Historical & Landmarks Commission - Regular Meeting

Now call to order historical landmarks commission meeting of August 6th, 2026 at 6 0 2 PM. Now take a roll call. We'll start with commissioner stocks. Commissioner Romano. Commissioner NCR. They do not see her yet.

Yeah.

Commissioner Farshaneh?

Yeah.

All right. I'm going to attempt names. I apologize for it. Commissioner Surendran?

Here.

Thank you. Commissioner Vishwanathan? Thank you. And I am Chair Leung. We have a quorum. And we have Commissioner Enschede in present. And we actually have everybody for compliment today. Full house tonight. Excellent. Okay. So the next item we have is continuances and exceptions. This part of the meeting allows for applicants, members of public or other interested parties to request an item to be continued without hearing or withdrawn or taken out of order. Are there any requests for applicants, public or commission for continuance or exception for any of the items on tonight's agenda?

Thank you, Chair. Yes, we staff did receive a request from the applicant for the item one A, which is Oh, no, I'm sorry, not one day one B, which is the roof located at a three for Main Street. And we would like to request a date certain of September 3.

September meeting. Any motion for that?

Oh, yes, please.

Do we have a motion to continue the item 1B off of the consent items to the next meeting in September?

Motion so made.

Thank you. Do we have a second?

Second.

Second. Oh, you got it. Okay, cool. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed abstain. Unanimous. The item is continued for the next month. Thank you. Okay. Consent calendar. Procedure for consent calendars as follows. Consent calendar items may be enacted, approved, or adopted by one motion unless requested to be removed by anyone or for discussion or explanation. If any members of the Historical and Landmarks Commission staff, the applicant, or a member of the public wishes to comment on the consent calendar items or would like the item to be heard on a regular agenda, make this request now. Items listed on a consent calendar with associated file numbers can constitute public hearing items. We do have one item on there, 1A, is the meeting minutes of June 4th, 2026. Let's see. We generally ask that only the members who were present in that meeting to vote for the minutes, because you're verifying that the minutes are correct. If you weren't at the meeting, you do have the option to abstain from the vote. Do I have a motion for a consent calendar item?

Move to approve the consent calendar with the minutes.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Abstain? We've got two abstain. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item we have is public presentations. This is a section where you can come up to present on any items that are not on the agenda tonight, if there's like anything that we need to address. We're not able to take action on the item, but we can hear it and then we can figure out if there's gonna be any scheduling that needs to be done like in the future. Are there any members of public that would like to briefly address the commission on any item not on the agenda tonight? Please come up. Thank you. I think that's not on. Thank you. It's wireless. Yeah.

Like this?

Yeah, I mean, usually it picks up what you can say, yeah.

I do a little college radio at KCU local, so I'll just do it. So Democracy in Action is great. So my name is Rick Armstrong Shaw, and I live in a house built in 1850, no, 1885 on 466 Madison Street. My ex-wife used to be on the commission, Lee Booker, a long time ago. I have now gone from tech into teaching, and so I have a very, very busy schedule. I have three things that I'd like to talk about, and then you can help me with them, okay? Number one, I would like to work with whatever resources, because I have something in my house is making some of my doors crooked, and it's really hard to open the doors. So I think I need probably some recommendations for foundation or something like that. to some extent uh i can work with people to find out what resources there are that hlc might know about in the community in the santa clara community that's number one okay um number two this is kind of trivial but i thought i'd do it way more nervous than i thought it perfectly fine i had my house painted 10 plus years ago and my my signs broken and i think i tried to send something to um Tiffany or somebody? Tiffany Vane? Veen?

Yeah, we know her.

OK, yeah. So not that she's responsible for it, but is there a procedure for that? I'd love to know how to get that sign fixed. OK, I'd like to . And then lastly, and this is kind of brought to my attention by some neighbors, is that there is a bizarre, it looks like an ADU that went crazy. at basically Bellamy and Madison. It's not next to me, but it's two doors down. Completely, most of the homes are set back 10, 15 feet from the street. The steps go right onto the sidewalk. And so I have information on this, but I can come back later and present it as something we need to talk about because many homes on my street We have to like talk about this with neighbors and this thing just literally was built in the last three months. And a lot of us are like, what happened? And those are the three things.

Great. That's all the items you have tonight? Great. Would you mind just leaving your contact information with our staff and then with Rebecca, and then we can connect.

So I can leave these two pieces of paper and...

Yes, please.

Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing this to our attention for sure. There's usually a recruitment process, like when there's a vacancy on our board. Yep. Definitely keep in touch. Thank you for bringing those up. Are there any other members of the public that would like to address the commission? Seeing none in the chamber, I'm not seeing any hands on.

Chair Link. I know we're waiting for a public comment, but I wanted to bring maybe a request for staff regarding a longstanding business in Santa Clara, Stan's Donuts. I wanted to introduce, I know we can't make like a designation today or a decision, but if we can put this on a future agenda item to go over how impactful that business has been to Santa Clara for over 50 years, if we can look into that so that we can give it a landmark designation in the future.

Oh, so commissioner and CRT and I discussed this over email a bit. And so, like she said, this isn't on the agenda tonight, but if it's something that the commission would like to explore, I can agendize it for a future meeting and we can have your discussion similar to how we did with the Tabersio Vasquez gravesite.

Okay.

If it's of interest.

I think if we were to agendize it, like I wouldn't, you know, Just stands as an example, but like I just want I want to talk about process of doing designation probably. find time for it.

So you're looking for more of like a discussion of the designation process with the steps, maybe stands would have to go to as an example. Does that make sense.

Sure yeah anything I mean it's it's a business and I haven't seen the process behind that, but if we can explore that and anything that's required I think that's something that we should look into okay.

I imagine it would be similar to like when we did the Vasquez grave site right. process-wise?

Yeah.

Or is it going to be different?

It would be different because this is a private property with a private property owner. I don't know if Stance owns that building. So that's actually something of interest because that would really dictate a lot of the process.

Okay.

Sounds good. I think like we should probably have that discussion because I think there's interest in that, at least for that particular business, but I'm sure there's going to be others that people would be interested in too. That's why I want to talk and process broadly if we can in the future agenda item. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to public hearing. We have two items tonight item to RTC number 26583 that is public hearing for recommendation on the significant property alteration architectural review. to on PLN 2600040 to allow the partial demolition of approximately 810 square foot in non-historic rare addition to an existing two-story single family residence listed on the historical resource inventory, construction of approximately 1058 square foot two-story addition in its place and formal conversion of a previously operated bed and breakfast in to a single family residence located on 1390 Madison Street. Sequel status exempt for sequel per section 15332 as an info development project and 15331, the historic resource restoration rehabilitation. So I turn this over to staff.

Thank you, Chair. This item will be presented by Associate Planner, Tracy Tam.

