Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Let's get started. The regular meeting of the Oakley Planning Commission is called to order. Roll call. Vice chair Price? Here. Commissioner Harvey? Here. Commissioner Olivarez is absent tonight. Commissioner Chuco?

Present.

And I am chair Verdusco present. If you are able to, please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everybody. So we will be moving item 6.1 up on the agenda and hearing it before public comments. So item 6.1, reports from staff members. Does staff have any reports?

I do have two quick reports, and then I'm I'm gonna hand the floor over to our mayor, miss Shannon Shaw. I just wanted to say congratulations to you, mister Diego Verdusko, serving as chair, and you, Alexey Chuico, for also serving as chair at some time with our planning commission. You both have been very great to work with. It's been an honor serving both of you who serve the public. Thank you very much.

Also wanted to announce that the city council has appointed three new planning commissioners for the three vacant seats, one of which is sitting up there with you tonight. Mister vice chair Leonard Price was reappointed. And we also have the other two new members here in the audience with us, Pierre Gaudi sitting in the back and Sean Ireland in the back as well. Congratulations to all three of you gentlemen. Now with that, madam mayor, thank you.

Alright. Hello? Hi. So chair Verdusko, vice chair price and planning commissioners, I just wanted to come here tonight specifically because we started this thing together, and I wanted to be here to, recognize the two of you. If you would come down, I have a little certificate for you that I will read.

And you get to take a picture with me. And council member Williams. Alright. So in recognition of your dedicated and valuable service as a member of the Oakley Planning Commission, your commitment, leadership, and vision have significantly significantly contributed to the planning and development of our community. We thank you for your tireless efforts and extend our deepest gratitude for your contributions during your term of 10/13/2021 to 10/12/2025. Thank you guys very much. What you do is very, very important. I hope our future planning commissioners and our seated planning commissioners know that the city council really appreciates everything that you guys do. So thank you.

Thank you. Alright.

Thank you so much.

Thank

you. Yes. Please. Please. Please. Very excited for these two.

Alrighty. So thank you for the kind words, and thank you for the certificate. Thank you, madam mayor, council member Williams. Thank you for the kind words. Did you wanna say anything? Let's see.

Sure. Are we just doing it right now and then go straight to business? Sure. Okay. No problem. It's a

quick thank you.

It's a quick

thank you. Okay. We'll do all the pleasant stuff first though. I would like to, first of all, extend huge gratitude to director Strelow and his staff. It's been a pleasure working side by side with you.

Just really getting to learn a lot of a lot of intricacies about, I guess, the process of planning for the city which, you know, it's very easy to think that it's super, like, super easy and oh my god, how come these guys cannot think of this, right? But once you get here, you get like to be on the other side of the aisle so to speak, you get definitely bigger appreciation to what you do and all the city staff does. So thank you so very much for that. Also to our entire city council. So you guys, I mean, you put a lot of confidence when you were selecting basically the very first round for the planning commission four years ago.

This is not a small token and I sincerely and I'm sure it's on behalf of all of us, we appreciate this opportunity that you have given to for us to grow, to learn, and to really kind of, like, again, get a bigger appreciation to everything that happens in our city. Of course, you know, I'd like to thank my fellow commissioners. It's been great journey. We became not just colleagues but great friends over the years and it's you know, when everything is said and done and when you're kind of finished the journey, it's really the friendships that you made that count. So I I would say that's the biggest, I think, treasure that I can get out of this experience.

So to the new generation of planning commissioners, all I can tell you is there's a lot of learning, but it's it's an extremely rewarding experience. You will definitely yeah. It will definitely stretch your, well, imagination in some ways and also appreciation for all the incredible work that city staff and city council does for our city. So in your new role, it would be kind of a huge part of it is gonna be education, you know, that you'll have to sort of be that person, right, in between the staff and the council and members of the public. You know, the part of your job is educate and explain why you're, you know, voting a certain way, why you're making certain decisions.

It's really important especially because, you know, there's a lot of division, you know, all around us no matter where you look, you know, but your job is to unify people and make everyone realize that, you know, people who sit here, who work here in this city are on the side of the people that they represent, you know. We're all in this together. This is an incredible, incredible lean and wonderful city that does a lot of great work for us. And, you know, we are also very proud to say that big part of our employees here of the staff are actually from this community. So they definitely have stake in the game and your city council, you know, has proven to you that they do absolutely the same. So thank you, everyone. It's been a great journey, and here's to the new chapter.

