Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, we'll call the meeting to order.

It's 5.30, right? All right. And Kelly, can you call roll, please? Yes. Commissioner Debra Pauly?

Present.

Commissioner Frechette?

Here.

Commissioner Hewn?

Here.

Commissioner Rehman? Here. Commissioner Stoss? Here. Vice Chair Stevenson?

Here.

And Chair Malden? Here. Thank you, Kelly. Can you announce the meeting's video recording, please? Tonight's meeting will be recorded via Zoom and can be viewed on the city's website within 48 hours of adjournment of this meeting.

Thank you. And Commissioner Debra Pauly is going to lead us in the pledge tonight. All right. Thank you. Members of the public wishing to address the Planning Commission for any matter not on the agenda may do so at this time by completing and submitting a speaker card to the Planning Commission clerk. For items on the agenda, speakers will be called by the chair at the point on the agenda when the item will be heard. Speakers are encouraged to keep comments to three minutes or less and to state name and community of residence. Under the provisions of the California Government Code, the Planning Commission is prohibited from discussing or taking immediate action on any item not on the agenda unless it can be demonstrated to be of an emergency nature or the need to take immediate action arose after the posting of the agenda. And Kelly, can you announce public comment?

Yes, I have one speaker card, William Bernal. You may go to the podium.

Can I pass these out to each one of your fine gentlemen and fine ladies here tonight? I'm a candidate for

False Rios.

How many copies do you have, sir? How many copies, sir, do you have?

Okay. We'll take some and we'll have to put some at the back of the room. So whenever you bring something that has to be accessible to the public as well. So we can help you do that. Right now.

I'll take them back there. I admire Rancho Cordova. They basically carved themselves out of Sacramento once they realized they had a financial base and taxes that was going to support a city. I just happened to be two blocks away when that petition came by our house, so we are now unincorporated Sacramento. Today, as a candidate for the Los Rios Community College Board of Trustees Area 6, I'm inspired by the same pioneering spirit that shaped Rancho Cordova. Rancho Cordova was built by dreamers and doers who believed in the power of community. The city's recent transportation improvements are just one area that reflects the power of community action. I'm committed to ensure that our local colleges reflect the diversity of our communities, so that through the concerted effort of community action, we create opportunities for and provide services to everyone across the board. In the Rancho Cordova spirit of community, I want to listen and collaborate creatively to build the future of our local colleges. I'm committed to bring a detail-orientated, transparent leadership, incorporating my experience in both the field of building commercial structures with the tightest of budgets and the boardroom finding waste and misapplication in multimillion-dollar projects. My goal is to ensure that Los Rios Community College Board of Trustees is dedicated to serving the best interests of the students who attend colleges, parents who find their children, and teachers who dedicate their lives to instruction. It's time for us to put our heads together to come up with creative solutions that will move our colleges toward higher levels of achievements, more open doors, for our students and address the social, economic, and fiscal issues students are increasingly facing. Only then can we empower future leaders to navigate tomorrow's obstacles. My whole focus is that we can't be planning for this year's fiscal budget. We need to be planning for 2003 and 2004 educational needs. As you can see, AI and advanced technologies are multiplying by the day, and we're seeing the horrors and the realities of it. So I'm putting my hat in the ring, and I have two seconds left, I guess. Thank you very much for listening to me, considering me as a candidate, and helping support me to win because my opponent is a... an incumbent, so it's tough for a new runner to come up and win. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

Any additional further public comment? No, I have no additional speaker cards. Okay, thank you. We'll move on to item four. City Council Chambers, consent calendar items consistent matters deemed routine and non controversial by staff, unless a member of the planning Commission wishes to pull an item for individual consideration all items will be approved by one motion. City Council Chambers, Are there any items planning Commission wishes to pull from the consent calendar. City Council Chambers, And Kelly, do we have any public comment related to the consent calendar. I have no speaker cards for our consent calendar. Okay, thank you. We'll go ahead and close public comment. May I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved.

I second that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Debra Pauly?

Yes.

Commissioner Frechette?

Aye.

Commissioner Hewn?

Aye.

Commissioner Raymond? Aye. Commissioner Stoss? Aye. Vice Chair Stevenson?

Aye.

And Chair Molden?

Yes.

Motion passes with a 7-0 vote. Thank you.

