Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All the way down to seven.

You all go to Gojalu? Okay. Let me have a picture.

Alright. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the July 8 Morgan Hill Planning Commission meeting. Thank you for attending. I'd like to call the meeting to order. If we could start with a roll call of attendance, please, Jenna.

Tonight's meeting agenda was duly noticed and posted in accordance with government code section five four nine five four point two.

Very good. We do roll call of attendance, please.

We have chair Yami.

Here.

Commissioners Habib.

Here.

Moeller.

Here.

Lake.

Here.

Honda.

Here.

Wilson. Here. And Lovato.

Here.

Great. And if you don't mind all standing and joining us in the pledge of allegiance, David, would you mind leading us?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America

Thank you. Alright. So, before we get into the full agenda, we have an open public comment period. Members of the public are entitled to address the planning commission concerning any items within the Morgan Hill Planning Commission subject matter jurisdiction. Public comments are limit limited to no more than three minutes except for certain specific sir exceptions. The commission is prohibited from discussing or taking action in any item not appearing on the posted agenda. And just for clarification, this is for any item that is not on the agenda tonight. So if some of you are here to talk about any of the agenda items, you you've got an opportunity to come up with that. But do we have anybody that wants to address the commission on any non agenda item or anybody online?

I don't see any raised hands. Oh, actually, no raised hands.

Okay. No raised hands. They'll be in the room, then I'll I'll close the public comment period. Let's move on to orders of the day. Gentlemen and ladies, are we good with the orders of the day? Good. Good? Yes. Alright. Okay. Let's move on to the minutes approval. So we've got the June 10 meeting minutes and the June 25 meeting minutes.

Make a motion to approve the minutes in June 10 and June 25.

Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Sure.

Joe, second. Any discussions?

I'll be abstaining from the June 25. I was at present at that.

Okay. Anybody else? When were you here?

I'll have the stint.

Yeah. You were you were up. Right? Okay. So two abstentions.

June 25.

Twenty fifth. June 5. Yeah.

Alright. Will we take poll vote?

Chair, now the call.

Aye.

Vice chair, Lake.

Aye.

Planning commissioner, Sabine.

Abstain.

Muller.

Yes.

Tonda?

Aye.

Olson?

Aye.

And Lovato? Aye. Okay.

Passes

502.

002.

5002. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Let's move on to our other business on the agenda. Item number three, which I believe is going to continue. No. Sorry. Item number three is the, selection planning commission chair and vice chair. Sorry. I was looking at item number four. Item number three.

I'll report it, Osmooth.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. Discuss because I'm here with the city. So as a reminder from the last, planning commission meeting, this item was continued for the selection of the chairperson as well as the vice chair. At the last meeting, commissioner or vice chair of Lake stated that he, declined the chair chairperson role, and so it's, bring it back to your commission for selection. The commission has multiple options.

One option would be to continue with the same chair, so with chair Downey, being as another year or selecting a new chair and going through the city policy. The next tenure would be commissioner Abid, and then after that will be commissioner Wilson. And so if you would like to select a chairperson, you could do that first. And then if you want to get ghost and then follow-up with a vice chair, if commissioner, like, wants to continue as a vice chair, that's an option where you could select a new vice chair.

Okay. So I guess we'll be struck with first on the list. You're next in line, Mohammad.

Can you

tell us what you're thinking?

I was thinking of I mean, I would be okay with coming into the vice chair position. I don't know if there's any other option when it comes to someone going directly into the chair position, but I think for this summer, I think I was next in line coming to vice chair. So I'd be okay with going to the vice chair, but I don't know about the chair at this point in time.

Okay. So, Adam, who was next in line after that?

Commissioner Wilson.

Jim, what do you think? Who? Who? Yeah. You, Jim.

I don't really have an opinion on either other. I'm good either way.

Give it a shot. I mean, if you're okay doing it, then it's good to get the experience. And Yeah. Why not? Okay?

Yeah. I'd like to nominate Commissioner Wilson as our next chair.

Thank you. I would second that. Any other further discussion? Do we need to vote

or not?

Can I get a mover in a second term?

Okay. So move second.

I'm. I'm.

I'm heading to the bar. Right? Oh, that's right.

And then we need a follow-up

vice chair.

And so what's the procedure for that?

Same thing. So commissioner, believe it was next in line

for vice chair.

Okay. So I I would I assume Mohammed said you're okay. I would nominate you for vice chair.

Okay.

You have a second. Any other nominations in discussion? If not, you wanna do just a Aye. Call in favor? Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Congratulations. When when are we switching? Wanna switch now?

Let's switch. So it's up to your commission. Normally, you select in June, and then in the first week or the first meeting in July is when the new chair vice chair take over. But since we were late, it's up to the commission if you wanna start tonight or at the next

What do wanna do, Jim? I'll do this. Next meeting. Okay. Okay. I'll finish up from that time. When's the party?

Next meeting. Right?

Yeah. Have to Exactly. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you, Jensen. Congrats.

To do that. Appreciate it. So we'll make the switch next meeting. Alright. Very good. That was item number three. Item number four, Dewitt West Hills Church, request for planning development with a master plan. Mhmm. 5.75 acre parcel for the remodel and expansion of existing religious facility. I won't read it all, but I believe we're gonna continue this item. Is that correct?

Yes. So the staff is asking this item to be continued till date certain of 08/12/2025. However, we're looking to open and close the public hearing just in case there's anyone in the public looking to speak on this item. Sure.

Okay. So let's do that. Let's open the public comment on this topic. Do we have any speakers?

Yes. We have Doug Mierkin.

Okay. Come on up, Doug. You're already coming up.

Good evening, commissioners.

Good evening, Doug. I'm Doug Muirhead.

This item has been advertised for this evening for a long time. I'm going to give you my version of a public service announcement. I'm not a member of the West Hills Church community. Their narrative document provided alongside the environmental document shows their plan for many enhancements to benefit their community. I know of and appreciate their benefit to the city by providing the backup emergency operations center.

What disappoints me in the proposal is the maintenance of who and when we get the access to the planned El Toro Trail. Included under ISRD project components, quote, other improvements would include the dedication of an easement for a public trail located north of the existing driveway, which would continue to provide site access. The trail would be constructed by another party in the future, end quote. There's no description diagram of the easement or timeline. In the companion document, West Hills development plan, intersection three proposed additional future uses of property, quote, El Toro Trail system.

West Hill Honeywood Church is open to discussion with the city of Morgan Hill to find a mutually beneficial solution for community use to the El Toro Trail system, end quote. There's no mention of the Open Space Authority in either document. Emailed to me from open space authority assistant general manager, Langgraf, lists two separate easements being sought from West Hills Church. One is a maintenance access easement to clean up an existing easement for OSA access to manage OSA preserves and does not address public access. The other is a trail easement to be granted to both the city and OSA, which connects to OSA's preserve for future construction of the El Toro Trail.

It has been a very long time since we have seen any mention of the August 2014 El Toro Trail access strategy. So I thought I would remind all of us of our goal to have an El Toro Trail. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Any other speakers?

Any others.

Anybody online?

Fair enough.

Okay. Alright. Then I'll close the public hearing, and then Continue.

Go ahead, Jeff. To date certain of August 12. I am moving date. August 12. August 12. August 12.

Then we have a motion to continue to date certain of August 12. Do I have a second? Second. Second by commissioner Lake. Any other discussion? If not, let's take a roll call vote.

Chair Downey?

Aye.

Vice Chair Lake?

Aye.

Commissioner Sabine?

Aye.

Wilson?

Aye.

Mueller?

Aye.

And Chamba?

Aye.

Motion passes unanimous. Oh, at the bottom. Sorry.

Aye. Not back back. Motion passes. Know?

Okay. Very good. Thank you. Motion passes. We'll move on. Item number five. This is Diana Diana Valley Oak request for a vesting tentative map to allow for the division of 19 lots and a design permit application to construct 93 attached residential units on approximately five acre parcel located at Northeast Corner Of Butterfield Boulevard and Diana Avenue. Let's start with your staff presentation. Who's Tiffany, you're gonna make the presentation? I assume I'll hear you okay from there. Right? Yeah.

