urba.., pl2....'"lning ought to be a little cautious. ""'hat was attractive to me about " .. 'hat you. were saying about street closures is that people are very attached to their cars and it is a very good way to L'1troduce the concept. If peaplelike it, it should grow naturally, They might get.so that they 10ve it and want to do it for i:wo l'jg:hts a week and maybe some day some blocks lvill be car free, It would be a gn>at way to approach it, Mr~ Rise-It could al~ be seasonaL Fo! im;tanc£ between May and October when people have the energy and initiative to get out. It could really · .... ark. Aina Vieira-da~Rosa--The first fr..ing I " .. 'ant to say. 1S tbank you Shirley WHson! You have worked and made this happen. Ms. \o\o'ilscn-Thank you, but there have been a lot of people putting in a lot of time on this project. It has been a very hard h"orking commit~. Ms.. Vieira-da~Ros~You have been the driving force. The ARB has talked about this for a long time because we have been in ... ;enting our OV.rr1 urban design plans as we go along. That doeE.on't make sense be-cause in every single project \'ve re .... ie'w ..... e do that. To have this guideline 1S fabulous. These are urban design opportunities and once people get over the fear of more rulE'S in Palo . .bJto, they will look through &Js document when they are planning to do something and they wili see that the}' can do more, and in fact they are encoura.ged to dQ more, and then~ ""..-ill be 5Upport for them if they want to do something that is a little different. Instead of putting in a Spanish-style building that meets exactly the FAR I'm thrilled by this. I h"ven'! 16 November 5,1992 Excerpt .. , . ;;~~~?.-," ~: .~~~ , v~ "'''", . i ::rof-..~~ir;;, " .... ,;,,~..;:,·ci· . ____ '--;;n.d.;. ... _ ... '''.~ ....... ?~,~-''.· ."',ok .' ~. - - read all th~ pages and the detail, but I've got the ess(;'nce of Wf,,1t is going on. can't comment section by section. A couple o! issues tha. t Mr. Lyzwa brought up make me a li ttle r.e!VOUS. The idea that pedestrians and vehides are bad together, All cities have dJed \.."hen they dosed of{ their major roads and they are new reo?ening them. At t.~e same time , it gl\'es people an jdea. You have a &.ance to try things and support new ideas­ that's what I like this document for. This dOC'Ument comes at a perfect time 1..'1. todayc"s meeting because l, .. -e have been talldng about traffi.:: con troilers. \Ve were looking at concrete walls and wondering if there was some way you could ino.:>rporafe the contlolJers into the concrete walls. If there's an overall plan L'1at says these concrete walls don't rt;;ally <idd a lot to the City~ it would be 3. terrible thing for one group to say, okay how are we going to fit frlese things into the conaete walls, and then a year iater based on the fact that concrete walls look terrible} we have to pull them dowr.~ but we can't because they have these controllers. So, you h2ve to have some sort of general idea so that you don't try to erase what you've done before. I am thrilled to have this document! I fmd some of the Jayout a little hard to read. Are )'OU goir.g to have any color in the document? Ms. Wilson-We are goir_g to try. We dun't have the money for it right non-j but I'm hoping to go before Council with a proposal We know if needs a lot of graphic layout help. Ms. Vieira .. da-Rosa-That wiU really help a lot. Color does so much. I-thlr.k that is very important. ~'""l.othe:r reaction I had to a word that Mr. Lyz'wa used was "themes." I think that's a word that people associate-v.ith Disneyland. ] know what he means, though. I don't think theword~ however, appea.red in the document. v,'her. you talk about a "pedestrian theme,'" in that sense it's a word that is asrociated v..'ith a particular style or color" or for instance, this is the ''Italia.n theme,'" or the 'Mexkan theme." r think that word doesn"t help. I think words like "opportunity" and "encvllragen-.ent" are the werds that this proposal should use. A lot of things Mr. L)zwa talked aboul are list~d here in