All right, thank you. Good evening, Commissioners. The request before you tonight is for a significant property alteration and an architecture review permit. Thank you. To allow the partial demolition of an approximately 810 square foot non-historic rear addition to an existing two-story single family residence that is listed on the historic resources inventory and then an approximately 1,058 square feet two-story addition in its place. and the formal conversion of a previously operated bed and breakfast in to a single family residence. The project site is located at the corner of Lewis street and Madison street, it is a currently operating as a single family residents surrounded by. Primarily single family residences, with some exceptions of some multi family in the area, the zoning for the property is our one six l with an ht. So here you have on the screen the existing site plan. On the north end, you can see the existing two story single family house that is along Lewis and Madison. On the south side, you can see an existing garage with an ADU on an upper floor. And this is the proposed site plan. The highlights in sort of this orange color is where the addition would be taking place. So on the screen, you have the front elevation, you'll notice that a lot of the details of the original house, at least on the front are not being modified or touched. But the area that's located in the, I guess, on the left hand side shown in the orange color there is part of the addition. And then similar here, this is the side elevation taken from inside the property, this would be facing the detached garage and upper floor edu and so the area of the addition is highlighted in the orange. This is the street side elevation, this is taken from Lewis street until you'll see the addition from the corner highlighted in the orange. Lastly, this is the rear elevation you'll notice that the addition is a lower height thing the existing single family residents. And this is the proposed first floor plan. And this is the proposed second floor floor plan. The project has been found to comply with the city's adopted single family and duplex residential design guidelines and that high quality exterior materials are being used that are not only compatible with the historic nature of the house, but also with the surrounding neighborhood. The proposed reform and material for the roof is also appropriate for the architectural style of the single family residents and the way that the project has been designed is intended to reduce any kind of privacy impacts. There was a Secretary of Interior standards analysis done and submitted with the project. It is also included in your packets tonight. And the analysis concludes that the proposed project is in compliance with the Secretary of Interior standards in that the minimal changes to the character-defining features and fenestration of the existing house will remain. And there aren't any major changes to material spaces or special relationships for the south surrounding area. The proposed project is going to retain and preserve all character-defining features associated with the type of architectural, which is the Queen Anne style. And lastly, the proposed project is designed in a way that it is subordinate to the existing single-family homes, or single-family home, rather, in regard to size, massing, and the design. In the plan set, which is included in your packet tonight, there are a few details there that very clearly show that the proposed siting material is differentiated from the existing siding material in that the reveal, not only the depth of the reveal, but also the type of reveal is different. Similarly, the wood trim around the original windows and the proposed windows are also differentiated. It is much more simplified for the proposed windows. The project is found to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 15332 for infill development and then 15331 for historic resource restoration and rehabilitation. So therefore, staff recommends that HLC find the proposed project located at 1390. Madison will not have not destroyed or have a significant adverse impact on the integrity of this work resource and recommend approval of the significant property alteration and architecture review permit to the development review officer for subject to conditions and findings. This concludes staff's presentation. We also do have the architect the story and the property owners in the audience tonight.

That presentation this the Commission any questions for staff before I invite the applicant up. process wise, we usually go. applicant public and then we come back to discussion, you know. If we don't have any immediate questions, let's invite the applicant. If the applicant would like to speak to the project and just kind of like tell us a little bit about your plans. And we may have some questions for you as well. Welcome, thank you.

This is kind of exciting.

It's been a little bit of a journey getting here.

All right, so we've been in Santa Clara for a while. We actually moved. from Santa Clara to this location a whole five blocks. We had a cute bungalow on Clifford Street, and then that was three kids, and then had one, two, three kids, and, you know, triple bunk, and decided that that was probably with mixed genders.

Needed a little more space.

Needed a little bit more space. But we love Santa Clara. We love the school district. So staying within Santa Clara school district was a priority. we were looking at homes and we went to come on Homestead and I don't know, we were all over the place and a lot of more modern architecture, modern remodels. And every time we went in, we were just like, well, this is nice to stay for a day as like to visit as a hotel, you know, just kind of soulless, but, and there was this one house and we had seen it for a while.

And we're like, something must be wrong with it.

And then finally, we're like, let's go see it. We went and saw it. We walked in. And I think our real estate agent maybe thought we were crazy. But we literally stepped in. We're like, this is the one. And just immediately, we're like, oh, glass window, the trim. My eight-year-old daughter, even today, to make sure to tell you that we have to keep the ancient which is the doorknobs and the i like i know you don't care about the interior but the hinges and the doorknobs and things like that right pocket door so we're very excited to not only have the space but to be able to preserve the history and have a house that has character and warmth and so the whole part of approaching this project is how can we make it work for obviously our modern family, you know, it was originally a single family home and then it got trans And so it's weird and they added a added the addition which we're knocking down to rebuild that footprint, because it has this very weird tripping hazard, it was poorly designed you can hear if you have questions about like why we need to for structural reasons do that. got the team here, but we want to maintain all of that character and warmth. We want to host, you know, events for our school at Washington Open. We're interested in doing the historic home tours and maintaining that character. Excited to be, you know, restorationists and press service as much as we can. So really hoping that you'll approve this project for our family. If there's any questions that you have for us and why we chose this. Yeah, adventure. Yeah.

Awesome, thank you for that. Trust me, we care about the interior, but like a few of us have chosen that journey as well, so we know.

I've been like cataloging, we've measured the doors, cataloged the doors, cataloged the hinges and the doorknobs.

Yeah, I think, you know, like part of the discussions that we generally have is just kind of the nitty gritty about like the new design and stuff like that. So like I would turn this over to your commission if we have some questions for them.

This is a great project. I can see a lot of work's gone into these drawings. And I wanted to ask you before I asked the architects, you mentioned we don't care about the interior, and you're right. We care about the exterior here. And part of the SIS review talks about siding and differentiation, but also making it compatible with the building. So when you talked to the architect, did you discuss those subjects with them? Yes.

And we actually almost brought...

Oh yeah, I had made an example siding.

Somebody's organized it.

We 3D printed like the original siding and profile with the other and we just haven't had time to actually mount it so we could show you like here's the original and here's the proposal and how it's different.

Talk me through then like as you chose the roof material, the siding and the window framing, you had to make some choices there. Like what's the theory that you came up with to make it differentiated but also compatible?

Oh, how did that also, I think we talked mostly about the siding we were we wanted to make it so that the siding from a short distance didn't look mismatched.

A little bit. Really.

And so we wanted to keep the same sort of height. On casting a shadow on the

Same thing with, I mean, the windows in the addition, right? You see, I've seen where you have a classical architecture home and then they put something modern on top, right? Or next to it. Very clearly, here's the historical, here's the modern. That does not, I'm a designer myself. That does not aesthetically pleasing. That does not look great for, you know, it can be done well, but that was just not my style. I really want it to fit with, in the old quad, right? That historical feel. And so it's how can we make it look as classical and historical as possible while meeting the requirements of, nope, it can't be look original. Someone who is educated enough can walk up to it and know it's like, okay, well, let's make it simple. Let's make it very clear. They wouldn't have done this angle. They wouldn't have made it this simplistic. So it's like keeping it where it looks you know, continuous and a part of, you know, the house and not just a wart tacked on. Yeah.

So thank you. Thank you.

Any questions? Okay. but the demolition of the part and then rebuilding, that makes sense to me. Are there other modifications that you would be making within the existing building itself? Yeah, on the inside, on the outside.

Well, the outside, there was that picture of when you're looking at the front elevation, you'll see that little, On the left side that comes out, that is where we're pulling the stairway out just a little bit to make a little bit of room for . That's the . Yeah, and we have the architect story in here that we've been working with.

Awesome. I always ask about this. Because we're always concerned when there's modification to the building itself, we're always concerned about preserving the material that we have in there, adaptive reuse of it, and just making sure that we're not throwing stuff away, that we can actually reuse it.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK. Even stuff that doesn't actually fit with ours, we're going to make sure.

Well, even things that we didn't know we had until we did some discovery holes where we're like oh there's actually some really cool historical be bored in the basement. underneath underneath like three layers of you know, whatever so we're we're going to be pulling that from the ceiling in the basement and using it and other places, you know as.

As we can.

As we can. All of the siding, we're going to be repairing. Our contractor has some really cool ways of restoring the original hardwood floors on the original part of the main house. We're going to be using some linseed oils for maintaining and staining it.

Awesome. And since you brought your team, like, you know, not a lot of you actually, like, bring them in person. Is there anything, like, the team would like to share with us that's, like, interesting about the project that, like, we should know about? I just want to make you work.

Yeah. I'm John Skorkas, the architect, so I could answer some of your questions about, we did have lengthy talks about the historic and the Secretary of Interior standards on how to develop things and make things subordinate, you know, where we added or, you know, and part of the, I mean, the challenge was they made it a bed and breakfast. It's all chopped up, right? It's all small rooms, bathrooms. And down below there's like a kind of a commercial kitchen.

Kind of.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean.

Yeah.

