Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, Sharon, are you ready? All right, good afternoon everybody. I want to welcome everybody to our first meeting of the 2026 new year. U welcome to the April 2nd, 2026 regular planning commission meeting. Uh I'd like to start off with the pledge of allegiance. Everybody please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Ariana. Report on posting the agenda and roll call, please. The agenda was posted on Thursday, March 26, 2026 at 4:49 p.m. Roll call. Commissioner Benson, present. Commissioner Bondal here. Commissioner Dhau here. Commissioner Ellie here. Commissioner Kodande here. Commissioner Martinez. Commissioner Valdez here. Thank you. And as a reminder to please turn on your mic when speaking. Thank you.

Thank you, Ariana. Uh before moving on to the rest of the agenda here, uh as this being the first meeting of 2026, we will be electing a new chair and vice chair for the 2026 year. So the floor is open to motions or if you'd like to be chair, you are more than welcome to put your name in the ring. I I unless anybody I would like to make a motion to um elect Manny, but I do no one else has spoken up yet, so I don't want to. I know it would be out of order for me to do that. And someone said, "Oh, no, I'm interested." So, I'm very quite content with the leadership we have in place.

I would second that. I want to give anybody else an opportunity if you would like to be chair. You're doing a great job. Okay. Thank you. Roll call. Commissioner Benson, yes. Commissioner Bondal, yes. Commissioner Donhower, yes. Commissioner Ellie, yes. Commissioner Kota Bond, yes. Commissioner Martinez, yes. Commissioner Valdez, yes. Thank you everybody. Uh, now vice chair. Would anybody like to be vice chair? I would like to. I am.

Yes, I am. I would like to nominate Commissioner Illy for vice chair. I'll second if you want it. I don't really miss any meetings, so you don't have to worry. Yeah. Don't get sick. All right. There's a motion and a second. Any other commissioners interested in being vice chair? All right. Roll call, please. Commissioner Benson, yes. Commissioner Bundle, yes. Commissioner Donhower, yes. Commissioner Ellie, uh, yes. Commissioner Kota Bonding, yes. Commissioner Martinez, yes. And Commissioner Valdez,

yes. All right. Thank you everybody. Congratulations, Vice Chair. All right. All right, I'm going to go to item five, uh, public comments. Um, this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons desiring to address the planning commission on matters not on the agenda. There is a three minute limit. Ariana, are there any public speakers? There are no speakers. All right, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment. Moving on to 6.1, consent agenda, November November 6, 2025, planning commission regular meeting minutes. Commissioners, any questions, comments, concerns?

I'll just say that for the new people, you can vote on these minutes even though you weren't present. Um, they there was a change in the rules a long time ago. Um, but you're only approving them as to form, not to their veracity. So, you can just approve them so they're accepted into the record. So feel free to vote on the minutes. I make a motion that we accept the minutes. I second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Benson. Commissioner Donhower. Yes. Commissioner Kotabande. Yes. Commissioner Martinez. Yes. Commissioner Valdez.

Yes. Vice Chair Ellie. Yes. And Chair Bond. Yes. I'm sorry. Uh, should I get Commissioner Benson? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Ariana. All right. Moving on to seven public hearing 7.1 variance V26-1 arc and site review AS24-07. a tentative map TM24-01 for the construction of 42 town homes located at 95 housing street APN790-36-012 uh staff report Vanessa

good afternoon um chair commissioners members of the public my name is Vanessa Sanchez I'm with the community development department planning division and the item before you tonight is varian application 26-01, architectural and site review application 24-07, and tenative map application 24-01. This is for a proposed town home development located at 95 Housing Street. So, the project is located on an approximate 2acre parcel within the downtown Gateway District. The parcel is currently developed with vacant commercial buildings and is bordered by commercial businesses to the east and south, a mobile home park to the north of the project, and a vacant lot just west of the site. The proposed project will construct and subdivide nine residential buildings for a total of 42 town homes. The buildings will be approximately 39 ft in height and will be primarily three stories with an exception to end units closer to the mobile home park. Those units will be limited to two stories in height. The residential development will contain private streets, drive aisles, parking for guests and residents, on-site landscaping and common areas with amenities such as picnic area and playground. Additionally, the project will dedicate a portion of the site to the city for construction of 6 foot wide sidewalks with 6 foot wide landscaping strips. A variance is also being requested for exceptions to the front and street side yard setbacks to accommodate that dedication. So, there will be four different

