Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This is Chair David Hton and I would like to call the regular meeting of the planning commission to order and please join me now in the pledge of allegiance. Everybody ready to flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Would city clerk Terresa Purrington please call roll? Commissioner Flores here. Commissioner Khan here. Commissioner Kulie here. Commissioner Jorgensson here. Chair Hton I'm here. So, it's time for public comment for any items that are not on the agenda. So, we will hear any comments um yes that are not on tonight's agenda. Items raised are generally referred to staff and if action by the commission is necessary may be scheduled for a future meeting. City clerk, do we have any public comment on non-aggenda items this evening? Yes, we have one and that is Kathy Walker. One moment while I get this time. Are we ready to go? Teresa, you got your mic on. Okay. Nice to see you again, Miss Walker. You have your three minutes. All right. Um, I'm asking for you to put the illegal land use issue relating to f fraternities on your agenda. This problem cannot continue to be put on hold. It's a public nuisance and needs to be addressed as soon as

possible. As an example, this past weekend there were many large fraternity parties at illegal fraternity houses in our neighborhood. I don't think any fraternities held events at their main chapter houses because they don't want to get citations there. So, they hold events in the backyards in single family neighborhoods. Alta Vista and Monterey Heights. On Friday, Bedakai received a citation for a party at 1350 Stafford. This property has received a notice from the city for illegal fraternity operations, but continues to hold fraternity related events there. On Saturday, Zeta Beta received a citation for a party with 200 people at um 1646 Frederick's, which is an R1 family neighborhood. This property has received notice from the city for illegal fraternity operations, but continues to hold fraternity parties there. It also received a party a citation last month for 150 people. Betatheta Pi on Saturday received a citation for 200 people at 377 Albert R1. The fire department and ambulance was dispatched for a female with alcohol poisoning on the corner of Albert and Frederick's while these were going on. On Saturday, Lambda Kai Alpha received a citation for a party with 200 people at 12 Hathaway in R1 neighborhood. This has also received a notice from the city before for illegal fraternity use, but continues to operate. On Sunday, Theta Kai received a citation for a party with 100 people at 1844 Mcllum, also an R1 neighborhood. It shares a backyard with 250 grand. The party was in both locations. that part has also received a notice from the city for illegal fraternities. It's also R1. On Sunday, Alphaepsilon Pi received a citation for a party with 100 plus people at their house next door to their main house, 280 California. This was at 331 Hathway. It is also received notice from the city for continued illegal use

of a fraternity at that location. Each of these events was listed with Kalpali Greek Life and sanctioned 5 to 10 days beforehand. They have the addresses. They're not sharing them with the city. The city is not pursuing the addresses where they have the legal ability to do so. And so I'm asking that we have a public conversation about these land use violations, what actions the city has taken so far, and how the problem might be solved. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Walker. Okay, we need to move on to the consent calendar items. This consists of matters deemed routine and non-controversial by staff. These are typically acted upon with a single vote. However, if a member of the commission wishes to pull an item for individual consideration, please say so now. Seeing none, we will move on. And uh as a reminder, public com comment is accepted for all items. And city clerk, do we have any comments on consent items? No, we do not. Okay. Uh before we vote, do any commissioners have comments on the consent items in the consent calendar? hearing none. I will u point out this is the the main we we have the minutes of the previous meeting on the consent calendar and then we have the planning commission review of the capital improvement plan for the next two years. Uh I had a number of questions but I talked about that with staff and received satisfactory answers. This is the uh one of the larger parts of the city budget and it's some of the big ticket items that are going to be spent over the next two years. It's part of the overall planning process. And this uh all the projects that are on that um capital improvement plan are reviewed and approved by the city

council before it gets to us. But we do have a review capacity here. It's generally uh fairly administrative. So I'm satisfied with what's on there. So I will entertain a motion now to approve the consent calendar items. Move to approve consent. I'll second. Motion is second and city clerk can uh do we have any uh discussion of this before we go to a vote? Okay, city clerk, can you please call roll for this motion? Commissioner Khan, yes. Commissioner Jorgensson, yes. Commissioner Flores, yes. Commissioner Tolley, I mean Kulie, sorry, yes. Chair Hton, yes. Okay, we are moving on to public hearings. I have a little piece to read to you before we do this. Any court challenge to the action taken on public hearing items on this agenda may be limited to considering only those issues raised at the public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the city of St. Louis Abyspo at or prior to the public hearing. If you wish to speak, please give your name and address for the record. Please limit your comments to three minutes and we'll have a little timer for you to keep you honest on that. So, the public hearing before us tonight is a re-review of an existing conditional use permit for a fraternity. We actually have two of them. This is the first one located at 1236 Mont Vista Place. So I would first like to ask uh each commissioner for disclosure of any exparte contact with anyone who has provided information to commissioners that's not on the record so that information may be used as part of their decisionmaking process. Do we have any disclosures? Okay, we do not. So would

assistant planner Mallerie Patino please present the staff report on this item. Hello, my name is Mallalerie Patino. I'll be presenting tonight on both uh items on the public hearing agenda. As you mentioned, there are two of these items. They're going to be fairly similar as far as the presentations go. So, item 4 a, fraternity conditional use permit re-review uh for a active use permit at 1236 Monavista Place. Starting with our recommendation, uh staff recommends planning commission adopt the draft resolution to modify the conditional use permit based on updated findings and subject to revised conditions of approval. Jump into the site before we start talking about the details. Uh 1236 Monavista is located in the R4 zone, highdensity residential. It's a developed property with two and threetory multif family structures for a total of 26 bedrooms with various site improvements. It's a little bit of an irregular shaped parcel. You would access a parcel from Monav Vista. Um, it's in proximity and surrounded by other R4 multifamily residences. And the northern boundary is actually the property boundary or uh boundary of the city and Calpali. A little bit of background, the use permit was approved in 1998 as U 106. Uh, it allowed a fraternity organization at 1236 Monavista Place. It originally called out Kappa Sigma in the uh in the use permit. However, in 2012, Delta Kai fraternity moved in and

they're the fraternity that still uses the active use permit. The original permit limited 35 people for residents and routine gatherings or events to 53 people. For a bit of history of violation, there was some unpermitted construction done in 2021. and code enforcement issued a notice of violation for this unpermitted construction. Four units had been had converted decks or patios that were previously uninhabitable spaces converted into enclosed sleeping areas. For the fraternity use violations in this current academic year since September of 2024, they've received three citations from the police department. However, one of those was successfully appealed. Uh so it no longer counts against them. Uh, one of the violations was for a noise violation and the other was for an unruly gathering. And I just want to point out that in the staff report, it didn't mention the unruly gathering. Um, and that was clarified. Um, since publishing, code enforcement issued a notice of violation relating to these police department citations and violations of their use permit. in March of 2025. The condition number 11 of U 106 requires planning commission re-review if they receive complaints. That's why we've referred them to the planning commission today. Uh a re-review can result in added modified and or removed conditions or can result in the revocation of the use permit. As mentioned at this time, staff recommends updating the cup with revised findings and conditions for compliant for compliance with current municipal code regulations and consistency with re with recently approved other fraternity use permits. Since 1998, there's been a handful of municipal code changes. During our re-review, we evaluated the use for compliance with

our current regulations. Uh included in the changes and updated find including in these changes are updated findings for conditional use permits as well as updated findings and criteria for the approval of fraternities. As part of the comprehensive update in 2018, standard conditions for fraternities and sororities were added to the zoning regulations. The conditions limited the number of permitted residents, regulated the number of attendees for routine meetings and gatherings, required affiliation and good standing with Calpali, and established responsible fraternity contacts. The revised conditions reflect these requirements. Additionally, since 1998, there were updates to title 9 of the municipal code. The code requirements are related to noise, public disturbances, and other disorderly conduct. The requirements apply to all uses in the city regardless if there is an applicable cup or not. The sections relate to related to fraternities are referenced here on the slide. They prohibit noise generating acts and unruly gatherings to protect public peace. There are also enhanced penalties during specific times of the year such as around St. Patrick's Day or Halloween. Accounting for these changes in the municipal code, the revised conditions shown on this slide are recommended to address the recent violations and provide consistency with recent fraternity use permit approvals to address concerns related to noise and large gatherings. These conditions would establish clearer requirements for re-reviews, set capacity limits for routine meetings and gatherings, require stricter adherence to the city's noise ordinances ordinance, and require communication with neighbors. Some of the conditions in the original permit were reorganized or revised. Specifically, some relating to resident resident capacities, parking spaces, routine property maintenance, and grounds for revocation. They're listed

on this slide. As part of this review, we did recommend removal for prior approvals that related to property improvements that were already satisfied or otherwise regulated by the municipal code. As proposed, staff recommends planning commission adopt the draft re resolution to modify the cup to allow continuation of a fraternity at 1236 Monavista Place. As discussed, these modifications include the updated required findings and revised conditions of approval to ensure the fraternity would continue in a manner that is compatible with the existing and proposed uses in their vicinity. This concludes staff's presentation. I'm available for questions as is John Mezipza from code enforcement team and Christine Wallace, public affairs manager from slow PD. Okay, thank you very much. So, time for questions of staff from the commission. Do we have questions for staff? Maybe you could describe a little bit. What happens if the CUP is revoked? When do leases get terminated? what's to keep the owners from leasing to fraternity members individually? Um it seems like without the cup you have possibly less controls and the situation could even get worse. Um explain that describe that. Yeah, thank you for the question. So if a CP is revoked, the city doesn't have um it would not result in the requirement for residents to vacate their premises and um unless other actions were taken. This just the revocation could not trigger that. We we can't control it. The property would revert just back to being an R4 residential property. Um the city would not recognize the site as allowed to have fraternity operations. So, some of the municipal code requirements

mentioned in the presentation, those would all still apply, such as the noise control ordinance, unruly gatherings, sign regulations, those are all still going to be applicable to a property whether or not they've got the cup. Um, revocation does impact their ability to routinely meet and gather. Um and if they were to continue on as operating as a fraternity, it would turn into a land use violation that is enforceable by code enforcement. Um code enforcement is actively working right now with Calpali uh office of student rights and responsibilities to create a system for reporting land use violations or just any violations to Calpali. Um, so any violation we mentioned would be reported whether there's a CUP or not. Um, and after that it's in Kalpali's hands as how they deal with the conduct of their organizations. Uh, Commissioner Cle, uh, we had some, uh, public correspondents questioning the one, one of the new conditions that are being suggested here are three violations would trigger an immediate re-review and some of the uh, correspondents suggested that it should be one. How did we arrive at three? Uh, based on the review that happened for a new fraternity, I believe it was last fall. um that was appealed and went to city council. That number was decided on at that time. Um a second the first re-review happened I guess in recent times after that and they decided to be consistent with the approval from city council during that appeal and recommended three that was approved at the planning commission for three. So to ensure or provide for consistency between the fraternities and these kind

of current age re-reviews and updates, we decided to stick with the three. Just to follow up, if you don't mind, is there any mechanism by which we could uniformly apply these new standards to all fraternities right now or can it only occur when there is a re-review? That might be a Rachel question. Each of the use permits are separate for each of those properties. So there's not a blanket unless this, you know, there's a change to the code in overall. Other comments or questions? Yeah, I excuse me. I'm kind of horse tonight. I don't know why. So um special events seem to have some standing in these conditions. that is it appears they're um intended to be a kind of a midpoint or something where there's more activity on the property. Can you define what a special event is and what would invoke the need for a special event in relation to this use permit? It would be an event that results in gathering of more than 54 people. Let me check the number. It's 53, 54, or 55. It's one of those. It's one of those numbers. Um, so, uh, they can routinely meet and gather without needing additional approvals underneath that capacity. Beyond that capacity, hosting an event as an organized fraternity uh, would then trigger that requirement. Um there's a little nuance here because these are people's residences. Um and code enforcement has to look at if something occurs as a residential use or as the use of a fraternity that's kind of getting into the weeds. For simplicity,

anything that has more than those 55 people, 54 people would need to pursue the special event permitting process. So it appears that from the testimony we've received and we got a lot of it and it was very helpful that uh a number of citations have been in have been uh produced um for what it sounds like are special events that is too many people uh you know a kind of um unruly gathering um noise violations those kinds of things. So, does that mean that people aren't applying for special event permits or are they violating the special permits they are applying for? We haven't seen nearly any special event permits being pursued under these use permits in recent years. Um, my understanding is that a lot of these fraternities weren't aware of this requirement until recent years and until recent contact. So they now know this fraternity as mentioned has two violations. One for a noise violation and one for an unruly gathering. I would say the unruly gathering as deemed by police was likely a party um given the thresholds needed to define it as that in which case they needed a special event permit for that event. Um, in talking about special events hosted by the a fraternity at a different site, it's unrelated to this use permit. Interesting. Thank you. Okay, I have another question. Commissioner Flores, um, can you repeat for us what is the penalty for the increased violations for noise and what's the penalty for a

special or having a special event without a permit? John, I think either Christine or John is going to be the best person suited to answer that question. Hi, I'm Christine Wallace from the Police Department public affairs. So our fine schedule as it increases a first violation is 350 then 700 then 1,000. During a safety enhancement zone a first violation would be 700 a second a,000 third a,000 a,000. When tenants earn violations we also site property owners. So a 350 violation may also be a 350 to a property owner. two separate but for the combined. Yeah. Hi John Mazip as a code enforcement supervisor. Um, essentially when there is a a noise violation or an unruly gather gathering violation, uh, we would evaluate whether there's a violation of the conditional use permit. Um, and if they violated one of the conditions, which may be that they need to get approval for a special event or it's outside the time frame in which they would be allowed to have an event or number of people at the event, we would then site with the notice of violation saying that, hey, you're in violation of your use permit. Don't do this again. Uh but if it continued for a second or third time, we have an escalating fine amount as well for I think it's 100 200 then 500 for the first, second, and third violations. Could we get your name again? Meipza. Okay. Y and you're with the city for the city with code enforcement. Okay. Thanks, Commissioner Flores. Is that it for you? Okay. So, I've got a few questions and

