Parks, Recreation & Open Space Commission - Regular Meeting

Everyone, I'd like to call this meeting to order. The regular meeting of the planning and zoning commission meeting of April 23rd, 2025. And I will start with the land acknowledgement. The city of Albany recognizes that we occupy the land originally protected by the Confederated villages of Lijon. We acknowledge the genocide that took place on these lands and must make strides to repay the moral debt that is owed to this indigenous people, specifically the Aloney tribe. We thank them for their contributions which have transformed our community and will continue to bring forth growth and unity. The city of Albany commits to sustaining ongoing relationships with the tribe and together build a better future for all that now make this their home. And with that, we can go to the roll call. Commissioner Mman, Commissioner Pearson, I here. Commissioner Pilch, present. Commissioner Wadi here. And Chair Mloud here. Uh and with that we can move on to item number two exparte communications. Are there any by other commissioners? Uh, I have one thing to report which is I um actually interviewed the applicants uh the the applicants at 1020 Kroot interviewed me as the architect for their project and I toured their house and we discussed the project but they didn't hire me because uh my schedule wasn't really allowing that. So I don't think there's anything really u to worry about but I did meet with them and see the house. So um so let's move on to the consent

calendar item number three. Any commissioners wish to pull any item from the consent consent calendar? No. Does any member of the public wish to pull any item from the consent calendar? Anyone present or online or if anyone online would like to pull the an item from the consent calendar, please use the raise your hand function. This would be for 625 Evelyn or the meeting minutes from the last meeting. We do have a hand raised. We do. Monica, please go ahead. Hello. Um I I do have uh three minutes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Um sorry. starting now. Uh, good evening everyone. I'm here to formally object to the proposed vertical addition to the residence at 625 Evelyn as a 30-year resident directly behind this property, which will have significant negative impacts on my property and the character of our neighborhood. Uh, can I um can I just interrupt you for a moment? We're just um seeing if anyone wanted to remove the item from the consent calendar and have it discussed by the commission. So, I'm assuming if that's what you would like, we could go ahead with that. Um Oh, I thought this was an opportunity to speak on the topic of the construction at 625. I Not yet, actually. We're we're we're we were going to approve it as part of the consent calendar, but if you wish to have it removed from the consent calendar to have it discussed to have a presentation and have it discussed by the commission, we can do that. Okay. Uh never mind. Sorry, I'll speak. That was my mistake. I think I may have Well, that's okay. But I think uh for her to

give us her comments and I think I would assume you Well, you let us know. Do you want us to pull this item from the consent calendar and have it heard? I mean, I'd like to hear it formally. Um, uh, would, uh, are you able to hear me still? Yes, we can. Um, uh, pull it I don't know what pulling from the consent calendar really means. I don't know. It means that we would take it off the consent calendar and put it into the agenda for discussion, a presentation and discussion by the commission, and you could then make your comments. Oh yes, please. Okay, noted. Okay, got it. So, we'll remove Sorry. Item 3-2 from the consent calendar 625 Evelyn. And we'll move on to uh minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve it? I'll make a motion to approve item 3-1, the minutes from April 9th. So, we'll second that. Okay, let's do a vote for the minutes. Commissioner Wadi, hi. Commissioner Pilch, yes. Commissioner Pearson, yes. And Commissioner Mman, yes. And I vote yes as well on the minutes. So, uh, since item 3-2, planning application PA25-00008625 Evelyn has been pulled from the consent calendar, can we have a presentation by staff, please? Here we are. Hello commissioners and

members of the public both present and virtual. My name is Mayor Han, associate planner with the city of Albany. And tonight I'm here to present use permit and design review application PA25008 at 625 Evelyn Avenue. Um so as we can see that's the project location uh the zoning around it and the context uh the front view from street uh from street view. So, the project requests to con construct an approximately 12 uh 1,251 square foot twotory addition on an existing one-story residence. So, uh that addition is outlined in red. The area of addition um the addition consists of a 295 foot lower level addition which is uh let me see if I can highlight it here. I don't know if you can see my pointer. So, it's the one at the bottom of the drawing. That's the first level addition. Uh, which also includes a onecar garage and a second story addition set back towards the rear uh of the home that includes a bay projection on the south side and um and a balcony of approximately 28 square ft uh over the front of the new garage. uh a use permit is required to horizontally extend the existing non-conforming 14T and 5T for stairs um in front yard setbacks at the lower level addition and stairs where 15 and 9 are required respectively by the Albany municipal code. So basically this blue uh part is the kind of like rebuilt or relocated porch uh which would be exactly which would retain the existing non-conforming setbacks. The first story addition also requires the horizontal

extension of the front non-conforming setback. um project would result in a four bedroomedroom 2 and a half bath 282 foot two-story single family dwelling unit with an attached onecar garage and a maximum height of 26 feet and 2 in. So um yeah the proposed design presents a covered entry porch as we can see here uh that mimics the main roof pitch at the home. The plans place the attached garage further back from the front facade, enhancing the entry to the home. An additional architectural relief is provided by placing the second story edition considerably set back from the lower level facade. Um so the addition is proposed to match the existing architectural style of the home with ophalt uh composition shingle roofs, painted stucco to match wood railings and ballisters at the balcony and exterior stairs with stucco molding, fiberglass windows and wood doors. So the propro this is more like a staff analysis. The proposed project will be in scale with nearby residences along Evelyn Avenue. Uh the lower level windows on the right um on the right south facade are located about 8 feet 11 inches from the property line and face the existing 6-ft tall fence. Windows at the left north and rear are located more than 14 and 20 uh feet respectively from property lines. And additionally, the proposed upper level windows have been designed with a size and placement that will not have direct sight lines into the adjacent neighbor home. Um staff um apart from today's uh comment by Miss Cummings, uh staff has not received any other questions or comments from the public regarding this project. And with that, staff recommends that the planning and zoning commission

review and approve the proposed project subject to the findings and standard conditions of approval. Okay, thank you for the presentation. Do any commissioners have any questions for staff? Commissioner Pilch? Yeah, just one question. Uh is the uh existing front floor level uh on the in the new construction proposed to be the same as the is the new front floor level going to be the same as the existing front floor level? In in other words, I can't tell from the drawings if the house is going to be raised at all? I don't think so. But um just front. No, the second story is really set back. It's considerably set back from the first floor. Right. No, I'm I'm asking if the first floor level is going to be changed at all. No. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? No. Um, let's see. Why don't we go to public comment? Okay, Monica, please now go ahead. Um, good evening everyone. Sorry about jumping the gun there. Um, I'm here to formally object to the proposed vertical addition. Um, I'm a 30-year resident uh directly behind this property with and this will have a significant negative impact on my property. Um, please understand I do believe that anyone has the right to make changes to their home, but it should not be a detriment to neighbors, which this is. Uh this proposal, if I understand correctly, adds less than 10% footprint on its lot while more than doubling its square footage and height,