Thank you, commissioner Chuco. Alrighty. So back to business. We'll move on to agenda item number two, public comments. At this time, public comments will be heard for items not on the agenda. I do have a public speaker card submitted. To submit a public comment, please complete a speaker card located in the lobby and submit to the city clerk. The time limit to speak is three minutes. The time limit is monitored by the timer located in front of the chair seat. When one minute remains on the timer, it will beep once, and the light will turn yellow as a reminder to complete your comments before your time expires. So for the comment that I have, Anissa Williams, she wishes to speak.

So I'm new here. It actually should have been on item 6.1. I really do just wanna echo, you know, everything that's been said already. We really appreciate the work. I remember when I was running for council, and planning commission was something that I really wanted to get off the ground because I do think the more voices we have representing the community, the better off we are. And you guys have all done a phenomenal job. Our new people back here have really big shoes to fill. And I'm so grateful for the folks who are continuing on. And I'm glad to know that even though you're leaving, I know you're gonna still be involved in different parts of the city. So we really appreciate everything you've done, and you've been an incredibly valuable resource for the city council.

So I hope everybody who's still sitting up here too hears that we couldn't make the decisions we do without knowing that you kind of came before us. So we really appreciate all of you guys.

Thank you so much for those kind words. Alrighty. Next we move on to agenda item number three, consent calendar. Is there any discussion or would someone like to make a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes or sorry, calendar.

Second. Alright, I have a first and a second so I'll call for a vote. All in favor of approving the consent calendar say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. No oppose or abstentions. The motion passes unanimously. Alright. Now we move on to public hearings. Item 4.13 Street duplex design review and variance request. Mister Evan Gorman.

Perfect. Thank you, chair. Give me one moment. I'll get the presentation loaded up. I appreciate your patience.

Alright. I'm Evan Gorman, associate planner for the city of Oakley. Tonight, I'm presenting to you our only application for this evening, 3rd Street duplex design review and variance request. First, we wanna start off with a lay of the land. Here tonight, we're in the downtown, very close to where we're sitting right now.

That star represents, where tonight's project is near the center of town. For a closer view, here is the subject property outlined in yellow. It's mid block on 3rd Street between the intersection of 3rd Street and Main Street and 3rd Street and East Ruby Street. Here is a view of the property from the street taken last week so you can get an update updated view. There's the notice board.

That's how we notice projects to residents. And this property is zoned SP dash four, which means it's subject to the downtown specific plan. So whenever we see that, we open up a separate document. And the general plan designation is is for the downtown as well. We have residential uses to the right there.

We have commercial uses including the gym to the rear of the property on the other side of the fence, and then over to the left of this image, we have a a realty office. Now for tonight's application that we're reviewing. The first part of the application is the applicant is requesting design review approval for a duplex on this property. Design review is for is where we review that's gonna be a funny sentence. Where we review the design of of most new structures in town.

You know, unless you have something like an accessory structure. If you have a new home, you have a new neighborhood, you have a new commercial building, we bring it to you, the planning commission, to take a look at it. And then smaller changes, we'll review at a staff level. A duplex requires commission district. You know, you can go it's where you can go the tallest.

You can do the most mix of uses. We you know, when our city created this downtown specific plan, we envisioned a walkable area with a lot of different uses and and activity. Oakley's downtown core, it only permits second floor residential units with the approval of a conditional use permit. It does not allow typically ground floor residential. A lot of downtown zoning districts across the state do that, and that's so that there's some commercial activity on that 1st Floor.

And on that second floor, that's where people live. That's changing a bit. People are moving towards full residential when they're some cities are struggling to fill those commercial spaces, but for right now, Oakley's downtown zoning seeks to have commercial on the 1st Floor, residential 2nd Floor. This applicant tonight is seeking to utilize a new sorry, a recently passed bill from the state called senate bill six. Senate bill six allows in order to achieve more housing where it typically wouldn't wouldn't be found or allowed.

Senate bill six allows residential development on property zone for retail and office space without needing a rezoning. This allows ground floor residential development in Oakley's downtown. Applicants there is a catch here for applicants. It isn't it isn't just a a straight shot to a building permit. You know, this law does respect the local process, so you still have to go through our design review process.

And a key part of it is that they still have to meet any of our objective regulations. Know, if it's measurable, if it isn't subjective, they still have to meet it. And our downtown actually has the most the largest amount of objective regulations. So it's actually a good it could be seen as a appropriate spot to test that. That is allowing for context.

