Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Planning Commission DRC meeting tonight. Let me start all over. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Planning Commission meeting tonight, August 17th. We're also joined by our DRC for the first item tonight. So I'll call this meeting to order. We'll start with roll call. So we'll be doing roll call. We do have a quorum for Planning Commission, and then I'll also check in with our two DRC members So Commissioner Snider?

Present.

Commissioner Mason?

Present.

Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Present.

And I'm Chair Radnich, I'm present. And we are also accompanied by Glen from DRC.

Glen Cass, present.

And Travis.

Travis Couser, present.

Thank you. Put on my glasses. Can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda?

So move it. Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? The motion passes. Item four, public comments. So this is an opportunity, if you would like to provide a comment tonight for an item that is not on the agenda, but is in the purview of Planning Commission, now would be the time. If you are interested in speaking on item 6A, 8A, or 8B, you will have a chance. when those items come up, just please fill out a blue speaker slip that's in the back and you can hand it to staff and we're happy to call you up at the time. But if you would like to provide comment now for anything not on the agenda, now would be the time. Okay, I don't see any in the room.

Also inviting members of the public attending online to use the raise hand function to indicate you'd like to speak on an item not on the agenda. seeing no raised hands online.

Okay. So moving on to item five, consent calendar. Can I get a motion or any comments on the consent calendar?

Move that we adopt the consent calendar.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay, the item passes. Item 6A, special presentation. This is for the pre-approved ADU prototype designs, and I'll look to staff for a presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Just give the screen a second. There we go. Good evening, planning commissioners and design review commissioners. My name is Madison Church, and tonight I will be presenting item 6A, the pre-approved ADU prototype designs for the La Mirinda PADU program. Before we get started, I'd like to just provide some background on this program. City of Lafayette, Town of Moraga, and City of Orinda are collaborating to develop a library of pre-approved accessory dwelling unit, also known as PADU, plans through the Senate District 7 ADU accelerator program. The program is state funded through a $2.5 million grant wherein each jurisdiction received $50,000 to develop in-house pre-approved ADU plans. La Mirinda has been working together with RRM Design Group to develop a shared library, which will be available to residents at no cost. The prototypes are intended to provide residents with cost-effective, functional, and adaptable ADU design while streamlining the future permitting process. Next, we're going to go over a timeline for this program, starting with May 1 when La Mirinda issued an RFP, or Request for Proposals, seeking a consultant to prepare permit-ready ADU plans. We received eight total proposals. An RRM design group was selected to develop the plans. Once awarded the contract, RRM, with the collaboration of La Mirinda staff, spent June and July developing the designs. On August 11th, Orinda Planning Commission provided feedback on the designs. Tonight, the Lafayette Planning Commission and Design Review Commission will provide feedback and tomorrow the Moraga Planning Commission will do the same. Simultaneously, a public survey has been released to provide feedback on the designs and will remain open until the end of August. After the PC meetings are completed, RRM will spend the next few weeks making updates and finalizing the prototype plan sets based on compiled commissioner feedback and public feedback. Staff will take the finalized designs to the city council for adoption on September 14th. Council adoption is required prior to the September 30th deadline to remain adequate and to retain the grant funding. From September to January, RRM will complete the building permit plan sets and undergo technical and compliance reviews by the local building and fire district. The goal is to launch the complete pre-approved plan sets online by early March of 2027. On the screen above, we'll see an overview of the floor plan sets. There are four different floor plans, but each offered in two styles, Craftsman or Ranch and Mediterranean, for a total of eight plan sets. I want to point out that the colors shown on the plans are illustrative of the two styles, and that final plan sets will provide homeowners the option to select colors that best fit their needs, such as to match their primary residence. Next, we're gonna run through an overview of the plan sets and compare. Starting with plan number one, this set features a one bedroom, one bath, 490 square foot plan. Key attributes include an optional interior wall to function as a one bedroom or open studio. Plan number two includes a one bedroom, one bath as well, starting at a 510 square foot base plan with the option to expand up to 598 square feet by enclosing the front porch to turn it into livable space. Moving on to plan number three, we'll see a two-bedroom, two-bathroom option coming in just under 750 square feet, which was intentionally kept under the threshold for triggering impact fees to provide a larger option that minimizes costs. Finally, plan four, a two-bedroom, two-bath just under 800 square feet. This is the largest option while staying under the threshold for state streamlined ADUs. Key attributes include separate living areas and hallway storage. All four of these plans include optional front porches, and plans two, three, and four include adaptable bathrooms. Tonight's staff recommends that the Commission review and provide feedback on the draft PADU designs with respect to architectural character, functionality and flexibility, unmet expectations, and missing elements. Staff asked the commissioners to consider the following questions. Do the craftsmen or ranch and Mediterranean exterior styles adequately reflect and complement Lafayette's existing residential neighborhoods? Are there specific design elements that should be adjusted? Do the floor plans offer logical living spaces? Do the optional features provide the right level of flexibility? Are there any features that appear inconsistent with Lafayette's residential character or community expectations? And lastly, are there critical design elements, residential amenities, or functional layout considerations that are noticeably absent from these drafts? And lastly, for any of the members of the public that would want to provide input on our public survey, a QR code is provided above. That concludes the presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Are there any questions for staff?

Do we know when it goes to building inspection, if we take a design like the ranch and we want to eliminate the stone veneer wainscot in the front, Will they approve the process as the streamline or is those type of changes going to kick you off the streamline process?

And exterior elements like the one that you mentioned is something that would require the planning department to sign off on review. However, as I mentioned during the presentation, there are some exterior elements that can be adjusted and are flexible for the homeowner. So the planning department wouldn't have any problem substituting some sort of material change for the ADU, considering it is still under the state streamlined threshold.

Thank you.

I actually had a similar question for just say, for example, the two bedroom, if you wanted to make it one larger bedroom and be a one bedroom It sounds like maybe then you would be disqualified from using the pre-approved plans.

I think any sort of adjustment like that would probably require a homeowner to work with an architect to redevelop the plan to fit their needs. But yes, that would kick it out of the pre-approved status, and the building department would have to review it for conformance with building code and no longer the pre-approved track.

Okay, thanks, and then a follow-up. The porches that are listed, do you mind going back to the screen that had the four, yeah, one forward, please? So the optional covered porch, or the optional porch, if you enclose it, does that, do porches put you above, potentially, the 750, so plan number three? So porches, You'd have to do it with, you'd have to do option three, for example, without a porch to stay below 750 for the impact fees?

Impact fees are calculated based off of livable area. So this ADU would still come in under 750 square feet of livable area. Okay. The porch would not kick it out of that threshold.

Okay, perfect. I saw some other hands. Commissioner Mason?

Uh, follow-up on Commissioner Radnich.

Oh, follow-up on Commissioner Radnich. Uh, so what happens, like, on the Plan 3, you're under 700, the 750 square feet, and you come back, and since we already have the plans, and close the porch. Now, does that mean that you go back and you have to pay all the fees, or is it just, you know, kind of forgotten and slides through?

Plan number three does not include an option to enclose the porch into livable area. You can add on a covered porch, which is just like an exposed covered patio area, but it would not be a livable area subject to impact fees.

Thank you. And the second question, comment I had is, first of all, I like the units, but all the photos and plans show flat, which is not that much here. So are you going to develop pictures and drawings for slope sites? And at what point is the slope so much or the step from grade up to the unit so much that it falls outside the streamlined process?

So as far as photos go, I'm not sure whether that's within the scope of work for the consultant to create renderings showing the different foundation options, but alternative foundation options for slope sites will be provided and included in the final permit plan set. You don't see those now, not part of this current process, but foundation options will be included within the,

Final permit plan set and then last question this takes away from the streamlined but the city's view is that wherever possible we push houses and units into grade We have one tonight on that so if you pushed it into grade and I essentially had a full basement and Does that count towards the allowable square footage or not? I know this takes away from the streamline, but if you're talking, hey, you have to be under 750 square feet and it's got a full basement, traditionally it's not counted as square footage, but I don't know how it applies to here.

Are you saying that the prototype plans would include a plan for a basement?

No, I'm not talking prototype. I'm just talking ADU in general because we have strict, there's strict square footage requirements. Right. But does this, you know, if I push like, for example, plan three fully in, I've got a three-to-one sloping lot. I push it into our two-to-ones, push it in so that first level is a basement, similar to what we have on the house, Release Valley Road house here, where it's a full basement. Does that count towards the square footage? for the state set asides or the under 750 square feet? Or is that, again, like a lot of things where a basement doesn't count towards square footage?

I can't remember off the top of my head where the state stands on that and what our ADU ordinance says on it.

OK.

But I can look into it and follow up with you on it.

Thank you. That's it for me.

Commissioner Snider?

Since one of the objectives here is to expedite the review and approval process and all, is there going to be a list of where there are options and choices which do not require specific review? Or is that left for the staff and all to take and answer that question?

I'm sorry, can you restate? I don't understand the question.

Since one of the objectives here is to take and have plans which take and do not require the full review process and all, is there going to be a list of what are the options such as type of siding or paint color and all which will not trigger review and which ones will trigger review?

I see.

Because we're talking about a lot of things here. Can you put an extra wall in? It's clear that that is an option on Plan 1. Well, what happens if you want to take and go and have moved windows? I know Orinda, our moraga, took and put that in, and I agree with it, is probably one that should be flexible since everyone does not want... windows in exactly the same place, depending on the specific law. So what triggers a review and what is considered a option which is within the scope of the redesigned plan?

Thank you. I think that the goal is for the La Miranda jurisdictions to create the most amount of flexibility and options already baked into the plan set as we can. So this is why we're here. We're here for feedback. We're trying to get some information on options that residents would like to see so that when we do create the plans, we can clearly call out these options. It will be very clear for residents when they download these plans, what's an option and what's not. Does that answer the question?

And my other one, I don't know if this is the time to start discussing it. No.

Now it's just for clarifying questions. Yeah, thanks. Are there any other questions? No? Okay. Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Hi. Plan 2 is labeled adaptable bathroom. Plan 2 is labeled adaptable bathroom. Why is it that plans 3 and 4 might not be labeled that way? Are they? And what's the difference that some are adaptable and some aren't?

Plans two, three, and four all have adaptable bathrooms. It was just a function of the presentation to not repetitively state it on the side, but they are all there.

Okay. And then this is not in the presentation anywhere, but a lot of times in houses, builders will take one building plan and they'll mirror it, they'll flip it. Will this program allow for that?

Right now that is not included within the scope of work for this project.

Thank you.

And lastly, I'll come back to Commissioner Mason's question. Basement area is included within the livable space allowed for an ADU.

Thank you.

Any other questions for staff? No. Okay, excuse me. We don't have an applicant to present, so thank you for your presentation. But we will open it up for public comment. So if anybody would like to provide their thoughts or input here tonight, now would be the time. So do we have any speaker slips?

I am not seeing any speaker slips for persons in the hall wishing to speak on this item. For other items on the agenda, I do have speaker slips. We'll now turn online and look for any raised hands in the, we do have a John Bailey with a raised hand. So I will go ahead and Mr. Bailey invite you to speak now. You're unmuted on this end and it looks like if you unmute yourself, you'll be able to speak for up to three minutes.

