Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Make sure he's good to go. Yeah. Hi, Phil. Can you please uh speak? He's on his own music. Yeah.

Phil, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Right. Hey, Phil, can you just acknowledge you did the posting ahead of time for the meeting? Sure. Okay. Okay. The 72-hour posting. Well, I didn't do it till this morning. All right. Do you want to have this meeting or What's that? Oh, no. So, so Phil, there's a we we caught this before the meeting. There's a requirement and Ken had sent you beforehand to post 72 hours in advance. Well, okay.

So, if you hadn't done it, uh Corey can I'm sorry, Tori could give you some options on how to participate otherwise if you want to.

Yeah. So, so Commissioner, under the the Brown Act specifically, um the meeting if you're appearing via teleconference, you have to post the agenda 72 hours ahead of the meeting and um if you do not do that, uh your meeting location is not considered like an official remote location of the meeting and so it doesn't comply with the Brown Act. And so our recommendation would be to if if you would like to participate to be involved in the meeting uh instead of participating as a commissioner, you participate during public comment periods. Um I I know that you um is likely that you have comments on some of the items and so that that would be the appropriate time to comment as opposed to as a commissioner because strictly speaking it would be a Brown act for your for you to appear via the teleconferencing rules uh without having posted that notice 72 hours ahead of time.

Excuse me. I understand I understand what you've said. I'm disappointed I wasn't provided agenda before I left. I wasn't notified of this requirement in time and I changed my plans to be ready, willing, and able to participate tonight at some significant inconvenience and opportunity cost. But that's it. Uh, I'm going to join and and express my disappointment at another time and place. Hey, Phil. Thank you. maybe paying Gary, but I think we could get going on. It's already a few months in.

Yeah. Okay. Good evening. By way of introduction, my name is Davis Fields. I'm the chair of the Campbell Planning Commission. Welcome to tonight's meeting on May 12th, 2026. I'd love to call this meeting to order. Ken, could we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Zer. here. Commissioner Campor here. Commissioner here. Commissioner Buckbinder present. Vice Clean. Chair Fields

present. The first item on the agenda is the minutes. Uh has everyone had a chance to review the minutes and are there any corrections? Um I have a correction for um item three. It says that Susan Landry stated that having occupancy requirements are important. I think that specifically owner occupancy requirements on SB9 projects and I believe strongly objects to getting rid of short-term rentals was should be strongly objects to short-term rentals. I think the concern was that without the owner occupancy requirements they would be short-term rentals. I think that so we the polarity on those notes are backwards I believe.

Got it. Anyone else on the minutes? We had a public comment on the minutes. So, uh, open it up. Susan Landry, uh, you have comment on the minutes. Mean, you guys, you're going to see a lot of me tonight. Uh, thank you, Adam, because it is misqued. Uh, the statement in the meeting minutes says that me strongly objects to getting rid of short-term rentals. No, that is not what I said. I said I strongly object to getting rid of the owner occupancy requirement because I'm concerned they will become short-term rentals. So please correct the meeting minutes. Thank you.

So I think we would like an amended motion to incorporate the comments. Do I have someone who would make that mo? Uh so moved. Could I have a second? A second. Ken, could I have a roll call, please? Commissioner Scissor. I. Commissioner B. Uh Commissioner Camar. I. Commissioner Buckfinder. I chair Fields. I minutes pass. Uh, communications agenda modifications. Director Eastwood, do we have any of those? Chair Fields, none of the above.

Thank you. We are now on to oral requests. This is the point of the meeting. Any member of the public may address commission on any item that is not on the agenda. You may speak for up to five minutes. But be aware, state law prohibits us from acting on any non-aggendaized items that you may speak on us tonight. So, we're not going to react if you come up and do speak on this. But the chair can refer items to staff to research and possibly place on the agenda for future meetings. Do we have anyone who wants to speak on anything that's not on the agenda? Susan. Oh, I turned in speaker cards. Do you not have them? Yeah, that's why I'm calling.

Okay. Sorry you guys. Hi again. It's Landry here. Um, sorry. Um, I did attend last meeting of yours and I was extremely concerned about some of the things that I heard at your meeting and I will specifically address the fact that one of the commissioners asked the city attorney at this state, you guys have all been on here for a while, but you've asked the city attorney to remind all of your members about conflicts of interest and biases and recusals. if you start saying thing and there's a perceived perception of a conflict of interest that was very concerning. You guys have all been been on this for a while and if one of your commissioners is asking the attorney to make that something's going on is kind of my perception and not just me, other members of public. Um, several members of the public in the past year or so have expressed to me their concerns that they see a bias of the planning commissioners that statements are being made and letters are being written and meetings are being attended and they're saying there is a bias there and then they come to the commission sit up there and vote on the items that they've already expressed a bias towards. I'm not the only one who feels this way. And uh do I have two minutes or five minutes?

I said five. Oh my god, you you did not want to say that to me. Uh is that me doing that? Sorry. Um I'll just give me your phone. I don't have Oh, is it my phone? Thank you. Sorry. Um I will just bring up some history with you guys. I guess I'm too loud.

Okay, from here I will just bring up some history to you guys. Uh back in 2016, there was this perception about the planning commission. People were very upset what was going on. There were projects being proposed that they saw not only council members but planning commissioners and planning staff showing they were biased and that they felt like planning commissioners were in cahoots with developers and favored developers and were approving projects that they had a bias towards and they didn't recuse themselves. That's not me. I'm not doing anything. Uh, and I just want to remind you guys that

I just want to bring this to your attention because this was an issue back in 2016 and I was asked to run on to for council specifically to find out what was really going on. and uh I had I ran on other issues that they supported, but people in the community were very concerned of what was going on. And I see that happening again right now. So, I want to be here tonight to express my concern. That's not just me and to really take to heart what the city attorney told you guys about expressing opinions. This is really annoying. uh about expressing opinions and making statements and showing your bias and then coming and voting for that.