building design types. Each building design type will have slightly different floor plans. Units typically range from 1,430 ft² to 1,900 square ft and we'll have 3 to four bedrooms with either 2 and 1/2 baths or three and 1 half baths depending on the floor plan. Here we have a typical floor plan for building design with five units per building. For the first floor, we have um these two units on the left. These will be facing the internal roads. So for these two units, um they will just have garage entries on the first floor. The two internal units will have garage entry and bedroom and bathroom. And then the corner unit on the right that is closer to that mobile home park will have garage, living room area, bathroom, and kitchen on that first floor. For the second floor, the four units here, these two here on the left, and these internal ones, these will all have decks, kitchens, and living room areas. This corner unit to the right will have three bedrooms, office, and two bathrooms. And then for all units except that corner unit, um the third floor will consist of bedrooms and bathrooms. So on the right here I did provide a key to visualize the location of each building type. So these building these two building elevations will be facing house and street. So these will be the most visible from house and street. Um this top one will be located on the southwest corner of church and house and street. And this bottom elevation you'll be able to see on the souththeast corner

and in the middle facing house and street. So on these elevations we can see the covered entries, balconies, gabble roofs, accent awnings, use of horizontal siding on entryways and a monotone color scheme with accent colors for the doors. These elevations also show that any proposed ground level ground level AC units will be hidden from view behind the patio walls. So on on the top here we have the elevation that will be visible from Church Street that south um that northwest corner and then that same building type will be seen on the internal roads as well as the northeast corner. And then this bottom elevation will be visible from internal streets and um the development's common garden pail. So again we see that continuation of the covered entries, gabble roofs, accent siding near entryways and that same monotone color scheme with accent colors for the doors. Here we have the proposed landscape plan for the development that depicts the proposed trees for on-site and for the street trees. A variety of trees will be used throughout the development such as crepe myrtle brisbane box pink trumpet and Saratoga Bay. And for the street trees, the project proposes Chinese pistache to be planted within that 6' wide planter box planter strip. And there will be an assortment of shrubs and ground cover um proposed throughout the development as well. Staff analyzed the architectural and

site review request and finds that the development is consistent with the 2040 general plan goals and policies, zoning code, downtown specific plan and multifamily objective design standards. The project will be providing marketattached housing, attractive and compatible architecture, on-site amenities, and enhanced public sidewalks and landscaping strips. Staff also analyzed attentive map analysis and finds that development is consistent with the subdivision map act, the 2040 general plan goals and policies, zoning code, and all other applicable laws, regulations, and standards. Additionally, staff cannot make the findings to deny the map because the subdivision is suitable for the density and type of development meets all applicable regulations and will not cause any public health problems. So to help visualize the variance request and all the different setback um that is referenced in the the report, I did provide a zoomedin portion of the proposed site plan. So this is the northwest corner of the development along Church Street. So the first red arrow here is showing face of curb. This top red arrow here labeled E is showing the existing property line and this red arrow here labeled P is showing the proposed property line after that dedication. So this yellow highlighted measurement of 9 ft and 6 in is showing the setback from that new property line to the building after the dedication to the city. This blue 15 ft measurement is

showing um what 15 ft would look like from that new property line if it were to be enforced. And then the red measurement showing 15 ft is showing that setback as measured from the existing property line before any city dedications. And finally, this green measurement here labeled 21 ft is showing the total step back as measured from the face of curb to the building. So this helps visualize the impacts to the development of that 15 ft step back as measured from the property line. And at the same time is highlighting that a transition and separation is still being provided by the project. If we were to look at it from that measurement of face of curb again we have uh another zoomed in portion of that site plan. This time this is the southwest corner of house and inch street. Again that bottom arrow here is showing location of the face of curb. The arrow labeled E is showing the existing property line. And then this arrow labeled P is showing the proposed property line after that dedication. So this first yellow measurement labeled 22 ft is showing that setback measurement from the face of the curb to the building. The next measurement in blue 15 ft is showing the measurement from the new property line after that right away dedication. And then the red measurement labeled again 15 ft is showing 15 ft from that existing property line before any city dedication. And then finally this highlighted 10 ft is showing the measurement from the new property line to the building. This is again showing