the-document. Anyone who is reading througll this would say, 'Wow, and then I could ... " If it comes forth as something official from the City, November S, 1992 Excerpt 17 - L'1ey "'ill feel they are supported. Pla.:.;:.a Ramona is an example of I,',rhere the owners were ",,'iUing to stretch and work v,'ith the City aL'1d do thll1gs that were beyond th~ nOnrL Thomas Hise--I wouid also like to compliment the Urban Design Commi tfee haven't been involved, and I'vt' orJy beenltearing Ettle bits of it, but [al5.0 think it's fantastic Li-tat some architects and developer~ in the community have participated in this program and have, in fact, already irnplemcnted a number of these ide.as, ""hile this plan has been in progress. That says a lot about Palo Alto. M .. Wilson-It's a good sign that the need i< there Mr. Hdle-Yes. V'hat I 'A.'Tot'2' do\\"'Il next to tha.t on my notes was "opportunity_'" On the one hand there are more buildings that are impacted tha..~ others in t.t.,.e Plan for it to be implel:'\ented, I could see Tf~:::istance on the part of some of these building O""'''llers~ but at the same time I could see deveiopers and architects in the community who see opportunitie5 .... rith certain buildings that would say, you trJnk you have a problem and we thir.k we wowd like to have your problem. In other words, because fr.at's where we think future development \0\'111 be. 50 the architects and developers will actually zero m c,n certain buildings that they want to develop, where maybe the present owner feels it 15 a liability where there "",ill be pressure on him anytime he does anything to his building to try and conform to this Plan. I see lt as an opportunity. The community has a histcry of having an active development community that actually is going out and seizing these opporr..mitl€s from other land O\\"Ilers who feel this is all a wastf? of time. 1 think tIlat's very positi,·e. I moved here in 1980 and at that time Palo AHo kind of rolled up t.~e sidewalks around 6:00 in the evening. There weren't more than six businesses in the whole dO\\71town that were open beyond nonnal office hours, basically. A big piATt of the downton"Il was used for office space. [don;t I<now all the history behind it, but we came up with an actual ordinance where we created pedestrian districts and said that when uses were to convert they were mandated to go to pt::destri an--orien ted retail businesses. At the time [Lhoughf it was going to be diffiC'.ut to implement and have anappy conununity. I didn't fully understand the wisdom in that. In fact, I donrt think the people who WHe in on that ever envisioned the life that Palo Alto would come to, mostly related to that ordinance. This is a totally different community on any e ... ~ening of the week than it ever was 12 years ago. It 'WJ," dead 18 November 5, 1992 Excerpt .C'.L·.-.· ., - --....... 12 years ago. My argument would be that I eM see a stronger po!nt far rr.aking this something more than optional.. [undp.r-stand that nobody wants more legislation ann the community has resisted, but I think we can point to tl'-.e fact t.~at the pedestrian retail dlsf:rict has changed the face of t}..is community a.nd nobody caT'\ deny that I'm still amazed by it every evening when I come to tlie dO ..... "TItown compared to the: way it used to be. \Ve w:.ed to joke and say, '1Nhat happened to his commu..~ty after 6:007" It just dies. There "~as 42nd Street and Good Earth was open until about 9:00 pm and the Varsity Theater. You could name a hand-full of businesses and a couple of restaurants dOV.'11tlJ\Vl1 and that was it. It's a totally differen t community now. I could very easily $€€' this as write-ups for our standards for ARB that the first standard review ~5 whether the design is consistent and cornpahble Mth applicabJe elements of the City's Comprehensive Plan. The Council could tr.en say, and the Urban Design. Plan.. It would be something tha~ we (ould make ex(eption."i for. Vie could say we understand that this particular building isn't what this O\\1I1er is trying It> do =d it doesn't fit the Urban Design Plan, and as an ~dvisory group we could make a iinding to support that or to go against H. But, I think it cou1d acrually become a part of OUI legislation, and I would like to see it go that way. I would argue fr,e retail districts a.