So there's, and there is no interior or exterior relationship. and then the basement levels, two different levels. And then when they built the addition, the floor levels don't even match up. So talking to everybody and the contractor and our structural engineer, he thought it's best to just rebuild that 1972 addition. And it's actually a good choice for us because we can make it more compatible to the existing house relative to the Secretary of Interior standards. And that's what we tried to do. And if you look at it, I think we've kind of succeeded with that challenge to do that. And then in the back, you know, the kitchen's downstairs, you know, living's upstairs. So that absolutely made no sense. So we moved the kitchen upstairs and redeveloped the lower level. And then we've made the interior-exterior relationship better. There's two ways to get outside now. In the kitchen, we've got a deck, which is actually over a living space below, which accommodates, you know, the basement level is about 30 inches below grade. So it kind of made that work with the deck and then actually having that split-level space below. You know, with the siding, we chose to have the siding the same height that the reveal would make it, would differentiate it from the existing windows we're going to have them custom built the windows will match but the trim is going to be smaller slimmer and not as detailed and that's how we're looking at treating those elements um i think did you have any other questions on the architectural i didn't see a demo plan how's the tie-in to the existing basement going to work with the construction new construction they will well let me You know, we're rebuilding the 1972 addition. So in reality, we're just rebuilding that. That's not extra space. We're rebuilding that space. So what we have to do is maintain the wall on Monroe Street, and then pretty much everything else is going to be come down and excavated. Lewis Street, yeah. So basically that's going to be re-excavated so the basement level could line up.

I understand you correctly, no load placed on the original foundations of the original house.

The original foundation for the house is going to stay. We're not touching the original house. It's just the poorly built 72 edition.

That's getting redone.

So yeah, pretty much the original house is going to stay intact. The only thing we're dealing with is historically the windows on the lower level basement level, we're not considered historic because they're all changed and added. So we have living space below, we have bedrooms below. So we need the egress windows and we're going to match those as close we can to, you know, if there's a window above, we're going to align with that window and just keep it as clean and concise as we can.

I forgot to mention there's actually a thing happening on both the bottom floor and the

I give the owners credit and taking on this task because it's not a cheap way out an expensive way on it so it'll be a good project for.

So.

Chair Lian, I have a couple questions. A follow-up on Commissioner Stocks. If the original home foundation is not being altered, are there any special considerations for protecting that foundation as you rip down the 72 addition?

How will you protect the original?

It will be protected and it will be defined in the structural drawings.

So it's all going to be secured and protected.

Okay. And as far, I mean, as far as the demolition, there's protection when you're doing the demolition. We'll have that all taken care of. Okay, and then one of the other standards is when you do remove something that's original how easy is it to put back so. For example, 72 they added on the addition and now you're the new owners and you want to change that right so for the bump out from the front, where you can see the stairwell. I'm looking at the vertical drawings where it shows the original external wall. Is that external wall being removed to make room for the stairwell inside, correct? And it's just for that bump-out piece? Yes.

And there's no windows?

I didn't look at the existing to see if there were any windows impacted by that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I see.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Do not anybody else yeah. Thank you, that was great explanation. hey you didn't know that you're thinking about like doing historic home tour like the one thing that I would know is like document as much stuff as possible as the current state, it will be good to to show a before and after. Oh, very nice. That would be fantastic. I think the home tour folks are going to be really appreciative of this. So thank you. Any other questions for the applicant before I open it to public?

Just a note, this is great detail. So I am very amazed to see the details. I'm comparing the existing building and what is proposed. I don't find much difference if I am looking at the

Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Could I ask one more question? I'm sorry.

Now that I'm looking back at it. So the bump out for the staircase and the addition, while you said the siding is slightly different so that you can tell there is a difference, but it's comparable. Same for the window trim. I'm assuming that the Victorian right has much more embellished trim around the windows and you've done simpler on the trim. That's what I can see from these. I need picture. Okay. All right. Thank you. My eyes aren't that good anymore.

I would also note, we are fixing the profile of the roof on the addition to right now it's kind of. On the.

Yes, I know you're saying yeah more traditional edition of what it would look like if it was added over time.

So thank you, thank you so much. So I'll open this out to public. Are there any members of public who would like to comment on this item? Seeing none in chamber, I'm not seeing any hands either. Do I have a motion to close public comments before we go into discussion?

Motion to close public.

I second.

I second.

Thank you. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Unanimous? Public comment closed on this item. All right, let's go into discussion or motion. It sounds like we can come, we had a lot of discussion already.

Yeah, you can speak.

I already spoke about the fact that they are going to maintain and I think sharing that you're taking just to ensure that you know being done as is today and post changes so that you know and evidences at any point in time before that historicity is being maintained whatever is being done in later edition part of 1972 so that you know

I have one more clarifying question. Again, looking at the bump out, that's probably, to other commissioners' points, replacing the 72 addition so that it looks more in line with the house, more of a traditional add-on to the house. I'm actually fine with that. I like the design. I like the distinction. I think it's a good fit. My only concern is the bump out for the staircase because that gets back to the, if you wanted to ever take that off, could you get that back to where it was? So on the existing picture, it's quite blurry. So I can't read the notation. There were three windows on the first floor and now it shows two, does it say below the third window that's being replaced by the stairway? save historic window? I can't read what it says. Are you retaining that window for something else or? I'm looking at the south exterior elevation. Yeah, oh yeah, please do, yeah. Do you have a picture you could show?

There's one window that with a stair is going to be relocating that window.

I'm sorry, I didn't understand you.

We're relocating.

You're relocating? There's one window where the stairway is. That's original, and we're relocating that. You're relocating into the stairwell? It looks very different.

The picture of the existing... No, we're not in the stairwell, but adjacent to it, yes. Okay, all right. Sorry, I just can't read it.

Screen, is that all right? That's South Elevation.

Right, so that picture right there, south, existing on the top. You can see the second story, you've moved the window over to make room for the stairwell. And on the first story, there's three windows. And on the bottom picture, there's only two. So the left window on the bottom, where is that one? Those are not historic. They're not historic.

The one on the top in the middle?

Yes, that's moving over, yeah. Okay, you're moving over a non-historic. Yeah. Okay, and the one below it is not historic, the little stationary one. None of the basement. Okay. All right. I couldn't read. It said, I thought it said historic window something, but I couldn't read what was in front of the notation. Okay. There we go. Okay. Thank you.

Got it.

Okay.

Okay, thank you. Makes sense. That answers my question. So in that frame, then you would be able, you know, if push came to shove and it didn't need to be returned to its original configuration, you could match the original siding and move the window back over. So I don't have a problem with taking out the exterior wall.

You'll find that we ask a lot of questions about Windows. It is a thing here. I know. I mean, a lot of people would just take them out and junk them. So that's a problem. I understand your pain. Other questions, comments, discussions, motions?

This property has like two sections. One is the staircase to the side. One is the one section is the kind of staircase to the side and the other section is the elevation to the rear, those are the two kind of. interesting key areas um. Go to the rear later. I'm looking at the front of the home as you stand and look at it. Look at this new elevation and you'll be able to see this part of the project from the sidewalk. I appreciate a lot some of the details. The details are the roof pitch, the fairly simple awning over the door. I see stained glass in there and I appreciate you guys putting your own mark on your own home with new stained glass. I know it's not cheap and I really like that um deciding is differentiated and so really what hasn't in my mind's eye am I standing at the street and telling that this part of the home is differentiated but um you know sympathetically added to the home it's smaller than the home it's subordinate to the home um I think it's just right just right

I think a lot of us in the neighborhood are very well aware of this building. I've actually had a friend, her parents actually stayed at the inn and told me about a lot of this quirkiness, let's put it that way, of the home. I think we always worry about how to preserve a property like this because it's been so altered over the years. And I, for one, am very glad this is the attitude you're coming in with this particular project and thinking about how to update it and also restore it to a single family property to make it flow a little bit better than it does today. The tripping hazard definitely was a thing that was brought up to me before. So that was a very interesting thing. I'm very happy that you're taking this route to fix that problem. Yeah, very happy to see this project come across.

At the rear elevation, you mentioned the tripping hazard. As I looked at the design, I noticed they hadn't stepped the siding back. from the original house and I think if this was a Mills Act or if there wasn't something already flush with the side of the house. But it is flush with the side of the house existing, the existing, the original siding is gone, right? And so, again, I think that they've managed to thread the needle on that side elevation very carefully. I just wanted to put that across because I wanted to feel if the commission wanted to ask them for a step back or kind of leave it flush. I think flush is correct.