And we have no consent public hearing items, so we'll move on to item 6.1. And Kelly, will you announce the subject, please?

Yes. Item 6.1, subject Douglas 103, major design review, project number PLND-0426-0158. Exempt pursuant to Section 15182, residential projects pursuant to a specific plan of the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA guidelines located south of Douglas Road, west of Cypress Grove Drive, and approximately 145 feet east of Borderlands Drive. APN... a portion of 067-0040-026-0000. Thank you.

And Chance, you have a staff report for us?

I do. Thank you, Kelly. Good evening, chair and commissioners. Glad to see you for the second time this month. Yeah, Chance Finley with the city's planning division. I'll be presenting the Douglas 103 major designer view for single family detached lots. All right, let's hop into it. So, yeah, the applicant is requesting a major design review for 198 single-family detached homes. The project is divided into three different collections, including chartreuse, sage, and clover. Across those three collections, there are 10 floor plans ranging from approximately 1,700 to 3,200 square feet. The project includes both one and two-story homes and four architectural styles, including Spanish, ranch, prairie, and farmhouse. For the project location, as shown in the green areas up here, Douglas 103 is located south of Douglas Road, west of Cypress Grove Drive, and east of Borderlands Drive. The project is part of the larger residential development occurring within and around the Sunridge Pacific Plan and is located to the north of Grant Line 208 and Grant Line 220 and south of the preserve, which are also Lennar communities that have recently been built or are in the process of getting built. The site will also be divided by the future Americanos Boulevard. You can see it going through the middle there. For a general plan and zoning consistency, the project is located within the Sunridge specific plan and is designated for RD5 and RD10 residential developments, which is consistent with the type of development contemplated by the specific plan. The subdivision and associated development standards were previously established through the applicable approvals, including the tentative map. And tonight's major design review is focused primarily on the design of the homes that are going to be going there. So as I mentioned, the site is organized into three product collections that are shown here. We have chartreuse on the right there in blue. It includes four foreplans on approximately 40 by 90 foot lots with homes ranging from approximately 1,700 to 2,400 square feet. Sage includes... Three plans on approximately 45 by 90 foot lots ranging from approximately 2,000 to 2,400 square feet. That's going to be the one in the green down there to the south. And Clover is the largest of the lots, and that's going to be 65 by 110 foot lots. And it includes three plans ranging from approximately 2,500 to 3,200 square feet. This is one that also includes a single story floor plan. So getting into the design of the homes, staff focused much of our review and worked with the applicant on architectural variety and ensuring that the publicly visible elevations have plenty of articulation. The project provides multiple styles, colors, and materials, and we've also added requirements for material returns and limitations on adjacent three-car garages, as you see in the Clover community. Overall, staff believes that the combination of these elements provides an appropriate level of architectural variety and streetscape interest. There was also a preliminary landscape plan that was submitted for the three product collections, which include a variety of trees and shrubs and ground cover intended to compliment the homes and provide additional visual interest along the street frontage. Staff also reviewed the proposed landscaping in relation to the relatively small lot sizes in sage and chartreuse to make sure that the proposed plantings are appropriate for the available space. For environmental review, the project would be exempt pursuant to section 15182. That's gonna be for your residential projects pursuant to a specific plan. The Sunridge specific plan was previously evaluated through the environmental impact report that was previously certified. And Douglas 103 is consistent with the residential development that was contemplated during this EIR review. So therefore, It complies with 15182, and a SQL review is not required. So with that staff is recommending that the Planning Commission determine the project exempt from CEQA per 15182 and adopt the resolution approving the major designer view for Douglas 103 project number PLND-04266-0158 approval would be subject to the findings project plans and conditions of approval attached to this.

and that concludes my presentation i'm available and afghan is also here from lennar great thank you chance uh we'll go ahead and open the public hearing period and kelly is there any public comment i have no public uh or speaker cards for this item okay public hearing is now closed commission comments and questions start with cindy i don't have anything

I had just one question, but I think going through the presentation, I've figured it out, but I'm just going to read it because I wrote it down. With the tighter side yard setbacks in Chartreuse and Sage, how did staff evaluate how those lots will function for residents, particularly for like access utility? Just because I was reading that there's like six feet between the two homes. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. So I just wanted to get a better understanding. I didn't, it wasn't as clear.

yeah um so these setbacks were approved uh about it's i want to say like a decade ago um in the tentative map for this so when we get a major design review like this where they're just going to be building a structure on top of these lots that already have standards approved for them we're really just looking to make sure that they are going to be meeting the setbacks that were approved. I mean, they have already kind of inherited those setbacks that were approved a while ago. We do typically require a fit list, which is what the applicant has provided us. And it shows that at least one plan type can fit on each of those lots with enough access to go from the front to the back, which is where most of your open space activity is going to be happening.