which is imposing the desire to expand on neighbors instead of using uh the lot they have maybe more efficiently. I respectfully request denial um of this proposal and that the owners consider a larger footprint to add to their square footage instead of their current plan. My most pressing concern is privacy. The staff report online suggests that the placement of windows on the second story will not have direct sight lines into my home, which is incorrect. Uh based on the plan set drawings online, there are four windows facing my home on the rear east side that will have direct view inside my home and yard. This fact versus the report claim makes me concerned about what other issues may have been unintentionally overlooked in the process of assessing this building. Um, the addition also blocks natural lighting when will adversely affect my drought tolerant hummingbird friendly garden as well as eliminating privacy in my yard and the rear of my house. All of which detracts from the aesthetic value that my home is lucky to have. The current proposal is a disregard for neighboring property and our long-standing enjoyment of our property's assets without encroaching on others. Since the owners bought the property, they have already built an ADU with a greater height and footprint than the original, as well as being as close as allowed to the property line and was built fairly opportunistically without having to confer with neighbors. The uh they have already adversely affected the view from my yard and noise levels. For the city of Albany, these types of additions will be a net negative, both in appearance and population density. The yield to

rebuilding the homes here will remove our claim to resisting the trappings of dense, hightraic, uh, big city living. This city is a beautiful and diverse oasis in a larger Bay Area with stable and safe neighborhoods, and the older homes in this city are part of why that's true. I'm concerned in addition to potentially renting out the ad. Excuse me. Um, excuse me. Your time's up. Okay. So, thank you for your comments. Um, any other public comment either online or here in the room. I don't see anyone here in the room. Not seeing any other excuse me, there is a hand raised. Bill, the applicant is online. Bill Shay, please go ahead. Hello. Thank you. Uh my name is Bill Sheay. I am another neighbor that is just to the east of the property. And uh we just closed on our house a couple of weeks ago. We've been looking forward to moving in. And one of the biggest aspects of the yard and property that we bought into was that there was a sense of privacy. And uh I just have noticed the story poles after the sale went through. And it seems as if there's going to be four uh windows looking directly into my backyard, as well as a lot of construction noise, I'm sure, that will go along with the project. We have uh two young children and a three-year-old and a 10-month-old. So, I'm a little worried about construction noise. One, but long term, just having two young girls here in their home that was a bit of a privacy oasis that now is going to have a home second story with multiple windows looking right into the backyard. Um, I would like to formally object. I'm sort of new to this whole process, so it's a bit of a learning thing for me. So, I appreciate everybody's time, but

I'm a little concerned about this project. And if possible, I'd like to submit as a formal objection to this construction. I don't have much else, so I can go ahead and give the time back to you guys. Uh, thank you very much for everything you do, and we're really looking forward to living in Albany. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you for your comments. Is there another person online? Yes, we have one more hand raised. Liam, please go ahead. Hi everybody, my name is Sherry. We My husband Lim is here too. We're applicants. So, thank you for taking the time and thank you for your comments, Bill and Monica. Our architect is also online. I respect everybody's view. I am actually we are currently living in the ADU right now for the past 2 years. Um we also have two girls, a three-year-old and a six-year-old. And we love the community of Albany. I actually went to middle school in Albany all throughout high school and I'm just returning. So, we do want to preserve the community um lifestyle of Albany and we understand, you know, the allure of why people come to Albany. Um we're just asking for a chance to kind of build out our own home because right now the four of us, we are living in the back ADU. When we bought this property, we did want to renovate this because it was a little bit rundown. Um, we would love to kind of preserve the community space. Um, and more than happy to talk to any of the neighbors who have raised any objections today. So, thank you all. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, does anyone any commissioners have any questions for the architect? Question. Uh, Commissioner Mullman, go ahead. Uh, on sheet A6.1, there are uh, two window details. One detail shows more than 2 in of

recess and the other is kind of flush. Um I understand from our design guidelines that flush windows are not permitted. Uh and what I'm seeing from the elevations is that the recess windows are keyed into the front elevation and then the flush windows are keyed in keyed on u the rear elevation. I'm not sure uh what type of windows would be on the side elevations. There was another sheet with window details that I the last one I think showed the recess the required recess. Um I think it was this project. Yeah. Right there. If you go up Oh, yeah. Right there. Yep. Yeah. They show I think the window is fairly planer but the actual detail of construction shows the window recessed right. So the these are the right windows but the windows next detail next to that you know or another one you know there slide on the left. Yeah. So those A B and C on right side. Yeah. So those are kind of flush windows. Well, they do need to comply with the window ordinance of the setback. I think if you look at the detail, it shows it's a rear rear facade window, right? Yeah. So, is that publicly visible? So, are they allowed on rear facade? I can address it. I'm the architect. I can address Oh, you're the architect for this project. Oh, I didn't know you were here. I thought you were online. No, no, I'm here. Well, would you just come to

the podium, please, for sure. Couple of minutes. Uh we've got several uh all of the new construction is 2 by six walls and all of the new construction is showing that detail on the left where we're having the deep recess of the walls where we have existing 2x4s and we existing 2x4 walls and we are using retrofit windows. We are recessing those to meet the city guidelines. It's just that we only have a 2x4 wall so we can only recess so far. But we are meeting the city's requirements. Okay. Okay. That's what I Yeah. And I can address any other comments that you have as well. Uh I'm willing to helpful to do that. Does anyone have any questions for the architect? Anyone else? I'm not sure if my question is for the architect or for staff, but just thinking about so this project has two non-conforming setbacks, one in the front and one on the side. Is that correct? Is that why this is going through design review? It's not for the height, it's for the setbacks. May I answer to probably both questions? So, let's start with you, Elen. Um, so yeah, it's not the side, it both of them are front yard setbacks. One is for the porch and the stairs and the other one is for the actual wall. So, they're existing non-conforming. So all you know the project what it's doing is just extending horizontally those existing non-conforming setbacks. So that's why a use permit is required. Got it. So it's not so the the complaint the the comments from the from the neighbors about the height it's the height is not the height is within doesn't require use permit and it's within the the zoning standards as well. for the neighbor who's on the east side who who made a comment was talking about the the windows that were facing his property.

