Remarks by Galen Kim Davis
81 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 4
- Play at 2:24:22
“Thank you for your presentation. Have you been able to operate since the... Okay. Is it not permitted until the appeal is adjudicated?”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 2:24:35
“Okay. Thank you. That's the only question I have.”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 2:49:33
“Yeah, this is by far the most painful thing I've had come before me while on the Planning Commission. This is, I'm just consistently going through my head like, what are we doing here? What is the city doing here? We've got two women-owned businesses in this situation, and we've got so much zoning for this little downtown district, and we're not san francisco we shouldn't be this way my own personal history i opened a small business in san francisco in 2002 in a little neighborhood that was three blocks before i went and applied for any permits i read all 10 pages of zoning they had for these…”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 3:33:09
“OK. Good thing I wrote the questions down. So looking at all the diagrams and the maps of the areas, the shared path's great, but I just don't know where it goes. What does it connect to?”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 3:33:33
“OK, eventually, OK. Yeah. And I was noticing on the project data table that there seems to be an acre that's lost between the existing site and the proposal. Is that being portioned off for future development, or where's that acre going?”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 3:34:24
“Okay. Thank you. That clarifies it. Those are all my questions.”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 4:10:13
“So I'm going to be a little bit unfair. So our last hearing, we always ask the applicants, how can we get you to build more? Are there things in the Sunnyvale code that are different from other places that are pushing you towards slightly lower density? And what came up last time was that our fire requirements require wider clearances than other cities. So I'm going to ask you if we, let's say, tighten that so that we're similar to other cities and so on. Would some of these concessions have gone away or could we have gotten more units? I know I'm asking you a detailed question off the top of…”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 4:27:11
“Thank you, Chair. Yes, this is a really great townhome development. With the Greenway, all the amenities, I mean, you guys really know how to do townhomes really, really well. The only thing is when we zoned this, we were imagining something quite a bit bigger. And I would have loved to have seen your concession be height. And we set up to 100 feet. I would have been happy to go much, much higher. here, right? But I'm not a developer. I'm not the one taking the risks, right? So I know you have your formula down for getting the financing done for townhomes. You know how to build them. You know…”
Planning Commission · Aug 31, 2026
- Play at 38:57
“um vice chair davis uh thank you chair thank you for the presentation um so yes so our new objective design standards come into effect on thursday right um and there's no in these new objective standards um the the two claims that are made in the appeal um They appear nowhere in the objective design standards. So going into a hypothetical idea, if we were to grant the appeal and deny the permit and then the applicant reapplied on Thursday, what would the process be then?”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 40:17
“Okay, thank you. That's my only question. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 56:11
“Yes, thank you for your comments and your presentation. This is quite likely. the best articulated appeal I've seen when I've been on planning commission. Just bringing up the hypothetical from before, right? The guidelines that you're stating were passed in 2003. They are being replaced this Thursday. And the applicant has spent a good amount of time and money and I'm sure energy and emotion on putting these plans together. So I imagine that they would reapply if we were to grant the appeal. Have you gone through the new guidelines that are coming into effect and do you foresee?”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 57:04
“Okay, so you have not considered But you're not considered if you if you're granted the appeal, what happens next?”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 57:59
“Okay. You've answered my question. You have five minutes at the end to further express yourself. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:27:46
“But yes, I went through and read the whole 2003 standards. They're so vague and grant so much discretion that honestly, it's kind of hard to call them standards. I think what is coming into effect is, Um, maybe returning us to the rule of law, um, because those standards were frankly an invitation for, for amateur architecture from the dais. And, um, uh, so under the standards, I can find a way to justify just about anything I want to say. Um, and that's. that just bothers me, right? So I think we have a big improvement coming forward. We spent a lot of time on them. You can ask Ashna, I had…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:37:53
“I'm ready to make a Ready to make a motion, actually. So my motion is to take the staff recommendation, which is alternative one, deny the appeal and uphold the decision of the director of community development to approve the design review based on the recommended findings of approval in attachment three and subject to the recommended conditions of approval in attachment four.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:38:28
“and uh okay and then share to your motion yes and to my motion um I I want to thank the applicant for all the information that you shared it showed that it's uh harder to build in this area than one would suspect um I I look at the lot sizes and I see a 11 000 square foot lots 9 000 square foot lots and it's just Like, oh my God, you could go crazy. And then we see all the easements. I know there's the floodplain. And so it's actually pretty restrictive. I was very curious as to why the houses are angled. And that explanation was really helpful. I've been talking since before I got on the…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:52:28
“This may actually be for the city attorney. Okay, so we have an appeal of an MPP here, and we have an appeal letter. So what is the scope we consider? Are we limited to issues that are raised in the appeal letter? Can we consider the MPP as a whole, whether it was properly granted?”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:04:36
“Vice Chair Davis. Thank you, Chair. I was able to collect my thoughts here. So I'm looking at table in the municipal code, table 19.28.080, specifically at 4C. This is permitted, conditionally permitted and prohibited uses in residential DSP blocks. So this is block 10, right? So looking at 4c accessory uses, commercial and personal service uses, incidental to and in combination with residential uses. So my understanding of commercial and personal services, that's what you tend to think of hair, nails, estheticians, but not massage because massage is called out separately. Is my understanding…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:05:37
“Okay. So to grant the MPP, the director essentially found that this business is different enough that it's not included in personal services, which would require a residential context. So someone would have to be living there.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:06:16
“And the fact that perhaps there's a neighboring business that is a personal service but no one's living there really is an independent factor. Correct. It has no bearing on this.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:06:38
“Okay. That's interesting. When did this requirement come in? 1993. 1993. Okay. And so I guess, uh, suite five has been a salon since before 1993.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:07:04
“Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Um, Okay, and circling back, this is this is a de novo consideration. So we have to be able to make the same finding that the services offered by the applicant are different enough that they are not included in personal services, personal and commercial services.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:08:22
“Okay. And so really what we're talking about is once the finding is made, was the law properly applied? Or what would be the proper application of that finding? Maybe that's a better way to say it.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:08:44
“Okay. Okay. I think I got it. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:49:21
“all right thank you now we'll hear from uh any questions from my colleagues uh vice chair davis uh thank you chair uh thank you for your presentation um have you been able to operate since yeah okay is it not permitted until the appeal is adjudicated so it's been 93 days that i have not been able to operate okay thank you um that's the only question i have”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026