that potential impact to the development if that 15t setback measurement from property line were to be applied. So, as mentioned, the the project is requesting a variance exception to the street side and front yard setbacks due to that public right away dedication. But although they are not meeting that 15 feet as measured from the property line, the project is providing 21 feet from face of curb for the street sideyard setback along Church Street and 22 ft from face of curb for that front setback along Housein Street. Therefore, the project is still meeting the intent of the gateway district by providing adequate distance and transition from the development to the public right away and is still creating a pedestrianoriented environment. Additionally, staff can make the required variance findings. So the project is categorically exempt under section 15332 class 32 of the California Environmental Quality Act. Additionally, um the project completed a vehicle miles traveled assessment or VNT and an operational analysis and the analysis found no significant VMT impacts and no operational concerns with the project. Additionally, the applicant will be resolving and mitigating an open soil contamination case with the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Staff sent out 51 public notice postcards on March 19th and the project was noticed in the March 20th edition of the Gilway Dispatch newspaper and the applicant did install the required on-site project

notification signage a minimum of 10 days prior to the hearing. Staff did receive a comment letter from a local community group which promotes reduction of greenhouse gases and multimodal transportation. Copies of that letter are provided at the front and were also provided to the commission. The letter lists suggestions that the project could incorporate and that letter was provided to the applicant. The applicant does acknowledge the letter but has decided not to incorporate the recommendations. We also received questions from the commission and a request to review the soil gas analysis completed for the project. Those questions were answered and a copy of that report was provided to all commissioners and is also available at the front for the public to view and any questions regarding that report or the soil contamination case can um be answered by the applicant. In conclusion, staff has reviewed the proposed project and recommends that the planning commission recommend that the city council determine the project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to state sequel guidelines section 15332 class 32 and adopt a resolution approving a variance permit V26-01 subject to the findings conditions provided in the draft resolution and recommend that the city council will adopt the resolution approving architectural and site review permit AS24-07 subject to the findings and conditions provided in the draft resolution and recommend that the city council adopt a resolution approving best intended map TM24-01 subject to the findings conditions outlined in the draft resolution and I just I did want to clarify there was a last minute change to that variance

um it's no longer are going to city council a planning commission has the final say for that variance. So it is going to look a little different. This is going to be adopt a resolution for the variance instead of recommending to city council. Um but that concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions and the applicant is also here to answer any questions. Thank you Vanessa. Appreciate it. Commissioners, any questions, comments or staff or the applicant? Where exactly is the letter commenting? I is it attached in here because I don't see the the comment letter. Yeah. Um it it was provided via email and then we have printed out versions. Okay. Yes. Thanks.

Would you like a copy? We we have some up front. So I have a couple questions. Um and um I forgot when do we do exparte? We haven't yet. Okay. Not there. Okay. Um, I had a question about uh the Chinese pistach that is a some uh considered a mildly invasive species and you guys know I always say this. Um, and it's been a while. It's been a while. Now all remember

so it's very it it is very good at escaping containment because it's a male female species of the tree and um we do have a lot of protected wildlife areas around here. So I would like to ask if the applicant could pick maybe another tree that um uh instead of that Chinese pistache um if that would be possible. We can make a motion for that for a different Yeah. Yeah. I think we can we can work with the applicant to find another tree that's on our approved street tree list. Fantastic. We have a list.

Exactly. Maybe we should get that. Yeah. Um, and then I had a question about the um, uh, I'd like to thank you for your time explaining the variant setback and the um, the contamination and how that process goes through the state cleanup and approval and all of that and how we interact with the state to make that happen. um to uh for when that is finalized for um uh um awarding the the permits. But I did have a question about the guest parking. So that there's 14 guest parking on House and Street. How is that getting managed? Because it's is that going to be private parking or is that still going to be public access or how does that work? It might be in here and I might have missed it.