comments. The first thing I'll say is that we have two agenda items tonight that are very similar, right? And so a lot of what we're talking about will apply to both of these. Okay. So this business of unruly gathering, can you give us help us out with a little bit more of a definition of what that actually is? Yes. I'm going to pull it up so I can read it for you. Okay, I'm gonna I'm just going to read this. Per the municipal code section 913020 definitions. Unruly gatherings shall mean a gathering of 20 or more persons on private property that results in conduct that causes a substantial disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of private or public property in a significant segment of an immediate neighborhood or presents a threat to the health, welfare, and safety of those in attendance, responding enforcement personnel or nearby residents or properties. For purpose of this chapter, conduct that causes a substantial substantial disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of private or public property in a significant segment of an immediate neighborhood or presents a threat to the health and safety. Shall include but is not limited to any or all of the following. A noise disturbance, obstruction of public streets or rights of way by people or vehicles, public drunkenness, unlawful possession of alcohol or drugs, serving alcohol to minors, fights, disturbances of the peace, urinating or defecating in public, setting off fireworks, vandalism, littering on public property or private property not belonging to the host of the gathering. Can I ask how long this two lines? Okay, sorry. presence of persons on rooftop areas not designed for occupancy,

unpermitted bands, amplified music or DJs, or throwing bottles or other objects at law enforcement. Okay. Okay, that sounds pretty unruly. So, do I understand it correctly? There's two categories of problems here. There's uh violation of the of the conditional use permit, which is a code enforcement uh matter, or violation of the municipal code, which is a slow PD matter. Is that right? I can answer if you want. Um, they go hand in hand. A lot of these use permits have language that say if there's a violation of the municipal code, you're violating the use permit. So, yes, you can get in trouble from two different avenues of the city, for lack of a better term. um code enforcement can site you and PD will site you, but at the end of the day, the use permit is going to be responsive to both of those things. Okay. And then following up on Commissioner Flores's earlier question about if we re if we were to revoke the permit and this would then be a non-raternity, it would be a res, would we have more avenues or the same or fewer avenues for enforcement of disturbances and unruly gatherings and big parties and all that. I mean, right now you can violate the the use permit, right? But if they don't have a use permit, they can't violate it. So that seems like there's less than there's less enforcement possibility there. Is that am I reading that right? I think you have those conditions in the use permit that can be upheld. If you have a use permit, if there's no use permit, then those conditions that are there wouldn't apply at all. So we would just be relying purely on the municipal code. Okay. Okay, that makes some sense. believe and the municipal

code includes all the provisions for noise, what you just read and um and so on. Okay. So, um and as far as larger gatherings, if there is a property that has no conditional use permit, if they want to have 56 or 58 or 150 people, are they can they apply for a special event permit as well, or is that only for um holders of the permit? So, um, special events in our land use table are require MUP, um, minor use permit, and they're not, um, they're just not allowed in the residential zone. So, these conditional use permits provide the avenue to get a special event permit. I see. Okay. Um, so, so no, the answer is no. A residents can't necessarily just come and ask to host a special event and get the correct permit. Okay. And that's not an R1 versus R4 thing at all. It's just none of the R1 to R4 there. It's it's blank in the municipal code land use table for special events. Commissioner Kohley, and just following up on that, we heard during public comment um reports that apparently increasing thing is parties occurring at residential locations that are not covered by the the CUP. So that means we would be following following back just to general municipal code at that point. Right. Correct. like a land use violation for not for operating without a permit if they're operating as a fraternity. Okay. Uh one more question. This balcony issue where uh unauthorized and unpermitted construction turning balconies into bedrooms, has that been remedied? I'm going to ask John to come up and speak on that topic. So they're in process of remitting that. They um there's four units uh on the property that each would require a permit to correct the violations, which

is essentially revert back to the balcony that existed. Um and I believe they have applications in for all four units. Uh uh two of them are still under review. Actually, I think they're all under review. Um the fees have been paid. A couple of the permits just need to be picked up, I believe. Um, so they're in process of being reviewed or need a resubmitt, but they are in process of of correcting those. So they need a permit to take it apart. Is that right? Yes. They would need a basically a permit to revert it back to what it was so that we can make sure it complies with the current building code standards. Okay. And that's pretty much a safety thing. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. And I'll add on um there is the condition that they fix that issue within a specific time frame um because we'd like to see that issue resolved. How's the clock running on that? The condition says they have 6 months. Okay. It will be noted that the property owner is not the fraternity themselves. So, um you know, like John said, they're in process, but it's um kind of a two avenue conversation. Okay. Okay. If there's no further questions or comments from the commission, I'd like to move on to public comment. So, hearing none, you guys ready? Okay, let's move on to public comment on this matter. And city clerk, do we have any public comment on this item? Right now, we have one speaker, Stu Jenkins. Okay, Mr. Jenkins, I invite you to the podium. You've got your get you set up with your three minutes there. Well, I'm old. I have to change out my glasses. Okay, we'll start the clock when you get the right glasses on. Uh, okay. I'm ready. Um, commissioners, uh, I'm Stu Jenkins. I live at, uh, 1336 Morrow Street where I have my law practice and I've had my law practice here since 1978. Um, I am also a member of the board of uh, residents for quality neighborhoods

and we get complaints all the time from residents about the unruly gatherings that happen every weekend in R1 and R2 zones. There are secret, not terribly secret, satellite houses of the fraternities. The unruly gathering ordinance defines generally what goes on in fraternities. If you just read down the list, that's what belonging to a fraternity frequently is. Um, you are considering whether to get rid of this conditional use permit. One of the remedies you can use is to add conditions for continuing the existence of this permit. For instance, um there's a state law that requires listing all the satellite houses and the events, but Kalpali and the fraternities have conspired to deny the city those addresses. As a condition of continuing this permit, you can require that this fraternity disclose on a quarterly basis to code enforcement the location of their satellite houses and the membership in the county of St. Louis Abyispo of their fraternity. um you can impose a stricter no amplified music uh condition because if you looked at that map there's actually R1 zones easily within earshot of that property. You could condition that no more than 50 people be at a gathering of any of the fraternity events and that they agree

that they will be subject to the enhanced penalties during rush week. Thank you. I put both items on my one card, so I'm reserving to speak on the other one. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Uh, excuse me, chair. I didn't know that the applicant was here. Uh, I'm sorry, the applicant is here and wanted to Oh, I skipped right over that, didn't I? This is only my second time doing this. So, so I didn't think there was an applicant because I thought this was brought by the city. I did not. Okay. We consider the fraternity to be the applicant in this instance. I see. Okay. Um, and the president is here. So, um, what what it says on my thing here. Oh, applicant presentation. So, does the applicant have a presentation? I'm sorry. Just a written statement, sir. A written statement. Okay. Has that been No, no slides. They have no slides, but they would like to. Okay. So, um, uh, since you are the applicant, you have up to 10 minutes. So, um, sorry to skip over you and it's now your turn. That's all right. Can I ask that you state your name for the record, please? Thank you. Yes, Jacob Zuckerman. Uh, good evening, members of the commission. My name is Jacob Zuckerandal, and I'm here representing Delta Kai's Kalpoli chapter in our registered chapter house at 1236 Mont Vista Place, where 35 of our 126 members currently reside. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I stand before you with deep respect for this process and the community we're a part of. As I near my end, my fourth year in the chapter and my year-long term as president, it is an honor to speak on behalf of the organization that's shaped

so much my college experience and personal growth. First and foremost, I would like to sincerely apologize on behalf of myself and our chapter for our past and recent noise violations. We understand that the front the frustration and disruption that these incidences can cause our neighbors and we take full responsibility. Living and operating in a conditional use permit is a privilege, not a right and that comes with the responsibility to be good neighbors. We recognize that we have fallen short at times and that trust has been damaged. Tonight, we're here not to make excuses but to take accountability and start rebuilding that trust. To help you better understand who we are and what we value, the Delta Kai Kalpoli chapter has existed in St. Louis Abyispo since 1989. And as Mallerie had previously stated, we came across 1236 Montista Place in 2012. We are grounded in our four pillars promoting friendship, developing character and adv advancing justice and assisting in the acquisition of a sound education. Academically, our chapter maintains a a GPA of 3.28, 28 which is 23 above all of the the all men's average at Calpali and ranks an excellence tier of Calpali standard of excellence rated upon the six FSL pillars we live out our values through quarterly philanthropic events supporting the Jimmy Valvano Foundation for cancer research weekly study sessions and academic mentorship monthly DEI workshops local and international volunteering mental health chairs to support member wellness an internal judicial board that re reinforces accountability and integrity, brotherhood gatherings that foster connection, and social events that are structured, regulated, and deeply embedded in our campus community, just to name a couple. Our social events often get the most attention, and I want to speak directly to that. These are not the recul reckless, stereotypical fraternity

parties portrayed in movies. At Calpali and within our chapter specifically, we take safety extremely seriously. All events follow school strict school risk management pro procedures, including sober monitors. Even at events without alcohol, which has been our practice for most events this year, as someone with a younger sister attending Calpali, I don't just speak as a fraternity member. I speak as someone who cares deeply about creating a safe environment for all students and especially our guests. Our chapter legally operates from one location, 1236 Monte Vista Place, located in an R4 residential zone. Though some of our members live elsewhere, including the Alta Vista neighborhoods, we are firm in not using or recognizing those houses as extensions of our fraternity chapter. We do not host events or claim them in any way. Our programming and culture has been recognized on a national level. We've won seven seven President's Cups, which is Delta Kai International Fraternity's highest chapter honor across the United States and Canada. Most recently this past summer in 20 2024. That award led to our chapter being the only Greek life organization selected for Calpaliy's Champions Tour where we were honored by both the California State Senate and Assembly. Despite this, we know that past accomplishments do not excuse present failures. We acknowledge that in regard to past and recent noise violations, we have fallen short. One of our greatest missteps was not even being aware of the conditional use permit until this school year. That was major oversight on our part, but now we understand its importance and we are committed to full compliance moving forward. Since our current executive board took office in fall of 2024, we've worked hard to improve. We reviewed our social and risk management policies twice this year and the results show real progress. Police calls to our property have decreased by 55.6% from

the previous year. Excluding a call for a faulty fire alarm where no violation was issued and a successfully appealed threeon-ree basketball noise citation, that reduction increases to 77.8%. As for the March 15th unruly gathering citation, we were investigated and found not responsible by Calpali. We chose to not appeal the citation with the police for various reasons, which I'm happy to address in a Q&A section if needed. These numbers are not meant to be excuses. We acknowledge our past wrongs, but we share them to show that we're not only capable of change, we are actively pursuing it. We know we we must do better, and we are committed in doing so. We don't want to be the reason our neighbors lose sleep, feel unsafe, or feel disrespected. That has never been our intention. Looking ahead, if we're granted the privilege of continuing to operate at 1236 Monte Vista, we have plans in motion to meet and exceed the proposed conditions. We are in the process of transitioning to our new executive board currently and we have already incorporated for next year a dedicated community outreach chair to communicate with all neighbors within 300 ft before any event for next school year and a full briefing of the conditional use permit as a part of the executive transition process. However, we do want to respectfully raise one concern regarding proposed condition on our use permit. The proposed change currently states the maximum number of people for routine meetings and gatherings for this fraternity shall be limited to 54 people. We understand this is a standard threshold applied across similar cases and how this number is derived. But for a chapter of our size operating from a central hightra property near campus, this restriction presents serious challenges particularly during normal informal use of our space. Our chapter house is a large open layout, often attracting members before or after class

to socialize, study, or relax. As a safe space for our members to gather, it's difficult to avoid moments when more than 19 non-resident members happen to be at the property at one time, especially during brotherhood events, weekend afternoons, or the one-off chapter meeting. All of our members pay dues that contribute to maintaining access to the property that that contribute to maintaining and accessing the property. Telling a dues paying member they must leave because we've hit a headcount limit even outside of a planned event creates a difficult and often impractical enforcement creates a difficult and often impractical enforcement scenarios. We're not asking to dismiss the rules. We're simply asking for the opportunity to discuss a solution that fits our chapter structure and continues to promote compliance in a realistic and sustainable way. In closing, I want to express again how truly sorry we sorry we are for the issues our chapter has caused in the past. We know we haven't always lived up to the standards of our community deserves. But we also hope that you see us in a light that our chapter is learning, growing, and genuinely committed to making things right. We're not asking for leniency. We're asking for a fair chance. a chance to continue operating from our registered chapter house, a chance to constructively work with the city, and a chance to revisit gathering a gathering restriction that may unintentionally limit our ability to follow the very rules we we are striving to uphold. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and the opportunity to speak. And now I'm happy to answer any questions. Do we have any questions from the commission for the applicant? Commissioner Kulie. Yeah, thank you for taking the time to come here and speak to us. I do appreciate that and I appreciate the apology um as well, but I do have a couple of questions for you. Um let me start in reverse order because you raised it in the last uh the limits on the number of people that can be there. Land use regulations generally are about the appropriateness of

