Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

. Recording in progress. Madam chair, it's 530. We may begin at your convenience. Good evening. I want to welcome you to the Tuesday, January 22nd, 2026 regular meeting of the Palm Springs Planning Commission. Can I have a report on the posting of the agenda, please? I'll call. Would you like to do roll call first, Madam Chair? Oh, I think I might do that. Yeah, everyone's here, but we can make it formal. Chair. Here. Vice chair. Allen. Yes, Commissioner. Baker here. Commissioner. Miller. Present. Commissioner. Murphy. Present. Commissioner. Rottman here. Commissioner Morrell here. And Alternate Hernandez here. Just here. Okay, now, can I have a report on the posting of the agenda, please? Yes, Madam Chair. The agenda was available for public access at the exterior bulletin board of City Hall and online by Thursday, January 22nd at 9 p.m. in accordance with our policies and procedures, can I have a motion to accept the agenda? Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. This time has been set aside for members of the public to address the Planning Commission on consent calendar and other agenda items, and in items within our general Subject Manager matter jurisdiction. Please note that we can't take action on anything that hasn't been agendized. Each speaker will have three minutes. Public

testimony be may be offered at this time or the time of the hearing. Looking at the agenda. Have no public hearing so that. But I think we would take testimony from members of the public at this time or when the item comes before us. So if there's anybody in the public who would like to testify at this time, you're welcome to do so. Looks like we have a lot of applicants here, but I'm not sure if there's anyone else in the audience that would like to speak now, or if you'd like to follow the staff presentation on each item. We have no one online, Madam chair. Thank you. I'm going to close the public hearing. Before us is the consent calendar. It's the approval of the minutes of January 13th, 2026. Is there a motion to accept or are there any amendments? Motion to approve the minutes. Second, all in favor? Aye, aye. Okay. The next item before us is for a it's a new business item. It's a request by Sister City Investments Inc. for a major development permit to construct eight detached single family residences on previously subdivided parcels on a 2.53 acre undeveloped site located at 2700 East Alejo Road, zone R1. See section 12. This item has come before us previously, and I'm wondering if there's anyone

that needs a staff report on this item, or can we just go to discussion? If anyone would like the staff report. Seeing no one. Thank you. Noriko is. Does anybody have any questions for staff on this item? Commissioner Rothman? Yeah, in the application, they talk about making a couple of the houses have the option of adding the third garage. And typically for a track map, you have to define your curb cuts. Is that right? And so I'm wondering what what option how they, how they handle that. You know, expanding from one from a two car garage to a three car garage, if it's set up for a two car garage driveway. I think that's a question for the city engineer. Good afternoon. As a condition of the track map itself, the curb cuts themselves are not required to be shown on a map when they're subdividing land. Okay, on the tentative map, it's a good idea to show sometimes kind of like where the house is going to lay out where the drivers are going to go, so you make sure you don't have any violations of the setback requirements for a driveway to the property line. In this case, as long as they meet that separation requirement, there's nothing further that we would need. They would just roll that into their encroachment permit when they're actually doing the work. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. Commissioner Morrell, I had a question for the owner,

actually. So why don't we wait? And if if the if the applicant is here. Okay. Any other questions for staff? I do have one question, and I apologize for not letting you know ahead of time. I think you might know the answer or Christopher probably would. Regarding the short term rental ordinance for these units that will likely have an accessory dwelling unit as well as the main house, are they allowed to rent them separately under the short term rental accessory dwelling units are not permitted to be in the short term rental pool, so you can rent them for 28 days or longer. And that's something that's encouraged under EU law. But state law changed January 1st such that it's they're prohibited from going into the short term rental pool. But we actually already have that in our local ordinance for several years. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. No other questions. I'm going to open the hearing on this. Is the applicant here. Would you come up? You have ten minutes. Good evening I'm Neil Curry from ID 67. I represent the owners of the project. We've been working on this for two years now and have gone through many, many revisions on the land. I did want to just reply to. I think your question regarding the garages. I think that we actually decided already to which lots will have a three car garage. Did we do? I think we did. And so those are all going to be pre predetermined now. I think there was three of the eight homes that would have a three car garage and the rest would have two car. And that was just due to the lot allotment and the size of each lots as they

got subdivided. So that was that question. I've worked with this. I've been working in real estate for since 2008 here in the Valley, and I've done lots of development work with major developers here. This particular family is the family who developed Kaptur Court. I was the one that worked with Hugh Kaptur on designing those homes, and it's the same family that's developing. Apollo. So they develop a really great product. They're all self-financed, really well established folks that build a great, great home. So the Adu that you mentioned, we actually designed that Adu to either flip towards the backyard pool area and that Adu would be used as a next gen suite. It could be used as a home office, a mother in law apartment, something like that. And then the identical Adu is designed to flip towards the street with a private patio, and that would be used for additional housing to rent long term. So that was the concept behind it. And but there's a great need for single family, single level in the valley right now. Everything that's being developed is high density and multiple levels. And we believe that there's a great need for this particular product. We did have the. UPS and the airport to try to mitigate. So we've designed the houses to try to mitigate noise from the airport and noise from the UPS trucks, keeping everything towards

the backs of the homes with limited exposure to the streets just for noise. So but anyway, we're very excited to get going and we hope that we'll get approval. Any questions? I have to see if there are any members of the public who want to speak first, and then please come back for questions. Do we have anyone? There is one member of the public online if you wish to speak on this item. If you could just use the raise hand feature on zoom and we will allow you to talk. And I'm not sure if I don't see anyone else here. There. No, Madam Chair, there being. No no one else. If you'd come back up, are there any questions of the applicant, Commissioner Morrell? Yes. The eight houses. Is your plan to build all eight or to build them as you go into contract? Our plan is to build in three phases. So three three and two two. Okay. Yeah. And if you have a schedule for that I mean our well depending on when we clear Architectural Review which I believe we're going to if you guys approve everything we are on that next month's schedule. As soon as we get architectural Review, we're ready to go and pull grading permits and start. Great. But there wouldn't be any delay. If you don't have houses sold, right? You just continue. You would just continue building. Even if, say, you build three and they're not selling, you just keep going. Plan is to build the first home on the corner of

Alejo and Juanita as the model home, and then continue. Just continue out. But we anticipate from the need that the Valley has that will sell fairly quickly. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? Commissioner Brotman? Yeah, I just want to clarify about the garages. So on the site plan that was submitted, there were four lots that had three car garages and four lots that had two. Is that is that correct? That's the same. That hasn't changed. It was it was we ultimately we were going to leave that as an option. But it just seemed easier to just preplan them according to which lots were best suited for them. Okay. All right. I'll I'll save my other comments for later. Thanks. Okay. Any other questions of the applicant? Did you consider any use of color? We did. The color palette was should have been included, correct? Yes it was. It's perhaps I misstated there was a color and it's all grays and whites. Yeah. There's no pretty much dictated to us by planning. Okay. No other questions. Okay. Thank you so much. The hearing is closed. Matters before us. I want to make a motion to approve. I don't know if anybody has any issues. I don't know if there's a second and then if if people have comments or issues, I'll second. Do we

have a motion and a second. Any no comments? No. No referrals to to Arc. Okay. I would like to just see if anybody else would entertain the notion. It's in a very industrial area. As we know. We debated previously when the track map came through, which is. Not designed for esthetics. It's industrial. And just that area has some of the great mid-century homes with and the typically they've got a little pop of color, even if it's just the front door or something going on. And I would like to suggest that the we ask the Architectural Review Committee to look at some. Use of color. That's friendly to the maker of the motion. Is it friendly to you? Commissioner Rothman? Do you have any comments? Yeah. So I made some notes about I, I thought in in relation to this houses across on Juanita that this is, it's it's pretty almost too consistent in what's being proposed and and my concern was that if they all become three car garage houses it's really going to be consistent. So I'm glad that they're keeping it with at least some variety in, in that I personally, I think the heavy the dark color that's used on the framing that frames across the garage and the entry is a little strong in contrast to the the white or off white or gray light grays

that they're using. So I might suggest that ark look at the colors, whether it's a pop of color or whether it's just kind of evaluating the contrast, because I found that almost a little bit too stark. And then the other thing is maybe they alter that treatment a little bit so that there is a little bit more variety in the Front Street elevations. Okay. And that's agreeable to the makers. That agreeable to you. Any any other comments, Chris? Are those two clear enough for you? Yes, they will be when we rewatch the video. Yes. Yeah, I we normally don't, but sure. Come on up. I actually have three profiles. There's one for the three car garage and then one for the Adu that has the. Sliders facing the pool and one for the Adu facing the street. So there's actually three rooflines and three profiles. And I totally get the, you know, we've done many, many homes and projects here in Palm Springs. And I've always used pops of color and use of color. I'm very conscious about that. But because of the way that the homes were designed, especially taking into consideration the the homes that the four homes that face commercial, we really had to try to mitigate the constant UPS traffic going from there. So there's really the facade of the front of the home is very similar to some of the

facades that they've built on the new constructions in South Palm Canyon, where they had a lot of traffic, and they basically the front is the houses. The reveal of the house, I guess, doesn't necessarily show a front of a house like as normal. So the front doors are all behind the breeze, block walls, just to try to mitigate some of the sound and traffic from there. But I just wanted to let you know that there were there are three roofline profiles. I, I might suggest then even changing the breeze block to a different pattern. Or maybe it's a vertical slat or something, just to give a little bit different. It's a minor change, but it's enough. That would give enough variety that it would make it a little more interesting. So okay. Thank you. So that is something we'll refer. We'll add that as a referral. Are we still holding the same comments in terms of color or just variety? I think that's what I think. We we still want them to look at color and we still want them to look at variety on the, on the, the frontages so that there's some differentiation. I think the variety is important. I know the homes you're talking about on South Palm Canyon and they're very nicely done. And they but there's no two alike. So I would encourage use either through materials or color of some more interest. Do we want to do you want to reword what we're sending. Okay. Do you have enough Chris okay. Motion motions made. Can you call the roll please? Yes. Commissioner

