Parks, Recreation & Open Space Commission - Regular Meeting

Everyone, it's um now just after 7, so I will call this meeting of the planning and zoning commission of the city of Albany, Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 regular meeting to order. And I will follow that with the land acknowledgement. The city of Albany recognizes that we occupy the land originally protected by the confederated villages of Leon. We acknowledge the genocide that took place on these lands and must make strides to repay the moral debt that is owed to this indigenous people, specifically the Aloney tribe. We thank them for their contributions which have transformed our community and will continue to bring forth growth and unity. The city of Albany commits to sustaining ongoing relationships with the tribe and together build a better future for all that now make this their home. And with that we will do roll call. Commissioner Mowman here. Commissioner Pearson here. Chair Mloud here. and commissioners Wadi and Pilch are absent this evening. Okay, thank you. Uh any exparte communications on anyone's part? Uh none for me either. Seeing none, we'll move on to item three, consent calendar, which is only the minutes of May 14th, 2025. Um, I actually had a couple things. So, um, I guess I would pull that from the consent calendar. If you if they're um minor, we can pull it. Yeah, just briefly, I guess. Won't take long. Um, so we'll pull the consent

calendar um item 3 point 3-1, approval of minutes. Uh just one thing I noticed on uh a couple things actually. One was in the bike parking section. It was uh page three line 17. Uh it said cupboards. I think it should have said bike lockers. Um just one correction. Yeah, bike room is more flexible than individual cupboards. Didn't seem was appropriate. And then just regarding bike parking in general, um I would like it noted that I was proposing that we also have ordinances and requirements for temporary events. So that was, you know, part of what I was proposing or talking about. So that that would be it for me. Um any other comments on the minutes? Any public comment on the minutes? We have to ask if you wish to speak on the minutes either step up to the dis or use the raise the hand icon. No. No. Okay. With that, we can move on to a motion for approval. I'll move for approval of item 3-1. Changes noted. I guess not. Right. I'll second it. Okay. We'll go to a vote. Commissioner Pearson. Yes. Mman, yes. I vote yes as well. So, the minutes have been approved. Uh, next up is item four, public comments. For persons desiring to address the commission on an item that is not on the agenda. Please note that city policy limits each speaker to three minutes. The chair may reduce this. Brown Act limits the commission's ability to take and/or discuss items that are not on the agenda. Therefore,

such items may be referred to staff for comment or to a future agenda. Is there anyone who would like to make a public comment for the go to the city? If you'd wish to speak on an item not on the agenda, use the raise a hand icon or come up to the D to the podium, I mean. Nope. Nope. Okay. No. Okay. No public comment. So, we'll close item four and move on to item five. Item five-1, planning application PA25-015707 Gate View Avenue. and staff will have a presentation for us. Yes, we do chair. Okay. So, all right. So, I'm sharing my screen. So, hello commissioners and members of the public uh both present and virtual. My name is Merra Han, associate planner with the city of Albany. Uh tonight I'm here to present design review application PA25015707 Gate View Avenue. So let's start with the project location in context. The project site is located in the single family residential district with the combined hillside over Lake District. The 18,621 square foot lot is located on a culdeac. So, you can see that. Let me see if I can pull up my laser pointer because I don't have a cursor. Uh, yeah. So, that's a culde-sac um on the north side, I'm sorry, on the east side of Gate View Avenue, south of the vacant lot at 600 I'm sorry, 695 Gate View Avenue and north of Washington Avenue. Um, so yeah, you can see again that um it's a very hilly site. It's on

the uphill side of the street. Uh you can see at the bottom the um so the existing versus the proposed. Next. So we can see here the site plan. Uh, the subject lot, as I said, slopes up from the street approximately 28% and is developed with a 4,19 square foot, five- bedroomedroom, three bath, two-story home constructed in the modern style. So, the residence has an attached twocar garage and detached twocar carport at the rear, which are proposed to remain. Um, this application comes with a design review request to construct a 275 square foot multi-story addition at the rear and right southwest side of the of the house. So that's the area uh the project consists of. So you can see here um the areas in blue right here, those are the areas that are going to be um the addition on the second existing second story. So that comprises uh around 538 square feet. Um a new approximately 400 foot fourth story uh with a sorry a new 1,136 foot third story. So that's the L-shaped uh at the rear edition. and a new approximately 400 square f foot fourthstory with a 700 square ft roof deck and other interior and exterior changes. So the project will result in a four-story 7bedroom 5b 2 and a half bathroom home with a maximum height of uh 30 feet around 30 ft. Uh the garage and the carport are proposed to remain. Um so we'll move to the next. So, one thing that is in the staff report is that the Hillside Over Lake

