Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Holt ordered the development review hearing of 11/19/2025 at the time of 04:00. Good afternoon. My name is Sheldon Assing. I am the hearing officer for today's agenda as delegated by the director of redevelopment, Akshayan Hamed. The planners in attendance are senior planner, Nimisha Agawal, assistant planner, Alex Tejas, and assistant planner, Summer Foss. Distribution of the agenda. The agenda is available on the city's website under the calendar event on the Friday afternoon preceding the meeting. For those of you that are present in the chambers, please silence your mobile devices. Copies of the agenda are available for your convenience. There's also a QR code if you wanna scan that for the agenda as well.

Declaration of procedures. The hearing procedure and order of input for this hearing will be as follows. I will identify each project as described on the agenda. For, items on the consent calendar, I'll ask if anyone wishes to speak on the item. A separate discussion is warranted.

I will move the item to public hearing portion of the agenda. A separate discussion is not needed. The item will remain on the consent calendar for approval. Those item up to two minutes per speaker either for or against the project. All speakers are required to state their name for the record.

Following comments from the public, the applicant may make additional remarks for up to five minutes. Will then close the public hearing, and I may ask staff to answer questions, respond to comments made by the applicant or the public, or further discuss the item. Then I will take action on the item. If you challenge these land use decisions in court, you may have, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at this public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing. Actions on the agenda items are final unless appealed within seven calendar days. Continuances or exceptions. There are any requests from applicants or the public for, withdrawal continuance or exception for any other items on today's agenda.

Day.

Seeing no one in the chambers. No one online. Consent calendar is one item on the consent calendar. It's as follows. Item one, development review hearing meeting minutes minutes of October 15. Anyone has any comments on this item, please raise your hand. Seeing none. Item one is approved on the consent calendar. So moving on to public hearing items. Item number two is public hearing determination of consistency with the adopted mitigated negative declaration and action on the architecture review.

File number PLN2400474 to allow the development of a 142 residential units and associated on and off-site improvements for the property located at 1400 Coleman. Sequel status is adopted, mitigated, negative declaration. So, Nimisha, are you ready to station?

Consistency with the adopted mitigated negative declaration. And the second is architectural review to allow the development of 142 residential units and associated on and off-site improvements. The site, as highlighted in yellow to the right here, is is a three point acre site. It is surrounded by commercial and industrial users to the north and to the high density residential. This property is within the Santa Clara Station focus area plan.

The specific plan is currently underway, and it is yet to be formally adopted. For the Santa Clara code section 18.112, the request to construct This year, city council took the following actions, adopted the mitigated negative declaration and mitigated monitoring or reporting program for the proposed residential townhome project, approved a general plan amendment from regional commercial to high density residential, approved a rezone of the property from commercial regional CR to high density residential r four, and lastly, approve is a rendering of the project looking from Coleman Avenue. The project features a modern architectural style that incorporates a variety of building materials and textures to enhance the visual appeal and interest. The materials include brick veneer, stucco, vertical siding, and metal railings. And applicant has submitted materials board, which is available here as well.

Looking at the site plan, the to private alleys, which has townhomes on either sides as well. The project would construct a eight foot wide sidewalk along the project frontage with a six foot wide landscape strip. The site the staff the developer has worked with the staff to provide one large open area and other open areas as well to provide common open spaces for the residents living here on the site. And that area is a total of 0.45 acres. Spaces in a combination of garage spaces and surface parking spaces.

It also provides bicycle parking spaces as required. So one class one per unit and seven class two bike racks. Project removes the 59 existing trees on-site and would plant 64 new trees. The general plan does require the replacement ratio of two is to one. Provides a 142 units in a combination of 12 buildings, four story high.

And here is the distribution with the common open spaces as shown here. The building provides variety of unit sizes. So it provides us provides 30 studios, twenty two one bedroom units, eight bedroom units, eight two bedroom units, and eighty two three bedroom units. And as I mentioned, the materials board is provided, included the electronic copy here, and the physical boards are available here to review. As stated earlier, the use of the materials are stucco, vertical siding, brick veneer, metal railings, and, yeah, and the standing seam metal roof.

