Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Commissioners, if we're ready. Ready? Everyone ready? Ariana, you good?

All

right. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Thursday, 04/03/2025, Regular Planning Commission hearing. I'd like to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. Thank you. Ariana, report on posting the agenda and roll call, please.

The agenda was posted on Thursday, 03/27/2025 at 04:55PM. Roll call. Commissioner Benson? Absent. Commissioner

Elli? Present.

Commissioner Kushner?

Here.

Commissioner Leyengard? Here. Commissioner Valdez?

Here.

Vice Chair Donohue?

Here. Chair Bandel? Here.

Thank you. And as a reminder to commissioners and staff to please turn on your mic when speaking. Thank you.

Thank you, Ariana. Ariana, are there any public comments for items not on the agenda?

There are no speakers.

Thank you. Moving on to Consent Agenda 5.1, 03/13/2025, Planning Commission meeting minutes. Commissioners, any questions, comments, concerns? I motion we approve the minutes.

I second. And

to confirm, the second was Commissioner Eli. Thank you.

Roll call.

Commissioner Benson? Oh. Should I hold off on a roll call? We are approving the consent agenda. So roll call. Commissioner Benson? Yes. Commissioner Elli?

Yes.

Commissioner Kushner?

Yes.

Commissioner Lingard? Yes. Commissioner Valdez?

Yes.

Vice Chair Donhauer?

Yes.

The project manager, Ryan Asenten. Ryan, you are up.

Hi. How's everybody? Thank you all for having me today. My name is Ryan Ossenton. I'm the project manager here for the city. I started back in September, and one of the things that I have been working on is our Civic Center Master Plan. Just to give you guys a little bit of background, the current Civic Center Master Plan was adopted in 02/2002. The plan that I am working on is an update to the portions of that plan is not an update to the portions of the plan that was put in place. So the one from 2002 got us the police headquarters and the library. The rest of that plan has not been used and has been placed on hold.

So our new plan, which was approved by the council in November, where we hired ELS to be the architect of record, will give us a better utilization of the space. It will add enhancements that our community needs and has requested. Back in November through a bid selection process. And ELS has presented internal staff with the following three options earlier this week, and they will be presenting these to the public at our community workshop meeting next Tuesday, April 8. So I'll run through these, just a couple of key pieces, nothing too crazy here.

The main thing that I would advise is when you view these, I can answer some questions on it, but I just saw them yesterday from the first time myself. So I don't have all the answers to them yet. I would say if you have questions that I can't answer today, please come to one of our meetings on Tuesday so we can address that with ELS. ELS will be gathering feedback from the community and applying those changes and recommendations from the community to the final product that they plan to present to the community for final rounds of feedback on May 20. May 20 will be our next and final community right over the footprint where current City Hall is.

We'd be moving City Hall to the corner of Seventh And Church, kind of where the Annex Parking Center is. And we'd be adding the arts and senior center at the current location of the Wheeler Center. And then the to me, one of the best parts about this is we'd be adding a new park into the downtown area. We don't have too many public parks within our downtown footprint. So this would be a great space.

These three lines you see here would be a public amphitheater. So tiered seating, that's all grass, that would be kind of a place to gather. The thought is you go to Gourmet Alley, you pick up your dinner and then you walk a block over and you eat at City Hall Park. This building, this structure right here would be the new council chambers or a flex space that could be council chambers and a public community room space, something along those lines. This is Option B that they have presented.

Recreation and Aquatics would stay the same. We would flip the location of City Hall. So City Hall would then be at Sixth And Church, where Wheeler currently is, and the Arts and Senior Center would go to the corner of Seventh And Church, where the Annex currently is or the Annex parking lot is. And this would give us more of an oval shaped park. With a rounded council chambers and or community space and then an L shaped City Hall where all of our buildings reside along Seventh Street.

We'd have the Aquatic Center where City Hall is, then the recreation center, the arts and senior center and then the City Hall. Are there any questions for me? Yes.

I mean, I'm not the Planning Commissioner or anything, but I do have a question. What happens to all the newly installed solar?

