Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress. So welcome to the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. This meeting is called to order. Margaret, could you please call the roll?

Yes, Madam Chair. Commissioner Alvarez. Here. Commissioner Sade. Here. Commissioner Salvamini.

Here.

Commissioner Summers.

Here.

Chair Rodby.

Here.

Commissioner Mercado has an excused absence this evening and Commissioner Haveman has resigned from the commission. Okay.

Thank you, Margaret. Now to the order of the agenda, do any of the commissioners want to change the order or are we good to go? Seeing none, we'll move to the meeting procedures. The City of San Rafael is committed for all to participate in our public meetings. I want to welcome everyone that are making the time this evening to participate. Margaret, can you tell us how the public comment will work this evening?

Thank you, Chair Rodney. Today's meeting or this evening's meeting is being recorded and streamed live to YouTube. Viewers can also watch directly through Zoom using the link on the agenda or by dialing 669-444-9171 and entering the meeting ID 826-8602-8480 pound. We are offering closed captioning for this evening's meeting on Zoom. If you are on the Zoom platform, please select live transcript on the Zoom screen to enable that feature. If you experience any technical difficulties, please email me at margaretcavenalynch at cityofsanrafel.org and I can see those in real time and I will do my best to help you along. In order to provide oral testimony, speakers must be present. Displayed on the podium is a timer to help you stay within your allotted time frame. You are invited, though not required, to introduce yourself and say what part of the city of Santa Fe that you reside in or if you reside outside the city. For future meetings, if you'd like to request accommodations under Americans with Disabilities Act to provide comment virtually, please submit your request to me at least 72 hours in advance.

Thank you, Margaret. Next on our agenda is oral communications for the public. Remarks on items not on the agenda are welcome at this time and may be on anything within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. You may have up to two minutes and please know that any remarks on the agenda item need to be heard at the time the item is discussed. Do we have anyone that would like to make public comment on a non-agenda item? I see none. So we will move to the consent calendar. We have two items this evening. That's the draft minutes of January 27. And I think, do we have them? And the other one was March 10. Do we have to consider, can we consider both those at the same time?

Through the chair, just for the sake of the records, I moved it into two separate motions, but if you prefer to consider them all under one motion, you certainly could. Okay.

Can I get a motion from one of the commissioners, please?

I'll have a motion to approve both sets of minutes.

Thank you. Do I have a second? I'll second.

Okay. Through the chair, I just want to confirm that this is a motion and a second to approve both the January 27th and the March 10th, 2026 minutes? Yes. Excellent. And Margaret, can you take the roll call, please? Yes, Madam Chair. Commissioner Alvarez? Yes. Commissioner Saade?

Yes.

Commissioner Salvamini?

Yes.

Commissioner Summers?

Yes.

Chair Rodby? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Okay.

So we have three action items this evening. A request to amend the development agreement for the Biomarin San Rafael campus to modify public access requirements and accelerate parking obligations in exchange for continued public benefits. Can we please have the staff report?

One minute, Madam Chair, while I set that up in our screen. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to introduce our planning consultant. This is Sean Kennings that will be presenting. He is our project planner for this evening's first item.

Good evening, Chair, members of the Commission. I'm Sean Kennings with LAK Associates. I'm a contract planner. I was also the planner on the 2020 development project that was approved that was the origin of this existing development agreement. So tonight is the First amendment to the development agreement request for the Biomarin Centerfell Corporate Center campus. Really quickly, I'll go through the overview of my presentation. Next slide. We'll go through the purpose of the hearing, the background, the description of the project, which is the request for the amendment, compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, analysis, public comment, and then the recommendation. Next slide. So the purpose of the Planning Commission hearing tonight is to receive the staff and the applicant's presentation, for the commission to ask questions of staff and the applicant team, to receive public comments, to review the proposed request, and to make a determination and consider the requested entitlements. Next slide. Very quickly, the summary of the project. In 2020, the city and Biomarin entered into a development agreement Ordinance 1982, permitting the phase development of the San Rafael Corporate Center and the 999 3rd Street property, which was to approve two large laboratory and R&D buildings, as well as the Eden Housing Vivillon senior housing and community project at the corner of Brooks and 3rd. As part of that development agreement, There was the continued requirement for public access to the Mahone Creek Park area, continued public access to conference facilities, and a new requirement for a temporary public parking at the 999 3rd Street surface parking lot. And it just should be noted that since 2020, BioMarin has completed over $16 million in infrastructure and public benefits, including soil remediation of that vacant parcel, the land donation to Vivillon Eden Housing, and traffic and pedestrian improvements. Next slide. I'm going to do my best to just call it the Third Street property because saying 999 Third Street gets. So the project is the Biomarin Center Federal Corporate Center project. The southeastern boundary is Mahone Creek. It extends over to Anderson and Lindaro where the surface parking lot, and then to the northwest corner where the Eden Housing Vivillon project is, and that's the old vacant PG&E facility that was remediated and is now just a vacant lot. This total site is 18.59 acres. It's in the downtown mixed-use zone of the general plan. IT CARRIES THE PD 1721 ZONING FOR THE CORPORATE CENTER AND THE T5N 5070 ZONING FOR THE THIRD STREET PARCEL. THE CORPORATE CENTER IS DEVELOPED WITH OFFICE, LABORATORY, PARKING LOTS, PARKING STRUCTURES, AND THEN THE THIRD STREET PARCEL IS JUST A VACANT LOT. NEXT SLIDE. BIOMARIN IS A MARIN COUNTY BUSINESS. IT WAS FOUNDED IN 1997. THE ORIGINAL CORPORATE CENTER WAS APPROVED UNDER PD 1721 FOR APPROXIMATELY 400,000 SQUARE FEET OF OFFICE SPACE WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY CALLED THE SANTERFEL CORPORATE CENTER AND THE ORIGINAL PROPONENT OF THE PROJECT WAS THE FAIR ISAAC COMPANY. ORIGINALLY IT HAD MULTIPLE TENANTS. BIOMARIN WAS ONE OF THOSE TENANTS THAT MOVED IN TO THE CORPORATE CENTER. or obtained about 400,000 square feet of that campus. They saw some of the development entitlements, built 791 Lincoln, built the parking structure next to Mahone Creek, and they also purchased the Third Street property from PG&E. Between 2015 and 2020, they worked on that Third Street project, resulting in the development agreement that's before you. today, ordinance 1982, with a 10-year vesting period. In 2023, the Eden Housing Vivillon project was completed at the corner of Brooks and 3rd. Next slide. In that development agreement carried a 10-year vesting period that carries rights through April 23rd, 2030. It included fee freeze development impact fees such as traffic impact fees, housing fees, infrastructure fees at the 2020 rates. IT INCLUDED NEW PUBLIC BENEFITS, INCLUDING SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENTS TO PEDESTRIAN VEHICLE CIRCULATION INFRASTRUCTURE, AS WELL AS COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS, AND INCLUDES THE PHASED MILESTONES FOR SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS. AND IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT BIOMARIN IS ONE OF THE LARGEST PRIVATE EMPLOYERS IN THE DOWNTOWN CENTERFIELD AREA. NEXT SLIDE. SO SINCE 2020, Biomarin has completed several of the requirements in the development agreement, including the soil remediation of the Third Street parcel, the donation of the whistle stop, the land to the whistle stop Eden Housing Project, contributions to traffic light synchronization, contributions to subtle services in downtown. a lease to whistle stop at 930 Tamalpais Avenue for their vehicles, and several pedestrian safety improvements along Lindaro and 3rd Street. Next slide. There are continuing public benefits required in the development agreement. That includes a retail space and a public plaza in the northeast research and development building on the Third Street parcel, as well as continued bike lane striping from Third Street to Anderson on Lindaro. And the continuing requirement for night and weekend parking on the western surface parking lot Evenings and weekends that's at Anderson and Lindaro and it should be noted in the staff report. I included surface lot and garage It's there's no public parking in the garage. That was never a requirement. That's my mistake. I just want to make that notice and it should be noted that one of the next milestones is that they have to do the Class 2 bike lane along Lindaro from 3rd Street to Anderson by April of this year, April 23rd of this year. So the request tonight, the first amendment to the development agreement is to remove the requirement for public access to the Mahone Creek Park. Originally part of the grounds of the corporate center was to allow the public from dawn to dusk Biomarin is asking to remove that due to the fact that they are now a single tenant, single owner of the corporate center, and they have requirements for security for their needs, and there have been some homeless activity along the park as well. They're asking for removal of the requirement for the conference facilities inside their buildings. Again, because they're single tenant, because they have lab and proprietary uses, And they just weren't seeing as much requirement or need for the public for those conference rooms. They want to remove that from the development agreement. And then lastly is the public parking requirement on the surface lot at Third Street, which the city no longer requires. As part of the request for the development agreement, staff reviews the general plan consistency. Staff has found that the project continues to be consistent with the general plan 2040, including focus on downtown, development incentives, bicycle and pedestrian access, and the overall form and character of the downtown.