Um, not on House Street, but they do have guest parking on their private internal roads. It says here, um, guest 17, sorry, 14 spaces parking along house.

Okay, maybe the the verbiage is um incorrect, but all the guest parking is going to be on their private internal roads. So, it's going to be these ones right here. And I I would imagine it would be up to the HOA to to manage to manage those. Okay. So, this map is not that I'm looking in the packet is okay. The the site plan um is the one you're referring to the map. Um I think it's the same one you have up there. It It's not. It's different. Computer screen is not the same on the screen. Yeah. I don't know where you got that. It's from the packet. It's page one. It's PDF page 133.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice to meet you guys. Thank you for this.

Well, thank you guys. Um what we did just as a point of clarification, we counted the in on on-site parking, but we counted the additional parking spaces we are adding on House and Street through striping. Uh but those are not counted as um dedicated parking for for the project. So those are additional parking spaces we're adding for public use, but the uh guest parking is all on site and dedicated 14 spaces. Okay. All those 14 spaces are on site. Okay. And then um I just also want to say I really love that the buildings go higher as they go uh away from the street. That's very nice touch.

And then I had a question for staff about Thank you about um the and this is uh the project obviously meets all of our requirements. What is the building height limit for if you know offhand for gateway downtown gateway versus downtown? Well, the the gateway is 40 ft and then I I can't say the other ones. I don't know the other particular zoning districts in our downtown, but 40 for specifically the gateway district. Thank you. Any other questions, commissioners?

Um, I just I I do have a question. Um, I did ask a lot of questions prior to the meeting and I got a lot of answers and so that was great. Thank you so much. Um, I did want to just um comment on the project itself. that's very aesthetically um pleasing and so it's really nice to see that area that's been in ble for a long time um approaching something that's going to be I think um really nice. Um my question is about the um the soil um I think it's a soil what's the title the soil oil um report and I understand I got uh staff answered my questions regarding um how that works out and um but my question to the developer is do you have an established timeline around um when you would look for the resolution of those soil contaminants? Um so the short answer is we have a rough timeline. Um the county has been excellent to work with to date. They cannot formally hear um or accept the report prior to approval. They have been kind enough to um review or look at a draft report for us. Uh so far the indications are that we have been sufficient in our work in providing them enough information to make a finding and that um but I don't want to speak for the county but there um we have a there seems to be a very easy or very I should let me take a step back very viable and common solution to the the gases that are been discovered on site. Oh. Uh, so there's a few steps. The site management plan will go in first. That is a 30-day review, um, pending comments, um, which we would address and we would turn that back around for another 30-day review. I'm estimating

we're looking about 3 to four months for the site management plan. Once we get the site management plan approved, that then gets incorporated into uh the construction drawings or the vertical drawings that the engineer engineering would then review based off the guidelines that the city or the county has provided. Yep. Yeah. I'll just comment that it's typical that the developer the applicant cannot submit to Santa Clara Department of Health until the entitlements are done. I understood that. I just wanted to know the timeline after the approval in in a case like this. It doesn't seem to be a long process.

Right. Thank you. Any other commissioners, questions, comments, concerns? Thank you, Vanessa. I'm going to open this up to a public hearing. Ariana, are there any speakers or public comment? Yes, we have one speaker. If there are any additional speakers, please come on up to fill out a card. And our first speaker is Joan Lewis.

Good evening. Um, I'm really happy to see this project come before you. This area has been blight for a really long time. And I have to make comment. This is a really goodlooking project. Being up here for your job for 12 years, a lot of times these projects come and they're just windows and doors. And this gentleman, this group has I call little gingerbread on this with the balconies and the trims around the windows and everything. This is going to be a really good looking project and I recommend you approve it tonight. Thanks.

Thank you, Johnny.