They would be repurposed. Repurposed? Yes. So all of the buildings would become at minimum LEED certified for any new ones that are brought up. And then all of the existing solar panels would be repurposed onto the existing structures that we add.

Okay. So they just go on the roof. Yes. Okay.

The columns that they're we're we're able able that.

I had a quick question

on that little section. It looks like

some housing. Is that housing there on the left hand side?

You talking these houses Yes. Right here off 20, able then do do And of going that. Have do lot

few

then we question to about sorry. What about ADA parking near City Hall in the Art Center? Because it looks like all the parking is sort of far away from them.

Yeah. That's my question, Julie. Because there is a lot of kids, small kids, mother with multiple kids. Even though it's a small walk, but they have to walk, you know, and when it rains Yep. You know, or when the sun is too hot.

Yes. Totally understand. We have not finalized any of these plans, and that would be a part of the finalizing process as we work through some of the preliminary ideas that we deal with. One thing I would say is they are going to be adding the angled street parking. And some of those stalls, you can make them wide enough.

You can go instead of the standard eight foot wide, you could do a 10 foot or a 12 foot to 14 foot and designate those as ADA stalls. But it's really going to depend on what location we land on for iterations we have, we are taking the parking lot that currently exists between the library and Wheeler Center and converting that into a park. So we will need to account for that in some way, shape or form.

Yes. And why don't you keep the parking over there and then keep it centralized for all the facility, include the library, city hall, arts and senior center, and the park. So where the recreational aquatic is?

Where the current parking lot

is for city hall? Yeah. Just keep it there and then move, you know, move the senior arts this way and then, you know, just move things around, maybe recreational athletics, kind of put it on where the arts and senior is, kind of shift things around because where the park is, even if you add extra parking for each building, but it's not enough parking for you know, like, it's nowhere distributed parking for all the facilities. And during the summer, there is a lot of, like, classes of even for the library.

So our current parking count is just under 300. So this would actually be adding about 80 stalls to our footprint. The allocation of space is difficult, especially given the size of the parks that we are trying to fit within the footprint. And we're trying to avoid the concrete jungle layout of parking in front of every single building. Space with along the streets, both along Seventh And Church. We would not be adding any angled parking along Sixth Street due to the bus stops there. We want to keep those in place and keep those as active routes. But these are all this is great feedback that we would want to share with ELS at our public meeting next Tuesday, the eighth.

And then we'll have the ADA, even if it's just three or four spots, kind of close to each because whether it's library, the senior center, city hall, I mean, of them really need to have that kind of access, right? My question is in front of the library, those gray areas, is that still

This parking area?

This parking? Yes.

So this is existing parking, and we would not change that. Okay. That would stay existing parking. Those stalls might get reallocated and restriped so that in theory, if this stays the Art and Senior Center right up here where Wheeler's at, in theory, you could allocate ADA parking for about half of this lot.

But still, it's very small because I go to the library very often. Mhmm. And to find a parking over there, it's, like, almost, like, impossible.

Right.

So already as is. So I actually have a suggestion. Instead of putting the police over here on the

So the police center is a currently existing building, and we're not gonna be doing the

You're not gonna you're not you're not gonna to The put it

library and the police center are both within the last twenty years have been built, and we're not going to be investing any funds into those buildings.

Just the parking lot, you're going to be moving to the other?

Correct.

Yes.

And the good thing about this parking lot as well, you can see this black dotted line right here. So the current plan is to keep this as a fully surface lot, which would give us about three eighty stalls. But if we needed to, if the parking if three eighty stalls is So you could get over 500 parking stalls if we added a parking garage at this location. It's a great question. My feeling on it is if we can do it with surface lot, we should because parking garages can get expensive, and we're going to be asking for a large sum of money.

We don't know what that final number is yet, but anything we can do to try to keep those costs down so we can get the facilities in place that would really benefit our community, that's kind of where our focus is going to be. If it turns out that we need the parking, then we'll make the change, and we'll go for the parking structures. But if we can keep our footprint smaller and get the Arts in

right able do that.

And

So

Right.

