Historical & Landmarks Commission - Regular Meeting

Pending. I now call to order the historical and landmarks commission meeting of 09/04/2025 at 06:05PM. And I'll start a roll call. Commissioner Celso? Here. Commissioner Esiarte? Here. Commissioner Farshany?

Here.

And I am chair Lang. We did get a notification from commissioner Vargas Smith and commissioner Romano that they will not be able to attend tonight. And I also got a note from commissioner Stocks that he'll be a few minutes late, so he should be here in about five minutes, and we'll note the time when he arrives. So do I have a motion to excuse commissioners Fargus Smith and commissioner Romano from this meeting? Yes. Motion first name. Second?

A second motion.

Thank you. Those who are in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain, we do have commissioner Stocks is not here yet, so that would be abstain. And those commissioner Vargas Smith and commissioner Romano are excused from the meeting. Continuance and exceptions. This part of the meeting allows for applicants, members of the public, or other interested parties to request an item to be continue without hearing withdrawn or taken out of order. Are there any requests from applicants, public or the commission for continuance or exception for any of the items on tonight's agenda?

And I do wanna note that since we don't have a full commission tonight, the applicant for item we have do have the option to continue the item issue like. Because for any of the motions that we make, we do have to because we're a body of seven, we have to have four votes to pass the motion. I think we're okay. Yeah. I know.

I will, move the consent calendar till after the first item that we're working on, because we do need, commission stocks to be here to vote on the consent calendar tonight. So I am going to move that. And then the next section we have is public presentations. Are there any members of the public that would like to briefly address the commission on any item that's not on the agenda tonight? I think we only see applicants here and no other attendees.

And then I have one attendee in on Zoom tonight, but I'm not seeing a hand. And I think that's it for public presentations. So we'll move on to our regular public hearing items. So the item one that we have oh, and commissioner stocks is here at 06:08. We dragged it for as long as we can.

Every red light.

I know. I I moved the consent calendar to after the first item, so we'll work on that after the first item. So I'm gonna go start with, our agenda item.

Okay.

Yeah. Yep. You're good.

So, you know, you didn't miss anything. Okay. So we'll start with the public hearing for a recommendation on a significant property alteration in architectural review for 465 square foot first floor addition resulting in 15 59 square foot single story residence on historic resource inventory located at 834 Main Street. And I'll move this over to staff. Thank you, chair.

Good evening. This is Meja Patel, and I will be giving the presentation for the project at 834 Main Street. The request is for a major significant property alteration and architecture review for a 465 square foot addition resulting in 1,559 square foot residence on the city's historic resource inventory. Any projects determined to be considered a major alteration to an HRI property need a recommendation from the HLC. The existing lot is 5,694 square feet.

The zoning is r one six l with a very low density residential general plan designation. The use to the north is medium density residential. To the south and west is single family residential, and to the East is parks and open space. This is the proposed rendering. The addition is to the right and is designed to minimize the impact on the neighborhood and uses ex uses exterior finished materials to differentiate between the rest existing residents.

The graphic doesn't show it clearly, and we'll see it later in the elevations. But the roof tiles will differ from the existing roof tiles, and the proposed stucco will feature a subtle color wash to distinguish from the original structure. This is the site plan which meets the r one six l development standards. These are this is the floor plan, and you can see the addition to the right, which is one bedroom and one bathroom. These are the front and right side elevation showing the addition, and you can see in the top elevation the color of the new stucco.

The pro proposed project complies with the city's single family design guidelines in that the addition to the rear right side of the property is designed to minimize its impact on the neighborhood and uses exterior finished materials to differentiate between the existing residents. The action being considered is categorically exempt from CEQA per CEQA guidelines exemption sections 15,332 infill and 15,331 historical resource restoration and rehabilitation, and that the project involves an addition and renovations renovations of historic single family residents. Staff recommends that the HLC finds the proposed project located at 834 Main Street will not destroy or have a significant adverse effect on the integrity of the historic resource inventory property and that the proposed construction is compatible with the resource and recommend approval of the significant property alteration.

Thank you.

And the owners and applicant are architect are present.

Thank you for the presentation. Are there any quick questions for our staff before I turn it over to our applicants if they wanna address us? I just had

a request. Could you go back to the third to last slide? I think the one that mentioned about the tiles. I didn't have time

to read.

Elevations or the just the writing?

That whole slide. Didn't have time to read the last two bullet points. Oops. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

I have a quest this is a Mills Act home. Is that accurate?

Yes. This is a Mills Act property as well.

Would the Mills Act remain in place after this this discussion happens? Okay. Do we have a copy of the ten year plan?

It's not in the staff report, but I can pull it up in

Okay.

Is it similar to other neighborhood properties? Or

I don't believe there's something completely similar to this architecture style in the neighborhood. I would have to take a look to see if there is.

If it is historical value, I mean, I will need to see that if all other houses nearby, are they also part of the historical district?

I believe there are quite a few homes in that location that are part of HRI. I can pull up a map that shows exactly these properties. Yellow parcel as highlighted is the project site, and then the ones in green are within the 200, so they're not on the historic inventory list. And then the ones in this salmon color are Historic Animals Act?

The salmon colored ones Mhmm. Are would be impacted because they're within 200 feet of historic resource. And then, like, I don't even know what the color is. The orange. Let's Yeah. Orange ones, those are what now?

Those are historic properties. And the one that this one is the project site. The green are not historic. They are within 200 feet of a historic property, which is this property, basically.