Yeah, flush or differentiation makes sense to me as well. Yeah. Or for this particular property, because it's been like this.

I have a question. Do we need to see a sample of the siding or?

I was very generous of the applicant. We generally don't actually see it but it's the you know the theory about this is like we don't want to recreate history we don't want to like say like put a false history on it. that's why, like we don't want it to be exactly recreate the same we don't want to tell like make people walk by and think. The addition part is part of the original house like it's going to be compatible. And like kind of met like it kind of same style, but you can see, there is a little bit difference between it, so you can actually see like time wise where. Like where it ends like previously and like where it starts in the in the new build so that's where we always ask for for that particular distinction, but we don't usually like as we're citing itself to look at you know.

I would add to that usually we call out on the plans for it to list what the sighting measurements and details are and what the new sighting will be so if it was a three inch teardrop and it's going to be a two inch teardrop or a flat what is called out on the plans. Okay, it is. I just didn't see it. Sorry. Yeah, I'm just saying that that's why we don't ask for samples, as long as it's on the plans.

Um, Well, do we have actions on this, like the motion, if anyone would like to put one in?

I move that we approve the plan as presented by staff.

Thank you, do I have a second? I have a second. Ooh, nice. Eddie, Yvonne got this one. Okay.

Second.

Thank you. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Unanimous for recommendation. Thank you for bringing this project up. We've been really looking forward to seeing this property and we'd love to see the projects as you make them. Thank you for taking the time. It's a great house.

Thank you so much.

Have a great night. Okay. Item three, 26, six 84 public hearing for recommendation, architectural review of a new 395 unit multifamily project located 451. 451 El Camino Real within 200 feet of historic resource inventory property. CEQA status pending adoption of VIR prepared and circulated in accordance with CEQA. I'm gonna turn this over to staff.

Thank you, Chair Long. And I do wanna preface this, but I'm covering this item for Steve Lee. So I may not be a hundred percent expert, but we have the applicants here if you guys have questions, have a general understanding. So, As chair lung mentioned, this is a proposal for a 395 unit multifamily project located at 50 or 51 El Camino and that's within 200 feet of the railroad depot structure. which is on our historic resource inventory. So the 297 units are broken up into kind of two different types. There's a 297 five-story multifamily building that will be wrapped around a structured garage. Then there's also 98 townhouses that are three stories tall, and those are in a six-plex and four-plex configuration. So here you can see the existing site in blue. And so you'll see that this site does not actually touch or abut the Railroad Depot property. There's a structure in between. So you'll see north is the railroad track, south is Santa Clara University building here, along with the campus here. To the east is multifamily. You'll also notice a portion of the project site. A portion of the project site is within the city of San Jose. So that is going to be subject to an annexation process that is ongoing. And then there's commercial retail and hotel to the west. Current zoning is PD plan development. General plan is regional mixed use within the Santa Clara Station area. This is within the specific plan area. However, the application predates that process and we don't have a pipeline process for that specific plan. So they are free to move forward with the current zoning and GP. So this is a view of the multifamily building. As I said, it's five stories and in the middle it's wrapping a parking structure. They have amenities based on the ground floor. Here's a view of the townhouse units. They each have a two-car garage. They're three stories. And then, like I said, they're in a six and four plex configuration. So this is the overview of the site plan. So here, to orient you, here is Santa Clara Station. Here's the multifamily building with that parking garage, as I mentioned. And then to the east is the townhome project spanning into what is currently San Jose, but is in process of being annexed. This area here. And so this is a diagram just showing you the distance between the prop, like the actual project site and those historic structures. So here is the actual railroad Depot building. And here is the outbuildings that are also identified as historic. So you can see this structure here, the existing hotel is to remain. So there's actually, um, like a limited view from the railroad, from the train depot to the project site and vice versa. This commercial building here on the corner is also to remain as well, along with this SCU building here. So this project was found to be consistent with our city design guidelines, both of the apartment and townhouses, townhomes orient toward El Camino. They have a prominent front entry with landscaping, as well as a 10 foot sidewalk and landscape strip, you should say, roof and ground mounted equipment are screened from our street views and they're utilizing a mix of colors and materials to create some articulation and visual interest while minimizing the building bulk. So, as you mentioned in the introduction that an environmental impact report was prepared at this point we're in the final EIR process and that's currently being circulated, along with all the comments received during the. admin draft EIR. So we are recommending, staff is recommending that the HLC find that the proposed project will not destroy or have a significant adverse effect on the integrity of the historic resource inventory property within 200 feet of the subject site and that the construction is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and recommend approval of the architectural review to the development review hearing officer. That concludes staff presentation. As I mentioned, the applicant team is present if you have any specific questions for them.

Great. Thank you for your presentation. Any questions to staff before we move to applicant?

I have a question, please. The recommendation says it's within 200 feet, but the image you just showed said 300 feet. Is that a difference between the building and the property line? Exactly, yes.

So it is within the 200 foot radius, but we're trying to show you kind of where the actual building sits.

We have the picture of the, from the city that shows the property lines and everything or no, is it just right behind the hotel or it stretches down? Doesn't it?

Yes. There see this lane a here. This is actually all of the property. So here.

Okay. Thank you. All right. That's what I meant. That little,

light blue jug part that sticks out.

Thank you.

I'm having an issue with downloading the file. Could you jump to the renders? Is one of those renders from the angle that the station would see the properties? Okay.

Yeah, the actual building is further.

from the property line. I think Steve's point in this diagram is despite, he's showing you where the building will be compared to the, compared to the depot, but technically the property line puts it within the 200 foot.

And you also mentioned that it overlaps that I have a bearing on

No, that's a separate annexation process through the coordination with the city of San Jose. So the remainder of the project could technically still be constructed even if they don't get that annexation piece over here.

Question about the colors and the finishes. How did they make sure that it's consistent with the railway station? Does it have to be consistent with that?

No, so what you're looking for is not necessarily consistency, but that it doesn't have an adverse impact on the historic resource, which is the depot building and the outbuildings.

So visibility.

Yeah, visibility, some considerations would be, does the project overshadow the historic building?

Does it cover it? Does it look way out of place in the setting of the historic property and stuff? Those are the things that we generally would look for on the design side. Massing, massing is big. Like we're always looking at like, you know, how big is the property as in relative to distance to the historic property to kind of figure out like if it's like, you know, if the property is, the historic property is small, then is it like a really big thing that's like shooting up like right next to it? There's a type, generally a type of thing that we're looking for.

Yes, between the two, the townhouses look more historic in the massing space. Mm-hmm.

You know, I'm four million questions in my head about like how it interacts with the stationary airplane.

I'm going to ask the same thing. So this doesn't, this isn't in, this doesn't, you said it doesn't fall under the downtown precise plan because this application was before that. Station area is a separate thing. It's outside the area. Station area plans, the other one I'm working on.

Say that again. We have the station area specific plan that we're in the process of.

Which is separate from the downtown precise plan. Correct.

Correct. And we're also looking at, remind me, it's state law that requires a higher density.

35. 79. 79.

It's be 79. Be kind of interested in like how this would interact with it as well, because like it's not, with the town homes, it's not a high density like around the station, but then our purview here is like how it affects the historic property. Really myself back.

Now the way to phrase it does this give us any of the high density housing as. Is there any is this property or this development, giving us a bit housing that we have to create around mass transit for SP 35.

So like Chair Long said, that's really not your purview this evening. Your purview is whether this project negatively impacts the station structure.

So really the depot, because that's the closest structure to this particular project.

Just trying to understand which part of the historic building is it? Is it number 10 in the page?