activities at a given location. Given that, isn't it more appropriate that your chapter find a larger place to be headquartered rather than asking for an exception or a deviation from the standard rules here? Absolutely, sir. Um, and I totally hear you out and understand. Um, to be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure of where a larger location may be in the city of St. Louis Abyspo. Uh, we have a 19 unit apartment complex that's located in an R4 zone close to Calpole's campus. Um, and as it's as close as it gets to a Greek row that Calpole's got, we're right next to campus, practically on campus, bordering two other fraternity houses. Um, I'm not sure of another larger property. However, um, if if there is if we were fortunate to stumble across one, that would be something we'd look into. And thank you. And that question, frankly, was more rhetorical than anything else. But my real question for you is, so we basically have two options here. We can incorporate the uh modifications to conditions recommended by staff and allow the use permit to continue or we can uh revoke the the permit. If we want to let it continue, one of the things we have to do is there are a series of findings we need to be able to make. Meaning we believe that um the following things are factually true. One of them that I want to focus on is uh finding number five. And what it says essentially is that if this permit is allowed to continue on, we will not find it to be detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of people in the vicinity. Given the violations, why should we believe that that would be true? Absolutely. Um, this is something that we take extremely seriously and like I said, um, we're members of our community that that appreciate the community we're live we live in. Um, and honestly, the proof's in the pudding. Like I mentioned, those

statistics, we've already made improvements on uh limiting uh even calls to our fraternity house. Um, from the even the previous school year, um, as we had seen a spike last school year, and that was our number one goal going in as an executive board this fall of 2024. Um, and we've successfully cut down on that number. However, it's not where we want it to be yet. And we have as we're transitioning into our new executive board to take office next fall and as I'm graduating out uh that is something that we are heavily suggesting suggesting and carrying over into our next executive transition to continue to do and be better. What is that number by the way? Uh the number number of of uh police roles to your the 55% reduction or whatever it is. How many you're down to now? Yes sir. last last year in fall of 2023 to spring uh which I would call June of 2024 as we were not here in the summer um there were nine police calls but then starting this year fall of 2024 to right now as I stand here today there's only been four like I said one of them was for a faulty uh fire alarm uh another was for a threeon-ree basketball game that just happened to go too long which has actually dismissed as noise was not heard from our property line as stated in the municipal code. Um, so if you take out those two, we've had only two police calls on our property the entire year. Okay. Any other questions of the applicant? Okay. Thank you very much. So, having concluded the applicant presentation and the public comment, not really in the correct order. We have one more public comment. Oh, we do. Yes. Okay. Kathy Walker. Thank you. I mostly just wanted to

answer Commissioner Flores's question. She asked about what happens if the CUP is revoked and um what happens is that's actually happened before in the city. um a fraternity was operating without a use permit and the city attorney brought prosecuted the attorney um this fraternity and the property owner for doing that and um they were not allowed to continue to operate. The reason that we're asking for the C to be revoked other than um the reasons in corresp and and their houses need to be on Calpaliy's campus. What a couple other thing. Um I'm disappointed to hear the excuses about that St. Friday's Day party, the unruly gathering. It actually did happen. You've seen the videos. It happened. They went to Kelpi and showed the videos of the storming of their courtyard, which happened because they were having a St. Friday party and people were texting out Snapchat videos of the party. And so 250 people, more people showed up and broke down their fences and stormed the courtyard. But they did host a party that morning with 100 people. There are three videos that show it on Tik Tok. So, I'm disappointed to hear the excuses to hear, oh, well, we weren't found responsible. Acknowledge you did it. And and that's a little bit troubling to to hear that to, you know, hear they're saying we're sorry and by the way, we weren't found responsible. They did it. They held that unruly gathering when the city put all these resources into that weekend and Greek life prohibited fraternities from holding events that weekend. They did it anyway. They had a banner posted St.

Friday's 2025 get lucky with their with their um their letters in a four-leaf clover. So that bothers me. I appreciate the apology, but that bothers me. I don't want any more excuses. So, thank you. Okay, so now we appear to have completed public comment and the applicant presentation and so now we the commission get to ask further questions of staff or to have our own discussion. So any questions of staff to start with or discussion either way? Commissioner Culie and I I know this is slightly out of order but I did forget this. Uh Jacob, I'm sorry I forgot your last name. I'd like to take you up on your offer to explain why you chose not to contest the citation from the city. Thank you. Uh my last name is Zucker Mandal. um to answer your first question and to answer your second question on why we made the decision not to appeal the unruly gathering citation given to our property for the St. Patrick's Day uh situation. Um our decision not to appeal the citation was not an admission of guilt at the time. We believed that since the noise had in fact originate originated from our property, regardless of how the people got in, an appeal would likely not succeed. Between the cost of appealing with the police department, the demands of finals, and our ongoing investigation with campus regarding the event, we made the practical choice to focus our time and energy on the university process where the evidence could be considered more thoroughly. Thank you. Thank you. So, do I understand you factually to be saying this was not a party you organized, but people just

showed up and you just had a spontaneous party? Uh, yes, sir. We were found uh not responsible by CalPoly after a thorough investigation. Uh, all evidence considered, including the Tik Tok videos previously mentioned and the banner previously mentioned as well. Um, yeah. Okay. I'll admit that having the banner is a hard sell for me. Absolutely. Okay. Um, if you'd like further context, as for the banner mentioned, it was created as a personal gift out of from an out of town girlfriend of one of the tenants. Um, in previous years, there have been people that have stayed at our house, and that continued this year. However, we still did not even break the 50 person limit of people allowed on property at one time until uh our gates were broken down and that video is shown uh was shown to campus. Uh as well as once police arrived, we worked with them to get people out of our property as we had already been scrambling around trying to get people out of our property. Uh and they had requested that we remove the bike lock chains that we had previously put onto both of our metal gates facing outward to prevent people from getting in the morning of. Uh we once took those off and it actually made the problem worse. um which is where a lot of the footage of large amounts of people inside of our house comes from. I appreciate the answer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sacramento. Okay. Uh further comments or questions? Commissioner Flores, I have a question for staff. Um I think John someone um reported what the noise violations were and then the um cup permit violations would seem rather minor compared to the noise ones starting at 100 200 to 500 or something. Can we increase those in a cup situation? Are we liberty to do that?

Is the question whether to whether the the planning commission can impose a condition which would increase the citation amounts for the um yeah for violating the CUP permit. I honestly do not do not know. I do know that that courts cannot modify our fine schedule and I do know that actually the city council um under the government code the city council is the one that sets the fines for administrative citations. So no, the planning commission could not modify that under a conditional use permit. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Commissioner Kulie? Yeah. Um, I have a question for the city attorney and I believe I already know the answer to this, but just for sake of discussion, a couple of the findings were asked to make start off with the phrase as conditioned. And so my question for you is are we to interpret that as for example, let's take the will not be detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare. Are we to interpret that as let's assume they follow all the rules here all the conditions that would be then would we be finding that if they were to follow all the rules it would not be detrimental? Yes. So as as I believe you stated um those findings are from our municipal code those things that are required in order to issue a conditional use permit. um that qualifier as condition just sort of reflects the commission's authority to issue conditions that would be um sort of deemed necessary to to make sure those regulations are being complied with. Um so yes basically that is saying you know if if the users of this use permit comply with these conditions then the commission is satisfied that that the public health would not be um they would not be to the detriment of the public health and safety.

Um okay I'll commissioner George Jorgensson you're ready. Well a quick question though. Um if if the uh use permit were to be revoked this evening, then what would be the process by which uh this fraternity or any other fraternity could come back and reapply for reinstatement and a new permit? What would that look like? I'm not sure. Okay. Usually there's a waiting period of one year um if it's revoked with um with prejudice. If it's without prejudice, then they can apply any time. And so, so is that a fork in the road for us? If we were to um elect to revoke the permit this evening, we would have to state this is with or without prejudice or who decides that? Well, that would be the planning commission would decide that. Um but yeah, they could they could apply for for a use permit in the future. Um okay. But if it's so a motion for could either be a motion to revoke the permit without prejudice or with prejudice. Those are new words that went on. Just for sake of illustration and sorry to put you on the spot like this. Can you give us an example of uh when a use permit would be revoked without prejudice? Uh sure. Sure. I mean, I think in a case as an example we have here tonight with a fraternity that has new members every year that there would be cla a class going out and an opportunity for a new class to come in with a different culture and an an ability to to meet the requirements of a potential future use permit. Commissioner Jorgensson. Well, this is a complicated issue to say the least. Uh, I guess the way I would sum it up as I'm understanding it right

now is that um there have been a series of really a repetitive series of events that have been detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the surrounding neighborhood. I don't think that's in question. Uh the the harder question is and one of the vehicles that's been utilized to try to bring the fraternities closer to what would be feasible in a neighborhood and work in a neighborhood. is this special events permitting that would really encapsulate what is planned and how it would be managed and how everybody would be notified and how it would be controlled. Uh that doesn't seem to have worked at all. So at this point the city the residents have been expecting that these conditional use permits would give them peace and quiet. It hasn't worked. So, it's not just simply uh their desired uh need for for for quiet, but we haven't met their expectations. We've got to figure out a way that's better. One, and to me, I actually hear three possibilities. One is we can revoke the permits and say, uh this is we got to start all over on this. Uh the second is we could take the conditions that are in the staff report or modify them in some way, but go that way. I guess a third approach would be to continue the item and ask the city council to uh step in maybe with higher fines, with more and maybe a much stronger definition of the requirement for a special permit, a special event permit or something that looks to try to make the existing thing actually work. But right now, it's hard to say that adding tightening the

conditions right now as in the staff report would make any difference in this. And certainly, I'm ready to make a difference in the neighbors expectations about what the city can do. I kind of feel that um by having such a voluntary special event kind of process, I'm using that to cover a lot of aspects of this, but it's part of the notion that the the fraternities are responsible for really communicating and almost planning with the neighborhood to make an event uh that everybody can survive. So, um it's a it's a um it isn't working the way it's going. the whole system doesn't seem to be working. So, um I'm open to um with the commission see if we can find some way through this. Any um comments or questions on this side? Just a comment. I am concerned if we do decide to revoke the permit that the parties will just spread out to other residences and we haven't solved the problem. So I I'm continuing may be an option to get more information. I agree with Commissioner Flores. This is a larger problem. Um I went to Calpali and um it just seems that the fraternities and the residential uses don't really mix and the big ultimate solution would be get a fraternity row whether it's on campus or off campus but the uses just don't work well together. So um I don't know if revoking the conditional use permit would solve that problem. Um, I wish it would because I definitely fully understand how the residents in those areas are frustrated with the noise, the party, and the

disruptions. I can fully appreciate that. And um, so I don't have a solution. I'm just saying I'm I'm sympathetic to both parties and would also be willing to discuss how we can come to some sort of resolution that will make some sort of good for the neighborhood and help people um, improve their lives. Okay. Thank you. Anything from this side? Otherwise, I'll start talking. Let me just quickly say, you know, where I am is just to lay my cards on the table. I'm kind of stuck between two different things. One is I think this is the third, possibly the fourth fraternity issue I've seen since I've been on this commission. And on the one hand, I'm inclined to say, okay, every time we've seen one, we've updated their conditions with uh new conditions based on changes to Title 9, I believe. Is that right? And so on the one hand that seems fair. On the other hand, in order to modify and continue this use permit, like I mentioned in the questioning, we have to be able to make that finding. And even with these new conditions, I'm not sure I can find that even if they follow these rules, it will not be detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the community. So that's where I am right now. On the one hand, we can do what we've done in other situations and try to just apply these new conditions or I can, you know, my my own vote might be that I can't make these findings and that's where I am right now. Okay. Thank you. So, I'll have a little something to say here now. So, the I've been on this commission for two and a half years, it turns out, and this has come up a number of times. I'm looking through my notes and here it is from June 12th, 2024. Lambda Kai alpha. Um, and it's we're talking about the same stuff here. We This is an ongoing and complicated

problem. We are not going to solve it tonight. What we uh I think can do is to send a real message and con communicate. And I'm starting out after reviewing the staff report and then the public comments and then hearing the comments tonight. I'm starting out from a place of we should revoke this permit. Um, I've I've uh been we're kind of playing whack-a-ole with this and it doesn't seem like the message has gotten through and the it's it's not going to be a death nail for the um for the the members of the fraternity, but it um it would definitely get the point across and it doesn't seem like it's happening. And what we have right now is not working. And at various different meetings that where we've talked about this subject we the idea has come up of some kind of a community discussion or um the word summit has been used. uh Calpali has been pretty MIA in this whole issue which is really frustrating and unfortunate and um so Calpali this would involve Calpali the city the Greek community the slow PD and it would and we've we've talked about this we've never come up with a forum to do this and I don't know how we put that together we're not going to get that figured out tonight either and pretty much everything that we're talking about here is going be a close to a carbon copy on the next item on the agenda. Right? So, um if there's differences, we can point them out, but I don't want to have the same discussion all over again when we tackle the next one. So, um my comments from tonight, right, I got too many papers here now. Here we go.