That's allowing this ground floor residential application to come through tonight for us to review. Here is the here are just some elevations, a three d rendering of the duplex, and then that black and white drawing is the front elevation as shown on the plans. And I'll just take you a moment to look at it, or I'll give you a moment to look at it. And so the two units are easy to see. So they're each 875 square feet, and they're they're delineated by those colors.

So you see the primary colors, each one represents a different unit. Here's the site plan. I loaded it up today and I was like, you know what? We might all struggle to to tell what's what in here. So I have some rudimentary blocks that are gonna come in. So first, we have the sidewalk there for reference on the left. We have unit a, unit b. They are attached even though they're shown as separate. We have a parking area here, tandem parking, two spots, and then we have some outdoor space for the residents in the back right there. So just going back, that's our site plan, an overhead view of this property.

A variance is a is special permission to deviate from a zoning regulation when strict enforcement would cause unique hardship due to a property specific conditions. It allows limited flexibility but does not change the underlining underlying zoning rules. This area of Oakley's downtown has a rare development standard. You rarely see this. So all of us were used to a minimum setback.

You need we want things to get further apart so that we're not all on top of each other, so we ask for a five foot minimum setback on the side. In downtown zoning, you know, in modern downtown zonings across the state, you start to see maximum setbacks. And that's because they do want activity in one area. They want the street to have some activity to it. They don't want all this empty space when they start to build a city.

Maximums. And so this downtown area has a maximum side setback of 15 feet, which is used to maintain a continuous street wall and support a walkable environment. This applicant, as you'll see in the analysis, they've worked really hard to meet all of our standards. And this one they got very close with, but they said, you know, we have a very small parcel relative to what the downtown envisioned. And so we are they are asking for instead of a 15 foot side setback, they're asking for 16 feet eight inches.

And so I'll give you a visual of that. Here we go. So when you look at it, this property could you could interpret this as meeting the setback. We have five feet on one side, and we have five feet on the other side. And so, you know, you could interpret it that way.

We did wanna be, you know, safer rather than sorry. So we have proposed they apply for a variance here just to make sure we do everything correctly. And so there in blue we have what the code requires, which is a 15 foot side setback. But there, they just need an extra foot and eight inches. And so the reason for that is we're trying to fit the city requires parking on this property, so we need to fit that or the applicant does.

And then the city also requires some common open space. We're the ones asking for that. And so in the bottom right corner, they're trying to fit that open space there. Now whenever someone submits an application, we provide an analysis with it. Staff reviews it, sees how it how well it conforms to our regulations we have in town.

Although the downtown specific plan did not anticipate ground floor residential uses in this area, city staff have determined that the applicant's proposed project complies with the established downtown standards and design guidelines. The design incorporates several key elements that align with downtown requirements. So when the applicant originally proposed this, you know, we looked at it and thought, you know, how do you get two small units to meet the design standards of a massive of a apartment building? And it was, it was pretty amazing. So we started talking and, and meeting on it, and we saw what they were doing, and they took each objective standard.

And, you know, it's not like we went easy on them. It is our job to go through each of the standards that have been approved in a public public process and make sure they, conform to it. So for instance, I have a list here. The roof has been pitched up to achieve the 20 foot minimum height standard. So, again, usually, we have maximum standards. Here, we have a minimum because we want the street to have some activity to it, some height. And so they've actually achieved that. They've pitched it up, the roof. The building is positioned at the front property line as specified in the downtown specific plan. So, again, we want to be close to the action.

So they've moved the units up, and each residential unit features a primary entrance opening directly onto the street facing sidewalk. Additionally, the project meets parking requirements by providing one space per unit with parking areas located along the side of the building rather than in front, consistent again with the plan. The design achieves visual distinction between the units through those varied earth tone paint schemes. The plan calls for those to look different and they got that done. Porches and peaked rooflines increase the compatibility between the duplex and neighboring homes.

The development includes the required common open space as specified in the downtown specific plan. Exterior materials, including wood siding and tile shingles, comply with the established material standards. And the incorporation of bay windows is also encouraged by the downtown specific plan. So they did work very hard through many revisions and we found that they did meet our plans for this for the downtown. For the variants, staff find that the required variance findings can be met because the variance did not grant special privilege.

It serves the specific regulatory purpose of creating compliant common open space and parking as required by the DSP rather than providing a development advantage. The maximum 15 foot side setback rule is intended to maintain street wall continuity, not to limit functional open space and parking design. Special circumstances exist due to the small lot size combined with the downtown plan's open space and parking requirements where strict application would deprive the property of rights enjoyed by property on by properties on larger lots. So we found due to the small size here and the constraints that a variance is warranted. For environmental review, the project is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section fifteen three zero three.