And then the ones that are, like, reddish?

Those are mosaic properties. This one is also this just this map is a little bit older, so it's not included in it.

Okay. Thank you. Do you have a picture of the house as it currently is?

Is an elevation okay or a Google Street view? It's better? Okay. This is the existing house.

By the way, like, on the in our packet, there is a memo from patient Turnbull. It does have, like, a lot of the photos from front and back of the property assets today. So if you wanna see the back. If there are no other questions for the time being, I would like to invite the applicant to come up to address us if you like to.

Hi. I'm Becca. So we've lived in Santa Clara for nine years. We actually got engaged at the gazebo by the library when he was in escrow in the house. So we brought our two kids home to the house, and we really wanna stay in the old quad in that area.

But we have a boy and a girl in a two bedroom, one bath, so it's a little bit tight. And so we're just kinda foreseeing our future of needing to have extra room. So that's was our plan is just to add a a bedroom and a bath on, And it's offset off the property just so that, you know, for all the reasons to not impact the street view, and we've tried to keep it in the same mission revival or Spanish revival, sorry, that it is. And there's not many actually in Santa Clara, which is why it's the historic property because it's a 1935. But the reason and we've been on the historic home tour, and we, you know, we're very committed to keeping it preserved.

We're actually gonna use the existing nobody asked about this, existing windows to on other parts where there before us, there was aluminum siding windows and things like that to to preserve as much as possible. Yeah. So we felt like this was and we're not we're just making those closets kind of a hallway so that we're minimizing the impact to the existing structure. It's just kind of like adding on without it looking too weird and just plot next to it. Yeah.

I don't know if you guys have any other questions, but we're we were very intentional with how we did it, you know, so that it was, you know, the space that we needed, but could be less impactful and still keep the character of the home because we love it.

Are there any questions for the applicant from the commission?

Yeah. You actually answered one of my questions already. In the paperwork, it said you were gonna remove the original windows and use them somewhere else on the property. Did you I was gonna ask you what that plan was because I'm excited about that, and you mentioned you had some aluminum windows you're getting rid of.

Yeah. It kind of it's probably gonna be on the kitchen side because that's where it the south side because that's where it gets the most sun. And so those windows were the ones that were replaced first. So we're thinking it's gonna be that, but also the back bedroom window the back current bedroom windows are also aluminum. So we have a lot of we have some options of, like, where we can put them.

The report mentioned a few things, like, in the Gable end, they suggested some changes in in in one of the doors. They suggested some changes. Did you have time to consider those?

The from the secretary of interior?

Yeah.

Yeah. We I think we changed all of those things that they recommended that the the door frame. So we're making the window to to the left of the fireplace to be a door, but keeping the same, you know, cutout so we're not changing the actual stucco and all that kind of stuff. And then the windows was another thing that they recommended was keeping those. And they just wanted to make sure that the way the roofline was going, that it made sense and that it, like, flowed. And so that wasn't met. So, yeah, I don't know if it's reflected in the plan. Yeah. I don't know. We made adjustments to the plan based on their feedback and then submitted it and then basically yeah.

Yeah. One more. I know your tiles are very special. They've got the printing on the inside. How are you gonna find something that that resonates with those?

That's a great question. I I mean, there's lots of resources in the area for doing that, but we haven't because we haven't gotten that far, we haven't specifically done that. We do have some extra tiles, but I don't think they're mostly broken and things like that. So we're trying to find something as close as possible.

Yeah. Any questions from the commission? I'd like to open this up for public comments. We don't have any pop members of public and chambers today. So, like, if there are any attendees on Zoom that would like to speak on this item, please raise your hand.

Seeing none, do I have a motion to close public comments?

Motion to close Thank you. Public comments.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. Those who in favor, aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstain. Motion passes. So public comment is closed. Discussion?

And I would disclose that I had a brief conversation with this with the owners before any of the plans actually took place just to talk about the idea of this, and I'll hold my comments towards the end. Just wanna disclose that was a discussion that had taken place before the project was came forward.

I kind of have a administrative question. Usually, we see a DPA here rather than a

I can't hear you.

Oh, usually, we see a DPA with a report with a a submission like this. And instead, we've got this kind of SOIS Yeah. I mean, so we have this memo. It was just very detailed. Are we gonna consider this alternative?

You mean the DPR?

It did mean DPR. Yeah. Sorry.

We had a DPR that

It was a DPR from 2022 that was attached to the analysis. They did their MELIS Act in 2022, which is when they updated their DPR, and they attached it to this report.

Oh.

Because I do I do remember seeing the DPR from Laurie in 2020 when this came through for Mills Act.

Good. I must have overlooked it.

Yeah. So we would assume if no alterations were made, the DPR still stands. And then any of the alterations would be for the analysis against, secretary of interior standards or the modern modifications. And that's what the memo was for.

Yeah. Thank you.

I just have a question. I think it's for the applicants. Sure. K. I was just wondering. I'm looking at the ten year plan, and it says, you know, 2026, repaint house exterior and trim. In 2027, install upgrade HVAC system to include air conditioning furnace and new ductwork. Some other things here about the chimney and stuff like that. I'm just wondering, like, how does this, you know, addition affect the items remaining on the ten year plan? Are you gonna incorporate those into the new construction?