And I think the thought process for us also is, yes, right now that is a big need. But we've also spent the last five plus years investing significant funds into developing bike paths throughout the city, investing in bike lanes, widening roads where we invest 're in few years. To We're

opportunity next

want We're it to be here for the next sixty, seventy five years, and we don't know what parking the is going to look like for them. So and the good news about a parking garage as well is it's not something we have to add now. We can build all of this stuff, and then in 02/1940, you know what? We do need additional parking. Let's build a garage now.

I think the problem here is not only additional parking because, again, as you said, it can be added on, but the location where it's at is like I think it's like the worst location it can be. It's where it's it's over there. Okay. Because it's it again, we have the senior center, the senior arts and senior, and then have the library when we have, like, young kids there. And it's it's the worst location.

Well, size wise, if you swapped out the recreation and the product center with the parking

With the parking that

looks like it's smaller than that.

Or the Giroi Civic Park. So keep the parking where is that? Put the recreational aquatics where the Gilroy Civic Park is, and then just where the parking, you know, it's designed to be, like, just move the Gilroy Civic Park. And also that's gonna offer for those three houses over there in a sense like a a

The buffer?

A a buffer because, you know, it's a parking. It's gonna be noisy. So I think also because, you know, it shouldn't be considered because I'm assuming those people bought those house a long time ago. And you know? So I think in a sense, if you put the Giroi Civic Park where the parking is

But they wanna park

Yes. So the thought in the location of the park is to create a connection to the downtown area. We've invested significant funds in downtown over the last decade, and we want to try and tie

connection with the downtown, but you don't create a connection with the library arts and senior center.

Well, I think it does through the Paseo. The Paseo creates the alleyway that connects all of the buildings. But I I hear your point.

That's a good point. Understand. You are not doing that with a mobility issue. You're not doing that with the three, four kids, even disabled kids sometimes or disabled elderly. That's where it's under the sun, under the rain. That's what we are talking about. So it doesn't if you you have to think about the big picture. Mhmm. You can you know, when you design a park like this or who design, not you.

And I I would advise, this is preliminary drawings. We are still going for

I understand. I understand

gonna get redrawn several times over before we submit anything for final vote and approval.

I understand that.

These are the early ideas, and we're trying to gather as much feedback and support as we can.

I I I understand that. But me, this is a big issue.

I have a question as well.

Oh, go ahead.

Ryan, number one, are the are any of the buildings such as the City Hall and the Arts And Seniors multilevel buildings? Because when I went to the first meeting, it kind of looked that way.

All of these buildings would be two stories. We're not going above three, and our plan is to try to keep every footprint within two. The Arts and Senior Center, this would be a performing arts center, so it would have a small stage and space for And And we'll to that. Able

to do like at the initial walk through meeting that had the boards.

Yes. And City Hall would also be a two story building as well.

Great. Great to hear that. And then another question. On the Gilroy Civic Park, whether it ends up a rectangular oval or whatever, are you of the mindset similar to the City Of Morgan Hill Amphitheater kind of stuff where they have their Friday night music during the summer? Well attended, by the way, I've gone for

years.

And does there's a lot of that's in the middle of downtown, too, and people work it out. And I have to take a handicap spot because I have handicapped people with me. So it can be worked out.

So that is all a part of the thought process here. That's also the part of the purpose of the Paseo is so you could bring in stuff

I like totally agree

with you. Farmers markets and things like that. It really helps activate.

And another thing, I was on an initial committee while I was sitting on the Parks and Rec Commission, and I think it had to do with mobility and walkability in the downtown area. We met at, I think, the Neon Exchange and had several meetings. And this whole idea was discussed on there. So this didn't come out of thin air. This has been a communal wish and a council directive. So I think it's something that we need to realize that it just didn't pop up out of the air. That's my only comment. Thank you, sir.

Thank I you,

love the plan, by the way. My question is when how does the funding work and how does construction start? I missed the first community meeting. I will be at the next one.

So we haven't finalized yet. Our current plan is to go for bonds, and we would phase it out. That's also going to play a role in which buildings go where and what gets built because if you're taking down Wheeler, right, you have to keep the senior center up so we can still keep recreational activities open and senior activities open and available. So there's a lot of balls there to juggle, and that's some of the stuff we're trying to work through. But we won't really have those answers fully until we finalize what the layout is going to look like.