And I think it just wasn't when I was going through, um, it wasn't as clear. So thank you. I appreciate that. Of course.

No questions or comments here.

Well, there's always been the, the one comment that keeps coming up and I noticed that hasn't really been addressed on this one is the length of the driveways. I wasn't going to say it. I know. But it's a valid point. And I just wonder why we don't push the house back two feet to get that little extra driveway that can support a work vehicle, a work van, service truck, etc. Regardless, that's a minor thing in the big picture. I've reviewed everything and I don't see a problem with it.

Just to add to that, there will be options. I mean, not every single house is going to be at exactly 19 foot driveways. I think I typically have a similar response. So hopefully you can bear with the similar response. But not every house is going to have a 19 foot driveway. You know, there's going to be options for different size driveways. There's going to be different size lots. So if someone's got like a big truck and they want to buy one of the homes, typically they're going to have a selection that isn't just a 19-foot. So the buyer has the option to push it back, move things around a little bit? Well, they can buy a lot that has a home that's going to be set in a specific spot.

Okay.

So it's not always going to be at 19-foot exactly. That's just the minimum that the developer needs to meet for standards.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

sorry public comment period is closed i apologize okay it's my turn i have a couple of small suggestions uh regarding the roof i see they're not using tiles anymore is it because of a cost effective thing or is it What is the difference? Basically, I see tiles have better quality and look also tiles looks good. But it seems like Leonard decided to go with shingles.

Is there a reason? I mean, can we ask? Oh, sure. Did you want to ask both questions at once? Or, and I can call the applicant up. That's more of an applicant question.

Okay. Yeah. If you, someone from Lenar can come up and answer that question.

Good evening, Pierre Martinez with Lennar. It is a cost savings for Lennar as a builder. We transitioned to comp roofs, I think, at the Preserve project. We had more historically gone with tile roofs, but We're trying to keep homes at a price point that buyers can get into, especially in this community with the majority of the home sites being in the sage and chartreuse smaller size. It's even more important to try to keep that cost level where entry-level buyers and people looking for smaller homes can get in.

Okay, is it? How long is it going to stay? I mean, tiles, I heard it's a life expectancy is around 50 years, something like that.

I believe the comp roofs have a 30-year warranty.

Okay. And one more thing I identified is the ceiling height within the home. First floor has nine feet and second floor has eight feet.

That is typically what we've been doing. I don't recall off the top of my head what we're doing here, but on two-story homes, that's typically what we do.

Yeah, last four years, I'm noticing it, Leonard, building like that. Previously, I saw homes having 10 feet height, first floor, second floor has nine, nine and a half.

Yeah, and that's typically reserved for kind of the higher-end, larger homes. Again, it is part of cost savings. I don't recall specifically off the top of my head what these particular homes are, but 10 foot is not very common. It's kind of a luxury in type home once you get over nine.

Yeah, these ones are generally nine foot on the bottom and eight foot on the top. Thanks.

Yeah, I saw one other home. I mean, I feel like, say, claustrophobic. I mean, somewhere I boxed it out in that home. And it's eight feet.

Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree. It can feel a little bit smaller when you get in. But I always truly believe there's a home for everybody. And so we try to, you know, design something for, you know, the buyer that we're expecting to be able to afford a particular home, you know, in a community. And so we're very cost conscious with that. And we also have to be competitive with our competitors. So it's not, you know, really much different than our competitors.

Okay. And while designing it, do you guys look for how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms you guys design? Is there a ratio you guys follow or do you guys have any?

I mean, just generally when you look at a product line, let's say of four plans, we do think about, okay, this is going to be, 1500 to 2200 square feet. And so we might start with three bedroom, two bath, and maybe then it's three bedroom, two and a half bath, and maybe four or three bedroom with an office. So, you know, you're trying to give the buyer a little something extra for the extra square footage that they're getting. So yeah, there's a thought process that we go through to make sure that there's value for the buyer as they step up in home size.