If you've ever wondered why someone building a house doesn't have to do an environmental impact report, it's because, yeah, we recognize that these small projects are are small in scale and so if you do a home or a duplex, you're exempt from CEQA. For staff's recommendation, because because this applicant has worked hard to meet our findings, we find that staff recommends the planning commission adopt the resolution approving 3rd Street duplex design review and variance request as conditioned. And then as staff, I can answer I can try and answer any questions you have. I appreciate you listening to my presentation. The applicant would like to present.

First, I'd like to see if you have any questions. Otherwise, we'll wait till the end, and we can bounce them off myself or the applicant. And then finally, the owner would like to speak as well.

Thank you, mister Gorman. Are there any questions from the planning commission? Commissioner Chuko?

Yeah. Mister Gorman, I do have a question. So it sounds like applicant has done excellent job in complying with all the minimums that we, you know, have for our downtown area. However, I do have a kind of a technical question. So you mentioned this several times, close to action.

Right? And that's what kind of the future of the downtown that we'd like to see in Oakley is having a lot of action, a lot of businesses here. Just hypothetically speaking, you know, if let's say a music venue opens up, you know, on the Main street right there next to that house, right, and there's loud music going till 11:00, is that going to in any way shape or form, well, diminish chances of that music venue going in there because there is already a residential property, you know, so close in the proximity to it?

I think that that's a great question. That's a really good question. You know, there's things we would evaluate. When a music venue comes through, it either I I don't remember off the top of my head, but it would either be permitted by Wright because the city has already anticipated that this is gonna be a center for activity. It is gonna be a noisy a noisier place, maybe not noisy inherently.

And so then it would be able to go through without much, you know, much conversation like here when something needs a permit. Now if my memory is not correct and let's say it does need a conditional use permit, then it would go through, to a hearing like this. You're right. Maybe the future residents of these, units could come here and this is gonna be too loud. Staff would probably point out that this is the the most intense zone of the city.

It is designed for things like this. And then finally, just the last point, and this is ultra technical, noise standards in modern housing are in terms of installation for the walls are much better than the prewar housing that is nearby. Right. So that's gonna be an impact as well.

Yeah. Because, you know, it seems like it's a it's a pretty big issue for a lot of downtowns like, you know, in Santa Cruz and such. So just just I'm curious, you know, who will have kind of the, I guess, the more rights in that situation. The residents who will live in those duplexes or the business who would potentially bring a lot of revenue to this city, you know. That's all. Thank you. Thank you for your answer.

Any other questions from the planning commission? Commissioner Yes.

I have a question. The parking lot that's on the back of the property, will they have access to use that city parking lot?

And then I apologize. Maybe I need to look at the overview to take a look. Oh, got it. It would not be this project wouldn't it would not be the goal of of the project applicant or the city that they would utilize that, and they would have to stay within the legal bounds of any other resident using that public parking lot. But, yeah, if there you know, maybe there are regulations that I'm not aware of on how long you could be there for seeing the same cars parked there, you know, that would be an issue that we could look to our city staff to review.

That's a good question. And I just wanna clarify. So I, you know, I have a very helpful director here, and and we were able to determine that a live music venue would need a conditional use permit. It would need to go here and residents could attend. And so if you have any follow-up questions on that, I just wanna make sure you're informed correctly.

Thank you, mister Gorman. Any other questions from the planning commission? Thank you. So next up, we'd like to hear from the applicant.

That sounds great. Thank you. Kathy Anderson will come up to present for the applicant. And then, Kathy, there's a clicker there, and right on the clicker, it will proceed to the next it should proceed to the next slide, but I'll help you if it doesn't.

The arrow. Okay.

Good evening, and happy to have you.

Good evening, chair and planning commissioners. Thank you for having us tonight. And thank you, Evan. Great job. He's been working closely with us on this this this commercial parking lot, basically. And we really have worked hard to try and create something to fit into community that's very high end but at an affordable price point to build. And one question, though, it's a cement fiber hardy board exterior, not wood. And that's for a lot fire zone. It or it's not a fire zone, but just to protect against fire. And it's really rated too, which is wild urban interface.

So, yeah, so this is our design. We call this our Newport plan. And so it's got a nice shed roof, so a lot of volume inside the home. Has the front porch, which, you know, again, trying to blend into the existing neighborhood. And like Evan said, I'll skip through some of this.