In terms of consistency with the design guidelines and objective standards, the project's proposed project improves the aesthetics of the site, creates a mix of users by providing residential in proximity to the existing commercial users. It enhances the bike and pedestrian connections and is designed to be compatible Applicant has worked with staff to refine the project proposal by providing refined and complete elevations with material specifications, adding the light fixture details. They have added fenestrations at the ground level along Coleman Avenue elevation, incorporated windows into all garage doors. They have enhanced the facade articulation, refined the color palette. I worked with staff on that and provided a materials board.

Windows are recessed at least four inches from the facade. And, also, they have provided detailed specifications and drawings for windows, furnaces, railings, and clearly indicating the materials, colors, and finishes. Provided was provided by the applicant. Two community outreach meetings were conducted by the developer. The first one was in person in October, and the second one was in March or maybe it was this year.

And it was virtual, and it was attended by 13 members of the public. The key topics of these meetings included the site plan, the configuration of the site plan, the consistency with the stationary specific plan, ride drop off, and pickup delivery locations, which have been now identified on the site plan, the affordability affordability levels, like as on the relocation, and probably they may have an update today. We received six letters of support and one letter in opposition of The project did have a CEQUA evaluation and potential environmental impacts of the projects were addressed in the m and d that the city prepared in accordance with the of the project is consistent with the adopted m and d. With that, the staff recommendation is to determine the project to be consistent with the adopted initial study and m and d and approve the architectural review to allow the development of 142 residential units and associated on and offset improvements for the property located at 1400 Coleman Avenue subject to findings and conditions of approval. Request that staff had made to provide landscaping and metal trellis and vain vines on along the brick facade on the along Coleman Avenue for the pedestrian experience, enhancing the pedestrian experience, which the developer had provided shown on the renderings that is provided, but just wanna make sure that is consistent throughout the drawings.

The other thing is that staff has requested for the stucco along Coleman Avenue to be a smooth stucco, which we can talk about it or get a clarification from the developer on. That concludes the staff presentation, and we I'm here to answer any questions that you may have. The applicant is also here and have a presentation to share.

Thank you, I don't have any questions for you at this time, but I'll invite the applicant or to the podium. Please state your name.

Hi. I'm Pam Needing. Thank you so much

for having me here today.

I'm sorry.

Hi. I'm Pam Needing. Thank you for having me here today. So the the this is the rendering, which I'm gonna talk about in a second. Next slide, please.

So we're very proud to be back here. Thank you. Oops. Next slide. Misha already discussed this, but we are within a half a mile of a major transit spot close to Santa Clara University and also across from Costco and the Gateway Crossings project.

No. I totally get it. So I already know what the next slide is gonna say, so I might as well just when it when it comes up, you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. But we've had the pleasure of working on this project and city staff for four I'm hoping to to talk to you about today is the implementation of the architecture where we work which we've worked really, really hard on. Which is this exact slide.

So next slide, please. I'll go ahead and talk to the next slide also because it'll pop up here in a second. But here we go. Here finally, to present to you the project. And Anisha said it beautifully with the 142 units are for housing.

We have anywhere from 200 to 2,000 square feet studios to three bedroom units. Play with the large open space. We added special elements that was very specific to what city council also asked for, such as hose bibs at the community garden areas, the dog parks, wash a wash station at the barbecue area. So lots of special elements that really tied all of this together. Next slide, please.

With the city of Santa Clara so that we could provide it into reality, which you will see. I wish I could have a wand.

Sly.

But while that slide is being popped up, as Anisha was saying, the facade at Coleman was absolutely critical. And so there was brick veneers as staples as a staple, vines, thank you, vines for warmth and square elements were some of the items of inspiration. Alright. And next slide. And then once those basic items of inspiration were were discussed with the city, which was the brick veneer, the vines, kind of the square elements, We can just stay right here.

We we skipped a slide, but that's okay. Once those basic elements were identified, it was about unifying it with the surrounding environment. So we the the goal was the surrounding environment was the gateway crossings project, but at the same time, it was about keeping the individuality of the project while drawing out those elements. And so specific to this slide, one occurring theme that we had in discussion for the architecture with city council was to draw a community feel all albeit while being in a in an urban setting. So right here, the Wunorf Street was a big theme of ours to provide those meeting places.

Sorry. Next slide. I'll talk up to the next slide. Nimisha discussed it beautifully about that large open space area, and it was about, again, the community aspect because the units were efficient. Right? These aren't large single family homes. It was about tying the urban field batch to the community aspect, so that was also a point of inspiration for the architecture as well. Oh my gosh. Now, Sheldon, hopefully, you're you're following what I'm saying with the

It's I mean, I I know we're having some connectivity issues.