Yeah, because one of the home you guys have planned, six bedroom, three bath. I mean, is that sufficient? Because five bedrooms in the second floor, first floor has one bedroom, one bath. I don't know whether that is sufficient for five bedrooms, two bath.

Right.

Well, it's our job to sell them.

So when our sales team says, you know, we have a market for something like this, you know, then we try to accommodate as we can, you know. And if it doesn't sell well, then we may not use that plan again.

Interesting. Yeah, that's that.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you.

could ask him later uh do we have a motion on this item i moved to read it out oh gosh i have to read it oh gosh okay hold on uh okay just so you know the staff recommendation i thank you i moved to um i make a motion to move to for the staff recommendation Determine that project. I'm going to read it. Determine the project exempt per Section 15182, residential projects pursuant to a specific plan of the CECA guidelines and adopt the resolution approving the major design review for Douglas 103.

I'll second.

Thank you. Commissioner Debra Pauley?

Yes.

Commissioner Frechette?

Aye.

Commissioner Huynh?

Aye.

Commissioner Raymond? Aye. Commissioner Stoss? Aye. Vice Chair Stevenson?

Aye.

And Chair Malden?

Yes.

Motion passes with a 7-0 vote. Thank you, Colleen.

All right. Item 7, Planning Commission comments, ideas, questions. Start at this end?

I don't have any.

Well, I got to give staff credit for trying to make this September 30th meeting work. And I apologize that I'm just not going to be able to make it to that one. I'm a stickler for making meetings, but apologize for that one.

Well, back to school, so happy that that's going down. Yes. My daughter's a senior year in Cordova, and then my son is in the seventh grade at Mitchell, so they are... busy during the day now. So thank God for that. And everything else is good.

Yeah. Hey, cheers to that. I also have a seventh grader and a freshman and a senior. So yes, I'll just mention, I don't know if anyone saw the council meeting last night, but the city is looking to purchase two empty office buildings to put a community center in. So if you get a chance to review that, that's an exciting thing that is coming. So that's it for now.

Nothing from me.

I'd like to thank Commissioner Hune for taking up the torch on the short driveways. Hopefully someday we will figure out a way to solve that problem. You drive down the street in my neighborhood, you see what an impact it really does have. Other than that, I don't know what to do. Two meetings in one month, that's kind of... Oh, we now have 150 screaming kids active out at the mine shaft as we're getting ready for this year's rendition of Heartstoppers. Tickets will go on sale next month. Come on out and scream for a cause. It's quite a operation out there with all those kids.

Well, I'd like to be one to say I'm really happy all your kids are back to school because now I'm stuck in that traffic again.

But no, that's great.

It's always good to see the kids back. I would like to congratulate Elliot on his candidacy. So it doesn't sound like he's going to run opposed. The main thing I want to say is this weekend was kind of an eye opener for me. My son was in the Hawk Fire evacuation zone up in Reno, and it just triggered for me that we all need to be prepared. So have your go boxes ready. Think about now what you really need to take in an event of an emergency. Luckily, he's kind of young in his life and he didn't have a whole lot of stuff that was critical, but I know I have a lot. So just it really brought that to the forefront for me. And I living here haven't been through the app going off like you're in the go, you're no go, evacuate, don't evacuate. It was a little stressful Saturday and Sunday for me, but all is well and everybody's healthy and safe. So just think about fire preparedness as we enter into the fall. That's all I have.

Love it. Great safety tip. Thanks. And Arlene, you have your planning manager report for us?

Yes, nothing too major. Just a reminder, there's Good Neighbor Day happening next month on the 17th at Countryside Park and also on October 14th in Gold Rush Park. So that'll be kind of, you'll see community engagement out there along with city staff and other partner agencies. It's always a fun time. I enjoy doing it, especially the Halloween one is my favorite one. So, yeah, so hopefully we'll see some of the planning commissioners there. And then also we will be getting busy. So just a heads up to everybody, you know, things are picking up on the development side. And so we will be, you know, getting busy. So, yeah, again, if you have any questions, just please reach out. I am always accessible via text. I'm a massive texter, as you've already figured out. But it's the best way to get a hold of me because I'm always in a meeting one way or another. Yeah. So that's all, Chair. Thank you. Great.

Thank you so much. All right. With that, we'll adjourn at 5.58 tonight. Go team.