Okay. But it will be a phased plan?

I had a question about the we are going for a grant for some electric car charge. Thank you.

Those are

those that location

I'm actually the project manager

for that.

Okay. Okay. So they're that's included. Okay.

So same can tell you, we're those locations, that's going to go right along here, right along that back strip So of the library or that won't be impacted at all. We might lose power for a couple of weeks, but otherwise, yes, those are going to stay. I'm excited for that.

Okay. And then for the park, I've so I'm imagining it's possibly could be like pop up events could happen Will there be the ability for folks to drive on to the facility to unload and unload their stuff? I mean, it's just you know, I'm not asking you know, these are just my thoughts. So, you know

We haven't gotten to that level of detail yet. But given my background, yes, that will be designed into it. And you can kind of see an access point right here through the parking lot right at the beginning of the Paseo. And you can lay down stuff called Terra Plast or Terra Track, which is drivable, and it will protect the ground and subsoil. Okay. We could easily make that possibility. Yes.

And then is the pool inside or outside pool?

It would be an outside pool. We would not do an in indoor covered pool.

And then Security outdoor security cameras, are there gonna be anything like that in sort of security

Again, haven't gotten to that level of detail yet. But my assumption, given, you know, if this is built by 02/1930, 02/1932, it would be a requirement. Yeah.

Okay. And then two more things. Can we get these drawings in email just so that we have them and so we can

help promote out way. Information the the And we'll out of

And they utilize that space so well that places that just might have trees had picnic tables. Yep. And I was amazed. I I was like, wow. Who designed this park? And I would just like to ask that you consider checking out

So we have actually talked about turning this parking lot here, the one that's on the opposite side of Seventh Street at the corner of Roseanne or Rosanna. We've talked about turning that into a pocket park. It's on the list, but it's also one of those things where depending on what buildings and facilities we put on this side, we might need these 19 parking stalls that we have there. So we it's not something that we finalized yet, but it is something we are aware of and thinking of.

Yes. And I'm just thinking even the green space around where you have trees, I mean, this pocket park, it's called Stanovich Family Park, and it's on 316 Union Avenue in Campbell. It's very

aquatic center that Is we have in this because are we not going to utilize the existing one anymore?

The one over Christopher?

Yes.

So we would keep the one at Christopher. This would not impact it. The thought process behind this pool here is that Christopher is on the Northwest corner of the city, and it's not really accessible for most of our population unless you live over by Christopher. I my house looks at Christopher, so we can walk to that park. But if you live on the other side of like Longmeadow, that's a long walk and it's difficult to get to. The thought for this pool would be to put a centralized free public pool where all of our residents within the downtown area and on the South Side of the city have access to it.

Have you guys thought about splashing pad instead?

That would be included. So the two pools that we've looked at, this one, the one that's kind of square, it's not an Olympic pool, but it would be a larger swim pool. And then this smaller one would be more like a kids area that's half splash pad, half walk in pool with some depth to it, nothing more than like four or five feet. Mountain View just opened a new aquatic center like two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, and it's a great mirror for what we want to do here. So if you guys want to ever check that out, check out the Mountain View Park. I don't remember the name it off the top of my head, but it's relatively new.

And when it says recreation and aquatics, is the recreation is that the use I know there was a lot of talk that

So the recreation would house pretty much anything we wanted to put in there. Yes. We've also talked about having a second story. You can kind of see the rough outline of it here, this square. This would be the gymnasium with a second story outdoor walking track.

So you'd have a little shade, elevated walking track. Yes. It'd be We pretty went and viewed, I believe it was Redwood City. Theirs is in it's about 80% through construction, and they they're they're kind of the model for what we're looking at. So

Yeah. My only concern is just the parking and the

to to

that So able

exterior wall between the next library and city the hall is painted, I'm sure we would continue that that theme.

I'm sorry. I was just going to ask, who's going to winnow it down? We have three pretty good plans here.

