Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

ALL RIGHT. GOOD EVENING. I'M GOING TO BRING THIS MEETING TO ORDER. GOOD EVENING. MY NAME IS CHARLES CANTRELL AND I AM THE CHAIR OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION. WELCOME TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING. PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES. THE PARKING VALIDATION MACHINE FOR THE GARAGE UNDER CITY HALL IS LOCATED NEAR THE ENTRANCE OR UP TOP. LET'S START WITH THE PLEDGE OF

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.

All right. Thank you. Let's start with the roll call. I'm Charles Cantrell. I am here. Vice Chair Michael Young.

Here.

Commissioner Luis Aguarela.

Present.

Thank you. Dilpreet Vandal.

Here.

Commissioner Melissa Bickford. Commissioner Daniel Kau. Commissioner Lawrence Casey.

Here.

Commissioner Amy Escobar.

Here.

Commissioner Koi Nguyen. Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio? Here. Didn't notice. And Commissioner Carlos Rosario?

Here.

Great, we do have quorum. So the summary of hearing procedures. If you want to address the commission, please fill out a speaker card located on the table near the audio-visual technician and deposit the completed card in the basket. There are also speaker cards in the back of the chambers and at the side entrance. The procedure for this hearing is as follows. After staff presentation, applicants and or appellants may make up to five-minute presentations. During the public comment period, the chair will call out names on the submitted speaker cards in the order received. As your name is called, line up in front of the microphone at the front of the chamber. Generally, each speaker will be given up to two minutes for public testimony and speakers using a translator will have up to four minutes. At the discretion of the chair, the time allotment to each speaker may be changed depending on the number of items on the agenda, number of speakers, and other factors. Speakers using a translator will have double the time allotted. After the public testimony, the applicant and or appellant may make closing remarks for up to an additional five minutes. Planning commissioners may ask questions of the speakers Response to Commissioner questions will not reduce the speaker's time allowance. The public hearing will then be closed and the Planning Commission will take action on the item. The Planning Commission may request staff to respond to public testimony, ask staff questions, and discuss the item. If you challenge these land use decisions in court, You may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at this public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing. The Planning Commission's actions on rezoning, prezonings, general plan amendments, and code amendments is only advisory to the City Council. The City Council will hold public hearings on these items. Section 10.120.400 of the Municipal Code provides the procedures for legal protest to the City Council on rezoning and prezonings. The Planning Commission's actions on conditional use permits is appealable to the City Council in accordance with section 20.100.220 of the Municipal Code. Agendas and all staff reports for this meeting may be accessed on the website. All right, let's call the meeting to order. Order of the day. Before we begin, I want to remind the Planning Commission members and members of the public to follow our code of conduct at meetings. This includes commenting on the specific item, agenda, and addressing the full body. Public speakers will not engage in conversation with the commissioners or staff. All members of the planning commission staff and the public are expected to refrain from abusive language. Repeated failure to comply with the code of conduct which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting may result in removal from the meeting, this meeting of the Planning Commission will now come to order. Public comments to the Planning Commission on non-agendized items. Please fill out a speaker's card and give it to the technician. Each member of the public may address the Commission for up to two minutes. The Commission cannot take any formal action without it being properly noticed and placed on the agenda. In response to public comment, the Planning Commission is limited to the following options. responding to statements made or questions posed by members of the public, or requesting staff to report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting, or directing staff to place the item on a future agenda. Staff, do we have any public comments on items not on the agenda?

I do not see any public comment requests, so no public comments.

Okay. Deferrals, removals from the calendar. Any items scheduled for hearing this evening for which deferral is being requested will be taken out of order to be heard first on a matter of deferral or removal. Staff will provide an update on the items for which deferral or removal is being requested. If you want to change any of the referral dates recommended or speak to the question of deferral or removal, these or any other items, you should do so at this time. Staff, do we have any deferrals?

No deferrals.

Excellent. All right, moving to the consent calendar. All right. Notice to the public, there will be no separate discussion of individual consent calendar items as they are considered to be routine and will be adopted by one motion. If a member of the commission requests debate, separate vote or recusal on a particular item, that item may be removed from the consent calendar by the chair and considered separately. The public may comment on the entire consent calendar and any items removed from the consent calendar by the chair. Staff will provide an update on the consent calendar. If you wish to speak on one of these items individually, please come to the podium at this time. Or... Are there maybe public speakers on items currently on the consent calendar? If yes, we will receive items from the consent calendar and move to public hearing to be heard in order. Commissioners, are there any items you would like to remove from the consent calendar?