District specifies certain development standards which include um a maximum 40 40ft height limit overall with a maximum 28T height limit for any new construction within 10 ft of the downhill face front face of the structure. So you if you count 10 ft up here um and uh you know any new construction cannot be more than 28 feet measured from the point immediately down on the on the grade uh on grade. However, if it's outside of that um area the 10 foot kind of like setback quote unquote um it can be up to uh 40 feet. So the project complies as you can see the addition which is in dotted blue line um is significantly recessed from both the face of the rest of the home and the face of the whole structure which is which would happen to be the face of the garage. Um so it complies with that. So uh we can see from the proposed design that there are different details that break up the facade and provide articulations such as so you can see here on the left side um a new porch covered porch um at the existing main entrance a new another covered porch at the new secondary entrance. Uh so that's from the right south side of the view and then a new kind of like a window al cove at the rear which faces north. Um and so yeah also further articulation is provided by the combination of different materials and colors as you can see here. Um, it's proposed to match and complement the existing architectural style with painted stucco, wood paneling at the covered porches and window al cove, asphalt shingle roofs, fiberglass

windows, metal rod railings with wood rail at the top and concrete walls at the stairs. So staff has received one comment, one piece of correspondence regarding this project proposal and that comment has been added to the project files um on the agenda and your your packets uh commissioners. So um with that staff recommends that the planning and zoning commission review and approve the proposed project subject to the findings and standard conditions of approval. Thank you. Thank you for the staff report. Um, does anyone have any questions for staff? Commissioner Pearson, I do. I I have a couple questions and forgive me because these are more just about the zoning. Like um I didn't have time to review the ordinance, but I'm curious if the city has regulations for mini dorms. Leslie, you know where this is coming from. or if there's a limit on the number of bedrooms. Like I know there are other jurisdictions where there's a five limit bedroom and if you go over that you need to get a certain permit. So I'm wondering if the city of Albany has any regulations that pertain to the number of bedrooms that are allowable in single family homes. Not that I'm aware of. Not in planning and zoning, but I don't know. We don't. No. And do we have any regulations for group living accommodations where it's not where the same it's a it's a it's a home that would be lived in by non-related people like as opposed to a family occupying a or a household occupying uh No, I don't believe we do. Yeah. Not at the moment. And then we got a comment from a community member that uh had an had a concern about there being two kitchens in this home. And I when I looked at the plans, I didn't see that there were two kitchens. So I was curious share I can let me try to share the let me see the plans and we can take

a look to I didn't just I'm sorry. I think um there should only be one kitchen. So if there happens to be two kitchens um we will make sure that that that is so a household is not defined in any other way except for it is only allowed to have one one kitchen. Yeah. Okay. There you said there was a secondary entrance. Is that is it a secondary entrance into like another foyer or is it a secondary entrance like a back door? It's a second entrance to the foyer which leads to the uh existing second floor which you know it's the same level where the main entrance leads to. Um, so basically what the way I see it is that it's such a big house, it's such a big residence that it would provide access uh in flexibility in terms of where to come from um or to enter the house from. Uh so yeah. Okay. So if a second kitchen were to be installed, it would be considered two units or if an if the part of the part of the home were to be carved out at some point, then it would be like an ADU and a home or two units. Correct. If if the applicant wanted to install a second kitchen, they would have to go through the ADU process. Otherwise, they could. Another option would be to convert it into a duplex through SB9. Um, but they do have options, but not not within the current the present planning uh application. It's not within the scope of work. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Uh, other questions? Yeah. uh we have um like 0.55 uh 0.55 F as a limit for exceptional design guidelines applicability but in this case because lot is so big you know it would not apply but then in do we have a criteria for the size of the house like if it ex

extend you know exceeds certain you know area so it's uh so I think are you referring into the 45% uh threshold. So a project is kind of reviewed as an exceptional design project. Um so yeah, you're you're correct because of the size of the lot addition which is you know actually the addition is relatively minor compared to the rest of the existing house. Um so yeah it didn't trigger that. It applies only in terms of F, not in terms of or like overall uh square foot area. That's correct. That's what the design guidelines state. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? No. Um I guess could you just refresh our memories on the HOD housing or the hillside overlay district? Is it just heights or is there something else to it? today. Um, so yeah, the so we have a whole section in the code that deals with specific development standards for overlay districts. One of them is the hillside overlay district. And yes, it um addresses mostly the height. So it depends on if a house is located on the uphill or the downhill side of the street. Um, but it there's overall a 40 foot height limit overall. overall across the board. However, if it's on the upper like the uphill side of the street, then the first 10 feet measured from the face of the front from the front face of the structure cannot exceed 28 feet. And I guess you know the the the intent of it of course it is to you know to avoid a a very a massive structure from the street, right? So sort of ensuring it set back a little bit. Um, so did you say 40 40 ft? That's correct.