Yeah. We actually submitted our you know, I guess it's like an audit or something back in February maybe. So of what we've done, some things kind of, you know, how houses come. So, like, we painted it early because there was some damage on the south facing wall, so we needed to make sure we did that we did that earlier. But everything really stays intact with our plan because we're not touching, you know, the main building.

Well, we are touching it, but we're not touching it as much. And then we're hoping that when we do, you know, move the windows around and everything, then we can update the windows. So that was one of the reasons for our delay in that is, hopefully, we'll do this and then move those windows and then put you know, patch some of the windows that are have, like, water and remove those and things like that. So I don't think there's anything on our plan that should be directly affected by it. It might actually accelerate some of it because if we're already in there and we're, you know, wanna, you know, redo the ducts and that kind of thing, that would make sense to do when we're out of the house and redoing it. So might advance some of it. I don't know. K. Yeah. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to add. It's it's a little hard, like, looking at the schematics, you know, the drawings.

With other properties, it seems to have been a little bit easier. But because of sort of the complexity of the design, it being sort of, like, on the side, you know, it's kinda hard to compare the, like, as is elevations with the proposed elevations without actually kind of seeing them, like, side by side because the designs are a little kinda intricate. I just found it a little bit difficult to kinda, like, keep the mental picture in my mind as I'm scrolling from the existing to the proposed elevations.

Yeah. They're on different sheets. Sometimes they put existing and proposed right under each other. But

Yeah. Yeah.

Think, like, when you're looking at the drawing itself on the this is the first page on a a zero. It does have arrows to show you, like, the scope of work away from the existing building.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I see that. It's just I mean, a lot of work and thought has gone into this clearly. Maybe that's why it's a little difficult to just kinda, like, compare the two. If they were side by side, it'd be easier one above the other.

Yeah. In the front elevation, anything that's to the left of this arrow right here, that's the original design. And then everything that's to the right is the proposed addition. So if you just imagine it without the building on the right side, that's what it looks like existing.

Yeah. I I got that. But okay. I'm just having trouble. I'm like yep. It's fine. Thank you.

Let me give you a look at the first sheet. It's coming from the top view. That may be helpful as well. Right there.

The little the little section in the rear on the left that is connected by what looks to be like a little hallway. Is that what that is?

It's just an awning the way they did it, so it's actually not attached. It's It's just like a breezeway. Yeah. It's like it's just a doorway to go through, and it's got but it's got tile on it, so it looks I don't know if there's a picture of the front, but, basically, it looks like it kind of continues, but it's literally just a doorway to go through.

Little arch.

So there's no way to get from that to the other.

It's

very strange. But Oh, it's cool. Mhmm. It's unique.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the things about this house seem unique. Thank you.

Just double checking. Like, the heights on the additions could be matching the the original building. It

is shorter.

It's a little shorter? Yeah. Okay.

I think by a foot or two. Okay. I don't

The roof pitch, it's about is it matching, or is it different?

It's the same roof form and the pitch. I have the architect. Maybe he can confirm on the Zoom call. The existing is 13, and the proposed is 12. Okay. I think we have roof plans.

So scale is subservient to the Mhmm. Original building.

Can you guys hear me? Yep. Yeah. Here we go. I was gonna point you to the roof plan. I'm sorry. Good afternoon. This is German. Yeah. On here, you can see the we're using four and twelve, and the existing, building is at 3 And 12. But we actually keep it below the main, height of the main house, And you can see that under my exterior elevation.

Got it.

The sheet a dash five, you can see that.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Sure. My pleasure. It's about a foot shorter.

Could we go back to the stucco? I think that's gonna be really important on a house like this. Could we take another look at the stucco, please? We kind of went past it fast.

Is This, color right here, we don't have the exact color or name, but this will this is what the wash will look like.

Okay. So it doesn't consider any texture, just the color. Is that true?

Yes. And maybe that, architect can elaborate.

That is correct. I'm sorry. Yeah. The idea and based on, our planning comments is that we can attach to differentiate from the main house to the existing addition. So we're thinking in a different texture as well. Kinda like a not a smooth, but, yeah, a little bit of of different texture we currently have in the main house.

Yeah. We still wanted to keep it within the context of the Spanish revival. So the texture is very unique to the home. So if we can keep it similar to that, that's why we were thinking doing more of a color difference to show the difference rather than totally changing the stucco. But, you know, if you guys think we should it's just a lot of the modern stucco is not what we have right now, so we wanted to try to keep it similar. But then also just change the color so that it was distinct. It you would know it's different from the original structure. Correct. Now we just repainted the main structure, and that's a white color. So that's why we're thinking more of, like, a gray or something like that to kind of complement but show that it's different. But if you guys have any other suggestions.

It's we would probably ask the architect and you to kinda propose what you wanna do there. I think that the stucco and the tile roof tile together are gonna make or break what this looks like next to the existing home. Right? I'm sure you guys sound like you feel the same. And so maybe one of the things we might ask is for a little bit of clarity on that in the drawings so that we know what you guys are planning.

Like, do you wanna see a picture of the existing stucco? Is that kind of Yeah.

And then having the the proposal next to it would help to understand what they're gonna look like side by side. Right?

Mhmm.

Yeah. I think that's what we were trying to do with the color, but her the architect can talk. Mhmm.

No. That's totally right. Amy can actually elaborate that more in a construction document package once we move to the second phase.

Thank you.

Sure. Thanks.