Motion to approve the consent calendar. Second.

All right, well, I guess we will review and approve the consent calendar at this point. Commissioners, do we have any changes to the minutes? All right, then let's take a vote. Vice Chair Young. Yes. Luis, I'm sorry. Yes. Commissioner Arguello.

Yes.

I'm getting better at it. Commissioner Bondal.

Yes.

Commissioner Bickford. Commissioner Cowell. Commissioner Casey.

Yes.

Commissioner Escobar. Yes. Commissioner Nguyen. Commissioner Oliveira. Yes. And Commissioner Rosario.

Yes.

All right. We have three absentees. One, two, three, four. Oh, and nine yes.

Four, six, and nine yes.

That carries. OK.

Eight.

Eight. Eight.

There are 11 of us there.

There's 11.

Three absent. Oh, three absent. Thank you. Thank you. OK.

Note to myself, don't do math in public.

Okay. For the public hearing, generally the public hearing items are considered by the Planning Commission in the order in which they appear on the agenda. However, please be advised that the Commission may take items out of order to facilitate the agenda such as to accommodate significant public testimony or may defer decision on items to later agendas for public hearing time management purposes. okay first item on the agenda is pd25-020 and er25-212 project manager reena shah do we have a presentation yes thank you uh chair uh may i share

Thank you. Good evening, chair and commissioners. My name is Reena Shah, and I'm the project manager for this plan development permit project. The subject property is located on the west side of Cottle Road, approximately 150 feet south of Great Oaks Parkway and Cottle Road intersection at 5651 Cottle Road. The approximately 37,000 square foot vacant building is located within an existing commercial shopping center, the Old Orchard Town and Country, with shared driveways and surface parking lots. The site is bounded by Coral Road to the east, Great Oaks Parkway to the north, Makati Circle and Musto Avenue to the west, and Rochester Avenue to the south. The subject plan development permit is to allow modifications to an existing vacant approximately 37,000 square foot building and includes the following. Four new tenant spaces, an approximately 5,568 square foot of addition, demolition of 1,200 square foot floor, I think it's the loft, and modifications to the building facade. Changes to the on-site vehicle circulation, changes to the stormwater control plan, the off-sale of alcohol and a determination of public convenience or necessity for the grocery store, a new daycare preschool use and playground, and removal of 23 trees on an approximately 4.27 gross acre site. The existing commercial shopping center is surrounded by multifamily residential development to the west and south, commercial retail and restaurant use across Coral Road to the east, and commercial retail uses to the north. The existing commercial building will include approximately 25,000 square foot Sprouts grocery store in suite 3. The grocery store requests a type 20 ABC license, which authorizes the sale of beer and wine for off-sale premises and consumption during the store's operational hours daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The sales of the alcohol beverages would be incidental to the grocery store, representing less than 1% of the sales floor area, and will complement the full line of grocery items, including fresh produce and meat. The alcohol sales is highlighted in red on the floor plan shown on the screen. Based on the operations plan provided, the grocery store would have a new alcohol training program for all employees And security cameras would be strategically placed throughout the store's interior space, as well as on the exterior of the building. The commercial building will also include a 9,800 square foot Goddard daycare and preschool for up to 148 children in suite four. And we'll have approximately 11,000 square foot of playground area. The preschool daycare will operate from 6.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Special events may be held occasionally in the evenings and on weekends. The project was evaluated with respect to the general plan, zoning code, including required findings for the plan development permit, off sale of alcohol, determination of public convenience or necessity, city policies, and CEQA. The subject site is located within census tract 5120.29, based on the California ABC License Report and the police memo dated March 10, 2026. The number of off-sale locations authorized in this census tract is typically limited to three. The California ABC license report both showed that there are about four active off-sale licenses within the same census tract. And including the site's request for the grocery store off-sale, there will be a total of five off-sale licenses. The police memo also states that the project site is located within San Jose Police Y3, which has a high crime index. And because of the site's over-concentration of off-sale licenses and proximity to a future daycare center and existing residences within 150 feet, a determination of public convenience or necessity is required. The police department is, however, neutral to this property and of sale of alcohol type 20 ABC license at the subject site. The determination of public convenience or necessity cannot be made by the planning commission for the off sale of the type 20 license because the subject site has over concentration and is in high crime location, is within 500 feet of child day care and is adjacent to residential zone properties. Since the project does not meet these findings, city council has to evaluate if overriding public benefits exist. While the project is located within an over-concentrated census tract, it would not result in a grouping of more than four off-sale establishments within a thousand-foot radius of the site. The off-sale alcohol would be incidental to the grocery store sales, as stated before, and the subject property is located within a major shopping district along Coral Road. Some of the calls may be attributed to businesses in adjacent census tracts rather than existing of sale at the establishment within this subject site. Therefore, staff recommends that council determine that the project would benefit and would provide significant and overriding public benefit. Staff has not received any public comment on the proposed project. Staff recommends that the Planning Commission make a recommendation to Council to consider the exemption in accordance with CEQA and approve the planned development permit as per the staff report. This concludes staff's presentation. An applicant is here to make his presentation. Thank you. Derek, you may come forward through the chair. Yes, thank you.