But, basically, we're proposing a duplex, but they're offset. So Evan thought, you know, and the planning staff thought it's important to just put two units next to each other, to have both of those units facing the front street, the front doors, make it very friendly as people are walking by, and making them feel like they're part of the community. They're two story, like we said, and we're using the senate bill six, which helps convert commercial properties into residential. Because where we're coming from too is there's just such a need for affordability and housing. And so that's kind of our goal as our company.

And I'm with Perpetual Homes, by the way. So, you know, we do these multifamily units units throughout the Bay Area, and it's pretty, you know, standing when we start looking at articles and so forth and different projects. I've been come from a development background with working at Lennar, Summerhill Homes, some of the builders. And building costs are just so expensive, you know, to do in San Francisco, in South San Francisco, Daly City, some of those projects. It's costing over a million dollars per unit to produce.

So we're trying to find a solution that we can enter you know, join the communities, have a beautiful product, but build it at affordable price point. So these are just some of the articles. And those are for low income projects, by the way. You know, the medium home price here in Oakley is 716,000. So, again, a lot of the locals can't afford to buy.

You know, there will be renters, and and these units will be rented out to locals. You know, this is just some summaries about just the severe housing shortage throughout the Bay Area. California has three to 4,000,000 units and which is 20 of the housing stock shortage. You know, very if you talk to 82% of the residents throughout California, you know, they identify housing as a big crisis. I know my kids are gonna have a hard time staying here.

So with being able to provide some more affordable price points like this, we can hopefully keep locals in the community where families can grow up together and have multigenerational housing. And we have some really nice finish levels we're putting into these homes. With Evan's help, we've really addressed, you know, trying to create a warm, friendly exterior to these homes and colors that just kind of blend into the existing neighborhood. These are just some of the nice finish levels we're including as well. That's the front.

You've seen that. Yeah. And there's two parking spots on the property, and there's some really nice enhanced landscaping that Evan's worked with us on to provide on this site plan. Some beautiful flowers again as you walk by. We want to be warm, friendly, you know, make it feel like a home for locals. And then Evans already discussed, you know, the existing use. You know, we're kind of a transitional piece of property here where it's entering into a residential neighborhood. So this will be the first one. And then you've got single family homes adjacent. That's it. Any questions?

Thank you very much. Are there any questions from the planning commission or the applicant? Commissioner Chuko?

Well, maybe not to the applicant but also to mister Gorman per se. So in your presentation on this slide, item d, it says it's a single family residential. Right? It's currently single family residential or it's planned to be?

D is a home.

So it's a home.

Mhmm. Exactly.

Thank you. That's it.

Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant or for mister Gorman?

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Next up, we'd like to hear from the owner.

Yes. Thank you, chair.

Good evening. I'm sure I

have to lower it. Thank you very much, planning commission, for hearing us. Introducing myself as a long time owner of this property, probably over thirty years and I've been in the area for over fifty years and serving as one of our local realtors and property managers. It's very important to me to be able to produce housing because I live in the property management world and to piggyback on what was said is that we just do not have enough housing. I think both of these structures will create an element where we will get a fine out outstanding resident that will be able to live in our wonderful community at a very reasonable price.

So we thank you for your attention to our project and hope you will consider it positively. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the owner from the Planning Commission? No questions? Thank you so much. Okay. So at this time, I will open the public hearing. I do not have any public speaker cards on this item nor do I see anybody filling one out. So I will close the public hearing and call for deliberation. What are we thinking? Would any commissioner like to make a motion to adopt the resolution as presented?

I move to adopt the motion.

I would second this motion.

I have a first and a second, so I will call for a vote. All in favor of adopting the resolution as presented, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. No oppose or abstention. This motion passes unanimously. Agenda item number five, regular calendar. There are no regular calendar items, so we'll move on to reports. We already did reports from staff members, so we'll move on to item 6.2. Any reports from are there any reports from commissioners?

So not a report. Just, again, I'd like to kind of piggyback off of what commissioner Chuco said earlier. He said it perfectly. Thank you to the city of Oakley staff. You guys did a wonderful job preparing us for to sit up here and face the public. It's it could be nerve racking at times, but you guys did a really good job. I always felt prepared. I I felt like I knew what I was walking into. There were no surprises, so I appreciate that. Thank you to the city council. And then good luck to our new planning commissioners. I wish you all the best. Yeah. So next up, we will do any commissioners have any requests for future agenda items? Let me

bring in my list. Alright.

Next item is work sessions. There are no work sessions. So there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.