Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

One, two.

In progress.

Good evening. Welcome to the 06/24/2025 meeting of the Planning Commission call to order. Take a roll call, please.

Commissioner Haven? Here. Commissioner Rodby? Here. Commissioner Sade? Here. Commissioner Summers?

Here.

Chair Mercado? Present.

K. Now the order of the agenda. Are there any commissioners that would like to request changes to the order of the agenda? Don't see any. Great. Next, we'll move to the meeting procedures. City of San Rafael remains committed for all to participate in our public meetings. I want to welcome all that are making the time this evening to participate. Margaret, if you could please tell the public how public comment works tonight.

Thank you, chair Mercado. Tonight's meeting is being recorded and streamed live through YouTube. Viewers can also watch directly through Zoom using the link on the agenda or by dialing (669) 444-9171 and entering in the meeting ID, 83651049034Pound. We are offering closed captioning for this evening's meeting on Zoom. Select the live transcript button on Zoom to enable the that feature.

And if you experience any technical difficulties, please email me at margaret.kavanaugh-lynch@cityofsanrafel.org. In order to provide oral testimony, speakers must be present. Displayed on the podium is a timer to help you stay within the allotted time frame. You are invited, though not required, to introduce yourself and say what part of San Rafael you reside in or if you live outside the city. If you'd like to request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide public comment virtually, please submit your request to me at the planning manager's office seventy two hours in advance of the meeting, again, at Margaret.Kavanaugh-Lynch@cityofSanRafael.org for consideration.

Thank you. K. Next, we'll move to oral communications from the public. These are for remarks on nonagenda items are welcome at this time. They can be anything within the subject matter jurisdiction of the planning commission. Please know that remarks on the agenda items will be heard at the time when the item is discussed. So these are for items that are not tonight, which will be the Mira Flores Avenue. This is for anything else.

Speak into this.

Yeah. You could into the mic. Yeah.

So my name is Penny Rossini, and I am a longtime resident of San Rafael. And I I'm coming to your commission meeting, and perhaps you're not the the the the body that I need to address. I did forward an email to several city of San Rafael. I don't know if we call them employees or but I guess I could read I'm I guess I'm not the only one who's very concerned about the level of development that's happening in San Rafael and in the way that it's happening. And so if it's alright, I'll read my my email that I sent.

Sorry to be so nervous. I'm writing as a concerned longtime resident of San Rafael, and I'll cut to the chase. What is going on with all of these monstrous buildings? And why even have project submittals if there are no parameters on height, parking, or environmental impact or the ability of any of us any of us to simply say no. I said there needs to be a balance between growth and insanity.

As I see it, and I am not alone because I I talk to a lot of my neighbors, other other parents, other families, The traffic is only going to get much, much worse. It shouldn't take thirty minutes to drive from Bristol Park to San Rafael High School ever, and yet that already happens. And we will be stuck, frighteningly stuck, if there is a fire and we all need to flee. As it stands, all it takes is one tiny hiccup on second or third or a stalled car on the Richmond Bridge, and we are all down to a crawl or a complete stop. Biking is not an an option for many of us, and despite a lot of work, a lot of really good work on various downtown streets, biking around town is a risky proposition.

Our streets cannot be made wider, our freeway cannot be made wider, The train runs through town, but where can it even take us on such a limited schedule? Any my my second point is any sense of community and identity here in San Rafael is going to be stomped on by massive generic architecture. People choose to live here because it's not a crowded city. They live here because it has history and character. They live here because they can look out and actually see hills from the sidewalks and the streets.

If you could your time is up. If you could

Okay.

Thank you.

Can I can I Yeah?

Just try to wrap it up again. Okay. Please.

I I'm fully supportive of more development, and I I want to house the unhoused. I want to solve that problem, but I don't think that the method of what's happening is is going to be the answer. I understand that things change, and I think that a smart approach considers all viewpoints, including a lot of the homeowners who pay their fair share of taxes. I regularly choose to shop and eat local. If I think it can support downtown businesses, I have rooted for San Rafael, but I fear that San Rafael is going to become unrecognizable for a lot of people, including its own planners.