Thank you. Can I ask a followup? It's not on the agenda, so I don't think this is an area we're gonna Okay. Thank you for your Thank you for your comment. Would anyone else in the chamber like to speak? Yeah. Please, please identify yourself when you

Hello. Uh, my name is Aiden. I'm a college student and I've been interested in like transit oriented oriented development and stuff. Um, I was wondering if you would be interested in me like looking through like different parts of town and like looking for different places where we could have new zoning laws. Uh, maybe like have more transit oriented communities. um and focus on more like walkability, especially like in downtown. Um I had like a drama classes late at night and so I use public transit a lot. Um I just wondering is my research worth it? Will you be interested in more research?

Like I said, since it's not an agenda item, I'm not going to react to it up here. I appreciate you making the pitch here. Uh but stick around after the meeting and you know, people around. But you know, we're not going to react to things that are not on the agenda. So, thanks for coming. All right. Thank you. Anything on the mic? All right, we might have found it. I think I fixed it.

We might have fixed it. All right. Uh, I'm going to close the oral request section and move it into public hearing. Uh, before we start, I want to provide an overview on how we do these things. Typically, there's a staff report where staff presents the item. Uh we then asked if the applicant wishes to speak Paul Van the public who would like to speak on this item. Uh we were going to start first with the public speakers that are in the room tonight and then if anybody is joining us on Zoom they can speak after that. Uh members of planning commission will have questions for the applicant and the public speakers and then once we've done all that that's when we're going to close uh our portion open up the public hearing and you all have a chance to speak. Before we start on any items, commissioners, do we have any agenda disclosures for the one item that we have tonight?

I visited the site. Uh I have visited a site and actually walked uh around in the site. Actually, me too. Uh, Adam, I guess I should mention it's a half mile from where I am and I probably gone by it a whole bunch of times, but I haven't specifically like visited the site. Same here. I just drove by it on the way here, but haven't visited. Great. Uh, that will take This is Gary. Excuse me. Can you hear me? Oh, hey.

Hey. I'm sorry, guys. I had a little technical difficulties, but I am in the meeting. Uh, I do live down the street from this project and we did review it in the site and architectural review committee a few weeks ago. So, I'm I know this site very well. And are we good to have now that Gary's here, can we Yes, Gary did confirm that he had posted the notice 72 hours. Yes, I did. I sent a photo as well. I will note, Gary, per the Brownack, you are required to have your video and audio on. Okay, I'll put it on right now. Thank you. Apologies. There he is. Hey,

that's him. That's our vice chair. All right, great. So, I will take us uh to the first item on the agenda, which is 2060 South Baskam Avenue, a site and architectural review permit and tree removal permit. uh public hearing to consider the application of Collier's engineering design to allow construction of an approximately 3600 square foot bank and financial services building Chase Bank along with associated site lighting parking refuge management and landscaping improvements and the removal of a 23-inch California fan palm tree on a property located at 260 South Baskam Avenue. Project planner, as is so usual these days, it's our own Daniel Flama. Please take it away.

Thank you. I swear there's more than one planner in the department. There's two. Um, so before you, we do have an application for a site and architecture review permit and tree removal permit for property located at 260 South Basam Avenue. This is the site of the former Denny's restaurant that's currently vacant. This is a 1 acre commercial property located at the corner of Baskam and a Royal Seiko property zoned in neighborhood commercial and designated the same in the Campbell General Plan. Uh this whole strip of properties was downzone from general commercial to neighborhood commercial with adoption of the current 2040 general plan in 2023. Uh the property abut's residential uh properties to the east and a commercial property to the south that's anchored by the Mr. Pickles uh deos before you would be a new 3600 square foot uh bank building. The site layout is shown here with a driveway access both from Baskin Avenue in a Royal Seiko uh with 31 parking spaces. The site would be heavily landscaped. Approximately 50% of the land area would be landscaped. Uh it's a very low footprint proposal. Uh the maximum F under the general plan is 1.0 and this is coming in at 0.078. Basically like a small modiz house on a large site. Uh the property is shown at setbacks that are exceeded of the minimum 15 foot at the front and street side and the building here is going to be at 21 ft in height. In terms of design, it's a fairly contemporary aesthetic uh with stone veneer along with fiber cement paneling with a lot of articulation and relief in the wall planes. And though the city

does not have any design requirements, it does generally comply with the the general policy principles of the general plan for higher quality design, particularly in high visibility arterials. In terms of landscaping, landscaping here is both um fairly extensive and compliant with the state's model water efficiency landscape ordinance as well as requirements for storm water management. As I noted, the application does propose a removal of one palm tree that's located uh where the arrow is pointing that would place it right in the middle of a drive aisle that would obstruct the required 25 ft backup distance for the parking spaces that are adjacent to it. So based on the analysis contained in your staff report and affirmative determination of the required findings for sign architecture review permit principally that the application is consistent with the zoning code general plan and the adopted area plans which are not applicable here that the project would aid in the harmonious development of the immediate area and that removal of the tree is necessary due to an unusual hardship. that staff does recommend the planning commission adopt resolution approving the site protection review permit subject to the conditions of approval. With that, we'll take any questions commission may have.

Um, thank you Daniel. This is one of the few items that is still going to SARKC. I always think it's useful to start with the SARKC report so we're not asking something that you all might have covered and already got some stuff on. So, at least vice chair, I think you're the sole SARKC representative. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you all discussed at the CIRC meeting a couple weeks back?

Uh, sure. I think most of the uh information that was on the drawings was pretty straightforward. There was um some questions I had about the south property line uh plantings between this site and Mr. pickles um as a way to prevent people from just walking through whatever landscaping is being planned to get to Mr. Pickles if they should use the Chase parking lot. Was that addressed Daniel?