Next slide.

As well, staff reviews the project for consistency with CEQA. Under CEQA guidelines section 15061B3, the general rule exemption, staff found that the project is exempt for further CEQA review because of the prior EIR that was processed in 2020. The proposed amendment is not modifying the overall benefits provided and would not result in any new or increased impacts. The amendment does not authorize any new development. does not change building envelopes, does not increase density or intensity, and has no physical impact on the environment. Staff noticed the project in accordance with Centerfell guidelines for noticing, and it should be noted that we did receive comments from the Toastmasters of Marin They sent a letter in February, and as you heard earlier before the meeting started, they've been trying to submit comments today, some of which may or may not have been received, but they would like to speak those into the public comment during the public comment period. So with that, staff is recommending approval of the development agreement. amendment the First Amendment staff recommends that the Commission adopt the draft resolution recommending that the City Council adopt an ordinance approving the First Amendment to the development agreement alternatively the Commission may recommend modifications or additional conditions recommend denial or require staff to make additional findings or continue the project for additional information With that, that is my presentation, if you have any questions.

Thank you, Sean. Do any of the commissioners have questions for staff? No? Okay, thanks. Okay, so we will be moving then to public comment. Excuse me. You have up to two minutes to provide testimony.

I'm sorry through the chair. I'm sorry. I believe the applicant is here this evening And I think they wanted to make a brief presentation as well.

Oh, I'm sorry. I I'm sorry I will out of order I Apologize can this applicant have a presentation?

Oh, thank you. Hello again. So I'm excited to be here tonight to see you all and also report that our company continues growing in San Rafael and we're investing in the San Rafael campus and expanding and bringing additional employees to the campus and super excited to hear your feedback and get this approval, which supports Biomarin's growth in San Rafael. As you know, Biomarin's continuous success creates jobs, wages, and public revenues directly benefiting the city and the greater Bay Area. We are investing heavily in our San Rafael campus to increase the number of employees that we have on campus. We remain committed to being a strong and collaborative community partner. This is reflected in ongoing support for organizations such as the Ritter Center and Homeward Bound, which provides essential services to a vulnerable population in Centerville. The company has partnered with Chamber of Commerce to launch a new program called Biomarin Dines Downtown, which encourages and supports employees to get engaged in the restaurants and support the economy of the downtown of San Rafael. In addition, Biomarin provides community grants, organizes volunteer activities, and has started a new commuter program to help decongest the traffic. The original requirements, as Sean mentions, were established in 1998 with the original development of the four buildings at the time multi-tenant site. Since then, Biomarin has purchased it and now is a single tenant on campus and a global headquarters for Biomarin, which significantly differs in security, access, and operational requirements of the campus. As a global company, Biomarin employees work across multiple time zones, Conference spaces are in use continuously to support international collaboration. And sometimes these meetings go many, many days in a row with a lot of materials that remain in the rooms, which limits the availability of the conference rooms for others. Additionally, demand for the conference space since even pre-pandemic had reduced quite a bit. And to be frank, since the pandemic, we've had only three requests for the conference center. So given these factors, we think that the original requirements no longer aligns with current operational realities and the actual community use of these spaces. We look forward to working collaboratively with you, the staff, and the council for outcomes that can both support the community and biomarines growth in San Rafael. And I'm here to answer any questions that come up. Thank you.

Does the commissioners have any questions for the applicant?

Do you perceive ever constructing buildings on the 3rd Street site? I know it's just been sitting. I mean, this is not related to the topic. I'm just curious if there's still plans to to construct or expand over there.

Well, it isn't, as I think staff mentioned in the staff reports, currently the investments are focused towards sending one of the existing buildings into a laboratory, 781. So as a result, we don't need the construction of the new lab building, which previously was in... Even though I personally love to see it built, but it's not within the next couple of years Let's say two to three years plan at this point because our focus is on 781 and then the vesting will expire though by then no, where's that?

Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you Okay, thank you

OK, now I'm going to open it up to public hearing. And each person has up to two minutes. And I understand also that you wanted to read a couple of the comments in. And that will also be subjected to the two minutes, please. You have three.

Through the chair. I'm sorry. Through the chair, if we could let them read the comments because they were emailed but not forwarded to you in a timely fashion so you could not have read them. Staff apologizes for that, but they I was speaking to the deputy director, and I think it's okay if we let people read their comments into the record this evening due to the low number of folks here.

I think that's fair. Thank you.

Fantastic, thank you. Folks, my name is Travis Woods, and I am the current president of the Toastmasters Club of Marin. So I'm here tonight to, first of all, introduce us, Toastmasters, a club that's been around since 1950 and met consistently since then, over those 75 years. Our mission is to empower folks individuals, community members with more effective communication skills and leadership skills. And we are open to everyone. In fact, our membership is made up of members that are from 22 on up into their, well, they're older. I'm sure they wouldn't want to be mentioned, but they're much older. So we cover a broad scope of people here in Marin. But I'm here tonight to tell you about and bring to your attention, along with some of my most distinguished Toastmasters as well, but I'm here to talk about public space and the need for public space for nonprofit organizations like our own. Marin, and especially San Rafael, have very limited options when it comes to hosting a non-profit club that meets weekly, almost 50 times a year, and we struggle to find an affordable space. Our budget is around $1200 a year, so we keep our dues low to ensure we have accessibility to this service, to the support that comes with it. Having the BioMarin space that we had prior to COVID was fantastic. It was there for many years and it provided our members with a safe professional space where we could practice speech craft and enhance our abilities. We've looked recently because we've outgrown our recent space for an affordable space and we've struggled to find that. There are requirements of cost that make it prohibitive. Tonight, I'm asking that the section 5.3, which is specifically pertaining to the conference space and making it available to nonprofit organizations, making it available to the community, be left in and that entitlement be preserved going forward. Because looking around, as we've done, there is very little space available in San Rafael to host meetings of this sort. I'd also like to close by inviting you to our Toastmasters meetings, which happen to be on Tuesday evenings. But in your off time, when you're looking to enhance your speech craft, find a community of supportive people who are there for you and invested in your learning. I invite you to be there. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Margaret, timer is not apparently working. Did I miss that?

No, we actually.

No, you're fine. It's just that we usually.