I grew up in Roanert Park, and someone at some point apparently never thought to include a downtown in that city's plan, and it has had real consequences. And I think the type of building going on here now is going to have real consequences too and not necessarily the good kind.

Thank you so much.

For your time.

Thank you for the comment.

Can I ask a couple of questions?

No. It's just public comments. If you submitted the emails, that's the best you can do. Since this is not an item on the agenda, we really don't discuss it or deliberate it tonight.

Okay. Something as simple as how you guys are connected to the the city council.

Yeah. What I would say is maybe submit an email to the staff team, and they can walk you through the whole process of, like, the different committees and the commissions, and you can kinda understand the maze of who to get through. So I would maybe coordinate with Margaret and send her the email.

Okay. Yeah. Alright. You're Margaret? Okay. Thank you, Margaret.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other public comment for items on the agenda? Okay. Thank you again for coming up. So we'll move on now to consent calendar. Two items on the consent calendar this evening, draft planning commission minutes for May 27 and June 10. Do you have any edits or changes? And if not, then someone can make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll make a motion to approve both minutes.

As Commissioner Haven, I'll second that motion.

Okay. We have a motion from commissioner Sadi in the last second, so go ahead. We'll take a roll call.

Yes, sir. Commissioner Haven? Aye. Commissioner Rodney? Aye. Commissioner Sadi? Aye. Commissioner Summers? Aye. Chair Mercado?

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Great. Thank you. K. Next, we'll go to action items. So there's one action item this evening.

It's for

major environmental and design review permit with an exception to specified hillside development standards and a variance for a new attached elevated deck and detached parking deck with associated access pathways and landscaping located at 38 Miraflores Avenue. If we're ready to go ahead, we'll take the staff report or if we need to take a minute.

Yes. Thank you.

We're good? Yes.

Okay. Good evening, commissioners. Renee Nick Gneig, associate planner, here today to discuss the project at 38 Mira Flores Avenue. The purpose of this hearing is to review a proposed project for a new detached parking deck at the front and side property lines and a new attached open deck at the rear of the residence. Included in the project is also landscaping and access ways related to the two new decks.

The two requested entitlements are a major environmental and design review with the with the hillside exception as well as a variance. It is recommended that the planning commission convene a public hearing, discuss the staff report, testimony, and ask questions of the staff and applicant as needed, and and adopt the resolution recommending to the city council approval of a major environmental and design review permit with an exception to specified hillside development standards and variants. We do have the applicant and the owner here tonight as well. I'll briefly review the site and setting in the project. This address is 38 Mira Flores Avenue.

It's in the Gerstle Park neighborhood. The property side is approximately 5,000 square feet and has an average slope of a little over 58%. This is a site plan of the proposed project. It did not include an existing site plan. In this proposed site plan, you can see the the primary residence, which is in the bottom right corner, is existing. That footprint is not changing. There is an existing detached deck and an existing front deck that will be demolished. These are the two new structures proposed. The, excuse me, bottom left, which is the project, northwest, a new parking deck. You'll see right abutting the property lines and then a detached rear deck as well.

This is the elevation from the north interior side, an elevation of the rear. And this is the west elevation, which is the front at which would what how it will be seen, from Mira Flores Avenue. And I'll just if you don't mind going back one. What I didn't note in the setting was that this property sits between two streets as opposed to having another residence at the rear side. So, from the view here, the the top is Mira Flores Avenue.

The bottom the bottom bottom property line is Miramar Avenue. So the project is visible from a public right of way at both the front and the rear. And this would be the the view from Miraflores. The project itself requires both a major environmental design review and a hillside exception and a variance as it does not meet all of the development standards for both the R 5 zoning district, underlying zoning district, and the hillside residential design guidelines. I've included I am happy to go over these in more detail.

There are more details in the staff report. This is minimized to have it on the screen, of the items that it is meeting and not meeting. So in I'll and the there's two different pieces of the project. There's the detached parking deck and then the rear deck. The detached parking deck is going to have a zero front and side setback. The attached deck will meet the setbacks appropriately. Neither structure will be exceeding the overall height limit. The lot coverage will actually not be exceeded, and the parking the the project will provide two additional parking spaces where now there are none designated for the property. For the hillside standards, there are, force three standards that the project will not meet. Natural state being the first.