Uh no. So I mean the comments here I guess suppose at this point for commission discussion I mean these can be advisory to the applicant or if the commission feels strongly they can be imposed as additional conditions for approval that can be read into the record as part of a motion to approve. Okay. I mean, there was nothing major uh that we found um on this project that would, you know, that I could see would cause any safety, health or welfare issues in the neighborhood. So, it was just some minor questions I had and um we were satisfied that it met the planning guidelines for the city.

Thank you. We do have an applicant representative should the commission have any questions. Perfect. Uh we'll start with Allan and then go right to um so uh the tree first. Um I I think I saw somewhere maybe it was in the SARC about the idea of somebody removing the tree and putting it somewhere else. And I don't know if that was a serious consideration or not. seems to me that would be a big expensive process for somebody to do. Was that a was that a serious consideration?

I mean, not from staff's perspective. I mean, that's not a traditional approach to deal with removal. I mean, I suppose if this were maybe a more higher caliber species of tree, very old oak tree, perhaps that could be consideration. Typically, not for a palm tree.

Okay. All right. Um the um on the on the back on the east side and a portion of southside there is there there is a um a block uh concrete wall uh that it walls off from from the residential area. part of the wall I believe is six feet uh with no lattice and then there's a portion of the wall that has a lattice on it and it was hard for me to tell in the drawings whether that wall was going to be those walls were going to be improved and extended or not. So my question is about is there any additional uh it looked to me like it was possible that they were going to bring a wall around on a royal what's the name of the street?

Royal Seiko a royal seiko to on the back edge to bring it around to where the entrance to the parking lot is. But it was hard for me to tell and I couldn't read the I couldn't really read the drawings on that. So could you tell tell me what the plan is for the walling? Uh the wall the property is existing to retain as it currently is. Okay. So there's no no additions or improvements. Correct. I think the uh the lattice is really just been added by the adjacent home owners. Yeah. The code really only requires a six foot wall which the property complied with. All right.

Looks like it could use it in painting. Um the the other thing is um in regarding to Gary's comment about the the between uh this property and the Mr. pickles uh commercial area. Uh there's actually a very large set of oleanders that are quite nice and mostly blacks that portion uh uh that I think that back there's only one little uh kind of opening there and I was wondering whether or not those where the trees are located whether that's al that's kind of in the area where that that opening area where there's no are going to be or whether there can be something done about that.

I mean, the commission certainly can require additional planting. I think you're speaking to uh I don't know if you have a picture of the location. Not by the way. No, I think it's it's the back section, right?

Well, I think it was closer towards Baskam where there was concern about potential trespassing across properties. Okay. I didn't see it really as a problem myself. I was wondering if was going to be taken into consideration. Um All right. Uh Okay. So, I have a question about the bio retention in the back uh souththeast corner. Um, you know, we've had bio retention things put in put in, but they were like minor little things that were on the sidewalks and so we've never really discussed bio retention and and so I guess mostly for my edification. Um and I and I looked at the uh the the drawing on on the fl on the flood drain on the on the flood draining and it looks to me I don't really understand bio retention other than it takes some drainage from rains and whatever else that is there that that um goes through the bio retention and does some filtering before it goes into the drains. But I guess my question is is is that one little bio retention which is fairly big does that take all the drainage from the entire parking lot does it all go to there and then end up in a drain below?

Luckily we have Roger stores our senior civil engineer with public works can speak to the storm water management plan. All right. Hopefully we don't get that annoying feedback. I can Well, maybe Roger, you want to speak? I I can I can speak loudly. If you can't hear me, just let me know. But I can speak loudly. Yeah. Maybe come over here, Roger. Come over there. The big boy, too. All right.

Nice. All right, let's try this again. All right, commissioner. Uh, bio treatment um, historically impervious surfaces, roadways. No,

got cookies for you.

All right. Hopefully this is better.

Um, so traditionally, uh, the runoff from, uh, paved surfaces like roads, streets, parking lots, roofs wasn't treated. Um, the federal government at one point adopted the Clean Water Act that kind of got transferred down to the states. And the idea is that the runoff from these imperous surfaces, especially after a long summer of no rain, uh you get a buildup of uh contamination, contaminants, whether it's bird poop, whether it's stuff dripping off your vehicle. And the idea is that now before we put that water into our storm drain system, because unlike the sanitary system, uh see anything you flush down the toilet goes to a treatment plant before it gets released to the bay. uh anything historically that get comes off of the roads, parking lots, roofs, uh goes into a storm drain pipe that discharges directly to the creek. So, we're trying to protect our waterways. We're trying to protect the basically the the waterborne environment. So, the idea now is that we treat that water. Now, we recognize that we can't treat all of it because when you have really big storms, you have huge amounts of water and you're not going to treat it all. But, there's generally a low flow amount. Usually you get that first rain of the of the fall that they call the kind of the first flush, you know, it's really picking up the a large amount of crud that's built up. That's a technical term, crud, uh that's built up on the on the impervious surfaces, and you're just basically capturing that water and you're giving it a chance to be cleaned and filtered before it gets discharged to the creek. So when you look at these uh treatment devices, they're generally sized to treat a certain flow that's been determined to have kind of most of the contaminants. And then when you get the larger storms, you'll see all these treatment devices

have an overflow. They generally have a great an inlet that's 6 in or a foot elevated. And so when that big storm comes, as the water rises, it can go directly into the uh the pipe bypassing the treatment because the treatment generally tends to be some type of treatment soil, plants. Um sometimes if you have good soils, you do get infiltration directly into the ground. So uh that that's kind of it's basically that that area has got a little curve around it, right? Right.