Right. So we will have the public community meeting on Tuesday, and ELS will elicit feedback from the community between those two sessions. And then we'll have an online survey that's open for ten days. And so if you're not able to make the meeting, you can go in, you can view the slides, you can view all the information, can you complete the survey and give us your feedback. And then we'll be meeting with the ELS to review all of that and compile what we think is a combination of the feedback and what most of the community wants.

And at some point, it's gonna go to the city council and So

we'll go through that. We'll go through that process, and we'll come down to one idea, and we'll bring that back to the community on May 20. We'll have them critique it. And then once we get all of their feedback, we'll create a final because once you start demoing areas, it doesn't really matter. If you demo this upper corner, right, if you demo Wheeler and the green space where the park and the annex are and then this parking lot, that's going to cost the same no matter what you build back on top of it.

And so for us, the way we're kind of focusing on it is what is the recreation center going to cost, right? What is the aquatic center going to cost? Whatever those costs are, it's not really going to change depending Exactly. On the

Okay.

The is the grass area, is that are you planning to put regular grass?

Again, we haven't gotten to that level of detail yet, but my assumption would be it's grass.

Okay.

Turf gets too hot, and it's very expensive to maintain.

And Santa Clara, think it was planning to ban anyways.

So I used to work at for the 49ers in Levi's Stadium, and one of my job roles there was handling the paperwork for flipping the field.

And part of that was also the job, and that

was very extensive.

It starts with the there is some cancer related issues with that too, with So the artificial

my assumption would be grass.

Yes. That's awesome. Regarding the overflow parking well, I call it overflow parking on a corner of

Right here?

Yes, right there. I'd recommend you keep it because of that civic park in the

a

that's

good

the seniors or the families with kids that just want to have a little lunch or something like that.

And we'll get to that level of detail whenever we bring the final presentation to the council.

I think what some folks don't realize, I may be into the wrong assumption, but once this goes through all its phases and it comes to counsel, then this has to be approved as a master plan.

Yes.

It also has to have an environmental impact

the

five twenty. Years, if you're

willing So a good reference is Redwood City. Their master plan passed in '20 seeing 2020.

Lot

We understand. I work in construction. The

Well, that's great. It just didn't sound like you understood it.

So So, yeah,

I that is sound that's exactly when I was talking about the pocket park. That's exactly was that. So to

going

everything from Dowdy through that. Church. And if it comes up and it's something that we want to consider, we do have that option because the city owns the lot and I believe the adjoining house, but we wouldn't touch that. We're just focused on this parking lot. But, yeah, we know that it's there, but we're excluding it for now. Just keeping that

in Another possibility too is to make us a staff parking. So for example, instead of the the people who works at the even the recreational center or city hall Mhmm. They park over there because you have to cross a street. And, if there is more parking available for the people with, again, the kids, the elderly, you know, they don't have to cross a street, that would be safer and stuff

Now the good news is is we have a little bit of time to figure that

Yeah.

Out the parking lot.

Yeah. It's just a suggest suggestion.

Ryan, just one question. Will any of these plans in Arkansite review come back to planning? Or is this going to be

strictly ministerial? So right now, we're focused on just developing the master plan. We have no immediate construction plans or deadlines or target goals or anything along those lines. Our goal is to develop the master plan that becomes our reference for what the next ten, fifteen, twenty years of building look like around the Civic Center.

Commissioners, any more questions for Ryan?

Awesome. Well, you all for your time. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to seeing you all on the eighth, nine a. M. And six p. M.

And that's at Wheeler Center, correct?

Correct, Wheeler Center.

Moving on to 8.2, Planning Division Staff Approvals. Commissioners, any questions, comments, concerns? No? All right. Thank you. Item nine, Planning Division Report.

I shared this last time, but got the flyers again for district based election workshops and also the Civic Center Master Plan workshops that Ryan just talked about. So if you'd like a copy, you can pass the. So thank you.

Thank you, Sharon. Assistant City Attorney Report.

No report.

Thank you very much. And I'm going to move to adjourn to the next meeting of 05/01/2025, at six p. M. Thank you all.