Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

The June 1 Lafayette planning Commission meeting before we get started i'm happy to introduce a couple new faces on planning Commission Commissioner salami Vincent salami and Commissioner Snyder Thomas Snyder. Welcome I don't know Commissioner Snyder if you'd like to introduce yourself briefly.

Yes, I am a relatively new resident of Lafayette, three years, but have a long relationship with the city. My freshman roommate in college was from Lafayette, and I'm from Southern California. trips when our times when L.A. was too far away, went home and visited him up on Carroll Street in Lafayette. Awesome. And as a experience that may be relevant, I've spent 40 years as a professor, urban planning, public policy, policy analysis, expertise in kind of the where Planning economic development intersects with public finance.

Awesome. Well, we're happy to have you. Great addition to Planning Commission. And Commissioner Salimi.

Good evening, everybody. Vincent Salimi. Very happy and honored to be a part of this commission. I lived for 20 years in the city of Pinal and about three and a half years ago, I moved to the city of Lafayette and I would like to thank every single member of the city to welcome me very warmly. And my background is in construction management. I've managed hospitals, highways, buildings, and what i know about construction is the more you know the less you know about it so i'm here to learn and i'm very grateful to be surrounded with such a great experience experienced people thank you welcome okay with that i think we'll go ahead and get started so call the meeting order roll call commissioner giorgio president commissioner snyder president commissioner mason president

Commissioner LaBanche?

Present.

And Commissioner Salimi?

Present.

And I'm present. Can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda?

No move. I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, unanimous. Public comments, item number four. So this is an opportunity to provide public comments for an item not on tonight's agenda. So if anybody in the room would like to provide comment on an item that we're not speaking about tonight, now would be the time. No? Okay. Nobody in the room. And what about online?

If you would like to make a comment under public comment, please use the raise hand function now. If the item is on the agenda later on, you'll have an opportunity later as that item comes up. Seeing none.

OK, no public comments. Item 5, consent calendar. Is there anything anyone would like to discuss or amend? Or otherwise, can I please get a motion?

I move that we approve the consent calendar consisting of the draft minutes.

Okay.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay. Item 6, continue public hearing. None. Item 7A, new public hearing. This is the project on Oak Hill. And I will turn it over to staff for a presentation.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Gene iceberg the project planner will be presenting the. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, zoom this evening.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, Hello everyone, I don't think I can share my screen.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Could you promote her to panelists please.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, Yes, please. Okay, good evening Chair Radovich and new and old members of the commission. I'm Jean Iceberg. I'm a contract planner for the city and I'm presenting the change of conditions application at 1001 Oak Hill Road. The site is located here on Oak Hill Road just south of Highway 24, a little bit north of Mount Diablo Boulevard in the downtown. This project was reviewed by the Planning Commission and ultimately approved by the City Council just about a year ago. The Council adopted Resolution 2025-33, which found the project to be exempt from CEQA and approved the following, a demolition of the three commercial buildings on the four parcels and construction of a 90-unit residential mixed-use project, including 2,000 square feet of commercial area, and related landscaping and site improvements. Since that time, the applicant has applied for a building permit, prepared construction drawings, and during preparation of the construction drawings, found some details they wanted to change related to both building code compliance as well as changes in the market. So this is a very narrow action and request. It's a change of conditions request to modify two conditions. The first is condition of approval number one about approved plans. And so it's both updating the plans and the date of plan receipt. And then second condition of approval 31, which is the below market rate regulatory agreement. And this is an update to the breakdown of very low and moderate income units. So the key plan changes i'm going to present first is a reduction of the number of units from 90 units to 85 units, and this does change the distribution of the types of bedrooms in the below market rate units. A reduction of vehicle parking spaces and then some changes to the design of the residential and commercial entries on oak hill road landscaping and utilities on that frontage. So in terms of the data, I mentioned a reduction in five units, a slight increase in gloss floor area, pretty much the same commercial floor area, no change in the building massing, the height or the number of stories, and generally no change in the building design except for those frontage improvements that'll show in just a minute. A reduction in vehicle parking from 178 stalls to 155 stalls, including a reduction in the excavation area in these, removal of some of the parking pits, and then a slight reduction in bicycle parking, but all of those are still compliant with the zoning. So in terms of the below market rate units, the entitled project entitled 11 below market rate units, that's what's proposed here, but because of the reduction in the amount of density bonus needed under state law, the project does not need to provide as many very low-income units. The project still needs to provide those 11 units to meet the city's 15% below market rate requirement, but it's just a change in the income allocation. So this current proposal is 11 BMR units, but only four of those are very low, and the remaining seven units are identified for moderate-income households. So I'm gonna talk about just three design changes along the Oak Hill frontage. So this is the entitled project's ground floor plan. It's not illustrated here, but in the entitled project, there are two above grade transformers identified at the rear of the property on the west side of the site plan left. And then on the right side on Oak Hill Road on the main frontage, there was a PG&E switch gear on that frontage, which is a below-grade utility, and then the residential entrance was shown flush. So you have the sidewalk, this residential entrance, and that residential doorway. And then on the commercial space, we had one commercial entrance. Now, as I mentioned, the applicant's been preparing construction drawings, making sure that the project complies with ADA and other building code requirements, and so that's led to a few changes. So first is the relocation of one of the transformers. So one transformer above grade would still be in the rear. The second transformer would be in the front. And so this is an above grade transformer. I'll show a couple illustrations in just a second. And then second, you can see the residential entry has been redesigned. And this is because there's some pretty substantial grade change along Oak Hill Road running north to south. And so there's a jog in the residential entrance. And then lastly, on the commercial entrance, the fire district required a second means of egress. And so we'll see a ramp on the south end of the site plan. So that's a secondary entrance to the commercial space. So looking at a plan view and an axon of the residential entry, you can see this jog to meet the slope requirements and to manage the grade from Elko Road. You can also see a proposed new water feature. So this is a new landscape feature, hardscape feature. It also serves to obscure some of that view of the transformer if you're entering just to the south in the residential lobby. This is, on the left, a plan view of the transformer that would be on Oak Hill Road. This is an enclosure on three sides, a CMU faced with stucco. And it's about six feet tall. You can see it in elevation view here and in the rendering in elevation. It does show some landscaping. I think we do need to be cognizant PG&E is very specific about access requirements to the transformer. So I'm not sure it looks exactly like this, but there's an effort to landscape where the applicant can. And then lastly, you can see the redesigned second entrance. So this is a ramp of units.