Baker. Yes. Vice chair. Allen. Yes, Commissioner. Miller. Yes, Commissioner. Murphy. Yes, Commissioner. Rothman. Yes. Commissioner. Morrell. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Good luck to your head when this is your screen. My screen is doing it. Oh, mine is. Mine is doing that too. They put some. Flickering again. Yeah. Do you need something to put over your screen? It. We've been told that it's a bigger fix for the public. Our screen, two of our screens are flashing and it's very disconcerting. Let me see if. Do you want to. Maybe this this could help you. Okay. Okay. Excuse me for that. Moving right along. The next item on our agenda is the request by Pacific West Communities owner for a major development permit to construct 115 100% affordable apartment units per section nine, 3.2, 3.17 of the Palm Springs zoning code for a density bonus on a 4.4 acre undeveloped parcel located at the northwest corner of West San Rafael Drive and McCarthy road. Zone R2 staff report, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Glenn Miller, Associate Planner. In looking at this project, your scope of the review is a major development permit. Like you read into the record for 115 100% affordable apartment complex. You're looking at the site plan, the mass and scale, and then also

approving a density bonus. This project is down the street from 100% affordable project that you reviewed a few months ago at 305 West San Rafael. There's been some discussion of concentration. We'd like to say that that is not part of your planning commission's decision. If there's an overconcentration of affordable housing units in an area, there are projects just adjacent to City Hall here along Tahquitz back in the 70s that were three buildings that were built that are workforce housing. So it's not uncommon in the city to have lots which are vacant, that have workforce and affordable housing components to them. So looking at this project, the red box is the location of the proposed project on the corner of McCarthy and West San Rafael Drive. It zoned MDR. Sorry, general plan is MDR, which is multifamily residential and the zoning is R-2, which is also multifamily residential. So adjacent to it, our planned development districts, which are existing condominium developments and apartment complexes, there's industrial uses to the east and then the navigation center to the north. And we'll look at that in just a second. So here's an aerial photograph showing these adjacent uses. The navigation center is to the north, which is a city owned project. Palm Villas to Palm Villas one and then another apartment complex to the east. The proposal is on 4.4 acres. Once you remove street dedications and a large drainage facility that is to the north, which separates the navigation center from this project. So there are five buildings and there are one, two and three bedroom

apartments, 56 one bedrooms, 29 two and 33 bedrooms. The project meets the standards of the R-2 and relative to setbacks, and the building height is 30.3ft three stories and the density is 22.6 dwelling units per acre and 178 parking spaces provided as part of the state meditated mandatory density bonus request for affordable housing units 100% very low, low and moderate income units. They're asking for an increase in building height of 11ft to a. They're allowed to go up to 35. They're asking for 30.3. And the density is an increase from 15 dwelling units to 22.6. And looking at the site plan, San Rafael is at the bottom of the slide. McCarthy road is on the right. The buildings are situated fronting both both streets, with the center building and the recreational center and the parking that is surrounding the island, which is the building three and the recreation center. And then the drainage area is to the north, separating the navigation center. One of the requirements for the R-2 zone is that 50% of the lot be considered as open space, and this exhibit shows the green area, which excludes the building footprints and the parking itself. So it does meet the requirement of a 50% open space. There's a grading permit that shows street improvements that will occur along McCarthy Road and West San Rafael Drive, which includes road widening, sidewalks, curb and gutter. There are some

existing sidewalks that are along San Rafael, but there are some that are not there, and this will complete the street along this section of San Rafael. And then McCarthy, if you took a right out there to look today, there is dirt and there are people that park parallel or I'm sorry, pull in parking along here. And those are either residents that are adjacent or folks that are visiting or working at the navigation center. So that will become parallel parking along an existing curb and sidewalk. The applicant provided some illustrative drawings of what the buildings will look like. This is the corner looking the two buildings along San Rafael Drive. Keep in mind that the architecture will be further refined by the Arc. This project architect is the same architect that is designing the San Rafael complex, which is down the street. I'm happy to report that it that building has. Those buildings have been changed quite a bit from when the Planning Commission saw them, and I would think that these buildings would also go through refinements to meet today's standards in the city. So as you can see, there are three story large windows. There is an interior stairwell, there's no elevators, but the interior stairwell on each of the buildings. And this is looking into the complex with the community building right here. And we have another drawing showing what the community building will look like from the interior of the development. As I mentioned, the height is 30.3 with including parapets on the building

itself. These are front and side elevations of the buildings. They're similar in design and in elevation of the community building in the center. So this community building has a fitness center, leasing office, mail room, laundry facilities for the residents, materials that are proposed are stucco and porcelain cladding, and also stone with balcony railings, and the proposed colors are whites, browns and grays. Floor plans show the interior of the the buildings itself, with the different one, two and three bedroom units, and the. The orange building is the clubroom clubhouse showing those amenities that will be available for the residents. This is a floor plan of the different types of bedroom units that are proposed, and then a landscape plan, which will be further refined when it goes to arc showing. A lot of trees and other plants along the edge of the property, along the street facing the public side, and then internal within the building itself, there are a series of carports that are proposed, which are the orange boxes here over top of the required parking, and the rest of the units do not have covered parking. Looking at the recreational portion of the project, there is a pool that is looks like a lap pool, but it really is only 60ft long. But it is a large pool, a play area, an outdoor

seating area, a dog park. The play area appears to have a cover over it here looks like a canopy, and the applicant can discuss that. And then an outdoor seating area that has other covered and a dog park that has trees. There could possibly be some additional shading added to the dog park, as people like to sit and watch their dogs play. There is a plant palette that is presented today and as I mentioned, will be further refined by Arc. There are two trash enclosures that are fully enclosed. This is a design of them, and then the carports are a simple design of of steel with a lid. So staff is recommending approval of the development permit. It is a by right use in the R-2 zone. It's consistent. It meets the density bonus requirements of building height. Massing setbacks are consistent, being 35ft along West San Rafael Drive and 25ft along McCarthy. It has adequate access to streets. We are filing a category exemption of a class 92, which allows affordable housing. And Madam Chair, that concludes my report. The applicant is here and the landscape architect is on online. Thank you. Questions of staff. Commissioner Morrell, go down the line. Yeah it's probably a question for engineering, but San Rafael, when I have been there has been cars go pretty fast along San Rafael. And I wondered if there was a way to put in a crosswalk at McCarthy and San Rafael so

that people can get to the other side of San Rafael without dodging traffic. That is something we would need to discuss with the city engineer about, and possibly a result or a focus study coming out of the college specific plan traffic study that's being conducted to find out whether or not that is something that would even be feasible to do. Mid-block crosswalks. This is not a mid-block, but it's it's not something that we take lightly. It's it's there is a high speed. So we want to make sure that if we're doing that, it's it's meeting the right criteria. So it's something that I would have to review with the city engineer. As a result of all those studies. I think most people, if they're walking, are going to walk towards Indian Canyon and there's that area on San Rafael where the buildings extend out into the road. So, yeah, you're basically getting forced out into the road. Yeah, yeah. So it'd be better if they were on the other side of I think the point that Mr. Harris made is, is a good one, and that you will, in short order, be seeing the College Park specific plan update now called tram or soon to be called Grandview Heights. And so we are looking at changes to the circulation plan associated with that that could look at identifying this or that could be part of our discussion when that comes before you. But we can direct them to possibly look at that before it comes back to us as part of our recommendations as part for for Tram Heights, you mean. Yes. Yes, yes. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Commissioner Rothman, so does a project like this, is it required to provide public benefit? No, no, it's not required. It's not a planned development district which requires public benefit. This is not. It's a state mandated