Hello. I think I made a mistake. I am the civil engineer representing the project applicant for the Release Valley Road project that you have in front. I didn't realize that I had raised my hand, so I relinquish my time back to the meeting.

Reclaiming our time. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. We'll speak with you later if there's any questions or you're part of the presentation.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so no public comment, I will just remind everybody who's listening or in the room, the survey is, I believe, I saw it on the weekly roundup email So if you subscribe to the city's emails or if you go on to the city's website I imagine Madison there's a link on. lafayette's website perfect and the survey is active through the end of the month so if you see anything tonight that you decide you want to comment on later tonight is not your only opportunity okay so we'll we will close public comment bring it back to the commission and this will be an opportunity to kind of provide some thoughts and direction to staff Commissioner DeGiorgio?

I would like to follow up with one question for staff. In the staff report, it talks about the colors. This is on page three under the analysis. It says that color selection should match the property's primary residence. Is that a requirement, or do people have flexibility to do a different color?

Not a requirement, a recommendation. But yes, there is flexibility to choose different colors.

Thank you.

OK. Maybe we'll just go down the row. Start with you, Glenn.

OK. I don't know where to start. First of all, I think the Ranch Craftman and the Spanish Mediterranean are nice designs. I'm not sure if they hit the widest target in the city. The widest target that I see in the city is stucco with trim. And so the Mediterranean with terracotta roof is really sort of on the high end. and is our audience that's trying to save money and expedite, streamline this, are they on the high end or the very low end? I think that my guess is they're on the low end and if they're on the higher end, they're gonna have many more changes and it's not gonna be as streamlined and it's gonna go through city processes. I really like the Mediterranean design, don't get me wrong. I think it's actually the most attractive of the group that's in there. As far as layout and the four options, I think those are very valid options. I'm not sure that I can fix it, but I have a general comment about the laundry rooms. They're extremely small. They're designed to have a stack washer and dryer. If they're 36 inches long and you have a vent in the back, the door to the washer is literally about 34 inches out. So it's right up against the accordion door. And there's absolutely nowhere to put a box of Tide. in that room, okay, because they're a stacked unit and there's no spare space whatsoever. I actually would like to see, but it may not be practical, to eliminate the water heater room and possibly put a instantaneous hot water system in conjunction with the laundry. and give the laundry a little bit more room so that people could put storage items in there and make it more practical. I know in Orinda they had a lot of comments about the Mediterranean design and the focus of the centering of the door to the archway at the porch. I don't think that's that important. I think more important is the actual functionality inside the unit. So you don't wanna be moving the door further into the living area and create dead space in a room, in an apartment or an ADU that's already limited square footage. I would like to see like the other commissioner stated, a list of things that would kick you off of being streamlined. And I think there are some items that I don't know if they would or they wouldn't. In Arenda, they had a comment about the one bedroom studio unit flipping the closet and having an extra window in the unit. I think that was a good comment to some degree. But can you have both options or will that kick you out? And I understand also is that some of the if you're up close to the fence line, you're not going to be able to put windows into that facade. And so I understand that some facades may want to have more windows or skylight or something. whether or not these options can be presented to the building inspection department and approved as part of the streamlining process, that would be the best thing. Thank you.

Are we good just going down the line? Thank you for your comments. Commissioner DiGiorgio?

I had a question about windows in two respects. I know the bathrooms all have a window in it. Sometimes, though, given that they're almost all in a corner, it might be nice to have a small, like a casement, double casement window, something that allow more ventilation, cross breeze or something. And that gets to the question of the window sizes and how many are available, which was mentioned earlier. I, for example, look at the kitchen window that's above the sink. And it's hard for me to tell the width of it. It seems like you might want to have a larger window in either the kitchen or in the living room. So that might be nice to have, but that would have to be, of course, defined by the program on what's allowable. I know this is probably outside the scope of this, but there's no really indication of where to put split heaters or like a heat pump, heater-cooler units. And I don't know if that's important for design work here, or that's what the contractor's gonna work out anyway. But I just noticed that. I don't know if it's important. And the last thing was, The concept of asphalt shingles versus metal roof. And I don't know, a lot of people are opposed to metal roofs, but you can make a case for why they might be worthwhile in certain circumstances. So I can see how tiles would be appropriate for Mediterranean, and asphalt is low cost and good for things, but why wouldn't you allow metal roofs if that's something that fit into the existing households? And that's it.

OK. Thank you. Commissioner Mason?

Yes. Just a couple of things here. wanted to jump in also on the windows uh... because depending upon the set aside from the property uh... property line and the overhang it might trigger some additional fire rated requirements which i would not expect people to know unless it was pointed out second is i would I would like to see a, because this being similar to the color of the main house is kind of vague. I would like to see you work with the design review committee with an acceptable color palette. I just got back from Seattle where I saw my son and one of his neighbors has an orange house. You know, and I want to avoid that. On the technical things, I generally like the floor layouts. For the smallest 490 unit project, my experience has been most people would use that for as an office. And I realize you have to have a dedicated sleeping area, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to show the bed so something that shows hey something that might be used more as an office but still meets the requirements of the adu and the biggest concern is just the foundation options uh all through la marinda we have really bad soil hills flat i would not expect uh individual applicants to make the choice there uh hill a house on a foundation on a sloping site of three to one or greater falls under, the depth of footing falls under CBC section 1808.7.1, and I would not expect anybody to know that other than hardcore engineers and stuff like that, and I don't want to see people

Jump into it and then find out they have a huge additional cost which they haven't planned for because a lot of these are going to be cost-sensitive Thank you Thank you Commissioner Snyder My first concern in all ad use is their compatibility with the structures on the property and also the neighbors and all and as far as compatibility goes the biggest issue i've seen on them has to do with roof pitch uh they're not consistent with the existing house they're quite a bit flatter they're quite a bit more peak they don't go with it and they seem to take and imply you're stuck with one roof pitch would it be possible at all to take and allow as options a range of what roof pitches on all of these plans without facilitating, without going over the heights requirement, and without triggering formal review process. I think that's one thing I would like to see some discretion on. back to windows, I think windows is crucial. There's several plans I looked at and I said, I can see given the aspect ratio of the building that in many cases, a bedroom window would be better placed 90 degrees around the corner. Can that be done? that type of movement. What is allowed again, what isn't allowed? Can you change the size of the windows? To what extent are they variable? A list of that would be very, very helpful. And then going back to another point, the thing that caught my eye was the water heater. With the movement to tankless water heaters and all, are we forcing people to essentially have an outdoor accessible space for a water heater? And also back to the other one is I didn't see any space for if you have any type of central air or want to go that option, a place to take and put it. other than maybe up in the attic, which becomes more costly. And for something like this, I don't think that practical.

Okay. Any other comments? Thank you. Travis, I'm blanking on your last name, so Travis.

I would concur. with much of what was said uh... commissioner cass and schneider in particular i think flipping the format creates a lot of ambiguity for folks that are applying specifically the contractor because it'll propose a lot of gray zone if you get into a position where for instance you have I'm sorry, I forget the terminology. You clearly are the... Yes. And I don't think, to elaborate on Commissioner Cass's comment, people that are putting in ADUs, they're not looking to do more than add an office. And if they are, they're not going to put in a tile room. So it's kind of silly in my opinion for us to be considering a tile roof on a 5 to 700 square foot ADU. So I'm not sure that that's realistic. The color palette I do feel should match the house largely for the neighbor's benefit. I think if you see an ADU, if it clearly looks like it's a separate establishment or domicile, I don't know that the neighbor would love that. So it would be better off. think from a neighbor's perspective to match the house so it looks like an office and the appliances I'm sorry not the appliances but the HVAC and water heater issue if we get to a point where we're moving water heaters or HVAC onto the roof. Not water heaters, but HVAC. If you were to do a, what do they call it? If you were to move appliances onto the roof, that'd be really, really ugly. And so I think it needs to be mandated that it stays within the structure of the house. And I don't know how we accommodate it, But I would like that to be addressed in some way, shape, or form.

Okay, thank you. I'll just add a couple comments. Most of it's already been said, so I'll just kind of echo a few. I've lived in Lafayette 40 years, minus going off to college. I went to Campo, so Moraga friends. I didn't know anybody that lived in a Mediterranean style home. I think one could maybe count. So in addition to the cost, if we're trying to create or spending a lot of time talking about color and the importance that the color fits in, I think the style should fit in. So I support the other commissioner's comments on maybe a different style for the second option. But in addition to cost, just because it doesn't really fit in. The roof pitch, I like that comment. I think that's an important comment to take into consideration. I personally like the idea of having the option to flip-flop the plan because the layout of your yard, it might be awkward to have a portion. I just happen to be looking at plan two where the right side it kind of jets out a little bit that might not fit with the layout of your yard so i personally would like to see if that could be an option laundry my kids and i lived in a duplex downtown it was about a thousand square feet we did have the stackables and a tiny closet door it worked fine you were able to put it on top but maybe if it does stay inside maybe a shelf or something where people could have, just like to your point, laundry soap. I like the option of larger windows if someone so chooses. And in terms of colors, I think people paint their homes once in a while. Colors do change, but I do like the idea that it stays in the theme of the primary residence. Doesn't have to be the exact color, but in the theme would be nice. That's my thoughts. Are there any other additional thoughts anyone would like to?

I would take and also emphasize a comment made before is the ability to flip the plan, I think, is crucial. You don't want your living room facing the fence and the blank side if that's the logical place on your lot to do it. I think you need the option to flip it over so the living room faces the yard. And I would take in, if I was looking at these and couldn't flip them and add a certain I would take and say this wouldn't fly at all.

Yeah, thank you. Travis, did you want to say something additional?

Yeah, I would just say that perhaps on the other side of that coin, if you were to flip it and all of a sudden you're looking into someone's backyard or into their bathroom,

they should be entitled to know that before they flip it yeah i think so yeah i agree and i think what we're trying to do here is um keep in mind that this is just one path for people to pursue for an adu right so there isn't going to be a complete checklist plan set that matches every single person's need and i would expect your point that if a conflict comes up and the applicant is working with staff, that staff could guide them towards maybe a slightly better option, right, if they're intruding on someone's privacy or something like that, in terms of maybe the flip-flopping example. But I do appreciate all of the effort that the architect and staff have put into this, and I think Again, encourage people to do the survey online and chime in. Everyone here, do the survey and tell all of your friends because this is just, what, six, seven people giving our opinions and this is gonna affect everybody in Lafayette. Commissioner Mason.

Yeah, I mentioned this, asked Greg about this about a month ago, but I just wanted to make sure everybody's on the same page, is City of San Jose is considering the option of condominiumize ADUs. And I'm assuming that there's nothing in here that leads in that direction, because what we're saying now, if it's an ADU, maybe something different if the ultimate goal 10 years down the road is to condominiumize those units. Is that assumption correct?

I can't really speak to that point. I'm not sure what's going on with condoizing ADs.

You are correct that nothing in these designs which would be off the shelf and available to the public would allow them in any way shape or form to make them a fully separate saleable real property by condominium that that is not part of this effort. It would be an entirely different policy direction and legislative action that that council would have to take would have to come to the Planning Commission first unless the state Preempts local jurisdictions, but no Okay, it would we would maintain the status quo with respect to ad use and ownership on private property I just wanted that on the record.