Yep. I get all that. So, but it only takes into that area. So, everything that comes off the roof of in this particular case, there's only really one treatment area for the entire site. So, anything that comes off the roof of the building, that comes off the parking lot, uh any paved surface within the property, it all drains towards that uh that treatment.

Basically, the the amount of water that you want to treat will just filter down through the soil and there will be a pipe at the bottom that captures it and then you take it out. when the storm is very large and it over and the soil can't keep up and the water just ponds up. Think of it like your bathtub. It's like uh if you leave the if you leave the water running at some point you have an overflow, right? And that's where the where the the water goes when it when the drain can't drain fast enough. I appreciate y

I did have another question uh not related to you, Roger. Um, so, so that's a there's there's that little area back there. And I'm wondering in the past whether or not I know we don't have the, uh, police department here today, whether or not there's ever been any problems or issues with people going back there for less than legal things to do. um whether it was when Denny's was around or or since Denny's has gone away. Do we do we have any negative history from a safety point of view? Fortunately, the police department wasn't able to provide any feedback in time for this meeting, but we do have a condition of approval that basically indicates that if there are security issues that the police department can require the property owner prepare a security plan to the satisfaction of the police chief to address whatever issues could come up. There is an issue with vacancy out there.

Do we need right do we need that in the resolution? It's already in the resolution. All right. Thank you. Um, one more. I don't I don't have any more. All right. Commissioner Tom car. Thank you. Thank you, chair. So, my question was about the tree. So, one of the items that you me So, one of the items you mentioned about removal of the tree was that it is like it may hamper the 25 foot back of the car. My issue with that is they're planting another tree right at that location. So why would they do that?

Well, I think it's going to be a smaller tree that's more situated within the planter itself. I mean, if you look, there's actually a a planter that edge, you know, because because when I was visiting the site and I saw the base of the tree was within the curb planter, uh, now I could see how a car can overhang. But, you know, it just didn't seem like

I mean, it's certainly within the commission's perview to not accept the request for a true removal permit. I mean, that could be done a couple different ways. Uh you could continue the hearing and request the applicant come back with a revised plan that shows retention of the tree. Or you could deny removal and then condition the applicant to work with staff to redesign the building footprint slightly or the landscaping feature in that area to preserve the tree and that's certainly at your discretion.

Well, you know, I certainly wasn't going to make that recommendation. I was, you know, I'm very um happy about how much landscaping they're doing. They're going over and above, you know, what they would do. You know, I'm very impressed with the quality of the plants as I was looking at them, you know, and so was just I was just wondering about, you know, if 25 foot was the issue, why are they planting a tree there, you know, why not just, you know, a smaller ant? But that's it. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Buger,

um, I'd just like to say thank you for public works for the description of exactly what's going on with, uh, storm water treatment and why it matters and the trade-offs involved. I've learned something tonight. Um, no particular questions on this. Makes sense to me. Thank you. Uh, vice chair.

Thank you. Um my um my residence is more than 500 feet from this site. So I drive by it probably every day uh for the last 26 years. And to answer Commissioner Zisser's question regarding like any um people using that property for nefarious activities or if there's anybody spending the night overnight in a a a truck, trailer, camper, whatever. I've never seen that in my 26 years there. Um, there was an incident where the police were involved, but that was a uh I think it was a domestic dispute and there was uh uh police activity there when it was at Denny's and that was at least I think 10 years ago. So to answer your question, uh, Commissioner Zissner, I have not seen any nefarious activities in my 26 years there. Uh, outside of that, I have no other comments um about this project. Uh, I think it's going to improve the neighborhood in that area and uh hopefully um uh you know the the questions that we have will be responded to in the final application. So, thank you.

Uh I don't have any questions weren't already asked. So, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing for this item. I understand the applicant is on the line. Uh they're not required to, but they are welcome to speak for up to five minutes if they so choose. Uh would the applicant like to speak? Oh, you're in the room. Wow, even better. Yeah. Yeah. Please, please identify yourself. You have up to five minutes.

Let's see what we can do. Give it a try. We're going to try each person until the end of the meeting. Well, let's see how I fare. Um Uh, thank you everyone.

Nice mic.

Uh, hopefully everyone can hear me now. Um,

okay. No, thank you. Appreciate that. Um, hi there. Uh my name is Hunter Decker. Um I'm a representative of Kier's Engineering Design, the architect of record uh for this project and the representative for JP Morgan Chase uh in this capacity. Um again, we've been uh working closely with uh Campbell City Planning here um in order to help uh develop the site plan um for the uh for the proposed Chase Bank. Uh this is one that uh we have spent several months uh working closely with them to help be able to develop a harmonious uh design that uh one not only successfully operates in its function but also cohesively cohesively fits in with the city fabric. Um there are multiple elements uh that's tie very closely and with the uh the uh within the um the walking space of the of the general neighborhood as well as uh multiple public amenities. Uh the intent here is really to create a service for the community. Um that will one not only uh well sorry uh to create a destination that is a service for the community um both financially but also uh economically as well. Um, other than that, um, I believe we've covered the topic of the project itself here fairly extensively, but I'm open for or I'm available to help answer any, uh, questions that anyone from the city or the general public has. Uh, look forward to answer them.

Thank you for being here. Any questions? Uh, Commissioner Comar, you want to start. Thank you. Um, so we have just received a letter from a neighbor talking about the sanitary cleanouts. being on the property that serves their property connection to the main. Do you know anything about that or uh I'm sorry. Are you saying that the sanitary cleanouts for the current uh Denny's that is there is on the adjacent property? No, no, the other way around. This

way the sanitary cleanout for the adjacent property is on the Denny's property and these guys I guess they're asking if Chase can relocate them. So it would be a normal connection rather than a indirect connection. Uh we'll have to look into this further but what I will say is the current intent for the design is that for all sanitary connections and cleanouts uh that are on the site would be serving would be servicing strictly for the uh for our actual property. Makes sense. But but in case it is also serving something else then it would be separated so that their service doesn't get cut off and that could be addressed.