So if you take the total number of units and you move it down,

Okay, so during that part.

Used in the future. We'll have a second bite of the apple. So if there's a critical flaw that comes up from the EIR review, we will have a chance to see it before we make our final because it'll come back. So why not move, you know, my experience in project development is SQL just takes a long time and that no projects like a lot of time waiting. So I am fully in favor of this.

And I agree with staff that what's being proposed is a straightforward item. Of course, once you get into it, you never know. But what is being proposed seems straightforward. Any other thoughts? If not, I'll take a motion.

Second it?

Oh, yeah. We have another motion. Yeah. I'll make one. I recommend that we... approve the proposed meeting order of PC, DRC, and then PC while the EIR is being finalized. I'm not sure if that's exactly how it's supposed to be proposed, but I think that's it.

Does that work for you, Arlie? I would just clarify that it's the CEQA document. I don't believe a full EIR will likely be required. Okay.

Well, okay. I propose that we, the meeting order PC, DRC, PC in that order while the CEQA document is being finalized that we move forward with that.

Second all in favor aye aye all opposed. Okay, thank you. Commissioner to Georgia can I please borrow your printout agenda, because my computer died.

For sure standard, thank you.

Okay, moving on to item nine commissioners report well first I will say thank you to the applicant team for coming. Good night. Excuse me, item nine, commissioner's reports. Anything to share? Oh, Commissioner DiGiorgio.

I'm not sharing, but I wanted to express thanks to the commissioners that were at the city council meeting and in particular, Commissioner LaBange and Mason for speaking. I haven't gone through all, I haven't listened to the entire presentation. It hasn't not yet been posted to YouTube, but I very much appreciated the remarks that both of you made.

Commissioner mason I would like to specifically welcome our two new Commissioners. You will find that very, very seldom do we have tightly contested votes it's. What do you bring to the Commission that I don't know that helps and you'll find that we have a lot of diverse background and experiences and I think that helps so again to the two new Commissioners welcome.

awesome.

But disagreement is okay.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Item 10 planning directors report.

I'd like to echo Commissioner DiGiorgio's comments of appreciation for the commissioners who were able to attend and speak. Apologies, I could not attend. There was a family matter that I had to attend to that had been rescheduled half a dozen times, and I simply needed to attend. So I appreciate the graciousness and the coverage by Stephanie Cervantes. So with that, welcome new commissioners. I'm sure I'm missing something of interest to report out to you, but if it doesn't happen tonight, it'll happen at the next meeting.

Okay, well, it's great to see six, one, two, three, four, five, six planning commissioners. It's been a long time. So welcome. And tonight's meeting is adjourned.