Can I just see next slide? Oh, yeah, that works. Okay. Let me get you set up. Okay. Yeah, you just tell me when you want me to switch slides.

Okay. Thank you. Good evening, commissioners, chair, planning director, and vice chair. My name is Derek Larson, and I represent Dollinger Properties, the owner of the project that we've been speaking about. Irina did a great job presenting. It's a site that is just under five acres off Caudill Road. It's the old or prior orchard supply building that's vacant. The building is approximately 37,000 square feet. The left side of the building is the old lumber yard. And so it's actually currently walled off. And then the right side of the property is the nursery. And so we're going to repurpose this vacant building for new retail use. Next slide. And we're We're presenting the PD permit that has six items on it. One item is we're expanding the front of the buildings to accommodate Sprout's prototype floor plan, approximately 5,500 additional square feet, but we're demolishing a second floor in the shipping receiving area that's about 1,200 square feet, so the net add is roughly just over 4,000 square feet. Because we're... demolishing part of the lumber yard that was fenced off to create more parking. We're also requesting approval for site circulation at the shopping center, a stormwater revision to treat the areas that we're modifying, the approval of the Type 20 off-sale beer and wine ABC license, the approval of the use for our tenant, a Godard, to operate a daycare and preschool. That will have an outside playground. And then the removal of 23 trees. Many of these trees are trees that are along the wall of the lumber yard that we're going to be converting into a new parking area. Next slide. This is a vicinity map of the shopping center and where the property lines are for our property specifically. We own this shopping center jointly with La Jolla and I added some graphics there to the building to get an idea of how the building will be delineated between the suites. with the nursery being converted to outdoor playground for Goddard School, the new sprouts, and then there's approximately 5,500 square feet of retail space at the bottom that we don't have a tenant yet that will be built spec space for somebody in the future. Next slide. This is a slide with the existing floor plan of the building. And you can see a faint outline in front of that center unit that we referred to as suite three. There'll be sprouts where the expansion is. It expands the building roughly 5,500 square feet. And then to the left, on the left side of this site plan, you can see where the old lumber yard was with the wall that's gonna be demolished for parking. Next slide. This is some existing elevations. Looking at the top photo on the left is the prior lumber yard. And then to the right, you can see the prior nursery outdoor space. And the exterior facade is going to be renovated as well to match Sprout's prototype. Next slide. This slide is the proposed improvements to the site for the site circulation. To the left, you can see now the additional parking with the new retail area that will be where the lumber yard was, the Sprouts building that's pushed out a little bit for them, and then Goddard taking the right side of the building with the outdoor play area.

Next slide.