I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Because we lifted the restriction on the comments due to the email, that gentleman was one of the people who did email. But I'm sure that the Toastmasters folks and other folks here are going to be brief for their comments and effective. But we lifted the timer for their comments due to the emails not being forwarded to you. I wasn't aware of that.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm a member of Toastmasters. I joined a year ago. And I joined after college. I wanted to work on developing my skills in public speaking. And public speaking is one of the largest fears to people. So it's really important to have a space that's safe where people can practice and develop in their professional life. in a safe space that's a nonprofit organization. I joined with a friend after college. We were the youngest people in the club, but we were really excited to just talk to people. We ended up finding a community of people that were helping us through our careers, giving us advice, helping us improve ourselves, and it was really impactful to me. Before this club, I was super scared of public speaking and then I started volunteering more at work. I moderated two panels at different conferences and just being able to practice at Toastmasters, practicing my speeches before getting advice back was really impactful in my journey. I think it's really important to have a place that is lower cost or no cost, because it can create barriers for people to joining the club. When we have to raise our dues to pay for more expensive spaces, people won't be able to join as much. In the last year, I think our club has doubled in size, which has been really great. So there's definitely a need and a want for people to join this type of club. join a community like this and I think that it's really important that everyone has the opportunity to join a club that helps them to improve their skills in public speaking and all the benefits that come along with being a good public speaker. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Matt Taddy and I am the co-founder and CEO of West Hill Financial Advisors. We've been proudly rooted as a business here in downtown San Rafael since 1990. So I joined Toastmasters about four decades ago when I had a full head of hair. It was a game changer for me professionally, and it allowed me to embark on a life of service through Rotary, through the hospital board, through the food bank, and others. It worked so well, I stopped doing it about 30 years ago. Two years ago, I had the great fortune of joining Toastmasters 890. These people, people like Anna, inspire me. Watching Anna grow in a little over a year is the stuff of goosebumps. Our club, when I joined in 2024, we were just coming out of COVID, and we would have five, six, seven members a night. Now it's almost like standing room only, 15, 18, 20 people a night. We need a better space. We need a bigger space. Travis already talked about the diversity of our group by age, by race, by gender. I'm going to give you one story. Gentleman, our club, I think he joined just a little before I did, from Peru. English is a second language. and watching him grow every week, his speaking style, but also his confidence. And what he shared with us is Toastmasters brings him a sense of community here in the United States. Lastly, and this is for our friends at BioMarin. By the way, I was on the Capital Campaign Committee for Vivillon, and I salute BioMarin for their partnership with Vivillon. It's been very meaningful. Toastmasters International is 102 years old. It is truly international, 149 countries, over a quarter million members. And it's very accessible. As was already said, our dues are very low. Average club, I think, is about $10 a month. Lastly, and this is, I think, a win-win potentially for Biomarin, of the Fortune 500 companies, nearly 300 of them have a Toastmasters club embedded. This community room, that BioMarin has. Offering that space is a win for our club, it's a win for San Rafael, and I also think it's a potential win for BioMarin. Thank you. Might I share? This is from Michael Ardito, one of our longest tenured members. Two San Rafael Planning Commission members. Subject, Planning Commission regular meeting on April 14th, 2026. Agenda action item G, regarding case number plan 25132 for Biomarin San Rafael Campus Project description amendment summary. Comment, I'm concerned about Biomarin's request to cancel the decades long commitment and agreement to provide public access for conference facilities after business hours at the downtown campus. The narrative is false, that there's no longer a need to provide public meeting space in downtown San Rafael. As a member of Marin Toastmasters since 2014, we have used several venues for our weekly meeting. Some of the locations were not up to par for meetings and technical needs. We were using an ideal public meeting space at BioMarin circa 2017 until the pandemic shut down in March 2020 when our club was forced as others to meet online. Before the pandemic, there were about seven Toastmasters clubs in Marin. Only about two clubs in Marin have survived to meet in person. The lack of available meeting space at low or no cost is part of the reason for the demise of clubs. Toastmasters is a non-profit international organization that provides training in public speaking and leadership skills since 1924. Many clubs were growing in membership such as Marin Toastmasters 890 that was established in 1950. In early 2020, Marin Toastmasters 890 averaged about 24 attendees each week on Tuesday nights at Biomarin and a modern conference room with professional audio-visual training facilities. As a leading Marin corporation, BioMarin should exhibit good public relations and partner with community organizations. It would be mutually beneficial for the company and San Rafael. I urge the San Rafael Planning Commission to encourage BioMarin to continue its public conference facility provision. Thank you for your leadership and service to San Rafael and Marin. Sincerely, Michael Ardito. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening to the honorable members of the San Rafael City Council. My name is Elizabeth Postavit, and I will really try to be brief. I'm going to go a different direction with you. About two and a half years ago, I did something which some people do. I got divorced. And when someone gets divorced, there's all kinds of changes. You need to look for a new house. You need to find a new way to live. Sometimes you need a new social group. You have another financial situation. And a friend said, I think you would really benefit to join Toastmasters because there are people who are trying to make their lives better. There are people who are trying to make the world a better place to have more of a contribution. It would be a good place. And I thought, that sounds good. I was living at Santa Cruz at the time. I joined the group, and it was really, really valuable. What I didn't know was shortly after joining, I had a catastrophic injury. All of the discs in my lower back were torn in a catastrophic event at work. You're like, oh, where is this going? Don't worry, I'm not going to make you cry. But I also had many other injuries, and then I had to leave my job as well. Talk about massive life changes. And the reason I mention this is not to feel pity for me, but having a group like Toastmasters that was so supportive and so believed in the value of my voice and my identity and my place in the world, it was one of the things that really helped me get through a very hard time. And I was just one person. There were other people down in Santa Cruz who were coming to this country from all different types of immigrant status, all different types of powerfulness or powerlessness, if you will, and all of them trying to have more of a voice in the world. And I think in today's world, where there's a lot going on, more people who have a powerful voice and a contribution are worthwhile. I have since come and joined this group here in Marin, and they have been extraordinarily welcoming to me. Unbelievably so. A lovely group. I wish it were not on Tuesday nights so we could all have you there. So if there's any way that this free open space could be used one hour a week for this group, I think it would be a benefit to your community. More people can join and more people could have their voices heard. I thank you for listening to me. I wish you a lovely evening.

Cheers. Let's see.

Let's bring it down.

Does this work? Yes. Good evening. Planning Commission members. My name is Joanne Yowitz. I live in San Rafael. I have been a member of Toastmasters 890, that's our club number, since 2018. Before joining our club, I did a little Toastmasters shopping. I visited three Toastmasters clubs in San Rafael. When I came to the meeting in Biomarin in their conference room, I knew right away, this is the right fit for me. As you may or may not know, I don't know if you've seen the conference room, it's Class A space. It has everything. It's very professional, top caliber, only to be matched by the members who are part of the club. As you know, we were there for several years until COVID came. We had to leave. In about 2022, when people were returning to in-person meetings, we started calling BioMarin, trying to find out when can we return. I hate to be so blunt, But our efforts were completely stonewalled. They were very creative in stonewalling us. We'd call and say, we want to return to the space. OK, give me your name. I'll pass the message on. We said, well, who's the person in charge? I can't give you that information. Nobody called us back. This endured for months, repeated efforts. As other members have testified, we realized this is not a slam dunk to return to the place that we loved. So we started looking for other places. And as the members have mentioned, we've looked at easily more than 40 places on site. And because of a variety of things that we needed, budget being one of them that's very limited, none of them fit the bill. It's been a very frustrating experience because we felt that we loved the Biomarin space. We really enjoyed the security card. He sort of became part of our group. And the resistance continued. Also, quite candidly, we started to approach people at the San Rafael Planning Department. I could give you a whole slew of email chains communicating with them. Finally, almost by accident, we were referred to Sean. We were referred to other people. You should talk to this person. You should talk to this person. By coincidence, it was probably in January, we met with Sean, who was very cordial, and he said, oh, I guess you're calling because of the city council meeting in February. We didn't even know about it. That was the original time that this agenda was going to occur. Sean was very forthcoming about the situation. We exchanged information, and here we are. We cannot afford hundreds of dollars per week to rent the Biomarin space. That's what they're saying it costs. It was free to us before in compliance with the original agreement years ago. I strongly believe as a Toastmaster, as a former city planner, in fact, in Boston, as a small business owner in San Rafael that BioMarin's offering reinstatement of the conference room to nonprofits such as our own is a win-win-win. It's a win for people like myself, an individual member of Toastmasters 890, and some of our colleagues. The other colleagues are not here because they're conducting a regular Tuesday meeting. It allows me to continue to grow as a public speaker and foster this sense of community with my club and camaraderie. It's unbelievably strong. Every single person who is part of our club, I am 100% convinced there's no way I would have known them without Toastmasters. I'm going to be a little bit more direct than Travis. The age ranges of the club from 23 years old to 76. I'm in the 75 crowd. It's special. I look forward to it every Tuesday I'm in town. The second win is to our club as its entirety. As you know, we were founded 75 years ago in continual operation. That means we are less than one half of 1% of all of the Toastmasters clubs in the world who can claim 75 years of continual operation. That's big. We're proud of it. And BioMarin's graciousness to allow us to return will continue that our club is going to persevere and thrive. We're not going to have to worry about the affordability of a space. Finally, and very importantly, it's a win for BioMarin. The name of the company. BioMarin. San Rafael's in Marin. All of our members come from Marin. The BioMarin conference room is a huge asset to us as a nonprofit. It represents goodwill that BioMarin is giving back to the community. I urge all of you to vote to continue the conference room be available under the current arrangement. Thank you for your attention. Thank you.

I'm going to be reading a statement now from Mayura Satter. She was a BioMarin staff member and a Toastmasters 890 Club member from 2019 to 2021. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the Toastmasters 890 Club. I experienced a welcoming environment that fosters genuine commitment to member growth. I am truly impressed by the professionalism, structured execution, and positive culture of this Toastmasters club. Each meeting is thoughtfully organized, conducted with a Toastmasters structure, and diligently executed. The feedback provided is constructive, balanced, and delivered with respect, allowing members to improve with clarity and confidence. It is evident that the club prioritizes not only communication skills, but also leadership development and personal growth. I gained confidence in public speaking, improved my articulation, learnt organizing skills, became conscious of time management, drew inspiration from my fellow members, witnessed the positive impacts of a well-managed club, and so much more. I've learned tremendously from my fellow members, who were very meticulous and strived to be better every meeting. I continue to incorporate these learnings in my personal and professional life. This is more than a public speaking forum. It is a community that builds confidence and inspires continuous improvement. I will always be grateful to have been part of such an outstanding and empowering organization. And that was Mayura Sauter, the Biomarin staff member and Toastmasters 890 member from 2019 to 2021. Thank you.