this idea of um the the idea of a some sort of a summit or community forum or workshop has been proposed in the public uh comments as well. So, I wanted to acknowledge that. Uh the idea of putting the houses on the Calpaly campus, I don't see how that's going to work. I don't know where the real estate would be. U Calpali would have to be uh obviously a major partner in that. Uh, I went to UC Berkeley where they have a fraternity row and it's in a separate area and it um I was not in a fraternity myself but it seems like and I my my daughters went to Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara respectively. Santa Cruz doesn't really have it at all. Santa Barbara has it big time and they have Isa Vista. It's in its own little Wild West world over there and anybody who moves into Isa Vista expecting peace and quiet um is mistaken, right? So, this neighborhood is um and I also understand from the public comment that the neighborhood has been transitioning. People have been fed up and they've had enough. They've moved out. They sell their house for probably a pretty good penny because the rentals are worth so much and the transition continues that way. So, um it's changed over time and we um it's just a a really difficult problem and um again don't just just like you, Commissioner Khan, I we're not going to have a I don't have a solution either, but um I'm ready to move to revoke the permit um after having seen and and and I'll add too, I've been up on up on campus. I've done a ride along with the police. Um my daughter came down from Santa Cruz for St. Friday's Day and I went up there and I saw what's going on and um it's it's unlike anything I've seen in my college career. Um so I don't know what we do to get a handle on it, but um I'm

ready to take the step to um move to revoke the permit. to clarify your motion. Are you, as we discussed, um, and I don't know if this would properly be part of the motion, revoke without prejudice. Well, that's the next question, right? The fork in the road, with or without. Um, so um, Mr. Zuckerandal, thank you for your impassioned um, plea or defense or uh, statement. It sounded a lot like what I heard a a year ago from Lambda Kai Alpha. Uh and um so uh I yeah I'm I'm not persuaded and u I appreciate the sentiment. Also we have this problem that it's a constantly rotating uh body of of of actual people that move through this and and the institutional memory is not working. Um if you started out the year not even knowing that you had a conditional use permit to operate as a fraternity, then something's getting missed there big time, right? So um then the question really the question is whether we u put them in the penalty box for a year and um I'll I'll I'll let me let me try to take my commissioner fellow commissioner's temperature on that. Does anybody else have any thoughts on that? It probably takes a very long time to get a conditional use permit when I've gotten them for other reasons. You know, it could take six months, it could take a year, it could take longer. So, we might want to keep that in mind as we consider this. And I would just say that I while I am a little sympathetic to the notion that, you know, there's constantly students coming in and out of a given fraternity, that can't be a shield entirely, right? in some at some level the institution, the fraternity, not the individual people have to take some responsibility, too. Um, with that in mind, given Commissioner Flores's

comments about how long this would take, I'd be inclined to probably support a revocation without prejudice. I would I would do the same. I will move to revoke the conditional use permit without prejudice. I will second that. Do we have discussion on the motion? That has been moved and seconded. Commissioner Flores, the only hesitancy I have is that if there was to be a fraternity row, a property, you know, right along California foothill that backs up to Kalpali would be one of the best locations. Um, so that's something that would need to be considered with the general plan amendment sometime in the future if they wanted to reszone property for that purpose. And then many of the well both of the um fraternities got their cups in 1990 or 1998, which is prior to when many of the residents moved into the area. So the residents weren't totally clueless, but they still have a right to, you know, reasonable residency there. So something to consider. Yeah. And I'm glad you point out the location. I mean, if any place as a fraternity should work without disturbing the rest of the R1, R2 community up there, it would be this location on Monav Vista. Um I went up there today actually just a couple hours ago and um and I and when you look at it on the map it's in the middle of the R4. It's right up against campus and it's and I drew a 300 foot line too and it doesn't seem to reach the R1 R2. So if it's a problem that it's happening there then um it's a pretty big problem and but I hear what you're saying too. I mean that would be

this should be the place where it should work right. So, uh, Commissioner Jorgensson, you have another comment. Yeah, just quickly, I'm I'm ready to support the motion. I just want to make clear that um it has more to do with the current conditional use permit, the current approach from the fraternities, uh the current the current um and continuing expectations from from the neighbors that we're not meeting that we need a way to take a bigger step to solve this problem and to get maybe it means getting everybody at the table and starting a new uh one way or another. But um we've got to do something to kind of break through this. I just can't see it getting better with just a tweak of the conditions at this point. Yeah, I appreciate that sentiment and it does feel like um we need a little bit of a shock to the system and perhaps it's just um Delta Kai's unluckiness that this happens to come up and we have another one coming up in a few minutes. uh commissioner or excuse me Mr. Corey. Thank you chair. I just wanted to point out this has been identified as a a council priority to look at livability in neighborhoods. There is a study session that is a part of our looks like it'll be a part of our work program for the next financial plan that will be coming up um probably at the beginning of the next year to have a conversation around code enforcement priorities. Um this will be a topic that will be discussed as well. Um so I just wanted to to kind of let the planning commission know that this is um a work program item for uh the community development department. Do we know if anyone from Kpali administration Greek life etc has been invited to be a part of this. So it still is to be adopted by the city council in June as a part of the financial plan um our work program.

And so from there we'll start uh you know in the summer working on what does that look like? who's invited um what are the top you know issue areas the topics those sorts of things okay is there a date set for or not yet there's not a date set it's just a general time frame it'll it'll be uh in early mid2026 okay that's encouraging I would say that next time we have an issue like this just throwing this out there it would be fantastic if we heard from someone from Calpali we would invite them to attend these meetings and I'm seeing some headshakes but still I would say that we would love to hear from them and be able to ask them some questions at sessions like Miss Simons. Yes. I would just like to note for the commission that if the commission does vote to revoke the permits. Um that would not we would not be able to um adopt the resolutions this evening. It would be continued to the next regularly scheduled meeting for June 11th. Um the vote would be final. You would have voted to if if you do, you would have voted to revoke the permits and then on June 11th it would just be a vote on sort of the language of the resolution um adopting that. And that's because the resolution before us is what's been presented by staff. It's not what we're correct. And I do not have the capabilities to rewrite a resolution that quickly. So, right. Fair enough. Would you like to recommend some maybe fine-tuned motion language for us then? Um I I did also want to note that you sort of as this quasi judicial action, um it will be important that the board or that the commission's reasoning is very clear. So, if there are any other reasons um for revocation that the board that the commissioners have not already stated on the record, it would be helpful for putting that together. Then, just to be clear, I'll just say that my my reasoning is largely around my inability to make the required findings. Specifically, uh health, safety, and welfare and condition five and six, I believe, finding five and six, I should say. Could I make a suggestion that um since there's a lot of questions on what we're

doing and and where we're going that we actually continue the item and ask the attorney to come back with the resolution with all the findings. I don't want to postpone this. Okay. I want to make a decision. I want to do something about this or that's how I feel. No, it's fine. I'm just making a suggestion. Yeah. And then um I inquired about this earlier uh with our attorney and so we've got the um municipal code sections quoted and I could read those off if that would be helpful to get into the record. That would be um part of the basis for making this decision. Um yes. So I believe that those sections are sort of incorporated into the staff. Well actually they might not be. So yes, if you want to go ahead and do that um please do. So, um, and this is coming from from our city attorney, but chapter the mun municipal code chapter 17.110 uh 17.1020C7 and um there's other sections too 17.86.130. So, um that's going to be uh the references to the municipal code that is part of the basis for this decision. Okay. So, uh, further discussion. We have a motion and a second on the floor hearing. None. I'd like to have the city clerk clerk call the vote, please. Chair Hton, yes. Commissioner Kulie, yes. Commissioner Flores, can I ask one more question? I was confused on whether it was with prejudice or without prejudice. So, without means that they can reapply at any time immediately. Okay. Yes. Commissioner Khan. Yes. Commissioner

Jorgensson. Yes. Motion. Okay, that's done. We are now going to move on to item 4B. And some of this is going to sound familiar. Um, this is a re-review of an existing conditional use permit for a fraternity located at 1304 Foothill Boulevard. I'd like to ask each commissioner for exparte communication disclosure. Is there any hearing? None. Moving on. So, uh, would assistant planner Mallerie Patino please present this new report which is going to sound a little familiar. Hello again. As Commissioner Hton stated, this is going to be very similar to the last one. Obviously, the uh specifics related to this uh site and this fraternity in question will be different, but a lot of the things will sound similar, so I'll do my best to not uh harp too much on all the things that are the same. Beginning with the recommendation, staff recommends that planning commission adopt the draft resolution to modify the conditional use permit based on updated findings and subject to revised conditions of approval. The project site is 1304 Foothill Boulevard 190R Way. It's a corner lot. It's relatively normal size for lack of a better term. Um access can be from Foothill Boulevard or Crandle Way. It's in the R4 developed property. They've got a large single family structure and then multif family structures for a total of 12 bedrooms. Um it's in proximity to other fraternities within the R4 zone or residential properties and it's about a 200 foot walk to the Calpaly campus property. Some background on this fraternity. The use permit was

originally applied for and approved in 1990 under U1484. During that approval, they recommended that it be reviewed in one year after the first year of operations. They reviewed and modified in ' 91. Again, they modified the conditions and said, "We'd like to review and and relook at it one more year later." So, they reviewed and modified final conditions in 1992. The permit has been active since then for Sigma New at 1304 Foothhill Boulevard. This permit limited fraternity activities to the residents at 1304 foothill but did evaluate the entire site for the residential capacity limits. It limited the residents and routine gatherings both to a maximum of 19 people. This permit specified event types and limited capacities for those specific events to maximum of 38 people. The in the current academic year the police department has issued four citations. Three of these were for noise violations and one was for an unruly gathering. As mentioned, we did not have clarification on which of the citations were unruly gatherings versus noise. So, that was not in the staff report. In January, code enforcement issued the notice of violation. Um, following on that, an administrative citation to assess a $50 fine was issued in April. Condition number four of U1 1484 of this conditional use permit requires planning commission review if complaint is received. Therefore, we've recommended this review for planning commission um as a review of conditional use permit under new application use 0333-2025. The review re-review may result in added modified removed or removed conditions or revocation. As mentioned, staff is recommending to update the CUP with revised findings and conditions for compliance with current municipal code and consistency with recent approvals for other fraternities. This is all largely the same municipal code changes since 1992.

Updated findings for conditional use permits and for fraternity approvals. The same timeline, you know, this is previous to the last one. So since 2018 we have established uh fraternity conditions such as limiting permanent residences regulating attendees for routine meetings at gatherings requiring affiliation and good standing with Calpali and establishing responsible fraternity contacts all have been reflected in the requirement in the revised conditions. the same changes to the municipal code for public peace morale and welfare title nine. Um those are related to noise control, noise generating acts, unruly gatherings, um disorderly conduct, etc. Um also includes the safety enhancement zones for enhanced penalties. Um, given the changes of the municipal code and the revised conditions shown on the slides, we've revised the given the changes, we've revised conditions as shown on the slides to take into consideration uh concerns relating to noise and large gatherings. These conditions establish clearer requirements for re-review, set capacity limits for routine gatherings and meetings, removes event type restrictions, requires stricter adherence to the city's noise ordinance, and requires communication with neighbors. Condition 8 of U1484 was revised. Um, it was relating to grounds for revocation. It was incorporated with updated language as condition number 13. There were no conditions uh remove recommended for removal as all conditions of the previous use permit were revised or reorganized as discussed. This concludes staff's presentation. As mentioned, we recommend planning commission adopt the draft resolution to allow Sigma new to continue as a fraternity at 1304 foothill and 190R way. Um I'm available for questions as

well as John Mezipza, Christine Wallace. Okay, questions of staff by the commission hearing. None. We will move on to an applicant presentation. Do we have an applicant here tonight? Okay, it's your turn. You got your 10 minutes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Charlie Miner. I currently live at 1304 East Foothill Boulevard where I serve as the president of Sigma Newu Capai chapter here at Kpali. I want to begin by emphasizing we take this process extremely seriously and greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of our chapter's values. Sigma at Kalpali is an organization of 135 members. Our mission statement is to foster the development of men of integrity by cultivating a lifelong commitment to service, leadership, and personal excellence guided by our core values of love, truth, and honor. Our chapter strives to organize philanthropic events, support academic achievement, and promote mental health and well-being, foster leadership skills, and contribute volunteers and financial support to nonprofit and public service organizations. Our goal is to form men of outstanding character prepared to positively contribute to society. Over this last quarter, we held the second highest GPA among fraternities on campus. Each year we contribute over 2,000 service hours to both local and non-local charitable organizations and I've raised more than $30,000 so far this year. I'm deeply grateful for the chance to present to represent a chapter that has given me so much over the past three years and that continues to give back to the community around us. First and foremost, again, sincerely apologize for the recent noise disturbances and fully acknowledge the frustration that we may have caused. We value the families, long-term residents, and all members of our community who make this neighborhood the special place it is. As students, we're fortunate to live alongside neighbors who bring stability, character, and care to the

area. And we are committed to doing our part to contribute to that same spirit. We are taking steps to be more mindful moving forward and are actively working to ensure that everyone can enjoy a more peaceful and respectful neighborhood. Before we get into how we have already taken steps to improve our relations with our neighbors in the city of Slow, I want to speak on how we give back to our great community of St. San Louis Abyspo. Our largest philanthropic event in St. Louis Abyspo is the Ducky Derby. During this event, we race hundreds of rubber ducks down the creek in the iconic Mission Plaza. Participants purchase a duck with a number tag, and the first five to cross the finish line win select prizes. In 2023, we raised $20,000. In 2024, $24,000. And this year, over $27,000. All of which is is donated to Jack's Helping Hand, a local nonprofit that supports children with disabilities and chronic illness. This event was covered by local news and we're proud of the positive impact it has had on the broader community. We've done several more throughout the year that have both raised a combined $5,000. One we are currently doing is the Sigma New Month of May challenge where donors pledge a certain amount per mile run, pounds lifted, and minutes exercised. This all goes to support SEAL Kids, a nonprofit that supports the children and families of Navy Seals to help with tutoring and provide mental health support. Beyond philanthropy, our chapter is deeply involved in campus life. Several members are founders of the private equity club, serve as OKOB academic adviserss and OKB career adviserss, work with ASI, and act as event staff for university programs. 100% of our members are involved in extracurricular activities outside of our fraternity. Since I took over in January and the year prior to that, before I was president, we made strong efforts to maintain good relationships with local city and municipal code offices as well as our neighbors. I personally coordinated outreach efforts between our chapter, other IOC presidents, and local stakeholders like Remy Salem and Christine Wallace. This included helping arrange Ramy's presentation to the president's roundt to talk about the CU violations and what it means. Over the last two years,