I'll talk about it. Can you guys hear me okay?

Yes. Awesome.

Great. Thanks. I'm Jenna gets us going here. Good evening. I'm Tiffany Brown. I'm senior planning with our planning department, and I'm a project planner for the Diana Valley Oaks project. But for us tonight is a design permit, an esteemed tenant. Alright. Let's go ahead and start with the background of the site location. It is located on the Northeast Corner of Diana Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard.

It is a little over five acre Frederick site just across the courthouse, County Courthouse on the West, and there are residential neighborhoods to the north and east and south. You will note that the fire station is across Butterfield Boulevard, the new one. That's just north of the the clubhouse in between what is the park and ride line or our Alchine Station. The site is largely undeveloped. It has one single family home with a couple of accessory structures and a paved area for vehicular access and four large mature oak trees near the driveway.

Before us is the land use designation of this site, the north is residential detached medium that is seven dwelling units to the acre. To the east is a lighter brown color, which is residential attached low. This is the six to 16 dwelling units to the acre. We'll see across Diana Avenue to the south that is also residential attached medium, which is the same as the project site that's highlighted in the red. The residential attached medium allows between 16 to 24 dwelling units to the acre.

And then the pink is mixed use, no max density, and the light blue public facilities. That is the courthouse. And then the green is rare cooking space, and that's. Starting with the design permit, the practical course proposes ninety three three story attached townhome style units. That's 18 units to the acre.

It introduces four plexes, six plexes, and seven to provide a variety of housing types and meets all of the objective criteria except for one. There's only one wager for this project, and it's a distance setback to the creek. That waiver went forward to city council, and it was approved. It also went forward to the Habitat Agency for review and to the Santa Clara County Wildlife and Fish and Game and was supported for the exception to reduce that setback to allow further development. The development includes two car garages with 31 surface parking spaces and provides a total of two seventeen living spaces for the entire project.

Two neighborhood parks are also incorporated as part of the project. I'll show you a site map soon. One is right there on the corner that you can see behind the words. So when you look when we're standing at the corner of Butterfield Boulevard in Diana, we will see our open space before you see buildings, and then another one is a little more centrally located towards the entrance when you walk into the project. Here's the site plan to give us a better view. I'm gonna use my mouse. Yes. Okay. So this over here, if everyone can see my mouse, this is Diana Avenue. The bottom of your screen is the creek that I was talking about.

This is a engineered channeled culvert that helps with our stormwater control during the rainy seasons. And so the waiver that was requested was from here to allow for development next to that channel. And Yes. The site access is off of Diana Avenue. It is in this location because it is the safest location that meets city standards for site and visual clearance and distance from intersections and other driveways.

So this point was this entrance point was studied by our engineering team and chosen for specific reasons for that location. Because of this location, it did require a redesign of the road configuration. And because of that, it did require the removal of those existing four oak trees. The oak trees do require a tree removal permit as part of the process if this application moves forward. So that will be analyzed, and it will require replacements.

So there is the coast live oak tree will be replaced with the coast live oak tree. A minimum is at a one to one ratio, 15 gallon minimum. That's the minimum. The buildings you can see are dispersed throughout the site. They use the smaller flexes. So you have four flexes along Diana. This reduces the the massing and the look of the product, and they kind of feather the rest of the buildings throughout the rest of the site. And this provides a visual I'm sorry. The words are in front of the elevation on Diana. I can move that. I can move.

Let's see. Here we go.

Look at that.

Alright. Can I put it up there? Does that work for both?

Oh, yes. Perfect.

Okay. So the view at the top is if you are standing, say, in the the parking lot, the transit station parking lot or at the fire station, and you're looking east at the project. So that's what you'll see there. And then the visual at the bottom is if you are on the South Side Of Diana Avenue within Newark. And so you see the 4 Plexus and how that breaks up like that.

Oops.

Let's see. Alright.

So now

we have the West Bloom tentative map.

It's covered for the project. They're dividing the lot up, the 5.3 acre lot up into 19 parcels, which 16 are residential lots. The others are the street itself and or the interior driveway, if you will, and the parks and open space or common open space. So this slide pertains to the IHO. The inclusionary housing ordinance, as we know, is to foster adequate supply of housing persons at all economic levels.

This project is going to meet the IHO requirements and will provide and build 14 below market rate units, which is the 15%, and they will disperse them throughout the different product types, and we'll execute that agreement with the city if this project moves forward for approval. In front of you are the design permit findings for the project. They've been summarized in your staff report as well. The project is found to be consistent with the general plan and zoning. As mentioned previously, they will meet all the objective criteria and only requested one hue rebirth and receive approval for that waiver.

Oops. I'm sorry. Here is the rest of the design permit findings. The project was found to not be detrimental to public health, safety, or general welfare as there was an initial study prepared for the project. There is adequate service for the development, and the project complies with all the objective criteria as we now already see us as no longer part of the approval.

For the vesting tentative grant, the planning commission shall find that the proposed subdivision together with its provisions for the design and improvements is consistent. The tentative map is consistent with all our design standards and criteria. The project was noticed to the vote. In the paper, there was also a 300 foot nine notification. There's a project web page, and the site was posted on-site.

Staff is recommending to open and close the public hearing and adopt a resolution approving a design permit for the development of 93 townhome style units and adopt a resolution approving a vesting tentative map to create the 19 lot subdivision with 16 of those lots for residential development on the five and a half acre. That concludes my presentation. I'm here, and it's for any questions. I have the plan to see it as well.

Great. Thanks, Stephanie. Commissioners, let's start with we'll go around the table for clarifying questions first. We'll do our own discussion after we do public hearing, but I'll start at the very end. We'll go around any clarifying questions, and then we'll open it up for public comment. Dave, do you

wanna stop? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Bobby.

I may have missed it, but is there houses in here that are gonna be part of the affordable housing goals? Yes. About how many of them are there? 14. 14. Okay. And as far as advertising this bill, how are we connecting with the affordable housing programs and so so that buyers know who will qualify that these houses are coming to market?

That's a great question. So we have our it's actually here to me. He could get me a better answer than they could.

So I'm

gonna phone a friend. It was a No. A.

Perfect.

Who is the director of

Did you just did you adjust on

the fifty fifteen sort of color frame now?

Good evening. My name is Vishen. The economic mobility director. So when the city executes an inclusion housing ordinance or agreement with a housing developer, we work with them and our housing administrator, Hoskies, as a way to market the low market rate units. There is a an agreement that's entered in between Husky's and the housing developer.

They identify all the, costs associated with the units, so utilities, HOA fees, all that is predetermined. We put that information out to the community so people understand clearly what the full costs of ownership are. And then house fees will, market the available units. We will do a lottery. Typically, when we do these types of projects, we get anywhere from 80 to 200 people applying.

The city does have within its, housing policy does provide a preference to individuals that currently live in Mordecai or work in Mordecai. So those individuals will get ranked first, put up to the top of the list, and then they're randomly assigned through a lottery. And then all those that didn't have the partner's policy get ranked and assigned underneath that. And so we go through the underwriting and then work on developing the loans for those individuals. So much of the marketing will be done through Housekeys, and then certainly, the housing division will help amplify that as as well as the developer and work that they do.

Question, John. What is Housekeys? Great question. The city has been very fortunate to work with Housekeys. Housekeys is a I will call them a full service provider for municipal, governments to implement their below market rate programs.

So HouseKeys has developed a platform that allows cities that may not have all the resources to conduct these lotteries, do the marketing, work with underwriters to develop the loans. And then one thing to note about the city's housing program is we have over 400 below market rate units, and this is due to the long history of the Morgan Hill as, had through the RDCS program, which was deemed restricted units. So when you look at us comparing the communities, we actually have a lot of below market rate units in our communities, something we're very proud of. But a lot of those units will end up restricting out after thirty years. So we'll go through a process.

People will contact Hauskeys, say, thirty a year deed restriction is up. I either wanna sell or I want the restriction moved. So Housekeys helps facilitate the unwinding of those as well. And then they also do a lot of certifications. So for rentals, which is another housing stock we oversee, we require an annual certification.