Is the bay window one of those windows or is it is it is it the flush windows that's adjacent to his property? Sorry, I don't know. So the east side would be the rear. So as you can see here, this is the rear, right? And that's the um So let me pull to the side plan. Uh, let me just go here down here. All right. And let me zoom in so we can see the the setback. So the windows at the rear and that's the east. They're facing east. They're about 45 plus feet from the rear property line. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And to answer I'm sorry if I may, Chair. Yeah. The windows or to answer Commissioner Mman's question about the recess. Um if a project is not an exceptional design project which means that it doesn't exceed 45% F then um the this the recess and the vine no vinyl requirement would apply to only the the windows that are can be seen from the street. Yeah. Okay. Are there any other questions for the architect? Seeing none, I think we're fine. Um, so we should close public comment and we can move to commissioner discussion. Does anyone have any comments? I'm happy to jump in. Um, please. Sure. I was just going to say I'm very familiar with this block. I grew up about a block away from it. Um, and you know, in looking at this project, I think it's important to keep in mind the the request before us for the non-conforming, as staff just mentioned, for the porch and the front wall being expanded horizontally. Um, I don't see any aspect of this project, um, that's really unusual here. It's really not asking to do anything that the neighbor two properties north isn't doing. Two

properties north is a two-story addition, approximately the same footprint, sighted approximately the same location on the lot. Um, you know, I think this property owner should be able to develop their property in a in a manner similar to the adjacent neighbors. You can see the the neighbor to the left there. Um, so they're not asking to do anything um of more expansive than that home. Um, and also just to point out, you know, the windows being 45 1/2 ft from the rear property line plus a presumed additional likely 15 ft on the neighbor side for their rear yard. You know, we're we're pushing 60 ft here. Um, if your eye was up against the glazing, up against the glazing, that's a pretty far distance, especially in Albany, I think, for being concerned about privacy concerns. I think that's a distance that in a place like Albany, we need to just presume that there are going to be windows about 60 ft apart that might be able to see each other. And um with that, you know, you need to sort of moderate your own privacy tolerances through window coverings and things of that sort. So um that's not an unusual concern we hear at the uh planning and zoning commission, but it's not one that to me warrants um this project having to modify um their plans. Also to point out um you know two of the four windows are in closets. I don't think anyone's probably going to be hanging out and spending a whole lot of time in closets. One of them is a small window. It's with tempered glass in a bathroom. So there's really only one window in a in a bedroom on the top floor. So um I don't think there's going to be a high volume of um you know people staring. It's not a main living area. Um, so I I'm sure other folks have comments, but um I'll just put it out there that I'd be happy to make a motion uh to approve item 3-2 as proposed. Okay, any other comments? Mr. Pilch, please. Thank you. So, it's unusual that I spend a lot of

time in my closet. Okay, I'll take note of that. Um but kidding aside, um the uh and by the way for the public commenter online, uh no apologies necessary. This is a kind of an arcane process that we follow here. So um you're perfectly fine to uh jump in uh or to and and and uh when you did. So, I I I'll uh just uh uh echo Commissioner Wad's comments and say that uh the the only exception the this is being built completely within code. Uh the only exception there, if you will, they're asking for is the use permit for the front yard. Um and I don't think the any of the comments that the um public commenters uh made were addressed that aspect of the project. So um although our code is fairly silent on privacy privacy uh there's no privacy requirements no strict requirements per se but we do strongly encourage uh neighbors that you speak together um and work on potential aspects of the project and work on solutions that uh might uh benefit um both the applicants and the neighbors. So for both the applicant and the neighbors um um strongly suggest you get together. Otherwise I think this is I agree that uh the applicants can should should can and should build this project and I support it. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Uh thank you. Okay. Fair enough. Uh, I'll just add I agree with what's been said. Um, you know, the fact that there would be seconds story windows looking over another lot, another property is very common. It happens all the time. You

know, the house to the left has second story windows. Um, you know, and it's just part of the fact of living in a fairly dense city with houses close together. Um, the issue before us as a planning item is the nonconforming front walls, which I don't think are affecting anything, and they also respect the existing line of the houses on the street. So, I don't think there's anything to object to there. And to people at home, you're allowed one 3minut comment per project. And I'm sorry, we've already closed public comment. So, um, that period has ended. Um, so I I really don't have any problem. The house is respecting the setbacks on the side where it's going up and it looks like a fairly standard um kind of addition that we would see all over town. So I I support it as well. So there was I think that was a motion by Commissioner Wadi. I'm happy to turn it into a formal motion. Um move to approve item 3-2 uh for 625 Evelyn as proposed. Second. Second and a vote. Commissioner Mullman, yes. Commissioner Pearson, yes. Commissioner Pilch, yes. Commissioner Wadi, hi. And I vote yes as well. So item 3-2 application PA25-00008625 Evelyn has been approved. Uh please note there is a 14-day appeal period and please leave story polls up until that appeal period has ended. All right. Thank you very much. Um, we are closing item three and moving on to item four, public comments. This is for persons desiring to address the commission on an item that is not on the agenda. Please note that city policy limits each speaker to three minutes and the Brown Act limits the commission's ability to take and or

discuss items that are not on the agenda. Therefore, such items may be referred to staff for comment or to a future agenda. Is there anyone who would like to speak? Yes, please come to the podium and you will have three minutes. So, please keep your comments to three minutes. Good evening. I am Dr. Steven Albert. I and more than a dozen individuals have requested the council to justify why Albany follows only the minimum state mandate of notifying those within 300 feet of new construction regardless of project size. when in fact for years other California cities have used wider and varied notification to distinguish between small and large-scale projects. Over the course of one year, my wife and I have thoroughly documented how three city officials, community development director Bond, city attorney Super Marian, and Councilman Jordan, initially refused to respond and subsequently outright lied and/or for months engaged in offiscation as to why Albany could not expand notification beyond the minimum 300 ft state mandate. These false assertions were reviewed in detail during the last council meeting and meticulously documented in two forwarded emails which you all received. The practice of only notifying those within 300 ft clearly limits public discourse allowing the planning and zoning commission and the council. The planning commission to propose and the council then push through new projects no matter how inappropriate with minimal awareness and input from the public. Such was the case for the oversized uninspired five-story modern box proposed for 1600 Salana Avenue. By approving the plans for this project as submitted, this commission violated every aspect of Alby's planning and zoning mission statement which reads, "The purpose of design and review is to ensure to that designs of projects are visually and functionally appropriate to their site and harmonious to their

surroundings. One doesn't need a degree in architecture to discern that the plans for 1600 are not visually and functionally appropriate or harmonious with the adjacent craftsman era buildings. Density bonus beside is the reason the plans for a five-story mixed commercial residential structure as 1600 had to be built as submitted. While density bonus allows for higher building heights, reduced setback and less parking, Mark Odell, urban design manager for Bivy Hills, assured me that densy bonus does not override enforcement of local building codes. Assuming that densy bonus laws obligated the city to approve a five-story structure with no setback and no parking at 1600 Solano at the very least this commission and the council should have insisted that the building and corporate craftsman style arc features to be harmonious with the neighborhood density bonus does not absolve the city from ensuring that proposed new construction projects in Albany are visually and functionally appropriate to the site conditions and harmonious with the surroundings. Why bother to post a mission statement if you just got to ignore it? Albany deserves better, much better from this commission. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Is there any more Is there anyone else who uh would like to make a public comment online? There is no one else here in the room. So, if you'd like to make a public comment, please use the raise your hand function in Zoom. Not seeing any hands raised. Okay, then we will close item four, public comments, and move on to presentations. Item 5-1, advisory book handbook overview and training. Thank you very Over to staff. Yes. Uh Jeff Bond, the community development director. It's a pleasure to be back at a commission meeting. It's been a little while. I'm joined with by our city clerk. Um in the past, I don't know,