And where is that? That's measured from the lowest point of grade where the house starts like at the garage level in this case. Correct. No, that's a very good question. It it follows the grade the slope. So basically you draw an imaginary line. So any point any specific point you would like drop a a perpendicular line that and so the point that it touches on the ground that's where you would measure. So if you if the imaginary line if the structure is inside of that area you know that between the grade and the 40 ft then it is it is fine that goes up really high then if you're going right any at any point on the slope if you go up 40 feet okay that's very high okay and otherwise this is um R1 single family zoning okay that's correct all right well the other questions were very appropriate. I have two more. Okay. Two more questions because I was gonna ask something similar, but go ahead. Oh, no. You finish. No, I don't think I have any other questions for now. Okay. So, I had two more questions. So, the other one again, like I'm not so familiar with Alby's zoning ordinance, but are there any regulations for short-term rentals? Like, is there a limitation on the number of days that a home can be? And I and I asked this because there was a comment letter that said that there was concern that this would be a short Airbnb. And so is there a 14-day or 28 day or I will look that up. It's my if if you don't mind it's my understanding that we don't our short-term rentals are for 30 or more days, but let me look that up to confirm that answer. I was talking about short-term rentals yesterday, so let me confirm that um if you have other questions for Okay. And then the other question I have is about the roof deck. Like I think I heard you say the roof deck is 700 square feet.

And so I was curious there are any regulations on the size of roofs or roof decks? No. Are there? No. Go ahead. No. Sorry. Not not for the area, but of course there's different heights that would trigger design review. So basically when a deck is more than 36 in in height from grade then it immediately is reviewed uh as a design review project it doesn't go otherwise it would go directly to u building as a building uh permit and is this did I read the plans correctly that the roof deck is on the is on the south side so adjacent the south side of the lot so it's close to the neighbors Um I believe it's there's quite uh a good distance but um yeah that's that was the sense I got but is of course as the house is closer right to the south um I guess the south u lot line um it is relatively closer however the let me see let me take a look at the plans I'll pull up the plans and we can share let me share screen. So yeah, so this is existing that's proposed. Uh so yes, you're correct. It would be closer definitely to the property line, but it still um complies with the setbacks. Um however, let me see if from this photograph and maybe the applicant can provide some information on that. Uh let's see it looks

like yeah I think the applicant might might be more I don't know if the applicant is here or maybe they have joined virtually. Um are you able to respond to this question? Um maybe we should wait a minute until we finish our questions and then um we could ask the applicant directly. There is a page um there's a there's a site is there a there's a big driveway next door. Yeah, we can see in the middle picture there. Yeah, middle picture. Yeah, the middle picture. Middle lower picture. If you zoom into that. Yeah, there the middle picture. can see a parking lot south of the house. Yeah, a big parking area. So, there's a big separation between two houses. There's quite Yeah, there's I'm not sure how much of a distance that is, but judging by the amount of cars kind of parked there. Uh yeah, this this would be the south uh setback. So there seems to be a good distance between what would be the the proposed deck and the proposed addition to the closest neighbor on the south side. Okay. And then one more question about about roof decks like there do you have limitations on uses like hours like quiet hours? So we do have a noise ordinance and of course you know every which applies which is part of our performance standards as well. Um so any use any any type of use in the city has to comply with those uh with the noise um regulations. And if there's u there's a neighbor who who does not think that a neighbor um an adjacent use is being compliant with it um you know I'm they would reach out to the city and then yeah we would look into it. But thank you. Yeah.

Um well, we could u have the applicant. Um is the they don't have an architect, they have an engineer, but also um we could ask some questions of the applicant if there are any or kind of those specifics or or the applicant could explain the project to us as well. This one, right? Second one. Yeah. Hello. Are you the applicant? The the owner? Hello. Can you hear me? Um, sure. If you don't mind, you could tell us what your intentions are, what you're what you're trying to do with the project. Okay. So, my name the microphone and speak into the microphone. Hi, good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm Angie, the owner of 707 Gateville Avenue in Auburning. I live next city and I will try my best to get a very beautiful house many for my family and I'm single. I have no kids at all. But I need a big house. Why? I want to explain to you. Everybody was curious why you are alone. Why you want to such a big house? Because many I'm taking five nieces. I'm taking care of five motherless nieces and a nephew. Why? Because my older brother and the sister-in-law, they both passed away. Three of I took care of them. They are growing up now, of course. And uh I also taking care of my younger sister's two kids.