Okay. Perfect. This is the slide where I was trying to talk about the community, drawing out the commute part of what the inspiration was. So for the next slide, all those inspirational elements lead to the intentional that we have eight plex and 10 plex buildings. But the idea was instead of having, as you can see for gateway, it's a straight line.

We have those steps in order to provide the individuality of each and every unit. And then the palette that we chose, which you can see behind you to behind you and also in a slide that's gonna pop up, is leaning towards a mid century modern with earthy new here we go, with earthy neutrals as the foundation of the color palette and also pops of deep saturated midtones that were drawn out from the Santa Clara University colors of that kinda, like, burgundy that you see there. And when the next slide does pop up, you'll see that for the two I I do wanna bring something up about the stucco. The stucco is only on the 4th Floor, so everything And off-site, we chose those for the two main colors of stucco. And then the vertical siding, which will be the slide after that, is the is, again, the warm gray with the option of the slightly darker palette, and it incorporates the deep saturated midtone of the burgundy siding.

But, again, the idea was to have that brick veneer tie all the colors together. Yay. Okay. See, we caught up. And then okay.

So here's the here's the brick veneer and the vertical siding that I was just mentioning. And then for the next slide, garage doors. Every single one of our garage doors also incorporates the windows. That was something that was brought up to us. And and so what we did was the windows kinda match the eyes and openings to the buildings, and then and the black metal And a cap on all of the parapets that that you can see up there, that neatly frames all of the elevation drops for each and every unit, again, to kinda cap and frame that individuality.

And, also, we have, which you'll see in that in that slide, the dark fixtures that tie into the darker elements of the doors. Beautiful. Thank you, Nemisha. That that dark lighter there, you can see the cap right there that kinda caps and frames every of the homes. Thank you, Namisha.

This is what I like to call a suit the super stackers, which we created this product specifically for this project in Santa Clara. And what you have is these efficient four story products that look and feel like the other larger units. But what it's For they're a bit thinner and longer, and those have the the three story and den options. And then in the last slide, because I know I only have three minutes, so I've probably gone a little bit over. We have the thank thank you, Nimisha.

And then the beautiful. That aging in place slide is what we were able to incorporate in as part of

on the screen. So it was fine.

Okay. And then to tie it off, all those elements that I talked about inspiration, here here, it can be seen in the rendering from the vines, the brick veneer, the caps, the steps. And so the one thing as Anisha was noting was we would like to request that is this appropriate time to do the request about the stucco or not the time?

I

for the sake of the HOA, just because of and Dan Hale here from Hunt Hill Jones is available. It's only in consideration from the HOA in the future, management of these units because it needs a custom mason in order for that to actually look beautiful and right. And so we're just trying to think ahead

for

If you can bring that apple up here. And then while that's happening, there's any members of the public that wanna speak on this item? Now is your time. So is anybody in the chamber that wanna speak on this item, Coleman? Okay.

Anybody online? Please raise your hand. Not seeing anybody. Thank you. Drafted now.

Kind of in the middle, I guess, maybe the third part of it. We also have the Gateway Crossings project that is already mostly built, and there's a couple components of it. I think there's a hotel and another, residential building, but the park is there. And that provides some example of baseline of of the types of projects and quality to expect. And so the area would be positioning in the future to more residential, I believe, probably some other mixed use

projects. And

so I do hear you about the stucco and the the homeowner association. And my thought is the front and the side buildings A And H. Right? Their front goes, you know, something that's gonna last a long time. I think my my my thought is that I have a condition to have this food stucco in those port parts of Building A And H along the front and side.

And on the back, there's a lot of stucco and alley. That's fine. You can do I think you would propose, like, a sixteen, twenty or something. So that's that's gonna that's gonna be my recommendation there. And then, Vishal, do we need anything about the Trellis?

I saw it in some of the drawings, but just do you need a condition for that? For the metal trellis in the 1st Floor along the bricks so that some vines could grow. So I'm going to close public hearing, and I will then make a recommendation to, determine the project consistent with the adopted mitigated negative declaration and approve the architectural review of the project with those two added conditions. So thank you very much. Looking forward to project coming up.