You're looking at the drawing, the Santa Clara Station, like when you're looking at like the words, the Santa Clara Station, that's actually the historic depot. Yeah, so the hotel doesn't count, but like we're looking at, you're looking at like the greeneries and like the numbered buildings and stuff like that, that's the project area. And we're looking at the relations between those buildings and the depot building, yeah. The sheds are closer to the PD like a little bit further down that's why it says like 800 feet like down that way, but like the closest thing over there is going to be the depot and that's going to be our greatest concern on like how in relative to that building like how is this project affected. We don't have any more questions with staff at the moment. I can invite the applicant to come to address the project and just kind of talk through it with us a little bit, and we can have some questions for them if we do. Thank you. I'd like to invite the applicant, if you'd like to come up. Thank you for coming in in person.

Good evening Commissioners and chair, my name is letha Clark i'm with the Morley brothers i'm the Vice President of development and i'm here on behalf of bigsby capital management who's the property owner. And I just want to first thank you all for being here tonight. And I also want to thank the staff. Unfortunately, Steve's not here for me to thank, but we've been working on this project for a long time since the end of 2023 and staff has been very collaborative working with us throughout the process. So I just want to say thank you to them as well, because it's been a long time coming and we're happy to get to this milestone tonight. And we're also looking forward to, we're scheduled to go to Planning Commission at the end of this month as well and to City Council in September. So we're super excited. By way of introduction, the Morley Brothers, we are a Silicon Valley-based real estate developer, investor, and consultant. And we've been doing business in Silicon Valley for over 25 years. And so... We've partnered with Bigsby because of our vast experience with residential in the area to redevelop this property. And we've been working with them since the inception of the development. And this project, it's gonna bring 408 new units of housing to the city of Santa Clara. And 64 of those units are gonna be affordable units as well. Like Rebecca said, this is consistent with the city's general plan and also the zoning. And we also submitted under SB 330 as well. So when we looked at the kind of architecture for this property and what would be, what would most fit with the, the environment here in the context of where we are. We looked at the history of the site and this used to be a Mayfair packing plant and a fruit packing plant. And so what we've done, and it's a little hard to see in the renderings that we have, but on the multifamily building, we've done a brick veneer along El Camino to kind of bring in that industrial warehouse feel that was formerly on the site. And another thing that we did is on the multifamily building, all of the balconies, we've done a decorative railing where we tried to bring in like the color and the feel of like orchards and fruit. So we did like an apricot gold and also like a cherry blossom kind of pink. on those railings for the multifamily building. So we feel like, and we've worked with staff and also there was a member of the community that was pretty involved in the design of this site. So we worked extensively on getting to the point where we are today. And also, I think you all understand, but we're here tonight because that the driveway, the lane A is if you did the 200 foot radius, that driveway is within that radius. But when you're actually out at the rail station and you're looking in, there's a lot of foliage there. There's large trees. That hotel building is actually three stories tall. And then you have the retail piece there also. So there's a visual kind of shade between us and the depot. And there's also that physical distance as well. But We feel like with the architecture, we have brought in that history of what was on the site before. And we think that this will be a great addition to the community and it fits in contextually with what's there today. So we support staff's recommendation tonight and we're here and we also have our architect here as well if you have any questions.

Thank you for that. Any questions for the applicant?

I have a couple, but you guys want to go?

So super appreciate you guys actually doing the legwork to figure out the history of it because as long as I've known that property has always been those buildings that are there right now. Are there any thoughts of doing historical place cards and just talking about the history of the site to tie in why you have the theme of doing the architecture? Maybe something about the history of the Mayfair?

We have Not looked into that. It's something we could consider. But today, the buildings that are there now, they've been there since 1999. They're two-story office buildings that have been there and two parking garages. But that's something we could consider, sure.

First question.

Could we go back to the renderings? Yeah, because I don't have it in the packet for some reason. The pictures aren't in there. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to look. So when you were saying that the brick, is that the top part?

It's actually the white and the brown part. The brick veneer. Yeah, it is hard to see in this image. And they have something similar over at the Benton. I don't know if you've... looked at that across the street. So yeah.

Any corner that way? Yeah. Similar to that? Yeah. Okay. That helps. Thank you.

I think there were some comments like asking about setbacks like earlier. Was there more questions that you would like to ask an applicant about that?

Um, no, I think as long as you mentioned that it went through the Yes.

Yeah, currently on the site, there's four. They're all two story office buildings and then two one story parking garages on the site.

Any portion which is coming within the boundary. send it everything else.

yeah yeah if you're asking if the lane, a is within the 200 feet yeah that's the only portion of the property that's within the 200 feet. And it's just really the tip of it that comes out just south of the hotel building there and next to the retail.

The entry of the garage is on Lane C, right, if I'm reading this correctly? Yes. Got it. I'm sorry, what did you ask? I didn't hear that. Where the entry of the garage is, Lane C. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And it's a wrap building, so... really, the garage is really hidden by Yeah.

We go back to that render we just saw, could you help me to understand what we would see if we were on the corner closest to the station based on these drawings here?

You wouldn't, you might see just the top of the, in the image there, you would probably see the top of the left-hand side of the building, a small portion of it. You can really not see this site from the train depot because there's lots of trees and there's the three-story hotel that block the view.

The side you just mentioned, would that be the same as the red front corner here or some other finishing?

It would be the same as here, yeah. This is the actual building that would be at that view, but you would barely see it. You would only see the top portion of it, yeah.

Actually, that is a fair question. So like when I'm looking at like this street over here, like in front of us with the cars on it, which, what street or lane is that?

That's El Camino.

That's El Camino, okay.

And then that driveway there, that's where that entrance to the garage, that lane C that you were just asking about. Yeah.

Gotcha.

So the material change in the render is just an error or is there really a material change on the other side of the garage entrance? It goes for a cream color for the two blocks.

There is the brick veneer and tell me if I'm wrong here, but the brick veneer is just along El Camino. Right. Yeah. And

Thanks. Thank you.

Hi. I'm Edward Kim. I'm with KQGY, the project designers. Yes, you are correct. After the garage entrance, there is a color and material change. So it goes from kind of the warmer kind of burgundy color to a more cream tan color. And what we're trying to do there is, again, working primarily with staff and planning division, be able to break down the scale of that multifamily building by articulating certain mass forms. And so we use balcony recesses, modulation within the facades to be able to make those material and textural.

No, I didn't really dig into the EIR, but what are the protections to the depot are we taking as this project goes into construction? Are there specific things that we're calling out for that?

Well, there's mitigation measures that will be subject to like, as far as like noise, vibration, dust, we'll have to manage all of those things during construction. Yeah, for not only the depot, but all the neighbors around.

I think about that too. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, the vibration is actually a really good question. But that's a whole other thing, never mind. I'm thinking of across the street, across the train tracks. Yeah, okay, that's good to know. And what kind of mitigations are there for a vibration, just out of curiosity?

There are certain... I'm just blanking right now. There's restrictions on what they're actually using to do the construction. I'm not good with these words, but just the drilling that they can do and the type of tools that they use and that sort of thing.

Because the other question I have is like this is actually really close to some of our like archaeological sites like around the university contingencies like if you were to hit anything down there that's kind of like archaeological significant.

There is and that was actually something that's flagged in the EIR we actually have to do an archaeological survey on the site before we start grading the site, so we have to go through that process as well.

Talking about the railroad as part of the historic site.

It was the old third mission right across the street, yeah.

Is there something to be considered in the university point of view also?

So that's what they were touching on. The university resources are typically archeological, meaning they're found underground. So that's why they'll be doing an archeological survey in advance of the construction.

Sometimes we just don't know where the mission walls are and if there's anything of significance extends. I know there's stuff that extends across the street, but I don't know how far it goes. Any other questions before I invite the public? Thank you so much for answering our questions. I'd like to open this to public comments, if there are any. I actually don't see other members of the public in chamber. Are there any hands online? Doesn't look like it. Yes, seeing none. Seeing none. Do I have a motion to close public comments?

I move to close public comments.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Thank you. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Unanimous? Public comments closed. Okay, let's go into discussion. So just a reminder, we're looking at the project in relative to the depot on its architecture, on its massing, anything like that, and how it can affect the depot itself.

Chair Leon, I wanted to clarify what you said earlier that there is a station area task force, right? There's a station area plan in progress right now. Okay. And is there, does it incorporate only that lane A or is any of that area of this development impacted by that?