six, eight years, we've been doing periodic trainings for commissions and committees. We've done it um one training for all the commissions and committees and this year we're approaching it a little differently. We're we've kind of taken going on a road show with um going through the essentially the same training that we've done in the past but um individually to perhaps give a little bit more opportunity for give and take and and maybe customize it a little bit for uh the unique characteristics of various commissions and committees. So, um, Ann and I are going to share the presentation here going back and forth and, um, we'll also be sharing some information prepared by our city attorney. So, neither one of us are attorneys, but we're pretty familiar with this material. So, hopefully we can answer any of those types of questions as well. Um, give me a moment to share my screen here and then we'll get started. Well, um I think I saw saw most of you two years ago. There are some uh some changes to the advisory body handbook and some changes to the Brown Act. That's why we're do trying to do it every two years to make sure that we are kept uh keeping up to date with all the laws and um or city policies. Um so I'll start with um I think all of you know um that we have um planning and zoning commission and board of uh police and fire pension fund commissioner. They are

um set by the city charter. Then we have six other uh advisory body which are the arts committee, climate action committee, housing advisory commission, parks, recreation, open space commission, racial inclusivity and social equity commission and transportation commission. You can find the information about these advisory bodies both in the handbook and on city website. Um and Um so the um I think the commissioners are familiar with this but just to reinforce it um your role as an advisory body is to advise the city council directly which is a little bit different than the reporting relationship that we have as staff um where um your recommendations go directly to the council or the council direction would come from them directly to the commission. we work through the city manager and so sometimes that's um you know we are happy to take direction and suggestions from you but in other cases if we're getting direction from the city manager to do one thing and the commission would like us to do something different we have to do what the city manager asks us to do and that very rarely happens but sometimes it we just need to point that out that that there's kind of two different reporting relationships and and um what the one of the common things that holds all this together is the city council's strategic plan which was recently updated and is available on our web page as well. Um that kind of forms the the centerpiece if you will of what we'll be working on um beyond the normal day-to-day functions of the but the special projects and and policy initiatives are really boring out of that strategic plan that the city council has adopted. Um and this goes on a little

bit more about that. We will um over the years there have been various forms of reports that go to between from commissions and committees to the council and back um I think you may be familiar with years ago we did work plans and those were often quite detailed. a lot of energy went into preparing those work plans. And as it's evolved, um we're now at a point where we're trying to focus solely on the strategic plan and staff is preparing um uh an annual report that basically reports on what commissions and committees have done in the in the um the previous year or two years. the the council will still from time to time make a re request of the commission on something during the during the uh two-year term that you have and for that matter the the commissioner committee can make a recommendation to the council to take something on that that pathway is still available to you but we're not going to spend the time that we did in the past on the work plans um just it didn't seem to get u be a productive use for the amount of time that we were spending preparing those some some commissions committees had two or three or four meetings talking about them. Um so um turn it back to Ann for this slide. Um in your uh in the email that the deputy city clerk sent to you guys in your congratulation for the appointment email um it points out that um your appointment term is approximately two year. um usually runs until December of the even number year and of course there's a 45 days interim for um for the transition to the next new term and all advisory body members if they would like

to continue to serve which I think all of you most of you did is to reapply and get reappointed um that's we want to make sure that we get um people who are interested to to get considered by the council again instead of just reappointing reappointing. Um, also there's no any there's not any new appointment on starting November 1st of the second year. meaning if I don't think it happens in planning and zoning but if some a member would to resign say second week of you know last week of October well they're not going to get replaced it will they will wait till the new term and then people who are interested can apply um the exception um sorry let's Oh um for planning and zoning all of you have to be residents. Um there are some advisory body that there are positions reserved for people who are uh non-residents. So, if you end up moving away from Albany, if you uh fail to meet the qualification for that position, you'll either have to resign or get removed. Um that includes I hope nobody commits a felony to get removed. Um and the last thing is um uh on this this slide is a good communications with your staff liaison is very very important.

Um we want to make sure you uh let the staff leaison know whenever you're going to be absent um or whenever you're going to be late to a meeting. I think it goes into the next slide. I just answered you did already. Um so yeah, as I said, you want to make sure you let um your staff liazison know um that you will be absent as soon as possible so that it helps us or helps the staff to determine if there's a quorum if the meeting needs to be cancelled because if there's not a quorum then we have to cancel the meeting. We can't not hold the meeting. Um, and if you let the staff know at least 24 hours in advance, it will be considered an excuse absence. So, there's a difference between excuse absence and on excuse absence. Um, and if I might add, with unique to planning and zoning in particular is the 10-day notice that we send out. So, if you know you're going to be away, if you could let us know weeks in advance, that helps us manage the the the timing of bringing agenda items, you know, someone's going to be away, maybe someone else has a conflict of interest, then it gets pretty tight and we want to just confirm that the other three will be there. Um, so again, obviously, if you become ill or something like that, that's the way it goes. or for whatever reason you didn't have advanced notice, but if you do have advanced notice, please do let us know. And that just helps us from having to reschedule someone at the last minute. And this one involves applicants and people who want to object to the project. So it's important. Um so all of you probably know that the the advisory body we have set it to start at 7:00. Um, occasionally, especially, uh, planning and zoning and city council, there might be special project that

needs to meet a little bit earlier, but I'm sure staff will let you know. Um, in terms of an end time, you would set an end time. And if you will have to continue past that normally set end time, um, a majority of you would have to agree to extend that meeting. and you it requires a motion and you extend that meeting. Um and then of course there's a August recess. That's a time where [Music] um in the summer you guys can enjoy a little break, take a summer break um and staff will use that time to um recuperate and prepare for uh the next year. Um, and then, uh, just as a reminder, all the contact information that you have submitted on your application is considered public records. Um, so it's subject to disclosure when if someone requests for the information. Not that we have any, but I just want to make sure that um members understand that whatever you submitted to the city, those become public information. So, we've had um previous cases where um members says, "Well, can I change my email address on the application so that I can separate out the uh uh city business email versus your personal email?" I'm sure a lot of you uh probably apply with your personal email. The issue with that is if somebody requests for public records from say your email, you you have to spend additional time separating those out. So if in case if you would like to