Item number three is a action on an architectural review for 959 square foot second story accessory dwelling unit to an existing one story single family residence, 5,724 square foot lot, 749 Clara Vista Avenue. CEQA status is exempt from CEQA. I just wanna gauge here. Is there anybody in the chambers or online that wants to speak on this item that's not an applicant For 749 Clara Vista. Okay.

So I'll waive the presentation. I've read the materials. I will open up the public hearing, though, and just I wanna hear from, the applicant. That person's able, or online. Okay. Let's see.

Hello? Hi. Can you hear me? Or

Boman?

Oh, hi. Hi, Kenny. I've I've I've been having trouble with the sound. You guys keep the sound keeps going out and then

I apologize for that. We're having some difficulties with Zoom today, but we can hear you now.

Go ahead. It's not it's not me on my end then. That's good. Okay. I just about your project.

Just one thing. There is inconsistency in the meeting agenda. It says 959 square feet, but the plan is actually 1,068 square feet. Oh, I'm sorry. I can't hear you.

Yeah. The sound is out on my side. I cannot hear you. I'm sorry.

Is there anything else that you wanna mention beyond that?

Oh, you're back. Okay. No. No. That's it.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Just checking. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item? And I will close the public hearing. I think, the project does meet the findings and, meets our design guidelines. So, do determine the project to be exempt from CEQUA and also approve the architectural review for this project. So your project is approved. So do do you work with, Summer on the project? Alex. Sorry. Alex.

Alex. Alex. Yes. I was with him. So Thank you. You. I can have dinner now.

Alright.

Oh, okay. Early dinner. Then I'll lunch. Okay. Thank you, guys. Is there any questions or anything?

Alright. We're going to the next item, which is which is summer. Item number four is public hearing action on the architecture review for an 800 square foot, two story accessory dwelling unit to an existing 2,069 square foot, one story residence. It's not the applicant that wants to speak on this item. 4939.

Not seeing anyone here. So I'm just gonna waive the presentation, but I will open the public hearing. And I wanna hear from the applicant on this items. Anyone the applicant for this. Please come forward. State your name.

My name is Ryan Hua. I'm the designer and the contractor for this ADU.

Nothing else to add?

That's pretty much it. I mean

Okay.

That's fine. That's fair. It looked like a pretty straightforward project to me, but I'll just ask if there's any, just again, anybody else that wants to speak on this item? Seeing no hands. Then, I'll close the public hearing. I don't have any questions there. It seems like a very straightforward project. I think the project meets the design guidelines. It's consistent with our zoning code. So, therefore, I will, determine the project to be, exempt from CEQUA for new construction and then approve the architectural review for the, accessory dwelling unit. So do work with Summer.

Sounds good.

Thank you. Thank you. Alright. I have number five. I will hear the presentation on this one. There's a public hearing action on the architectural review or demolition of existing residential building to construct a 2282 square foot four bedroom, three bathroom, two story single family residence with 400 square foot garage a 5,000 square foot lot at 3037 Harding Avenue. CEQUA status is exempt from CEQUA. Alex, presentation.

Yes. Good evening, everybody. Alex Tajas, assistant planner. Currently waiting for my presentation to load. So Right, everybody.

The presentation is currently loading, and I will start immediately when it loads. Alrighty, everybody. So in a few seconds, the presentation will start. Thank you for your patience, everybody online, hearing everybody in the chamber. So now showing on the big screen, but

it looks good online.

37 Harding Avenue. This project is a full demolition and construction of a new single family home according to Santa Clara City code section 18 and 20.02. And the subsections one and seven of states that this type of scope of work requires a development review hearing to get a planning approval for the entitlement. Alrighty. So as people online can see, the existing site is shown on the right.

It's about approximately 5,012 square feet. It is surrounded by other single family homes, all zoned and gen and has the same general plan.

Sure. Hi. Sorry, sir. We can't hear you at all. Hi.

Excuse me. Can you hear me? We can't hear anything from here. Hi. I'm not sure if you can hear me on that, but I can hear anything still.

Hello? I can't hear anything. Sorry. We can't hear anything from here. We'll just talk about what we're do.

And since our design fully compliance with the codes, so we would inset we would like to insist on our design right now. And, since the fence and the design were all compliance with the codes, so I think our design was were totally fine. Sorry. We still can't hear anything from here.