Christine Wallace has come in nearly every quarter to speak directly to our chapter about the importance of respecting the role of law enforcement. I presented to our members on how the conditional use permit works and how noise violations impact our standing and community relationships. with me today. I submitted before this, I'm not sure if they got through. I brought seven letters of testimony from our neighbors living directly adjacent to our house within 300 feet as our new CPU will stay and some slightly farther who can speak to the respect and communicate communication we maintain with them. We communicate with our neighbors before, during, and after events to ensure they're always heard and respected. Internally, we hold ourselves accountable through a formal judicial board. We enforce high standards and address behavior that doesn't reflect our values. We conduct educational sessions on alcohol awareness and leadership. This past winter, we created a mental health chair to promote wellness and reduce stigma around mental health young among among young men. We continuously reinforce the values of love, truth, and honor in our members daily lives. We also maintain a comprehensive risk management plan that outlines procedures for every chapter event. All events are registered at least 10day in advance through Kalpali. At every event, we deploy a minimum of six trained sober monitors, including one executive board member and our risk management chair. These individuals are clearly identified and are responsible for overseeing the guest list, monitoring behavior, and maintaining a safe and respectful environment. To further minimize disturbances, we've taken concrete steps, including retraining all of our sober monitors with an added emphasis on noise control and perimeter security. We use phone decibel meters to regularly check and manage event volume by having sober monitors 50 ft away from the property line. We take immediate action when needed, such as lowering music, capping attendance, or calling the police ourselves if necessary to prevent escalation. We've implemented stricter internal consequences, including judicial proceedings for members whose behavior threatens our chapter standings. We installed portable fencing during events to deter uninvited guests from congregating on our open lawn and

parking area. And we collaborate closely with our alumni advisory board to improve event planning and operations. I recognize that managing an organization of over 130 young adults isn't without its challenges. When mistakes occur, we accept responsibility and the consequences that follow, but we are also committed to learning, improving, and honoring the expectations set by you, the commission, as well as by the city of Slow. I'm proud to stand by the values of our chapter and the ongoing commitment we've shown to being good citizens, respectful neighbors, and positive contributors to campus and community life. We're here to listen, to grow, and to represent both Kalpali Sigmanu and the Sanity of St. Elizabeth with Pride. Thank you. Questions of the applicant from the commission. Commissioner Kulie. Thank you for the presentation. Um I believe you were here for the previous hearing as well. So my question will not be a surprise to you. Um we do need to make findings if we were to uphold your use permit. And the one that is a sticking point for me is that I need to find that continued operation will not be a detriment to the health, safety, and welfare. Why should we believe that is true? Um, we've stopped all activities at our chapter house since our last per or since our last violation we were given. Um, all of our general meetings and everything we do as operations are done through campus on Kalpali. We rent out spaces there. And like I said, I've given presentations and we've had people come in and speak to our chapter just kind of educating them on how all of this works. I will say that we are students. This is very confusing for us to kind of figure out how all of this works and I've been trying my best to try and educate all of our members and I will continue to keep doing that. Um could I could I just please add a quick add a part B to that question. Uh so what do you see would be different next year compared to this year? Um again I think that goes along with the education. Uh we knew that this

conditional use permit existed. We just weren't exactly sure on all the language and everything that it represented. Um over these last few months, my vice president sitting over there with me. We've kind of been coming up with plans on how to mitigate having as many people on our property. The location we're specifically set in is right in the center of a large R4 zone where there's usually a lot of nightife going on. And if you've seen our property, our house is set back about 50 ft on the front of it. So, it's very difficult to try and control people from being on our front lawn and in our parking lot. That's what I brought up with the portable fences. That's been a step we've taken over this last quarter where on weekends we set up these portable chain link fences um on our property to stop people from coming on. Um and we're continuing to try and come up with new ways to try and mitigate as much of that as possible. Thank you. Okay. We heard from the previous uh applicant that they were not aware of the conditional use permit at least at the start of uh the school year back in September. But you you guys were but not on the details. Is that right? Uh yes. So I came back to school in January and that was right when I started my term as president and about the first day I moved in was when I received the notice from Remy. He came in and spoke to me and kind of helped me break it down. and I worked with him over the next few months trying to educate myself on what all of it meant. And that's when I set up the meeting for him to come in and present to all of the other IFC presidents. And that was whom, excuse me, who who was that that you worked with? That was Remy Salem. He worked for Community Development. Okay. Okay. Right. All right. Um I'm trying to wrap my head around I mean I remember having parties and the idea was to get people to come, but you're trying to keep people out. Is that really how it works? Um, over the last few times we had some pretty outofhand experiences. U most of those while I was not here, I was gone in the fall quarter. Um, and that's when the fences kind of came came into play when

we'd be trying to make people leave our property. There's a huge lawn on the left side that's out of our courtyard and then a huge parking lot in the front where people just kind of stand there. And we obviously want to be respectful and not try to just kick people off out of our house, but we're trying to get them to leave as quickly as possible. And so that's why we started setting up kind of like a perimeter border because we can't get the code to build an actual fence around the property. We only have it set back where it's about a 25t courtyard in the back. Um, and so we've been trying to mitigate that as much as possible. We're just on a busy intersection of streets right in between a bunch of registered fraternities. So when it's the weekend and maybe even if we don't have people over, it's just us playing music in one of our rooms, people tend to kind of come on. So that's been an issue we've been facing. Not to take away from the things we have done. Obviously, we're responsible for most of the tickets we got, but this just something we've been battling, right? Okay. Uh other questions of the applicant? Okay. Uh Mr. Meyer, thank you. Thank you. We move on to public comment. City clerk, do we have public comment on this item? Yes. Right now I have two speaker cards. Stu Jenkins and Steve Walker. Okay. You each have your three minutes. And if anybody else wants to fill out a card, now would be the time. Mr. Chair, I won't repeat much of what I said before, but I will uh let you know that I'm a Calpali brat. My dad taught at PY for 29 years and we moved here in 1961. The question was, is there any area where Calpali could put up its own fraternity row? And it really it has a huge amount of land. The land goes all the way up Poly Canyon to the Questa

Grade almost. uh it goes up Stener Creek uh for miles. So there there's plenty of room on Calpali for Calpali to build uh or allow fraternities to build a row for the fraternities on campus away from the residential neighborhoods. Um, and I I want to compliment this young president for his presentation, but I think what his presentation illustrates is that the way the fraternities are operating, they maintain an attractive nuisance. the parties, the drinking, the music. Of course, people are going to congregate. And um and and one thing I noted was that there are 135 members of this fraternity. And if I saw the figures that staff presented, it it looked like there were 19 residents at the fraternity hall, which means there's a whole lot of satellite houses where parties have been held. and rampaging through residential neighborhoods occurs, I want to encourage you to go ahead and uh deny the continuence of this permit. I think it will send a message uh if you do it without prejudice. These folks can reorganize and perhaps reapply and perhaps you can put on more stringent conditions with the permission of the city council. Thank you. Steve Walker and then Kathy Walker. Good evening, uh, commissioners. Uh, forgive me as I ramble with my notes here a little bit. Um, this evening I

ask that you revoke the cup for this fraternity. They have another property right across the street in an R3 and R4 zone. And so it would give them an opportunity to um come into compliance to to um follow the rules and the cup. Um there's Aaron Brockovich said something which which I thought was uh pretty insightful. It's basically uh regulations without enforcement are indeed ineffective as they lose their ability to protect people, environment and the environment from the risks associated with them. um we have tons of regulations, you know, we have um municipal codes, these cups, but let let's be honest, uh the fine associated with a cup, uh $50 or thereabouts, a tank of gas. Um and then as far as noise violations go, you know, $1,000, these guys will just pay it. No big deal. And if not, you know, the nationals will take care of that. Um, please put discussing fraternities on the um agenda or something like that. I mean, it does need to be public comment. Um, staff has mentioned, you know, that yes, it will be put in next year. It's around June of next year and um you know and um it won't be considered until then but from past experiences and uh with politics I'm sure it's going to be kicked down the road and postponed until the end of the year until Calpali comes back in session. I mean and the people that are missing from this rule uh this room is

Kalpali just like the chairman said MIA Kalpali is aware and it came out during an SCLC meeting that they're aware that uh the fraternities are in the R1 and R2 zones but they have no say in the matter. They wash their hands of it. They expect the city to do something about it. Well, and to respond to the um madam over there, the uh fraternities have been there and a couple were on halfway from uh about 2009 when I moved in, but after co and 2021, 2022, 2023 with the growth in size of um uh the St. Friday's day there's been there's like 60 in the city all over in R1 and R2 zones and Kpali is aware of them and actually says um parties they approve parties in the neighborhood. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate Hello again, Miss Walker. Hello. Um a couple of things regarding this specific property. staff report said that a notice of violation was sent to the property owner in January of 2025. And after they received that cup and the notice of violation, the fraternity went on to get four more citations with about 100 people at each party. They did put those fences up right at the property line, six foot fences, covered them with tarps. You might have seen the pictures that were sent to you. Um each of those parties had a citation of 100 people. Also, those sixoot fences are not legal according to the community development director. You need a permit. I mean, you can't put a sixoot fence at the property line. So, they're saying they're trying to keep people out, but they're keeping

a hundred people in. And there's noisy parties there. Unfortunately, a couple of people who are mostly affected by this particular property are not here. They're afraid to be here. One's on halfway, very close to this fraternity, and they have had retaliation. People have had windows broken. People have had bleach poured on their front grass. There's and plants. There's all kinds of problems. I'm not blaming them specifically, but I'm just saying the retaliation, the fear is real in our neighborhood. So, that's something I'd really like you to take into consideration. Um, and then yeah, as my husband said, the city manager said at the last council meeting that the fraternity issue will be considered after June of 2026 and then will likely be con postponed until the fall of 2020. We're talking a year and a half from now before we're going to start having this conversation. And it's it's something that really needs to be dealt with now. So, please revoke the permit. Let's start to have a conversation and figure out a solution that works for everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Does that conclude our public comment? Yes. Okay. Do we have additional questions of staff after hearing public comment and the applicant uh presentation? No. No. No. No. Um I want to ask about this uh June 2026. So uh Mr. Cory, you said earlier that this was going to be on an agenda of some sort this summer, right? Is No, no. It it What's happening is the council will be approving the financial plan in June, which includes our major city goal work program item for housing. And in that work program item, there is a study session that we're looking at uh bringing forward to council and discussing code enforcement priorities

along with livability in neighborhoods and issues such as the issues we're hearing tonight. That is scheduled for spring of 2026. Okay. Okay. Um well, I didn't think we had anything on the agenda to try to pull something together on this. So, I'm glad to hear there's something and uh sooner would be better, I suppose, because this has been percolating for a while. Um okay. Um um I'll I'll at this point I'll um I'll ask for other comments or discussion from the commission or our motion. As has as been said, uh this is factually very similar to our uh previous hearing and I'll just come out and say that I think my reasoning will be the same. I I find that I'm not able to make the required findings here. Um particularly findings five and six about uh being not being a detriment to the health, safety, and welfare of the of the neighborhood. Um yeah. Is there a motion that might come forth at this point? Okay, then I guess that will be a motion. Um, I move to uh revoke the license without prejudice and we will finalize that at a future meeting apparently. I'd second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have discussion on the motion? Under discussion. Is this like a first reading of something? I'm not quite sure. Microphone. Sorry. I'm not quite sure what standing our our motion has right now. How so? Um, so if if the commission had decided to uphold staff's recommendation, the action would be final upon a vote. Um, but this evening because the if the commission decides to revoke the permit, we don't have a resol resolution prepared for you to adopt. So, the vote will be final. The vote on

revocation or you know, whatever it is will not be up at the June 11th meeting. Um there will not be another public hearing on the merits of this. It will just be um sort of voting to adopt the language of the resolution which will be circulated about a week a week in advance as well. Would that be on the consent agenda then? Well, whether it is or not, we'll see it again. But but really it's a matter of word smithing perhaps at that point or just approving. Um yeah, I mean it it could be on the consent. It would not really be up for public discussion, but it um Okay. If if any of the commissioners wanted to pull it for discussion, that that would be an option as well. Okay. And we don't see this as an overly complicated situation. That would require more discussion and more debate. Um, no, there would not there would not be debate about the the reasons for the revocation. That would be um that's sort of what's being voted on. Okay. Tonight. Okay. Thank you. So we and quickly um this is also without prejudice correct? That's right. Right. Any further discussion on the motion that's been presented and seconded. Well, just to say I don't think we could vote differently on this one than the first one. As they said, they're very similar except this fraternity had more violations. I'd just like to read into the record that um I'm going to support the motion. Um as I said in the past, I think it's a very difficult situation. I don't see how you have fraternities in residential neighborhoods and how it worked. They're just two different types of uses. Um so I think it's quite a dilemma and I certainly appreciate the fraternity's problem. Um you know, they're to blame, but at the same time, I don't know how they don't do what they're doing. So I will be voting for it. Um, okay. And I'll wrap up by just saying I'm troubled by this retaliation

issue that was brought up in the other public comment. That's a pretty hard one to uh document in a way that and I don't know what we if anything we would do about that uh right now, but um I'll just say that is troubling. So um I think that we are ready for a roll call vote. Uh city clerk, Commissioner Culie. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Jorgensson. Yes. Commissioner Flores. Yes. Commissioner Khan. Yes. Chair H. Yes. Okay. Um that motion passes. So we are done with 4 A and 4B. We now have a 45minut approximately presentation by the um by Calpali. Uh so I would um Leah let's take five minutes. Uh so we'll reconvene sharp at 10 till okay we will bring this meeting back to order. I'm actually going to hit this thing. You hear that? All right. Okay. Hey, we now have a presentation by Calpali, the city and regional planning graduate student studio. And this is going to be on the upper Monterey area presentation. Okay, so um here we go. Uh who do we have and what are we going to talk about? Good evening, Chair Hton, members of the of the committee. Thank you for the