um use a different email, please send an email to city clerk and we can have that change for you. Um, I think I was going to take this one, right? Sure. Sorry. Um, so, um, just a refresher that just about anything you put in writing, regardless of how you communicate in writing, that's a public record. Um, there have been court cases, I believe there was one in San Jose where a council member's cell phone text messages was considered a public record. um that's going on now. I think in Southern California, this the mayor of Los Angeles is having her cell phone text messages subpoenaed. So, um just be in fortunately, I don't think there's anything the the planning commission has gotten involved with that gets to that level of political attention or legal attention. But just be aware of that that ultimately anything that you're using to communicate about city business, including texting a friend about a commission meeting, something like that, is is technically um a public record that can be requested and subpoenaed. Um and most importantly and most common, I think that gets people in kind of sideways is is social media posts. Um, next I want to talk about the unfortunate possibility of of um disruptions and safety concerns here. Um, first with respect to safety, couple of things. First of all, we are in a building with a police department down the hall, which is great. Um, if something were to happen in here that we'd need some emergency assistance, whether it be the police department or fire department, the best thing to do is call 911. Generally, staff, we would be taking that role if we're able to. um they like to know what's going on before they approach. So obviously if it's a medical situation it would be the fire department would be here. If it's an

unknown situation the police department would be here first. Um there even though the fire department's across the parking lot and get here in a few, you know, in a moment or two, we do have an AED in the hallway across the lobby and um it's in case the fire department's out on another call or what have you. That's available for those who need it. if you have the training for it. The other thing to mention is how to get out of the building in a hurry if there are circumstances that require it. The main exits are in the lobby. Um, and that's where we all come and go. Um, past the restrooms on the other end of the building, there's an exit out into the parking lot. The other third exit that would possibly be useful to you is going out the conference room door here. And in the conference room and you go to the other side of the conference room, there's a door that leads to a patio that leads through some landscaping. It's not a perfect exit, but it will work in a in a pinch. Um, leads out to Marin Avenue. So, if you're in a situation where you don't want to go out the lobby, that's your best choice. Um, excuse me for jumping in, but just a Could you define what an a? Um, automat automatic external defibrillator. So if someone's heart is stopped, you put two pads on, push a button, stand back. They're pretty cool. Um, and that can with it's an easy training. Everybody should get it. It's part of CPR training now. And um, isn't there like an emergency button there? There are no looked for it. Yeah. Don't touch it. It works. Um there is kind of a bank teller type of silent alarm um at our station at the city clerk station where Ann usually sits and at the chair's position. It's underneath. Okay. That's to be used only in circumstances where it's not safe to use your cell phone. Um got it. But in most cases, as I mentioned, um you know, if someone's

just being disruptive and you're feeling uncomfortable about it, a 911 call to just say, "We're in the council chambers. It's a little uncomfortable. Can somebody come over? But that's if you're really just don't want to even lift your head off the ground. And the reason is the panic button doesn't let the dispatcher know the situation here because, you know, they they don't know what type of situation you're in and they can only send the police officer running here and they don't know, you know, if that area is safe or that area is safe and where they should enter. So, and again, if someone is having some chest pain or something, that doesn't get the fire department here very fast. Um, the other thing is handling disruptions. Um, again, this doesn't happen a lot in Albany, but it can. It certainly happens in a lot of other communities. First thing is, um, people have a First Amendment right to come in here and say absolutely horrific things. And it happens in cities from time to time. And unfortunately, you have to just let them say that. Um, it is perfectly okay after hearing that to take at least a break for a few minutes to get the adrenaline down and be able to focus back on business. Um, or if it's something that's just so disruptive and and just is uncomfortable, you can adjourn the meeting. Um, but but you we do have to give people that opportunity. We can't mute them. Um there are unique circumstances where if a meeting is so disruptive the and this I think is maybe only city council that they can meet behind closed doors. Um and that would not be a situation that we would we would try to do with the commission. Um I think there was some some cities during some of the Middle East um war

situations um months or last year I guess it was where that was an issue. Um and um yeah there's there is again just we whether it's an impassioned opinion or a hateful insult you have to listen to it. Um just to clarify generally the best response is not to engage and just move on to the next commenter hopefully. the best from what I've learned from these incidents that an attempt to engage a person and say something to rebut it only makes it worse and the person who's making the thing the statement that is offensive will probably say it again if not elevate it so it's best to just cut it off at the time limit and move on. Please have a seat. We're going to take a break. Okay. And thank goodness it doesn't happen. the planning commission and we're in Albany very often. Um, next I thought it would be good to spend a moment just talking about sort of what happens behind the scenes. Um, for us in planning and zoning in particular, there's really a long planning period that goes into managing workload and what comes to you. Ultimately, it starts with the applicants and what their schedule is. Looking at your workload, trying to make enough items to you to make the your time and your evening worthwhile. um and not having people wait too long. We try not to have like a one agenda item meeting. On the other hand, we don't want to wait have people wait for weeks and weeks to get a simple thing approved. So, there's a lot of thought given into managing that and Mera and Lesie do that. Um we start to work on the analysis two, three, four weeks beforehand. The public notice in particular is the thing I mentioned it. We mail it. We prepare that um two weeks out at least and mail it the Friday essentially 11 days before the

the meeting. Um and then um as you know you this commission is quite familiar with it. There's public comment. We try to post any written comments that we receive as quickly as we can up to the day of the meeting. Um and um then finally I want to just mention the role of the chair and the rotation of the chair. Um I think many of you have served as chair or vice chair so you're familiar with it. It's a it's an honor and a burden at the same time to take on that role. So we do encourage rotation of that from time to time. Um sometimes people don't want to do it and that's great. Also, there's no obligation to do it, but it is nice to rotate it um with if there are other people who are interested in taking on that role. Um and again, this is not the commission where I really need to explain what the role of the chair is. The this evening's chair is doing a fine job of managing the the flow of the comments and the the commission discussion so forth. So, I won't spend any time on that. Um, next, um, the the one of the things that comes up often is that individual members of commissions and committees will want to address the city council or other organizations on something. And you're always welcome to do that. If you're representing the commission's official position, you should do that. And you should express that you are representing the commission. And when you're doing so, um, you know, make sure that you've, the commission has authorized you to play that role. Um, typically that would be the chair's role, um, role, but sometimes that doesn't work, um, schedule-wise. If you're speaking for yourself, it's good to say, I'm a member of the commission, but I'm speaking for myself and don't necessarily represent the opinions of other commissioners. Um terms of official media inquiries again you're always welcome to talk to the media as