The per the code, 83% of the property would be required to be retained in its natural state, which for our definition is no development, no structures, but this project will only leave 51% of the natural state. The gross building square footage will be exceeded by approx about about 15 feet, which is not much, but does still go over that maximum allowed for hillside properties. This property is within a 100 vertical feet of a ridgeline, which per the code does not allow additional development. This is already a developed property. There's an existing residence there.

It's approximately a 100 years old, I believe, more. The new development proposed does not does not, excuse me, further obstruct the view of the to or from the ridgeline the way that the items are situated. And this, the property is currently does not have parking, but I did wanna also note that in the hillside development standards, actually, four parking spaces would be required for the street. Would it if it were to be a new residence, none exist, and this project will provide two. So the, the planning commission has following options, adopt the resolution recommending approval to the city council, adopt the resolution with modifications, changes, or additional conditions of approval, continue the application to allow the applicant to address any of the commission's comments or concerns, or deny the proposed project and direct staff to return with a revised resolution of denial.

I'm that was a brief overview, so I'm happy to answer any additional questions. We also have the applicant slash architect and the owner here tonight to speak on the project.

Great. Thank you. Alright. We'll bring it back. Anybody have any questions for the staff team?

Not yet? K. Okay. So we will then open this up for the public hearing component. So if the applicant team wishes to come on up and provide anything, right now is your chance.

Thank you, Renee, for the, introduction and the detailed information, and good evening, commissioners. My name is Yuzhuno from spacecraft architect, and I'm pleased to be here as the architect for the proposed project. I'm here to walk you through why we consider the construction of two car parking deck and an elevated rear deck. And site landscaping improvements in the way we proposed.

Yeah. Wait. There goes. There's gonna be the light. Yeah.

So this is the this is the 38 Mira Floris Avenue. There's a a roadway, and it's uphill towards the ridge here. Next. This property 38 Mira Floris Avenue, unfortunately, has been neglected for decades. This led to unsafe and unhealthy living conditions, degrading the overall quality of the streetscape.

We've actually already started an interior renovation to make the home more habitable under building permit B2212Dash129. Our current interior renovation is addressing the existing house's habitability. However, during the process, we identified three critical site specific issues that our proposed additions aim to resolve. So lack of street parking, unusable and unsafe outdoor space, erosion risks, and lack of vegetation on a steep site was were the three key issues that we would like to resolve to aim enhancing safety, usability, and neighborhood harmony. Next one, please.

The first and perhaps the most significant issue is the chronic traffic congestion and safety concerns on Miraflores Avenue. Next. As many of you know, Mira Floris Avenue is a very narrow 15 foot wide street. This limited width combined with a lack of on-site parking at 38 creates significant headaches for residents and can even impact emergency vehicle access. As you can see, this is the project, property.

There's no on-site parking, so street parking has to be used, and this street is Mira Forest Avenue. That's only 15 feet wide. San Rafael Municipal Code 1412030F actually requires two on-site parking spaces for single family residences on streets less than 26 feet wide. Currently, 38 Mira Flores Avenue has no designated off street parking, and the street is only 15 foot wide. This means cars often end up parked on the street, making the street even tighter, unsafe, especially given our neighborhood's steep terrain and presence of families, including elderly and children.

We've observed that on-site parking solution, next, please, whether docks or garages are prevalent on Mira Floris Avenue. Next, please. Currently, 38 Mira Flores is the only home on the block without off street parking, forcing residents and visitors to congest a narrow roadway. This is both unsafe and unsustainable, especially for families with children, elderly residents, and even for emergency access for fire truck truck and so on. Our neighbors, as shown in these photos, have successfully implemented similar structures.

This demonstrates, the existing neighboring, parking structure that we can observe from the street Miraforest Avenue. Next, please. We've actually therefore, our proposal includes a new two car detached parking deck at the front of the property. This is the existing site plan that Renee explained. Existing house stays at the same same footprint, and then we are just proposing re replacing these two decks that are not in use at the moment with a a more useful and safe decks.