-e a good l'xample that could happen. Ir. fact, this could be softer than that That ",,-as actual hard legislation that I felt a t the time put an undue burdeTl_ on property o .... "TIers, and I think there was a great deal of uproar in the community at the time. Property owners who didn't see t~at as totally positive, but that we were putting a lot of eggs in the basket that retail would be better for the dovro.to'WTr. t..'!.an offl-:es and they would be stuck .... ith space that they rented out becausE' no retail ~ ...... anted it. We found that not to be the case. I v . .'ould like to see it become one of our standards ofreview and that's the way I would encourage the Council to adopt it Again, that's fairly 50ft compared to legislation that actually mandates certain kinds of physical changes to "'le Ci ty, In complement to that I think the City might also consider a building enhanceIne-nt or some kind of regulation, similar to our seismic upgrade. Then' are low interest monies and other things for seismic upgrades. !v[aybe a program where when certain iand ov.rn£'fS did something that really enhanced the urban plan, they could have a tax brc=ak or maybe there is some matching money or some expertise available, or some zoning ordinances that could be more flexible. To en.ltance the NovemberS. 1992 2<cerpt 19 . ~-~~----------~'-----~"":.j.-"""" PC prcw.:ess, but again using L'l-te seismic upgrade as a model. WOe did it for thL; other thing that we thought was \'ery important; in fact, I think we ' ... ·er,e ma:ldated by law to do something there. So, we took the burden and hardship off pro:rerty owners by a prograrn. I think this could have a similar kind of program tha! goes along ",,1th it. I don't know if you discussed t..'l-taf in the document, but it might be another way of havi."1g to imp1ement it. Ms. Wilson-We talked about it, but it isn't in the document. Mr. Hise-And as far as the concrete barriers go, if there was: a plan afoof or somebody wanted to start one, I would be happy to partidpatE', if we wanted to get a group of people and decide to demolish some of those vnth volunteer help. I think you could fmd enough skilled help tha t we could act'.lally do an lntersection e\~ery novw' and then. ] see t."",at as something that is very possible to do. Again it could fit into the new theme that seems to be very popular no\'.~, which is that volunteer organizations could take on some of the public projects. Som<:> ~jngs that are very urgent could be handled in that way. I am. more familiar with the document now after this presentation. It is an excellent presentation. I love the graphics. Gloria Humble did a beautiful job. The art is wonderful. All that ""'rill be well-received w:i:th everybody. [don~t know what type of action we are required to make today, but I would vote to take more formal a,tion at our nex t meeting. Ms. Lyt!e-It would be nice to have a formal motion of what your conS€nsU5 is on the document. Chaitman Mase.r-I thought this was more or less a session to gather our thoughts. I hope the minu tes ",,"ill be recorded in some manner~ because I think there have been a lot ofrealJy interesting ideas that have come forth from the session. Ms.. LytIe--We will have a transcript of the minutes, which y.'"ill be fonvarded to the other commlssions. Otairman Maser-It is amazing what has been done. \Vho was responsible for an 01 the diagrams? Ms. Wilson--David Gates. "Ve had a consultant early on tills project. 20 November 5, 1992 Excerpt - Bruce Fukl!ji--The bas£: dra~ing_; ...... ·ere done by staff Chairmm l\1aser---!t sha."rs a tremendous amoun~ of effort and they aTe beautifully don.e, I was interested 1."1 ]",'1r, lyzwa's comments about closing off University AvemJe for p~rt of the day, '""hen I first came to this community 26 years ago,! wrote a Jetter to tht: editor of the then Palo Alto Times and made that exact suggestion -that University Avenue be closed off. 1 think r had j"l.lst come back from visiting Europe and was totally smitten 'wlth European lifestyle and t..