My younger sister passed away at the age 44 and left a seveny year boy and 11 uh years old girl. So I took care both of them too. So total five nieces and nephew they all motherless. So I told them you you all don't have mother. I'm your auntie mother now. I'm the only one in the world who can help you now. You have to work, study very hard and work hard in order to become independent. That's why July 4 was indep independence day. You had to become independence. So they study very hard. They graduate from Kale. So I'm so happy and after that I asked them to go to east go to Ivy lease to get their master of PhD degree and they work out very well. Okay. So they have either PhD or master degree but then they all stay in the east work or study or professor or whatever. Okay. I think we get it. You're trying to bring family home. When they come back to California, the place they grow up, they have no house, no home. So, I feel they become homeless. That's why I bought a five. Okay, that sounds big house. Great. I think we're going to Now, I want to upgrade for name. Okay. Yeah, it sounds great. I think we understand your motivations. Many for name. Yeah. Okay. Any other specific questions for the applicant? I have a Oh, sorry. Not for you. No, no, no. Please finish. No, I was just going to say we could close this and open up uh to public comment. Yeah, I had an answer regarding the short-term rentals,

which is we do not regulate um short-term rentals in any way, shape, or form. Um they're supposed to get a business license and through that they are regulated by the city, but we don't have a short-term rental ordinance. Did you I don't plan to rent out so far. Yeah. Okay. Uh I bought a house in 2014. If you can um take a seat for one second, we'll open the public comment. Yeah, we're going. Thank you. I helps to understand your motivations. Thank you very much. Um so we'll close our staff questioning and move on to public comment for anyone either here or uh at home who would like to comment. So, is there anyone here who would like to This time you'll be limited to three minutes. You you can keep speaking if you like. Uh that's why I went to see because I know there's a public uh please speak into the microphone. Oh, thank you. Can you hear me now? Yes. Sorry. First time to use this kind of things. Anyway, and this afternoon I find out who is the uh convent from Serena. So I she is my friend's uh uh tenants before the house behind me 17 huga uh I introduced to my friend to bought that house that house has beautiful gorgeous wheel after I saw that view I come back I want cry I never tell people I have a bay wheel house anymore so I instead because right now I see a lot of wire wires. So I that's why I intend to get a at least one window without any wires. That's why I'm

struggling for over 10 years 2014 to now save the money make the design and then I was finally get to this point. Thanks God. Anyway, so I went to see Serena this afternoon. I explained to her she worry about I will rent so many room out. I said I told her, "Hi, Serena. I'm Ang. I'm a property apartment owner in Berkeley. I manage my by myself over 20 years. I lock myself in the apartment buildings to do all my own business until 2012, I met Tony. He is a contractor. He can do maintenance for me." And the next year 2013, I met Joy Wang. He is a realtor. uh so he can be my livein manager. Okay. Ever since then they are they take over my business. So 14 next next year I bought a house. So I can start with a twobedroom one bath house is good enough for myself. Instead I bought a 52 big house. Now the five kids come back. Who is going to get the bathroom? Become unfair to me. That's why I told Tony I want every bedroom has a become turn into suite has every room has its own bathroom to solve my problem otherwise I want to be fair for everyone so everybody has no own bed or bathroom that's why I turn into sweet so so far my intention is when we finish I will have seven bedroom with seven full beds and I have

another so-called uh uh library or office in the main entrance floor that that room no bathroom but I add a half bathroom to there. Okay, thank you. Yeah, time's up. Thank you very much. Yeah, everyone gets three minutes. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak or anyone else in the room wishing to speak on 707 Gate View? No. Um, we have some folks online. Hello. Hello. Hi. My name is Brandon. I am the property owner for 710 hillside directly behind this property. Um I did see that there was a framing up on the existing property now. Um and I had a couple of questions actually about the privacy into not only my backyard but also like with the height and the additional stories um almost directly into my basement floor. Um, I know that you have existing trees on the plan and I was wondering um if those trees are on our property or on your property or uh what those kind of look like as well as if those are possibly um could be required uh in terms of for privacy into the two properties. we go through all public comments. So, if you you have two minutes left. Oh, okay. Um, that's kind of all I had in terms of concerns from my end. The

size and the height is something um extraordinary and I I think that it's it's great to have that. It's just the roof deck and the extra stories or any windows facing my end. I would want to have some sort of privacy. So whether it's tree privacy or those design considerations are taken into consideration so that they're not facing directly into the windows of my house or or whatever that may look like um design-wise. That would be great and I appreciate that uh consideration. Okay, thank you for your comments. Hello, my name is Don Jin and actually I'm an architect that helping uh help the NG the homeowner of the 707 gate view. Um I think uh maybe I can answer the question um previously regarding the privac privacy issue uh backside of our the 707 lot. Um actually the tree that he mentioned is really tall tree. Um now I'm opening up the Google map and you can tell the um how big this tree is. So I don't think there is any uh there is a privacy issue because this is a very tall tree and we're not we don't have any plan to remove any of the tree here. Um that is the one and I'm looking at the great thank you very much. I think even though we added the uh to um the additional level here uh still I think 716 or 710 uh resident is much higher than actually um I don't think there is any um um in my opinion I don't see any priv privacy issue to back that word and um um yeah