And we've carefully chosen the Northwest corner, which is here, of the site for the parking deck, proposing zero setback on the front yard in order to minimize impact on the existing site. We have explored many ideas, but the Northwest corner is the only feasible location. As you can see in this existing site plan, the existing house and the entrance stair already occupy the frontage of the property at Miraflores Avenue. Next, please. The steep terrain access makes access from Miramar Avenue.

This is Miramar Avenue and then steep hill, and then it leads leads to the mirror Mira Flores Avenue. So this steep terrain makes access from Miramar Avenue unviable, and it would require 20 feet high retaining wall like this red highlight shows. Therefore, it is the only visible location that minimizes impact on the existing natural grade and avoids extensive disruptive grading and the construction of almost a 20 foot high retaining wall. Next, please. This isn't just about convenience or a nice to have.

It's a critical safety enhancement that has been widely adopted as solutions for this community having this parking space on-site. We are also asking for zero setback on the side yard in order to accommodate the minimum code size 18 feet by 19 feet two car parking deck. Next, please. While a one car parking deck would comply with a three foot side yard setback, it would simply not be sufficient for the typical needs of a family in a four bedroom house of this size, especially given the challenges of a steep hillside location where reliable vehicle access is very difficult. This two car capacity is essential to accommodate the needs of a family residing in a hillside home, and two spaces are also required by code, as I mentioned earlier, fourteen twelve zero three zero f.

Furthermore, this approach is ubiquitous in the neighborhood as I share the photos of the neighborhood as evidenced by many existing parking structures with zero setbacks along the mirror mirror Floris Avenue. Next, please. Even though we try to minimize the footprint accommodate the 18 by 19 feet minimum code required the size for two car parking deck, due to the irregular shape of our site, this proposed parking deck is about 15 square foot beyond the maximum code allowed gross square foot build up on the site. This slight increase is a direct result of the site's unique geometry that is highlighted this orange area, optimizing the available space for safe and efficient, quote, compliant parking. Next, please.

Therefore, we respectfully ask for approval of conversion of this frontage of 38 Mira Flores Avenue from this condition, next, please, to this proposed condition with the parking deck. Next.

Oh, you can stay.

Sorry. Go back, please. Go back. Yeah. Sorry.

The park the parking deck itself is designed to be open to the air above, no cover roof or no enclosed walls, to really minimize its visual impact on the street and even allow for beautiful landscaping underneath by elevating the deck with the piers to improve the site itself. For set for fire safety, the side of right next to our neighbor's fence will have one hour rated firewall along the, right behind the neighboring fence. Next, please. The second major issue is the severe lack of safe and usable outdoor space at 38 Miraflores Avenue. In a COVID or post COVID world, we all know access to outdoor space is essential for health and well-being.

The property's rear yard is extremely steep. Given the steep slope of the rear yard, there is no usable outdoor area. The existing front and side decks are dilapidated and pose significant safety hazards due to rotten materials and unstable guardrails. And their remote location with poor connection to the house makes them impractical for daily use. In contrast, elevated decks are a defining characteristics of this hillside neighborhood as you can see these photos, providing essential outdoor living spaces while respecting the natural topography.

These photos here demonstrates how pervasive and successful these elevated decks are in providing functional outdoor areas within a steep hillside context in this community. Next, please. This also shows the other, neighborhoods, elevated deck looking up to the reach from the Miramar Avenue. Next, please. Our proposed elevated deck accessible from the 2nd Floor living space directly address this need.

Updating, improving the view when you see the property from the Miramar Avenue towards the ridgeline. Next, please. It's designed to minimize site impact by being elevated on piers, preserving the existing grade, and providing a safe, functional, and integrated outdoor space that aligns with the neighborhood's character. Next, please. This is the, living area that you can directly access to the rare deck that we are proposing.

Next, please. That's a, same elevation that Renee shared, how this will be elevated to minimize impact on the site. Next, please. Finally, the property currently suffers from a lack of vegetation as you saw in the backyard photo, making it inconsistent with the natural beauty of the surrounding hillside. Next, please.