density bonus requirement. And it does not require public benefit. The question was because of the letter that was sent out by Desert Desert Gateway asking for access and, you know, all this other stuff. So I just was wondering whether there's I would say when you when you think about public benefit and the way that we define it elsewhere in our code, affordable housing is a public benefit. So we would argue that this entire project is the public benefit. Okay. All right. And then other question I have is when I looked at the parking lot, it looked like there were areas that were not did not provide adequate shade. And I don't know if that's something that was looked at. And we can certainly talk about it later, but I just wanted to bring that up. And the landscape plan here. Particularly what I noted was that building two. Around the common area in the front of the common area, and then the McCarthy entry drive and then it building four, and maybe it meets it. But I, I did want to sort of ask that question. So you're saying like along here where the pointing. Yeah. On both sides. Right. We can definitely relay that to them. There's a note on one of the things that says parking will be covered 50% within five years. Yeah. It doesn't look like it. I'm just saying that's what they present. Yeah. We can certainly make sure that that's confirmed. Yeah. And discussed by RC. Thank you. Your other comments, Commissioner Murphy, do you have questions? No. Scott. Well, I, I don't know if this is for staff or for the applicant. There's on

the west side, the whole border there has a row of. Vegetation, mostly consisting of different palms and such that are there. I'm not sure if the grade works to keep any of that or if any of them can be reused, but it looks like there's some substantial palms there that actually could be used or actually could be left. But typically I know when a construction site happens, it it demolishes everything so that I don't know if that's something that staff looked at. I assume it's on this site. It's just literally ten feet to the west of that two track that shows on that aerial. And it's outside of the villas fence or wall. It's kind of really right where the red line is. Of course, that red line might be shifted a little bit, but there's a row of various kinds of palms, both Mexican and California, that are there, that it would be a shame to lose. But again, I don't know if the the grade works for them to to remain. But right. There is a great difference from the West complex to this one. And we did talk about that and now have the applicant explain okay. All right. It's not a I mean it's not something I'm going to sit in front of the bulldozer for. But, you know, it's just wanted to know if they had considered that. Questions. Yes. For planning. Glenn, did you say there's no elevators in the buildings? No. They're they're a three story is not required to have an elevator. So with

our senior community, they walk up, they'll be fit. Yeah, I get that. Commissioner. I have a couple questions from the staff report and the findings that we are asked to make. One is in the staff report a couple of places when we're talking about consistency, there's an indication that this is a senior project. Is that correct? No, I. I'm not sure where it says senior. Yeah. Where we have to find things out of the compliance with stuff out of the general plan, support the development of accessible and affordable senior rental housing units. Right. That's one of the policies and goals there. There will be. It's not age restricted, but I'm sure there will be. Over 55 folks there. Okay. So we they're welcome. But this is not an age restricted. Correct? I think the the point we're simply making there is that it would support that policy from the general plan without being a dedicated seniors building. So I understand the confusion. But yeah, it's a broad. We're looking at it in the broadest sense. The findings we need to make regarding setbacks, you we've demonstrated in the report that it's consistent with the setbacks for the zone, but it doesn't address setbacks, consistency with setbacks of adjacent properties. When eyeball it, it looks close. Do you happen to know or did you check the to see what the dimensions are of the residential properties on either side of it? Right. So in the

table on, let me go to the staff report. Table two on page three. But I put in here it has the the setbacks for the project and for the for the zone. Right. So obviously the middle building here is setback 75 80ft. I'm looking from the street. You're looking at. Oh from the street. Well from the street from both San Rafael and McCarthy. Right. So the requirement is 35ft on San Rafael and 25ft on McCarthy. And these meet I think the the requirement is also that it be consistent with the adjacent properties. And we don't have anything quantifying that. Well, if you look at this area, you'll see that this building is closer than pointing out here. And then here the buildings are set back. So. Maybe it's ten feet farther forward than the building at Plaza Villas. Two or villas two. But you know, from an urban design standpoint, we want the buildings to front the street. So it provides a street edge. And that's I understand that. My point is, and this comes up regularly, that we take a look at what the zone requires and what's being proposed. We're required, according to the ordinance, to look at consistency with adjacent buildings. And we seem to miss that somehow. So if we say in the finding that it's we don't even address it, talk about it in the finding. So do you think it's safe to go ahead and say that it is

consistent with the adjacent buildings? Yes. Thank you. Okay, let's see. This is another project where another one of the findings that we typically need to make is that the landscape area or the site drainage is incorporated into the landscape design. And in particular it says something about that. We need integrated stormwater design with joint use. And in this from what I'm looking at, we have gravel and there's no landscaping there and no proposed use for walking your dog or anything else. Is that correct? Correct. That's correct. I'll have Rick describe what what that is because it looks like it's kind of a four foot dip and a lot of DG and you're referring to the retention area that's on the north. Yes. Along the north property line. So this area here in a normal development where you might have a large retention area that's for the site. What you're seeing over the last several years, is there kind of landscaping it, using it as a dual use, using it as a dog park area and that sort of thing. That is not what's occurring here. This is a drainage area for all of the surface runoff coming from the mountain area, from the tram, all the way down across highway 111, it runs behind. What's the name of that complex? The villas two runs behind it, and you'll see behind the existing apartments that are to the west. There's a very large drainage area in the back that what this is, is this area is to allow

that drainage to be controlled and to be dumped out onto McCarthy. Right now that water hits this vacant lot and it just acts as a giant spreading ground. And it just kind of does its thing once you define where it's going to go. Years ago, they had already set aside an easement area for that drainage for those improvements. So you wouldn't want to put any dual use in this area, because in the chances of a Hillary and the chances of a Valentine's Day, you don't want anything else in that area. Okay, I noticed that on the West, where it's coming from, that appears to be landscaped. I think they're just trees that have grown in the area. I've walked inside that area and there's a series of baffles in there to actually slow the velocity down. And it's a very defined drainage area. There might be trees and stuff in that area, but I think they're volunteers that have grown in the area. Okay. From the photograph it looks and I know what it looks like from highway 111, but you can't see. You can't. It's really difficult to get back there. And then the apartments themselves, they actually have a separate drainage channel, concrete channel that's actually on their site. It collects the water on site and then it dumps out and it drains into that drainage area. So it was pretty well thought out. Okay. 40 years ago, 50 years ago, believe it or not. But it just, it just it just ended. And so not not a whole lot of thought as to what was going to happen at the end. Okay. And that's my professional opinion. My next question is on the categorical exemption. I see we're using the nine. The category 92. Does this also qualify for category 32.

Right. It would. We use both of those in the 305 West San Rafael. But the 92 is a new category that the state approved just last year. And we're using that today. So we're trying that out. We either one works okay. And. Finding number two has it talks about an appropriate housing transition from nearby multifamily and industrial developments. Oh what does that mean. What's the housing transition. And do we have one. So on it doesn't show on this plan. But on the other side of this complex is a large mini storage building that's taller than, it's taller than 30, big and bright and shiny. It's bright and shiny. Yes. So that's you know, we look at land uses, we look at what's transitional. And this is a transitional spot from this development here to the rest of the housing around it. So there's nothing we're talking about a transition of zones. We're not talking about there's something in the design of the project that is a transition, correct? Yes. Okay. All right. Oh, one last thing. This is near the James oh Jessie Community Center, which I'm looking at this project and thinking we're going to have a lot of families with kids, which is a wonderful thing. And the James. Oh, Jessie has all kinds of children's programs. Are there sidewalks all the way? We've have a discussion of where sidewalks are being added with this project. Can you would you walk from would you have your kids

walk from one to the other? And are there sidewalks the whole way that would allow that? Well, if you wanted to go to the Jesse James Community Center, you could walk down. McCarthy. This has all sidewalks. This is an industrial area. And then I think I forget the name of the road that goes north, but you you could navigate your way to it. Okay. So the walkways and similar to prior comments, I would say that as part of the specific plan, we're looking at other ways of improving connectivity throughout the entire area. And we have looked at potential options of pedestrian paths or other ways that, you know, there is a bit of a gap here in the road network to get straight north. So we're looking at different ways and options that might facilitate better connections. Okay, I believe I will be quiet for a little bit. Thank you. Following up on that, there will be sidewalks on both McCarthy and San Rafael Drive in front of the property. Those are being those are required. And they'll be. Yes. That's correct. And what is the width on the sidewalks? Should be six feet. Is it nine feet? No. One second. We'll look at the conditions of approval. San Rafael will be eight foot sidewalks and McCarthy is five foot. Why is McCarthy less? I think it was just being consistent with what's in front of the navigation center and what's in front of the apartments across the