opportunity to present our conceptual plan. Your name, sir? Oh, Steve Musel. Uh to present our conceptual plan for the upper Monterey special focus area today. I'm Steve Musel and I'm excited to introduce you to the work we've done this quarter and what we envision for this area that we've come to call Uptown. Our studio has been working on this concept plan for the past eight and a half weeks. During this process, we identified nodes ripe for improvement to give the corridor a unique character and connect each section as part of a greater hole. We gained a deep understanding of the site through lot surveys, historical research, and community interviews. Following our first presentation in early May, we began schematic development where we considered how to implement our ideas in both both the short and long terms. Our presentation today will show you a modernized upper Monterey corridor that faithfully reflects the identity of St. Lucispo while capitalizing on the area's existing characteristics to create a safer, more welcoming area of town. One of the first things we did was to examine the existing population of the corridor's two census tracks. As you can see on these population pyramid charts, the area's population trends fairly young and includes college age students and young professionals. Our designs and concepts keep this in mind. We plan to increase much neededed housing, create a safer and more vibrant pedestrian experience, especially at night, and foster a more modern sense of place that people our age can gravitate toward. Conveniently, this improves the tourist experience as well. During our studio's first phase, we conducted 44 community interviews, speaking with business owners, residents, and frequent visitors to the upper Monterey area. We've, I believe, made those available to you today. They will also be in our final report uh as

will the lot surveys we did. We learned that 65% of the community members we interviewed considered Monterey Street to have a disjointed identity with many hoping for a more cohesive sense of place distinct from downtown. Additionally, 52% of people mentioned the poor walk and bike ability along the corridor with 18% of the people expressing a dire need for more lighting. Lastly, many business owners focused on how their businesses benefited from foot traffic and trolley access from the area's hotels. We conducted a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats or SWAT analysis along our corridor alongside a more in-depth analysis by each group. Many of these findings complemented the interviews we conducted. But we also wanted to emphasize that Monterey Street benefits from a great variety of businesses oriented toward the community, which we acknowledge in our designs. The biggest weakness we saw was poor walkability due to small sidewalks, fast car speeds, and a lack of lighting and trees. This forces many people to think of the area as less of a place to be and more of a thoroughare. All this background research allowed us to build a more holistic vision of the site, one that addresses the concerns raised in our interviews and identified in the SWAT analysis. To give you a better idea of that vision, I'd like to introduce my colleague Hans Hersburgger. Hi, my name is Hans and I will be presenting tonight on the corridor's overall vision. We used what we learned from demographics, interviews, and the SWAT analysis to synthesize a holistic plan. St. Louis Abyispo's Uptown complements existing community oriented businesses while making the corridor interesting, comfortable, and safe. Uptown forges its own complimentary

identity as a place that welcomes residents and visitors alike. to to accomplish this, we are preparing the way for increased housing and hospitality in the area, meeting local and regional needs. Envisioning the overall site, we first identified intersections along the corridor, which are highlighted in green. The major among these are at Santa Rosa, Johnson, California, and Grant, each with its unique identity. We took a note of the major landmarks along Monterey Street in red. Utilizing these icons would help to enhance a sense of place. The addition of several public popcas in orange further helps enhance corridor identity while adding muchneeded park space and room for art. These public spaces are activated by our key housing locations marked in purple in a gradient that flows with the corridor context being most intense at the center. We see an opportunity to add 225 housing units to the area nearly doubling the current population around the corridor. These would be missing middle workforce housing units that target recent graduates, young professionals, and small families. Furthermore, we intend to see the creation of small efficiency units at the most intense parts of our development, providing a typology well suited to working singles and students who are climbing the housing ladder. Now, all of this is founded on a street for all people, whether you bike, walk, drive, or ride. We're phasing implementation to test our changes, helping refine the design while

maintaining low risk. The first phase separates people from automobiles and buses with planters and parkletits. The second phase enhances these changes seeing bike raised lane uh bike lanes raised at the addition of furniture, bio swailes and street trees. This design removes most street parking but as such is hardly utilized currently. It is an attractive trade for a productive and pleasant street. To alleviate the need for future street parking, public garages will be connected to the corridor through robust trolley service. Now, street safety street safety also extends and comfort extends to our intersections. The corridor contains two main types of intersections. One for major nodes and one for the minor nodes depending on street cross street volume and use. Major intersections feature protected crossings for people on bike or on foot. Minor intersections feature pedestrian refuges on Monterey Street and raised crosswalks on minor streets. The basic design of these intersections is tweaked and adorned to meet the unique context of each node. More detail will come on that later. Now that is the cohesive vision for our site. To plan in greater detail, Uptown has been split into five groups centered on the major nodes, each with unique features, opportunities, and solutions. These are reflected in your handouts. Zooming in, I will now pass it on to group five presenting the government quarter. Shorter on that. Hello, my name is Olivia. Um JD and I

will be discussing our group's schematic plan for what we named the government quarter. I just called. Okay, cool. Um so we named the government quarter due to the city's projected transit center and courthouse as a southernmost section of the corridor and entryway from downtown San Lucispo to upper Monterey Street. Our group's main task was really figuring out how to implement future parcels such as the courthouse and transit center while creating a vibrant and walkable space for pedestrians in our schematic plan. We have taken into consideration Upper Monterey Street's lack of cohesive identity that residents and workers have reported through our conducted interviews. Our group ultimately believes that by instilling connectivity through a mid-block corridor between the projected courthouse and transit center is essential in the specific section. It's actually also outlined in all of the handouts that we have given you. Our schematic plan and design has been guided by three main ultimate goals. Uh to set a precedent for upper Monterey streets, feeling of cohesion as a southern gateway from downtown, serve the transit and civic needs of residents, workers, and even tourists. and to integrate workforce housing and office space that supports these projected [Music] parcels. So, first our midblock quarter, some major feedback that we got from both residents and workers was their overall dislike of walking in the area due to the lack of activity. Um to help address these issues, the first major design factor our group has implemented in our schematic plan is this midblock pedestrian corridor that ultimately just links that transit center with that courthouse. Um it was inspired by the Boston City Hall plaza also presented on the slides. Um and ultimately we envision a pedestrianoriented pathway that is shaded, has public seating as well as quick food and even retail options that draw residents through the corridor making it much more welcoming. Olivia, can you help us out? And what

are we looking at with the green and purple uh illustration in SketchUp there? Is that Santa Rosa and Monterey? So, the green is the first green furthest is that's the projected courthouse. And then the one to the back of it is where current field day coffee is. We wanted to kind of implement a um diagonal uh plaza that kind of complements the area. Okay. Yeah. Um and then the bottom image is a side view design of the building from if you are walking from the midblock corridor. Um, we hope that this midblock corridor will ultim ultimately also reorient it to towards a pedestrian focused infrastructure that not only brings an economic activity for the city and local businesses, but creates a more eactive and lively places for people to be and walk. This midblock quarter serves as a point of connectivity and that's ultimately what this group five really wanted to press. Connectivity, safety, [Music] liveless. All right. So, our next main design element was the transit center. Um, again, this is a projected parcel that the city is planning on implementing in the area. Um, for the transit center, we envision a multimotal hub that includes shaded outdoor furniture, workplaces, and bus bays accompanied by pedestrian loading zones as well as space for ride share load loading zones, which will make pickup drop off easier. Um, for a case study, we referenced the Anaheim Arctic Center, where a transit center is not just used as a service, but a space of interaction as well as civic identity. I'm still trying to figure out which streets are which here. What What streets am I

looking at in the SketchUp? Yeah. So, that current street where the bus is going, I believe there's three buses. Yeah. I'm Okay. Well, that parcel right there, that is the future transit center, and those are the bus bays. I can't tell what that means because I you don't have a pointer or whatever. So you like that the green U-shaped building is the transit center that is yet to be right. Yeah, this is all projected. So on the right, the street on the right is that Santa Rosa. Hyera. Oh, that's Higera. Yeah. Okay. And then the street above it would be Monterey. So that midblock corridor runs through Monteray. Monterey all the way to Santa Rosa. And then so is over where the red building is. Street. Toro. Yeah. Not Toro, but Toro. Oh, I see. We got Toro, which is a minor street. That's going to be on the right side of your street or the right side of the picture. It's the bus coming towards you. That's Toro Street. Toro Street. Oh, I thought it was Hyera. The one on the bottom is Hyera. going. Okay. Going horizontal. Does anybody have a pointer? Oh, you know what? I can use this. This street is Yeah. Santa Rosa. Monterey. Well, that's Palm. Monteray is between the two green buildings, correct? Yes. Okay, now I'm with you. And so the um these these SketchUps are really just conceptual designs that our group has implemented. Um that's great. We just need street names so I can get any kind of concept of what's going on. I mean Yeah, absolutely. So our our drawing as well that also shows these

conceptual designs does have the street names. Yeah. And those also have been handed out to each of you. Well, and you're taking advantage of the city the parking lot that the city purchased recently, right? That's at the corner of Hera and O Toro, right? Okay. So, um Okay. Yeah. Thanks. That is where the transit is going, right? Okay. Yeah. So, this schematic plan was basically based off of what the city has projected. Okay. In their right plans. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. Petra's just well off off to the right. is going to be that red building in the very right corner. Yeah, everybody knows where that is, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. Carry on. Thank you. All right. Of course. All right. And then workforce housing and office space. So, we know that there is that middle ground needed for housing in San Leo Sabuso. We are proposing this um into turning it from from a mixeduse development into housing and professional office space um at the intersection of H Highira and Santa Rosa. Um this plan works to serve city and county staff by keeping essential workers in the downtown area. Um we ultimately believe that this is a needed foundational step in shifting the area from an under utilized parking lots to vibrant live and work district. Yeah, that's not workforce housing on the left, by the way. No, it's those are like $2 million town houses. Right. Yeah, that that's just showing that's kind of like showing Yeah. location. We're We're nitpicking here, but carry on. All right. And then some other ideas that our group came up with that we felt the need to present is

um pedestrian scramble on Santa Rosa and Mon Monteray Street with signage and rotating public art. Um we think that this create a strong visual gateway that makes the area safer and more inviting for residents and tourists. I will now pass it off to JD where he will go into our implementation process. And while that's happening, I'll just I may be nitpicking here and trying to get my bearings, but this is great. So, love it. Carry on. Thank you. Thank you, Olivia. Hi, everyone. I'm JD. Now, I'll go over our phase implementation strategy. In the short term, so over the next five years, we aim to prioritize the lowcost high impact upgrades. So, these will include installing decorative crosswalks, gateway signages, and public art at the Monterey and Santa Rosa intersection. We'll also add movable seating, bike share stations, and shade to activate the corridor pretty quickly. And reszoning and housing site preparation will also begin at this stage, setting the stage for our future infill housing and office development. In the midterm, so five to 15 years, we will build out our main infrastructure like the workforce housing project, the midblock pedestrian corridor, and the new transit center. These will help anchor the district's identity and bring daily users into the space. The transit plaza will also host market programming, so like the farmers market. Hopefully, we can integrate that and live performances to support the economic activity and community life. Finally, over the long term, so the next 15 to 30 years, we propose two major follow-ups. First, we'll monitor housing outcomes to evaluate affordability and tenant mix and demographics and usage.

And secondly, we'll explore multimodal linkages, especially in connecting this new government quarter to Calpali and downtown via shuttle or street car infrastructure. And this long range investment helps tie our concept into the broader regional network. Next, I'd like to introduce Anthony from group four, who will be discussing our next part of the corridor. Thank you, JD. Good evening. My name is Anthony and today I'll be speaking on behalf of group four, the arts district. The location of this section is the region north of the government quarters, more specifically from Toro Street to Pepper Street near the overpass. While we observe this area, we noticed the rich aromas fill in the air from the restaurants and the creative energy stemming from the art stores and crafting studios. With such a strong presence of food and creative services already in place, our goal was to build on the foundation by introducing features that formally established this area as an arts district. To do so, we are proposing the integration of more thirst spaces and public art as a medium for enhancing the walkability and safety of this area. While our goal is to create a vibrant experience for all ages, we have remained mindful of community's housing needs. Therefore, we plan to incorporate housing in a manner that is both optimal in terms of space and preserving the current usage patterns of nearby services. As a first step to towards achieving these goals, we felt it was important to enhance the aesthetics and safety underneath the overpass. As most members of the community can agree that is an eyesore and a rather unwelcoming destination at night given the absence lighting. With that in mind, taking inspiration from Partal Tunnel in Al Vista and the Rainbow Tunnel in Birmingham, Alabama, we are proposing rainbow colored LED lights that glisten

and blink as you make your way past them. With this feature in place, we envision the underpass becoming a popular attraction and a space that individuals want to visit and interact with rather than avoid. The goal with this is to make the underpass a gateway rather than a barrier for pedestrian mobility. In addition to addressing the activity underneath the overpass, we also want to address the overpass itself. In its current state, it appears neglected, decorated in rust and graffiti. Although this could be solved with the addition of public art and artistic structures, it sits in the hands of Union Pacific's jurisdiction, which limits our ability to directly interact with it. Therefore, we are proposing to implement a structure that sits within the city's boundaries and on the edge of the overpass. This arrangement will include a large neon sign reading soundless abyspo that covers a less appealing portion of other pass and is visible at night. Another major feature we are proposing is a popc and pepper specifically in the iixit parking lot. This popc would act as an informal gathering space where art and food are on full display. Take for example the Mahalia Jackson Popc Court in Chicago, Illinois. This space provides opportunities for artists to showcase their work, musicians to perform, and food trucks to gather. We want to implement a similar popcorn at our site to support the existing art services and provide more opportunities for food services to share their cuisine. We would also like to adapt the street parking into parkletits to slow traffic and supplement the popcorn as we plan on expanding these events hosted here onto the streets on Thursday nights as a complimentary destination to the farmers market that takes place on Hagar