Any other questions? Discussion? Say my piece. I really appreciate the attention to detail, actually, on this particular project. I understand. You know, I've been to a property that's not a big lot. Uh-huh. And, like, I understand, like, you know, how hard it is to kinda, like, figure out the addition over there. It is also very dense. So, like, I do appreciate that we're not going up like a lot of the projects that we've looked at before.

And in in fact, the addition is actually gonna be a little bit shorter. It'll be a little subservient to the the main building, the original building. Differentiations made sense to me, actually. So having, like, kinda same pattern stucco to kinda keep in the style because it is very specific for that type of building. And having a color differentiation will help me to tell the difference between the the original and the and the and the new.

Tiles naturally weather. So, like, even if we have the same style tile for the roof, you're gonna see there's gonna be a difference between the tiles that are originally there and the new ones. Even, like, when people would do repair nowadays and put a new tile in there, you can tell specifically, like, which ones are new because of the weathering of the the tiles that are there before. Yeah. I yeah.

I'm happy this project came through in this way. I I really I I do like the the addition is set back pretty far relative to the property, so it's not, like, in your face, like, in the front. So those are some just some of the the things that jumped out at me.

Yeah. I kinda want to, you know, go, kinda add on to that. It's not really, like, any questions or anything, but I do appreciate the, that that attention to detail where it's kind of private. It's nothing invasive where you're, like, adding something extra and it's just, you know, blatantly out there. And then to differentiate from, like, the original and then just kind of show that, like, like, a cute addition to that, you know, like, something where you're still trying to keep that charm.

And then it's it's it's really hard to to to, you know, establish yourself and and and raise a family here. So that's totally understandable that you want to raise your kids here, be here, and be part of that charm as well. And so I I do appreciate that that attention to detail.

I have a quick question. I know I think when you were talking, you were saying that you're gonna be adding, like, a second bathroom because right now, you know, you have two bedrooms, one bathroom. And I see in the plans, you know, where the additional bathroom is gonna be added to the master bedroom. But in the existing plan, it doesn't seem like any of the rooms are actually marked restroom. I'm just wondering, like, where is the restroom currently?

At the end of the hall on the what's that? The west side of the house. So you see the kitchen. There's that long the hallway heading west. It's to the left of Bedroom 2. That's the bathroom right there.

That's it.

Yeah. It's super small.

Okay. Thank you.

Like, European small.

I can give my thoughts. I mean, I'm really happy that you guys bought this project here. I love this little house. I love that you prepare preserve the dome and even the garage. I think those two architectural elements work together as also the gable end window and the the weep holes. I think that the the extension is modest, and and I like that you kept the roof line in in there and and, you know, really care for this home when you're reusing windows. You know, these are all great things. I would like to have seen a little bit more detail on the stucco and the tile. I know those are gonna be really hard for you guys to get right, but I think the project looks fantastic in the drawings.

Thank you.

Now we had a short discussion about the ten year plan. I mean, there there is, like, some variations from, like, what what I I know you're trying to adhere to it because of, like, the the timeline. It does differ a little bit from, like, today and, like, what we we looked at on in 2020. Is there a need to update the ten year plan for for this? No.

I don't think so.

Okay.

We're gonna talk about the audit we've been doing. Okay. But I think they're consistent with their ten year plan as of now, and it sounds like they'll be integrating maybe some of the work into this work.

Okay. Just wanna get that clarification.

Thank you.

I'm interested in emotion, if anybody has one.

I just wanna say too, it looks like because the fence, you know, on the right side of the house, it's most of it's not even really gonna be visible anyway, at least from the front elevation. I I suppose I'll make a motion then that we approve the plan as is, maybe with the friendly addendum or the, you know, architect to include, you know, specificity in terms of their plans more for the differentiation in the tile and the texture for the addition. Does anyone else have any other addendums?

It's fine.

Okay. Then so moved.

Thank you. Do I have a second on the motion?

I have a second. Thank you.

Those are in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion passes. Thank you so much for presenting the project. Really excited to see it come through. Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Yeah. Come on up. It's a good

clarifying question.

Yeah.

When you said the change in the stucco, so are you saying we should change the stucco or just change change the texture of the stucco?

I I think the what we're saying

Or do the color just make sure it's differentiated.

I think the proposal is fine, like what you had. I think we wanna see on the documentation on how you're differentiating it.

Okay.

Yep.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be the texture that's changed. It could be the color or things like that.

If you just visually see, there's a differentiation.

Okay.

Yeah. Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Bye. Good night.

K. So we'll actually circle back to our consent calendar because that's how I slotted it. So our consent calendar, the procedure for consent calendar is as follows. Consent calendar item may be enacted, approved, or adopted by one motion unless requested to be removed by anyone for discussion for ex or explanation. If any member of Historical Landmarks Commission staff, the applicant, or member of the public wishes to comment on the consent calendar items or would like the item to be heard on regular agenda, make this request now.

Items listed on the consent calendar of associated file number constitute a public hearing item. We do have two items on the consent calendar tonight. It's the minutes for the June 5 meeting that we continue from the August 7 and the minutes from the August 7 meeting. So I do wanna pull the June 5 one for, like, a quick clarification. And then I don't know if anybody else wanted to have a discussion on anything else or okay with kind of proceeding with the discussion, and then, like, we'll go through the motion and vote for the consent calendar.