Um yeah and I would just add to that I mean this will be something we will look at more closely with the sanitation district as well. I mean it would be very I mean it's unusual that you would have private sanitary lines crossing an adjacent property without any sort of easements. Yeah.

Just in the interest of full transparency because they left somebody dropped off a letter saying they live on the street south El Solo A. They believe they have sewer lines that go under the street all the way to Aoyo Secco and are worried about those being disrupted by the construction. That's what the letter Sure. Just one clarification. Sure. I don't think they say that they live there. They they say that it's their property. Sure. And then and then their address is is somewhere else in in Camp. Yeah. I just want to

That's fair. But that's what it says. So that's what we're commenting on. Sounds like that probably needs to be referred and and investigated. That's right. May I? Yeah, please. Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, to that end, we have not found any documentation um within our within our initial surveying that would really support that. Um any cleanouts that are specifically located on our site have so far appeared to be of um use for the actual property itself. Um but again, to that point, we can dive into this further and get that confirmed. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Brookmine, any questions?

No. Just as long as um the issue with making sure that nobody's sewer lines are conflicting with anything else. As long as that's fine, I have no particular concerns. Great. Uh, vice I have I have Sure. Just just so um did I don't know if Chase normally has drive-in. Were you were you considering drive-in at this location at some point?

Um early on, yes, we very much were. Um however, that was made um very explicitly clear that for this site, uh that was uh not going to be viable. Um to which case, again, this is where we uh developed the current site to make sure that we could uh accommodate various uh various public uh accesses to financial services. Okay. The main the main intent with that was really we could not do a drive-thru. So, we developed it's a walk up ATM. Um, one ATM and a back then, right? Yes. Yes. So, we do have one that will be accessible to the public uh without have actually having to enter the bank, but the drive-thru was uh not going to be feasible. Yeah. Especially if you were going to serve chicken.

I have I I have heard the history of the pole. So, um uh don't encourage it. Okay, that's all I have. Vice Chair, I have no other questions. Um I I've reviewed the project many times, so I have no other questions. Thank you. Uh nor do I. Thank you so much for being here. Um going to open it up the chair for other folks. Do we have anybody else uh on the line or in the meeting who'd like to speak? Susan,

thank you. I just Oh, I have to go around. There's cookies on the floor. Uh, I wasn't going to comment, but I want to thank the bank for not putting in a drive-thru because that was a bone of contention to the neighborhood. That's probably why they're not here. So, thank you. Anybody else in the chamber would like to speak, please?

You do. I'm sorry.

Go ahead. We just have to make sure you get on on the video feed. That's Sure. Understood. Um, my name is Patrick Murphy. I live at 1084 A Royal Seiko, second house in from the block wall. Uh, it was brought to my attention by one of the neighbors. You might want to check the cleanout in that parking lot for the property on the Royal Cycle. That's I believe what people were concerned about.

Uh, with respect though to the Oh, you don't have the map. The uh south wallong the south end of the property of Mr. Pickles. I would like to have ask you to consider a little bit more of a barrier. Uh there's a lot of cut through traffic that goes from a Royal Cycle people parking there walking through to the buildings where the pickles Mr. Pickles is the uh the comment about the sump area refer to it as a sump.

Yeah, I pay attention to the kind of planting that you do. I think the police department's done a great job of keeping that property safe and free of nefarious activity in terms um but I would be concerned about the kind of folage you put in there provides cover that could change very quickly. So it's something to think about that's all but again there is a lot of cut through uh through that uh through that area. So I have a question. Yes sir. May. Yeah, I believe. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, um uh h how long have you lived there? Oh, that's gosh. 30 years. 31 years.

Perfect. So, uh do you feel um Mr. Pickle's parking lot is under park? That's why people Yes. cut through. Absolutely. That's obvious. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I just I just wanted to know, you know, I don't know if there's a solution for that, but it what's exacerbated that the the matter is the traffic to the smoke shop and those businesses on that corner. Yeah. And you know, that's just that's not a complaint. It's just an observation. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh respond.

You can respond at the end after all other public comment. So, anybody else in the chamber? Ken, do we have anyone on the line? Sorry.

No, we do not. Great. uh you can come up now and Ken can switch one last time and uh you have up to two minutes for a response. Sure.

Thank you. Um I'll be brief on this just again. I know that uh the gentleman over here just uh levied a couple concerns there. Just uh reiterating off of some of the topics we discussed. Um those two items were both brought up during the Southern Architecture Review Committee hearing um that we had with uh Gary and Phil. Um in that one uh we did uh part of the the result of the conver of the discussion for that was um first one in regards to the uh the foot traffic that could lead over into Mr. Pickles. Um was the request to be able to increase the density of the shrubbery uh that would help to act as a barrier uh there. Um we have uh accommodated that within now uh revised plan sets that will be going in uh with um with official building permit application. Uh so that will be addressed there. Uh the intent is to make sure um that there would be a physical barrier of different that would uh prohibit uh or that would uh that would help to prohibit uh foot traffic going across. Uh the other aspect uh regarding the landscaping the fire retention area down to the southeast. Um that was also brought up and uh part of the discussion uh that uh from where we land along with that was to uh ensure that there was uh 24-hour surveillance of that area. Um we do have uh multiple cameras throughout the uh throughout the property. One of them uh will have that area covered. uh according to our latest design uh will also have a posting of the intent is to also have the posting of signage noting that that area will be under 24-hour surveillance to help as a deterrent.