Street. Another major feature we want to implement is crosswalk art at the intersection of Monterey and Johnson. After talking to local business owners, they expressed their concerns for pedestrian safety as they witnessed a total of five accidents in just a single week. This concern was further justified after we reviewed the transportation injury mapping system, but shows that there have been multiple crashes here involving vehicles and pedestrians in the past few years. To address this issue, we want to implement public art directly onto the intersection. As we found through various case studies that this approach has led to a s significant decrease in car speeds and fatal collisions. Therefore, we believe adding R to intersection would not only enhance our arts district, but it would also help to alleviate a serious safety concern by acting as a traffic calming measure. In terms of the design of the crosswalk art, we want to incorporate elements that visualize the character of the surfaces at each of the four corners. We will invite local artists to create something that is original and captivating. To address the need for more housing, we decided to look at what already exists at our site. One establishment that we thought worked really well was a mix. The mix is a three-f floor building with restaurants on the first floor, office spaces on the second floor, and housing on the third floor. These businesses continue to thrive even with the housing. So we want to emulate this format by building on top of the existing businesses that are structurally stable. With that, some buildings that we identified include Bizarre Antiques and Oddities, Albert's Flores, and the suite where the Caffeine Coffee Company is located. The feasibility of this idea was supported by a case study from Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood where additional housing units were built on top of a Laker store. With that being said, we feel this is the most optimal approach to addressing

the housing issue while still maintaining the current usage patterns of existing services. Now, I'll pass it off to Delaney to discuss the short to long-term goals. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Delaney. Here we go. We have determined short-term, midterm, and long-term implementation phases that work towards our vision for the arts district. In the short term, we want to improve walkability and safety of the site. We propose adding light features to the Union Pacific underpass, which can be feasibly done in 6 to 12 months through LED lighting, as is shown with the rainbow tunnel case study in Birmingham, Alabama. We propose adding the slow gateway feature alongside the underpass lighting as the two are closely interconnected design elements that will bring more foot traffic to the area. In addition, we suggest adding more street furniture and public art to increase the vibrancy of the site and to show people that this is an arts district. This could include colorful colorful bike racks, art pieces that function as outdoor furniture, or even more interactive lighting displays. Finally, we want to start removing barriers between parking lots along the site to create more connectivity. In the midterm, we propose focusing on implementing the crosswalk art at Mon at the Monterey and Johnson intersection and creating the popcourt in the current iFixit parking lot. Both of these features will serve as trafficcoming measures that traffic calming measures while incentivizing drivers to park, get out of their car, and engage in the community. On Thursday evenings, the popcourt could expand out across the street and become a lively secondary destination that complements the farmers market. We also want to start construction on a parking structure at the intersection of Monterey and Pepper. This would allow businesses to pay parking and L fees, granting flexibility

with minimum parking requirements for development. Once the parking garage is fully operational, we can convert some of the surface parking into public green space that will further improve the pedestrian experience. Finally, we plan on starting to add mixeduse housing to the area, starting with the iFixit building, which is already large with two stories. In the long term, oh, yep. In the long term, we plan to greatly increase the density of this corridor and make most of the lots into mixeduse developments that mirror the mix with commercial and food on the bottom floor, office spaces on the second floor, and then residential and housing on the third floor. In addition, we plan to increase the amount of public green spaces in front of the mixeduse developments to provide refuge for pedestrians. Finally, we plan to formalize the popcourt into a permanent plaza space that complements the large mixeduse housing project behind it. We also want to bring the building and plazas forward to the property line and push parking to the rear of the buildings to activate the street for an improved pedestrian environment. I will now pass it over to Natalie to to introduce group three. Good evening. My name is Natalie and I will now share the plans for the middle section of the corridor. Group three, known lovingly as Frank's Corner, spans from Pepper Street at the south to Grove Street at the north. When reviewing this section, we identified plenty of existing economic opportunities that already exist in the area. Many of these businesses are locally owned and operated, creating a sort of mini downtown that could be grown upon. Our section is also home to the new HLO project that is setting a precedent for housing and increased density in the surrounding blocks and the upper Monterey corridor as a whole. The five focus points identified in this corridor influence the proposed design of Frank's

Corner. These focus points are Frank's Plaza, faculty housing, intersection improvements at California and Monterey, a midblock crossing between HLO and businesses across the street, and signage at the Union Pacific overpass to create a gateway to the rest of St. Louis Bispo. This section proposes to convert the corner of parking lot of Frank's Famous Hot Dogs. Oh, sorry. This section proposes to convert the corner parking lot of Frank's Famous Hot Dogs to a public plaza. This space will complement the proposed plazas on the HLO site. The inspiration for this design is small plazas across California, including Mission Plaza in St. Louis Vispo. Frank's Plaza could have a retro hot dog theme with design elements such as hot dog benches to create a unique space for customers of Frank's and others. This it could this project would require a public private partnership to change the use of this parking lot to a plaza. As we've heard from other groups, providing more housing was a key goal of the entire upper Monterey corridor. This section especially is ripe for housing units because many of the lots are currently underutilized. The city of St. Lucabispo is in severe need of workforce and below market rate housing to accommodate various income groups in the city. The best type of housing for this section of Monterey Street is housing targeted towards faculty members at Cowpali. Faculty housing is popular in many college towns across the country including Boone, North Carolina, home of Appalachin State University. Their faculty housing complex provides a variety of housing types, including one, two, and three-bedroom apartments and options to lease individual bedrooms. These units are targeted to faculty members at Appalachin State. This

section of Monterey provides a great opportunity for a similar complex to serve faculty of Cowpali. The design of these buildings would be based on the HLO project that is under construction. Since this project has been approved, future development in this section of Upper Monterey will mimic or complement the House project. While conducting interviews and site surveys, community members identified the intersection of California and Monterey to be one of the busiest on the corridor and very dangerous. To create a safer pedestrian environment, bullouts will be installed at each corner to give pedestrians more space and help slow traffic speeds. Additionally, crosswalks in the intersection will be painted by local artists in an additional effort to slow down traffic. Examples from Madrid, Spain, and St. Helena, California are shown on the slide that have provided inspiration for our design. The improvements in this intersection are minimal, but will significantly alter the pedestrian environment, creating a safer, more enjoyable streetscape. However, this intersection provides the quickest access to Highway 101 for the neighborhood off St. Louis Drive. With this in mind, the improvements will not severely impact the width of the road to ensure residents in the city can evacuate efficiently in case of an emergency. As I mentioned on the previous slide, community members commented that the California Monterey intersection feels very unsafe. To help calm traffic in the intersection, traffic speeds along Monterey Street need to be reduced as well. A midblock crossing will benefit pedestrians in two ways. First, the crossing will be paved with an alternate material such as brick or paint as shown in the inspiration images on the slide, which will slow traffic down and create a safer street environment. Second, the midblock crossing will provide direct access between the HLO site and the commercial businesses on the other side of the street. The crossing will be signaled

with pedestrian lights indicating cars to slow down and stop for those crossing. The last design element for this section is the Union Pacific train overpass, which Anthony before me discussed. The goals of this gateway are to create a sense of place along the upper Monterey corridor and welcome people to the rest of Monterey and downtown St. Louis Abyispo. Currently, the gateway is relatively unassuming, but could be transformed into a place to visit for tourists and residents alike. The design for the gateway has to be creative as Union Pacific owns the overpass. So any improvements to the structure itself will need approval from them. Is this an alternate idea to the other one we saw or is it the other side? It's the other side of the overpass. The design shown on the slide was generated you using AI and would be in front of the overpass to block the facade without touching it. The inspiration for this image came from designs in both Johnson City, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon. The projects on this section that will be easier to implement and on a short-term timeline are the midblock crossing, intersection improvements, and the gateway feature near the railway overpass. The midblock crossing will have a different pavement material and a pedestrian light signal with the goal of slowing traffic and improving the pedestrian experience. Excuse me. I'm just going to ask you to not repeat the stuff that you was in the previous slide if you can. We we got it. So, um it's been a long day. So, does that make sense? Yes, understood. Um, the other two um items that I would mention that I've already discussed are those intersection improvements and the gateway feature. Um, lastly, the most complicated projects will be um a reszoning of many of the parcels in this corridor from CT to CR to allow for greater housing density at up to 36 units per acre. Following this resoning, many of the parcels in the section will

be redeveloped to accommodate mixeduse projects. Um the mixeduse projects like I mentioned will be um many of the commercial promotes commercial and office space on the ground floor with two to three housing units of two to three stories of housing above. Um and the new buildings will match that of the house low property. Uh my classmates Kayla and Nick will now present the next section. Thank you, Natalie. Good evening. My name is Kayla Saraskki. I'm Nick, and we're excited to share our vision of the Cowpoly Gateway District, located at the northern end of the Monterey Street corridor, centered on the intersection of Grand Avenue in Monterey Street, the primary entrance to Cowpali. Currently, the area is dominated by hotels and a few restaurants that primarily serve out of town visitors, but it lacks the vibrancy and identity found elsewhere in St. Louis Abyispo. Through conversations with local business owners and community members, we heard a recurring concern. The district feels disconnected and lacks a clear sense of place. In response, our plan aims to establish a stronger identity as a true gateway to both Calpali and the city. improve safety and accessibility, especially for students walking or biking, and introduce new public amenities for residents, workers, and tourists alike. Right now, visitors staying in nearby hotels face limited and inconvenient options for getting around. Narrow sidewalks, infrequent transit, and car dependency all create barriers to downtown access and local expiration. To begin addressing these broader challenges, we've identified three key interventions focused on safety, placemaking, and connectivity, which Nick will now walk us through in more detail. Uh, our plan features three key components. Uh, first, protected bike lanes connecting to the bike lanes on Grand Avenue. This one's a little

personal to me. I I bike a lot. I live on campus. Typically, I bike on California because the one time I biked on Monterey, I almost got hit. And, you know, I was biking downhill. was not going too slow, but someone really needed to pass me. So, uh, featuring protected bike lanes on Monterey Street will encourage biking, make it safer, and slightly narrow the road so that cars drive slower. Uh, second is zoning changes. So, parcels south of Grant Avenue will be re reszoned from low density at just 12 units per acre to commercial retail mixeduse up to 36 units per acre. and we propose new amenities including the Veterans Memorial Plaza, the mixeduse housing, a redesigned Calpaly Gateway sign, and a new creek trail. So, beginning with the Veterans Memorial Plaza, to improve public space and pedestrian safety, we propose converting a small portion of Palm Street into a flexible use plaza that we propose to call the Veterans Memorial Plaza. By removing the Palm Street connection to the Grand Avenue and Monterey Street intersection, we reduce conflict points between vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians with minimal impact to traffic flow and parking. Inspired by projects like the Fowler Square Plaza in Brooklyn, New York, which took an underused intersection and turned it into a public plaza, the new plaza will feature trees, seating, and flexible programming such as farmers markets, art exhibits, and community events, enhancing the overall vibrancy, and supporting local businesses. Next, to improve placemaking and identity, um a defining placemaking feature will be an updated Cowpoly Gateway sign. The current sign is faded and does not reflect the vibrancy of the university or the city, as shown in the picture above. We propose commissioning a local artist to redesign the sign, potentially incorporating a Mustang statue as a landmark that both welcomes visitors and

clearly indicates the direction to campus for travelers on Monterey Street. A central element of our plan is increasing housing availability and economic activity. As previously mentioned, we propose reszoning parcels south of Grand Avenue to support higher density res residential development. Additionally, we propose exploring partnerships with local hotels to pilot single room occupancy, short-term dorm style accommodations that can meet the needs of students or the local workforce, addressing a critical housing gap. Another key opportunity is the current Genos's Pizza part parcel where we propose a three-story mixeduse building anchored by a full-ervice grocery store. This location is ideal due to improved bicycle infrastructure and the area's lack of access to fresh produce. It will serve students, residents, and tourists alike while acting as a local economic catalyst. Our proposed Slow Creek Trail utilizes an existing ride ofway already zoned as open space. It will be a paved multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists that will enhance connectivity within the area and the surrounding neighborhoods. The trail will link to the existing pedestrian bridge on Andrew Street near the Monday Club, which someone tried to drive down a few weeks ago and will potentially extend beneath Highway 101 to reach Questa Canyon Park. In the long term, this trail will connect southward to the railroad safety trail, helping to create a continuous network of walking and biking trails across San Lucispo. This trail offers a peaceful and safe alternative for current residents, tourists, future housing occupants, and students attending St. Louis Abyspo High School. And then finally, to go over our implementation timeline, we've established short-term and long-term goals. So with short-term, which is 6 months to 5 years, we hope to pilot the Veterans Memorial Plaza using removable stone planters to temporarily block traffic. This is similarly to the Brooklyn's Fowler Square Plaza, which used phase implementation to see how things would flow before permanent construction. Um, additionally, we hope