Thank you

Yeah, one comment on the HVAC system. A single heat pump will heat 800 square feet. That would be the most economical way of doing it. However, a heat pump is going to have an evaporator unit that's going to have to sit outside. And with the sloped roof, like on the ranch, you can put a furnace unit, air conditioning unit. Again, you'd have an evaporator unit that has to sit outside. You can't put everything up in the attic. It doesn't work that way.

I just wanted to end by my last comment saying I really support the concept of the program being a streamlined way that people can easily get ADUs built quicker than going through a review process. And so I just want to say that I understand all of my comments on what about this and that are just keeping that in mind, yeah.

OK. Thank you. Madison, is that? Capture what you need.

Yes. Thank you all very much for your feedback.

Okay Thank you and What times at 745 we're dismissing the DRC members. Thank you Thank you both very much for coming We'll just give a minute here to transition Yeah Okay, so that was item 6A. We're moving to item seven, continue public hearings. There's none. So we're moving to item 8A. So this is new public hearings 8A, L04-26. And I will turn it over to staff for a presentation.

Thank you, chair and planning commissioners. I'm Craig Tambornini, senior planner. I'll be presenting this item to you tonight. This is a request for a land use permit to operate a community assembly and education facility at an existing office building at 3435 Mount Diablo Boulevard. The particular applicant's school name in this case is Tilden Preparatory School. so this project sites located in the downtown east of the downtown core in the east and commercial zoning district and also within the plaza district uh... area of the downtown specific plan insights on c one general commercial as as mentioned the sites currently developed with a three-story office building it's uh... A little triangular property, kind of here in green. It's a little hard to see on the slide, but it's a very narrow, uniquely shaped property. Again, the building was built in 1964. It is three stories. There's two floors facing Mount Diablo Boulevard and then a lower understory third floor that faces onto Golden Gateway. Currently, the site consists of office and personal service uses. It's gone through a number of uses over its history, but it was built as an office building and it's predominantly been an office building for most of its life. The land use designation for this area is intended to serve community and regional needs, including civic-oriented uses such as a school or the library located where this site as well is in the same zoning district. So the Tilden Preparatory School proposes to occupy almost the entire building, excluding a small 930 square foot space that's on the Golden Gateway frontage that houses an existing salon use. The school would operate in a, they'd serve middle school and high school students, and operate on a one-to-one tutorial type of a model. where individual students come in with an individualized lesson plan. They don't have a classroom assembly. It's more one-to-one teacher-student ratio. Tilden operates campuses successfully for a number of years now in Walnut Creek and in Albany. Their primary operating hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Students come throughout the day. The peak number of students they anticipate at this facility would be 15, with the goal of increasing that up to 20 students during peak hours. So that'd be 20 students, 20 teachers, plus some administrative staff. So just to give a little more context about the surrounding, this slide just shows you whether there's a nearby city parking lot that has historically been used to provide some parking for the site, though it's not connected to the site in any way. It's city parking. The library and learning center where we're at is located to the west. other uses around the site are quite varied. You have a senior living center and some car auto oriented shops across the street as well as commercial and office uses across Mount Diablo Boulevard, across Golden Gate Way. There's a lot of office contractor type uses. So it's quite an eclectic mixed neighborhood. And again, the intent is to provide use area for people to have businesses that do serve either the local community or the larger regional area. uh... as mentioned the project would occupy almost the entire building uh... the main level is is basically the second story level which is on mount diablo boulevard that's where most of the student teaching would occur upstairs would be administrative offices and and the lower level they would uh... reserve most of that area for bicycle storage or scooter storage for the students And then real briefly, with respect to pick up and drop off, since the site doesn't have a dedicated parking lot other than an existing three-space parking lot, the use would operate where students that are driven to the site would be most likely dropped off along the curb on Golden Gate. That's the expectation. That's the assumption. There are other facilities in Albany and Walnut Creek are similarly situated where they don't have a lot of, they're in a core downtown. And so they've been operating that way successfully at their other locations. And Golden Gateway does provide kind of an off the beaten busy path location for that to occur. We have the library here and other spots where children and students could be dropped off, those who don't actually take a scooter or bicycle to the school. So in terms of conformance with the zoning code, the site is previously developed, so it does substantially conform with the C-1 development standards. In some areas, there's existing nonconformities, but there's no building changes proposed, so there's no changes required as a result of this request for a use permit. Uh, we are, uh, presenting to you tonight a resolution that includes, uh, to a couple of actions. 1 is to, um. Revoke some existing use permits that exist on the property. There was a medical dental laboratory that existed many, many years ago. It established in 1984. It's no longer been operating at the facility. It's been gone for many years now. If not decades, and then, uh, mathnasium operated. a tutorial center here at this location in part of the building, not the entire building as this is proposing, just in part of the building. They had 10 students that they served at this facility on a similar one-to-one tutorial type of basis. They have since moved to the core downtown several years ago, but this site had a similar activity there that functioned without any known issues or complaints. The parking demand is one area that we had to look at to see whether or not this use would trigger a parking demand increase. Based on our current parking ordinance, since they do not have a seating assembly area for a classroom, they fall under the 3.3 per thousand parking ratio. which is the same parking ratio that would apply to the existing office personal service building use. So there's no net increase in parking, therefore they would qualify as a use that doesn't trigger any additional parking. And the applicant I know is here and can elaborate if you have questions on how that is managed but from a code standpoint, they qualify for, they're compliant with parking as well in our estimation. We have recommended some conditions of approval in order to make sure that the use kind of operates within a framework that we feel will continue to be compatible with the surrounding and with the building. And that would be to require that they continue to operate with this one-to-one tutorial model, since that has a lower impact on the site and regulates the flow of students to and from the site. They have asked for up to 20 students. We've agreed that that would be an acceptable maximum. uh... the hours of operation primaries on ninety six monday through friday that is uh... consistent with other downtown uses so it's consistent pieces in the downtown field that's acceptable consistently existing offices of the office use of the site One of the things the operator has done at other locations, and we've asked them to do here, is provide some instructions and written guidance to parents about pick-up and drop-off routines, so that that's something that they make parents aware of, that, hey, be cognizant of how you bring your students to the site, and then if there are some issues, that's something that can be modified and adjusted as needed if there are some conflicts that are occurring, that we can do a course correction if necessary. and that can be handled at staff level if it's manageable. then the uh... bicycle uh... parking storage there's there's a demand for bike parking uh... based on our code and when a new use comes in we do look for an upgrade if necessary they have ample onsite storage in the ground floor space but we are asking them to include a one two bike rack facility out in front of the site that's fairly standard in the current bicycle parking requirements and uh... Last but not least, they want to keep the existing ground floor tenant or allow the salon tenant to remain. So we've provided for that tenant to remain in this in this action. We did refer out to several agencies, which we typically do. We did not receive any substantial comments. We did receive a comment from the Fire Protection District letting them know that they will need to have an occupancy change review, which is common when you change occupancy classification. There's no anticipated significant building changes required, but they would be looking at exiting and fire planning and escape route planning and things of that nature. But as it stands now, we don't anticipate any substantial changes to the building that would trigger additional design reviews or other reviews other than a plan check by city staff for the interior, any interior work that might be changed in order to accommodate the use and meet health and safety standards. And then we had a comment from the Lafayette Parks and Trails and Recreation Commission, but it wasn't a substantive comment that required any change or any additional conditions. In terms of public comments, the applicant did submit quite a list of letters of support or I would say commentary as to the people who support this particular operation and would like to see it come to fruition here in Lafayette. There were no additional public comments in response to the noticing that went out. So with that, our recommendation is that the Planning Commission find the project categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to section 15303C, which applies to conversion of an existing structure into new use, and that you adopt the resolution to revoke the expired land use permits and approve the project subject to conditions. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions about my report. And again, the applicant is here as well to provide a presentation to the commission.

Thank you. So first we'll just do any clarifying questions for staff and then the applicant will present. Commissioner DiGiorgio, let's go down the line.

Thank you. Please clarify the plans on drop-off. I think I read that there would be a striped area, and I think that was on Golden Gateway. So that's, I'm interested in understanding why people would be dropping off at Golden Way, Golden Gateway, rather than on Mount Diablo Boulevard.

Well, they likely will drop off in both locations. It's just that staff's opinion was that Golden Gateway is less heavily trafficked, so encouraging them maybe to go that way would be preferred. But the applicant did indicate they expect that drop-offs would be at the curb, either on Mount Diablo or Golden Gateway. Okay. There is no designated drop-off location, so it would be along the curb.

Okay. Then the previous tenant that was required to have parking, was that at the gazebo lot, or was that the city lot, or was that across the street?

It was at the city lot. They leased spaces there. At that time, we had a different parking standard, and staff just did a calculation, and this site was already parking there, so they just made it a requirement that they'd continue to park.

And could anybody park there now if it's metered parking, isn't it? Yes, that's correct. Anyone could park there now. All right, thank you.

Commissioner Mason?

To follow up on Commissioner DiGiorgio's comment, question revolves around where the nearest handicap drop-off would be because I believe parking on Golden Gate Way would be a little bit steep to make it up to the upper floor. So where would somebody like wheelchair-bound be dropped off?

that's not something that i received any comment back from the county building and i did not have that conversation with the applicant my ex my assumption was that this might come up during their plan check and they have to provide it on site so i anticipate that that three parking space area that they have on the site on the west side east side of the building they might have to convert a space to eighty eight that's just based on my experience in the past With other projects that they may have to convert one of those two spaces into one single Ada space or they could do it on the street if they're suitable area on Mount Diablo Boulevard so those spaces you're referring to on the the downhill side It is on the east side of the building. Okay, thank you. Yes. So I'm not sure if that's, that hasn't been studied, so I don't know if that is feasible, and they may be looking at something on Mount Diablo Boulevard as an option, but I don't have clear. It will be dealt with, in other words. It will be dealt with, yes.

Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Snyder, did you have any questions?

Just one question. Maximum capacity is essentially for the operation here. Would that be 44 individuals, 20 instructors, 20 students, and 4 staff?

That would be peak operation capacity, yes. Yes, that's the expectation. That's what we're asking them to agree to. That's what they'd be agreeing to.

So when you did all the issues on parking and drop-off and all, did it reflect that?

So the parking ratio is based on some building square footage. So it's not based on, with the existing office buildings, office space uses, it's the same. The actual occupancy of the building, I don't have, but I can fairly be certain that it exceeds 50 at this point in time. So we just go by what the code standard is, which is the 3.3 per thousand square feet of gross building area. And that would be the application for a new building. They'd have to provide that. But it doesn't go it isn't based on actual how many people are actually in the building that can fluctuate with building.

So when you said that there's no additional parking requirements, there's 3 spaces there. So implicit is. 41 people are either going to have to be dropped off or used parking. Elsewhere correct? Correct. Did you do any analysis on the capacity of parking in the area?