How about how about lighting? Um with because sometimes when there is lighting then people won't even try. But uh there is uh currently planned for and I believe it's actually an existing light pole. I had to double check um or relocate one, but there is currently one uh just at the front of the um of the bio retention area uh that would light up the entire area as well. Ensure for that. So So can I ask um the bio retention area you have three trees there showing and then there's a whole bunch of greenery. Is is that actually landscaping or is is or is that going to be just concrete?

Uh no, that is actually landscaping. So that's some uh low-level form of low maintenance vegetation that shouldn't really grow anything too high. Um yeah, it should all still be it should it should sit at a fairly consistent um level of elevation there. And also B retention areas have to be maintained like a on a quarterly or semi annual basis. All right. Thank you again. Thank you. Uh with no one else on the line, I will close our public comment and now we will discuss as a commission. Let's flip side starting with Commissioner Bookminer.

Um I'm grateful for the thorough discussion of what's going on. I It's really interesting that they have like so much landscaping and they're doing the whole drainage treatment thing. Very cool stuff. Um, this is exactly where you would expect a bank to be. It fits in with everything. I agree with staff. I don't have anything particularly clever to say about this. Um, but I I appreciate the thorough presentation. Left or right, Commissioner Conar?

Thank you, Chair. Um, uh, I think this is a great project. I uh in I looked at the plans and I felt they were of great quality. not just not just the design, but also the quality and and the information and the different types of plans that was included in the plan set. So, I think it's a great project. Um, when it comes to parking, you know, um, I mean, I'm, uh, to me, if businesses around there would be able to you share parking, that might be good, you know, um, to also keep it keep tabs on, you know, who's using it, who's not using it. So, just uh, you know, I know banks don't banks close sooner than the neighboring businesses. So, you know, if there was some kind of a a sharing agreement, maybe the other guys can keep an eye on parking as well. Thank you,

Mr.

Yes. Okay. So, first I I have to admit that the one time I went to Mr. Pickles, the parking lot was full and I probably parked in the den. Um, so it's all out now. Um, fortunately the police aren't here. Um, you know, that's going to happen. I, you know, whatever you do, you know, if there's a way to minimize it, that's fine. But, you know, people could pull in their park and then walk around on Baskam and and and they're going to do it. So, so hopefully it it's not going to be a problem. Uh, the tree definitely should be. I don't have a problem with the tree. I mean, I I the tree is like an eyesore to me. What? One palm tree is not good. If it was a grove of palm trees, I I'd have a different opinion about it, but that thing is like 70 feet tall and it's there by itself. So, so, you know, I think they're doing it as part of the fact that they're putting in all these other nice new nice trees that that are consistent in terms of the aesthetic. I didn't ask, but I'm assuming that that the new trees that are being put in along the Royal Seiko and whatnot are are actually there's not a lot of trees along Royal Seiko, but that they ma or I'm basking that they're matching that that the arborist decisions were consistent with what we like in the city. Um, I think it's a the building is a great design. It's modern. It it's it it'll upgrade Baskum. Um I suspect because I'm glad this came along so very quickly. It was nice to when I saw this on the list, I was like, "Wow, that was that was great that that they found a a new tenant." Um and I I suspect that the uh the Prunyard uh uh

the Prunyard neighborhood is ecstatic about this. um considering what we've gone through in the past with regard to that property. So, uh I think it it'll be a good addition. Uh I I love all the landscaping. Um it it's definitely going to be an improvement over over well what's there now, but um so I I'm I'm enthusiastic and excited about about this happening. And the only I meant to ask them, but it doesn't really matter. There's a chase there's a chase office in the pruneard uh on the south side of the pruneard. I'm making a speculation that that will ultimately probably go away with a new chase uh branch on Baskam, but who knows? Anyway, I'm uh very enthusiastic about it.

Thank you. Uh Vice Chair, thank you uh Chairman Fields. I I have again I have nothing else to add. Um, having reviewed this project many times and I look forward to its addition to the neighborhood, as everybody has said, I think it's some minor things we need to look at. All in all, I think it's a great addition to the neighborhood. So, thank you for a great presentation and great drawings. Apparently, one more comment. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Um, so there was a Chase branch that closed at Union and I think Foxworthy next to McDonald's,

right? But but when it closed, a whole bunch of safe deposit boxes got closed. And so I I'm hopeful that they would put quite a few safe deposit box this one so that you know those guys can come back because um I know they had to go farther away and they couldn't all get safe deposit box.

Thank you. Uh just repeating a lot of comments people have said. I think it's a beautiful building, really nice looking property. Um, I'm excited to hear one like SARKC I think worked in this instance. Like you got feedback in early. Sounds like it lines up well with public comment about like in intensifying the density to make a little bit more of a barrier. So I think this was a a place where Stark did work to have a little bit of feedback in the process early. Um, excited to build this property. Uh, I think it's going to look nice, I think, in the context of the prunard too. So very supportive. Uh, and with that, I will turn us over to a vote. Um, Ken, could we get a roll call vote?

How about a motion? I'm reading the wrong line in my agenda script. How about a motion? I'll make I'll make a motion. Um, consider the Do I have the right one here?

Yeah. through the application of Kier's engineering and designed to allow construction of an approximately 3600 square foot bank and financial services building Chase Bank along with associated site lighting, parking, refuge management, and landscaping improvements and the removal of one 23 inch California fan palm tree on property located at 26 South Baskam Avenue. application under consideration for the site and architectural review permit and a tree removal permit file number PLN 20225-157. Do we have a second? And now can we have a roll call vote? Commissioner Suzer I. Commissioner Campar

I. Commissioner Binder I vice chair I. Chairfields I. The item passes with a vote of 6. Planning Commission action is five because yeah, Phil's not on. Planning Commission action is final unless appealed in writing to the city clerk within 10 calendar days. Thank you very much. That was our item on the agenda. I will turn us over to our remaining agenda items. Uh so going to new business, we have the planning commissioner subcommittee reports. I was not anticipating any reports from either subcommittee. Is that right? We have a few notes. You have a few notes. Okay. Uh, go ahead.