street. I think in, in, in the reality of it is, is San Rafael was designated as a secondary thoroughfare at one point, which required wider sidewalks, and now it's been downgraded to a modified collector. So but the sidewalks are already existing. Yeah. So some of those standards are set by the circulation element. So based on the classification of the roadways okay I have a series of questions. One one has to do with the laundry room. It looked when I looked at each of the units, it looked like they had washer and dryer space. But there's also communal washer and dryers. Does that mean they're not supplying washers and dryers to the units? We'll have to ask the applicant. I'm in looking at the floor plans. I'm not. This is a water heater. It looked like there was a a cabinet for washers and dryers in each. But you don't know if that's the case, right? That's an important amenity for for people. Okay. Going to the dog park. I didn't see a dog protective fencing in the dog park for the entry. The kind of fence you would normally have to keep dogs safe as you enter and exit. Is that there? You mean like you through a gate and you're in an enclosure and then there's another gate? Yeah, I'm not seeing that on this because here's the the entrance

with the applicant can explain that. How on page 55 it does. Every unit has unit one A, B and C the washer dryers. Yes. Washroom. The question is are they supplying them. And then why is there a washer laundry room in the clubhouse. Because then it's it's. Taking space. That could be something something else. So. Yeah those are questions. Are are there meeting rooms in e since they're providing services. Are there service rooms. In the clubhouse. Service rooms. Yes. When you're providing special services usually have some private space where you meet people. That's an applicant question. I'm okay. Did this go through our housing department? Yes. So this project received funding from the city council at the meeting, the last council meeting, this project and the 305 West San Rafael. So they have an agreement with the city on potential funding. Okay. And the on the landscape plan, even though it goes through are the trees every 15ft on the street, one of the one of the things you'll see when you walk that neighborhood is that you don't see don't see enough trees. So has that been looked at by you? The spacing of the trees? Yes. We will refine and. Look at the landscape plan as it goes to ask the poorer the neighborhood, the fewer the

trees. And it's something we should be reversing. An opinion. Okay, no elevator sets in code that so that we don't discourage apartment buildings. Chris, is that why we don't require elevators for three stories? I mean, yeah, it complies with the building code, so it's not something we can require changed in the new building code or is it not that I'm aware of? I believe, you know, we've just had the public hearing to adopt the new building code. I don't believe that that was a change. Okay. I have some applicant questions. One of the other questions I have is the the use of there's I have some landscape questions for them. There isn't grass in the dog park. That is typically something you would see in dog parks. You don't see any modern dog parks with. Rubble at this point, as the base. Is it correct that it is not grass? This does not have grass in the dog park. And the shading. The other thing is, I agreed with the earlier comment that there wasn't shading in the parking are enough shading in the parking lot. Do you know what the numbers of various kinds of spaces are in for? For cars? How many of them are? Larger and if any of them are compact, I'll have to look at the site plan. Usually they're listed as if they're compact. I don't see them

shown showing any compact spaces, and I didn't see a condition regarding the size of the tree wells. Isn't that something we're putting in more consistently? Right? Usually a tree well is six feet wide. We didn't have a we don't have a condition on it. No. The the landscape plan would would guide the development of the site plan. But we would usually see that at this point in time, wouldn't we, in terms of conditions. Well, no, because that would be dictated through the landscape plan, which is the purview of the Architectural Review Committee. Okay. Financing on the project, that's something I know is not in our purview, but I want to ask about I think that's it for my questions for staff. Ye. Megan, questions? Yes. Just two questions or I think it's within the same question. I, I'm not sure if you already answered this, but is there efficient shade over the playground and the bench areas? Right. So let me go to the here. If you look at this plan, you'll see these dashed lines which are a canopy over the playground. I haven't seen a design of that on the previous plan. They provided a design showing the poles and then the shade material, and then on this outdoor seating, I'm not. This is a cover here. I'm not sure if it's opaque or trellis structure, but there is shading over the seating area. Thank you. And kind of a follow up to that as far as shading the city of

Palm Springs recently placed some shading in there. Their parks and rec pool area and was shading something that was considered for the pool amenities here in this project as well. It's not showing any shade structures, but there's all always could be umbrellas or something of that nature. Thank you. Yes, Commissioner. Just as a follow up, because I had a similar question about the washers and dryers in the laundry, I just discovered that the blow up unit plans, which were on sheet A 18. I think it is. They are different layouts than the overall floor plans. And those blow up floor plans, unit plans, show washers and dryers. At least in the packet I have. It's different. What you're showing on the screen is different than what we received, right? The applicant can explain that. Am I understanding that the packet that is provided is the most recent? Yeah, the I actually had one other question, which was the limited shading over the parking, that this is a pretty rough environment and to not provide to provide so little shading over the parking is a question. Is that something you explored with the applicant? Just caution that it complies with the code. So from our perspective we've done the review and it complies with what the code requires. If the Commission would like to request that the Architectural Review Committee take a further evaluation through the landscape p,

we can do that. Any other questions? The if the applicant is here, you have ten minutes and then the public will have a chance to to ask questions and then stay because we'll be asking you questions at that point. Good evening commissioners. My name is Darren Berberian. I'm the business developer for Pacific West Communities. I haven't created a presentation tonight because Glenn did such a fantastic job. But my whole team s here. Architectural, civil engineering and our landscape architect is online, so we can answer any questions. But just a few things to address some of the comments that were going around. We could talk to our landscape architect, Tom Phelps about building two and four shade and the shade you guys are mentioning. And I think and I just want to say maybe that, you know, we're trying to achieve a density on the site. This was a site that we worked with the city actually closely to try to create more housing. So the site became available, and there's not a lot of sites left in Palm Springs. So we were trying to gain density that would be sufficient to yield enough units for arena. But also keep in mind, you know, we're trying to achieve a density, but also trying to park it adequately. So I know Tom is probably going to say, because it's typically the argument we always get is that there's not enough space for him to create shades. But he did mention on sheet, I believe, L4, you'll see with meeting the code at 50% shade, but I'll let him talk to that with any questions you may have. And also the question about the palms on the west side. We're actually trying to keep them. Shannon can talk about that more if you have further questions, but I know that there is an elevation change, and she's trying to make that work so we can keep as much of it

as possible when it comes to the basin. We did talk about that earlier. Engineering had a addressed it perfectly. It's really just not safe to make it a use. So that's why you see it the way it is. And about the washer and dryers, we don't have washer and dryers in the units. We have a central laundry facility. And we're required by the state to have I believe it's a ten unit, ten every ten units you have one washer and dryer. So with 115, we're about 12 washers and dryers in a central facility. We do have space that we allocate that we would probably, I think most likely we will create hookups for it right in the future, but they will not be there right off the bat. What won't be there off the bat? The washer and dryer in the units? It will be. We'll have the central laundry facility, like I said, 12, 12 washers, 12 dryers. But we'll have the space programed in the unit to have that later. Potentially. We don't typically do that in affordable housing communities. And the double we do have a double gate at the dog park. I think that question came up and we do have a community room for the services that will be conducted on site. So I just want to address a few things. We're all here to answer any questions. Okay. Are there members of the public who wish to speak? Okay. This is before the commission. Questions of the applicant, starting with Commissioner Morrell. And I'm going to go down the line. Yeah. It's. It's I guess it my question fringes on code issue two. But the best views when I

look at the site are to the northwest of the Big Bear. I mean, it has pretty stunning views that direction. I just wondered if that was considered in the when you place the buildings where they are, if you took that into consideration. In particular, building three seems to block the view of most of the people there. When we first looked at the site, I mean, the main thing was to have a presence on the street. So we wanted to have the buildings front as much as possible and not have it at the kind of the navigation side, and also the single family to the west side. You know, we try to engage the building and layout. So you do maintain views, but it's just not always productive in yielding the density that we were trying to yield. Right. And I guess having the buildings front on the road is a code issue. And the other complexes around this, they angle so that I think the majority of the other buildings sort of face towards the mountains. And this one is different than the other complexes. But right. And those buildings are condominiums for sale. And they, you know, there are different product built at a different time. Okay. I would say those were entitled in and constructed in the 70s, I believe. And I think, you know, our, our current general plan policies and perspective is trying to activate our street frontages. So that's why you see this layout versus what you might see to the west of here, which was a different era of planning. Yeah. Okay. That's it for me. All right. Hi. I have a few questions. Glenn, can you pull up the enlarged unit plans? Because it's different than what we have, and I just want to, before I make the

comment. Oh, go back one. That one, that one. Okay. Yeah. It's so on the the comment I was going to make is that in the C unit, which is the three bedroom unit. And again this is based on what I was reviewing at home. There was no place for dining room. And you've got a three bedroom. But this obviously is different. And so there is space. So I'll take that comment away. Can you tell me you call out depth awnings over the windows? Can you tell me what depth you're looking at? I want you to come up here. Yeah. So typically they're most likely going to be constructed out. Can you go back to the the material board. Yeah. There. Yeah. So there they're probably going to be constructed out of foam for for efficiency and for cost. So they're probably no more than 12 to 18in. Okay. And then as long as we're looking at that same image right below the window there's a little gray box. What is that. That is a TAC unit. Yeah it is yeah. The mechanical air handlers underneath the windows okay. Unit. All right. I got that. What is happening at the corner of San Rafael and McCarthy? It it looks like there's some special feature going on. This is in the the plan. Plan? Yeah. I don't know if there's special trees or a fountain or. What's going on there. Tom, are you on? Yes. I'm on. Hello, everybody. Tom Phelps, landscape architect. Go ahead. Can you explain what that corner element is?