an individual but be careful about what you say is um often the media will say well it's a planning commissioner told us so that means it's a city position they may the the media may the the journalist may confuse what's a official comment with a individual opinion so good to clarify that we do have a public um information officer Brennan Brown who is really good at kind of fielding the media calls. He'll we often rely on him to make the first contact with the media. He'll inquire as to the nature of the question and find the best person to answer it. And it might be a commissioner, it might be the city clerk, it might be a planner. Um but he kind of organizes that so that the right person is talking to the to the journalist and the best information gets out. Um, then social media, it's very helpful and it's also a landmine of of different um different things that can go wrong. You can violate the Brown Act. Um, you can um at the very least you should, if you're relying on information you receive or hear on or read on social media, be really careful about how you process that. Don't necessarily rely on everything you hear on Next Door, as an example. Um I my guess is with the things I'm familiar with and the things that we're working on that I hear about in next door about half the time it's wrong. So just count it appropriately. Again if you see something and you think oh boy if this is true that's a big mess. Let us know and because we don't read next door. Um but but do let us know. We'd be happy to clarify that. Oh go ahead. So, and also you when you see certain posts, especially things that post that includes opinions, make sure you are

cautious on uh uh posting emojis like thumbs up, thumbs down, art, whatever, because that is that can uh possibly violate the Brown Act if you know if people can tell what your opinion is. and it's more than a quorum or whatever. So, you want to be cautious on uh posting reactions to people's posts. Um, next I there's another slide, so I won't spend a lot of time on this slide about financial conflicts of interest. Um, I'm going to mention there's more detail in the next slide, so I'm not going to go into detail right here. Um, but we also do have a code of ethics, city code of ethics that apply to commissioners. And then, uh, AB1234, this is Assembly Bill 1234, is a training that's required of planning commissioners if you were to be reimbursed for, um, participation in say a conference or something like that. Um, it's a pretty simple training. There are a couple of different resources available to take it if you're interested. It's not a bad thing to do in general to familiarize yourself with state law and if we're there was a situation where you needed to be a reimburseed we would require you to do that. Um with respect to the conflict of interest this is a really confusing law. It's very detailed and generally what we do is and if it's not obvious one way or the other we'll consult with the city attorney. Um the city attorney is um can give you advice. Um in some cases she will recommend that you contact the the uh FPPPC. Uh what does that stand for? Air political practices commission. So, so the law basically says if

something is happen if there is an application say within 500 ft of of one of your economic interests it's it is assumed that that has a financial effect on you. There might be some exceptions if you can make specific findings about that. If it's more than a,000 ft it's presumed that it is not. Again, unless there is something that's unique to your particular economic interest um that is um you know, if if you owned and operated a grocery store and you had a grocery store application come in that's 1100 ft away, maybe that would be an obvious conflict of interest that would be appropriate to recuse yourself from. Um in most cases here, I think the 500t is pretty simple and straightforward. You're really good about that already. We try to check that. We have a map of of these uh radiuses that we try to check before agendas go out. Um it's the ones in between between 500 and a thousand that it can be a little bit of a gray zone. And if you have any questions about that, do do let us know. We can bring in our city attorney. And um in most cases you probably don't have an issue but you know maybe a really big project or something very unique that is related to your economic interests maybe there would be a conflict of interest. I think it's more likely in a for much bigger projects where you would have that kind of a potential. Um, next we're going to move on to the Brown Act. Um, public meeting open meeting laws. And we'll go through this pretty quickly and then wrap it up. Um, you're all familiar with the term the Brown Act. It is a state law that has been around for years. It's complicated. We'll try to boil it down to the key actors. Um, and it's constantly changing. By the way, um, the basic idea is everything you do is in

public. it's in this room or it's it's um with some exceptions you're may participate remotely but for the most part whatever you're doing in city businesses commission business is happening in this room with an agenda. Um it applies to all commissions and committees. It applies to subcommittees that are permanently or or nonad hoc I guess. Um, and um, it also applies to you if you were to be elected or appointed to something, but you haven't quite taken office for some reason. The Brown Act also applies to you. Um, the uh, this is just more definitions of what constitutes a legislative body. The main point here is sometimes people think a legislative body is only the city council and it's not. It's just anything that the city council creates as a is also is considered a legislative body. You want to add anything on there? Um no I was going to one. Okay. So yeah um most of the advisory body um some of the advisory body will create what we call a subcommittee or an ad hoc committee. These committee can only be temporary in nature and it's only discussing um a very specific topic and it can only cons constitute u composed of less than a quorum of the of the body. So this group um no more than two people in the ad hoc or in the subcommittee and this type of committee you can meet whenever that's convenient for you guys and um

you know at one of your home at the park at a coffee shop whatever it doesn't have to have posted agendas only if it's an ad hoc committee um I don't think any of our advisory body have standing committee But our council does um withstanding committee if it's a continuing subject matter and these need to be um have posted agendas just like your regular meetings. So that means 72 hours at least minimum 72 hours before your the the standing committee happens. Um and it also is less than the quorum. So just making sure that if the topic that's created for the ad hoc committee for the subcommittee that's temporary if it start to become more of a permanent topic you'll have to either dissolve the subcommittee and just talk among the uh during the public meeting of this uh planning and zoning meeting or create a standing committee. Uh next thing that what constitutes a meeting just about anything where the three three or more of you are together could be constitute a meeting will show you some exceptions to that but if you're talk three of you are talking about commission business you are having a meeting basically and even if you have a serial meeting which is basically a kind of two two examples here of where you have one person talking to a second person who talks to a third person that can constitute about commission business. Um person A could say talked to person B and then person B says to person C I talked to person A about this that's a meeting. Um or even if it's a person, the second example here, a

person that's not on the commission, but if that person talks to three of you and shares information about those three conversations with each of you, that is a meeting even though you're physically not talking to each other or you're physically not in the room. Um so person who's not aware of the Brown Act can make it can create a Brown Act violation for you if you're not careful. The best uh practice for that is if you hear a member of the public or someone who doesn't understand the public uh the Brown Act come to you and say, "Hey, I talked to, you know, Commissioner Pilch and he mention he told me that he feels whatever about the project, then you should just stop the person right there and say, "Thank you, but I would prefer that you don't share other commissioners comment with me or opinions with me. Um, so there are exceptions. First of all, you're more than welcome to talk to people you formally or informally that might reach out to you um who have an interest in a project. That's just engaging with the community. Um, you can attend conferences um that are open to the general public and um you can also attend other commission or committee meetings that are agenda appropriately agendaized. So, you can come to a city council meeting, you can come to a transportation commission meeting, that's that's just fine. Majority of you um you can also attend other government agency meetings, um ribbon cutings and um um again we mentioned the ad hoc committees. Um the other part of the Brown Act is preparing an agenda. Um basically everything you you discuss needs to be on the agenda. Um there are