~e even movement and the dellghtofhaving streetscape fr.atwas turned i.."1to a plaza. ft'"s still a dream of mine. It may be a dream that is never realized~ btl t the thing that l'm concerned about is in !egislating anything like this,. which would preclude the possibility of actually doing that, if there was some proposal b.'lat came in that hadn't ~n considered ir.. aJl of the creative tPj.n...i.dng that has gone into this Plan that we suddenly found would make the City come alive even mo!"e. I would hate to think we WE're closing our eyes to that possibUity by legislating what we have before us, I think the idea of this being a guideline with some flexibility is much more comforta.ble to me than trying to put this into a more regent fonnat. The important thing is that the public be made avtare of this document right off the bat.. It won't be an effective document if there isn't public awareness of it If the public was aware of its existence and would be able to study and work lvith stafi ahead of time befon: formulating any ideas on a specific project, we would be so far ahead of the ga.TJ\e.in that respect. I think that's why variolJs projects succeeded the way they did because there was that awareness and interaction earfy on the project and a lot of dedicati:.n from people like Ms. "VVi150n and others to resolve what have become very successful projects. In that regard~ I consider this docume..'1t a little: bit too long and too verbose. It ,,:as an effort fOl me to get through this document. I did read the whole document, a..'1d I kept thinking if this was about half as long and the ,"sua! parts of it, the charts and Fhotographs were twice as big and h\,;ce as easy to read, for me it wvuld have been a far more effective document. I would like to go through and cut out half the verbiage in here. There is repetition, there are a lot of 'words that don't need to be in there. '\.'Vhen I was a student in Carmel and took cre.ative ",'Tiang, my roommate who was very good in English used to say, now go through it and Cuf out 50% of the words and you'U have a reputable document. That's how I felt about this document. 1t is too much fo expect the public to go Uln.JUgh all this and it is too November 5,1992 Excerpt 21 ...... " . diwrganizE'd right now, etc to expect anybody to get into it. 1 thi..,k Y0U wou!d have a I!'.\.lch more effective 1001 if it could be edited way do ..... n. Some of the $pecific suggestions sE'nd out a double m~sagf>. \\'e are saying on the one hand til.at we don't w.ant this to be a design tool; ~""e wanl it to encourage design and we want it fo present some opportunities. Yet at the same time) we're getting some very sped-fie recommendations in the document, which sends out a contradictory double message. It isn't a huge crit1dsm l but the firsf 6ing I saw on page 12 was a drawing of the inter5el.."tion of Alma sho\t\-ing suggestions for hO\·", to improve the ''k.'1ot.'' Although it is prob3bly a great idea~ whe!'l we get dov .. 71 to that level of detaiL I think we're trying to design a little bit more than we should be In su..,-unary. I think this document ,"",iII be a wonderfu! tool. I would encourage you to continue with it and work towards brevity and clarity so that it becomes a more substantial tool for the-public at large. Mr. Hise-This community is so lucky that "Ire don't have a surface rail connection here like so many communities up and dol'."Il the peninsula have. liv'e have m.J.jor thoroughfares, El Camino REa] and then rai!l all that surface. We talked about that be3.:ng a ''knof, n and you can go ii1.to communities on the p~!ninsu1a where CalTran goes right through their community and ha ve t.h.at sunace right in their main dov.'1lto-wn access. Ifs such a mess. San Mateol Burlingame, San Bru!l.o. Mountain Viev.