The landscape. Yeah, we had some open space. And so we have a we'll call it a plaza, but it's geared towards residential use and there's no access to it from the street. But at that corner we wanted to make it more presentable, I guess you could say with a landscape feature there. So there's a there's a seat wall around the street side edge of the patio. Due to the grade change from the sidewalk down into the site. So with some shade trees in the midst. And so that's what that's for, is just a passive use seating area. And, and you said it wasn't accessible from the street. It is not. And how is that separated. There's landscaping surrounding it layers of trees and and and then so that's how it's in terms of separation. That's what's providing for that. And there's also a grade change. And I think in order for us for us to make it publicly accessible, we'd have to ramp up to it and create ramping with railings and okay, not so sure that would be feasible. Okay. Thank you. It talking about. The planting in so in front of the leasing office again it may be just the fact of the renderings that we're seeing. It doesn't look like there's a whole lot of landscape there. It looks like it's all gravel. Is that the case or is there are there plants there. What's going on? Well, at the entitlement stage, we don't show the individual shrubs. And so what you're seeing is really just the the area

for landscaping. We'll come back with groupings of shrubs very similar to what Ty showed in his renderings. But we'll use decorative rocks, boulders, layers of different gravel and cobble and decomposed granite to create some patterns and spaces. And in the midst of that will also then have groupings of plant material. Typically they're very strategically located. We don't like to cover the entirety of the site with shrubs and perennials and, and and whatnot. So we're we we tend to group them together in strategic locations. And you're not you're actually not seeing that in these renderings in these plan view rendering. Okay. And then I, I'm not a dog owner. So I did have a question about the dog park, whether DG is an appropriate material. It is okay. No it's not okay. Well the client has a standard to use decomposed granite in the dog parks. And so we've got hundreds of projects and noted that it's may not be the preferred material, but it's they have a definite requirement to not use real grass. And so we almost always use decomposed granite for them. It is fenced. It does have a vestibule with a space with an interior gate to then enter into the into the space. Okay. Does the. So there was a letter that was submitted from Desert Highlands Gateway Estates. And do you have any kind of response to that what they're requesting. Yeah I've, I've been through the letter actually received it after our city council hearing. And you know, when it comes to shared access to service and amenities, it's really just not

possible. The state requires that these services are, are are concentrated with our tenants and our tenants only. There's no we don't have the liability funding, liability, mitigation or program to service the community at large. And when it comes to, you know, the community utilizing our amenities like pool, it's just not something that we can control. It's not something that we can do because there is a lot of liability of people just coming in and utilizing these amenities. We just can't do that. So as to that item, that's my response. Public safety enhancements. We can absolutely look at increased lighting. I mean that's that's not a problem. And of course coordinating with law enforcement. But we can't fund security patrols. There's just not these these projects are not they don't have the financial capacity to do that. Local hiring and economic opportunities. Of course, we can't not be we can't be required to definitely only have that option. But we have always looked for local in these situations. So that's that can definitely be done. Community oriented programing. I already explained it's the same response as item number one parking and noise mitigation measures. We will of course be monitoring this. We do have an on site manager that is living on site that is there 24 hours a day, and we do have a concentration of multiple projects in the Coachella Valley. All the managers work together. We had multiple community meetings. I think we had three in total, and it was my idea with the other communities that are being proposed and being constructed that all the management meets together maybe once a month and discusses and strategizes and works together to make sure it's a cohesive situation around there. And then the last one was ongoing community engagement. Of course we

will do that. All right. Thank you. Let me just see if I have anything else. I do have some comments or questions about the architecture, particularly building B, which is the one where you've lost part of the third floor. And I'm assuming that the loss of those four units is because of the max on your density bonus. Is that correct? Partly. Partly because of that. And also we had to maintain a certain mix for two bedrooms and three bedrooms, okay. In order to maintain a mix, we either have to add more units or take away units to maintain the threshold of 25% two bedrooms and 25% three bedrooms. And that's what's required through the state. So this is considered a large family project, and you have to have 25% twos and 25% threes. So it's kind of a, you know a strategic programing okay. Because it's a weird looking building. So yeah. Anyway well I will can come back to that in my comments. But thank you Commissioner Murphy I have a couple questions about the rec area recreation area. It seems to me, given the scale of the building and the number of people that are going to live there, that the recreational area is potentially inadequate for, for just the number of people, it looks like you have two, I'm assuming they're kind of fixed picnic tables underneath that canopy. And then the the play area. And that just doesn't seem to me to

be enough. Area for outdoor use. So would you be agreeable to adding benches both in the dog park and around the outdoor seating area around the play play area? Absolutely. So that people can go out and sit without dragging a chair out themselves? Of course. Absolutely. So that might be something we could add to the Arc chair. The other question I have is. While it looks like there's turf, there really isn't. Is that correct? That long strip of green? No, that's that is grass. That is grass. That'll be natural grass. Not synthetic. Correct. Not synthetic grass. And the playground area, the play area. What is the surface underneath the the play area. Typically they're using a port in place. Rubber also material okay. Okay. That was it. So you'll add we'll recommend to the arc that we add benches and other in both in the dog park and the play area, and maybe potentially even a third picnic table. Again, I think we can accommodate that. We do show benches to the west of the player. You just don't see them there under the trees. But there's room to add more. It's definitely in the dog park as well. Okay. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. I think my my only remaining question that hasn't been asked, the main entry I assume, is really from San Rafael. Rafael as opposed to McCarthy. It's a long

throat of a driveway. And I think you have an opportunity to perhaps spruce it up a little bit within reason. Of course, I understand this is affordable, but had you thought about maybe doing part of that paving throat as a decorative paving material or stamped material or and then as part of that question is also that terminus, its term terminates in a T to the parking lot. It sure would be nice to have something nice to look at as you come straight forward. And you've got a tree island there, which of course we like tree islands, but it'd be nice if there would be an opportunity to have something a little bit more special that that driveway terminated in, because that's the main entrance. And I think a point of pride for the residents that are going to live here. Again, understanding this is an affordable housing project. I'd like you to at least kind of take a look at whether or not you can provide any decorative paving in that, in at least that throat. Not perhaps not all of it, but a section of it. And then look at whether or not you can do something nice at the terminus of that of that drive. Yeah, we can do that. I mean, we did this at Vitalia. We had some sort of decorative entrance there, could probably do something similar in the entrance. Building or at the, at the, at the drive right is what you're what you're saying, Commissioner. Yeah. Yeah we definitely can do that Darren. Yeah, yeah yeah. That's that's definitely not a problem. We can do that. You can recommend that to the AAC. Absolutely. And then maybe Tom, you could look at the the tree. That's kind of. I see what you're saying Commissioner. You got you're driving in. You've got a tree in your face. I know Tom was probably trying to create more shade, which is? He needed that tree. It's I need that tree. Right. It's a jungle. It's

a jungle here. But. Absolutely. I think that's a great idea. Go look at something to enhance it. Opposed to a tree. In addition to a tree? Addition to it or. Yeah. So I assume you're using tax credits to help finance this. What do you have a nonprofit you've already selected to assist locally? Correct. We're using tax credits and 4% bonds. Central Valley Coalition, who is our partner on a lot of our projects, who is also our partner in our projects in Palm Desert, multiple ones in Indio, Rancho Mirage. They're they're a fantastic organization. Been around for 40 years. And your your on site manager, is that typically an employee of your organization? It's third party. Our property management is third party. Thank you. I'm. I'll preface this. I'm a swimmer. And so I looked at this, I thought, cool, I want to swim there. But I understand your limitations on, you know, the public not coming in. What I don't really understand is why a lap pool rather than because again, I'm thinking. It's not a lap pool. It says in the staff report it's a lap pool and there's lanes going down it. It's not a 25 meter pool like you would. Yes, I understand, but it's 20. It's it's 20ft long. Yeah. It's 20 yards, which is. Yeah Carl and I would swim in there. Yeah. But but I'm.