that's my uh what I want to say and um since I'm here if there's any uh question about architectural uh element and um feature then uh feel free to ask me. And um you talked about actually the um privacy issue with the the neighborhood and um the the drawing 807 has actually the street level elevation. So um you can get a little bit of sense of the uh how far our the adjacent neighbor is related uh from this uh street level. Um so and also the our the window opening is not uh for the vision purpose mainly is more for the uh you know the window on this the the facing to the neighbor on the right and actually north and south is more for the ventilation from the restrooms. So u it's not uh for the vision visionary purpose. So, uh, we don't think that there is is is not a privacy issue. So, since I'm here again, so if there's any question, feel free to ask me. Okay. Thank you for your comments. If anyone else wishes to speak on 707 Gate View, please come up to the podium. That's all. Okay. Seeing as there are no more speakers on this item, then we will close public comment and move to commissioner discussion. So would anybody like to make any comments or I don't have a lot of comment just a few just one suggestion actually I understand the rational behind the extension u I just think that since this is a huge house uh it would be useful to

have some variation in the material finish instead of having all stuckco with one paint color. uh it would be I think good to some kind of you know uh it has a nice broken uh bulk mass but with finishes I think you can create some variation uh either with a different paint shade or some kind of uh siding or something that would kind of give a kind of a a look of not one large huge house but maybe kind of a cluster of smaller houses. That's it. Uh, okay. Commissioner Pearson. Um, so thank you for the explanation of why you're building the home and uh, congratulations on on your your family. Um, I think that my only my my only concern is the size of the roof deck and I I wanted to confirm like on these drawings it looks like there's not much railing around like whereas on the design on the plans it looks like it's more like you know I don't know if this is just like middle like metal um like the like a a light metal railing as opposed to more of like a wooden enclosed. I'm just trying to I was I'm wondering if there's some way that you could design the deck to provide noise protection to your neighbors. I don't know if that's like if that's a if that's a necessary or it's something that you'd consider. I I mean, you had one neighbor contact, one neighbor call in about the noise issues. like it is a huge it is a huge lot and we look at that distance maybe it's not such an issue but

um have you talked with your neighbor to the north to see if they have any concerns about the roof deck being adjacent to their lot well I'm sorry we're not doing public comment right it's um so yeah so I mean I guess the design of the roof deck is one that like that is of concern, but not if you guys don't think it is. Something I wanted to mention. Otherwise, you know, it conforms with the zoning and it is a nice design and it serves the family. It only has one kitchen. I like that. So, and it's it's a huge lot. So, okay. Anything? Okay. Yeah, I had a Well, I have some comments. Um, I mean it is a very large house in addition, but at the same time the neighborhood seems to have a lot of large houses. Even just looking at the house next door, that footprint looks huge. And a lot of them are really pretty big along the street and even the street above there are some quite big houses. So in that sense, I don't think this is, you know, unusual or, you know, something that's out of the ordinary. You know, I think it's appropriate in that sense. It's a very big lot and so certainly can't support a big house and you know there are a variety of living situations extended family perfectly valid great way to support your family u even if there were rentals individual rentals you know I mean in the same sense that we're trying to build more housing if we're getting more bedrooms and providing more living situations that also um is beneficial for the city. Um, I do get the concerns that people don't want to have, you know, sort of a big noisy house with a lot of parties

or whatever, but you know, the the noise there's noise ordinances for that sort of thing. Um, you know, the roof deck is really really big. Uh, you know, so, uh, and it's only off of one bedroom. So, I mean, how big of a roof deck do you need to support one bedroom? In a way, I would support reducing the size of the roof deck. Um, you know, that roof deck is almost as big as this room. It's like it's like 30 by 25. That's a huge roof deck. 700 square f feet. Uh, which, you know, I mean, to support one bedroom and a few people up there, it doesn't seem like you need it to be that big. Um, the other question, you know, I noticed in some of the rooms there were little boxes with question marks off of the bedrooms that really looked like they could be cabinets or uh little accessory kitchens. Um, but those aren't really allowed. I mean, that's not allowed per our code. So, you're not supposed to do that. Um, I mean they you could easily do an ADU, internal ADU, attached ADU and a junior ADU and you could put kitchens in legally. Um, and you know, create more bedrooms and all that. So, I don't know if you've thought about that, but um, that is an option that's still open to you if you decide to go back and look at that. We're not we're not saying you have to do it or anything like that, but it is an option and it gives you legal kitchens and separate dwelling areas um um perfectly within planning code and you know all our ordinances. Um the one thing I don't like I really don't like can we go to the elevations? Um maybe we could look at the plans as well at some point, but