I know there's the city lot. Not with respect to this project. I know that the city is doing their own parking study to look at downtown parking in general, but that wasn't part of this analysis. It wasn't required to be. It wasn't something that was triggered as a requirement for this project to move forward. They were just held to the current, typically with any business, we're gonna apply the parking standards in our zoning code and don't typically look at a case-by-case basis unless there's something unusual about the use that would be considered necessary to do that.

Okay, thank you. I do have a question for The land use permit allowing the existing tenant, what happens if that tenant leaves? And this might be a question maybe more for the applicant's team during your presentation, but is the intent that that salon will remain, but then what if that salon owner or worker chooses to leave, will it remain a salon or will it become part of the school?

It could become part of the school. They could absorb it as part of the school and then fold it in under the use permit if they choose to do that. But what this use permit allows is the option to lease that out to a salon or it could be an office. Any use that does not exceed the grandfathered 3.3 per thousand parking ratio.

Okay, so they wouldn't need to come back for a different type of approval.

No, it's not structured. That's currently not my intent to structure it where they'd have to come back if they want to absorb that space. But it is a fair question because I don't think that the use permit conditions speak to that. So we could modify a condition to state that it's okay to absorb that as part of the school if they don't exceed the capacity. I don't know that it's necessary, but...

Yeah, I think like any type of wording that would either allow them to absorb that space or allow another tenant to come in that maybe if they weren't a salon, but they were X or Y service that they would be allowed to be covered under the permit without needing to come back to Planning Commission.

Yeah, that is currently the way the condition's written is that, let's see, the existing 930 square foot tenant space on the ground floor level of the building may be leased separately for C1 district permitted uses that have the same or less parking demand. So it's meant to provide flexibility in the type of use. It doesn't speak to if it goes away, it would just be absorbed by the school. That's implied, but we could explicitly state that as well.

Okay, and so is the city, do they typically determine an allowed use based on the parking demand? Like, we just wanna make sure whatever use goes in is compatible with children and compatible with education?

So it would be based on a list of permitted uses currently in the C1 district, which are personal service and office, those are the most common.

Okay, perfect. Okay. My other questions are for the applicant, so. Okay. Thank you for the presentation, and we'll now open it up to the applicant team. You have 10 minutes for a presentation.

Hi, I'm Lori Kumar. I'm the director at Tilden Preparatory School. Very happy to be here and very nice to meet you all. I wanted to just share a little bit about our school and have you see a very short presentation just to give you a feel of what we do at Tilden. So I'll go ahead and play this.

Thank you. . . .

So I just wanted you guys to get a feel for what we do every day and what it looks like on campus. I have been with Tilden for over 15 years. I've been at the Albany location since 2011 and the Walnut Creek location when it opened in 2012. So I'm happy to answer any questions you have. But I just wanted to describe that we have students in middle school and high school. Our middle school cohort is really, really small, about 10, maybe 15 kids. So we're talking mostly high school students. I did an audit today before coming here just to get a feel for how many students we have for our Walnut Creek location. and we have 41 full-time students and 29 part-time students who are gonna start with us this year. 25 of those students are fully remote, so they are either in the area, not coming to campus, or they're outside of the state, maybe even in another country. That's very common. We have students who, of course, do come to campus, and students who are also hybrid, so they might come to campus for, let's say, a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and a remote Tuesday, Thursday. And I wanted to talk about that, because I know parking is on all of our minds. A day in the life at Tilton, it's very staggered. You're not gonna have the eight o'clock drop off or the two o'clock pick up. So when you were answering the questions for the commissioner, Craig, I was looking at thinking about the staff members who will be on campus, the 18 staff members, and about 50% of those people currently use public transportation, and my understanding is they're gonna continue to do that. In Walnut Creek, we are about a mile away from the BART station, and I think that's the same distance here in Lafayette. I haven't heard from parents about changes. I think one thing to note about the Walnut Creek location is we're right on North Broadway, which if you're familiar is that main street. And so we have directed families to drop off on Lincoln Avenue, which is a side street. And I am on campus all the time and hardly really see a parking issue. I think the other thing I wanted to illustrate while talking with you guys is that we're such a small school. The full-time students are different from our part-timers. So full-time students usually arrive between 9, 10 and leave. Some of them leave before lunch. Some will stay an hour or two after lunch, but that's one category of students and then we have our part-time students who come there's 29 of those right now who come after school so they have a school of record they leave their campus Whenever school is over and then they come to our campus afterwards so those kids are usually arriving around 245 345 and and will stay until six. My experience now that we have the remote learning option for those kiddos, they are usually not coming to campus very often. So those are a lot of the kids who are remote. That's all I have to share and happy to answer any questions.

Okay, are there any questions for the applicant? Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Hi, thank you for the presentation. And I appreciate that you've planned a bike storage in there. When I'm looking at, and that goes to the ingress on students, people with bicycles would have to go through, I think, two or three doors, and one of them is labeled two-way swing, but is that a difficult, will that be difficult for students to push through several doors to get to the storage location?

No, I've been on the property a couple times. I don't think it will be.

Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you for your presentation. We will take public comment, and then you'll have five minutes to respond to any public comment. One other thing. One question. Yeah.

So, earlier questions about ADU. Actually, when I first looked at the plans, I was considering that there was no elevator that I saw in the building. Is that the case, or is there an elevator?

There's no elevator for the building, and the level, I think it's the second level that we're looking at for instruction, is ADA compatible.

Oh, it is? Okay, thank you. Yeah.

Okay, thank you. So we'll open this item up for public comment. If you would like to speak on this item and you're in the room, please fill out a blue speaker slip. Look to staff if there's any comments for tonight.

We have three speaker slips for persons in the room. First is Emily Gaines, followed by Brian Gaines, and then lastly, Jeanette Salinas. So you're welcome to go to the podium. Make sure that the button at the base of the microphone is pressed and thus illuminated. And we'll give you an affirmation that we can hear you.

Hi there, can you hear me? Oh, yeah, you can. Yeah. Okay. Hi, my name is Emily Gaines. I'm here to speak to you today as a parent of a child who attends Tilden Prep. My son is just about to enter 11th grade at Tilden. Last year was his first year at the school. After a long and difficult educational journey, we are thrilled to have found a place where our son is finally thriving. Our son has autism and ADHD, but he's also gifted. There's an absence of schools in our area that work well for neurodivergent children with his learning profile. My son readily qualified for an IEP in public school, but the special education system in public schools has a hard time finding placements for kids who are too smart for the self-contained special education classrooms, but too disabled to function in the general education classrooms. That's where schools like Tilden Prep come in. When it became clear that the public school placements were not working for our son, I toured just about all of the private and non-public schools from Concord to Alameda, and Tilden is the only one I found that I felt confident could meet my son's learning needs. Since starting Tilden in October of last year, our son has found a place where he feels comfortable learning and is excelling. Tilden's one-to-one education model has been invaluable for him, as he struggles with peers but connects well with adults. He's gone from complete school refusal in public school to not missing a single day in the entirety of his 10th grade year at Tilden. He was earning Bs, Cs, and Ds in public school, and that was with intensive at-home support. But at Tilden, he has a perfect 4.0 GPA in college prep courses. He was bullied and felt unsafe at public school. In Tilden, he connects with peers through the student lounge and lunchtime social clubs, and he's formed several close friendships. We are very excited that Tilden is in the process of moving to Lafayette and of seeking certification as a non-public school, as that will enable Tilden to meet his needs even better and implement all the services that he was receiving in his IEP. Specifically, he'll be able to receive daily academic support from a credentialed special education teacher and mental health counseling. NPS certification will make sure many other disabled students like our son are able to receive the education to which they are legally entitled. Please approve the project so that Tilden is able to fill this important niche and continue meeting the needs of neurodivergent children in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the speaker? No, thank you. Next is Brian. And I did forget to say it's three minutes, so I know you were speaking really fast. You do have three minutes. Just no rush. Thank you.

Good evening. The risk of being too duplicatory in our statements. My wife and I are East Bay natives and have resided in Contra Costa County since 2008. And my wife has been teaching children in various capacities in this county since 2005, and I spent nearly a decade myself in post-secondary education. Since COVID, we have both observed a significant increased need for specialized education environments for many children across all demographic and socioeconomic strata, whether it be from a visible or invisible disability, mental health challenges, education-related trauma, or even problems at home. my current trade is a fire alarm service technician takes me all over the greater bay area puts me in close contact with school administrators and every single one i have brought up these observations with has agreed with my perspective including right down the street here at stanley middle school in lafayette elementary where i did the fire inspection just a few weeks ago and they're safe trust me Many of these students along with their parents and their private public school personnel have struggled to find a place where children can fit and as my wife described quite clearly my son has his own challenges and We found everything we found kind of sort of worked for a while until we found Tilden and Tilden has I mean, it relieved a lot of the exhaustion that we were experiencing as a family just by having these education struggles. So I just wanted to say that these children and schools, they fill a vital void that is in the available academic services that are offered to the community. Tilden just fixed it for us really in so many ways. He finished last year, as she said, with a 4.0 GPA and didn't miss a single day when there were tears and I was getting calls at work in the morning that he wouldn't go to school. And as a dad working all over the Bay Area, down in South Bay, hearing this is just, I felt so helpless. And I just want to say Tilden would be a very valuable benefit to this community. I strongly feel that. So thank you.

Thank you. Any questions? Okay, thank you. And Jeanette?

Hello, I'm Jeanette Salinas. I'm the head of school at the Walnut Creek campus and hopefully head of school at the Lafayette campus. Unlike Brian and Anna, I've been here for two years in the Bay Area. Previously, I was in Texas. And in Texas, I founded a school. It was an award-winning school. I worked with Houston ISD, which is one of the largest ISDs in the country, with the University of Houston, to create programming that was essential to meet the needs of students that weren't being met. And when I decided to make the relocation to the East Bay area, I didn't know that I'd end up in another school. And when I came across Tilden, I saw a pathway for me to support a school that already had a foundation that was servicing students that weren't getting their needs met. You know, like Emily and Brian spoke to the National Education Association. they have done their research to find that there's at least a million students that are underserved they're bright they're gifted they're talented but they have a learning difference or a disability there isn't a pathway for those students they don't belong in special education they don't belong in general education they need um a real wraparound approach to be able to support their needs. And that was my real draw to Tilden is that we're able to provide a service to support students that otherwise wouldn't be able to access learning that's built for the masses. And for me, it's not about me, it's about the students and it's about the community. We've been able to develop theater arts programming. This upcoming year, we were looking at having, hosting our theater arts program at the Walnut Creek Library, and now we're, hopefully we'll host it here at the Lafayette Library. So it's not just about the school itself, but it's also about the the school being a part of the community. I'm a part of the La Mirinda PFLAG. I was here for the Hello Lafayette gathering a couple weeks ago. And so it's really about bringing in the community into the space and also giving students the access point to be a part of a community where in so many other instances they haven't felt like they belonged. So look forward to being a part of the community in the future.

Thank you. Are there any public comments online for this item?

We have no additional speaker slips for persons in the room. There is one hand raised, Karen Hobbs, for this item. You are invited to speak for up to three minutes if you unmute yourself.