~ is even a mess. \Ve are so lucky that we have that problem to deal ",1th rather t..ltan what some oth~ communities have, especially \\rith El Camino Real so close and then Alma Street. We have all t.l)at coming together and werre lucky WE' don't have that problem. Ms. Wil.wn,-That's inferestmg because that's recognized as a problem. Mr. Hise--Take any of these other communities and try to get info them when they have two lanes of tracks and then a major thoroughfare on either side or the tracks and then one coming info their downtown area. It really scre\vs up their do ....... Tttown. Ms. l"liIson-In some cases they aTe undergrounding. They're ending up 't'Vith two levels. They are having to move buildings away that are-near the railroad tracks. 22 November 5, 1992 Excerpt - :Ml'. Hise--I~ is a proble-m, but ~t's a problem that 15 better 10 have than \,,'h2.t some other conun unities ha \'e. Ms. Lyfie--A strong stai.ement needs to com\? from L1.e ARB to the Council. I\.fr. Zimmerman--Todey you have re\';ewed and commer.ted On yournex.t agenda you could ma.'k:e a specific !t>Conunendation. Ms. LyUe--On~ thing I would Llke to darify. r donrt think a code amendment would be necessary for you to apply the concepts of this document b yeur decision m.a1d.ng. it says, "according to findings and standards contained in this chapter and such additional standards that may be adopted and published by the City Council from time to 'time." Mr. Hise-That's what [meant Ms. Lytle-You could JllSt reooll'unend that this be used as one of those standards. Chairman Maser-\!Vhy couldn't if be the same way that we U~ !:he El Camino Real guidelines? Ms. Lytle--It could be. The El Camino Real guideljne5, however, are a bad example. Mr. Hise--Yes, and also I wouldn't put it into legislation sc that it be<~ame fixed. The only reasvn I was suggesting that was not that it should become a fixed document, because I think the beauty of it is tha.t it stays a flexible doctl.ment. Jim Gilliland-That was th~ intent with the E1 Camino Real Guidelines and the PedeStrian Guidelines. Chairman Maser--l think all of us would embrace that mth en thusiasm. Ms. WjJso~e of the things we became very aware of 1S SO!TIe aftitudes from various constit'.lencies in the community. \Ve have tried very carefully to make thi3 Plan acceptable to everybody. Jim Baer sa.:d that he doesn't want another reg-Illation in his life. Irs important that Jim Baer and people like him support this kind of document. [think we can go easy in the beginning on tllis [hope people will look November 5, 1992 Excerpt 23 • at it e\'er~' few years and make Changes and ke.r::op buying into it .... "ith more and more strength as time goes on a71d we don't alienate people early on. Mr. Hise--I don't know the mechanics of it, bui' is this an appropriatedoc·..unent if it's found acceptable by all to be incorporated into the Comprehensi\'e Plan? As part of the dOVl"Itw\\:n eJemer:.t of £he Comprehensive Plan? !\I[s.. Lytle--There is a section in tlte current work program t.ltat ~ays Vrba.I1. Design and mere's an element in the existing Comprehensive Pian. Mr. Hise--So you could actually go that far where it becomes incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan. Ms. LytIe--It could be incorporated or it could be a reference dOCl!..a"11enf. Mr. Zimmemtan-I see it more likely as a reference document with perhaps a summation of the principle features of the Plan in the Ccmprenensive Plan. Ms. W1.lson--I wouldn~t WaI1_t to burden this dOL"UITlent with the type of revie· ... • that the CompreheI1.sive Plan legally has to deaJ \\;th and the kind of pubUc exposure. Otairman Maser-That's a very good suggestion --to ma..'L:e if a reference document. Mr. Hise-So part of your presentation to the Council might be some level" where they might implement utis. I see that this n~s to be a docu.inent that isn't on the shelf, but on fhe wall. Like these drav.";..ngs are on Ll-te wall so that the comIllunity regularly sees them. They are either on the wall in the Pla.i1ning Department. or on th.e ground floor SO thaf it's important enough t:laf people see it all the time. Ms. LytIe--I 'would like to make a comment about the lack of professional editing input in the documel'.t. ",",'e would like to have money for that; which we don't no .. ",' have. I think Ms. Wilson intends to ask [or some professional editing. One thing that this bo.ud needs to understand and people like myself who are spatially and visually attuned ~eed to remember, is t.