This is written by Daniel Altman. Daniel was our president last year. Daniel lives in Los Angeles. He attends our meetings virtually once a month. He comes up to Marin to be in person. He's a pretty special guy. He is listening on Zoom or YouTube. Dear San Rafael City Planning Commission, I am the former president of Marin Toastmasters Club 890. I joined the club in 2022 after practicing a competition speech in front of its members. Last year, I along with several other members worked to return to BioMarin where our club held meetings prior to COVID. One of our members recently stated that Biomarin is petitioning or asking to change its agreement with the city of San Rafael, where it had to provide public space to non-profit organizations such as ours. My understanding is that Biomarin claims that there are no public requests to use its facilities. This claim is inaccurate. As president of Marin Toastmasters in 2025, we provided all the required documentation that BioMarin requested. BioMarin employees or subcontractors actively made it difficult to find the person in charge of scheduling. They did not provide phone numbers or emails, which made it harder to submit a request to use the facility. When one of our members was finally able to speak with a BioMarin employee or independent contractor, we submitted our documents. When we finally submitted documents that would have allowed us to return to the facility, Chris Williams with BioMarin stated that we would have to pay the following charges on a per use basis to use the room. One, a two hour minimum HVAC usage fee of $55 an hour, number two, a two-hour security services fee of $35 an hour. Number three, a four-hour minimum janitorial service for $35 an hour. Number four, a two-hour maintenance service a minimum of $75 an hour. Number five, additional carpet cleaning as deemed necessary by Biomarin management for $75. Also bear in mind our meetings last one hour. Prior to COVID, Biomarin did not charge any of these fees. BioMarin is asking a nonprofit organization that has been in the community for the past 75 years to pay $545 per use. This is untenable. More importantly, the decision to charge this amount benefits BioMarin, first, At prices this high, BioMarin knows that no public organization will use the room due to cost. Secondly, it allows BioMarin to come to the Planning Commission and ask for a change in use which BioMarin created to renege on its contract with San Rafael. Page 14 of resolution 14776, section two states, quote, no user fee shall be charged for nonprofit groups use of the conference slash meeting room space except deposit fees required for cleanup and security. We have never been charged those fees. Deposits are one-time charges between parties where each party agrees to fulfill its obligations. BioMarin made an agreement and now doesn't want to fulfill it. It wants you to forget about the promises it made when it built its facility. As a long-serving organization within the community, we simply ask that the contract that BioMarin signed with the city is enforced. Sincerely, Daniel Altman, Past President, Toastmasters Club 890. Thank you for your attention. Thank you.

Is there any other comments?

No?

Okay. Thank you. So now I will close the public hearing and take the project back to the commission for discussion. Commissioners, do you have any comments you'd like to make?

No, I don't have comments.

I do have questions of staff in light maybe more specifically that last letter that was written that discusses the agreements that were made specifically in the original agreement and then how that relates to what we're being asked to remove tonight. So I don't know if, I didn't see much discussion in our materials prior to hearing that tonight. So I don't know if the staff can comment on that.

Specific to the requirements for the conference room?

Well, specific to the requirement for providing the public space in the agreement that was the agreement that was made, perhaps at the dollar levels that were discussed. And then if that's in force, is that in force under the development agreement that we're being asked to remove this from? Because I'm seeing different numbers of ordinances here. So they just brought up specific agreements that aren't part of our package. a disadvantage understanding what it said. So maybe you have that information, I don't know.

So I do believe that the development agreement itself has been amended several times. The original 1998 agreement was where the conference room was brought forward based on the fact that it was sort of a multi-tenant corporate center, if you will. In 2020, when BioMarin PROCESS THE APPLICATION FOR THE THIRD STREET PARCEL. THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WAS AMENDED AGAIN. NEW REQUIREMENTS, PUBLIC BENEFITS WERE ADDED AS PART OF THAT PROJECT. THEY HAVE SATISFIED MOST OF THOSE. SO SPECIFIC TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM, I THINK THE REQUEST COMING FROM BIOMARIN IS THAT, AGAIN, THEY ARE NOW A SINGULAR TENANT OF THE CORPORATE CENTER. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN SECURITY. laboratory needs, proprietary needs, staffing, specific to the requirements that are in there for whether or not it's free to nonprofits or paid. I don't have the inner workings of those interactions. I would recommend that you ask the applicant about about those specifics.

That's okay. And the original development agreement going all the way back to what was it? 98. 98. Was that with Biomaran? But I know it was a multi-tenant. It wasn't even owned by them at the time. It was with whoever developed the property. That's right. It was the Fair Isaac Corporation. Correct. I'm trying to connect the dots, but I think I got it.

They were the original project sponsor, but they never were a tenant. And so after it was developed or partially developed, it was rented out by like a brokerage firm. So there were multiple tenants.

Yeah, I remember lots of tenants in there. Okay, thank you. Appreciate it.

A question. When did Biomarin become a single tenant in that whole lineup of dates?

Again, I think you need to ask the applicant specifically, but my understanding it's been the last five or six years, probably after COVID when There were some other rental lease agreements when they first sort of acquired the whole thing in the, like, 2015, 2018. And then as those leases expired, and then their staffing needs and their, you know, their own operation needs, I think now they have, it's one tenant.

Toastmasters is a great organization, so I understand that. With Biomarin, though, you do the nature of what you do. I'm sure that there's a lot of proprietary information and concerns over that information being leaked. Is there any room at all to work with Toastmasters, or is it just not possible because of your security concerns?

I fell asleep. Oh, are you okay? I should have taken classes from Toastmasters in public speaking. They will clap for me. We truly, Biomerend, acknowledges the need for community gatherings and importance of it. And we acknowledge Toastmasters' importance, for sure, as far as a community service. As I mentioned before, the global nature of our work the information and intellectual property that we have to deal with. We need those conference rooms, and our meetings are over a period of time, so materials are left in the rooms. And additionally, Biomarin inherited this commitment, which since then, the conference rooms were updated. And as part of that update, some of the charges that were being managed by a third party come across. So that answers your question? And we became a single tenant since I believe it was 2022, post-pandemic for sure, that everybody reduced their office space.

Thank you. Is staff aware of any meeting spaces that are open to the nonprofits that would be?

I'm not aware.

I can't say anything specifically other than our community centers that are available, but it sounds like Toastmasters has been inquiring themselves and they shared their perspective.

And the community centers are not workable for you?

I have personally talked to and visited at least four of them in San Rafael, and they're either not available, period, do not have parking that can accommodate us, they have already major parking issues, or their space is not big enough for our group, or it doesn't have enough chairs, tables, whatever, those logistics. and it's not affordable, one or all of those. We really tried to make it work. And it just, what can you do?

How large is the chapter?

Right now, we have 26 paid members.

So each meeting is like 26, 20, something like that?

Yeah, 18 to 22.

Okay.

Thank you. And we also, you know, having the whiteboards, having the AVs for PowerPoint presentations, chairs, desks, bathrooms, heat and air conditioning. I'm not kidding. The place we were in for a while, no heat. Bring your coat and your heater in January. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, I have, as I said, I think... Biomarin has been a good community contributor, have honored most of their commitments. So it's really a dilemma because I understand the priority information and the security around what you do versus the needs. So we have to make a decision. Thank you.

Yeah, I can start. So I'll just echo what Madam Chair has said about the dilemma. There's definitely a tension between the needs of Biomarin and having that security at the, you know, like perimeter and within the building, understanding I've worked for global companies. You do leave stuff, you know, maybe not as secure as Biomarin. So I understand that need, but I definitely see the need and the success of Toastmasters 890 as like a really important part of the community. I do think that I'm seeing the timeline. So from my understanding, the development agreement wasn't made with, the original agreement wasn't made with Biomarin nor the 2020. So if they were sole tenants in 2022 this is now like a legacy property that they've inherited the development agreement for as well as um post pandemic because i think there's a real difference between running a business post pandemic and pre-pandemic as well as like your your club i think that there's definitely a difference between you know a need to have in-person public spaces and i think THROUGHOUT MY TIME IN THE PLANNING COMMISSION, I'VE DEFINITELY BEEN AN ADVOCATE FOR MAINTAINING THE COMMITMENTS TOWARDS PUBLIC SPACES AND TRYING TO GET THEM FROM BEING WAIVERS AND CONCESSIONS AND ACTUALLY HAVING THEM BE PART OF THE PROJECT. I'M DEFINITELY CHALLENGED, BUT I THINK, YOU KNOW, My heart says, I want you guys both to win, but not win, but to have both of your needs met. But I think that because Biomarin has the up-to-date facilities and has all the things that you would need to have a modern speaking space, it then becomes kind of, in a way, their responsibility because that's the way you've run the meetings to date. And unfortunately, I think that because that agreement wasn't made and because the needs have changed, I think that Biomarin does need to continue to meet the resolution where we're having the perimeter at the south be closed off and the parking as well as the conference space.