Yeah, hi, I'm the applicant and one of the founders of the school. And I just want to underline that we really hope that this is going to be our new home for our school, because we have very many students who come from Lafayette, Orinda and Moraga, who've actually requested us to be closer to where they are. But also, it's such a wonderful community, and we really see our school growing. thriving in the community. And just to underscore that parking and drop-off has not been a problem in either of our other locations. And the students don't drive, and a lot of the teachers do come by public transit, so I don't think that'll be a problem. And the gatherings you saw in the video, those are mostly the kids who are around at lunchtime. We often have, you know, Pi Day or a multicultural day or some kind of activity because they need a little bit of socialization time too. And then we have off-site gatherings like our graduation is at the Veterans Hall and has been since the second year, since 2007. We opened in 2006 and then we've expanded since then to have the two locations and actually there's another one in Sausalito and they haven't had problems either. So I just wanna say that I think we'd be a friendly presence in your lovely community and thank you for considering us.

Thank you. Any other speakers?

No other speakers online or in the room.

Okay, so now is typically when we'd bring it back to the applicant if there's anything you wanted to add or disagree with the public comment. Can you hear me?

Yeah, great. This is Lori Kumar again, and I just want to thank the families and Jeanette and Karen for saying what they did. I don't disagree with anything. I wanted to just highlight on a personal level what Tilden has meant to me as an educator, and I've been with Tilden nearly the 20 years that we've been open, and just incredibly proud of the community that we've built and the partnerships we're making, and as Jeanette highlighted, you know, really becoming part of the community. We're certainly part of the community at Albany, Walnut Creek, and very excited about Lafayette. And one of the parents was talking about our non-public school status through the California Department of Education. That was a multi-year process of seeking certification through the state. For those of you who don't know what that is, it basically acknowledges the quality of education we provide that we provide an education that's just as good or even better than what districts are able to offer this niche group of students. And currently have about 13 district contracts of districts all over the Bay Area who are sending students to us at the Albany campus. and that includes Lafayette and Akilani. So I just wanted to highlight that that's also part of why we want to be in this community and look forward to being able to expand that as well. Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you. So we'll close public comment, bring it to the commission. Any initial thoughts, Commissioner Mason?

uh... yes uh... personal welcome You have my full and unconditional support. I am a big believer in education. I believe it's the great social equalizer, and I believe that different people learn differently, and the more options we present to give them a way to learn that fits them the best, the better they are, and like I said, good luck to you. Thank you.

Commissioner DiGiorgio?

I agree. I'm happy about this moving to Lafayette. I think it's a great resource. When I was prepping for this, I did go back and look at the downtown specific plan and the plaza district designation acknowledges that there are inherent parking issues associated with this area. I'm comfortable with the way the staff has described the parking situation and that it will work.

Commissioner Snyder.

I'm very much in favor of this type of activity in town. I think we need it. One note I would say is we need to keep and make sure on the intermodal study and all to keep this type of activity in mind and the type of transportation they need for this type of facility when they take and consider options.

Okay. I'll say I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate the project. A lot of people come to Lafayette for the schools, and there's different types of schools. As you were presenting, I was thinking, wow, I wish this came to us six years ago. I know someone who's in their senior year personally who could have benefited from a school like Tilden Prep. I think it's great. I do wanna make sure that I know the timeframe listed in the staff report was typical school operations from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I do wanna make sure that there's nothing limiting if there were the random evening, I know there's not a PTA, right? But like a PTA meeting or a school open house or back to school night, Likewise, if there was something in the morning for some reason that happened to be one offs right before 9 a.m., I just want to make sure it's not too limiting in what we're approving.

So that's that's a very good point. And that's one of the things that's often hard to capture. But we did we do have a general. The zoning code allows us to consider subordinate and ancillary types of activities. In this case, I wanted to bring that to the forefront, so I put it in the condition one that subordinate uses are allowed, so it just says subordinate use, incidental and accessory activities shall be subordinate to the principal use. Now, it's kind of vague language, but the idea of putting that in there is to make it understood that staff can allow discretion to be flexible for exactly the types of things you're talking about, Chair Radnich. So it could be more explicit, but the idea that I think that captures it and it's consistent with our policy practice too.

Yeah, as long as the condition captures it, and I'm looking at it right now, if that's the intent under subordinate use, that's fine.

That's the intent.

OK, thank you. Any other thoughts or a motion? Not a motion, I meant a motion.

I'd be happy to make a motion. I move that we adopt PC resolution 2026-07, approving the project subject to conditions.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Let me just check one thing for a second, please, before we. We didn't need to add anything about being exempt from CEQA, right? It's not in the recommendation, so we're good.

My understanding is if your action is to adopt the resolution, that's included in the resolution, so you're good.

Okay, so we're good. Okay, thank you. So we're done with this item. It is 8.30. I'm going to request just a five-minute break, so if you're online or if you're in the room, the clock says 8.30. We're going to come back at 8.35. That's great.

Thank you.

Welcome back. It's 8.37 and we're going to resume with the Planning Commission meeting. We are on item 8B. I will just turn it over to staff. It's HDP 04-26 and a few others.

Yes, thank you. Good evening. My name is Stephanie's to rent this assistant planning director, and I will be presenting H. D. P. O. four dash twenty six and associate permits on behalf of senior planner R. Lee Cassidy. All right, the project site is unaddressed, but we're going to be calling it seventeen. 16 Release Valley Road. The site is 1.17 acres and it is zoned to R-40. It is also within the Hillside Overlay District. The project site is on the east side of Release Valley Road near Tanyan Road. So the project proposes a new two-story home on a vacant lot, and it does include a new driveway and other associated improvements for the proposed home. To distinguish between the, there's two sites associated with the project. I'm going to be calling them 1718 and 1716. 1718 is the northern lot. 1716 is the southern lot. So these photos show on the left side, they show the existing home that is located on 1718. 18 you can see the carport with the home behind it and then on the bottom picture that is the driveway the existing driveway that leads to that home on the right side of the screen you can see the clearing where the proposed home on 1716 is proposed as well as another portion of the site where you can see the steep hill going towards the rear of the property This site plan shows both 1718 on the top, on the northern side, and 1716 on the bottom, the southern portion. 1718 has vehicle access via a driveway that crosses 1716 and connects to Release Valley Road on the south side. This plan shows the existing slope on the site, which is sloped upwards towards the rear of the lot. As shown on the plan, much of the site exceeds 30% slope. As previously mentioned, 1716 is assessed via the driveway that crosses 1716. The applicant has explored access to 1716 from that existing driveway, but found that it would require whitening and that it would require more grading than the proposed driveway access, which will be described in more detail. So the project proposes a new driveway that will connect to Realist Valley Road on 1718 and will travel upwards and across 1718 to 1716, which you can see in this exhibit. The existing driveway is shown in a gray, actually, on your screen. It looks a little bit pink. The existing home on 1718 has a two-car carport that provides the required parking for that home. That carport currently straddles the property line and is partially within 1716. The project proposes to include demolition of that carport and relocation of the parking to be fully within 1718. However, the solution does require a variance as the location as the site is constrained by this existing slope. So the proposed location for the new parking is within the side yard setback. Staff believes that the findings can be made for the variance. This site plan again shows the access to 1718 that will remain as is from the existing driveway from the south. And it does also show the new driveway that is proposed to cross 1718 to 1716 from the north. This site plan also shows the building footprint as well as the other improvements associated with the new home. The total new impervious surface area for this property or for the project will be a little over 6000 square feet, most of that new impervious surface area will be for the new driveway with a little under 2000 of that being for the new home. We're going to get into the floor plans now, starting at the bottom. So the property does propose a basement level, which will be roughly 565 square feet with two rooms, basement north and basement south. And this will also provide access to the carport, which will be able to house two vehicles. The first floor has a little under 1,000 square feet of living area. Most of this is common living space, which includes the kitchen, dining, and living areas, as well as an outdoor deck that wraps around three sides of the building. The second floor is about 800, I'm sorry, 892 square feet. It includes three bedrooms, two baths, an office space, and a laundry room. Not moving on to elevations. The east side of the property, the east elevation will be essentially the main entrance. It has a two story presentation and you can see the main entrance to the residence in the middle of the bottom level. And this is also the start of the deck that wraps around to the rear. The west side that will be the most visible from Release Valley Road has a three story presentation. This faces downhill. This will have the larger portion of the deck. So because of the slope on the property, the building itself, the maximum height is 30 feet and it is 30 feet 7 inches to the rich of the roof. On the north side, it will also have a two-story presentation, but you will be able to see the deck, I'm sorry, the carport. This does have a shallow roof angled up away from the hill. The basement level is pushed down into the surrounding hillside and the basement, due to the basement being enclosed, it does not count as a story. And this is the south side of the building. Again, you can see the carport and balcony area here, and you can see the roofline as well. This is the section that cuts the, looking north, it's an east-west section. You can see a retaining wall on the left for the downhill side, and then the flat front yard area that will be on the uphill side. And this is front yard as in front yard for the home, not necessarily front yard as of what we traditionally think of front yard in front of the front property line. For colors and materials, the project is proposed to have stucco and a cinder and pashmina color. There will also be concrete, painted wood, yellow cedar siding, aluminum clad windows and doors, as well as metal and cable railings for the balcony. The there will be grading for this project as you can imagine with the slope for the building and for the auto core as well as for the new driveway and some additional grading on 1718 to relocate the parking area as well. The total grading for the project will be 1,414 cubic yards. About a third of that is grading for the home under the footprint. The other two-thirds of that will be grading for the driveway and for the parking relocation. Most of the grading that will occur will require off-hauling of that soil. The project also proposes drainage to new bioretention areas that will be below the proposed driveway. This site also contains trees, 55 trees were surveyed for the project. There is a total of 20 trees proposed for removal, 15 of which are protected. The 15 protected trees will require 17 required replacement trees of a large species. The current plans show 12 replacement trees They are shown to be a coast live oak 15 gallon. There is a condition of approval that will require the plans to be updated during the phase two to show the 17 trees to be replaced versus the 12 currently shown. The project also proposes landscaping. There's two planting pallets that are proposed with ground cover and perennials around the driveway and the side of the homes, shrubs and tall and short in the front yard area. All the plans are of native and low water usage and the impervious surface area and crushed rock surfaces are of the same color. This is a rendering looking from the northwest, looking southward onto the building. This project was noticed. Staff send out notice to all owners within 300 feet of the project. The notice was sent out for the August 3rd Planning Commission meeting. Notices were also posted at three locations nearby prior to that meeting. The meeting on August 3rd was canceled. The item was pushed on the agenda to the August 17th meeting for today, and there was no re-noticing for this meeting. The city did receive two public comments that were included in your staff in the staff report package. The project was referred out to our standard referral agencies, including Engineering, Central Sam, EdMUD, Fire, and Parks, Trails, and Recreation. Standard comments were received from Central Sam and EdMUD. Standard but extensive comments were received from Fire and Engineering. Staff has requested that the applicant verbally address Fire comments at tonight's meeting. Engineering comments, engineering has indicated that their comments can be responded to either during the phase two hillside development permit or during the building permit submittal. The project was evaluated under CEQA and found to be exempt under section 15303, new construction of small structures A for a single family residence. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission find the project exempt from CEQA and adopt PC resolution 2026 dash 08 approving the project subject to conditions That does conclude the presentation. I am available for questions. The applicant is also Here in the room and has exhibits to present to the Planning Commission Thank you, thanks for your presentation are there any clarifying questions for staff Commissioner Mason I

Yes, could you develop your reasoning behind the driveway access locations? It seems that you're trading more grading for trees, and I'm a tree person, so I was just wondering your thoughts on that.

