Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

And approve those as submitted. Item three, non-agenda public comment.

I'm sorry, one moment. Okay, you can begin again.

Great, thank you. So item three is non-agenda public comment. If you are attending in person and would like to make a non-agenda public comment, please approach the podium at this time. Seeing no one, I'll close the non-agenda public comment and move on to the statement of purpose. The zoning administrator is appointed by the Planning and Economic Development Director and has the responsibility and authority to conduct public meetings and hearings and to act on applications for minor or reduced review authority projects or entitlements. A determination or decision by the zoning administrator may be appealed to the design review and preservation board, planning commission, or city council as applicable to the decision. All actions taken by the zoning administrator may be appealed within 10 calendar days. If the final day of the appeal period falls on a non-business day, the appeal period will be extended to the next business day. There are no report items or consent items, so we'll move on to our scheduled item, which is a minor design review for a drive-through located at 131 College Avenue and I have no expertise disclosures for this item. May we please have your staff report.

Good morning, Zoning Administrator McKay. My name is Suzanne Hartman and I'm the project planner for this project. which is a proposed Starbucks drive-through only building with an exterior walk-up ordering pickup service. The location is proposed to have nine vehicle parking spaces and one bicycle parking space. The onsite queuing is proposed for up to 21 vehicles. There is proposed landscaping, lighting, as well as some frontage improvements. A six foot high precast concrete panel wall is going to be erected at the rear of the property, and they do propose to preserve six heritage coast redwood trees. This is the location of the project site. It is adjacent to the Highway 101. The general plan land use designation is retail and business services, and the zoning district is general commercial, which is applied to areas appropriate for a range of retail and service land uses that primarily serve residents and businesses throughout the city. The CG zoning district is consistent with the retail and business services land use classification. This is the proposed landscape plan. Again, they're proposing to preserve six heritage trees as well as planting some new trees on the site. There is the concrete panel sound wall. There's landscaping also proposed along the front, along College Avenue there. And the, I believe, oh sorry, Sorry about that. All right. And these are the proposed elevations. The project has been found to be in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act under the following guidelines, sections 15303, 15332, and 15183. We received a late comment this past week in regards to this project, just general concern over traffic for this project, and I just wanted to provide a response to that comment. When the city requires a traffic assessment like this one, there are several reviews by city staff to ensure that an operational or safety concerns due to vehicular access to and from the site are mitigated. The proposed drive-through should be able to accommodate expected demands and therefore it is not anticipated that the development would negatively impact traffic operations on College Avenue. There are no unresolved issues as a result of staff review. Staff analysis has concluded all findings can be met, and the applicant has reviewed and accepted all conditions of approval. So therefore, the Planning and Economic Development Department recommends that the zoning administrator, by resolution, approve a minor design review permit to allow a new drive-through restaurant building with associated site improvements at 131 College Avenue. Thank you, and that's the conclusion of my presentation. I believe the applicant is available to answer questions through Zoom, but they do not have a presentation. Thank you.

Great, thank you. With that, let's go to public comment. If you're attending in person and would like to make a public comment on this item, please approach the podium at this time. Okay, seeing none, I'll close the public comment. Yeah, I also had some concerns about traffic but i did review the traffic study and i also watched the planning commission hearing where director hennessey fielded a lot of questions from the commission about pass-by trips and on-site and adjacent circulation concerns so that was helpful in resolving some of my concerns. I do appreciate how there is a walk-up window. I know a lot of folks like to order with their phones or their mobile apps or whatever it's called, and they can use the onsite parking to walk up after ordering on their phone. It's not just a drive-through, only car service, coffee shop, which is great. I appreciate the preservation of some of those trees. I think that those will serve as a very good... like continuity for the adjacent neighbors to the north. Obviously, the site has been vacant for quite some time, so any kind of development, especially an intensification of the use, will be a change for them, but I think keeping those trees to the extent that you are, the applicant is, proposing to certainly will ease that transition um and the building looks like a coffee shop so that's good and i really like the mural curious to see what that programming ends up actually becoming but concept looks great and i'm sure that it will be executed nicely um Yeah, I think this is a good redevelopment of a long vacant site, and I appreciate the effort that's gone into all the noise and traffic studies. I think to the extent possible, the site design has been configured in a way that will be as least impactful as possible. And the building itself is of superior design and materials. So I've reviewed the conditions of approval and I have no suggested edits or additional conditions and can also make all the required findings for approval as outlined by staff in the draft resolution of approval and will therefore approve the project. Thank you. All right, please note this action is final unless an appeal is filed with the Planning and Economic Development Director Department within 10 calendar days of today's decision. For this item, that date is Monday, September 21st, 2026. And that concludes our business for this meeting. So the meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.