And raising concerns about soil erosion and potential landslides, especially with increasing heavy rain events nowadays. Next, please. Our proposed landscaping plan along with the stormwater management plan introduces drought tolerant and fire resident resistant plants throughout the site, enhancing soil stability, aiding in stormwater control, and improving the aesthetic appeal. The elevated purple structures described above also avoid grading and maximize permeable surface on the site. Next, please.

Tall trees along Miramar Avenue will also preserve the ridgeline views and minimize the visible impact of the new structures, making the property a harmonious part of the natural setting. Okay. Two. Page 30. Next one.

One previous

30 ping. Yeah. There's a lot. Yeah. So

this is the current view that that when you approach the property from Miramar Avenue from south and then right at the property down at the Miramar Avenue and from the north. And we are expecting the view will be a lot more harmonious with the community, and it will help the ridgeline view to be improved. And then go back to '27, please. In conclusion, the Ramill residence project at 38 Mira Floris Avenue is a necessary intervention to address long standing safety, functionality, and neighborhood compatibility issues that have impacted this property and the street for decades. It's just more than, it's more than just an aesthetic upgrade.

The proposed parking deck is crucial for elevating traffic congestion and ensuring emergency vehicle access on Miraforest Avenue, while the elevated rear deck provides essential, safe, and usable outdoor space on a challenging hillside. Both addition, coupled with our proposed landscaping and stormwater management plan, are designed with minimal site impact, sensitivity, to the natural environment and compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. We have diligently worked to ensure our design meets the objectives of the hillside design guidelines, general plan two zero four zero, and improves public health and safety. Next, please. We also communicated, these are the landscape, vegetation type we are proposing.

Next, please. We also communicated with our neighbor to ensure our neighbors feel comfortable with our approach. Please refer to a letter of support from our neighbor at 44 Mira Flores Avenue who recognizes the community benefits of this project. 2016, the side point. Thank you.

The side point. Thank you. We respectfully request we respectfully request that the planning commissioner's approval for this vital project allowing us to transform 38 Mira Flores Avenue into a safe, functional, and harmonious home for its residents and a positive addition to this cherished neighborhood. Thank you. We are happy to answer any questions you may

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yeah. Maybe before you go, I'll bring it back to the commissioners. If there's any questions for the applicant team, we'll start on the side. Yes. Go ahead.

I just had one question. Yeah. I see that your neighbors are supporting the parking structure and rightfully so. But the retaining wall that one of your neighbors brought up as an issue, can you address that? The I didn't include the photo here. That is existing retaining walls that's parallel to the house that we don't plan to touch other than repair as needed, during construction if we see any hazard, but, those are actually not part of our proposal. Okay. But we will certainly repair if needed. How's that been looked at in terms of stability? I think that's what your neighbor was concerned about.

It's been there for decades. Right? So we didn't specifically bring

So, I'm Jason, Rommel, the owner. So when we look at the wall, it's it's a little not it's not properly straight, as it's a 100 years old. As you can see, we parked on a street, and it's holding my big truck and other vehicles already. By taking the cars off the street, it'll allow less weight to be on on the wall. If there is any cracks of that nature, we we plan to epoxy inject it to help strengthen the wall.

The fence, retaining wall, as you can see, it's still holding. And we plan to if if it needs to, place piers right, you know, setting to support the existing peers.

So that retaining wall is right here, like, parallel to the Miraflores Avenue. And then being this the, higher spot sloping down towards Miramar Avenue, if this retaining fails, his house will fail. So

And it's it's not in your pro it's in the right of way. Correct? It's so is it the city responsible for that? It's inside the property.

I I yeah. I can speak to it a

little bit.

So it is it is within the property line.

Oh, it didn't okay. It's hard to tell on the site plan.

Yeah. It it is within it is within the property line. It, is not included as a major part of the as a part of the project. It, there was a geotechnical study for the project that did not call out this wall, for any reasons, any hazardous to repair.

K. Thank you.

Further, if this the wall is if work starts to happen on that wall, we will bring that to the attention of the building staff, and we'll get a permit for it at that time.

And it appears that you're landscaping now in that area above the wall versus cars parking there, so you're gonna take load off of it as you suggested.