Yes, thank you. Excellent question. Uh, from a staff perspective, we did ask the applicant. To explore the different alternatives, the applicant can detail the different alternatives that they explored in detailed, um, during their presentation, but essentially, um, what was presented to the city for review. showed that the existing driveway is not adequate to serve two residences and so there would be a substantial work that would be needed to the existing driveway to make it appropriate for serving two residences um due to the slope on the south side due to the length of that driveway new driveway on the north side on 1718 it requires less grading I'm not sure I saw any information regarding the number of trees that may need to be removed to widen the the driveway to the south but the applicant may be able to speak to that because my concern is on the downhill side removing the trees is a greater impact to the property across the street than you know the you know uphill thank you

Any other questions? Yeah.

So not shown in the initial picture of the property that was up here, there's a stairway that goes from the lower level all the way up near the top of the property. And I think I read that it was concrete in nature rather than wood. But if it was concrete in nature, then I assume all that water is going to be coming down the stairs. it gathered in a drain at the bottom, right, which would then go on to, would be incorporated into the drainage for the driveway. So is that, and I'll ask the applicant this, what's the reason for the stairway going all the way to the 1718's driveway? That was kind of, don't know if that came up in staff time. If not, I'll ask the applicant.

It may have. As you're aware, Arlie Cassidy was the person who reviewed the project, so it may have been brought up to staff and justified, but I'm not aware of that.

That's fine. I'll ask. The next question I had had to do with where the proposed driveway curves and comes out at Release Valley Road. There's a line, and I wonder if that signifies a retaining wall.

There is a retaining wall, so I'm not sure exactly which line you're referring to, but there is a retaining wall to support the driveway.

If you go back to the planting plan, just a few slides back right there, on the left-hand side, the green part on the top part, there's that line. So I was wondering if that's a retaining wall, and if so, how high is it? And we can get that from that.

That is a retaining wall. I'm not sure how high it is. I would need to look at the plans.

OK. Thank you.

OK. We will welcome the applicant. If the applicant would like to present, you have 10 minutes.

Checking.

So, Stephanie has the will show when I'm ready. Good evening chair and commissioners. Um, I'm Steve swearingen project. Architect representing the owners Tom, Mattie and Julian. First, I'd like to say thanks to Arlie and staff. They worked really hard with us. We went to a study session over a year ago. We got some good feedback. We were able to implement that. And it gave us lots of time to consider how we would best address the project. So they asked thoughtful questions, et cetera. And we're really happy that we've found a place to land so far. And this is our next step along the way. So at its core, this project is a proposal to construct a modest single-family residence on a long-established legal vacant lot. Along the way, the project also resolves several long-standing site conditions that were touched on by staff by removing the non-conforming carport, formalizing reciprocal access easements, establishing permanent parking for the north parcel, creating a circulation pattern that functions whether these properties remain under common ownership or our own separately and so my note here is is that both parcels are owned by the same family and they have been for a long time and the intention long term is that that would stay in in place however we also understand that things do change in family arrangements and lifetimes generationally and so there might be a situation where in fact each of these parcels is held separately by different Ownerships Another point I also want to bring to your attention here is in addition to the two parcels that are owned jointly and the the southern one that we're developing this home for is this is another southern parcel where in fact the the existing driveway Leaving release Valley Road crosses under an access easement that exists so there is There's a a relationship with the southern part with a more southern parcel and you can see that at a pointer is okay to shine a pointer. Right here. This this here is the southern parcel this here is the subject parcel and this here is the. 1718 parcel where the existing home is this is the proposed home and the driveway in fact leaves here and traverses this way. That's the existing driveway. From the beginning, our design objective was straightforward. Disturb the hillside as little as reasonably possible. That directive influenced nearly every major decision, the location of the house, within the existing clearing, Limiting grading preserving upper hillside retaining the majority of the existing woodlands and ultimately how access to the site was resolved. In that vein, I just want to also point one more thing is along release valley, which is here release valley road there is a very dense. Bosque, which was named Woodland somewhere, of protected trees, and it's quite dense. There's a lot of trees there, 50, 60 trees, all mature and dense. So staff report discusses the buildings, and then we move on to form of the house for a minute. Staff report notices our decision, which is because it's a steep site, we needed to find ways to create outdoor area. And you'll notice there's a deck on three sides of the house. We also wanted to locate the house in a way such that we could take advantage of some grading in order to access and have some outdoor space. With that in mind, we can't not talk about what we're probably all here to talk about, which is the driveway and how we're accessing this thing. Following the Design Review Commission study session, we went back and re-evaluated multiple circulation alternatives, and I'll take a minute to explain that in a minute with those diagrams. The rest of the consultant team and us ultimately reached the same conclusion, which was that while it seems like it makes sense to use the existing driveway, which feels obvious, adapting it safely and permanently to serve both residences would actually require greater grading, greater disturbance, and more extensive improvements than the proposed configuration. With that, we're happy to answer questions. also want to take a second just to appreciate that the neighbors spent some time to talk about and discover and relate to what we've proposed and we're excited to hear what they have to say and offer our our reasoning and our considerations with them Thank you, are there any questions for the applicant Commissioner Mason Yes

what would help and you're not alone in this is we get terms like greater you know things like that if you were to say that hey it's an extra double amount of grading you know something like that that can put it in the scope and you know we're limiting the trees you know we're going to cut down whatever 21 trees or mature you know that's a big number for us but to make the driveway work that's what you need. But if you were to say, hey, 21 trees versus another 1,000 yards of off-haul and maybe cutting out six mature trees uphill, that makes it easier for us to see. Because what's great for you or greater for you may not be the same for me. So anything that you or your consultants could add would help that a lot. Obviously, since it's dense woodland, you're not going to be able to replace those trees there. So, hey, this is the area we're going to plan on putting trees or something like that to help us get a better picture of this, of what's going on there.

Yeah, so it sounds like In a nutshell if I were able to distill down here were the the comparisons that we made in each of the Directions that we were considering that would be useful for you correct, okay? Yeah, so we do have some I You know what I think would be appropriate is that we share with that in a quantified measure for you. And I'm not prepared to show that today. I can have our civil engineer is online and he can speak to that in probably more than general, but as specific as I think would maybe tell the story for you might not quite make it. I just put that on the table and say, we might need to come back and share that with you.

Yes, at the end of the day there's nothing worse than, you know, from our standpoint is somebody says, well, this is what they presented and this is what we got. And for good or ill, as long as all the information is out there, then the chips fall where they may. And that's all that I was asking for. Sounds good. Thank you for that.

Did you have a question? Yeah.

So I was asking earlier about a, Um, the driveway exit that about having a retaining wall there. Can do you have a sense of how high that will be?

Yeah, there's actually 2 walls and Stephanie, if you could go back to that landscape image, that would probably be the easiest place to say it. So, we leave release Valley, and that's fine right there as well. We leave Release Valley, and I'm gonna point the pointer. Here's where we leave and enter the driveway apron, which is right here. This line here is the property line, and we make the right turn. There is a retaining wall along here to about, well, there's a retaining wall that's short here. It's about three feet tall here and arrives at about seven feet here. And we step up for a terrace, and there's another wall here. There's two retaining walls. So we have grade, we step up, and we step up, and the slope goes up that way.

All right. And the reason I was asking about that was because obviously one of the concerns is the impact. I don't know if you've read the letters from the neighbors, and I don't know if you talked to them about this, but I did a site visit, and I was trying to envision how cars would look and how cars headlights would be shining as they came down and made a turn. And so that was my question on is how much of the headlights at night would be shielded by a retaining wall. Annie, can you?

Yeah, I'd be happy to speak to that from here where we're standing. So we'll say that the car is coming downhill. So this is a good 15 feet above Raleigh's Valley. And so we're descending. and our lights are hitting this wall for the majority of the drive they're they're basically illuminating that wall as we're and and we're pointing downward and we're returning and arriving facing or teed up at release valley road oh sorry know what to do about that um and the the headlights are generally heading up and up or parallel-ish to release valley road though there's some shielding that occurs by that retaining wall if we call it shielding it would be that the the density of that light is helping the driver get down the hill and not go off the side of the driveway right and

I was asking about this because on the plans, it describes the planting in that area as being low-knot shrubs or anything that might help prevent light from shining through. And so that's what I was trying to get at. How much shielding is there?

Yeah.

All right.

Did you have any others?

Oh, and I thank you for the explanation on the family connection, and that explains the stairway, why you'd want it to go that far. Thank you.

I do have one question. So Commissioner DiGiorgio did make a good point about the stairs and the drainage off the stairs. I think it's great that a family can do this, but like you said, you never know down the road what's going to happen. So how is the drainage happening associated with the stairs? Where is it going?

OK, so the the the each of the landings of the stairs. There's a handful of landings and the final surface material actually has not been completely decided. Obviously comments like this lead us to think even farther. So we do know that we have drains in each of the landings that will be collecting along with and joining with all the other surface drainage and brought to the bioretention. areas which if you're not familiar with are located generally here in here so we're picking up everything coming down the stairs which is right there um we're picking up around the sides of the house we're picking this and we're picking up what's through here to here can i follow

Yeah, so I guess I'm not really clear yet on what my thought is. I guess just I want to make sure that if these were two separate properties down the road, that the downhill residence is protected in terms of any type of runoff that's coming from the driveway from 1718 that would be going funneled down the stairs potentially, right? to the landing and to the bioretention that's associated with 1716. I could see down the road if it was, if there was conflict, that that's a great thing to fight over.

Fair enough, yeah, fair enough. I don't think we're anticipating any new drainage that we aren't already, that isn't already being addressed by the existing driveway. And this, I'm speaking to, I'm gonna point right here, This is the top of the stairs, the general slope of this portion of the existing driveway trends southward, and then basically rides the edge of this here, and that's going to be reciprocally, it's reciprocally given.

Yeah, thank you. Commissioner DeGiorgio.

Just following up, what I was meant to ask you also is I had noticed that there were plastic drain pipes from 1718 that were coming down the hill that just basically, you know, drop onto the, you know, they're very common, right? Yeah. But those would then, do you have a plan for routing them underneath the driveway, or what's the plan for that?

Yeah, they're picked up in the backing of the new retaining walls that edge the uphill side of the new driveway.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Mason?

One more follow-up question about the drainage. Yep. I'm confused about the location of the bioretention plant at A7. The specific concern is water coming down the hill, hits the retaining walls, and you have the drain pipe behind the retaining wall. It would naturally flow downhill towards the driveway entrance. And I was wondering how that water is collected, is if it has to go back uphill towards the pond at A7.

I would like to let our civil engineer speak to that. He is online, and he can explain that, but what we're all following, water flows downhill and paydays on Friday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Understood. Okay. Thank you.

After public comment, we'll, unless he's given any more of the presentation, but after public comment, maybe that's when we'll invite him in, and if he can speak to that. item. So, queuing up your civil here.