This parcel is within the area of the station area plan. There are It doesn't match what is being proposed, but this project does that came in that come in before the completion of the stationary plan, so we do have to process it this way.

Thanks.

And that's, I mean, I guess this is like more of a clarification that we can have, because this is going to be like a change in zoning and general plan based on like the application that we have today. When the stationary airplane do come into play, like come into place, how does that interact with like what presumably would be approved like for this particular application? Does it change the zoning or anything? Or is it just like an overlay in some way?

So we'll still apply a station area zone to this, but you know, whatever in this applies to all properties, whatever's there can remain in place in perpetuity.

And then if, if another project does come through, like for this property, then they can adopt the station area plan if it needs to.

Yeah, for some reason, this permit expired, and they were coming back. Once the station plan is adopted, they would be subject to the station.

Got it. Does that help?

Or will there be any questions? to have the railroads there. Anything that's been constructed, obviously they were taken permission to ensure that . Railway lines going there. Obviously, I think .

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's like building, you have to construct the building with consideration of the rail lines being there in terms of like noise and vibration as well.

Yeah.

So they're constructing those with the railroad being there in mind.

Questions, comments?

I have a question or comment. Other than colors, what else is there to, I guess, in the sense of making sure that the historic you know it's like you have the people there and yes there's a hotel but is there anything that can be complementing from this um from the town homes here that will be built other than colors can can that be used to amplify or kind of tell the story of that historic area rather than just the colors i'm wondering if that could be incorporated And it's depending because of the station task force.

Yeah, I mean, that wasn't part of the purview of the task force. It was actually more thinking about massing around the area. But what perked my interest earlier during when we were talking about it, there has been some research done to think about the historical context of what was there before while incorporating kind of like a design that would kind of highlight some of the packing plant and you know and the fruits and stuff like that and it'll be interesting to showcase like you know in pictures and words the context of like where that came from and like it I think that would show the community like the thoughtfulness of the design itself to say like you know we we understand like we've had these other buildings there before. But historically, maybe the first thing that was there was actually a cracking plant because that's actually how we got the depot at the first place is because we're shipping fruits to basically everywhere from there. That's why the packing plant was built over there at the first place. So it would be super interesting to actually know the context of how this was designed. What was that? Yeah, come up. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

I'm Eric Morley with the Morley Resort. I just wanted to share with you that we've kind of interacted in this kind of venue. We had another project in Los Gatos and we purchased the last remaining property of Albert B. Smith, the founder of Orchard Supply Hardware. It was his original home. and water tank. And so we were able to incorporate very similar illustrative visual and textual displays. So we'll take that under consideration and very open to looking at something like that.

Yeah, I think like we really appreciate that to kind of like understand the context of it. Like the blended properties, I always think about like this kind of reuse and rebuild. It's like the Del Monte building down in Azuray. It's behind the orchard supply hardware. So like that's, you know, they do have like a little bit of context over there. It kind of tells you like, why are there still beams over there? Like that type of stuff. So those are some of the things that we always think about. Just wanted to provide that context. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you so much. I will also entertain a motion. We don't have too much to discuss.

Oh, I don't have a motion. I was just going to say, I was looking at the Benton Kitty Corner from the station. Very similar design to the multifamily unit. It's six stories as opposed to five and right on El Camino, but it is a little farther from the station, but has more, a similar view because there are trees through the parking lot. I really don't have a problem with the three-story condos because that's the same height as the hotel next to it. It's going to be a very similar view down along the train tracks anyway, and that's the back side of the train station. I'd be interested of a... what that view like to Commissioner Stocks' point of when you come out of the historic train station and you look to the left and you look up, you're just gonna see the corner of that building. I'm trying to envision how much of it really is an impact to what the station will be. 300 feet's not that far, you'd be surprised, but there is a hotel blocking the majority of the view just looking from the picture um you have to think about too as you step away because it's not just the building itself that is the property as you're walking away from the station going to your car there is going to be that's the that is the entry point for very large group of people that are coming to the downtown. It's historically been how San Franciscans came down to Santa Clara and came down the main street and would stay at the local hotel and then take the now Wells Fargo I love talking about the Wells Fargo stagecoach. It was modeled after the stagecoach that ran from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz. And so that's a very historic path that it's going along. So I just want to, I'm trying to envision what its impact would be once the plant was there afterwards, kind of that era disappeared. And I'm thinking of the history of how it was growing and changing. And this would be more in line of the post history of people coming through that way. Um, i'm thinking out loud here and then but i wish we knew more about the station area plan um i can see from if i was taking it from the downtown task force plan i do agree with kind of the setback approach but the setback approach in the downtown task force is surrounded by residential homes, right? So it makes sense that there is a setback so that the center is, I think, five and can go up to six or seven stories, but that's a block in, right? So this is a little different because it is all an industrial area. You've got the police station farther to the you've got the university across the street. So it really is just, is it going to affect the value or the historical nature of the station? I'm leaning towards no, and I'm not one to usually be a proponent of very tall massing buildings, but I did like the rendering where the color changed. You did break it up. It doesn't look like one massive, unit and it does kind of mimic the Benton, which I think the Benton is perfect for being on El Camino. It makes sense for being on El Camino. So I don't know if I gave any help there, but that was just my thought process.

To give you a little bit of context, this is an opinion of the stationary task force that we can actually go higher in this particular spot and like have a bigger massing.

Yeah.

And actually, like, you know, I just want to double tap to the point that I do appreciate the change in material to kind of break up the visual massing, like, between, you know, the lower floors and then the back. It's visually kind of breaking it up, and it's, like, kind of like a mini setback, like, in that way, so I do appreciate that.

Just support the previous two commissioners' comments. I'm looking at the elevation. I managed to get the PDF to load now. I can now see the back corner. It's better on the 2D elevation. And I really like the way they've chosen to differentiate various parts of the building. I come back to what is affecting the station, right? And it's going to be, what can you see from the station? And I'm looking at the sight lines, don't see that the station sees much of this. I appreciate the folks leaving the station as well would see some of it. I'm more into the point you made about the mechanical impact to the building. and so maybe any resolution that we pass tonight asks the planning or council or or the next stage is really scrub the reports from the ir and the impact on the and the protections for um that building mechanically um dust um any hazardous materials that are found in the demolition of the 90s properties many anything that's kind of airborne um before they go to the next stage of approvals

I have a question for staff. With the EIR, this is something we haven't gotten into, and I don't know that we've ever followed up with this like we did when we had Memorex. And when there's an EIR involved to protect a historical property around it, is there any evaluation of impact to that property after the project's done and holdings for any damage or anything like that?

And know the mitigation is typically just related to construction it's not like ongoing unless it's like TDM transit demand management or something like that.

you're thinking about like any impact it's made like during construction right.

For example, if the building was being demolished or they were digging out the basement and the foundation and the posts and everything, and it somehow was damaging or a truck went by, I don't know, something happened during construction that damaged the historical property, what are the mitigation and what is the restitution for repairing anything that happens?

There's nothing typically in mitigation monitoring and reporting programs related to that. And I think in this case, you also need to keep in mind that they're building BART just across the tracks and they're doing incredible boring and digging constantly. So I think it would also, if that were to happen, I don't think it will, but if it were, I think it would be difficult to pin it on this project versus everything that's going on over there.

i agree that's what i bit my tongue on earlier is the amount of construction going across the way is amazing no one else has thoughts on this okay if no one else has thoughts then i will make a motion I will move that we approve as proposed.

I second. Commissioner Stocks, was there a friendly amendment to add anything to that? I think you mentioned something earlier.

Commissioner Romano, would you be interested in a friendly amendment asking that the following stages review the EIR carefully for impact to the station mechanical, airborne, or otherwise from this project's phases.

Yeah, that's good. I agree. Can we add that? Rebecca, do I need to repeat it? No.