Yeah. In my backyard. You bet. But I'm curious why it's not more family oriented and. Rather than because you're going to fit a couple people in there swimming laps, and then there's no place for the kids to go. And how can you tell me how you came about this design and why it's appropriate for this project? I'll let Tom answer that one, since he's our pool designer. I think it's it's mainly to promote active use, you know, in within the neighborhood or in the community. It doesn't have to have person swimming laps. Of course, oftentimes asset management can designate hours for just lap swimming. But for the most part, I think you're going to see this pool being used by families and probably less so by persons swimming laps, although we do give them that opportunity with lap lanes in the pool. Pacific companies has built this pool several times and it's been at great success. And so we have a waiting entry, you know, a separate step ins with another Ada lift opposing that. So we try to provide for a lot of the different needs of the community within our projects. We don't always show a lap pool, but when we have space like this, we can this could be bigger. But I didn't want to eat into the western edge of the space around the pool. It's I don't know how to describe the shape of it, but okay, if you take the middle one, just say that's for swimming laps. Then there's a pop out on either side of it. Are those are they all uniform depth? Is there something that is

shallower for. And again, I'm thinking about families and you know, kids, they want to see a dolphin painted on the bottom, not lap lines. Is there something here for for the kids a shallow separate there isn't a separate children's pool. The the the upper right area is a wade in section that is shallow and, you know, like a Baja shelf, if you will, whereas the other step area would be, say, a three foot area that that then transitions from 3 to 5 in the lap area. Okay, okay. Thank you for making me feel better about that. Let's see. That is helping do that. And my oh, one other questions. You've mentioned a couple of times that you have other properties in the area. Can you give us the names of some of those? Are there any in Palm Springs, and what are the names of the ones in the not in Palm Springs? This is our first project that we're going to be constructing, Palm Springs. But you can go. So starting in Indio we have three projects. We have Arroyo crossing one and two. That's right on highway 111. And Jefferson, you probably seen them. They're New Avenue 44 in Indio just started construction about eight months ago. We have three new projects. We're starting in La Quinta. We have 269 units that just was completed in Palm Desert called Vitalia, right next door to the sheriff's substation. I'm sure you've driven. Yes. Okay. We have 236 units under construction in Rancho Mirage, right behind the Home Depot. I'm sure you've seen all that. We we cut into the ski slope and okay, our grading and doing site utilities and things like that right now. So we have, I mean, I don't know, almost 2000 units in moving very aggressively here in the Coachella Valley, aren't you? Well, I mean, look, we've been here a long time. We've I've been working here for over ten years to put all this stuff together. So it started slow. But you know, we've we're we're

very successful in what we do in affordable housing. And it's it's a tough world out there. So we've got a lot of good key features for us. Okay. And then my other question was the back to my favorite spot, the moist, excuse me, the retention basin on the north end of the site I see the notes. It says that it's going to have a five foot tall fence tube steel. Is there anything decorative about it? Is it anything that gives it relief? It's kind of a long expanse. Yeah, it's pretty standard. I don't know, Tom. Have we ever I mean, maybe I mean, I don't know, is there any decorative feature we could maybe add to the fence around it? I plant vines on it and just kind of, you know, bury it in foliage. That would be lovely. Okay. Yeah, we could we could do that easy. We could do that. Yeah. Easy. Okay. That's my questions. Thank you. I your can you just describe what your financing is and how long it's going to take for you to get that. So it's a little bit somewhat hard to predict because affordable housing finance I used to do I had 25 years in the field. So I kind of know what that is. Okay. Well then as you know, it's a competitive financing. So we're we're slated to submit this project in in the May round. So we have three rounds per year. We just have one next week. We have one in May and we have one in September. So we're going to submit it in May. If we don't get funded we'll submit it again in September. This this project is a project that doesn't score the full points. It's not in what it's called. It's a high resource area so it doesn't score the full points. But we have city financial commitments. We have our processes that we do. We have our own private capital that will probably deploy. So we'll make the project very competitive. But it depends on when we get funding. So let's say we get funding this year.

We pull permits pretty quickly. We have six months to pull permits once we get the financing. And it's about a two year build. So if all the stars align, let's say we get funded in May or we submit in May, we get funding notification in September, we pull permits in March of 2027, March of 2029 will be fully complete and starting to occupy. Okay. Are you is this fenced or gated? It doesn't look like it's either fenced or gated. So we typically so every city that we work in it's different. Some cities will say I want it fenced, I want block walls. Other cities say we don't want the fortress. Look, we want nothing. So I mean, I believe there's already isn't there a wall on the west side, on the west and west and north, west and north? Right, but not on the street frontage.r street frontage is okay. Right. So I mean, which is good if you, you know, if it can work, I think it looks nicer when it's landscaped the way we landscaped and no fence opposed to having a fence. But obviously it's city preference and and we're open either way. Okay. I, I had a couple comments on landscape. If your landscape is your landscape architect from the desert. No, but he's done. How many projects have you done here in the desert now Tom? Oh well, besides all the ones you mentioned we've got, I want to say three in El Centro, two in Holtville. For Brawley. There are a couple of. And I don't need to know where all the projects are. There are a couple of issues I look at. I thought your tree list, with one exceptions. Great. The heritage Palo verde is dying out in the desert. It's just it's got some kind of a bug that it's not making it there. There are other palo verde that make it. They're not as lush, but I think just the other thing was I saw it looked

like you might have some larger stone that you're planning on using often that heats and kills. If it's too large, it heats and kills the plants that you plant in it. So usually we don't use DG because it blows away. And unless you're compacting it and we use probably 3/8 because it stays on the ground, those are those are just suggestions of things you should look at. Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate your your input. Yeah. It's just it's it's just a concern in terms of what what we've seen that works out here. One question I had was about your parking. If there's any way of increasing the numbers of trees in your parking lot to shade it. We certainly go over that a lot with other with for profit developers to make sure we get shaded parking lots for. Is it Tom? Are your tree wells large enough to keep the plants alive? Yeah, the the ones in the parking lot are essentially the same size as a parking stall. So, you know, they're going to be eight by, you know, they're, they're, they're the full size and and unfortunately trees versus parking spaces is always our contention. I would love to plant more trees on this project, but it comes at the expense of providing enough parking for the tenants. So Kai and Darren are usually my opposition in providing that. But we do. We do meet the 50% shade requirement. I use a formula that's pretty

standard throughout most communities of. We've got 1256ft per tree, and then on L4 in your packet, it's an actual shading plan showing the percentages that that shade tree produces at the bottom of that of that graphic. We do include the carports in that shade calculation. You might notice the carports are on the outside edges of the parking lot. It's problematic typically to have additional carports adjacent or near the buildings just due to fire restrictions. And so they oftentimes push them out around the perimeter. But I can't shade a parking lot completely with just carports because I need to pick up the area of the dry valleys and whatnot. So I I'd love to see more trees, but we're we're sort of at the mercy of, of the required parking. You know, I still will will recommend grass with all of our dog. We've had dog parks that had DG and they've been reworked to grass in the desert. It's a it's a park that will last. I hope you'll give that consideration just because it's easier on the dogs to stay and use it. I think the Palm Desert one has artificial turf, but in both cases not real grass of course, but is it gets hot. But yeah, something. Something that's not as hot. And again, it's a concern about our environment. I mentioned the the density of the trees. And it's again a referral. But specifically for this neighborhood walking it. It's characterized often by

broken sidewalks, glass on the street and not enough trees. What's the density of your trees around the periphery of the of the project? The walkable periphery? Yeah, along the frontages. I when you mentioned that, I pulled up our CAD drawing and we're roughly 30ft on center, but we've got three layers of trees that alternate. So they do stagger at a 15 foot interval with a third layer between the street and the building. So we have a lot of trees on San Rafael, and we have a double row on McCarthy. And so, you know, there's, there's fruitless olives. The the next parcel down. So we picked up on that for some of our, our species that we used. We do have palo verde like you mentioned. We're using the Desert Museum which is a which is a hybrid. And I wonder if it's not as susceptible to problems that you are. You've seen the the tree that's susceptible to the problems. It will definitely we it might not have been the original hybrid, but the cheaper varieties that get sold. Don't look at that for sure. TPC, the Pacific companies, they retain ownership of these projects and it's in their best interest for everything to thrive and do well. And your your input is is great to know that you know in this specific area there's been some problems. So we obviously don't want to create additional problems. So we're more than happy to take a community with 50 of them, and we're replacing them every year. Oh boy. So it's there. There been a number of a small number of trees that have had those problems, and it's maybe global warming. I mean, who

knows? I think that let me just make sure. Again, you said that you're going to put in spaces in each of the rooms, each of the units for washers and dryers, but you're not putting them in. But people can choose to do that or use it as a closet, I'm assuming. Correct. Okay. And I think that that's probably my questions. It's a it's a nice project. I mean, we I've got a few tweaks, but it's a nice project. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes. Yeah. Can I just go back to building B and would you be open to rather than having the hole in the middle just on that particular building, put all the B and C in the middle and the A's on the outside. That way you can drop the A's on the third floor on the outside, and then you have something that's tapers down from the center out. And I think it would make for a much better looking building. And it should be an easy revision. Yeah. We could take a look at that okay. Yeah. Oh, and also I want to just can you zoom in I guess on the see how the dimensions are only labeled to the, to the. That's why you're saying it's 30 foot three, but it's actually we have some architectural pop up elements that goes probably to 35ft. There's a fin that's right next to the tallest tower. Okay. So yeah. So that that's number seven that's pointing to. Right. So I think that's going to be at 35ft or maybe even taller by a couple of feet. So I