Yeah, John, are you listening?

Okay, thank you. Okay, perfect. Commissioner Snider?

Yes, I have one question about parking, and in particular guest parking. Are on the north lot, two-car park, carport, but no other space there. What happens if they have three cars? Uh, you anticipate them parking on that, uh. Access road on the other property.

Yeah, so let me tell you tell you a story about this. So, uh, when. When this driveway was developed, it was the only driveway for the existing house. And that is a place where parking occurs. It's kind of normal and natural to arrive with your cars there. And in time, a carport, a non-conforming carport was developed. That will be removed so we can sustain what the zoning ordinance says. Hey, this is where you're supposed to have your parking, guys. And so we do anticipate people will park in that widened area. And it's generally flat, but tends to slope south. So visitors to 1718, the north lot, will have and enjoy access to 1718, and there is the possibility that people will park there who are adjoined to 1718. Likewise, 1716, the south lot parking for visitors would occur in the area behind the carport developed by the deck, which is gonna be in this area here. So this is the existing driveway coming up. People are going to park here. This is the existing driveway coming up. People are going to park in here.

So that road in addition just to be access is overflow parking in someone's backyard?

Yeah, for the occasional Amazon trucks that we all have and Cousin Sam coming by.

Okay, thank you. We will open the item for public comment. So now's your opportunity. If you haven't filled out a blue speaker form, please do. It looks like we have two currently submitted. So we'll just look to staff to read them out.

The first speaker in the room is Deborah Lockwood, followed by Dale Guidoux. I will ask him to pronounce his name when he arrives at the podium. Debra, you have three minutes, thanks.

Great, thank you. Good evening. My name is Debra Huzzak-Lockwood, and my husband and I live at 1711 Release Valley Road, across the street and down the hill from the proposed building site in the Hillside Overlay District. We are here tonight to voice our concerns regarding this project. Our primary objections focus on four key areas that directly affect the semi-rural nature of our neighborhood. The severe loss of privacy, the visual impact on lower elevation neighbors, water runoff risks, and critical road safety hazards. First is the critical issue of privacy. property sits at a significantly lower elevation, the project looks directly down into our daily lives. The orange story poles and flags are already visible from our front door, dining room window, and back porch. Removing 20 trees will completely eliminate the natural foliage screening we rely on today. Additionally, the proposed driveway entrance is only a few feet from ours, sloping down and away that creates a direct line of sight straight into our front entrance and side patio. At night, cars driving down this slope will beam their headlights directly into our front entrance. Second is the overwhelming visual impact. Currently, 30 trees screen us from the building site, but 17 of them are slated for removal just to construct the new driveway, as highlighted in drawing number two. Stripping away these trees creates a stark open view of our residents. We will no longer look up to see a protected natural hillside. Instead, we will look up from our front entrance and see a new home dominating our line of sight. Third is water runoff. The downhill slope of the new driveway will funnel rainwater directly onto Release Valley Road. This section of the road is not properly crowned. and slopes to the west, sending runoff straight towards our property. The drainage ditch on the east side is poorly maintained and already operating at full capacity. In fact, last Christmas, our personal driveway and foundation were flooded because the ditch was completely blocked with debris. Adding more runoff to this fragile area poses an immediate flooding risk to our home. Lastly, we face serious traffic hazards. Release Valley is heavily shared by motorists and cyclists with a solid double yellow line indicating an active road hazard. The new driveway configuration requires a sharp uphill turn to the south. Large trucks will struggle to navigate this turn, creating blind spots and dangerous safety hazards. We are deeply concerned that trucks will be forced to back up into our driveway to clear. In conclusion, the loss of privacy, Should I stop? You can just wrap up, thanks. Okay, yeah, it's in conclusion. In conclusion, the severe loss of privacy and overwhelming visual impact of this property run completely contrary to our hillside development ordinances. We ask the Commission to protect the neighborhood by requiring the applicant to address these privacy, drainage, and safety flaws before any approvals are considered. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to voice our concerns.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the speaker? Sure, yeah. Oh, one question.

Thank you. I walk down Louise Valley Road a lot and I go by your property and I also did the site visit so I could try and figure out how much loss of privacy you would have. When you're at night now, when you look out your front windows, are you able to see the lights from 1718? Because when I look at the orientation of your house, you're more facing towards the existing home across the street. No, I'm sorry, not 1718, it's the next one up. But so are you able to see a lot of lights far away?

When we're on our side patio, we can actually see the lights from 1718. Right. Okay. And the problem is it's the way that the proposed driveway is configured. And we've walked it up and down all the time. It's almost like their driveway will come down and around and just almost butt up right to ours. And we actually see the lights from Release Valley Road to some extent. And where... The driveway, those drawings are a little bit skewed in a certain sense. When we've been out there looking at the property lines, it's not, it's actually more, it's tilted a little bit more towards our property. So I don't think you can depend completely on those drawings. I mean, just from being on the ground and looking at the things myself.

Okay. And then the last question had to do with the drainage ditch was blocked and overflowed, is what I heard you saying. Yes. Was that ever resolved as to why that happened? Was that a lack of city maintenance? Okay.

So there's a small, there's an abandoned culvert that had not gotten cleaned out. But in addition to that, there were 200 feet of leaves, branches, and junk that the city had not cleaned out. And I think it had probably been one or two years that had not been cleaned out. And the impact, there's a lot of water coming down right now, as it is. And that ditch is completely full during big storms. And so what happened on Christmas Day, it was blocked for 200 feet, and we had already put sandbags up because we had anticipated the big rain. And the water was so strong, it actually moved four of the sandbags. So as a result, we worked with the city and we put in a berm. They've told us to keep the berm, I mean, to keep the drainage, to keep our eyes on the drainage ditch for the future and call them if there's a problem. But, you know, we're doing everything that we can, but right now that drainage ditch is at full capacity. Just with that one house up, well, actually, there's two houses. The house south of 1716 has a huge runoff, and then 1718 has a big runoff. And now we're adding a third house. And that driveway is immense, 6,000 square feet. The runoff, where is that going to go? It's going to have to go into that ditch. And we can't imagine all that water running down And the neighbors culverts. Thank you.

So the response, so if I'm clear, the response was due to lack of maintenance on the city side of the drainage.

That's what I heard. Okay. Thank you.

Great. Next speaker, Dale. Dale G. Dale G.

I live at 1702 Toyon Road, which is the property directly across from the new proposed site at 1716. And I've submitted some pictures when the story poles went up. There's actually a clear line of sight right to the story poles. And when you cut down the trees that would be proposed by the new driveway, there will be no blockage of the sight line to the house. And you'll just see a 30-foot monolith rising up. So our concerns were brought forward a year and a half ago at the first planning meeting and now I really haven't seen, in addition to what Deborah just said, that these were adequately addressed. The water drainage runoff, when you have the atmospheric-type river-type storms, those drainage ditches go up. And so when you have a large impermeable asphalt driveway there, another house added to that, it's just going to exacerbate. The water has to go into that drainage ditch, and it can't handle it. nobody's maintaining I personally gone and cleaned garbage out of that because I got tired of looking at wine bottles and gear beer cans and I Nobody addresses that problem Another concern is The 15 heritage trees and the 20 trees that are going to be removed to build the new existing driveway are going to block the line of sight, or that currently block the line of sight up to 1718, the existing site. Those will be gone. So there are some trees remaining along the road, but really the ones that, as you look up the hill, the larger existing heritage trees, those really help screen as well. They'll all be gone. So we're just going to see this big 30-foot monolith. So that affects the privacy and the noise the fact that there would be The balcony on the second floor well from what we would see second floor looking right down onto our living room windows so we would typically want to keep our Windows open at night to have air and so if they're out there you see lights and noise on the balcony It's it's gonna affect our privacy so i'd like to see these issues addressed and preferably i just feel that um locating the house further back up the hill there's the flattest part of that lot is just going to be left open for their yard why not use that for the housing side and and put it farther back the goals of the lafayette's hillside development plan is to preserve the natural look and feel of relis valley area the hillside slope and not to impact some of these issues that we've cited so i can see that the house payment is fine for kind of allowing access but it really affects the neighbors in an adverse way

Thank you. Are there any questions for the speaker?

Yeah, I have a question on the slope. Could you put the slope map up? Yeah, it's up to the speaker. I just want the map. There's one that has the slope 50%, 30%. Okay, you were saying there's a site where you can move this house back where would that be?

Could you please use the microphone so that the minute taker can capture your comments so You can see the proposed plot site you could move that further east up and and farther away from us and more in line with the slope. You know, design a structure that steps back and is more in line with the slope rather than just have this 30-foot monolith going straight up. So that's kind of our concern. It goes to kind of the whole style development on the house site.

Thank you for your comment and for the response. And I think it's something we'll be asking the applicant to speak to in their response, because what we're looking at tonight is the phase one application, so massing and siting, and this is an important item. I guess, are there any public comments online?

If you would like to speak on this item and you are attending the Zoom, please go ahead and use the raise hand function now. Counting down, allowing you to hit raise hand, three, two, one, seeing none.

Okay, so we'll turn it back to the applicant's team. You have five minutes for a rebuttal.

And was it Mr. Bailey who is your civil? Okay. Mr. Bailey, you are unmuted. Feel free to speak.

So can you hear me?

Yes. Yes.

OK. So when you're at the top of the driveway, if you take a look at drawings that were part of the submittal package, C2.0.

We're going to bring those up on screen right now. Continue.

Okay. So when you're at the top of the driveway, when you're in the parking apron, it's flat and it's at roughly 540 elevation. And then as you travel down the road, the first 10 feet, is 8% down and then it goes 16 and then stays 16. So from the first contour on the driveway at 538.95, I did a study where I had the lights from headlights on a car three and a half feet up from that position. And it's going to be aiming at that point 8% down. So the headlights are going to be parallel with the street or the driveway at that point. And they're going to aim, they're going to hit 531 in that straight line. And we have a retaining wall that's just over like at 530, where the center of the roadway or the driveway is. And so we're proposing to put shrubs back there. And I don't believe that any... And when you work your way to the next thing, okay, the next contour down is at 16% slope. So now the headlights have continued to diminish in elevation. Like, they're sloped greater downhill. And by the time you hit that, you're... lights are going to be at 521. And the retaining walls again at the second retaining wall around that curve. So you got one retaining wall immediately adjacent to the uphill slope of that driveway. And then you've got another one with a two to one slope between them that they're roughly They start at 2 feet at where the property line is, and they work their way up to 5 30 or 5 feet mid curve, and then they diminish back to zero when there's no longer a need for the second retaining wall. But with that said, none of the light down that driveway will aim over the top of those retaining walls. So And the driveway is the driveway. So if we were to come in, arguably, from the existing driveway, that driveway would still be at the same elevation. And so that's not part of the argument about this driveway imposing its light pollution on their front windows and doors. So that's one thing. If you take a look at C4.0 and 4.1 respectively, that shows all of the piping that goes on for collection of the water for all the stairs. And from the top of the stairs, there's virtually no possibility that water's gonna come from the upper driveway assembly. Robert V Jones, down that down those steps and in any kind of measurable way and create an overrun or an issue and every landing is going to be picked up and then collected in the. Robert V Jones, The. the bioremediation planners, and then it's going to be massaged in that, and then it comes out a dissipator. So what that does is it creates a time delay. And then the water will come out across the slope and then down the slope, and then some of that will percolate back into the soils. Only some of it, I imagine, is going to Some of it is going to go into the ditch. And it's been kept those those dissipators and bioremediation containers have been sized appropriately for this site. And as far as pushing the house back to that flattened area that was described by the other homeowner, that's not a flattened area at the same elevation that has been created 10 feet up from the level of what the parking apron is going to be. So if we were going to go back to that area that was created, the house would now be 10 feet higher. The driveway would be more of a concern now because it would have to get 10 feet higher. And now you're looking at a house that is more likely to impose itself with respect to light and have a whole set of height issues related to this new position.