Okay. So the clarification is, like, on we were always a little bit short on the number of people who actually attended for the June 5 meeting. Right now, in in in this meeting, we only have me, commissioner Stocks, administrator, and CRT that have attended that meeting previously. So commissioner Vargas Smith is out tonight and not able to vote, and then the other member was commissioner Kirby who was not who's no longer on the commission. I generally, we would vote, like, you know, have members who have not attended nor have watched the meeting abstain from voting on that one, but I'm inclined to say maybe we should just approve that and move it forward for, for the council to put it on their agenda because, like, we are I I don't know how long this is gonna sit on our agenda if we don't.

So

I didn't attend the meeting, but I reviewed the recording of the meeting. Okay. I don't know if that qualifies me to vote.

That qualifies. Excellent. So do we wanna do a separate vote between the two meeting minutes? Because it seems like there's gonna be a little bit of variation on who votes on what, whether we wanna just, like, vote as a block.

Can do two votes if it makes it easier in the administrative side. Yeah.

Okay. I'll entertain any motions.

A motion to approve the June 5 HLC minutes.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

I second. June 5.

Okay. Those who in favor, say aye. Aye. Those who oppose, abstain? Abstain. We have four votes, one abstain. So the June 5 meeting minutes is passed. And then do I have a motion for August 7 meeting?

I motion to approve the minutes for the August 7 meeting.

Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Those who those who have a motion, say aye. Aye.

Oppose? Yes. I'll abstain. I was not

You're abstain? Mhmm. So we do have four votes for that so that motion passes. Okay. So we're done with consignment calendar items.

Sorry. Who was the second on the August 7 minutes? Yeah. Okay, sir. Thank you.

Great. Okay. Back to our regularly scheduled program. So we're back to item three.

Thank you.

Reporting completion of the 2024 and 2025 Mills Act audit, and I was move this over to staff.

Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you, chair. So as you know, we have been working on this, mostly Meha, before her Tiffany for a couple years now. We have finally gotten to a place where we think we've gotten all the responses we're going to get at this point. When we've tried and Mehul will go over this in her presentation. We've tried a variety of methods to get in contact with people.

It is part of everyone's contract that they are to make themselves available to these audits. They sign on to that, you know, when the contract is approved by council. So Mehad's gonna go through the numbers, how many responsive we received, how many people are out of compliance, and then those that we haven't received responses from.

Thanks. Just a brief presentation on the process and then the numbers of submitted Mills Act reports that we received. So as you know, Mills Act program is an economic incentive program for the restoration and preservation of qualified historic buildings by private property owners. The city conducts the audit every five years. The last audit was in 2017.

It was supposed to be in 2022, which was postponed due to COVID pandemic to 2024. We, like Rebecca mentioned, did an extensive five phase outreach to reach all of the Mills Act properties through mailed and email letters to either self report or schedule an on-site inspection with planning staff. Property owners who do not respond to the initial requests sent via email and mail were contacted by telephone, certified mail, and also hand delivered notices from code enforcement staff. This is just a timeline from when we began last year in May 2024, which is phase one, where we sent out mailed letters to all most active properties to submit self report or schedule an on-site inspection. In July, we sent out phase two letters to all the properties who did not respond in phase one, phase three two mailed and emailed letters to properties who did not respond in phase one and two.

Same thing for phase four. And then in phase five, we try to reach through multiple different methods. So certified mail, email, telephone, and have our code enforcement staff visit the properties to hand deliver the letters. And in phase three and four, we also reached out by telephone as well. Out of the so we have total 132 properties with the Moesac contract.

Out of those, 128 properties completed Moesac audit either by self report or via inspection. Out of the 128 properties, 127 are in compliance. Only one of them is out of compliance. And then there were four properties who did not complete the Mills Act audit. And then 96 properties have an expired ten year plan.

So the next steps so separate from the audit process, staff will work with the properties that have expired ten year plans to prepare updated plans, and they will bring it to HLC as combined plans. We'll also work with the one out of compliance property to bring them into compliance or discuss removal procedure. And then we'll we'll proceed with nonrenewal or contract termination for four properties that have failed to complete the audit. And then the next audit will be in 2030 or 2031. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions from the commission?

The four properties and potentially one more. If they protest, would they have to come back through the HLC for a new Mills Act, or is that unclear yet?

I think it's a little unclear at this point. Like Maha said, we've had no success in getting what in contact with them. We'd have met with the city attorney's office as far as the proceedings required for either not renewing the contract or terminating the contract. So I think if through those proceedings they appear, we're not gonna turn them away. We'll try and bring them into compliance with the program, of course. But, yeah, no look so far.

Yeah.

We saw some amazing pristine examples in through this process.

Mhmm. I'm just curious. The four houses that did not respond, are they, like, vacant houses? You know, properties are owned, but people aren't living there? Or

One of them is currently owned by the bank, so that's the reason we haven't been able to get them to to submit. All the other are occupied. One of them, I think, is tenant occupied. The owner lives somewhere else. The other two, they're occupied by the owners. Interesting.

Okay. Thank you.

End of a newbie question. Is this list published for all the properties? Or

It some of these homes are included as MoSAC in the HRI inventory list in the general plan. All of these records are public. So if someone requests to look at them, we can provide that information. We are also right now in the process to update that HRI list in the general plan, so they will be included in the the general plan.

And if you look at the our minutes, the four houses are actually listed on the agenda report. The address is on there. Then I guess, like, for for the proceedings for removal, like, do we I I've never seen one that we've done. So, like, I I don't think I don't know if we have an established process to do it.