Commissioner Summers, do you have any comments?

Yeah, just from a commentary standpoint, this is a difficult one because I can see the need of your group and that you've been used to this space or you were in the past. I'm part of a group that meets every Thursday morning for like 40 people, so I'm fully aware of trying to find space that works for large groups and isn't too expensive and whatnot. And I think that, yeah, this is a state-of-the-art space that I'm sure you're salivating to be there, because it meets all your needs. And then I also can see the other side, that things have changed. And their needs as a corporation. And no one can fault Biomarinf and everything they've done for this community. I think that's one thing. I don't think they should be vilified. I can see that they've got this need for the space. the things that they've done for this community and the things they've donated, things they did for Vivillon and everything. I mean, they're to be applauded for what they've done for San Rafael and we want to be a partner with them as well. So I'm struggling with this myself. You know, I find it hard to believe we can't find other public space or the community center or the city doesn't actually provide this as it should. I mean, excuse me.

The community center does have rooms. I know my daughter is in one tomorrow and yesterday.

Yeah, so I mean the city should be providing this as far as I'm concerned. We're non-profits, but you know. I know there's a lot that city has on their plate. So I'm involved in another thing in Corte Madera right now through their community center. They're building out a whole intergenerational center where the old Andy's Market used to be. I'd be on the horn with the city manager right there saying, hey, I know you guys are going to be done with your construction at the end of the fall. We'd love to reserve some time there.

Yeah, I believe we've reached out.

Yeah, so that's common. I know, because the permit drawings are done. So, like, again, I'm wrestling with it.

I echo what a lot of the commissioners have already stated about, you know, I do understand Biomarin's need for security, I think, above almost everything else. I mean, if you have to go into any facility, there's a lot of security that is needed. needs to be imposed in something, the level of BioMarin. So I do understand where they try and limit public access. I would think that the JCC or YMCA or the Marin YMCA, that there would be meeting rooms. But I also echo what Stuart had just said about I wish there were more places for groups to meet, and I think that's above our pay grade about what is available, but that there definitely is a need for, and I'm sure the Toastmasters 890 is not the only group that is suffering in this situation, obviously for the lack of spaces to meet. It's a dilemma that seems to fit a lot of groups, but I do understand. Sadly, I understand both sides of the coin, and it's a hard one to decide on.

Hello, everyone. I want to be sure, and I echo all commissioners. I understand both needs and I have two recommendations. One for Toastmasters is to join other organizations and find a way that how they can you all together find these places and work together to find more space for this meeting. And the second recommendation is for the staff. If you can provide a list or public spaces THEY PROBABLY CAN ALLOW TO THEM. AND I UNDERSTAND THAT THE PANDEMIC CHANGED EVERYTHING. THAT IS WHY AS WELL I'M SUPPORT THE NEEDS OF BIO MARINE. SO I JUST TRYING TO MAKE A BALANCE.

YEAH. I WOULD ASK PERHAPS MAYBE YOU AND BIO MARINE CAN talk offline and see if you can come to some type of arrangement. So anyway, do we have a motion on this?

Okay, I'll go ahead and do the honors. I'll go ahead and, oh, can I have that sheet? Because it has the resolution number on it, right? I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution recommending to the city council that we adopt resolution 2601 to recommend to the city council that they approve the amended development agreements as listed within the resolution. Thank you, Commissioner. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Margaret, can you call the roll, please?

Certainly, Madam Chair. Just to be clear about the motion and the second, the commission is moving the recommendation of staff in the draft resolution and exhibits. Is that a Perfect, I wanna make sure we put that on the record.

Yeah, my motion would be to include the exhibits as well.

Perfect, thank you so much. Commissioner Alvarez? Yes. Commissioner Salvamini?

Yes.

Commissioner Summers?

Yes.

Commissioner Saade?

Yes.

Chair Rodby? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

folks.

Sorry, we're all being chatty and we should be doing the meeting.

We all just feel like that was a tough one, I think. The rest of it's fun.

Yeah. It's the Margaret show. It's a lot more straightforward, I'll say that.

It is much more straightforward. That was the definition of a dilemma I thought the commission- That was a tough one. That was a tough one, completely. I appreciate the work you do for the city.

I think there's places that they can hopefully find.

And one of the speakers was my financial planner, so my money's gone as of tonight. You're on record.

Okay. Okay, so our let's move on The second item is an amendment to the general plan safety and resilience Element to add the city's local hazard mitigation plans and enable the city to meet the goals of assembly bill 2140 staff report, please

Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Planning Commission. I am Margaret Cavanaugh Lynch, your planning manager. I do have Greg Miner here with me. And on our remote screens, and we can bring in right after the presentation on the general plan amendment, we do have one of the deputy directors of the fire department, Quinn Gardner, on standby. She couldn't be here in person, but she heard the request that you wanted to hear from her directly, so she is here. I HAVE A PRESENTATION FOR YOU TONIGHT, AND I REALLY JUST PUT IT TOGETHER IN CASE YOU WANTED TO WORDSMITH ANYTHING, AND SO WE HAVE THE GENERAL PLAN, AND AS YOU SAW, THAT'S ONE STAFF REPORT, AND THEN WE HAVE THE ZONING CODE AMENDMENTS, WHICH IS A SEPARATE STAFF REPORT FOR BOOK KEEPING, FOR RECORD KEEPING. THAT'S WHY WE'RE DIVIDING IT. I'M GOING TO PRESENT THE GENERAL PLAN LANGUAGE, WHICH, AS YOU KNOW, WAS VERY BRIEF, AND THEN I'M GOING TO SHARE SCREEN AND ALLOW QUINN TO JOIN US, IF THAT PLEASES THE COMMISSION. DOES THAT WORK AS A FORMAT FOR YOU THIS EVENING? And that way you won't only hear from my voice. Excellent. What I won't do is read all the words on the screen. I promise. Okay. The general plan amendment. Is Literally what you see before you the first half of this paragraph is in italics Which means that's currently there. We just included it for context the Second part of this is the new language as the Commission recalls from our March meeting We changed our local hazard mitigation plans. We updated it. We have good new information on in order to stay in line for this grant, we needed to update our general plan to reflect that new information and add that link in. So that is the overview of the general plan amendment. Do you have any questions about the words before I bring in the expert?

I have one small question, and I'm sure this is just the way it got wordsmith. Did FEMA approve it in 2025 or 2026? I'm going to let Quinn answer that for you. We're showing the date. They might have approved it before we adopted it in 2024.

I'm happy to check that. I believe that there was a number of rounds of review from federal, state, and local happened as we went through, but I'm going to ask Quinn to address that.

I don't want to be calling anyone out or anything. I just want to make sure that we adopt the Correct language.

Absolutely. Yeah So I'm going to stop sharing and for a moment and bring in our subject expert If I can do that

Good evening. Can you hear me?

Yes. I haven't managed to get your video up, but we can all hear you. Thank you, Quinn.

Okay, great. Thanks for letting me join you from home so I could get my kiddos to bed. Yeah, I don't see an option to share video, so I don't know if you'd have to promote me or something, but if this is okay with everybody. Quinn Gardner, Deputy Director of Emergency Management for San Rafael. And the piece before you with 2140 is a kind of cow yes semantics. We thought for a while we were gonna find a way to not have to reopen the general plan to do this, but in consultation with the county and everybody out in the state, it does have to get opened to formally update the link essentially. And what this really does is in the event of a declared disaster, whether it's a presidential declaration

Sorry, Quinn, there was a small technical item. We lost you at declaration. At declaration. Is that okay? Perfect. Welcome back.