~at there is a large segment of the community that is verbaUy oriented, They look at a diagram and don't undeIstand it. They have to read it in order to understand it. Chairman Maser--I think it has to bea combination. 24 November 5,1992 Excerpt t ",'0'. Ms. LyHe--Yes, but profE'-5sionaI editing is dearly need€'d. It is 5OP1~thing tlY:1t we have asked for in ot.:r Comprehensive Plan as a rESult of this exercise, frankly. The budgC't for editing was deleted from the Comprenensi ve Pl3.n. Mr. Hist--There • ... I"ill be z: number of people who won't need to read this in order to buy into it Once they see the prc.-sentation, conceptu311y that wO!.l!d be enough for a lot 01 people. Mr. Fukuji-It tc>ok such a long time to verbalize a lot of jdeas. We got all that do'wn. For staff to get it to dt1s level is a grea i: achievement. For everyone. That is what came out and now it's ready for editing. YV~ krlOW L'-1ere , ... ;rere some se-ctions that were rather word)' and it talks about things that everybody already knows about. The redundancy needs to be thinned out 'without losing the content. Mr. Zimmennan--l have a question abo'iJt pro...'"'l!dure. These comments .... ill be recorded today and then the item ..... i11 be on the agenda for nvo weeks, so no motion is necessarj today. Mr. Gilliland-That is correct. Chairman Maser-I would like to request that each of the Board members who ceme to the next meeting bring a list of so:ne oE the thing.> tlu!y would like brought up before the City Coundl. Ms. Lytle--J would advise:::..iso that y,-"u list your most important points. It's hard when the Cvunci1 gets inundated. Ther~ ~,vii] be comments from several boards and commissions, such as outside groups, property ow;~ers, etc. The more concise and t.lte more you can get your priorities in a formal state'nent, the more it will have an impact. Mr. Zimmennan-I would also like to poiIlt out that in tl?rms of outreach, over 700 individuals, businesses, and property ov.'ners have alread y been notified in our outreach efforts for our downto\A.'n presentation. I wouldn't say that attendance has been outstanding,. but it has been significant in terms of who has attended, so the word is getting out t. ..... ere. November 5, 1992 Exce rpt 25 •• " ---_._ .. ----' December 3, 1992 Architectural Review Board E~cerpl NEWIOLD BUSINESS Agenda Item No.2 Downtown Urba..'1 Design Flan, R(\'iew and recomn.;2-ndatlon to Ci ty Council, Chainnan Maser-I .... _'Tote some recommendations, based on some of the comments I made at the previous meeting, I started " ... -lth $Orne general comme!1ts, ....... ,hic.'1 were in particular dir~ted to Shirley \-\·ilson: It is exciting to see in print Ole culm fnaHo n cf y~1'S {lfthaughtful l1fil lIl/tnted input from the dedicated group that IuJve been volIlnleering thei' efforts to this <nJ1, This should be an invaluable tool and ,,,,,ouree for the community. It unl1 also b! of great benefit to those of kS on various boards Ilnil commissions inwlred in the physical development of the down lo-um area. Congratulatwns ott Q tremetrdous job! If's ",,~onderful to see this document. Although most of my comments tend to be criticisms, they aTe meanf to be in the spirit of good criticisms. Thesi?' are :eiterations of things I said at the last meeting .... ,hen we discussed this item. 1. l1ris document would be mare ef/ectir..le if it could be slwrtened cmlsidernbly, This may Of cur through some exi"ent through the editing proce::-s. Additfor'.J2l1y you may want to !.OS( an 1.."'n..itJine fOrmtlt with. morl;' headlines an.d less verbi'age when apJtropriD.ft. Petp!e are busy and inundared wi!h nports, etC-I and bret1ity can ",.au {J stronger, more QCci'SSr11/e reference. December 3.1992 Excerpt -.