Yes. So that's why we met with Xander because we wanna make sure we're doing this properly. Obviously, it's a, you know, a big deal and a financial impact to the the owners. And so what we were told was we'll schedule this for council for them to set a date to discuss the nonrenewal or cancellation of the contract. And then they'll set the date, and then we'll send well, we'll send notices for both, but then we'll send formal notices letting those homeowners know that this is gonna be discussed at a scheduled date.

Mhmm. And then it's up to council, essentially. And then if they do choose to terminate the contract, we'll be in contact with the county as well.

Okay. I'm kinda curious what we're do with, like, the bank on one because that's a it's 906 Monroe. Yeah. That's a that's a property of discussion for many days.

What was the property?

906 Monroe.

906. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

And so, like, there's no, like, the occupant owner to kinda contact, like, how is that gonna be, like, any different in the proceeding for removal? And I I know, like, that specific house has, like, a different zoning for itself too because of its protection.

I I mean, we send it to the owner of record in that instance. I think we try to get in contact with, like, the real estate agent, anyone we had prior contact for from the previous project, and we just have had no luck. Mhmm. So if the council determines we wanna remove it or from the program or terminate the contract, I mean, it'll affect whoever the current owner's taxes are. Right.

And if I remember correctly, like, if we do, like, a removal, is it, like, an immediate removal, or is that, like, the just, like, stop the rolling renewal? It would just run out in ten years type of thing.

So that's why there's two options. There's the nonrenewal option or the contract termination option.

Okay. Because I think the contract termination carries immediate fine or, like, a financial burden.

That's correct. So the contract termination, there is a fine for noncompliance administered by the county. Mhmm. And the government code identifies it as 12 and a half percent of the market value of the house. Okay.

That would be incentive.

Yeah.

Okay. Do we know, like, how long that process may take, or does sender have any idea?

I mean, I I guess it's up to our ability to schedule it for council. So I obviously wanted to come forward with this to you, and then I'll be scheduling the date to schedule the hearing would be my next step.

Okay. I have a question. Do these letters have, like, maybe, like, some kind of notice indicating, you know, if they're not in compliance or they're not renewing that these are the, you know, consequences? Yeah. Does it inform them of that?

It let me bring up the letter. It does inform them that if they are not able to respond, there's potentially the their agreement could be terminated.

You mentioned there was 96 properties with ten plus years out of a 130. I was quite surprised at how many of the houses are more than ten years in the plan. Right? I feel like we're not necessarily maybe we've added them all, but I feel like we're not necessarily adding as many as we could do. We've discussed the HRI a little while ago. You know, is there any outreach to HRI that we could maybe do to HRI properties that are not Mills Act properties? I know this is not the same subject, but, you know, is there any kind of connection that we're having with those homes as part of this?

No. Because they're not subject to the audit. But if we wanna start doing outreach to those other properties, I think that would be part of the work that your outreach subcommittee is doing.

Okay. I guess, like, you know, obviously, keep us updated on it. This is, like, something I've talked to Shippo about, like, I don't know, years ago. Removal is not very common. And, usually, like, the 12 and a half percent, it's enough to get the owners to do some sort of action to remain on the contract.

So, hopefully, this would be starting with the proceedings would be a, you know, a I I wanna say wake up call, but, like, more of, like, a, like, a, like, a kick to get the get the owners to get back into compliance or at least reply.

Yeah. So with this. You know, you have a contract yourself, but they literally say on them that there's a fine for contract cancellation. They signed that. So but I think maybe the exact amount would be shocking.

Yeah. And it especially, like you know, I mean, Millside stays the property. So, like, if it's, like, a new owner to the property, they may not be aware of what they're buying, to be completely honest. I've known maybe, like, two or three people who actually read through the the contract itself. My my co owner is one of them, to understand, like, what the penalties would be to be to enter in the contract.

So, maybe that is part of the education that we do. But I think, like, for them to get, like, a specific of what the penalties are going to be, we'll probably move them into action, hopefully. Because, like, I you know, I'm always reluctant to move people off of programs like this because it is the incentive to keep up with the maintenance of these properties. So, anyway, it's just my spiel.

And if if they've had ten years and they've not kept up with it, you know, the opportunity if they've had ten years and not done anything on their plan, offering them another year another year with no penalty, you know, just kicks that can down the road. So I do hope that when each case is considered that we don't just allow them to extend without, you know, committing financially to to what they have already promised that they would do, and having us having the city make sure that they complete that commitment.

But it sounds like, you know, out of, like, all the all the ones that were contacted, only one of them was really out of compliance. They're working and staff is working with them already. These four just didn't reply at all.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Well, to clarify, in some instances, they did reply, but they

Never submitted the

Yeah. Like, the Okay. Ask questions or or we talk to them on the phone. So we did, like, have contact with a couple of them.

Okay.

Or, like, code enforcement when they went to the house. They talked to someone, but they just never submitted the required documentation or scheduled a inspection appointment.

Okay. They probably thought it was kinda the same kind of inspections as what county used to send out the the letter for us to fill out before because that didn't really have their audit didn't really do anything other than just, like, checking that we were doing stuff off the list. But it didn't have, like, enforcement because, like, the the contract is with the city itself. So we have the right to terminate.

It looks like too that one of the properties was also nonresponsive during the 2017 audit. Just wondering, like, what happened then? I mean, was there any kind of recourse or, you know, they just kinda let it slide for seven years?

Yeah. Let's I'll call Yen, and we'll ask him what happened. I'm not sure. Okay. We picked this back up, you know, to do the new audit, we found the old spreadsheet that had, like, the noncompliant properties. And

yeah, there they were.