Yes, thank you. So in the event of a declaration, there's a cost share component for any disaster damages, which can include everything from staff overtime costs to physical repairs to emergency protective measures. So traditionally, and I say that very loosely, because obviously there's a lot of changes happening within FEMA at the federal level, but on a typical disaster declaration that has a presidential declaration, the feds might reimburse up to 75% of some of the costs that we incur. We're fortunate in California that because of the California Disaster Assistance Act, they actually cover about another 18%. And what they're doing with 2140 is essentially saying they will cover that remaining 6%. So on a million-dollar disaster, that's $60,000. And in some cases, obviously on anything absolutely devastating, our damages would be well into the tens if not hundreds of millions potentially. And so this is really just an opportunity to increase our reimbursement. by adopting the local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element of the general plan. And just one kind of nuances Marin last cycle, so about eight years ago, moved to rather than having each jurisdiction have their own hazard mitigation plan to have a multi jurisdictional local hazard mitigation plan. So if those acronyms get confusing as to why it's MJ LHMP versus LHMP, we do basically have a county wide local hazard mitigation plan, which has been favorably looked at as well. So this is a little bit of a checkbox to meet this requirement, but in doing so, we're potentially able to receive an additional 6% reimbursement on a state-declared disaster. And that's the end goal, is just to make sure that we're recovering as much funds as we could in the event that that happened. And I think the question came up around adoption. And I feel like I'm caught off a little off guard. I think we took it to council in, we were in 24, but I think we got final FEMA approval in 25. And I will double check that because I know, and Margaret, I know you have that resolution. So there are multiple stages to the process. And because it's a multi jurisdictional, the state and the federal government was kind of waiting for them to get everybody's adoption. So there are some time delays and differences between when we locally adopted first when it was approved at Cal OES and at FEMA. So there are a couple different dates in that. But we are within our five year cycle update to do this. And then by putting in this link, the hope is we would not need to necessarily update it when the plan was updated again, and that the link could be updated, and that that would kind of be a living piece to keep us in compliance with AB 2140. Happy to take any questions.

Yeah, I don't have any questions besides making sure that date is right. And thank you, Quinn, for all the hard work you've been doing with staff at the Planning Commission. It sounds like you guys are working well together, and it's good to know that we will be able to survive a disaster, hopefully, financially at least.

I appreciate all Margaret and the team's work on this.

Do any of the other commissioners have any questions?

No.

OK. Can I get a motion, please?

Oh, my goodness. She put me on the spot. Okay, I move that we Recommend or we approve we don't just recommend to the council we approve right actually through the cherry the Commission recommends to the council and the council approves gotcha Okay, I move that we recommend approval to the council of the resolution number 26 That amends the San Rafael Municipal Code title 14 division 1 general provisions chapter 1403 definition section

Through the chair? I'm sorry.

This is everything. That's item two. Yeah. You handed me the wrong one.

No, I didn't. That's 01. I think I had the other one.

Thank you.

I apologize.

I can read, so you know. I never had any doubt, Commissioner Summers.

Oh, my lord. OK. Take two. Take two. Move that we recommend to the council of the approval of resolution 2601 that the City Council adopts an amendment to the safety and resilience element of the general plan to continue in Assembly bill AB 2140 and find that this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under CEQA guidelines section 1537 a and 1506 1b I second

Margaret, can you call the roll, please? And I apologize for the confusion, my fault.

Commissioner Alvarez? Yes. Commissioner Salvamini?

Yes.

Commissioner Summers?

Yes.

Commissioner Saude? Yes. Chair Rodby? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Staff understands and will double check the date on the FEMA approval and ensure that it goes to the council with that date verified.

Thank you all. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Quinn.

So thank you. That passes. We now move to the last item on the agenda, and that is Is this final amendment to Title 14?

I lost track, I'm sorry.

Okay. So now the final action item is amendment to Title 14 of the San Rafael Municipal Code in order to add clarifying language to simplify existing zoning regulations. Proposed modifications include new and modified definitions as well as changes to the appeals chapter. Staff report, please. Okay.

Good evening again, Madam Chair. Trying to move my... There we go. Okay. So, as the Commission must recall, back on March 10th, we had a study session on approximately nine definitions, I believe, depending how you count them, and new appeal language. What I have done in case anyone has any specific questions on any of the words is I have each definition here for your pleasure. I will not at time of this evening read these to you. I know that you are very familiar with them. I can tell you that as an overall review of them, the goal of all the zoning code amendments that are becoming before the commission on their way to council is to bring the zoning code closer to how people typically speak. So we're trying to, when it's a business term, we're trying to make it a business friendly term so someone who's trying to run that business can find themselves in the definitions. We added some definitions to, for example, brew pub to get in line with the state definition of brew pub so they don't have to there's no risk of them being approved through Senator San Rafael and then running into an ABC conflict. We do try to avoid that at staff level anyway, but the point of raising the definitions is to make language clearer, make it more plain spoken. We did a lot of appreciatively minutiae, but details on what side of the lot are you talking about? Is it the front? Is it the rear? Is it the street side? So I appreciate your patience reading through this, but the point of that is we have folks who come all the time to the counter and they say, I have a fence. And I think it's on my side yard, but I was told it's on my front yard. So we added language to help define those terms. And then we added additional language to, if it's not clear for any reason, the director can make a determination. And just a little opportunity to add common sense on something that we have an opportunity to do so

so that we can help people improve their properties whenever it meets the common good as well.

So that's the goal of all the definitions. I'll stop there. Is there any, oh and I will say, The definition of kiosk, which came before you in the study session, we were trying to make that work in a way. It's a very antiquated term. We just stopped bringing it forward. We're going to come back with mobile food trucks. And we're also going to use definitions that are in our mobile food vending ordinance, which was recently passed. So we kept trying to twist it into something that we could update in the near term. It just got too odd. So we struck that. That's dropped. But the rest of the definitions are here. If anyone had any questions about the definitions, they were all in your reports. But I'm happy to go over any that you want.

So I do have a quick question, just being in the food industry and I know that it's come up before. I knew what happened at United Markets years ago. They had a pop-up tent that they had on their outdoor barbecue. But once they secured it down because it kept flying away, it became a permanent structure. So they had to get zoning for that because they made that overhang a permanent structure. It kind of ties in with kiosks because if you think about like a shopping mall, if somebody's selling a hot dog vendor, is that a kiosk or is that a pub or what is that? So I don't think that taking kiosk out is necessarily a great option just for the food side.

but could it be considered non-permanent in that way? Because that's crazy, the whole barbecue thing. Yeah, but once they secured...

Once they secured the overhang to cover the barbecue, it became a permanent structure.

Did they construct it?

No. It was actually just securing? It was bolted into the ground.

Oh, was it bolted into the ground permanently?

To keep it from... Yeah.

But like the one in downtown, they have it up only on like certain days of the week. And is that... That's not the one, right? You can't like unbolt it after you do the barbecue, right? Through the chair.

I just want to understand. That is exactly the reason and many other similar ones. We left the definition of kiosk as is. So we didn't make anything a grandparented use and kind of orphan it. And then we're going to come back with, it's not the kiosk, it's the wrong word, right? Let's start there.

You're working on it.

Yeah. So, and we have a mobile food vending ordinance that staff, including Deputy Director Minor, worked on. And that actually opens up this conversation and makes it much more, much more straightforward than the business that you mentioned. I wasn't here at the time, so I can't speak to the details, but I should have been clearer. We let the definition stand. because we're going to scrape it completely and come back with a more comprehensive definition and direction that will help. And to be clear, there's food trucks. There's outdoor food in that condition, which is a second thing. And then there's outdoor seating, which could be a third thing. So I don't mean to say we're going to come back and address particularly barbecues in front of standing brick and mortar businesses. But we couldn't make the kiosk definition Even in the short term, we couldn't modify it in a way to make anybody more certain of their process. It was best to leave it be and come back with a better answer than what we had.

Great. That's a perfect answer.

Are there any other questions?

I think I missed the study session on this. I'm just on the lot definitions. We just have too many lot definitions. I'm a design professional. I have enough time trying to follow this. Reverse corner lot we've always had. It made sense to me. Now we have this new key lot. I've never seen that before. So I'm just wondering what the impetus was for coming up with something like a key lot. Why can't that just be considered an interior lot? I don't understand the need for it.

I'm glad you asked, Commissioner Summers. So pulling it up to key lot, It's an interior lot, the front of which adjoins the side property of a corner lot. So it's different than a reverse corner lot, and I think I cut and paste the drawing here.

What's the difference between it and an interior lot? It's on a corner.

Look at the figure.

No, the key lot's not on a corner. The key lot's the interior lot next to the corner.

It has two backyards abutting it instead of one. On the side yard, I think. That's what the definition is.

What's the effect of the actual key lot on the key lot itself?