um I guess it was um what was I looking at? Yeah, the elevation. Uh that one right there where your cursor is. If you could blow that front elevation up. One thing I really don't like is just how massive that stair block is. Um, I I just think it's way out of proportion for the house. And when you look at it from the side view, there's another side view. I mean, that's just a massive big wall up there. Um, that I don't think is very attractive at all. And I guess the only purpose of that upper floor is to give stairway access to the roof deck and elevator access. So, it seems like a massive structure up there which is really just trying to support a stair to get up to the roof deck. Um, could we look at the other Could you go look at uh go up scroll? Yeah. I mean, when you look at that stair tower, I mean, it's just kind of really tall. And that whole upper floor, you know, I just kind of don't see why you need it except to get to the roof deck. So, I think that whole upper floor could be shrunk down. Um, and even when you uh let's see, let's uh hold on. If you could go back. Oh, yeah. See, right there. I mean, that whole floor there, that whole upper floor, fourth level, is just access the roof deck, which doesn't really seem necessary to me. You know, I think the elevator could be moved over between closer to where where it says office between Yeah. And the stair could be moved over and that whole upper area could be reduced in size. I mean, I would support that being

smaller. Um, and could you also look at um A31, page A31? was a side two drawing [Music] two31. Yeah, that elevation. I mean, when I look at that stair tower, I mean, it just seems way out of proportion. I mean, in an elevation and architecturally. Um, so I would really support shrinking the top floor either just down to the minimum for the stairs or that would mean moving the elevator and the stairs closer to the roof deck. um which is doable certainly doable in plan and I think the stair tower in a way is not very well designed in terms of its circulation and access and um yeah when you look at it in plan if we could go back to the plan even a lower floor plan um yeah not that level the next level. Uh uh yeah, even on that level, I mean, it's kind of awkward. The elevator could go into the storage area. I mean, I don't know. It just seems like it the whole thing could be shrunk down. I mean, that's my only item or issue I really have with this project. I mean, there are three entrances. Um, I mean it does lend itself to sort of group living which I don't really have a problem with but um I mean that would be my only thought. So I don't know what you two think about that but otherwise I don't really have any other issues. The roof deck um little ambivalent. It's just so big and you

know even even for family of seven I mean or extended living situation it seems really big and there are plenty of other decks there that have I'm sure nice views. Yeah, with the 700 square feet I think about like some of the homes in Alb Albany are 800 square feet. My friend lives in a house that's 600 square feet. So yeah, seeing an 800 foot deck I was a bit surprised. It felt like it was it was really big and that's you know yeah it just felt big. Well I'm sorry we're not doing public comment. I'm sorry. So it's our discussion. Um so I don't know what you think but uh I mean that would be the only thing I would I would say reduce the size of the upper No I think it could be area you know uh shrunken like as you suggested if if the whole elevator and stair is pushed southward and then office at the top most floor you know can be pushed over the deck there. So that would also effectively reduce the deck size and they can retain the office that that would be one you know change that could be done and I agree like that dead mass behind the um house is kind of you know imposing. Uh but I was also thinking like you know since it is above up a hill and when you are at a street level looking at that you know it is not going to be that visible we are seeing that you know right 90° horizontal view you know so we see that whole face but at street level you know eye level human eye level you would not notice that unless you know you are seeing from the bay uh so that that was one you know uh consolation I I had like you know it is it is dead it's big imposing but not very visible but in order to reduce the

roof deck you know I agree like this whole back rear bar can be shifted southward and that can reduce the whole you know bulk of the house and that um odd feature can also be limited. Yeah, I can support that change and also that would also kind of mitigate some privacy issue because the office when it is you know extended southward occupying part of the deck you know it would naturally create a wall between the Yeah. You know, east side neighbors and the deck. Yep. So, to clarify, you're talking about like where those letters are like K D I. That's the Is that the Is that the stair? Is that the No, the C and J. That that whole C, right? That whole block, you know, is stair and elevator. Yeah. And on top level, you have office at where L is. Yeah. And so if we you know push the top level along with and and the on the level you know on the lower level we have storage room which is you know manageable. I think it could be handled. It is not kind of a bedroom or something an essential space that cannot be uh sacrificed. Yeah. Can can you please go to the plan? Oh this is fine. It's fine also. So this mass that is labeled as K can be pushed towards south. Yeah. Yeah. And that would effectively reduce the face size of that and would make it less, you know, impactful. Yeah, I I would support that. I mean, I I think it could be redesigned so the elevator and the stairs are more towards where this or this stair almost stays where it is. The elevator