Correct. That's the plan. Can

you then clarify on the site plan? Because it looks like on the site plan that a majority of it exists outside the property line. I'm looking on, like, a 1.1. There's a note

What even show us on the survey?

13, which shows wall repair where needed. And it looks like Public Works already reviewed it. So

Yeah. That's okay. That's the right one.

We're pulling up the site plan for you right now, although it's very hard to see on screen.

Oh, there's a phone. We

could zoom in. It is on the staff report, it's page 51 at or 41 out of 50, so it's a 1.1. You may be able to zoom in on that one.

It's this one.

There's these two waves and not the wall.

If you go back to

this photo, I looked at it. I think those two lines are the ones you're looking at. Mhmm. That's how I read it.

Apologies. One moment. Commissioner Sade, is this illustrating what you wanna see, or is there something different you we should pull up?

I think that's cutting off the actual. So if you go further It's cut yeah. Or even if you look at the

Maybe this note 13 is what the commissioner is referring to.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There you go.

Yeah.

Yeah. So this So yeah. So is that that wall then?

I think the photo he took is this one inside.

Oh, I thought there were two lines. So if you look at the photo, there's there's three. Right?

So there's Yeah. There's, like, one here.

There's one against the house. There's one in the middle, and then there's one in the back. And it looks like 13 is the one in the back. But

The 13 is the existing fence that we'll definitely need

Okay.

To make it look good. And because of the elevation difference, there's a existing retaining wall that's supporting the fence below. So Jason will definitely take a look and repair as needed. Mhmm.

And is is the new fence gonna have the same footprint as the old fence or get moved out?

Yeah. No. It's exact we are we don't plan to touch the, fence footprint nor the stair.

So there will still be space for cars to park on the other side of fence, though. It won't be your intention anymore. But

Well, he's been parking so he's been parking here outside the fence. Mhmm. So he's been mentioning, I guess, the he's been referring if the load is, like, transferring to the ground, that will stress the retaining wall towards that that side. Yep. So that's what I think he's referring to. So, yes, like, no more additional stress onto the retaining wall.

Right. Except except when a neighbor has a party and somebody wants to park there.

Right. Yeah.

Then maybe It

it will still be accessible as parking. Totally. That's what I'm

Oh, I see. Maybe we can plant something.

Did your question get addressed or no?

I I don't think I still think looking at the looking at the survey, you can see those piers. But I guess if public works has looked at it and they're okay with it, then I think and as long as

Survey indicates that it's off the property, not on their property. It looks like it's in the right of way. So if it's in the right of way, you know, maybe it's something the city should take a look at because it's part of their road, really. So just I I get exactly what she's saying. The survey everything to me is that she's correct. It indicates that it's actually not on the property, that particular fence in this this post.

The large

And we it's not that important. Yeah.

Yeah. The fence

is It was a good question, though.

Through the chair. One if the commission wanted to add a condition of approval, if you would so choose to recommend the project, condition could, request staff to refer project back to public works to inspect wall if it to see if it's on the right of way, one, and if it is, if there's anything they'd like to see done with the wall. Basically, if it's our property, there's another discussion.

I think that's a great idea.

I think

that's all we'd wanna see is, like, Public Works just taking a second look. And if they're responsible for it, maybe they do some work to it. Yeah.

Or they would be in touch with the property owner regarding

Correct. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

And that is the wall identified as Footnote 13 on the survey? K. 13. That's the 13. Yeah. There won't have any language.

It's just you can't really see it well from the photo, but it is if you look on the if you look on the, survey, you'll see the piers outside.

Good question. Any other questions? No? Okay. Thank you so much for

Thank you.

Presenting now. We'll bring it back. Alright. We'll open it for public comment for a rowdy crowd tonight of a lot of people. Officially open public comment and close. Great. So we'll bring it back to the planning commission. We can deliberate because we had some questions and some initial ideas. And I'll start. I'll kinda open it up if anybody wants to start with their comment or idea.