It's really not within my reach at this point in the evening to explain all the implications that the homeowners or renters would be going through trying to get a fence on a key lot versus a corner lot versus a reverse corner lot. We have had, it is very standard in cities all throughout Northern California to add all these definitions and what it does is it makes it It brings a lot more common sense to where you can have your fence, where you can have your deck, where you can have other amenities in your backyard that without these definitions we'd have to be like, well, it's sort of kind of like X. And now we're starting to make people frustrated because they're trying to do something very simple to enjoy their yard and we can't find the right words to help them. So if no one comes to us with a through lot or a key lot, we won't miss not using this definition, but this is just to give us additional language for the times in which we need it.

I'm just looking for a real life situation. So this key lot is one that's adjacent to a reverse corner lot. So that reverse corner lot, its rear yard could be up against the side yard, up against this key lot. So much like we restrict setbacks in that reverse corner, if you're just following me here, I'm thinking perhaps the intent was on this reverse corner lot that they can't treat that portion that's adjacent to the key lot as a side yard, essentially boxing this poor key lot person in. Is the intent to protect a little bit the person who owns the key lot? I'm just, I'm looking for the intent.

The intent is to have the right kind of language to describe the lot so we are applying the right setbacks and particularly applying the right fence heights. So that's why all of these definitions.

Yeah, like you can. I'd love to know more specifics about it. I'm not, like I said, I might have missed the memo on the study session if this group's already gone through this at length or not.

I asked a lot of questions, so.

Yeah, so are you happy? Thank you. The other design professional gets it, then I'm good. Is there any?

Mr. Alvarez, did you have a question?

Yes, I have a question. So I appreciate all the work that you're doing to make more clear and easy for applicants and community to the process in terms of concepts and terms. But I'm just curious if this is aligned to other planning labels used to make sure that there is no confusion between them because probably when we name something to make clear probably in other labor and other documents or in other labor like county, state or other labor they name differently just to make sure that there is no confusion or I'm just curious on how did you go through, describe all of these other concepts?

It is true that the City of San Rafael has its own zoning code and our jurisdictional boundaries are the city limits. There's dozens of definitions I want to bring to the commission and the planning division staff was very eager to bring a number of things forward for your consideration. These were just definitions that wouldn't change anything else in the zoning code. Either we could refine them to make them make more sense, or we reference the term that actually wasn't in the definition section, and you can imagine how frustrating that can be for somebody at the counter trying to follow the rules and do the right thing, and the topic's not defined. So as we go forward with our amendments, I will tell you, okay, we're adding a definition, and this affects the use chart, because it's a defined term in the use chart, so now we're going to modify the use chart. and we're going to talk about any development standards or criterion that will be impacted by that definition as well. That is all coming, but for these definitions, why this list is so short is this was, they could be changed and nothing else got impacted or caused a situation where somebody was in the middle of doing something and the definitions are going to change.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions?

When's the next round of these coming? Sorry. Stay tuned.

So I had a small question I didn't see last time. On page 7, that would be for the definition of new, oh, no, no, yeah, not definition, sorry, under new appeal 14.28. We'll get to the appeal. Okay.

Yeah, because I know there's more there. Okay.

Okay. Okay, we're not asking questions about all of it.

Just the definitions for now, but I'm happy to talk about appeals right after this. Got it. Thank you. Please proceed.

Okay.

If anybody wants me to read the definition of yard, street side, I'm here for you, but I also know the hour and how I would feel if I were in your shoes. So, getting to the appeals definition. Again, I have all of the appeal sections here. One thing I want to bring up is there was a very controversial part of the appeal section that was in a study session that both you And Commissioner Mercado were like, I'm not sure that's good. We struck it. After a lot of discussions with the city attorney's office, we were trying to make something more straightforward. And in fact, we were making things more convoluted. So that's gone. So that is no longer part of the text. So just to touch on that. The overarching issue here is some wordsmithing. But we moved the appeal to, so here we make it clear that If someone appeals, everything stops. We just tried to put that in better language. So you can't, if someone appeals your use permit for a restaurant with a beer and wine, the action is stayed. They can't get their building permit. They can't get their business license. We just wanted to make it, this is really for the business owner to be like, okay, I can't do anything until that appeal is reckoned with. We added some language for ministerial determinations, which we're gonna see more of. in the future. We added calls for review. So this is a brand new thing. The point of this is, especially with the state timelines on housing projects, we have a very limited time to move a project to action. So a member of the city council may call for review a decision of the director or the planning commission within the appeal period, they can just pull it up and take action on it. So lots of cities have this. We didn't have this option before. And this is mostly, I don't expect to see this used very often, but if the city is in danger of crossing a timeline and being in a position for litigation, the council can just take it and take an action. So I know they appreciate all of your hard work, but this is kind of a relief valve. Trying to, the other thing is it's really important to see is the, we've changed it, so how one can appeal. You can come to their counter. You know, just, again, all of this is to help people that they're an accountant, they're a nurse, they wake up one day, they don't like a project, they want to appeal it. You can come to our counter. You can do this. Here is the fee sheet. It's absolutely way too dry for someone to read without asking questions. But maybe if they wanted to look it up, they could know the steps, where before it was much more vague and not what we wanted to be able to communicate with our community. Also, now you have 10 calendar days. We had a different time period. Honestly, professional staff wasn't sure if the date of the action was the night the commission acted or the next morning. So now we know. It's 10 calendar days from the date of the action. You have to file by 4 p.m. It's, again, this is the kind of ingredient list that is specific enough that you can actually bake your cake. You know what I'm saying? It's the specificity that's been added in. That's what we were trying to do. And if you remember, I would be really sad if you do, but if you remember, If it was a subdivision act, it had 15 days of an appeal. And if it was an entitlement, it was 10 days. And it just felt like not very friendly for humans to try to determine how it is they could take an action in our democracy. We wanted to clean that up.

Can I make a question about the timeline? Sure. I've had this argument once at the county. This is why I ask. When is the first day of the 10th day? And I have had a discussion, discourse with a planning department about that. There should almost be Some sort of an example, if the date of the action was on the 10th, is the 10th day one or is the 11th day one?

The date of the action. In Municipal Code, we don't typically write examples.

I'll just say that. There's a formality thing. How could language be crafted that makes it?

I'm wide open on hearing from you. We say date of action and the action. Approved a project not recommended, but you approved a project tonight tonight is the date of your action. So tonight is day one Yes, okay That makes sense to me. Yes, so that's that's what the language said and if you have any recommendations But if someone came in on that eleventh day thinking it was the tenth day They're gonna be upset.

They're gonna go wait. There's there's this is the tenth day, you know, so I can see it's still confusing and I don't know if there's a clear way to put it and

It's a challenge. I think it's in plain language. It is definitely what many cities use as the terminology. I think it would be up to staff to actually just add a public meeting.

Maybe there's language we could state at a meeting when we approve something that says when we're discussing appeals, because oftentimes when we take an action, we'll discuss the appeal period. We could actually just make it clear, hey,

Certainly could add that.

You know what I've seen in a lot of decisions, and maybe this could be actually written into the motions, is like at the county, they will say that an appeal must be received by this date and this time. It's actually in the decision.

I'm happy to add.

Then it's clear to the public, oh, I have to appeal by this exact time. They're not sitting there with a calendar counting days. Right. It's in the decision, and an appeal must be received by X time on X date.

So we simply added a second sentence saying that the first date first date is the date of action I'm just saying I've been in the receiving end of this confusion in the past sure and it's it's

Any additional wordsmithing that the Commission would like to include in their motion, assuming if you choose to make a motion to recommend to the City Council these terms, feel free to add additional languages that you think would be helpful and the Council will consider that. It's... There's a danger of getting more obtuse, too. The more words you add, the more verbose people get. Absolutely. It's only important on the ninth and a half day. I'm happy to add to the staff reports. We could have something on. Any interested party may appeal if this language is adopted by the council.

I think in practice, if it's in the staff reports, that covers the basis really well.

Yeah, I can bring that back.

I don't know if you put it in the ordinance that says, like, you know, you could put it in the ordinance, I suppose, that says the final date of appeal will be in the staff report. But that makes it more convoluted again, like you said.

Right and we're putting this for codifying this language in perpetuity or until we come back to do it again That's why you'll see like the fee in the master fee sheet you want to reference documents that change and staff reports change I guess in practice if that information showed up in staff reports that solves that yeah, I think I agree with you I think like it's part of just best practices throughout the city

And that way there's no confusion. Cause I was going back on the forces for like five minutes, this one for five minutes, same thing. And I think we were making it, I read it this weekend and I was like, okay, we're kind of just making it more simple. But I, I agree. There's going to be some people that want to deliver it at 4 PM or like when the doors are closing and they'll always be those people, you know, like we can't, you know what I'm saying? We're trying to write language to avoid those situations, but those over at Fish and Short like to write.