-~ .. --.-,"------,- , t • t" ".:!, ii i ,-c 2" 3" There is a concern ala! some of the speD/fie staterncn/s and suggestions ga bcyolrd guiddirr.e status. The pla'1 ShCll.i.ld :iller,,-' for end cncmaugf? c07"'1patib,'e' creative solutions that 111AY not confL~'m ta some of Hlt' 5ugg(sted desisn iack.." as prcsfnte.d. The dia.grams are w(}tlder{u ~ edJtions to the If.'xt far thost? of :is who are 'cisu~!iy orien.ted. Sorne of t,1em a.re reduced to a poin~ wht'l'e Ihc let!er:~g in the notes br?l..-omes almosf efigib!e. FJ<'Jlse ('!'Jake s,lr!;' they ai'/? n'l1d(l~lle eme!. any 1m nt.'~"e:;Stlfy not:Jtions are omitted. Then I listed seven very specific comments, ",:hie.h I won:'t read. I refer to pages within the dOC'..unent and they have to do v.'i.th specific issues. Ireduced my comments to those that J thought were the most important, since we v.in all be commenting on the document to:-Jght. Nanq Lytie--I would !ike a.::tion from the Board as a whole as to whether or not you endorse this plan in general, given t.1.ese provisos. Staff would like to pass on to the Planrdng ComII'lsslon and City Council ",hat the Board consensus is on the Plan_ .~onON: Anio Vieua-da-Rosa---I think Chairman Maser's first comment v.~ould make a wonderful motion. [think the Board shou:d really strongly support this, and strongly support any money L.~at is necessary for adcUtional editing becaus.e .... 'e want this document to be used a.."'1d not be so Ci.!ffi"bersome that it can't be used. Any additional money t.hat's necessary to make the diagrams in co!or \I."ourd be he!pfuL becaus.e in black and ..... ·hi te they are too la bor-intensiv~ to work. I ~rsonaHy would support a change in the name of the document to scm .. ·thjng iike "Urban Design Opportunities,'" because the whole point of this should be enthusiasm on everyone's part that there i.s someHling extra frat they can do, no~ a plan or something 0.af is imposed on them. That's why I think it's importanf that the name be <:hanged to something that is more enthusiastic So, i.n addition to what has been said r those are the things that I feel would be lmportan~ to be included in the motion and could be added to the paragraphs \'\.Titten by Chainnan Masf!r. 2 December 3, 1992 Excerpt -- Chairman Maser-P..:rhaps YOil (ould wr:te that infDrraation (In this sheet and ;\e could give it to staff. M:S.. Vieiza-d3-Rosa----~faybe the first line of your corr.liwnts should read: "The Architectural Review Board strongly supports adoptio:"\ of this document." Chairma."T\ Maser-] tN!\k that stateme~t should De at the end. It ".,.ould make even more of a statement. AI,,:fE~'f)MENT: Ms. Vjeira-d.a~Rosa-·I would add the last senten,,:-e to read: The .4RB strungly supports this document and far p..ddit I mUll funds for editing, professionar formntting and color en.Jrancemef;t, to make this document eJlsy tn use and an e.-rdting fool. SECOl\'f): Th"mas Hise. It-fOTION CARRIED: The motion was carrkcd unanimously .. with Michael Lyzwa absent Shirley \Vilson--Thank you 50 much for making this work after all this time. Olainnan Maser-Vvhen did you start working on it? Ms. Wilson--ln 1989. :Ms. Lytle--Jack Sutorius was mayor. It was five years ago when it " .. -as 2.uthoriz.ed and the worked progressed from t.1tere. Ms. WilS<ln---Or'lce again~ thank you for your support. ] hepe it is useful to you. Ms.. Lytle--I would also like a representative from the ARB to attend L'-le Pla.nning Commission meeting on this item next week It is a special meeting. 1t starts at 6:00 pm \','lth a presentation from the Board in this room. Then questions can be asked and they ""rill adjourn to the Chambers at 7;()O pm for a pubtic hearing on the Hem and thert they ,vlll take their action on the item HopefuHy this will ali occur before 7:30 pm when their regular meeting starts. Ms. Vj~ira-dil-Ro5.a--I wm attend the meeting on Dec€:i11bf>..r 9 .. 1992. December 3, 1992 Excerpt 3