goes in the corner of the storage room. And um yeah, and then at the uppermost level, the building could be cut back a little bit. It would still be a huge roof deck. Yeah, very big roof deck. And you still have stair and elevator access to it. Um, the only other thing I would like to see would be to have the the existing trees in the back maintained as a condition of approval. I think they are on the site. I was trying to tell from the I couldn't quite tell from the survey, but I thought they just very vague outlines for trees and vegetation up there. Um, yeah, if the trees in the back are maintained, that would be great. I think that would eliminating any privacy concerns really. I mean, and got a nice foliage screen. Yep. Mhm. And it is still pretty far from the upper upper lot and even from the side lot. Um yeah. So with with changes I can I'm happy to move approval. U may I make just one comment just then you can move forward. I do want to remind the commission that in 2023 you approved unanimously a roof deck for 633 ft on Santa Fe on a much smaller house. Um sorry, roof deck. Yes. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. So, just as long as you're aware of prior decisions so that we're what you're making is we're not

prohibiting a roof deck. Yeah. Okay. And the option is they could even not move the the office over and keep the same size roof deck. Okay. And the other kind of request is who is ever making the motion is if you could very clearly state the bullet points um for staff to follow up on me to do it. I don't know. Whoever I heard a lot of discussion I get the general idea but I want to ensure that we capture the the thoughts here. The stair part I think think you Okay. Well, the elements normally I wouldn't make motion, but I move that we approve. What is it? Um, yeah. Where are we? Sorry. Approve planning application PA25015 with following conditions. One is to move the stairs and elevator to the south and reduce the fourth floor stair area. um as much as possible on the north side to reduce the bulk of the stair tower and the office can be shifted to the south as well in the area over the roof deck or eliminated at the applicant's choice. uh with the intention being that the upper fourth floor stair uh hall elevator area is reduced by about half if its footprint and that the street I'm sorry the rear trees be maintained as a condition of approval. We're not changing the size of the roof.

It's taking this elevator and moving it over there. Yeah. Elevator goes here. Stair pushes over a little bit to the south. Consolidating the circulation areas and reducing the upper floor by about 20 ft on the north side, the fourth floor stair area. Yes, please do. Chair, I have a clarification clarifying question. Um so when you say that the fourth floor right by moving the elevator shaft to the right and let me just go to the fourth floor. Um so I understand that of course the result would be in a smaller footprint for the fourth floor addition. Uh however the underneath that um wouldn't that also affect the third floor as well in the because the basically the additions on the third floor also follow the same kind of footprint. So I just want to make sure that the language is clear that it's not well as a design matter if shifting the if you can go back to the yeah every floor has a big storage area or an open area between lines four and five. I think I get it. I would put the elevator between lines four and five. The stairs could go between lines three and four. Storage area on the other floors can shift to the left. The entryway can stay the same. I think all the floors just have an open area or the office shifts to the left. So basically all of the these three floors would be shrunk in size. No, no, the lower floors can still be as wide as they are. or the very upper floor would be smaller. The the lower two floors can be

flipped, you know. So the stair and elevator goes towards south because that's where you need the full height. And so on the level two and three you can maintain the storage and office but it would be on the northern side and would be be hidden you know behind the main structure existing structure house. And when it comes above the house, you have stair and the elevator towards the um deck. And either you don't have office which you know uh would be on the north side otherwise if you maintain or you can occupy some of the deck space to create the office. It works. Okay. Yeah. Right. Something like that. The same. They're all similar, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean Yeah, I think can all move over. I got this part. Okay. Clear. Yes. The fourth floor massing will be reduced by about a half, which will require the stairway and the elevator to be moved to the south to remove the storage room. And the option is to put the office at the upper floor on the side of the roof deck if the client to minimize the size of the roof deck. Correct. as an option if the applicants choose to do that or they can maintain the roof deck at the same size and just have a stair and an elevator to the roof deck. Okay, that was a motion. Yep. Second. Second it. Okay. Um we'll vote. Commissioner Mman, yes. Commissioner Pearson, yes. And I vote yes as well. your project has been approved with one or some conditions. If the story polls are up, there is a 14-day appeal period. So, please leave them up for 14 days or

until notified by uh staff what the date is for removing the story poll. So, uh, with that, um, yeah, item 5-1, application PA25015, 707 Gate View Avenue has been approved by a vote of 3 to 0. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, we will now move on to item 5-2, planning application PA25-019713 San Carlos Avenue. and we will have a staff presentation. Okay. So, yes, thank you chair. Um, so hello commissioners and members of the public uh who have joined us both in person and virtually. My name is Mera Han, associate planner with the city. I'm here to present use permit and design review application PA25-019 at 713 San Carlos Avenue. So, the project location and um a little bit of context. So, the 3,333 foot subject site is located on the east side of S. Carlos Avenue between Portland Avenue to the north and Washington Avenue to the south. So, you can see the the house in context uh of its neighboring or adjacent uh properties. Um, so the lot is developed with an 1861q ft two-story home with an attached onecar garage and a 75q ft rear shed, right? Constructed in the twodoor style in 1926. Um, the home has an existing nonconforming Let me bring up my laser pointer, which I hopefully, yeah, it'll show up. So um the existing home has an