So if you are renting a below market rate apartment, we want to certify that your income still meets the income requirements of that unit. So they also provide an auditing certification process. And they have developed their practice over the last decade or so, adding modules to the technology platform, and that allows for easy engagement with the community as well as gives kind of a one stop shop for, the BMR owners or visitors to work. Thank you. That was great.

Appreciate it.

John. David, one one second, please, William. David, I

think One more question. Mhmm. Was it one or two community parks for this property?

So they are neighborhood parks, and there are two. And let me just pull up a site plan.

And for for well, and what you're saying, neighborhood park, does that mean open only to the neighborhood or, like, closed off to the surrounding community?

There's no fences to the parks. It is maintained by the neighborhood HOA.

K. Okay. That was good to know very last question. So once this is built, is it city maintaining or the community community? Okay. Thousand dollars.

That's it.

Great. Yeah.

So my question was actually general, but it re relates to exactly what you're describing and and the the positive side of below market rate units is, you know, obvious. Maybe you could answer this. When I take a look at the home prices in Morgan Hill, they are, to my surprise, you know, less than those jurisdictions to the north, in some cases, by law. And I'm wondering the fact that the city of Morgan Hill have, relatively speaking, a lot of low market rate units have an impact on that. For example, if when we count up a 100 units that have been sold in Morgan Hill, and therefore, that's our our price compared to Amble or San Jose, the price of those homes, the 100 homes, would they include some that are constrained because they're below market rates?

So they're artificially low, but is that part of the calculation of our cost per unit, our cost per square foot?

So it's a it's an excellent question. The thing to note is if you are looking at, for instance, SCOR, the Santa Clara County office of realtors, when they look at the sales each month and they come up with a average sales price, a median sales price, there are gonna be units that will have transacted that may be below market rates. So for instance, just as an example, we had recently a below market rate that still was within its deed restriction time. It's a forty five year EMR, only about twenty years have elapsed. That that transaction's gonna show up in the statistics of average and median sales price.

But when we resold it, we still resold it at a moderate level. So it was a lower level, which will naturally pull down an average. Right? Anytime, yeah, extreme highs or or lower values, the average moves. Right?

So when you think about our average sales prices or our meeting sales prices, yes, they will be impacted by transactions. I will tell you, as a general rule, yes, we have a lot of low market rate units as part of our inventory. In the six months that I've been here, I have only seen four transactions most recently. We have quite a few in the pipeline, but of dealing with the transactions, it's been four. So four units, I don't think universally brings down those averages. So are they included? Yes. But we're not talking in the level of volume of transactions in each month that is disproportionate to Walmart.

Did you say we had about 400 VMRs? 400 out of a population of, what, 15,000?

Our housing stock right now, it's roughly and a reversing the math. Like, one it's one in six units right now is considered affordable, and that's through different deed restrictions or income restrictions. So, you know, there's

over number. There's over 16,000 homes on the lot of census. Did you say six

Sixteen thousand. 16,000 dwelling units, and those are both rental and owner occupied. Well, you know, it could have an impact, and I I just I'm just kinda curious about this. When a realtor comes and does a comp for you and says, okay. In your neighborhood, we took a look at the past four sales. Do they automatically say, oh, but we we need to take a look at this one sale that was significantly less than the mean because it was a BMR? And you know? Or do they just say, well, no. That's that's really what the sales price were, which artificially, you know, lowers the comp value?

I I can't really speak to how agents price. There's lots of different pricing strategies around how that's done. Obviously, you look at recent transactions. It will it will be clear, often in any of the transactions that these are BMRs, so it will show up as a a BMR. So whether that's one you say is an outlier. But once again, as far as the number of actual transactions really having a inferring that there's a drag on the average sales price, You would need a lot of units all at once to do that in a month to actually bring it down. But if it it's such a minor amount, it's not actually affecting the whole the bigger number.

Right. I think we move on, gentlemen. John, thank you. David, you're done? I'm done. Jim, any clarifying questions?

I just have one, Tiffany. Excellent report. Are we okay with only one entrance to the seems like there's been a lot of traffic on Deanna. Are we doing anything to Deanna, like, turn lane or anything like that?

We are okay with one engine, prior has reviewed. The project person

And they're with it? Yes. Okay.

Alright. But why is that when others are not okay? What is okay about this one when others are not okay to have a single entrance?

So the trigger to require another entrance is a 100 units or more, and that's per code. That's per the fire code. If they feel there is access throughout the site, like there's roads that cut off or that they won't be able to get where they need to in a matter of time that they need to get there, they will sometimes require EBAs. They did not require them in this circumstance.

I'm actually surprised they didn't.

But There was a lot of time spent on that issue, with the whole development team looking at that originally. There was an idea of having two, but the safety issues around Diana and the distance between those two, that was more problematic than having one.

One entrance or an entrance and an EVA?

Well, the EVA would still punch you out on Diana. You can't cross the channel.

Right. You cannot you cannot cross the channel. Okay. I didn't realize that. Okay. You cannot cross the

channel. Okay. Okay.

Thank you. Anything else, Joe? No. Wayne, any other clarifying questions?

Well, yeah. And these may seem self explanatory, but I just couldn't figure it out. When it said in the report that the general plan density is 16 to 24 units per net acre, I assume net acre meant less than five acres.

So

we looked at the density calculations for both net and gross, and they're within the density range between sixteen and twenty four units to the acre.

K. The if you have five acres, and that would be theoretically, then you could have 24 units times five?

The net wasn't that different from the gross acreage because it's not looking at the project or the streets. It's looking at the current parcel as a whole. And I think it was roughly five. I think it was. Okay. That

that I maybe you could I have to take one more run at that. When you say net acres, that includes and the whole site is, what, five acres? 5.3. And so the net acres is five. So only a point three acres are not part of the net. So

It meets the density.

Okay. I I assume that when you said net acres, you took out all the streets, but that isn't the case.

That is not the case.

They're private streets. Right? Correct.

It it's what, Joe?

They're private streets, not public.

Okay. And so that's okay. If they're private okay. So three tenths then would be, like, a retention basin or something like that? Okay. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. The other one is and I I know it's part of the standards now, but the 31 guest spaces for 93 units. Okay. And I'm sure that that's consistent with the requirements now, that kind of low ratio.

Yes. They're actually not required to have traffic in in provided it.

It would my sense would be that there's gonna be parking on the street, like, all of our developments now. Is this a a more significant impact than what's being built in Morgan Hill now, or is this kinda this is about the ratio. One extra parking space for every three units.

They're providing what our code requires for parking, which is mostly we're seeing less parking required for new develop our help.

Okay.

Okay. I had two detailed questions. I'm gonna wait until after however the applicant speaks. I'd expect three and three. So I'll hold those.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

My my only concern, I I think, it was raised is having that one entrance. But, you know, everyone's packed in, and then you have so many other neighborhoods surrounding that entrance. So the traffic is a consideration for me.

Yep. But that's

So, Joe, clarifying questions. Yeah. I got one. With 19 lot subdivision, is this all for sale? But are they as condos, or are they gonna subdivide to five and six units?

Applicant could answer that, but they're all for sale units. Yes.

And it's

As condos. As condos.

As condos. Okay. Okay. So that means there's 19 lots, but each of them are gonna have a condo map laid over this whole thing, which will allow you to sell four, five, or six units on that lot based on the condo. K. Okay. I'll I'll save some questions for the applicant over there. Okay. Very good. Nama, any clarifying questions?

Yeah. I had a couple. So the first one was in regards to the PMR distribution. I know he added the map into the the documents that we had tonight. It's a little bit difficult for me to, like, pinpoint with everything else that's going on with those maps. Can you remind me again where that distribution of PNMR units are and at what level? Yeah.

So I don't have the exact location of each v one once the month of June. The proper condition to disperse those throughout, and the last condition for the design permit conditions explains more details on which unit should be for what.

Mhmm.

But they will be they will follow the IHL requirements. They will be equally distributed throughout unit types and sizes to and throughout the whole site. They're not just all the same unit in each building. There's different units, different two bedroom, three bedroom. It's equally dispersed.