This is a problem everywhere. It almost becomes a little bit interpretive.

I kind of echo what Stuart just said regarding the, I don't think that the way it's written is bad, but I think that if we, anytime we make a decision, we can state that an appeal has to be done by a certain date. Like this is the date that is done. And if we know that there's a holiday, that we know that there's going to be an additional day, whatever that date may be, just to maybe concrete that date. And this way there's no confusion. But I don't think that this is... Ambiguous, I think this could be fine.

And in addition to at the end event, I mean this just worked to my advantage I had a project at the county that a bunch of neighbors appealed at the end. They came in a day late The planters looked at him and said Through the chair.

I'm happy to From time to time the staff provides a some written language to rely on. I'm happy to add on a development project into the the suggested script We should be reading the appeal language probably. I think our city attorney would be happier after a development project if we did read it. And then we could say, if this is recommended from the commission, adopted by the council, and all the time passes, it becomes code, we could have the Energy Party may appeal this action within 10 business days by all those words up there, which would be October 10th. I think that's the way to go. Right, so that the chair would have something to, because no one wants to do math at 10 o'clock at night and figure out what those 10 days are either, but when we're getting ready for these reports, so not codifying it, but we can add it in ways that we can reference it during, when we're talking about the appeal language. That's the best way to handle it. Sorry. It's, I can't tell you how, like I said, professional planning staff was like, hold on, so. What if it has, you know, there was so, if then, there were so many issues about how it was worded before, and we're glad to make it clearer. And as you all know, too, it has to be legally defendable, too, because of, so it has to be as bright line as it can be, and then we can make it as user-friendly as we want to be. So we're happy to do both. All right.

Any other comments? Is she done? I interrupted her.

I just had one small question on, oh, not on this one, on 080. Okay. I just had, the last sentence reads, well, it's only one sentence, so the last part of the sentence, following a denial of an appeal, any matter that is substantially the same shall not be considered by the same body within one year unless the denial is made without prejudice. Shouldn't we assume that it was made without, I guess, maybe that's like a term that, I'm maybe not reading this right at all, but I'm like, shouldn't we assume that it's made without prejudice?

That is, that's current language. Okay. And it's, so most of the time, when a project is, so say the zoning administrator made an action, it was appealed to the planning commission. The planning commission would hear the appeal, we'd hold public comment, you would discuss it amongst yourselves, you would take an action. That is 99% of the time they're done and that is the legal process available to them, that's the steps. Any decision of the commission can be appealed to council, so they do have one more step in that example. The unless a denial is made without prejudice is this terminology that allows the body hearing the appeal to say we're going to deny this or we're going to uphold the appeal, but we're doing it without prejudice, which would allow someone to come back. Make like there's it's I don't think I've ever seen it in my 30-year career that someone came back But it allows the decision body to be like I see where you were going. I think there's something missing It won't be a housing project because that will be a whole other timeline but if somebody was appealing a new bar next to their house and They were like they forgot to tell they didn't bring in the right information of the right receipts to make their point to you You could continue it or you can deny without prejudice which allows them to come back. Again, it's a long-standing legal relief valve. I've not seen it used. It would not be used.

I figured it was something like that. I just thought I'd ask the question. That was my only question.

Any other questions? I see no one waiting for public comment. Were there any final thoughts or should we go forward with the motion?

Alrighty. So I am, I propose that we vote for the resolution of the San Rafael Planning Commission recommending that the City Council amend San Rafael Municipal Code Title 14, Division 1, General Provisions, Chapter 14.03, Definitions, Section 14.03.030, Definitions, as well as Division V, Administrative, Regulations Chapter 14.28, Sections 14.28.010-14.28.080 and find that this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA under CEQA Guidelines Section 15061B3. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you.

Margaret, could you take the roll call, please?

Yes, Madam Chair. Commissioner Alvarez? Yes. Commissioner Salvamini? Yes. Commissioner Summers? Yes. Commissioner Sade? Yes. Chair Rodby? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. And you make the city attorney very happy when you read all the code sections and subsections. I just want to thank you. Again, everything we do has to be legally defensible, and that's why we get so down in the weeds. So thanks for coming with us. This concludes the staff report.

Thank you, Margaret. Next, we'll director's report.

Sure, Greg Minor again, Community Economic Development Department. I just want to highlight an upcoming training opportunity for planning commissioners across Marin County jurisdictions. The County of Marin has been trying to coordinate a training for all planning commissioners and they're seeking feedback on two proposed dates. The training, as I understand it, would be like a general training for serving on a public commission as well as specific to land use and new state housing laws since they apply across the state. They're not unique to San Rafael. Their proposed dates are May 27th and June 1st. The time would be between 2 and 8 p.m., but dinner would be provided. I presume it's going to be at the Board of Supervisors at the county's Civic Center facility. And Margaret sent out a link to vote on the dates. I don't know if folks just have a sense of whether May 27th or June 1st work better for either, for any of you, or if folks are interested.

I voted on both, and I think it said that more of the votes were coming in for June. One of them had way more votes than the other.

I voted, and it looked like there were a lot of votes. That's good. I voted for both.

Yeah, and I'm open on both dates.

Are folks interested in attending? Oh, yeah. Okay, good to know.

It'll be a party.

Okay, if we have any, yeah, you have folks you can commiserate with, learn from, so hopefully it'll be a good experience.

If Curtis Havel's there, then it'll be a good time.

I JUST WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT AT THE END OF THE MEETING TO SAY STAFF HAS THOROUGHLY ENJOYED WORKING WITH COMMISSIONER HAVEMAN AND HE WILL BE SORELY MISSED ON THE PLANNING COMMISSION AND I WANTED TO GIVE A MINUTE OR A WINDOW FOR ANY OF THE COMMISSIONERS IF THEY WANTED TO SAY SOMETHING ON THE COMMISSION'S BEHALF. I'm not sure that he's listening live, but he very well may have listened to the tape, and I may email him if it's something that he needs to hear. But I believe he has a lot of other things he has to tend to. He has some things that come up on his schedule. But he's been a great commissioner, and we will miss his expertise.

Yeah, I totally agree. It's been a pleasure working with John, and I wish him well.

Absolutely. Going to miss him.

I only get to work with him a short time. Great gentleman. I really liked working with him. So good luck to you, John.

It was great to be part of this commission planning with him. So I really appreciate all the work that he did.

I think we'll miss having an economist on the commission. And John was so well at articulating these points. So I think his his spot and his voice will be missed.

Which district is he? Because we're all by district, right? No. Some of us? I'm not. I'm at large. But I didn't know if he was...

I believe they are going to do a recruitment within the district.

I'm just wondering which part of town that is.

I did have a question. There was a discussion about adding a planning commissioner with a landscaping background, and I have somebody interested who's a landscape architect. Does work. That's really. Oh, yeah. Does work. And he's also. Really exciting. He's also in the branch of the American Indian. So he brings a different insight altogether. So.

Please have him contact our city clerk.

Okay. We'll do. We'd love a landscape. That'd be great to have. Yes. Great.

Yes, I know. I want to say also quickly upcoming hearings. I believe the next hearing Regularly scheduled we are 555 Northgate. I'm looking at mr. Minor I believe that's I believe so tentatively, but I believe it's true The next Planning Commission meeting will have a development project which is 555 Northgate Is that the one that the

Which site is that?

It's on the north end of town. It's really literally adjacent to, in proximity with the Northgate Mall. It's 200 units.

Yeah, it's the one across the street on the Sheraton side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. We know the site. Perfect.

And so that's coming up. And again, unless I believe the notices went out, and I believe that's our next hearing. And the hearing after that, I will be back with more zoning code excitement for all of you. And I appreciate your patience on this. So those are the things we see coming up in the near term.

Do we have a date for the next? What is our next planning commission date?

So I'm happy to pull that up. We do have a standing meeting of, I want to say, so it's second and fourth of Tuesdays of the month. I sometimes move dates in my head, so I wanted to look. Watch me count 10 days from the appeal. It's not pretty. So the next meeting would be April 28th, and then the next meeting after that would be May 12th.

Thank you. Can your resident design professionals who have the zoning code so near and dear to our heart get a little preview privately or is there a way we could chat about, see what's coming in case we have comment?

I am going to be extending lunch invitations to Commissioner Summers and Commissioner Saade and anyone else who would like to tell me, sit down with me before we start drafting and point out parts of the code that have caused pain so that we can bring it forward.

I'm in.

Okay, so do we have any commissioners that have communications they wish to disclose? Nope. OK. Then I call the meeting closed at 8.