There any other public speakers or anybody want to make a comment? There are no further speakers. All right, I'm going to move to uh close public hearing and moving on to 7.4 Four, disclosure of exparte communication uh for the new commissioners. Um this is if you've met with the developer or met with anybody from the project side um or have communicated with them, this is when you disclose that communication. So I did speak with Mr. Victor Gomez about the project.

Uh I did speak with Victor Gomez about the project as well. Um, I did communicate over email with both um, John and Victor and thank you for reminding me also with John via email. All right, I see that's all the expporte communication. I'm going to move on to possible action five. The floor is open. Just a reminder to the commissioners, there will be um, we will have a motion for each one of these items. So, you cannot do one motion for the entire thing. It's a motion for A, motion for B, and a motion for C. No, just the conditions.

All right, I guess I will kick it off. I'm in a motion for a recommend to the city council that to determine this project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to state SQL guidelines section 15332 class 32. I'll second a second. Roll call. Commissioner Benson. Yes. Commissioner Donhower. Yes. Commissioner Kodivande. Yes. Commissioner Martinez, yes. Commissioner Valdez, yes. Vice Chair Ellie, yes. And Chair Bond,

yes. That was unanimous. 70. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion uh to adopt a resolution approving the variance permit number V26-01 subject to the findings and conditions provided in the draft resolution second. Can I get a confirmation on the second?

Oh, that was Martino's second. Thank you. Roll call. Commissioner Benson. Yes. Commissioner Donhower. Yes. Commissioner Kodonde. Yes. Commissioner Martinez. Yes. Commissioner Valdez. Yes. Vice Chair Ellie. Yes. And Chair Bundle. Yes. Thank you. That was unanimous. 70. I will go on. I will recommend I want to make a motion to recommend to the city council adopt a resolution approving ark and site review permit AS-24-07 subject to the findings and conditions provided in the draft resolution. Second

with the amended condition with the amended condition that they substitute the pistach tree. Roll call. I'll second that if there wasn't a second. I think Brian did. Motion by Bandal, seconded by Dhau. Roll call. Commissioner Benson, yes. Commissioner Donhower, yes. Commissioner Kotabande, yes. Commissioner Martinez, yes. Commissioner Valdez, yes. Vice Chair Ellie, yes. And Chair Bundle, yes. Thank you. That was unanimous. 70. Okay. Can I make mo the next motion?

Of course. Move on. Ready. Ready. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to recommend that the city council adopt a resolution approving, excuse me, approving vesting tenative map TM2401 subject to the findings and conditions outlined in the draft resolution. I'll second that. Oh, she can have it. Roll call. Commissioner Benson, yes. Commissioner Donhower, yes. Commissioner Kotabande, yes. Commissioner Martinez, yes. Commissioner Valdez, yes. Vice Chair Ellie, yes. And Chair Bontto,

yes. That was unanimous. 70. Um, thank you to Mr. Beck and Mr. Gomez. Congratulations, guys. All right, moving on to new business. 6 8.1. We have no new business. 9.1 Planning Division staff approvals. Uh for the new commissioners, there is a sheet in our packet um that shows uh items, projects that were approved at the staff level. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, you're more than welcome to ask.

I do. So, I've had a lot of the community reach out to me. It's not necessarily about this list, but about the process in general, and they would like to know um they're asking me, and I I don't really know that answer. How would they know if a project that's coming forward is going to be approved by staff versus coming to planning condition commission and city council? Yes,

thank you for the question, Commissioner Ellie. Uh the city's zoning code um talks about the different types of applications and also the process for each type of applications. So for example, if it's an architectural site review permit, um the exception is for example, if it also has a tenative map application, you know, then that would be uh coming to the planning commission and then for recommendations the council like you did earlier. And some projects that have um also depends on the location, but the details are all in the zoning code and some of them if just um architectural and site review approval, that's done at staff level. Is there a way for them to tell by each project if it's going to come to planning commission or staff?