Okay. Yeah. That's what it looked like initially when I was I guess, I had to zoom in and figure out where are those little stars that are amongst all the little legends. But the the question that arose from me was, look. You know, if I were to, you know, move into this, you know, proposal proposed development, I would think that, like, the closest to the park, maybe one of those things, especially have kids, families, and so on, would be ideal.

And I didn't see any of those units, at least from what I was looking at the map next to the park. I think everything was either the units furthest away, you know, the street frontage, and other parts of the distribution amongst it. And so I would like to at least see some distribution considerations around the park when it comes to those EMR units. Again, it was more of a clarifying question, but, again, I didn't find any. There might be, but just on my end when I was looking at it. The other question I had too was in regards to I'm assuming that's considered the amenity. Right? The park area to the the park south of the project. Yeah. Right next to the the the entrance.

Was there any consideration put in regards to the location of the park being next to the most intensive part of the unit's entryway given that there's only one way in and one way out, and the park is right next to the most traffic intensive part of the entire development.

I will let the applicant further clarify why they located there. But in general, the houses aren't facing the entrance to a project. There's usually green space in front

Mhmm.

Of the main entrance first. It's more of the amenity and the way that they welcome the neighborhood.

But Okay.

I'm gonna let the applicant explain further details on it.

Sure. Okay. The next question was in regards to on the west side of the development. You know, as you know, along Butterfield, there's the the walkway, that trail that runs along. Don't know how many miles. But if I were to say on the very northeast side of the lot, you know, that very unit to the furthest part of the lot, how would I get to that walkway or that trail that runs along our pool?

So this right here is city property, and there's a fence. So if you can't access, you're not supposed to walk along this area here. Now here's here's Diana Avenue. Here's the sidewalk, and it is not in this picture, but it leads and goes around down here. So you have the culvert. There's there's there's some space here, but that's for maintenance of the culvert. Right? That's for city access only.

Sure.

So then you have the culvert, and then it goes back up to the berm where you have the trees and the sidewalk. So if you were coming from the project, you would have to walk out to Diana

to get sidewalk. Okay. So there's a walkway at that part of where you have your mouse?

There is. Well, this is a park, so you could use the sidewalk. This is all the rain park space here. So you can walk through the park at any any of this area here to get to the sidewalk. There's not a paved walkway through here. But, yes, this is this is all part area here.

Okay. So the retention water retention, they said that's is that the Northwest Side, or is that the South Southwest Side?

This so this is the intersection of Diana and Butterfield. It is right at the corner. So it's the Northeast Corner of Diana And Butterfield. Mhmm. Or if you're looking at the project side, it's the Southwest corner of the project site.

Okay. So the reason I was asking is typically they tend to be pretty steep or deep, you know, water for the project sites. So you're saying that people would be able to walk across it?

Yes. So this one is it's a larger retention project. It usually just has grass. You'll see there's a similar one north of this project. Mhmm. North Of Maine, you'll see the there's kind of a large grass area that kinda just it's the same as that. So it's kind of a rolling hill that goes down, and it's all green.

Gosh. Okay. Yes. Okay. So the that portion of the southwest part of this project, and for our view, it's the bottom left the bottom right of the screen. There is that there's a walkway for people to get out onto Diane right where the the housing units end, where that little park is. Right? Right there.

This is the park. There's not a paved it's not showing this this landscape plan is not showing a paved walkway. So that's

But there is a paved walkway.

I don't know that it's paved, but it's grass so people can

walk off. People can go. Okay. Correct.

We paved there's access.

Got it. Okay. And so now I'm gonna look at the very left part of my screen.

Okay.

So those those units at the very left part, or you can consider the northern part of the the site plan. Okay. Okay. I'm in any one of those units. How would I go across? Are there any additional pedestrian connections from that side of those units to that green belt walkway or other parts that will connect me to that park that we're just discussing?

Sure. So so

these buildings here have their own path that runs along the the north end of the property. It connects and goes down like this.

Ah, okay.

And then it runs all the way along the west side of the property

Got it.

And hits that park, or they can go out to the to the street here. And then there's a crosswalk, and they can go to this park here as well.

Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Again, the the reason I was asking this question is because I know that's a pretty popular walkway. Right? And so people in those units, like, the quickest way to get there would be through that Southwest entrance. Right? Somewhere along there. But it looks like they don't have any way to cross the culvert. There's no bridges or anything like that. Mhmm. And they'll have to go across Diane, goes west onto. Correct.

So you can't cross the culvert. Okay.

I think those are the only clarifying questions I have for now.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. Thanks. I think most of my questions were answered, Tiffany. But a couple of quick ones, I think, that I just wanted to back over. So maybe an obvious answer. So completely private. Street's private. The parks are private. Correct? Yes. It's all h HOA managed, I assume, or something to that effect. Right?

Yeah.

Okay. Not gated.

Not gated.

And the front of Diana is open?

Front of Diana is open. The home space Diana and a space that are filtered culvert.

Okay. And so there's no perimeter fence like that, is there?

Correct. So You have

to learn to use front yard fence, which is only, you know, this

three foot tall if

if the homeowner chooses to do so.

Mhmm. And everything I see in green is usable space, you were saying. Right?

Yes.

It's all usable. Yeah. Even though it's just an open piece of grass or maybe a dipped piece of grass they could see at all the parks, but it's usable. Okay. And then the extra I know there's it'll probably come up in the public commentary here. Parking traffic is always you know, every topic we have, every every every project comes here, there's a question on parking. But I must admit, I go up and down Diana all the time because I go to the back I go to Backway to Home Depot and other places, but Diana Avenue is a mess. You know? It depends what time of day you go there. At this point in time, is there any restriction on the parking in front of that development on Diana? Is there any plans to have any restricted parking?

When you stay on the front, if you're traveling

On Diana itself.

No. No as in street,

so it's available for anybody in the follow-up to park there.

Okay. Okay. Unless we choose to do something about that. But if right

now Unless we need to. Right? Yes.

Okay. But right now, the plan is that it's open public parking. Right. And then where are the where are the additional guest parking? Where's that gonna be?

So each home has a two car garage.

Got that. Yeah.

And then there is parking in front of the park here.

It was only about five of them. Right?

Oh, there's quite a few there, but there's also parking. There's some parallel parking.

Oh, there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See it now.

The east side of it. And then there's two parked away here, and there's a few parked away here.

And because it's private, I guess, they can come up with their own regulations about whether you can park on the street or not. Right? That's it's a private property, and they can decide whether people should be allowed to park on the street or not. The

internal street so everything on the project site is private park it's private neighborhood streets. Diana Avenue is city public streets. Right. So they can't change what's allowed on Diana Avenue.

Understand. I'm talking about the property itself. Right? That is private. But, again, coming back to one entrance, a lot of homes, fire fire department needs to get in there. I mean, how how are they gonna control people parking on the street, potentially blocking the ability for services to get in there? Well, I'm not sure if you have parking in What was that? Yeah. A lot of red curves. Okay.

Yeah. We have to

They do.

The actual street.

Okay. Allowed because then no one could get around.

So, essentially, people either park in their two car garages where we all know not a lot of people don't do that or they'll park somewhere else. They do take up the guest parking or they'll park on the street. But, hopefully, there's no driveway. Right? This is just two car garages.

Correct. Okay. Alright.

And then you said that by regulation, they're providing how many more parking spaces that they're that they're at least legally obligated?

So

They're meeting or exceeding?

Meet MARCO requirements for parking. But because they're providing affordable housing and they're building it on-site, they do not require to have guest parking. So they're providing it even though they're not required to.

So as part of the project, I think, for our code, they're only required to provide two on-site parking spaces per dwelling. So the additional off the additional parking spaces that they're provided, the 37. Seven, those are extra not required by the city.

Okay.

And under

state law, they're not required to meet our code. They can actually build this with no parking. Right.

No parking at all? Yeah.

Given the location of the transit station across the street. Yeah.

Right there at half. Mhmm.

Of the train station to the train's gone wrong? That one? Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Alright. Okay. Yeah. I know. I know. I'm I'm half only half joking. Right?