Do you do you does anyone think that it might be, like, a a language barrier? Or

That's the one where code enforcement went and spoke to the property owner.

K.

I mean, that's I mean, that's as much.

What happens when a property has a Mills Act contract and then they sell the house to someone else? Does the new owner inherit that MILZAC contract?

Yeah. It runs with the land.

Is it with the land. That's what I got.

Is it possible then oh, okay. Well, on that same question then, can the new owner request to update the contract if they review it and they're like, we can't do all this, or we have different plans? Yeah. Definitely. Okay. And then shoot. I had another question, but I think I'll. Yeah. I was just thinking maybe some of the properties that aren't really engaging the process, perhaps they were sold, you know, between the last audit and this current audit, and maybe the new owners aren't really that, you know, invested in historic preservation or the Mills Act contract?

No. No? These four are the same owners.

Okay.

Thank you. Well, except for

the bank one, I should say, obviously.

Except for the bank one. Yeah.

I have I did quick oh, no. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just gonna ask, is it any different since the bank is owning it? Since the bank will pay taxes on it, is the bank getting the tax break? Does that okay. So then there would be incentive for them to participate in the audit. Right? Okay.

Probably don't wanna take the penalty.

Oh, just trying to avoid the enforcement of noncompliance? Mhmm. Maybe they think the penalty might be less expensive than doing what is on the ten year contract.

That property is complicated. Yeah. I've talked about that property ad nauseam. But yes. Yeah.

Yeah. So in case of, let us say, property sell, generally, the seller, do do they disclose that this is a historic property? Because many times seller buyer do not know all those. They do not have those information.

I would assume it would be part of the disclosures.

It is part of the disclosures. Yeah. It it is in this stack of disclosures. And so if you wanna flip through it, yeah, it's there. I I remember when we were purchasing our home, there was a very long call of yen to talk about what does it mean.

Yes. And we do get those phone calls as well. People wondering what the implication is.

That when I bought my property, it's I really didn't know this was historic, and I I was seeing the map after talk about the HRA. I was searching on the, you know, Google and found out the lake. So this area is Mabo District, like, near the the Woodhampton and Stevens Creek, South Santa Clara. So when one of the my neighbor tried to, you know, rim renovate, he he got into that clause. Oh, this is a historic district. You cannot add second story or the but I do not see that in here. That is historic. It's not.

Is it removed? Okay. No. It never was. It was never. K.

One of the questions that I had after this study was is the things that people put on their ten year plan, is it actually what they ended up doing? Because there was some opportunity for horse trading, I guess, between years. And can we get any kind of summaries? Because that would help us guide future ten year plans.

Can you repeat that?

So, yeah, it's possible to change the ten year plan along the way if you sign it. So what people said they were gonna do, is it that kind of what they ended up doing? And Mhmm. Can we use that to categorize and better standardize what ten year plans might look like from new submissions?

Potentially. I mean, I feel like we try to keep the ten years plans as fluid as possible while still, you know, having clear goals for the house, but I think we're not strict on projects moving around in different years. Maybe when we're doing the update to the 96 properties that are have ten year expired plans, we can look at that and see if there's any patterns.

You know, some of the project plans are like, I'm gonna do my front garden, and others are like, I'm gonna put in a foundation that keeps my house up for a hundred years. Those are things, and I would quite happily say the foundation is two or three years worth of money. And so, you know, I don't necessarily wanna say that we foresee 10 items on a ten year plan that more likely items should be about longevity of the home rather than any other aspects. But if the house is in mint condition, sometimes there is only smaller aspects to work on, and we may find that with the 96. So, you know, if we were to create pie charts of what people actually did of the 100 and plus responses, could we kinda understand what are the common things that people ended up doing and and perhaps what kind of monies they spent on each of those categories so that we can help to budget ten year plans and and compare that to the the savings that they're getting, making sure the city's getting good value.

Yeah. That's a good idea. I think it might be the only tough aspect is, like, some of these ten year plans with the original projects are from the early two thousands. So, like, obviously, monetarily, there's been a lot of change in how much things cost and maybe what people were able to invest previously.

Yeah.

In, like, the newer plans, a lot of them focus more on, like, HVAC plumbing, things like that, just making sure the property is in a good condition. That's what I've noticed. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good point. I think we used to be a lot looser with what we would consider as part of a ten year plan, whereas a lot of cosmetic improvements rather than doing, like, inspections or checking the roof or improving the foundation. So that that is also a a big change we've seen in more recent years.

Guess one question for me is, like, when the updates are coming through, are we are we gonna be reviewing, like, 90 something plans? Well, minus one.

Well, my thought was to bring them, like, in batches.

Okay.

Maybe, like, 10 at the most at a time. Okay.

Just so I guess they come through.

Yeah. Okay. And maybe I don't know that, you know, we're gonna be able to coordinate having all those homeowners come on the same evening, but I have to think about it a little more how to do it.

Yeah. I was thinking, like, maybe we can do, like, batch reviews, and then if do we have specific questions for homeowners that we really wanna ask and invite them for a later one to coordinate at my work? Because, like, some of them are gonna be fine.

That that would work because we don't have to notice these, which is a benefit, so we can be a little bit more flexible in the scheduling.

Yeah. And then we can just have them call, and then so that they don't have to.