Um, do you want to identify your subcommittee and recap which we've added to the Sure.

I'm Adam Miner. I work with Matt Camar on the housing production subcommittee. We're interviewing um developers and investigating policy to increase housing production in Campbell. Uh, we did meet with a um an affordable housing developer from the county. Got a lot of useful, helpful feedback from them. Um we are uh still on our to-do list are to meet with staff and any other affordable developers we can and we want to propose having some kind of joint session with city council once we have this mostly nailed down because I got the sense that if we all agree on it here and we throw it over the fence to the city council and they turn it down, it's a lot of wasted time. So, I don't know what would be involved in setting that up, but Rob, is that possible to do?

Uh, I haven't seen it done before. Uh, the only joint plan commission council meeting I've seen as some commissioners recommend will remember was for the housing element for an ad hops ad hoc subcommittee recommendation to council observation. It would be very difficult to set up. I can pass on the request to the clerk and city manager to see if there's interest. So, alternatively, we could

alternatively we could present at a city council meeting. Like I'd like to have some way of I wanted to talk to city council to see it like if this was going to get laughed out of the room or like what they would want to see and due to Brown Act, I can talk to one more city council member. Um, so if we could attend like if we could agendaize that for getting some feedback from a city council meeting before we officially send it to them that would be possibly helpful. Is that easier to do? I can look at options and report back. Please do a question. Yeah. Are you saying this in lie of presenting it to the commission first? No, not necessarily.

Because I would strongly urge that whatever report you're coming up with that it is presented to the commission for us to review and comment on and suggest changes to in a public in at a public meeting. Uh and then depending on what the outcome of that is, whether or not we would want to recommend as a group to meet with the council.

Okay. Yeah. I I don't have anything like really specific. I just don't want I The point here is to avoid a situation where we all agree on something and then city council shoots it down right away and we don't really have anything to do after that. So just want to throw that out there. That's all we have. Um hopefully more notes next time.

If I can add a little bit to the thing. So, uh, one of the, um, one of the meetings we had was with Santa Clara Countyy's housing authority folks, you know, and, uh, these are the affordable housing a little, if you will say. Um and uh one of the questions I asked I said let's say uh let's say you you're going to do a project but you're short let's say $1.5 million and the project is going to sit there until somehow let's say this project is in San Jose and Campbell will say I have one and a half million that I can't do much with it myself can I give that to you then I get credit for some of those units Let's say you're going to do 50 60 units. I get credit for five or 10 or something. Is that a possibility? Can you get funding from other sources? And their response was we would love to, you know, if there is if it's possible, we would love to because then we can get going with our project, you know. So instead of trying to reach this um affordable housing from a local point of view, maybe we should look at it from a regional point of view, you know, and we we may be more successful. So that that's just something that came up. I I would suggest that if you are interested in that, you include that in your report

if you think that's a viable consideration as a recommendation. You know, maybe maybe it's not legal or whatever, but at least, you know, I think it needs to be mentioned. Great. Okay. Uh and I understand we have a public comment on the subcommittee item. So now I will open the public comment portion of this item and Ken one last time out of the chair. Let me guess who it is. Oh, I don't know. Can you turn on the Ken?

Thank you very much for allowing me to speak again. This is why I made my comment at the beginning. There's a perceived perception of you guys being in cahoots with the housing developers and pushing and having a bias. Okay, I'm telling you, it's a perceived perception. I don't have any proof, but I am concerned, especially when one of the comments is, I'm not sure how council's going to agree with or like what we're doing. Well, they should be knowing what you're doing before you're doing it. I would like to see an outline of what this report is supposed to be about. last meeting comment was well we gave you a draft the report but it was only right before the meeting that was never made public the guys what I heard last time was we are looking at streamlining but then the other thing they bring up is that we want to get rid of the owner occupancy that has nothing to do with streamlining how many of you guys know what an incomplete letter is anybody know what an incomplete letter is why don't you ask all these developers how many incomplete letters they got and how much that slows down the process I work in this field. I work in this profession. People get 20page comment letters. That's what takes time. That is slows it down. Maybe find out why they're getting incomplete letters. That stops the whole thing of streamlining. And I would like somebody in this group to look at other issues that should have a subcommittee such as did you know you're not allowed to put a garden shed next to your fence? You don't have to get a permit for it, but you're not allowed to have it within three feet of your fence. It seemed like an old law on the books. Should it be considered? I also have a friend who uh wanted to build a new house who's retired on a fixed income and they were required to build an ADU and spends thousands and thousands of dollars extra. Why don't you be looking at some of these of how things are affecting the property owners and our residents of Campbell? And I would suggest to you

before you submit your formal report that you hold a public hearing and or a study session to get input from the public of what is going on. And I heard one disclosure of who you talked to. We're I'm not hearing who you are actually talking to. You should be stating just like you did earlier what the company is and what you guys are talking about. and I would like to see a draft at this point of this report that you guys are working on. Thank you. Um I think in this Yeah. Do you have a

Yeah, I can mention that like I I do apologize the um we're constantly changing the draft and I will hope to have it as part of the packet the next time we come around. It will hopefully be under less churn. One of the things is um I suppose we can list who we talk to. We we're hoping that people can speak freely to us about difficulties they've had without worrying about blowback which is why like I we can list the developers we've talked to but I don't want to attribute you know this was slow this was difficult to particular people like that's the particular thing that I wanted to do but yeah we can like include a list of this is who we talked to this is what we did um and yeah uh we should be have a a draft at the next meeting for the next update Are we allowed to comment?

Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Um, you know, I know Susan really reasonably well and we've, you know, we've had conversations in the past. Did you speak up?

Uh, yeah, I I I I've known Susan in the past and and and we've had nice conversations in the past and uh while she was mayor and I was on this commission and previous commissions. Um I I just want to and I'm not making excuses. I just want to inform that uh we just we started doing subcommittees which was not the norm uh for the city um during uh actually Adam's chair which was two years ago. Um we've done a couple subcommittees each of the last couple terms and we're in the midst of two more subcommittees. Um uh those subcommittees included um contacting um various entities uh in the case of the ones that I was on, we we contacted other municipalities um to to compare notes. Um I I I haven't personally contacted developers. Um but um I just want you to know that th those subcommittees were approved by the planning department. Okay? And there was no um qualification on how the subcommittees would work other than we would gather research and information. um put a put a put a report together and submit it at a public commission meeting. That was it. Okay. So um uh and previous previous ones were uh not as much of a you know the one that's that's being worked on now has more depth to it and there's other stakeholders that could have some issues associated with as you've indicated but

I I just want to make it clear that um uh we did this we did this publicly with the knowledge of the planning department and and and they helped and advise us on it. So if if there was anything that we should have been concerned about in terms of it being more public or more uh thorough uh uh we we didn't hear about it. Okay. So, um, the ones that I worked on, there wasn't any there wasn't any conflict at all. And I'm a big conflict of interest issue guy. And so, it was more about talking to other municipalities to see what they do so that we could see if there was a better way for us to do what we do. Uh, we were given their contact information by uh by the community development department. Um, so, um, uh, I certainly didn't see in the past any issues where we were keeping secrets or anything. So, I just wanted to get that out there.

Okay. Thank you for that. And to be honest with you, Susan, you know, I know Susan as well actually lived in live in her former district. So, she was my representative, you know, before being the mayor. Um, this is the first time anybody's accusing a commission I've been on of cahoots and I don't like it. I just want to, you know, I just want to be honest with you. Um, uh, and everything we're doing, we're going out of our way to be um, legal on everything we do. We're here to do a job. We don't get paid, you know, just like you weren't paid as a mayor, you know. So, actually, she was paid. Okay. But not a lot.

Not a lot. Right. So, so what I'm trying to say is that um uh nobody's trying to hide anything. We're just trying to perform our commissioner duties. And I take the state of California's mandate seriously when they say you need to increase housing. And that's that's I guess that's where my bias comes from trying to abide by the law. Not that you know I favor developers or you know that started. So I just want to be on the record, you know. Can Thank you. If I can go. Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Not not to bel um if there's any concern about a conflict of interest like I we all file form 700 disclosures. I if anybody's accusing me of taking bribes or something like I'm not sure what cahoots means uh you can check my form 700. Um, if somebody is accusing me of something, I would like them to accuse me directly. Um, but cards on the table, I'm we are in we are nominally a pro housing city. We make a plan to produce housing and I am attempting to follow through on that. Like there is no subtle unstated motivation here. The title of the title of subun is improving housing production in Campbell. That's exactly what I am attempting to do. I am, I hope, being pretty straightforward about that. And I believe I am in line with city policy while doing that. And again, seriously, if somebody has some idea that there's something nefarious going on here, I would like to know exactly what that is. I can't really respond to I'm vaguely in cahoots with somebody. Um, but if somebody thinks that I'm doing something, I would like to be told. Thank you. Vice Chair, you don't have to comment, but we're all we're all taking a run. Vice Chair, would you like to add anything?

Um, I think I I support my fellow commissioners. Um, our intent is always for the betterment of Campbell and I understand some people might have concerns, then I invite them to write a letter and state their name and come to the meeting and present their concerns and we can address them then. Um, that's about all I need to say about that. So, thank you.

I don't have much to add other than I think when we get to something that is sort of a policy or something that's going to change the way things work at the city. Uh, my goal is that we do it just like we did the previous permit streamlining. It's a document. It's on the agenda. We talk about it here. It goes to city council. There's a chance for review. It gets voted on there. So, lots of transparency on the stuff that is uh changing anything to do with our our policies or our rules around Campbell. With that, I will close the uh this item where we were talking about our subcommittees and turn to our final item, which is the community director report. Rob,

uh I'll keep it brief knowing you've a lot of words into a lot of other issues tonight. Uh so simply two um staffing items. One, as mentioned by half of our planning department, we are down to two senior planners. So apologies to the public on any delays. Um uh good news, we have opened and closed the recruitment for an assistant associate planner. Been reported to me we have over 100 applicants. So we have a good poll to pick from. Uh we'll be a month or two to get through that process, hire and on board someone, but help help is coming a bit at a pace. And completely different note, not something that normally comes to the plan commission, we do have a recruitment open for an unhoused specialist. So, uh, Campbell has put some muscle into its unhoused programs. Uh, we have a grant-f funded position for an outreach person that goes out and helps our unhoused community find resources and temporary or emergency or permanent shelter. Uh, very hard to find someone for that position. It's a very specialized skill set. If for some reason you know folks that might qualify, send them all

and that's uh seventh person. Did we What's that commissioner? The open position. Uh I have not gotten updates beyond the report I think I gave you that we had two applicants. Yeah. We don't know when the city council is gonna interview them or anything. I do not have a schedule. Let me ask the clerk again and report back what I hear. Any other folks have questions for Yeah. Are we like if we know people, should we send more people in as applicants? Is there need for that for the planning commission? Planning commission. It's closed at this point. Okay. We're just waiting. Okay.

Okay. I would like to adjourn this meeting of the planning commission to our next meeting which will be two weeks from today, May 26, 2026. Have a good night everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night everyone.