Does the second agree to it? Second. Thank you. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Motion unanimously passed. Thank you for coming. And thank you for presenting the project. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. See my own agenda. Commissioner reports, so we're on. Okay. We have subcommittee reports. We do not have a subcommittee currently, I don't think, because I think the only- I'm sorry, I only cut the end of that.

What did you say?

Oh, I don't think we have a subcommittee right now that's active.

No, oh yeah, the only subcommittee was for the banners and that was on hold because of the- Because of FIFA. What's your jacket say? This is something else made for the mission or mission needs a moment you should mission is the moment whatever those banners that are all around that I haven't been reading those ones. Right we've been reading that for like a year and we forgot where it is. I mean I would like us to continue that subcommittee because we need to start planning now for next year, because we don't have an artist anymore.

Oh, okay. That's fair.

Yes, and Commissioner Vargas Smith is no longer with us and she used to head up this committee.

That is fair.

Talk about it.

Couple of questions. How do we reconstitute a subcommittee? One, two, is we do have a lot of vacancies like on the commissioner reports. Like, do we agendize this for updating or do we just ad hoc do this?

That's what I would suggest. I didn't do it for this evening since it's a couple people's first meeting. I wanted to let them get a feel for it, but I can agendize it for the next meeting.

Okay. Let's agendize this for the next meeting to figure out the subcommittee and then also think about the commissioner's reports. So for context, a lot of us are actually involved in a lot of different committees and projects and stuff like that. So we generally bring back items from those other organizations or committees to say that would impact our historic preservation context on what we do, so we can Go through the list and then we can talk a little bit about each one of those for context, let us know like if you're interested in, you know, being kind of a liaison and pay attention to those items. And then we can come back, like in our next meetings and we can figure out like who wants to actually take on some of those roles for reporting back from from those items.

Good.

Okay. So the subcommittee that we're talking about is like, you know, if you're looking up and down our Camino, there's like banners. are out there right now there's a ton of banners for mission meets the moment because, like we have FIFA, we had Super Bowl and all that stuff. So the marketing committee took them over, but the last couple of years we actually started a program for May is actually preservation month. we would put out, we had some banners that go out on there to talk about some specific like historical items that are events or like a specific building or something like that, that are significant to the city, then we put them up. And what we actually did was we started with 10, right? And then we keep adding.

like every year we have like a little bit of budget, we would add like some more banners and stuff.

So we had a subcommittee that would work with an artist to kind of start with some designs on like the next theme and kind of put those, get those printed out and like have it all installed for the month. So that's what that subcommittee is. But like, there's a lot of planning involved because like we pick a theme, we need to do design, find an artist now. We had the same artist for the first couple of years. And then we have to work with the installer to schedule and all that stuff.

So that's what that subcommittee is about.

And generally for a subcommittee is just like three people max. So it's not like agenda items, just an ad hoc. You meet like when you can. you know, virtually or like in person just to kind of figure out like what to do. And this is one of those. And it can be for like pretty much any subject that we want to work on as like, you know, maybe we want to work on like materials to distribute or updating website or something like that. That's what a subcommittee would be for. So if you have ideas on that, we should probably talk about that too in our next meeting as we agendize it.

And procedurally, the number of people is important. We have a Brown Act you probably got to talk about the Brown Act as you were being induced. And so the number of people is important. It can't be too high. So, yeah.

Yeah, I did want to think about the traffic calming because I had all the city pretty high. And then after that, they did add signs, slow signs.

It does have to be within our purview on preservation and then educating on historic for what we do over here. But I think completely valid to go to the appropriate committees and commissions to talk about trauma-calming. I'll start the list. So Santa Clara Arts and Historic Consortium. Commissioner Romano, that's you.

i forgot i was back up and commissioner vargas smith isn't here anymore um i actually will need to get contacts and follow up with her still on there so because of a parade okay so we'll let me write down that i need to reach out to her and find out thank you i completely forgot i was back up so the santa clara arts and historic consortium is basically the organization that takes care of their historic properties that are like across the street over here um they're um

So like behind the Triton Museum, there's actually a few historic properties over there, and they're the caretakers of those. That's their main thing. Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara, it's separate. They have the Harris-Lass Museum. That's what they report on, and I don't have a report on them. They're also like the same group. They have a subgroup that actually runs the historic home tour. So that's like where we get like news about the home tour as well. Home tour, you can probably take this on as well.

Come see my house. Well and told.

The home tour, the goal of the home tour is actually to raise funds every year to kind of like pay for any operating expenses for the, for the Harris Last Museum and house. Yeah. I don't have anything on there. Oak Quad Residents Association, basically, you know, advocacy group for the Oak Quad area of Santa Clara, I'm on the board. So that's why I'm on there. I actually do not have anything to report this month, but we generally do a lot of kind of neighborhood activities, advocacies. Like if there's like specific projects that are coming through, we kind of like give a little bit of advice on trying to figure it out. Actually that gentleman that came in earlier, it would be perfect to actually get in contact with him, with OCWOD, because we can actually like help him with figuring out what to do with projects and stuff. Development review hearing, it's usually kind of our next step, like after a project has come through over here, then, you know, there's the actual like development review process that goes through for clearance. So sometimes when we're seeing a project that comes through here, we would be interested in seeing how it goes through on the next step.

Yeah, I would be interested in this. Yeah?

Oh, would you?

Oh, OK. Because I thought it already went through.

The one we just did? Oh.

It depends on the project. It generally doesn't really do the full development review, if I remember correctly. But there's also

Yeah, so in order to get to the next hearing, so Development Review Planning Commissioner Council, they have to come to Historical and Landmarks Commission first because you're a recommending body to those higher bodies.

You make recommendations, they make the actual decisions. So yeah, but like we do put a lot of scrutiny in there. So hopefully they take our recommendation. So you're making decisions.

Do you want my report?

Yes, please. I would love that report.

Have a report. So what I do is I get the agenda that's coming up for the review and I go through and I just check out the addresses and homes to see if they're within what is our current context and purview, which is mostly the old quad area. We don't have context statements for anything. Even if the house is older than 50 years, it could be historical but we don't have a context for that in our city so we're going to be working on a plan to expand things we look at but if there's something most of the time it doesn't fall the staff has the process to make sure that it comes in front of us first i just check the house check the address see where it is and that's it but we did for example we had one come up that there was a potential it could have been a um in an eichler neighborhood which is a famous Can't think of the word, mid-century modern. Thank you. Boy, that got stuck. Mid-century modern home that might be of significance if we had documentation on it. Unfortunately, we didn't, and the historian, our city historian didn't have anything. So I just went to the development meeting, let them know that we were concerned about this one, and we would try to find information, and they waited for us. And then they're actually going through and... And going to go over that one again, since we didn't have anything that could prove any significance. So I don't have anything on this one. They're all outside of our content. Got it.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, and that's actually like a really good example. Like as you go through these items, sometimes like, you know, Maybe they're like concerns that we have that wasn't like that was never brought to us to to address or maybe it's just. We do I give like a little bit of context of like what we you know worry about like in those that's that's where we get actually involved in the development review. Was that. Yeah, let's go to the next one. BART high-speed rail VTA BRT committee. So like one of our previous commissioner was actually on that committee. So like she was able to give context to it. So like I still talk to some of the people like on that committee. So like we do give a little context. So this actually is a little bit more relevant to like what we were talking about just now, because like we do have that development, the BART development right on the other side of the tracks.

That's why we were talking about the,

Be drilling a tunnel over there that's a lot of vibration and stuff they're doing a ton of construction there right now so that's that's why it would be actually kind of hard to pinpoint. The construction of this particular project that we're looking at was the one that was impacting like deeper itself, but they do have a lot of mitigation in place in life and what they're doing so we try to keep a praise of like what. progress they're making, or there's going to be changes to plans and stuff. One of the biggest thing that like we're always concerned about is actually the design of the BART station itself, because it comes through like how it's how that building in the parking area is going to affect the depot itself. This depot is, is our nationally listed property in the city is the oldest depot like on west of the Mississippi. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, so you would have to, let me find you like a, yeah, I'm going to have to find you like the contacts so you can get invited to those meetings or like at least like see the reviews, videos and stuff like that and I'll pass it through. Yep.

would that involve maybe talking to any of the folks at the original rail station would that be a benefit to kind of get up to speed for commissioner vishwana yeah at least at least one of them is actually like part of that committee as well maybe we should like as well that's a short circuit way to get up to speed with the current discussions john's on it too okay

So we'll get the information, and then we'll make it official in the next meeting. Okay. Our community-specific plan committee, I think we can tick this off. So that's going to be part of our next month's agenda to make the same thing. Congrats. It's done. Okay. Okay. Downtown Precise Plan, that is still going, actually. Where are we on Downtown Precise Plan?