very unique circumstances where an item can be added to the agenda at the last minute with a twothirds vote. It needs to be something that requires immediate action and it needs to be something that you didn't you couldn't have known that it was required that you needed to take immediate action. So, you know, there might be some disaster scenarios where the city council, hey, there was an earthquake yesterday and we've got to submit a a declaration to the state for an state of emergency tomorrow. And so, there might be those kinds of circumstances, but it's just like, oh, I forgot. We should be talking about this, but we forgot. That's not the basis for adding an item. Um the uh excuse me um again the this commission is really good at this about if there is something that comes up member of the public has some comments or questions you know we can respond briefly whether it's the commissioners directly or ask us to respond um just sort of a factual response um or you could say we should talk about this at a future meeting but that's about the the limit of Um, sometimes people want to have that dialogue with you on something that's not on the agenda and it's just not appropriate. I think this commission's really good at on the in terms of public comment, but um, we've had other advisory body that kind of end up engaging in a back and forth conversation with the public commenter. You want to try to avoid that because that's how Brown Act gets violated for talking for things that's not on the agenda. And this is just more of the same information here. Um, you can we can the other thing is we you could direct us to get back if somebody has some bunch of questions about something, you can direct us to

reach out to them after the meeting and we we often do that and and try to respond to the questions that a person might have. And if um if you have information that you thought might be beneficial to other members of this commission or reference information that you want to share that are factual, you can feel free to send that over to the staff leaison and the staff leaison will share with the um members of the comm commission and share with the public. Some of these slides are a little repetitive so bear with us here. Um, again, social media, you can post on social media, but you should be careful about that and you can provide information to the public if if it seems appropriate. Um, if you do post on social media about city business, you can and somebody says something like, "I'm going to block this person." You can't do that. You know, once you're engaging just as as though someone comes in the room and says something that you don't like, you need to listen to it. Same thing applies to social media. No blocking people if you're using social media for city business. So um earlier I think Jeff mentioned about different ways of attending this meeting. Um, of course, um, most of you know about the traditional Brown Act, uh, teleconferencing. Um, where you would have to let the staff know in advance before the agenda is posted where you will be participating the meeting from. Uh, I think Commissioner Pilch has done that while he was on council where you have to um one post the agenda at the remote location. Two, the address has to be

posted on the agenda to show that that is a public meeting place. And um you have to have uh basically open the doors for members of the public if there are people over there to attend the meeting from that location. Um then you know since since co there um have been some changes and now we're uh left with what we call AB2449 assembly bill 2449 is um hybrid meeting option for just cost or emergency um reasons. Um for just cost you can see the reason that you can uh use AB2449 to join the meeting virtually. We we use Zoom. Um and then for for these reason you will have to let the um body know as soon as possible. Oops. At the earliest opportunity including at the start of the meeting. So, like say you let the staff know that you will be participating someplace. Oh, uh, one thing to note, especially if you're going to be participating from outside of the US, you definitely need to let staff know because right now our Zoom is only limited to participation from within US. So, if you're going to be participating from outside of US, let us know and we can make the arrangement um for the Zoom to work. Um, and like I said, you will let to need to let the body know that you have a need to participate virtually and what the reason is. You don't have to go into detail about the reason like you don't have to uh let people know what exactly illness you have or what the situation with your child care but you just need

to say I have child care need or I have a contagious illness and same thing for emergency circumstances um you you have to request to partic participate and the same thing applies you don't need to disclose medical diagnosis disability but you do need to say I have a need to participate be because of this reason um and the commission has to vote if it's an emergency circumstance to say yes we will allow you know commissioner X to join virtually for this um and there's a limit to using these AB2449 is a two meeting per year. So some of the requirements for uh joining virtually the camera must be on you at all time. You can't say, "Well, I need to turn my camera off because I'm multitasking or I'm, you know, dealing with a dog or cat or child." Um, and then if there's an individual 18 years or older in the room with you, you need to uh disclose the relationship that you have with the person. And all the votes must be by roll call. I think I don't know if PNZ does but I mo all of our advisory body including council uh are doing roll call votes. So no more of all in favor say I. Um if there's a disruption for online meeting then the meeting has

to pause until the uh the technology can be restored. A quorum of you need to be physically here. So say you know you have an item and that day there's only three of you total that can participate and one of them has to be virtual. That meeting cannot happen because three of you need to be physically here in the chamber for for it to be considered um meeting the quorum. And that's another situation where it'd be good to know in advance because it's theoretically possible there's one person who's wasn't going to be there anyhow, another person remote that leaves three in the room. But if one of you has say a conflict of interest for an application, it's theoretically possible that for that application we wouldn't be able to take action because there would only at that point be two people in the room and we lose the quorum. even though the third person is available, but they're not they're not there for that particular agenda item, especially if the conflict of interest. So, thank you for bearing with us through a lot of material pretty quick. Um, that's that's our presentation. We'd be happy to insert any other questions. All right. Thank you for the presentation. Um, very clear. Seems like we Oh, well, one more thing. Just share with all of you um the uh our new city website. I I know that Leslie has shared with you the new website, but I wanted to show you where the these resources are. Um our city city attorney had recorded a new uh presentation with these um slides and she um recorded a video to go through these

slides and it is on our website as well as the uh new or updated uh uh advisory body handbook. So you can get to it from under government. Oh, sorry the mouse is not very advisory bodies. Well, anyways, let me try this. Yeah. Visory bodies. Bodies. And then you can either there's a menu at the top right there and it says advisory body training and resources or you can um at the bottom of the page to the right there's advisory body uh training and resources. So the video is on the top that's a new video that she just recorded uh maybe two weeks ago. Um, and then also if you scroll down, oops, the new the updated advisory body handbook is there as well as the slide that we just uh presented uh the BBK slide from um that we just presented. And then of course if you have any question feel free to contact the staff leaison feel free to email city clerk. If we're unable to answer it will get the city attorney involved. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions on this right now for staff? Commissioner Pilch. Yeah. Uh just two calendar questions. one concerns our our

ongoing calendar whether we're going to meet two times a month going forward. Uh but the other question was and for standing committees um you mentioned that the schedule has to be set by ordinance or by a resolution or something. Um it does not have to be set by um ordinance. It needs to be posted on, you know, agenda needs to go out just like your regular meeting. Okay. So, that explains it because I know the city council has uh created a couple of standing committees, one for police and one for something else. Uh but I don't think there's any schedule for them. They're just they convene as needed and that's okay as long as the agenda is posted. Correct. Got it. Thank you. Um, and whenever staff can answer the question about our meeting schedule going forward, I don't know if it's relevant now or not. I'd prefer to leave that to to Lesie to address when she gets back. She's traveling right now. So, perfect. Thank you. Okay. Um, any other questions on this item? I suppose we should allow public comment on this item, too. Correct. It's a matter of So, if anyone online would like to address the commission, please use the raise your hand function. Not seeing any. Okay. Well, we'll close public comment on the advisory training and I'm seeing no more questions and we'll close this item. Thank you for the presentations and we will move on to item six. Item 6-1, planning application PA25-000091 102 Key Routt Boulevard for variance use permit design review application. So staff, please go