Uh that will depend on the applications that are required for the project. Okay. So there's no easy way for the community to know. Um they can always contact us and the you know our um project log kind of gives you a little bit of indication of that but they can always reach out to the project planner for more details. Wonderful. Thank you. There are no other questions on 9.1. I'm going to move on to planning division report. Sharon,

I just wanted to um follow up on Stephanie's question. So, I've been going to the um I'm trying to let me see if I can find what it is. It's it's the development activity projects and both on there are the two links. one kind of lists the projects. I mean, when you have the current planning and development project list that I was looking at, that gives some details. Is that enough information for the public to um know whether um they were going to come to us or not? Um that alone, I mean, unless you are going to look up our city code and you know, look into the details. uh but on the list so if you look at the second column um under project number and that's where we kind of have the acronym for the type of applications for example as you know kind of like you saw earlier that stands for architecture and site review permit and TM is tenative map uh and then the last column that's where we have our planners um initials listed and then above the table is the name you know they're the contact information names of the planners where you're welcome to contact staff for more details if you have any questions and you can always contact you know me and our planning manager Michael Facade as well

great no more questions all right uh we're going on to 10 planning division report I just want to welcome to two new planning commissioners uh and commissioner Martinez was also able to attend the academy this year um so if it's to you if you want to share any thoughts.

Well, um number one is thank you so much for the opportunity um to go and I learned a lot. It was so worthwhile. It was worth the two days and and the cost actually to get there. I would kind of suggest that you know for any new commissioner that there be an allowance a little bit more allowance um in terms of I I mean I think the allowance the current year allowance was 1,500 and it barely covers the registration in the hotel so transportation meals and everything else is kind of on your own. So um but that's neither here nor there. I was really really glad to go. Um it was interesting. Um it was a big learning curve for me, but I think the the most valuable pieces were all the um the state laws and the regulations and really getting my head wrapped around those things. Um also networking with other commissioners. Um most of them, you know, were veterans. Um and we're struggling with some of the things that I know that Gilroy has struggled with. And so it was I again I thank you for the opportunity to go. Um, since I was pointed a little bit earlier than payment, I got in uh before the waiting list was created. So, thanks again. I It was a great learning experience. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Munan 11, assistant city attorney report. Jolie, nothing. I was just going to say if anyone went to the planning academy out, so we usually want you to report. Yep. We usually want you to report out if you've gone to something that's been paid for by the city. So when you come back, you report it out. That's the it it goes with AB1234 and um I think it's also tied into the traffic policy, but report out to your fellow commissioners and to the public. You went, you know, sort of what she did right now.

Yeah, just like what you did right now. I was going to remind people, but you did it ahead of me. So,

well, I I I can say this, the keynote was outstanding. He was an author um who has written a lot around um planning and commissioners roles over time. And one of the things that he stood out to me very well and I've heard politicians say this lately um was that there's been so many laws that have been enacted um over time and that specifically you know for commissioners that's really changed the role of the commissioners and in the last 5 years. But to that end he says what we don't do um because you know the audience was asking very pointed questions like what can be done about this and he says well what we don't do is we never review the laws. And I thought that was really pointed and very um timely in terms of, you know, of how bureaucracy kind of keeps going if we don't review laws to see how if they're working, if they're not. And he stated, you know, some of the current laws that have been enacted in the last 5 years have not really changed um the number of developments throughout the state. So there's, you know, there's things like that that I, you know, kind of stuck with me. But the other thing I did want to say is that every um every presentation every um is on the website uh for um so anybody can go in there and look at those presentations. It's great learning and I went into the presentations that I wanted to go in that I didn't because you know I was in another session and um so there were really it's really useful information and it's it's available to anyone. I think it's even available to the public. Thank you. Commissioner Martinez, I just wanted to make a comment on the uh $1,500 that were aotted. So, every budget cycle the commission um requests from council um monies for for training and every year it's slightly gone up. I think when I started it was only about $800 or $850.

So, we've made progress. We're at 1,500. So, but I think this last budget cycle it was declined if I'm not mistaken for a higher amount. No, state of 15. State of 15. Okay, perfect. So, yeah, every budget cycle we do make that request. Great. With that, we are done. Congratulations to the new uh commissioners. Your first meeting is done on the on the books and I'm going to adjourn this meeting to the next meeting of May 7th, 2026 at 6 p.m. Thank you.