was curious how how you guys are seeing that or viewing that that portion that surpasses 35ft. Okay. Megan, I have a few questions. Does the programing that you're offering at this 100% affordable housing? Does that include wraparound services for your residents that are like low, low income and low income? Yeah. Let me give you an example of the different services that we offer here. And we cater this is like the the menu of choices that we do. We typically cater to the needs of the residents. We have instructor led educational health and wellness or skill building skill building classes, including but not limited to financial literacy, computer training, homebuyer education, GED, resume building, ESL, nutrition, exercise, health information awareness, art, parenting, On-Site food cultivation and preparation, smoking cessation. And then we also have health and wellness service programs, such as services and programs that are individualized support for tenants, not tenants, not group classes, but need not be provided by licensed individuals or organizations. These services shall include, but not limited to, visiting nurses programs, intergenerational visiting programs, senior companion programs, and these. Both of these services blocks the services 84 hours per year and 60 hours per year. Understood. Thank you for your in house property manager. Are you looking for, for or do you normally hire or partner with a company that is only

committed to the operational aspect of the complex, or they're also their goal is also to help the residents further embed within the fabric of the community. It's kind of a dual process with the on site property manager and our nonprofit organization who's running the services, they kind of work together to do just that. Okay, I was I was asking because going back to the letter provided by the Desert Highland Gateway Estates Community Action Association, you know, they work out of the Jesse James Community Center, and that center has they are well versed when it comes to police relations, law enforcement relations, which is something that you said you were interested in building with because you are not able to provide an on site patrol. They're well versed in advocacy, education workshops, intergenerational programs between seniors and students, youth programs, senior programs. And so I just wanted to bring that to your attention, in case you didn't already know that. And that would really. Be a value to the specific audience you have coming to this this project. I'm I'm very glad you brought that up, actually, because we had our second community meeting there and it was great. I actually got to learn and see what goes on there, and just the cohesiveness between what we're trying to do there and, and what they're doing there at Jesse is fantastic. And so, I mean, like, like I think Tom mentioned or Kai mentioned, we build these projects. We don't sell them, we own them. So I'm going to be your point of contact for years and

years. And I've had many, many communities contact me moving forward. So, you know, we like to collaborate with the community for sure. We're neighbors, you know, we're going to be there. And I also have a place I live locally too. So I think that I when I went there and I saw what they were doing, that was fantastic. So I think that was a great happy to hear that. Yeah. And finally, I know we mentioned about the lighting in the complex. The Jews say that you were going to look into more lighting within the complex. So we have a lighting plan I'll get with our lighting engineers and see if there's anything we could do to do more. And I also want to get their perspective on what that actually means. Lighting. I'm not the expert here, but you look at these lighting plans and it's it's just like it looks like everything's lit up. So I want to make sure I'll make sure with them that we have adequate lighting, that if we can do more, let's do more. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you. I think maybe we can summarize some of the things that you said you would do that we may be adding on. I think you said that you would help. Maybe not put a decorative fence around the retention area, but but put an adequate landscape dense landscape buffer in that area like foliage over the fence. I think we talked about it would be foliage growing foliage over the fence. Okay. I think you said that you would add more benches and more picnic tables to the recreation area, right? So. And help me with with other items. I have a running list if you want me to read them off the list, that would be good. Alright,

so add benches and dog park and benches around the pool area. Add decorative paving at the street entrance. Look at adding an entry feature next to the community building as you come into the. The development itself. And this may need to be rewarded, but look at the third floor. In the center. The third floor of building B, b the the center of the building of building B, b the third floor. And then step down to second story. And I think that can be a condition for us. Right. That's a site plan issue. I think it's an architectural issue. Okay. And then number five would be add landscaping on the fence around the retention basin. What you just described, I think it was also in addition to benches and the dog park area and the playground area, there was the addition of at least one more picnic table. Right. Thank you for that correction. And then a clarification, because it doesn't show on the plans that there is a safety gate, a double gate at the dog park, and that would be part of the site plan. Okay. And so those are things that you've agreed to do. I just want to make sure that, okay, we were just on the things that encompass those as recommendations, but also items that the that you've said you would do. Again, I'm going to move approval, but I want I want comments and things that people would like to add to this. Okay. Just is there somebody who wants to be a second? I'll second it. But.

As recommendation to ask the they maximize the depth of the awnings over the windows. And. Okay. And yeah. And then just well I'm sure they'll look at the massing and the architecture, but yeah, I'll just leave it just overall. Overall. Yeah. And then are we also going to and then building B the third story of building B. Is that a recommendation I'm sorry. Say that again I'm sorry. The the third story of building B. Is that something you want to pass along to ask to. Yes I do want to pass that along. And I might just make a comment that, you know, they could come up with a plan, like they have five buildings and there's four A's and one B if they want, they could design B so that there's two B buildings and three A buildings. So it it's just, you know, something that they can work on instead of having one standalone building, they could do two buildings that are the same and then three that are the same, just to give it a little mix. Yeah. Got that. Sorry. Yes, I got it. And Madam Chair. Oh I'm sorry. Yeah. Just wanted to add to that that we did say that we would see some refinements, significant refinements on the architecture because it's I think what we're getting is not I think it still needs a little work. I think the leasing building is really a nice looking building. Yes. I think the apartment buildings still have some work to be done. So I appreciate the use. Introduce introduction of the stone and some materials, but I think how

it's applied and the layering needs some finessing. I would have some items on the landscape, and one is the strong recommendation that the there be either a softer material or grass in the dog park area, a softer and not hot material in the dog park area for that use. And just to look at the tree plan in terms of the desert heritage, Palo Verde which isn't doing well, and look for a substitute, a recommendation to look for a substitute. I think. And also that the tree I. I think the tree wells are when the landscape plan comes in. They said that the tree wells would be the size of one of the parking spaces. So just to confirm that that's the case. I don't think I have much more. And also to look to look at the materials, the, the stone materials in terms of the size, a small a smaller size on the rock that it that they look at 3/8 instead of something larger. And where they have DG, they might want to look at 3/8 as well, so it doesn't blow away. Our. Did you have I think did was your question about the pool really answered as to whether or not if the city developed a program and took liability, they might be open to working with the city. I think that applicant explained

successfully why the state funding necessitates that the beneficiaries be the residents there. Okay. So that's yeah. So thats moot. Any any other items that people had during this discussion. Are those items agreeable to you as the second? Can you call the roll any other comments? No other comments. Call the roll chair. Yes. Commissioner Miller. Yes, vice chair. Yes. Commissioner. Baker. Yes. Commissioner. Murphy. Yes. Commissioner. Rottman. Yes. Commissioner. Morrell. Yes. Congratulations. That passes unanimously. We wish you the best of luck with the financing. Get it built. Invite us to the opening. Thank you all. Okay. The third. Are there any planning Commission requests, reports, requests or comments? Seeing none. Director's report. I. Was trying to question. Can you, in your director's report, touch upon how we're doing on arena numbers? This is some good stuff that arena numbers, in particular affordable housing. Yes. Thank you for the question. So. And I'm sorry I didn't bring the breakdown of this, but we have entitled or permitted 858 of the 2557 units that we need to do by the end of 2029. So we are. Well, yes, except we have a long way to go. So that's

that's more, but it's much more than we've done over other years. Yeah. So it's significant and a significant amount of affordable housing. So in addition to the two projects that you've seen recently which are not included in those 858 units, to be clear. So we have another 200 to add. We've done, you know, quite a bit of affordable housing. Don't forget this cycle of arena began in 2021. So we have monarch. We have, you know, a lot of the things that have come online are included in there. So we have a few hundred units of affordable housing in that mix as well. So I would say probably around 40% of those units are affordable, which is significant, is that including the Methodist Church's plans, they're not in that number either because they're not entitled yet. So that's another 70 odd units that will be adding. So we we do have I think, and then we have the 230, I believe, units or so that the city is looking at facilitating behind sprouts on the city owned property on Gene Autry. So between these two projects that you've seen recently, that project United Methodist, we really do have close to 500 units in planning. So, you know, that's getting us much closer to our goal. So we feel good about that at the same time. And this was the focus of a very productive open house last night related to the zoning code update. And thank you to those of you who came up. We're probably going to get the next round of Rena allocations in the next, you know, 18 months or so. And I'm hearing that that's going to be higher. So we have a lot of work to do, not just to meet this current cycle, but to meet future cycles. And that is really why we're moving fairly aggressively through the zoning code update to identify where and how we grow in a very constrained land base. And just a couple statistics I want to share. I'll share the presentation with all of you. It'll be online shortly. Some compelling statistics 75% of our land base is constrained. So I