ahead. Chair. So hello again commissioners and members of the public. Uh my name is Mirror Hunt again, associate planner with the city and I'm here to present variance use permit and design review application PA25009 at 1020 Key Route Avenue. All right. So we can see here as usual the project location and the context. So, we can see that the the substandard side substandardly I guess size lot is located uh backing up to the B tracks in the Oloney Greenway. Uh you can see the front of the house uh right there on the lower left of the screen. Um the project does not propose um changing the front of the house or the height. So, we'll move on to the site plan. So, uh, yeah. So, the plans, as you were able to see on the staff report, proposed to construct a 246q foot firsttory L kind of like addition at the rear of the h house and to convert the existing 265 foot garage to livable space. The project requires a variance as you can see there on the screen from the rear yard setback requirements that is it is located at 5 feet from the property line where a minimum of 20 is required by the code uh planning and zoning code um with an area of 3520 square ft and a depth of 55t. The project site as I said is substandard in relation to minimum lot size which is 300 I I'm sorry 3750 square ft and is almost half the depth of a standard lot which were at the assumed uh depth um which is 100 ft which supports a reduction in the rear yard setback. In addition, the lot backs up, as I said, to the Aloney Greenway in the BART tracks, which make the

potential impacts from granting this variance from the rear yard setback minimal. A use permit is also required as it extends the existing non-conforming 3- foot 10 inch uh right north side yard setback. Um, so let me see if I can use my laser pointer. So, right there. Okay. So that's the existing uh non-conforming setback which the addition at the rear would be horizontally extending. Um the applicant intends to convert the addition to an ADU as the property owner also wishes to construct a detached ADU at a later date. The current project is required to be processed as a residential addition that is converted to an ADU or will be converted to an ADU. Um as government section 66323 and the city's local ordinance does not permit the combination of a detached ADU and an attached ADU and a single family um single family residential property. That's why the applicant decided, okay, well, let's let's do the addition first, convert it, and then we'll we'll be able to build the detached uh instead of making it go um through a building permit as an attached uh unit. So, uh, proposed elevations. The plans feature a first story rear edition that will not be visible from the street as I said and the height will match the existing 10 foot 9 in height at the rear. So, you can see that clouded in red. That's the area of the addition. The front is not not changing. Uh the proposed materials and colors include blue stuckco walls, stone gray asphalt shingle roof and white fiberglass windows to match the design materials and colors of the addition match the existing architectural style of the home. Um so in terms of our analysis, the pro proposed project will

be in scale with nearby residences along here boulevard. The proposed windows do not create significant impacts on privacy as the windows on the south side are considerably set back. 47 ft from the property line. The windows at the rear face the Oloney Greenway and windows on the north side are more than 15 feet from the adjacent property. Uh the scope of work expands the livable space as well providing flexibility and functionality to the use of the interior of the home. So for these reasons, um, staff recommends that the planning and zoning approve, uh, commission review and approve the proposed project subject to findings and standards conditions of approval that were attached to your staff report and staff has not received any questions or comments from the public regarding this project. Okay, thank you very much. Uh, are there any commissioner questions for staff about this? Seeing none, then we will go to public comment and see if anyone has anything to There's no one in the room. So, if there anyone is online, please uh raise your hand online. I'm not seeing any hands raised at this time. Okay. Um I don't suppose the applicant is available. I don't know if Do any commissioners have questions? We we do now have some hands raised. Okay. Um, commissioners have any questions for the architect or applicant? No. Okay. Well, anyway, if we could hear these u online comments. Oops. Um, Adam, please go ahead. Hi. Yeah, I'm Adam. I'm just the uh architect. Just raising my hand that I'm available if you have any questions. Okay. I don't think we have any

questions. I haven't seen anyone uh looking to ask questions. So, thank you. Uh is there anyone else online? Well, I thought I saw two hands up. I believe my my client is online, too. I'm not seeing the hand raised. Okay. Uh well, if there are no questions for the architect, well, let me just Haley, did you wish to address the commission? Hi. Yes. Sorry, we're just um me and my husband, we're the owners of the house. We're also here if anyone has any questions that I was the other person who raised the hand. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh well, I don't think we have any questions, so we will just go ahead and close public comment and move to commissioner discussion. Does anyone have any comments? Um to start with have a variance non-conforming setbacks any any discussion um support that's my only comment okay one indication of support anyone else like to either make a comment or make a motion or Sure I'm happy to jump in here I think um the project is welldesigned and integrated uh I support the draft findings for the variance use permit and design review as drafted in the staff report and I'm happy to go ahead and make a motion to approve uh item 6-1 for 1020 kout. Okay. Anyone else? Or yeah, I'll just say I support the project as well. Like knowing that they're going to be building an ADU, the 5 foot setback, it's still more than the 4ft setback that's allowed by state law. So, um I don't have any issues with it, especially because of the depth of the lot. Okay. Any other comments or no? Uh yeah. Yeah, I basically agree. And uh you know in the back it's the Aloney Greenway. There's absolutely zero impact on anyone

to the rear. So um yeah, the addition looks nicely designed. I would only this is a design item. I would just add more windows facing south to the garden, not just the glass doors. But that's just a suggestion and I'm happy to support the project. So why don't we move to a motion? I believe you made a motion. She made the motion and I'll second. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Wadi, I. Commissioner Pilch, yes. Commissioner Pearson, hi. Commissioner Mman, yes. And I vote yes as well. So, that project has been approved. Variance use permit and design review for 1020 Key Routt Boulevard. If there are story poles, please leave them up for 14 days. There is a 14 day day appeal period. And with that, we will move on to item seven, announcements. Staff and commissioner announcements. Are there any? Jeff, no announcement for us or you want to just Ian is alluding to the fact that I'll be wrapping up my service in Albany this summer and uh um after almost 19 years or a little bit more than 19 years. So, well, I'll be back for another meeting or two, but Okay. Well, that's on the on the horizon for me. Okay. It's great. It's great to have you as a special guest here tonight. It's actually a pleasure to be back where I'm most comfortable. Okay. Um, no other announcements. So then I will just um declare this meeting adjourned and our Well, I'll just mention that um my I asked a question about the um the agenda. We are only on the city calendar for one meeting in May. I don't know if that's relevant or not, but we'll we'll see when um when our normal staff less on when comes back, you know,

what what uh what will be the decision. Yeah, I thought we were going to very confirmed, but we're basically as as our director mentioned, it really depends on the the amount of projects we can bring. So, it's it's a kind of like a delicate balance. Okay. But, um you know, but I think Leslie is the best to answer that. Yep. Okay. We're happy if you want to email us as well. I thought we were back to two meetings per month or potentially two meetings, but potentially two meetings if we do have the right amount of or the appropriate amount of projects to bring in to make the best use of of your time as well. Okay, great. Okay. At one point the housing advisory commission was going to use your second meeting, right? They got rescheduled to another slot. So theoretically, we could have two meetings, but we don't have that volume of business right now. Okay. Well, we'll just see that as we go forward. Okay. And with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.