Okay. But I think it's important because I think, you know, I saw some of the letters coming in. I hear that we hear this from most of these type of developments, especially when you're closer in high density. I think people need to understand that, you know, like you said, depending on your location, in some cases, you don't have to provide any parking whatsoever. And the fact that they're doing this here is, I think, gonna be a major benefit. I don't I don't know it's gonna solve all the parking problems, but it's certainly assuming people use their garages, hopefully, and well. Okay. I think that was it for me for now. There might be some more stuff later. So I think, Krishna, I'll I'll close I'll I'll open up a public comment.

Typically, I know we maybe have some neighbors here as well. We usually start with the applicant. We'll hear what the applicant has to say. Might help you as well to ask some other questions later. So we usually get the applicant a little bit more time should should he or she need it. So you're you're the applicant? Yes. And you have a card?

Yeah. We're here. Check back to one.

Alright. So we give you up to ten minutes. You don't have to take the ten minutes, but we may have some questions for you, so we'll see how it goes.

And I took some of those here as well to help answer some questions. Okay. Good evening, planning commission. My name is Jeff Aguilar. I'm with Valley Oak Partners. We are the applicant for tonight's project. First and foremost, I do wanna thank you, for being here tonight. Myself, I sit on the planning commission and have sat on the planning commission for my hometown for the past ten and a half years. So I understand what it means to dedicate a long a night after a long workday, a weekend reading through reports and seeing the documents, what goes into being here. Thank you.

I also wanna thank Tiffany Brown, Jennifer Carman, the Moore Animal planning staff for the time they have dedicated as well. We spent about eighteen and a half little over eighteen months working on this to get to this point. We're excited to be here. When we embarked on this project and Tiffany started speaking to it now, our goal from the start was to provide thoughtfully designed housing that met the goals of the city, especially for sites that have been earmarked for residential use. This site, as we know, has been on the general land, been part of the housing element, and been zoned for housing at a dwelling unit of of a density of 16 to 24 dwelling units per acre.

We are building, as Tiffany alluded to, about 18 homes per acre. So we're on that lower threshold of of the dwelling units per acre. I believe, commissioner Tonda had asked, you know, what's the upper end that we are legally permissible to develop to? And depending how you're looking at whether it's net acreage or gross acreage, that's anywhere from a 127 to a 131 homes, and we'd still be compliant with the general plan. We are currently at 93 homes again, which is about 17 and a half or 18 DU an acre.

With something that we are excited about here is we are providing the affordable homes on-site. We're not paying the in lieu fee. We have dispersed them throughout the property. Believe commissioner Habib had asked, are they being interdispersed? The last condition in here talks about moving one of the below market rate units to building, I think, from eight to 10.

And so it puts it right against that park, which we will agree to that condition to ensure that a portable home has access to that park. So myself, I'm here to answer questions. We have our full consultant team joining virtually. Eric Muzzi from Gollin Architecture, Lippari Singla from MH Engineering as our civil engineer, and our landscape architects, Jack Hayden and Quinn DeVets are also available virtually.

Great. Thank you. Commissioners, any questions for the applicant, Lee?

A couple questions. One has to do returning to parking once again. The assumption is that the residents will park in their garage, which if they do, that's good. Yes. They know that's very bad. How are you going to try to ensure that they park in the garages?

We've typically, the HOA will will cover that, and it's it's under their the HOA will manage that folks use their garage for parking, not for storage, and that the guest spaces are left for guest parking. Now it's tough at this stage for us to promise that that will happen. But typically, the HOA, which is self managed, they they will step in and force, especially in today's day and age, that the garage parking is for garage parking and not for storage. That being said, we did carefully plan for guest parking because we're providing the the 14 homes affordable on the property. We are entitled to state density bonus law, which allows us waivers.

We're not requesting waivers. We felt parking would be adequate or should be provided here, hence the 30 I think we're 37 guest parking spaces. So our hope is the guest parking spaces along with Beach Home, I think having a two car garage will satisfy parking on-site.

I agree entirely if they park in the garages. Sure. Is there anything that the city can do to ensure that that becomes part of the HOA requirements? It seems to me we've done that before.

We don't really have any authority to affect the HOA requirements or the CC and Rs, but I would defer it. So yeah. Correct.

So it's it's sort of a hope that it'd be part

of the

HOA. Yeah. It's not really great. I know the in laws who live in Sacramento, and they are in a planned development. And the first thing they told me is they had to do something they never had to do when they were living outside of this planned community, and that is clean out their garages and park their cars in there. And even though those units have driveways, you can't park overnight in your driveway. This is in Sacramento. And well, they say it works. They had to get used to it, but it works. That's unfortunate.

We we have no ability then to actually require that that be part of a provision that you use the garages for car parking versus storage.

Correct. That is what that's Yeah. Correct. Yes.

Okay.

That that's up to the HOA. We can hope that the HOA would enforce such a rule, but we cannot require them to

Don't we have to have CC and Rs before?

That's that's the HOA. Yes.

No. I I get that. But doesn't developer do that for the initial CCNR? Correct. We can condition They can put that in there then.

We can condition it our in our HOA

and the CCNR. So

we we we can insist. The developer can. Yes. It can. And that's what they're saying. Is it it's up to the developer and the HOA to do it.

Well, is that between the developer and the city, what goes in the CCR?

No. It is up to the developer and the HOA. And

so if the city really felt strong about it, there's nothing that we could do other than to provide our thoughts to the developer?

We make a recommendation, but you cannot affect the decision or condition act.

Okay. But we can still go on record. Okay. The second one is a detail also. Go ahead. It is on page 31 in our on, I apologize, sheet a six one as well as l dash one. Could you you bring that up? That's a plan of the development, and it has the design detail that I have a real concern about. And it's something that if it were to be be adjusted is, I don't think, a big deal at all. But because you have done a tremendous amount of good work on on the project to get to this point.

It's it's that one right there. In the lower right corner, it shows a marked crosswalk. It's in a very strange place, and I've seen this also in another development where it's actually in a curve. That's bad to begin with. However, this one is really bad because if you take a look on the inside of the curve, if a pedestrian is is there, they have to look left.

They have to go a 180 degrees, 270 degrees and look back. And you have what appear to be two trees on either side. They could be high limbed, and that's good, but it doesn't say that. So when they're young, they're gonna be blocking the sign. I don't have as much concern on the outside where there are also two trees, but those and there should be something there if they insist on keeping that marked crosswalk, which tells me, I'm a kid.

I can just go across the street because I have the right of way, and they they really know if a vehicle is is really coming down the roadway to either not market or to relocate in a different location or at a minimum if the the plan you were insistent on having the crossing at that location, it makes some sense that the visibility be cleared, that you can't have anything lower than probably five feet to obstruct visibility. And then I'll also put up appropriate signage to ensure that people are aware that people will be crossing, and they're not gonna have much time to actually see somebody crossing if they're running trying to catch the train or so. Sure. Is there was that I I'm kinda curious. Given any thought as to put it in a straightaway where the pedestrian is more visible before they stay step off the curb?

I'll let our landscape architect jump in, but the initial thought here was to provide connectivity between the parks. I think all of your points are valid, though, and and we are open to to working. Obviously, it's a benefit for all. That's a net benefit for our community for the to have safety for the children. So whether it's the not planting those trees there, reconfiguring, or figuring out a better location for the crosswalk, that's something I'm I'm happy to to continue to evaluate with staff as we get into the construction design phase. With that being said, I do have our our landscape architect available. They're able to access Jack Hayden with c two Yeah. To allow him to speak to

this for a moment.

Go ahead, Jack.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for the time. Sorry I'm not able to be there in person. I think the question was directed towards between Building 12 And 15 to the fitness area and the connection to the top lot. Is that correct?

Yes.

Yeah. Removing those trees as a line of sight is no problem. We thought the enhancement, you know, whether it's through pavers or striping kinda helps cars slow down a little bit. I think that one of the comments we received that's not reflected in the site plan would be to remove those. But I think to your point, removing the trees would help. I think signage would help. I'm not exactly certain of what the speed in this area for these roads are. We can we can I would assume it should be pretty slowed down? But that fitness center to the bottom right you're referring to, I would think that's more for adults. And the top lot, we intentionally put centralized in the park surrounded by green space.