Thank you. Thank you, John. I am going to cut you off because you're past the time limit, but I would still like to ask you or your partner in the room here, One of the questions that did come up in public comment was exactly what you're just starting to touch on, which was the slope and the flat area. I was not clear from your explanation of what part really is less than 30% slope and if the residents could be shifted east. So I'm gonna ask like one minute, if someone can summarize it in one minute, why this building is being proposed where it is, rather than being, or can it be shifted east? So I see your buddy in the room is raising his hand to speak. And I apologize, I believe we're first in with Steve. Okay, Steve, do you mind coming up to the podium? Thanks.

Okay, so our decision making for the position of the House uphill downhill in that in that respect or East West was to ignore it was to enable a well, first we can only build where it's the flattest. There is a flattened area and we're locating this approximately back of the Western most edge. So, if you look at the. If you look up at the section, we have, this is Relize Valley Road right here. It goes up greater than 30%, and this is the general line. We're carving back in order to provide house here with a wide enough space for our driveway, and then our carport area, basement, and then this darker image here is the house beyond. And we are creating a flattened area here in order to have some outdoor space that everyone enjoys around their house. And then it goes back uphill. So in order to, if we were to move the house forward towards release Valley road, we're going to lose our space for parking. If we, if we push our house back, we lose some, um, uh, outdoor flat space. And we start having to grade that to create that kind of space.

Okay, thank you. Okay, thanks. Public comment is closed. We'll bring it to the Planning Commission for discussion. Thoughts? Let's recap what we are looking at tonight. Well, let me just get to it. So tonight, Stephanie, is it true we're looking at the phase one application or are we looking everything?

We're only looking at the face one. Okay.

Keeping in mind, though, I would like to ask the commissioners that since we are looking at phase one, which is massing and citing. There were also a lot of good comments that were provided tonight that aren't necessarily massing and citing, but they're really good public comments and commissioner comments that I would hope the applicant would take into consideration as they move through this entire process. because as everyone knows, it's not just one application, everything's independent, right? It really does tie it together, no matter if it's a tree permit, a variant, design review, grading permit, so.

Initial thoughts?

Commissioner DiGiorgio.

Yeah. When I first looked at the project, I also had questions about why couldn't they tie it into the existing driveway, and I understand what the applicant is saying. And the second part then was, is there gonna be sufficient privacy for the neighbors? And I think with the way that it's been described with the walls around the driveway, I think that will minimize the impacts to the neighbors down below. I also think that the second phase is where they're gonna be addressing the culvert and the transition. Is that correct? Will that be done where they build the driveway over the ditch?

So phase two will have more detailed engineering. That's right.

And so I'm leaving it up to that portion to make sure that it's wide enough that it won't get blocked and so forth and cause damage to the neighbors. From a massing standpoint, the massing, I get it. And the site location, I'm comfortable with. I don't think that, based on walking up there, I don't think you could push it back without a lot of extra grading. And so I'm okay with the way the project is proposed.

Thank you. Commissioner Mason?

One, I'm not particularly worried about the drainage. The drainage is what it'll be. It'll always work out. Two is, if the driveway remains where it is, I'm assuming, since they're both cooperatively co-owned, is that the applicant would be willing to put the replacement trees on the uphill side of the driveway at 17, which eventually will help the views. I still would like to see a little bit more evaluation of the driveway on the uphill. As I look at the sections, I could see, because there are in, have these in Orinda, basically instead of just a fill in the grade, basically a little bridge and do a reverse floor print like you have in the marina district of san francisco where you have bedrooms on the lower level and all the common areas which come off the bridge on the up i don't know if that's possible but at least i would like to see that and that wouldn't change the i'm happy with the location of the house that wouldn't change that uh... but prior to coming back i would say at least investigate it I know that there were a lot of fire comments. We didn't touch on those today. And I'd like to make sure that those are adequately resolved before we come back. So it saves us from asking all the questions again. Thank you.

Would you mind explaining a little more? I wasn't following the bridge idea.

If we can go back to that.

If we can go back to the second section.

Commissioner Mason, would that mean approaching the house from the existing upper driveway?

The existing upper driveway, which puts that on the level of the upper floor. And so, like, for example, the Marina District in San Francisco, what they call the reverse floor plan, which is the common areas are up top. And the bedrooms are down below.

Yeah, I think we heard the applicant describe that the existing driveway is inadequate to serve two homes. So notwithstanding the design of the home itself.

But again, the same question remains. It's inadequate. and it would take greater grading to make that work. I wasn't sure if that meant greater grading to get it down to the pad level of the house or greater grading because it just wasn't wide enough or whatever if i'm accessing up to the upper upper level and i'm not saying that it would work out or we might be back at the same spot but given that we're cutting down whatever 17 mature trees i'd at least like to have that investigated since it doesn't necessarily affect the placement of the house, the size of the house, or anything like that, other than maybe creating a bridge driveway rather than fill in and the bridge would be cheaper. I don't think that that is prohibitive of a phase one discussion. But when it comes back, you know, hopefully you will have some answers so we don't have to ask the question again.

Well, let me ask staff, has this come up?

It has. I had a conversation on exactly the topic of the driveway, and it is the second thing. It is widening the driveway to get up to the top. But your comment is heard. They have studied it. They can speak to it in greater detail and explain it further in their phase two. That's perfect.

Okay, perfect. Commissioner Snyder.

I see at this phase two issues. One, the location of the house, and the second, the driveway. And I think that's what all of the discussion is focusing on. The driveway, there's 2 options. I see 1 is coming in like is proposed. Directly in the front, and the 2nd is widening it up in the above. And if you widen it above, you're having 2 houses use that for property turnaround space. Carport up there and all I think that's going to push the house forward. more than uh it is now and it'll be more of an issue than it is where it's sitting right now so the thing is is the option of moving that removing that driveway in the front i think is a second best i think the best option is to have that access up front going to the back Doubling that putting a carport up there and all I think is going to create more problems than what they're doing right now. Now, with the driveway in the front, can you move the house a little bit to the back? That. I'm not convinced you could make a little bit of move, but you're dealing with a limited amount of space there, and I would be concerned about a drainage issue there of all the hard impermeable surfaces of that driveway there going right into the house. So, I kind of feel that there is no clear option. It's a lot that we're not talking about a subdivision. It's a lot. That is. Everyone should have been aware of is going to be developed at some time how to do it in the best. Way, which has minimal impact and is reasonable. And I'm kind of leaning to where the comments I heard there, because I think the siting's about right on it, and I think you're going to have to do a front driveway on it.

Thank you. I'll just say that I'll echo my commissioners, fellow commissioners' comments, stressing the themes of pervious surfaces where possible, privacy landscaping where possible. I think the massing and the siding are, I think the massing's appropriate, and I think the siding is the ideal location given the constraints of the lot. So if there's anything additional, please add it, otherwise I'll look for a motion.

I would just like to thank the applicant. I know this is a tough site and a tough project. from my other life, I always tell everybody the same story, just because we ask questions doesn't mean we necessarily disagree with you. It's our job to ask questions so that everybody has the most information possible. And again, I thank you for your patience on this. I do have a question for staff.

Yep.

So if staff can, I didn't bring a printout of this portion, but how would the neighbors berm be protected from trucks backing into it and so forth. That's a private matter. In other words, in the letter, the neighbor had concerns that big trucks making the turn would back over into their driveway and kind of destroy the new asphalt berm. Now normally, after construction's finished, they have to put it back to the original state. Is that the case here also?

Yes, thank you for the question. So when there is construction, generally construction trucks, construction workers are not allowed to enter other private property. That is just commonly known. Accidents do occur. So if there is an accident, something that happens and there is damage to private property, it would be the responsibility of either the contractor or the property owner for this project site to fix the damage on somebody else's private property.

Okay. Thank you.

Should I make a motion?

Okay. I move that we approve HDP 04-26, GR 04-26, TP 09-26, and V 07-26, which include the hillside development grading tree and variance permits shown on the plans and subject to conditions of approval.

Can I do a friendly amendment?

Please do.

Since you did not mention the R-40 zoning, I would just recommend that the motion just be revised to do staff's recommendation, which is to adopt PC resolution 2026-08, approving the project subject to conditions.

I think that's a much easier way to say it. Thank you, please I go with that. Thank you.

Okay. Is there a second second all in favor aye all opposed the item does pass and there is a 15 day 14 day I meant to say 14 day appeal and You can contact staff if you would like to go through the appeal process. I

And if you would like more information on appealing, visit www.lovelafayette.org slash appeal.

Perfect. Okay, so that item is done. We are going to move on to item nine, other business, 9A, ARC volunteer for Friday the 28th. I feel like this is, for Vincent and Steven, joint, I could probably do it.

We're happy to have you volunteer the commissioners who are not present.

Why don't I take this one, but we'll put them on the hook for the next one.

Very good. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay, and then 9B, Lafayette needs volunteers. City's accepting applications to fill vacancies on the commission. If you're interested, you can please submit a completed application to our city clerk, and you can also find more information on the city's volunteer webpage. Everything is at lovelafayette.org slash different words, depending on what you're looking for. um item 10 commissioners reports anything to report okay item 11 planning director's report oh wait just kidding item 10 commissioner's report uh one is i know everybody's aware my wife passed and i want to thank everybody for cars the outpouring and support during that time so thank you We're all, yeah, we're all thinking of you and your family. On that note, sorry, item 11, planning director's report.

So if you would like to volunteer for the city or explore what's potentially out there, visit lovelafayette.org slash volunteer, and there's information on the volunteer opportunities. Separately, I think two meetings ago, perhaps, we had on the agenda, when the meeting was canceled, the M3. So the M3 is a multi-mobility facility. Multimodal mobility study which is being undertaken Largely headed by Patrick all your transportation program manager and there's representation from a few different commissions and members at large from the community and My understanding is that the City Council went ahead and made appointments To that committee at the a week ago. I think I was not in town, but I think that that did happen. And so congratulations, Chair Radnich, you- I was appointed. So you'll be able to attend those meetings, thank you. So it's probably not as big a lift as GPAC was, but those meetings will be happening throughout the next several months and you'll be reporting back to the Commission this commission under the commissioners reports and they're open to the public and anyone is welcome to attend So look for those in the weekly roundup and the and the city calendar That's I just say that I'll be glad to help if you need a backup on that I Will probably be leaning on you.

Thank you. I

That's all I had, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, and that's it. 9.50, the meeting is adjourned, thank you.