existing non-conforming 8.4 in left north side yard setback where 3 ft and 3.6 in uh is required. The existing second story uh is within so the second story here like you can see here that's in the orange approximate orange um area. um say the existing second story is within the existing upper roof and contains a 280 48 square foot attic room. So that orange area is the attic room and that's all there is basically on the on the uh upper level which is completely enclosed within the the roof. So the plans proposed to demolish the existing rear sun room and to construct an approximately 456 square foot twotory addition which consists of the following. So one um the purple area uh is the existing onecar garage and so the prop the proposal is to convert that area to habitable space. Um also uh they plan to construct a 255 ft upper story edition which is represented in the in this bigger uh blue area with the dotted blue line um towards the front of the house and a 27 square foot utility room which is this purple square at the rear and left northeast site shown here again in port purple. So um the applicant intends to convert the proposed addition right with the converted uh garage um and the existing attic room. So that whole area into um an ADU. It would be an attached ADU. However, as the project does not meet the minimum three-foot setback because it requires extending the existing non-conforming setback, uh it requires a use permit to vertically

extend that nonconformity uh for the second story addition. Um so this shaded area like you see here is basically that um indicates the distance between the three-foot required setback for an ADU and where the actual um non non-conforming wall is which is being extended. Um all right so yeah as you can see here at the bottom the first story so yeah the purple is the existing garage conversion to ADO entrance. Second story would be the habitable or the uh living I guess area for the ADU. All right. So these are this is the project the proposed elevation. So basically on the blue dotted or not dotted but you know the hat yeah blue dotted I guess the uh area that is the area where the addition would happen. Um the proposed project would result in a 1988 83 square foot two-story home with a maximum height of 20 feet 8 in. So the seconds story addition expands the existing attic room towards the front of the house and follows the existing clipped gable roof line on the left north side raising its height by 1 foot and 7 in. The garage conversion includes a separate entry porch, you can see here, stairwell and storage room for the upper level ADU. And the plans proposed new covered entries on um to the main house right here and the ADU on the front both on the front facade. Changes on the roof lines at the front include replacing the curved lower level roofs with straight gable roofs and tutor style framing at the main entry portico and installing new clipped hip roof on the west side of the upper level edition. The design features new windows and doors uh with divided lights and um on the front facade enhancing its curb

appeal. So the project includes complimentary and neutral color palettes uh including materials such as painted stucco composition shingle roofs, wood fascia and trim and fiberglass clad wood windows and doors with divided lights on the front facade as I said. Um all right. So for this project, staff has received two public comments which as well like u all other projects um you know staff adds uh those comments to the project files on your agenda in your packets. And with that staff recommends that the planning zoning commission review and approve the proposed project subject to the findings and standard conditions of approval. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, just to clarify, we're not here to do design review for an ADU. We're not legally allowed to. Correct. That is correct. So, basically, we're not discussing anything to do with the ADU. Just the only issue before us is extending the one non-conforming wall vertically above at the second story. That is correct. Okay. So, it's a very simple question really or limited question. Uh, any other questions for staff? No. Um, we can open this to public comment. Is there anyone in the room who would like to speak on this project? Are you the applicants? Well, we have a very limited decision in front of us. So, and we have no one online. No one else is here. Um, well, I I I don't have any questions for the applicants. Um, okay. Close public comment. Move to commissioner

discussion. Um, the way I see it is very simple. we just approve the vertical non-conforming wall and I think we can make the findings for that and we've done that many many times um and there's just really we don't discuss we can't legally do design review for an ADU it's not allowed by state law so um I mean the only thing I would recommend is make the house numbers big and obvious you know that the recommendation I would make. So um any I don't know if I can comment but I really like the way it has been designed. You know it's done very skillfully. Okay. Any do we have a motion or Yeah. I'll make a motion for the approval of item 5-2. Second. Okay. We'll second to a vote. Um Commissioner Pearson. Yes. Commissioner Mowman. Yes. I vote yes as well. Your project has been approved. Vertical non-conforming wall. Uh are there story polls up for this one or? Yes. Uh there's a 14-day appeal period. So please leave them up for 14 days. And your Yeah. Application PA25-019 has been approved three to zero. So thank you very much. Uh we'll move on to item six, presentations. Are there any presentations? Nope. Item seven, announcements. No announcements either. Um but as you know from item eight, our next meeting of wait, let's see here. June 11th, they flipped this is canled. So we will be meeting on June 25th. Okay. About a month from now. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. And with that I will call this meeting adjourned. Okay. Thank you everyone.