While I have your attention, I think one of the comments was to maybe that that that top lot was maybe too close to our entry road. We can shift that towards Building 11 to the north, provide another buffer or we do have hedge planting that you can't really see under the trees adjacent to the parking lot that really directs all users right to the sidewalk and you're not just jumping, you know, right into oncoming traffic. But as as Jeff indicated, children is concerned is one of

our highest

safeties. We've we've done several developments in Morgan Hill and, you know, we'd be happy to work with staff on on crossing locations or how to make them safer through signage. But to your point, I think removing those trees would be helpful. I think connectivity on a on a site like this has its challenges, and we did the best job we could to provide people access to their front doors and and what we thought were safe crossings in a low mile per hour neighborhood.

K. Thank you. Wayne, anything else? Yeah.

Just one last one. This this shows that, I actually read the document.

We'll be the judge of that.

Go ahead. So on page eight zero seven, for real. On page eight zero seven of the 800 plus pages that we have, there's, an EIR provision, which, is includes a matrix. And is it possible to pull up that page easily?

Is this a question for the applicant, Wayne, or

is it This is, well, the applicant may may have the answer. Okay. Okay. I I can sorta doubt it. But But if it's not gonna be looking at it, I'm saying What what caught my eye was in the EIR in a matrix of, chemicals, I don't know, in the ground or somewhere, there are two, components. It didn't meet standard, and so they were highlighted. And I thought, wow. That I I really haven't seen that before, but I'm sure that there's an explanation. When you don't meet standards for some chemical thing, isn't there a requirement for mitigation? And I didn't I couldn't find anything that said, okay. And this is what we're gonna do about it.

It it could have been highlighted as something to know, but they didn't raise to the level of simulpipipin to require a mitigation. That's why there was not a mitigation for it or a condition.

Okay. It isn't that the possibility that it really should be mitigated, but it's so deep in this 800 page report that nobody bothered to take a look at it. Okay.

That is not true. We we we read the study and analyzed it. And there is nothing in the report that represents that something did meet standards that wasn't, mitigated by a condition of approval. So if you can point to me which one it is, I can find it while we're moving through

that thing. Look in the packet that we received, and all the pages are numbered. Okay. This is on page eight zero one eight zero one of the packet. It's called the EIR table a, and it shows a chemical of some sort that doesn't that exceeds standard. I just wondered what that meant.

Table a?

Table a. Yes.

Alright. So maybe we'll come back

to that one when we come That'd

be fine.

Yeah. Yeah.

We could come back to that.

Alright. Think I can address that we did do an environmental site assessment for the subject site, and it came back clean. And that's specific to this property. So what what I can't speak to is if that's referencing maybe if it's EIR, it's encompassing a larger surface area, a larger area in the neighborhood. But our subject site, we did conduct an environmental site assessment, and there's no contamination.

Yeah. I think it's it's are those yeah. The yellow where it's in yellow, I don't know what they meant they meant their chemical thing.

So why don't we just can you guys just take an action on that? Just take a look at it in just case. I'm sure you've got it covered, but let's just take a note.

I don't have it open. Janette, it is eight o page eight zero one in the initial study. It looks like it's part of the appendixes, Cynthia, like, way in the back. So

Alright.

Part of

the initial so the quick answer is part of the initial study, there are subconsultants that are specialties that do their analysis and provide their studies to a sub consultant, which then puts everything together, looks at the city's standards and conditions, and then analyzes the and provides you the summary in the initial study, which is where Cynthia is telling you everything in the initial study. Went back, looked at all those things, and confirmed that the city either has a condition already that mitigates it, or it didn't raise to the level of significance that needed the mitigation.

So there are there is a discussion in the initial study itself about the phase one and that it did find several soil samples exceeded the original water quality board residential threshold, but it did not exceed the TTSC Department of Toxic Substances Control, residential screening level, or the Environmental Protection Agency residential regional screening level, both 1.7. So it goes into that detail, and it cleared it in that discussion.

Thank you.

Alright. Pretty good. Yeah. Thanks, Wayne. Paul?

I'm good.

Good? Joe, any clarifying questions or questions for the applicant?

Okay. I I I'm a little confused here. That's what I heard earlier was there's a a subdivision map that basically puts each building in its own law. Okay? And then I heard that that was gonna be. Right? So where is an HOA coming in place if a condo owns all the common property and the buildings?

I will have our

architect speak to this.

Because normally, you would have a condo association.

It'll it'll be a homeowners

association that manages everything. There'll be the there's 19 lots, 16 buildings lots. Within each building, we'll have, let's say, you know, four plex to a five plex to up to a seven plex townhome style condominiums. And I'll have Eric Mazze, our architect from Donald, speak to how the condo and HOA is managed.

He's gonna find him right now.

Yes. Okay.

Go ahead, Eric.

Thank you. My name is Eric Muzzi. I'm a senior planner with Doll and Architecture and Planning. We provided the site planning and architecture services for the project. I'm not an an expert in the the mapping portion here, but my understanding is that the the condo mapping will be applied to create condo units, which can be sold for each individual unit. Each building will be sold. The map itself shows where the parcels are, and the HOA would regulate the grounds that the units are on in the surrounding areas and amenities, etcetera. Does that answer the question?

No. I've seen probably several 100 of these in my time on the planning commission, and I've never seen one like this. Right? The condo association would normally have all the common property, and you keep referring it to as an HOA. That's a separate entity, legal entity.

So I'm very confused about how you're doing this. So we'd appreciate understanding how this goes because I have the same issue with parking. Right? I really wanna see a strong statement in the condo or the HOA, and I don't know which one it is because you've got both on our property that normally only has one or the other. Sure.

I do not know the answer to your question to answer it specifically, but I can work with staff to get you an answer.

Okay. Okay. The the other one is do you have a builder?

Not at the moment. Right now, our first step will be getting entitlements. For a project like this, we will likely partner with the builder.

Partner with or sell?

To be determined. So we've done both. Currently, we our most recent project, we've sold two builders. We've also partnered with them. We just finished a project in Hayward where we partnered with the builder for 80 townhomes. Just finished the construction of a Starbucks. So we have done both historically. The most recent, we did sell to a builder. Our specialty and niche of the industry is processing entitlements.

Yeah. Working with the existing title a property then do something with

Right. Right. You will entitle and and get to the discretionary approval of vesting tentative map, work on the building permits, final map, etcetera.

What's the relevance of

the question, Jim? Relevance is is when a project is sold, there's it's sold at a higher price. Mhmm. Right? So that his organization makes some money. Yeah. And then the builder comes back and says, well, I need cost saving on all this stuff. And? And sometimes things change.

Would it change from us being approved?

In some sort of ways, it will.

So if I'm reading through the conditions of approval for the tentative map, and number four talks about the covenants, conditions, and restrictions and requires that to to provide a set of the CCNR bylaws and articles incorporation for review by us before the final draft. The owner recognizes that that use modification of

prep

for maintenance of all common area and public libraries are for the benefit of all citizens of the city of Morgan Hill and that the city is intended and it continues, and it says it goes into maintenance. But we're happy to give you more details and get back to you at a later date on that.

Now Wayne pointed out one problem earlier with the walking path. I have another one. Can you bring up that same picture? Okay. So I'm in a unit on that Northeast Corner, that last building on the left. Okay? I find it very difficult

to believe On the left or the right?

This one. On the left. North. Northeast Corner. Right there. Good. Okay? Good. I find it very difficult to believe that the person is gonna walk all the way down around the bottom when there is a path along that green area.

Yes. Okay? They can cross the street. There's a path here that goes right through.

But that's another corner crossway other than the one that's in the Southeast corner, and I think they're gonna do it. They're not gonna go the long run. So I would suggest you work with staff, some way to figure out to make that a marked crossing or some other way. And I respect the the the person who said that's a slow speed. The biggest speeders in any neighborhood are the residents.

Okay? And from one end of this property to another one, it's long enough for them to build up some speed. In morning commute, they will do it. Okay? So you need to really think about how you're doing speed control to keep it down. Because I just think we need to have a better a better way to get from that northeast corner to the south side so that people can get out into the trail system. K?

Now Okay.