think when you look at a physical map of what the municipal boundaries of Palm Springs are, we're very large, the largest city in the valley in terms of land area, but most of it is mountain or desert or tribal or constrained in some way. And so only 75, only 25% of our land based is actually developable. So we're very constrained in that regard. And then some other arguments that we're making in support of why we need to grow, in addition to the Rena, which is obviously sort of a very regulated thing that we need to respond to in terms of meeting the housing allocations assigned to us by the state and the regional government. Through that process. There's also just our own reasons for wanting to grow, which we found some statistics that came out of the economic development strategic plan that I think were very compelling. The cost of housing in the last five years in Palm Springs has risen by 85%, which is nearly doubling. During the same time, wages have risen by 30%. So I don't think this is a surprise to anybody, but the cost of housing is far outpacing the rise in wages. When you look at income levels and the people that work here, only 1 in 6 workers in the city of Palm Springs can afford to live here. So 84.5% of the workers who work in Palm Springs don't live here and can't afford to live here. And that is why we need to really focus on diversifying our housing stock and finding not necessarily capital, a affordable housing, but a more affordable housing typology than sort of, you know, single family homes that were typically seeing. So, again, very encouraged by the types of projects that we're seeing here and that we're talking about tonight. But I think our zoning code needs to look at moving the needle even more. And so we were focused last night on a conversation about where and how we do that. We've proposed in the draft maps to focus that development along our existing

commercial corridors, where you have existing access to transit, where you have existing infrastructure, where it makes sense. So certainly Palm and Indian Canyon, but also looking at Tahquitz Vista, Chino, Racket Club, Ramon and looking at sort of our our major arterials as places to focus the growth. It ends up being less than 1% of the city's land base. So that's really where we're looking to focus growth in three different categories of sort of mixed use, higher density buildings varying three, five and seven stories. That's what's in the draft code. That was the focus of the conversation last night. It was it was very lively, and I think there were a lot of emotions and a lot of concerns raised by community members about how we make sure, as we're doing that, that we are respecting our existing established neighborhoods and how we provide transitions, how the development standards might look at orienting height or setbacks to ensure that they're not impacting existing residential neighborhoods. So there's a lot of work to do on what those standards look like. But it was a good conversation in terms of setting the table for why we need to do this, not just relying on state law because state law is telling us to, but because we need to do it as a community as well. So lots of work to do. But it was a good conversation. Yeah. Oh, I thought you were going to ask a question. No. Well, I was just going to congratulate you on a good job on a very difficult meeting last night. There were there was great turnout. I was glad to see that many people from the community show up, and I think there was kind of a distinct change between the first half and the second half. I agree. And after the first half, I think a lot of the most angry people left. And some of the questions and suggestions that were offered at the end were very thoughtful and very

productive. And I thank the community members who are willing to think about it and make suggestions. The one thing that I would say that I noticed is a common thread, and I would encourage the consultants to look at it more, is the the real kerfuffle seems to happen at the transition between one zone and another, and I think part of it was that there wasn't quite enough explanation. And I think some people weren't really in a listening mode, but there wasn't a good enough explanation of going from one zone to another. You can have a transition area, and it doesn't have to be abrupt. And that was compounded a little bit by the exhibits that seemed to show very. Sugarcube buildings, you know, hard edges and a dramatic change from one to the next. And I, I would hope that we are able to respect our community and their concerns of for their existing homes by not having very abrupt transitions from one zone to the next. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's difficult to be having this conversation before the standards and the text of the code themselves are written, because a lot of those answers will come out of that. So it feels like in part we were having it in a very abstract way. You're right, with boxy buildings, without the benefit of knowing what those options are. In addition, I think just thinking about providing better transitions. So I think that's the work we'll do over the next coming months. Certainly as we're getting into writing the development standards, we'll also refine the maps and the extent of the zoning boundaries themselves, but also be very thoughtful to what those standards themselves are calling for for that transition. I don't really have a lot of other updates at the last city Council

meeting, as you know, there was an appeal of the other affordable housing project which you had all entitled recently, and the council voted to deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission's decision so that project will continue to move forward. And the Architectural Review Committee, at their meeting last week, also approved the architectural, the major architectural application associated with the Days Inn project that you all entitled recently as well. So those two projects are continuing to move forward. And that is the extent of my updates. Unless you have other questions, I think the one question is in and out. Is there a report back on where we are with In and Out Burger? I'm not sure if one of our subcommittee members would like to provide the update. Yeah, the subcommittee met about, I don't know, two weeks ago now. I guess it was probably and they had redesigned the plan and the architecture. Unfortunately, it was still quite a white box. We had a debate going over whether the color that was shown on the elevations was accurate to the paint swatch that was on the same plan, so there was a little question about that. They assured us it was a soft white, but we encouraged them to continue looking at going a little softer toward a a beige. I'm not sure they're going to, but we gave them some good feedback. Lori and I attended representing the Planning Commission and also O'Donnell and John Walsh from the Architectural Review Board were there. And a lot of good, good input was given. The plan also showed the the architecture also showed these strange angles that they said was a nod to

mid-century, but they were like only over. There were little ten foot wide things over the entrance that just looked odd. So we suggested that they rethink those. The building had a bit of a modern, modern kind of look to it, which is what they said was unique to Palm Springs, although there's not a whole lot of that in Palm Springs. So bottom line is we gave them good feedback. We're waiting for plans to be resubmitted. There will likely not be another formal subcommittee meeting, but there'll be a comment period. And then it'll go to Architectural Review Board. I fear that we're not going to get exactly what we were trying to push for, but I think it's going to be better. And wasn't our approval dependent on having a design that the committee could accept? I thought we did a unique approval on that one, which was sort of a non approval until we got well, we sent them to subcommittee to work through it. I mean, we we can't prevent them from going to Arc with what they want to go to. So I think they're trying to be responsive. And then you know Arc will make their decision. We also the majority of the the concern the Planning Commission dealt with the site plan itself. And they have not updated the site plan. They wanted to get their architecture first so we weren't able to or were not able to report back on whether or not they're addressing the concerns and the areas that we we asked to have addressed. Can it go without those being it can't go without the site plan being addressed? The

applicant can choose to move forward with whatever they wish to move forward with, and then it will become the decision making bodies, you know, decision as to whether they want to advance it or not. But they have if it goes with the site plan that wasn't approved, well, you did you did entitle it. So it has been entitled by the Planning Commission. You sent it to a subcommittee for further study. I would add that I think the a couple of the main things that came out of the Commission's review and discussion that I think they finally heard from the subcommittee, was regarding the need for providing shade at the building on the south side and on the west side, where both of their entrances are. And I think they finally got that. There's a need for there to be some sort of wide awning of some sort integrated to the architecture of the building, of course, that provides shade, since we heard from them that they don't like to put plant material right up against the building. We heard it from that at the commission, so I think they finally got an understand the need to provide some good shade at the entryways that is integral to the building and integrated with some of the other awnings and perhaps the the covered seating area and or the, the drive through covered area. The heard and I think they got that they need to look seriously at that. Yeah I just want to clarify. They have indicated consistently outside of the immediate sort of building changes and what Commissioner Miller is talking about, the broader, I think, site planning issues that were raised by the Planning Commission, they seem very committed to making. They just haven't executed it yet. And what I would say, just to clarify, they can choose to move forward how they want to, but our staff report would certainly point out any discrepancies between the direction of the Planning Commission or the subcommittee and what is

ultimately submitted. So we'll make sure that that's all clear. Now. Any other questions or comments? Megan. Isn't there another subcommittee that's supposed to be happening as well that I'm on? I haven't heard any. There was. Right. But it kind of fizzled. I just want to make sure I'm not. Remember, but it's been, I think, a few months. I just want to remember what projects we established a subcommittee for at home. I just don't remember off the top of my head, but there was supposed to be another oh well, I will certainly follow up on that if I'm trying. I know that we've done a couple subcommittees for developments in Messina and Maryland, but those have been happening. I'm trying to think of what else we've done, but we'll confirm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And make sure that we haven't lost sight oftentimes just for the benefit of a lot of folks, because I know a number of you get volunteer, get put on subcommittees. And then it's kind of radio silence, right? A lot of that is premised on the applicants, you know, when the applicants are ready to proceed or when they give us the materials. So it could very well be that the applicant in that case has not come back ready to proceed, but we'll double check. With that. I'm going to adjourn. So does anybody else have comments? Questions? Okay. Okay. I'm I'm going to adjourn until 530. Tuesday, February 10th. See you then. Yes. I sent an e-mail recording stopped. Rescheduling.