I'll I'll just start right real quick. Please. I I think it's a good project. It's solving the problems you've addressed. I think that, like, I'm in full support of the exceptions and the variances to push to council. It's a poster. It's a small lot. It's on one of these really bad hillsides. I've worked up there before. It's really kind of draconian to expect someone to meet the natural state requirements and this the hillside ordinance in this case. And I think it's the poster child, frankly, for an exception, especially for the parking, and and that's a pretty modest deck you're putting out there on a site that has no outdoor living. So I think they're both a win as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you.

I'll I'll just second what Stuart mentioned, and it'll be good to add the condition to so public works can just take a look at it before it goes to city council.

Thank you. Other thoughts? No. I'll just echo it, and and good for you for taking on the project and and improving the site. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. I think good presentation as well. You identified the public you know, sort of the benefits of it against sort of what the constraints of our code requires. And I think, Commissioner Saunders raised a a good point, right, which is there's this sort of old requirement of a natural state that's really hard to meet when it seems like the benefits outweigh that. So I thought that was done very well. You elevated that with the consistency of the neighborhood, which I think really helps in the variance analysis is being made. So, yeah, same. I think this is a step in the right direction. So if anybody would like to make a motion, making sure we clarify any additional conditional condition language, I think right now is the time. But maybe before we do, I'll just double check with staff. Is there any questions or items before we make a motion?

No, mister chair. We're waiting for the motion, and we are anticipating an added condition from the dais this evening. K.

Okay. So if anybody like to make a motion?

Yeah. I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the project per the conditions in the staff report and with an added condition to have public works review that retaining wall and what portions of it are in the right of way and if it does need to be worked on to coordinate with the owner.

K. I have a motion. Second? Commissioner Haven. I'll second the motion.

Thank you. Alright. Motion and a second. We'll take a roll call.

Commissioner Haven? Yes. Commissioner Rodby? Yes. Commissioner Sade? Aye. Commissioner Summers? Yes. Chair Mercado? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Great.

Thank you again for coming out.

Thank you. May just say one thing? Before we acquired the property, it was the, you know, the decolated. You know? And neighbors were, like, there were squatters and things like that. Didn't pay the banks and stuff, and they were so happy that we come to uplift the property itself and wanna say thank you because this will help the neighborhood as well.

Great. Yeah. Thanks again. Appreciate it. Okay. We'll close that item out. Thank you, everybody. We'll move on. So now we'll move on to director's report.

Margaret Kavanaugh Lynch, planning manager. Nice to see you all this evening. I do want to let you know and the public as well that there is no meeting on July 8. There is no items that are ripe for commission consideration, and it's the July 4 week. So I'm glad to be able to give your evening back to you. I don't have anything slated for the second meeting in July yet, but it's too soon to say that for sure. I would anticipate that we will be meeting on the regular meetings for the planning commission for the for the coming few months except July 8. This concludes the report.

Actually, real quick. Knowing that you're having some quorum issues, what are the dates on I shot out that I wouldn't be available on certain dates on August. I just didn't know if that conflicted with our regular meeting dates or not.

It actually we can do this offline, but there's there was one meeting that you would be in conflict. And with with notice, we can happily excuse that

Okay.

Absence. I also oh, actually, I should say that the city council did appoint a new planning commission member last night. I'm awaiting the details, and I can't wait to take them to lunch. But there was and another person has been brought onto the commission and will be joining you when we meet next.

Thank you. Okay. Can I

have a quick question? What's what date was the meeting for the that lists all the planning commission dates? It was in January. Right?

Yes. And our meetings are also if you go to the Oh, they're on the commission website, it's on there. But just to answer really quickly, July 22, which is the one that we believe commissioner Summers will be gone for, and then August 12, and then August 26 would be also believe commissioner Summers has alerted us.

I can probably be here the July 22. Okay. Definitely the twenty sixth, I cannot be. So

Yeah. I have no problem with any of those dates.

Excellent. And, again, if we don't have items that are right for consideration or a policy document ready to go, I will not bring the meeting. You will get a cancellation.

I I will not be able to be here on the twenty second.

Okay.

We'll figure it out. Thank you. Alright. Commission communications. Any juicy gossip? Nothing to report? Okay. Well, thank you, staff. I know the quorum issue has been challenging, so thank you for being so patient and accommodating us. I'm glad we have some of you joining on. Alright. With that, I'll join the meeting. Thanks.