RP, isn't it? That's the topic of the day.

Was anyone on that one, the El Camino one?

El Camino?

No, what did you say? I'm sorry, I didn't catch which one.

I'm sorry, I was talking about downtown. El Camino's done. Like, that went through council. Yeah, that got approved. I know. It's huge. Graduating Rebecca on that one. Yep. Years in the making. Downtown Precise Plan. So on a permission of R. Smith was on that, is on that actually. So it's still going through. There's RFP happening. We're just kind of waiting, I think.

Yeah.

Santa Clara Station Area Task Force, we did bring a lot of this stuff today. I currently chair that committee. So that's why I just kind of like voluntold to give a report on it. We actually didn't meet last month. So like we'll kind of keep on going with it.

Yes, I believe our next meeting will be in September and we'll be actually reviewing some of the draft chapters.

Okay, that's cool. That's where we're at, like on that. This is, I'm hoping this would take not as long as the downtown precise plan, because we had a lot of learnings when we did downtown that we were carrying over.

Well, the positive is that this is grant funded and those expire, so.

Yeah, so we do have to hustle and get this done.

Chair Long, where's a good place to track the context statement, RFP that we sent out? Is it in this part of the meeting, or is it better to track it ad hoc?

I think they forgot to put staff report on the agenda.

Yeah, I think they did forget to put staff report, and I was going to say this is going to be part of staff report. So that was all the board and committees. Think about them, because we do need to have some fill-ins on some of them. So we'll come back to it next month as an agenda item, and then we'll do some assignments in that way. Oh, thank you volunteering. And we'll we'll do staff report.

Yes, so as Commissioner stocks was mentioning we've been having discussion about issuing an rfp for historic preservation ordinance update as. What I was told by our purchasing department was that since we had a current RFP in process for a bench of consultants to be on call essentially for the city, we weren't able to issue our own RFP until that was complete. And we offered those people, those firms that were on the bench, the opportunity to present for the project. And so that's where we are right now. Our purchasing representative has sent the bench, which I believe is eight firms, details about our project, the scope of work that I put together based on our conversations and is offering them the opportunity to come back and make a proposal essentially. If we don't find any of those satisfactory, that's fine. We can then issue our RFP. The deadline for the bench consultants to submit a proposal is Monday the 10th. Yes. So I will review those. If we get any, you know, you're offering it to them, but they won't necessarily respond or think that they have the capability for it. If that's the case, if we don't receive any, I'll get the ball rolling on the actual RFP. If we do, I'll probably have to agendize it to bring you the proposals to review, unless I just don't think that it's going to work, but we'll see.

I know, like, for other RFPs, we generally, like, have, like, a little small committee to kind of review it, and it's just all, you know, under NDA and stuff like that. But, like, for this one, it's just, you know, really a staff review and figuring out if they can do the job.

Yes, because they've already been vetted through an RFP process to be part of the bench, and the bench is now public information. Gotcha.

Okay.

But you're right, if we do end up having to do our own RFP, we will ask for volunteers to sit on that confidential process.

Since it happened so close to this meeting and we would have to wait like a month, is there an opportunity to email out on, once you find out on Monday, Tuesday, what they've sent to us or do we have to be in quorum to look at it together?

That's a great question. Well, let me see what we get first and then I can ask the attorney their thoughts.

Okay.

We have anything else that's on the work plan or I don't remember where we left off on it did Council approve it or.

yeah no yeah I think we're. On the 25th the work plans would be approved. And the 25th is also when they'll be reviewing the Diversio Vasquez gravesite designation. And then they're also recognizing outgoing commissioners at that meeting. So Commissioner Salso and Vargas Smith will be recognized as well.

Nice. August 25th. Please send us a reminder because I am terrible on my calendar. Appreciate it. Thank you.

or do a presentation.

I'm very excited about that though, like on that presentation.

Not that bad.

So for context, we actually recommended a historic designation for Tiburcio Vazquez's grave site.

It's a California, somebody that was significant to California history during the time of like, it's like Spanish territory and then it got converted to Mexican government took over and then after US government took over. So it's telling of that time.

Super interesting and he's like in our cemetery. And as Yvonne was saying, people do visit a gravesite and trying to find more context and stuff like that. And we would love to put a plaque over there and talk a little bit about his history. It's our first one in a really long time.

We haven't done them in a long time.

So, you know, as part of that context where, you know, we have the preservation ordinance like in our codes and stuff like that, that's been in place for quite a few years and it's actually the first version of it. There's always been a thought to like, how do we update it? Are there, what are the gaps? You know, are there process things that are missing that we need to put in place? As we're kind of like moving through like this commission, we came up with like, you know, how do we do a designation? Like how do we designate like a district and stuff like that? And there's like some language in the ordinance, but like it's not fleshed out. There's no process, you know, no concrete process that we can actually use to figure this out. So the one thing that we've been pushing for for quite some time, and you know, this is, to Rebecca's credit to hang with us on this one is to figure out, you know, how do we get a consultant to come in that we can get a budget from the city? And actually we do have a budget, long story. but that we can use with a consultant so they can help us evaluate the ordinance and actually update it. So it's something that we can actually really utilize. So we can think about what else can we designate? We can go like a business that is significant to the city or like other landmarks that we're not aware of. Because a lot of the designations that we have in the city today were done many years ago with a few historians that we have in the city that knew the context of those things. And they came in, they made an effort and put the flags out and stuff like that to do the designation. But we haven't really been doing that a long time. We've been just working with residents with their own properties for a really long time. And I think it is time for us to have a more concrete mechanism to work on like a broader connection because like we have tons and tons of history, like within the city. So we have, you know, a lot more, it's not just like, you know, it's not just the Victorians, not the, just the old quad and stuff.

We're also thinking about, you know, we were talking about mid-century, we have Eichlers.

Like if you're looking at Pomeroy Greens, Pomeroy West, that's actually a condo, unit that were actually designed and built by Eichler. And it's the only one in the world. And the residents over there, they went and got themselves the National Historic Designation. And that was a long time, but we didn't have the mechanism to help them with it. But we basically just took, because they're nationally historic, then it's on our historic inventory.

And we don't have a mechanism for historic districts. So that's one of the things in the ordinance that we were interested in because we couldn't help them. We've also had the Park Avenue or Park Court area come and ask about being a district, but we don't have the mechanism to do that. So that's something we'd like to look at.

And that's why we're trying to kind of put together half the right mechanisms so we can actually push those things forward because that's what's the right thing to do. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

So yeah, there's a ton of stuff that we should push forward. I mean, this is actually the center of Silicon Valley history, too. There's a ton of stuff. It was very much highlighted when there was a data center project that came through. They were on the old Memorex site. which is kind of funny because it's a memory and then it's a data center. But there's a lot of that context is being lost as things are being raised, being built over, that we really should memorialize as historic places and recognize those things. And that's how we're going to update the ordinance to actually give us a mechanism to do all those things.

follow on with what Chair Lung was saying. Once we have this context statement and the opportunity to do historic districts, it frees up our time to do other aspects like helping these homeowners that want to find out about how to, you know, improve their homes. We have several things that we could do if we were not kind of doing ping pong work with individual homes. And so there is a plan and we need your guys' help past that point.

All right.

That was that for staff report, right?

Cool.

Anything else from the commission that we want to talk about? Do I have a motion to adjourn? Move to adjourn.

I second.

Do I have a second? Those are in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

And unanimous, we are adjourned at 8.01 PM.