Quick clarification question for you. So the the suggestion is to have some form of of mobility from that portion to the corner portion, almost like kind to the, like, at the bottom right of the site plan, the southwest portion of the site plan.

You got one down here, and it's problematic. And we talked about that. Mhmm. I foresee people doing since the front of the units are facing the backyards to the next project. Right? They're gonna wanna go either to the middle where it looks like there's an opening. I don't think they're gonna go all the way to in. They may go up north and then try to cross over. They're trying to get to that long green space with sidewalks on it. Because from their corner of the project to get to the south side of the project to get out to the trail system Mhmm. They're gonna take the shortest path.

Mhmm.

Right? And that's not walking all the way around the southern or the western edge. Okay? So we just need to figure out some way to see if we can

So, Joe, is it the spot you're talking about right here?

No. No. The other No. Way up to the Northeast. There. Way up there.

Yeah. But they're gonna

come here. Right?

Well, yeah. But there's no crosswalk. Right.

So I see. Would the crosswalk need to go here?

Well, you got that problem down here, but you also got the problem at the starting point. Alright. So

this is feedback.

Yeah.

Right? Thank you. I don't think we can mandate it, but you're getting some strong feedback here Yes.

From the. Okay. Joe. Now I got one more. K. Okay? Another one is in the South South West Corner. That's a retention pond. Is that a retention pond surface level?

Our retention, there will be wouldn't be an area to so clarification point on this topic. So the light green spaces that you see on the site plan, those are walkable, usable park spaces. These darker green, that those are storm drainage bioretention. In terms of the depth, we do have our civil engineer, Harry Siblet, is present. He could speak to the exact depth, but these are not walkable. Yes. You would not wanna walk across the middle

of that, I think, if that's answering your question. Yeah.

It also looked like it's fence. And it's fence if it is usually got a certain high level slope because you don't want anybody going into it at any point because you're going for max depth as far to the edges as the project gets you get as opposed to some that are north of here, even up just south of the business park, which are really big, and they got a little bit rolling area there. This is gonna be steeper because I I see on there a detail that looks like a fence.

Correct. We'll have a some type of fencing off here to not to effectively direct folks to not walk across this portion of the project because it is

Is that

true of the one on the North too?

That is correct.

Okay. So do we count that as open space usable open space when it's only visually?

No. If no. If it if they cannot walk through it, then it is not counted towards usable.

But we did in the calculations.

I don't think that we did.

Okay. But I will clarify. Just clarify. Right? Because I thought I heard you say you could walk across it. Yeah. And the detail didn't match. Correct. Okay. That's it for now. Alright. Mohammad, any clarifying questions for the applicant?

Yeah. So I guess the the first one was I think this is this was just briefly discussed, but in regards to the playground being in the most intensive part of the vehicle intensive part of the development. And I I was hearing that it was also, like, unfenced, but, again, I think that area from me would probably be one of the the more, like, safety related concerns in regards to, like, kids and and all of those 93 units have to go through that one entrance. And so I was initially and this is not necessarily something that has the curve, but my initial thoughts were, why wasn't it maybe more centralized where more residents can access it, easier access versus, you know, that resident we're just talking about. Right?

To the very left off of the screen. Then trying to get across the the park. So, again, not necessarily about the access for residents, more so about the safety in regards to kids being in that area, sometimes burning off right next to the most intensive, valuable part of the the project. And so, I I would just maybe give that consideration. I'm not sure if that's something you can add conditions into.

But, again, just the the main thing I was that I had in my notes here, coupled with the fact that, say, I'm coming up on Diane, making a left onto the unit. There's also that there's freezing shrubbery that as I'm turning in, you know, kids can be in that area too if they're not running across. So, again, you know, whether it gets resolved by a nice, like, fence to keep the kids in or maybe, like, you know, has a special lock so that they can get out and so on. That's one. I wasn't quite understanding that the concern that that was brought up.

Think we can maybe bring this up in regards to the discussion that internally with what Wayne was mentioning, that one diagonal crossway or crosswalk because I actually think that again, I didn't come from engineering background that you have, you know, beer wise, but I would think you have visibility on both sides of the street for vehicles to the people as well as people to the vehicles. So maybe you can discuss that a little bit later if necessary, but that's not maybe a a big one.

But I do have a a question

in regards to your approach, and so it was interesting for me to to hear that, you know, you you're currently building 93 units. Right? And you have the ability to do a 127, 131. So why or what was that thought process in regards to maybe doing 25% less, roughly 30% less development when you can do higher intensity of development coupled with getting deviations, or waivers that you end up applying for? They're fully thoughtfully designed development. We are trying to blend a number

of items here. So as we come here tonight and we have discussions about open space, we have discussions about private garages and parking and guest parking, understanding that we're we're coming in here and building homes within an established, embedded neighborhood. And just because we have the ability to build to the highest end of that threshold, we also wanna feel good about what we're developing. This is what we specialize in. We specialize in entitlements.

We wanna feel good about the entitlements we we bring to each community. We're headquartered and based in San Jose. We were established in 02/2007, and we have no desire to go anywhere. Our desire is to continue working with municipalities throughout the Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area. So when we come back, we have a good long standing reputation with planning commissions, city councils, and neighborhoods.

Thank you for that. So along the same line, I know you're talking about information into neighborhoods and so on. On the very upper part of our screen, that would be considered the East Part of the development of the property. I see some of those those trees that have been, you know, paced there too, and I know sometimes the neighbors tend to have a privacy concern when it comes to a special color buildings. I believe this is the story that I know the the height is.

But has there been consideration? I don't know if it was for the last landscape planner or who knows, but of covering that entire boulevard with trees. So not only does it provide privacy for those residents, it provides them with greenery and provides a boulevard for, you know, those driving as residents across that upper part of our screen.

So to confirm the eastern portion of the property here? Yeah. That part right there. The entire

bordering section for where the current neighborhood is to where the development would be proposed.

There has been if I recall, there are some existing trees on the opposite side of that fence that we should effectively that need to be preserved. But having additional screening and and trees along that that line is absolutely something that we can continue to work with staff on to provide for additional screening in trees in this neighborhood.

And just one point of clarification too. You mentioned that the affordability unit, there was at least one that was placed next to the park. That is correct. The condition you said?

It is. It's conditional number 90.

Okay. I'll take a look back.

And and we agreed to it, and and it'll it'll go into Building 11, so it has park access. Okay.

And one final kind of clarification. This confused me. This is something that Joe was mentioning. So a townhouse style condo, what's the difference between a townhouse style condo and a new condo that's townhouse style? Or, like, what makes it a condo? Because we we've seen, like, project, for example, that are townhouses or condos. But then a townhouse style condo is that it visually looks like a con townhouse, but is it actual, like, the development of it is a condo where people own the interior of of the building?

So most, quote, unquote, townhome developments in today's day and age, I can't speak for for Morgan Hill and what's been approved in the past. But in many other municipalities, when you hear a townhome development, it actually is a town townhome style or townhome style condo. They're condo mapped. And so to anybody driving by and living in it, it lives and feels just like a townhome. The difference is the form of ownership. It's not a fee simple ownership. It's a condo ownership of the home, so it's the air right. And so it's it's a the ownership of it Got it.

And so it's a townhome style condo, technically. Okay. So all townhomes are technically

Not not all. I mean, typically, when you're driving around different municipalities, again, don't wanna speak to Morgan Hill, using the roof for an example, most of the townhomes built there are townhomes style condos.

Okay. But not all. Not all. Okay. Thank you for meeting, Chris.

Alright. Good.

Yep. Alright. I have a couple quick clarifications for you. I'm sorry. I'm taking a bit longer than planned. I would actually disagree with Mohammed and say, I think even though I know you're I know you're not you're not obligated to, and I appreciate the fact that you're providing more parking, I would have a concern about putting trees along that eastern line, taking away parking spaces when we all know that everybody gets visitors and visitors near some of the park, and we don't want them parking on Diana, if at all possible. So any any as much parking as you can provide in there, I would encourage you to do it. Even if it's to the detriment of the neighbors saying, hey. Maybe you can see it in my backyard. I think neighbors have to make a choice as well as you want cars on the street.