to commission and install an updated Cowpoly Gateway sign with the help of a local artist. And then for long-term goals, which is 10 to 20 years, we hope to complete the Slow Creek Trail with extensions to regional parks and trail networks without with throughout the city. and we hope to complete the construction of new mixeduse developments south of Grand Avenue, including the proposed grocery store. Finally, we hope to have full integration of housing, public spaces, and transportation improvements across the district. Overall, this plan prioritizes connectivity, safety, identity, and vibrancy while maintaining the economic viability of tourism in existing businesses. We believe it offers a thoughtful communitydriven approach for the future of the CowPoly Gateway District. Thank you. And I will now pass it on to Addison who's in group one and will present our final section. Hi everyone. My name is Addison Hernandez and I'm very excited to share with you our group's final concept group for the uptown San Bispo. We entitled this section slowed down. This name captures our goal to slow down, reflect on history of the place, and design a welcoming and connected space for both visitors and locals. Our section is located at the northern end of Monterey Street where it reaches the freeway highway 101. This section is entirely filled with hotels and motel with the top parcel containing the historic motel insight. Our vision is to create a gateway experience that is not only functional but memorable, one that makes a positive first impression on those arriving to St. Louis Abyispo. We wanted to feel safe, welcoming, and seamlessly connected to both downtown and Calpali. To guide our work, we focused on four main objectives. Improve connectivity. We want to make it easier for people to travel into and through the area on

foot, bike, trolley, or car. We want better access and experiences. We want people to be have something to do, something to see, something to enjoy. We want to remove barriers to development through zoning reforms, incentives, and infrastructure upgrades. We also want to enhance the area's sense of place so it becomes a destination and not just a pass through. Each part of our plan is designed to work together to support this holistic vision. We began on focusing on the visitor experience and there's no better symbol of that than the Motel Insight which is widely regarded as the first motel in the world. Today the site is underutilized and somewhat forgotten but we believe it has the potential to be a vibrant hub for visitors. Our proposal is to revitalize the motel in into a visitor center. This space could provide maps, exhibits, and event information and public restrooms and shaded outdoor areas. It would also act as a launching point for exploration, offering tourists a place to orient themselves and begin their experience of St. Louis Abyispo. Next, we're proposing a dedicated trolley turnaround at the site to bring people from downtown and other key locations. This creates a loop that encourages movement and exploration and brings people from downtown to uptown and vice versa. We're also envisioning a signature welcome sign near the highway, something iconic, similar in spirit to the signs you see along places such as the Ragged Point or Route 66 towns. It would mark it would mark the entrance of the city while celebrating the history of the motel and the area's long-standing ties to travel and hospitality. Additionally, we propose the construction of a three-story parking garage on site. The structure would serve both as a park and ride for visitors using the trolley system and provide additional parking capacity for the adjacent hotels. This combination of features not only celebrates the past, but looks forward to the future of

Uptown and St. Louis Abyispo. Short-term implementations could include wayfinding signage, minor landscape upgrades, pop-up visitor kiosks, and a temporary trolley service expansions. Long-term implementations include the full motel and re reser uh renovation, the permanent visitor center, a construction of the parking ride garage, and an installation of the iconic welcome sign. Let's talk about transportation improvements. A key part of activating the area for proposing extra expanding the trolley system to include a reg regular service to the mental and visitor site. Importantly, the trolley would operate seven days a week, not just on the Thursday nights. That change increases reliability and encourages locals and visitors alike to use it and provides a service they can count on all the time. We're also envisioning the new Creekide Trail as mentioned previously that follow follows the path and has recreational element to the area. Another improvement focuses on the Buena Vista Avenue. Right now the street is a car dominated and not very friendly to bikes or pedestrians. It is the overpass going over the freeway into the Monterey Street area. Our concept turns it into a one-way street with a multi-use path. This change improves safety and makes it easier to design highquality landscaping and pedestrian amenities along the corridor. From interviews we have conducted with people driving over that area, most people come into the Monterey area and not back up. Finally, so one way, which way? One way coming into Monterey Street, so north to south. Finally, a major intervention is the removal of the northbound off-ramp of Highway 101. We know this is a very bold move and require very indepth cooperation with CALR, but from looking at Calrans data, we have found this is the most unused off-ramp throughout the whole city. This ramp takes up a lot of land and breaks up the flow of the neighborhood. By removing it, we open up valuable space for development and and

eliminate the barrier between the mental in and the rest of the corridor. The short-term implementations could include pilot programs for the expanded trolley service, temporary lane changes for traffic calming and the creek trail feasibility studies. Long-term implementations could include the full trolley inte integration, construction of the multi-use path, the creek path, the removal of the off-ramp, and then full trail development or any other changes needed. The last focus area is encouraging development that aligns with the community's needs and values. We're proposing new fire and flood safety guidelines which will help us ensure that development occurs. It is done responsibly. With climate related risk increasing, it's essential that we guide growth towards safer locations and away from vulnerable areas. One area you want to focus on is flood and fire safety guidelines. Due to new fire risk severity maps from Calire in the state, most of the area's future development hinges on being safe from both fire and flood. We're also just suggesting a shift in how parking is handled due to these guidelines. Most of the area by the creek is in a flood zone. Thus, it'll be worthwhile to get development away from that area and closer to the street. We do this by placing parking behind buildings, which preserves street character, encourages walkability, and makes the developments a lot safer. Next, we'll recommend zoning changes to allow zero lot lines, which will allow buildings to use the full length of the parcel in the front. This help maximize usable space and brings buildings up to the street. We're also recommending building setbacks to create a more welcoming, visible spectrum. Lastly, we propose density bonuses for developments, especially hotels that incorporate affordable housing units. This incentive can help meet our regional housing goals while also maintaining tourism, making tourism more inclusive. Imagine a future where service workers can live near their jobs rather than competing from far away through an amendment to the density

bonus laws that will allow for developments uptown to also benefit. We could see greater we could see even greater development in this area. Short-term implementations can include drafting updated zoning ordinances, updating flood fire safety maps, and initiating community input sessions. Long-term improvements can include adopting new housing overlays and centers for developers and relocation of the parking infrastructure. Thank you for allowing following along with our vision for the uptownless Abyispo. Just to wrap things up, our team developed this proposal using insights for demographic research, stakeholder interviews, and through a SWAT analysis. This research resulted in a holistic integrated plan that aligns with the community's character and future aspirations. took a corridorwide approach identifying key intersections, major landmarks, and underutilized parcels. Public spaces like plazas and popout courts are added to build identity and foster gathering. New housing opportunities are strategically distributed in a gradient with higher density closer to centers of activity. Our plan encourages hospitality and housing growth, supports local businesses, and integrates key mobility upgrades. Policy tools like zoning reforms and safety guidelines help ensure responsible development for years to come. Overall, Uptown reflects on forward thinking yet respectful approach grounded in place and designed for both locals and visitors. Thank you again for your time listening to our project and I do believe we have a short video of 40 seconds that's just a quick fly through of our SketchUp model. A lot of it is very basic, but it'll have quick images you might see from previous slides as well. This is starting from the highway up from the top and going all the way towards the bottom. You're good.

Right now we're in the middle of the pop-up court going down towards the government center which is coming up shortly. A lot of the buildings are very basic just because the basic design the images we do have more focalized war uh specifically for the presentations. Follow up on Yes. And then I do apologize for the very laggy video. The computers barely ran the software at that point. So, and then thank you so much for listening to us and we're happy to facilitate any questions you have for either me or any of my peers. Well, this is fantastic. Thank you. And um I think we're mostly here to to receive this presentation rather than to debate and get into the weeds on it. So, but there's just so much that's great about this. Uh, starting with the fact that it's coming from you guys, Cowpali city planning, and I'm just a couple buildings over. I teach in civil engineering and teach transportation planning. I'm a fan of Jan Janette Sadique Con. I love the temporary try try it out and then make it permanent. I mean, there's an avalanche of creative and great ideas here. And if we do half of this, it'll be fantastic. So, um, that's what I have to say. Anything else? Yeah, I just wanted to say as I was, you know, watching this presentation, uh, I just kept thinking I want to live in this city. So, thank you. Great job. I I'll just, um, add that there's a lot of marvelous ideas and I think although you could even be more explicit about some of the constraints, the main constraint I think is the narrowness of Monteray because right now I don't think fire engines want to use it. Um it's an issue for buses as well, but um probably eliminating as much if not all the parking. Yes. Which is a little risky to say because you could be thrown out with the bathwater if you're you're not

careful. But uh I think that's a really critical aspect. I think wider sidewalks particularly would make a real difference for people who are using the motel and uh you know it's a little hard to navigate everything right now, but there's a lot of things that could be done that just uh would work really well. And I did see a little parking structure there. I don't know how big it is, but it could be represented as um parking the cars that are not any longer allowed on the street on Monterey. I don't know there's a way through that. But uh very creative, very smart. I can't believe how much work you did and how each area is different, but there's a lot of unification of it. It' be an exciting place to walk uphill as well as downhill. Yes. I wondered if next quarter that um the classes will address the area around closer to Calpali where the fraternities are. They might use your design points. No, this is beautiful. I see extremely high cost here, but I think you're realistic looking 15, 30 years ahead, especially acquiring property like the um motel um area and things like that be very expensive. But thank you very much for your dreams. Thank you so much for listening to us. Yeah, I agree. It was very interesting. Um I like the fresh ideas and you know, you painting with an open pallet. Um, it's interesting as you go on in your career, you learn more restrictions about what you can and can't do and the cost of things and I think it's important to have free thinking at this point for conceptual designs. Thank you. So, maybe you can include a soundproof fraternity row. Okay. Uh, anything else? Um, Ha, would you like to close it out? Yes. Um I'm HA Dandar and I want to thank the commission very much for your time and patience having been eight

years on that side of the bench on planning commission. I know how hard it is when the clock starts going towards nine to hear people out. So we very much appreciate this opportunity. I just wanted to give you a little bit of context. There are 22 students in the in the class. It's a bigger studio than we normally have and most of these students don't have much of a design background. They we are two-year masters program. They come to us from all kinds of disciplines. Geography architect, we have an architect. Fortunately, we always have somebody who can do GIS. Uh but it's been a very fast learning curve for them. Um and uh our quarters, we love the quarters because they're over with as you know on the faculty side we love them. Um but they're quite short for getting your arms around a big problem like this. So the emphasis on the studio was about the design side of things. How do you visualize and give spatial reality? Uh especially for those who haven't had any design background, it's been uh quite a learning curve. And um on top of that, I've been pressing them that they have to present, they have to point out, you know, they have to do everything in 8 n weeks. So um we appreciate the opportunity to speak to you and to have on record some visual uh rendition of how Upper Mterrey might become the new uptown. You know, Bob, when we were on the planning commission, this idea used to always come up, what's going to happen on Mterrey? And I was really de delighted and wanted to thank Timmy. Um, is she there? Yes, she's there. Um, Timmy is one of our own as are many people. Uh, Tyler, um, Rachel

who was here just shortly. Uh and uh it was wonderful to have Timmy invite us because uh slow hasn't been very open cuz you have all these great planners we trained and so we haven't had much opportunity to show what our students can do and uh this has been very nice for us. Uh I've been teaching almost 45 years of studios. I'm about to fully retire and it's wonderful to be able to do something that might contribute to my hometown uh to be able to have a set of ideas. This really is about putting in some ideas and and they might some might resonate, some might be applicable to another section of the street. Uh but they're out there now. Uh and they will be compiled into a report. uh the report will have these various ideas in a more articulate and fully blown way. Uh but again, it's going to be one week. They're going to be working hard and uh we hope that we can submit the the report to you for further um for f for further consideration. But thank you because your your um comments and the fact that you knew where we were along the corridor was very gratifying. Oftentimes these images sort of go over people's heads and um this the students have really tried hard to really engage with what's going on and to deal with the housing issue. Uh the agenda was to try and introduce typologies of housing along this corridor that are in scarce supply in the city. We've been very much aware of small units of units that might really be workforce housing financially as well as in terms of spatial configuration.

And so the idea was that there was this opportunity to build on existing existing properties with multi-use and most you know around this around the country multi-use with how residential on top has been one of the few ways affordable has been able to be introduced and we're largely a single family uh residential community and we just saw for quite a couple of hours how that kind of conflict is in endemic uh to an R1 zoning and sometimes different kinds of type housing typologies are hard to introduce. So we seize this opportunity for that and I want to thank the planning staff and and to all of you for giving us a chance to let the students talk about what they've been working on very hard for the last nine weeks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very impressive. and all the presenters. Really nice job. Uh that can be terrifying, right? Uh but y'all did very well on that. And this is not just for us because it's streamed and it's archived. So it'll be out there for the citizenry as well and you can show your uh grandkids when it's all done. Okay, moving along. Any uh I'm just going to finish this up here. So uh Mr. Corey, our deputy community development director, would you please give us an update on what's coming up? Well, thank you, chair, members of the commission. Looking at our agenda forecast, next regularly scheduled meeting is for June 11th. Uh we do have some items on that agenda. Uh two of the resolutions will be coming back to you um probably on the consent calendar uh that night. We also have um an appeal of a decision by the director for a fence height exception. You're going to see that. That property is at 1425 Sydney.

So that'll be coming on the 11th as well. And then um finally, we have a kind of a reuse of a office building that's going to be um proposed as a private school for the Slow Casical Academy. So that'll be coming uh to you as well. And then looking out um on the 25th of June, we have a couple items, another re-review of fraternity. Um so this one is at 720 Foothill and uh similar uh due to violations of these permit and other municipal code uh issues. So that'll be on the agenda. And then there is uh a second item which is the removal of the plan development overlay for the downtown center that was associated with the 1144 choro project. Some of you might remember that. that was a six-story mixeduse project. Um that is no longer moving forward and so the property owners would like to um remove the the PD overlay that has some restrictions on some of the uses and some density transfer that went to that site. So that should also be coming to you on the 25th. Okay. Thank you very much. We have those both on the calendar. So it looks like on the calendar. So both that later 11th and 25th are likely to be happening. Is that correct? Yeah. Yes. Right now, we're going to have meetings uh for both of those regularly scheduled meetings in June. Okay, very well. Okay, so the next regular meeting of the planning commission is scheduled for June 11th, and that will be held at 6 6 o'clock p.m. in the council chambers, right where we are right now. And with that, we are adjourned.