Right. Yeah. There's a problem with the amount is there a problem with the amount that they're suggesting or the tasks that they that they're looking at that don't seem like they they align with what we would imagine, then we could pull those out for discussion.

Yeah. We can pull for discussion if need be. Because, yeah, I was thinking too, like, if they come through the packet, then if you just give us a heads up, then we can review them ahead of time so we're not just, like, reading through them as we're sitting here.

Ten year plan consists of pool.

We're gonna pull that one.

It's gonna be a lot of paint. That's what I meant.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm anticipating. Okay. Are we good on this item? We're good. We can move on. Oh, so the next item we have is the election of the Historical and Landmark's Commission chair and vice chair that was continued from August 7. I did say we're only gonna continue as this once, So we do have to vote tonight on it. So I will take any nominations acceptance for let's start a chair.

Who's the vice chair right now?

Anna.

Oh, Anna. Okay. Thank you. How long is the chair and vice chair positions for?

A year.

For a year. Yeah. I nominate chair Long as chair and chair no. Wait. Vice chair Vargas Smith as as vice chair.

I will accept my nomination, but Anna is not here to accept her vie nomination.

So what do what do we do then if the person that we wanna nominate is not here?

He's not eligible for the nomination. We we discussed this last month. You have to be here. Yeah. Or you can call in.

Okay. Well, then I just I nominate chair along for chair.

Thank you. I will accept the nomination. Are there any other nominations?

We have a

I nominate commissioner Stocks for vice chair.

I will second that nomination.

Yes. I should have been later. I accept the nomination. Thank you.

Do have to disclose that I won't be here next month, so you will have to chair. Oh.

Okay.

That piece of paper.

You Elizabeth gives an excellent script. So you will have this as reference. Okay. Okay. So we'll do that. Do we have a motion for the for the election of me as chair and Ed as commission stocks

as vice chair. I motion to let's see. What was that? What'd you say? Right now, I'm, like, blanking out. Okay. Let's let's I motion to nominate chair Lung as chair Lung and commissioner Stokes as vice chair.

I second.

I second. Those are in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, abstain, unanimous to absence. Thank you for trusting me for another year. Thank you for volunteering to be vice chair and chairing next next month's meeting. Cool. So that's all the public hearing items we have tonight as I'm going through the script. Okay. So I guess we are at staff report. Training and travel request and then our commission work plan. Those are items I have on here.

So I don't have a staff report this evening. I don't have any update on the work plan and when that will be scheduled for council. Hopefully not when you're out of town.

Hopefully not. But Ed's gonna have fun.

I always have fun.

The council.

When you're out of town.

Okay. Cool. I I guess we can give Nora a heads up that I'm gonna be gone.

Yeah. Why don't you tell me the dates after the meeting?

Yeah. I can give you the dates after.

Cool.

And then commissioner's reports. I don't think we have had any subcommittee reports, so I'll move on to boring commission boring committee. Santa Clara Arts and Historic Consortium, I neither one of the people are here, so I don't think we have an update. Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara, same. There's no update.

Oakmont Residence Association, I don't have any updates. We actually haven't met in a while, so, like, we need to get back on that. I guess we are still planning the Halloween picnic, so there may be some I can send a note for next month. It's gonna be, a picnic at the by admission library. Yeah.

Development review hearing and haven't heard anything. Our high spiral VTA BRT committee, constructions are happening by their yard. And then we actually had a really good presentation, couple months ago at SATF. So, like, if anybody wanna kinda get update on that, that's actually a good video to pull up about the where we are. It's actually the last two station area meeting.

Yes. I believe it was the July meeting. Yeah.

Because July was specifically BART, and last month was VTA talking about the property over there, but, like, we also talked a little bit about the the BART station as well. It wasn't their specialty, but just kinda, like, talking about, like, the dimensions and stuff. But, yeah, those were those were really great discussions. El Camino Real specific plan committee community advisory, I don't think there's any updates on that. Downtown precise plan, I don't know where we are.

I think there's next study is kinda coming up, but I don't know if there's, like, anything specific to report on. And then the stationary task force, that's been going swimmingly. Please, if you haven't attended, we do have all those videos on, yeah, on YouTube, and, you get to hear me talk a lot again. So yep. So that's, where they are. And, yeah, board committee reports. Yeah. I I guess we're adjournment, actually. So do I have a do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion oh, go ahead. I

have to make an announcement. Oh. Yeah. Just on behalf of vice chair Vargas, who's still vice chair, right, until the end of this meeting.

For the next few minutes.

Yeah. Because she always promotes the Santa Clara parade of champions. So I just wanted to, like, put out an announcement there to, you know, remind folks that actually, is this gonna happen before our next meeting? '10 four, October 4. That is October 4 is a Saturday.

Our meeting is gonna be on October 2. Actually, we'll have a meeting before this. But, anyway, Saturday, October 4 is braid of champions. It's from ten to five in Downtown Santa Clara. They also have a breakfast of champions, and that is from eight to ten at the American Legion at 958 Homestead Road. It's $15 per ticket. You can go to the Santa Clara parade of champions, scparadeofchampions.org website. I don't know who I'm talking to. No. Was listening at this hour. But and they have information and tickets there for the breakfast of champions.

Thank you for that announcement. I almost forgot.

You're very welcome. Thank you.

So And anyone else have anything to say, promote? Okay. I motion to adjourn adjourn.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. Those in favor, say aye.

Aye. And

we're adjourned. Thank you very much, everyone.