Would you prefer for people to be able to park in here themselves? And outside of people's garages, there's no driveways. So I think there needs to be some some parking spaces there. Right? So I would encourage you to to maintain that as much as possible.

The only other comment I'm gonna make is, I know it's hard to say this for a lot of these infill developments in the middle of town where everybody gets up in arms about how much we're building and parking. I actually wanna compliment and say I really like the design. I don't say that very often, but this one is nice. I like the fact that you've activated and bought all the homes to the front. You guys have come I grew up in Europe. You know? We have something called the commons. Right? Everybody had a common space. You know? And everybody kids came out and played in the common space. The neighbors mixed together. I I saw a few more developments in town recently over the last few years. We did that. I really like that.

I like the fact that you can, for the most part, make your way around here and get to where you wanna get to without interacting too much with traffic. I like that too. But I really like that open space where you come in the garage at the back and you're fully active space in the front. That's that's a really nice design. And I would suspect that'd one of the reasons you don't you didn't take up all of your capacity that was available to you was because you wanted to compromise and give a little bit of that. And I think it just makes it so much more livable. Right? Yes. Yeah. And that's it for

me for now. So are we good? Sure.

Just a quick question.

Just quick.

So I didn't realize so the the trees that are currently on the the uppermost part of the map, aka the east side of the development, people can't park there. Yeah. Is that what you oh, Right.

This is parking.

Okay. You put trees there, no more parking.

Okay. I think that makes sense what you said. And the

concern you have with the visibility, there are no there are no houses there. It's just parking.

Got it. Okay. Thanks for that clarification. I didn't realize that the trees were would block them with parking.

Got

Thank you. That's all I had.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Apologize, guys. That took a little bit longer, but let's keep the public commentary open, and we have other speakers.

Next, I have Bob Leonard Monumentum.

You're right. One of Bob. Welcome.

Thank you. I have a very nice one page and a half prepared statement, but I think I'll basically toss it. The, the argument you make is Just as valid. Would you would you introduce yourself? Sure. My name is Bob Benavento, longtime resident of Morgan Hills. I'm here since 1984. I presently live in Creekside Village, formerly served on the HOA board at Peakside Village for approximately ten years, president for about five. My primary opposition to this project is parking. So I think we're pretty much in agreement there.

Gonna toss out everything I wrote here because, basically, you have to live in this environment to understand what problems there are. I would invite you, I will be more than happy to host you on a tour of where I live and explain to you the challenges when you have inadequate parking. There are 204 residences in Creekside Village. There are only 98 parking spaces. And by comparison today, that's a lot.

But I can assure you where we are today is extremely insufficient. And what's transpired is our residents now park along Diana and along Dunn. As a result, we have continuous challenges in who's parking where. We have parking permits. We have regulations about parking in the streets. Our streets are 24 feet wide. I went out and measured them again today. Basically, the entire complex is a red zone. I've spoken with the fire department. They have challenges coming through, and we have had people come we have had problems with fire engines getting through.

And, of course, if residents park in the street, their cars are gonna get demolished if truck should come through. The the other challenge we have is the construction of it, and I'll reference that only because a planning commission forty five years ago, the early nineteen eighties, allowed this development to be built as it is. We do have one and two car garages. Some of those garages have driveways that are about as wide as your desktops. In other words, you cannot park in your own driveway.

I happen to be the benefit of one that I do have nearly a full length. Some people have longer. Most are shorter. These present challenges even when you have a vendor coming to your house, your plumber, your your electrician. In this environment here, I can't see where they're gonna park to service a unit, and you have to consider those things.

Basically, my argument again is you have insufficient parking. I don't think it's really thought through, and I ask you to visit, take a walk through, see what the challenges are, and come and then base your decision. I would ask you tonight to defer approval. If if this is going through approval tonight, I would ask you to deny the the building. I think I really pretty much touched on everything except for the fact that you have to remember, basically, we're still in a suburb here, and people are not giving up their cars. Okay? Even if you try and insist through an HOA to park their cars in the garage, you're gonna have problems. There are three p's in an HOA, people, pets, and parking. So that's my three minutes.

I'll thank you for your time.

May I ask a question for you, Bill? Sure. Thanks for your input, by the way. I mean, I heard you say it like you're asking us to say we should defer. Based on what criteria would you suggest we do that? Well, are you saying what's your definition of inadequate parking?

Inadequate? If you can't park your vehicles where you live and you have to park on the street and there's no available street parking, what do you do then? We have no available parking along Butterfield. You have no available parking on the East Side nor the north side of the film because it's all housing and close. What are you going to do? We already have, like I said, two hundred two hundred and four residences with a good number of people parking their cars there already. We're gonna end up having neighborhood bores over where to park the car. And by the way, we also have incremental growth going on at the Eastern end of Diana Avenue west Of 101. So your traffic implications are also gonna be enhanced Mhmm. Or more problematic.

And the only argument I would make to you, quite honestly, is I've cited it here several times, common sense. Does this make common sense to build something like this? I know about the rules. I know about the transit card. I know about no parking being required and so on and so forth. But somewhere along the line, I ask you guys, take a stand. Take a stand and start to push back. At least let us get a better understanding of what they want because I think the government coming out of Sacramento and the governor's office is trying to put things that are not attainable in front of you guys to dry and build more homes. I understand there's a need for housing, but let's not go to extremes to the detriment of the residents. And you're all neighbors.

This is the big problem we have. We're neighbors. We live together. How can we have parking wars, which is basically what we're looking at here? It's gonna be a challenge. Okay. Thanks for your time.

Thank you very much. Oh, sorry. One second.

In your conflict Sure. Do you have a requirement, maybe it's through an HOA or whatever mechanism it is, to park in the garages that are provided in your unit? No. Do you think we should?

I think it's hardly unenforceable.

It's very enforceable based based on what I've seen in another jurisdiction. I heard you. Yeah. And it's really one of peer pressure.

Yep.

Because it's just not fair to have a two car garage and have it filled with boxes.

Well, I I don't disagree with what you say, but I'm also guilty of it. Okay? There are people who do many different things in their garages. Storage is one. Some people run home operated businesses. They have inventory stored in their garages. Other guys like to say, boy, I'd like to have my man cave. You know? All of these various implications. And to enforce it, you put the onus on the neighbors as the board of the HOA to try and enforce that stuff. And we have continuous squabbles where I live with regards to parking, parking, and pet poop, to be quite honest with you. So, again, I go back to the three p's, people, pets, and parking.

K.

Thanks, Joyce.

Alright. Thank you

very much. Yeah. Appreciate it.

Thanks. We have Carmen

Yeah. Hi. Good

evening.

Good evening.

Thanks for the invitation. And I live on the north side of this new units that are going up, and my concern is privacy. My main windows are facing south. And by looking at the blueprint here, you're gonna have a three level building, and I'm assuming you have the windows facing north. So where's my privacy there?

You know? Three stories high, and I'm on a one level home, and they'll be looking down. That's my concern. And, also, the the parking, but the gentleman there did a perfect job speaking about that because they're even parking off of Diana right there on Massa Plant. Half of the big side, you know, residents are already parking up, you know, farther down. So that's my concern, my privacy.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Quick question. Ma'am, excuse me.

Go ahead.

Come on. Just one second.

Question. Have you seen the the north side in relation to the project? Or Why

are we both side flying? So, Carmen, which part of this where do you live?

Here on the left. Right?

I'm above on the top screen there. I'm right behind there.

Okay. Okay.

Okay? So

where do those face, Tiffany?

These are the backyards of the exist existing single family home development. And then these buildings, this looks like the front of the home, and then you have their front yard space, the sidewalk, walkway, and then this is the property line. So that house itself is set back to about here from the property line. And then we have trees lined on the north end, a walkway, the private front yard areas, and then the hoof.

Okay. So that that part is completely lined

with Yeah.

Pollen and trees that would cover the few stories ish, depending on what type of creases are.

Carmen, if you notice there, you have first of all, there's gonna be your backyard fence, then there are gonna be some trees. And then across the way, the the house is not right up against the fence looking down into your backyard. It's their driveway, then their front. So their bedrooms are in back.

Their brand is gonna be facing

Yes. Yeah.

My property? Yes.