This slide has the proposed elevations for the front of the building. We have on the left side, suite one and two, which is the spec retail space. The middle is suite three, which will be the Sprouts Farmer's Market. And then the Goddard Preschool on the right. And just a note, the shell drawings, if you guys pull them, still show the existing nursery fence in place, but the fence will be replaced with a six foot fence that is depicted on the slide at the top, facing the front of the parking lot, and then it's a solid six foot fence on the right side, and it's buffered on the interior with landscape, but it's a lot more aesthetically pleasing for the shopping center over what's there existing. Next slide. An easier zoomed-in view of the new facade proposed for Suite 1 and 2. Next slide. And a zoomed-in view of Suite 4, which will be the Godard premise. Next slide. And we have the floor plan for the sprouts here. So we kind of flipped. Some of the sites have been in plan view. But this one is the entrance to the store is actually at the bottom of the slide. And then you walk into the store through the vestibule with the sales floor to the left, the deli meat area to the right. And then going straight to the back is where the loading dock is. Next slide. Same orientation entering into the Goddard space. They have their main daycare preschool area with the playground shown or depicted on the right broken up into three different separate areas for the children. Next slide. And that's it. Thank you.

Steph, do we have any public comment?

No public comments. Okay.

Commissioners?

Motion to approve.

Okay. We have a motion to approve and a second. Are there any other questions for the applicant or staff from commissioners? Thank you, Chair.

I just want to thank the applicant for keeping that parcel commercial. Thank you.

Great. Okay, all being said, let's go ahead and take a vote.

This is on a motion to approve the staff recommendation. Okay. Any chance to say that part?

Okay. So we will take a vote on the motion to approve the staff's recommendation. We will start with Vice Chair Young. Yes. Commissioner Arguello.

Yes.

Commissioner Bondell?

Yes.

Commissioner Bickford? Absent. Commissioner Cowell? Absent. Commissioner Casey?

Yes.

Commissioner Escobar?

Yes.

Commissioner Nguyen absent Commissioner Alvaro and Commissioner Rosario yes, all right, so we have myself a yes eight yes three absent so that passes great Moving to referrals from City Council boards Commission and other agencies staff are there any Any items?

Good evening. We do not have any items for referrals, but I'm happy to move straight into item 7, good and welfare. So a quick report from City Council. So yesterday the City Council approved the rezoning for 5891 Rue Ferrari. church that was considered by the planning commission and recommended for approval. Next week for the upcoming city council meeting on Tuesday, August 18th, that's a big one for our planning team. We have three items going before council. The most critical one for you guys to keep an eye on is the general plan for your review. Council will be considering planning commission and staff's recommendations at that meeting. And then we also have conforming rezoning at the IBM site at 650 Harry Road that will be considered, as well as an appeal of a director hearing approval for an eight-unit project on Kirtner Avenue. So those are the three items that will be going forward next week. I also wanted to just share out with folks who may be listening online or are present here in chambers, as well as for the commissioners, that next week on Wednesday, there is also going to be a community outreach meeting on data centers. That's scheduled for Wednesday, August 19th, and it'll be from 6 to 8 p.m. here at City Hall in the wing rooms. And that was also directed by City Council to the City Manager's Office to do some community outreach to community understand some of the concerns that are currently ongoing in the community on creating standards around data centers. No updates on subcommittee formation reports and outstanding business. In terms of the commission calendar, we are looking at moving into a hybrid meeting format, moving forward for planning commission. The city council approved yesterday the change. So that will be starting. We'll be testing that out at the next Planning Commission meeting on August 26th. And we will start noticing projects for the subsequent meetings in September onwards for that hybrid format.

Question.

When you talk about hybrid, are you talking about comments from the public? That is correct. And then, City Attorney, there was a recent bill that allowed commissions to also be able to be remote instead of just simply the standard noticing or emergency?

That was not part of the council direction, and that wasn't considered.

Is that a discretionary? Do cities opt into that? What bill is that? I couldn't tell you, but I'm happy to look it up for you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

All right, do we have any comments for public record?

No further comments. Commissioners?

Yeah, I have a question. I was watching the city council meeting yesterday and they briefly brought up boards and commission moving to quarterly. I believe that doesn't affect us, right? We're not going quarterly. I mean, I know that was the topic.

The Planning Commission is a charter commission, so your schedule and, you know, the nature of your reviews is typically set by the charter. So I'm not aware of any changes to the Planning Commission schedule.

Okay. And then the hybrid meeting, I just want to reiterate, so that just means people can call in and choose to make a public comment online and such, right?

That is correct.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Great. Then this meeting is adjourned.