Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Are we okay? The planning commission meeting of May 14th will come to order. All rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The secretary will call the role. Commissioner man. Commissioner Tlson here. Commissioner Rice here. Vice Chairperson Kennedy here. Chairperson Chrisman here. May I have a motion for approval of the agenda? I move to approve the agenda as presented. I'll second it. A motion was made by Commissioner Telson with a second by Commissioner Lee. Can Yeah. Unless there are any objections, the agenda stands approved. Um, may I have a motion for approval of the minutes? I move to approve the minutes as presented. Second. A motion was made by Commissioner Telson with a second by Commissioner Rice. Unless there is any objections, the minutes are approved. The secretary will read the declaration of conflict. If any member of the planning commission may have a conflict of interest or any reason why that member must abstain from consideration of any matter on this agenda, he or she should so declare at this time. Are there any declarations of conflict? This is the time allotted for public statements or comments on all items other than public hearing items.

Is there anyone in the chamber wishing to be heard? hearing none. Um, is there there's no correspondence, right? Yes. Oh, there is. Chairperson Chrisman, we did receive one late correspondence. It's a supplemental agenda item for 11 A1 from the California Department of um Housing Defense Fund housing defense fund. California Housing Defense Fund uh regarding item 11 A1 uh their uh letter of support for the project. Thank you. We don't have anything on the consent calendar. We don't have anything on the continued business. Okay. New business. This is the time and place set for a public hearing on the consideration of PD-S-2024-00007 07 cup-s224-000010-TP- S-2024-00005. Are there any exparte communications to report? May we have an oral report on this matter by staff? Yes. Good evening, chair person Chrisman and members of the planning commission. This is a um plan development permit and conditional use permit modification and a tenative parcel map for the proposed redevelopment of the lighthouse

community church on Cochran Street. uh where they're proposing to essentially uh split off a portion the eastern portion of their property to a um affordable housing project and at the same time semiconcurrently to add a sanctuary addition to their uh existing church facility um on the remaining portion of the site. our associate planner Z Chapari and will have tonight's presentation. Thank you Sean. Good evening planning commissioners. The applicant, Lighthouse Bible Church, requests approval of a plan development permit, tentative parcel map, and conditional use permit modification to create a new parcel, construct an 80 unit multifamily apartment complex, and a modification to the existing conditional use permit for religious facility. The affordable housing agreement falls under the city council's perview and will be reviewed at a later date. The project site is located at 4910 Cochran Street. The western portion of the site is currently developed with a 17,000 square foot religious facility and 3,000 square foot parsonage. The site is surrounded by a religious facility and recently approved townhouse development to the west, single family homes to the north and south, and a private school to the east. The property is owned by the Lighthouse Bible Church of Seami Valley who plans to sell the vacant eastern portion of the site outlined in red on screen to Cam Coastal. To facilitate this, the applicant is also proposing the tentative parcel map to subdivide the lot, keeping the religious facility on parcel one and constructing the apartment complex on parcel 2.

The 80 unit apartment complex is proposed on the eastern 1.97 acre portion of the site which will be accessed by a new driveway from Cochran Street. The units will be spread amongst two three-story buildings. A total of 108 parking spaces are provided on site. 39 of those spaces will be in one or two car garages or carports provided at the first level and an additional 69 uncovered parking spaces will be provided along driveways within the development shown in yellow. The project will also add approximately 9500 square ft of new landscaping throughout the perimeter of the site along walkways and parkway parking. A common outdoor space are courtyards on portions of the third story, which will include a barbecue, picnic tables, and benches. The complex provides community amenities, including a a fitness center, resident lounge, and community room, and as shown on screen, a landscape courtyard um on the third floor. The courtyards are set back more than 100 ft from Cochran Street and from the southern property line. The buildings are each three stories and 38 ft tall and have a California coastal design. It incorporates blue board siding and stuckle walls painted in white and gray tones. Glass doorways and windows are trimmed in white. 20 of the units will have balconies to add visual interest and reduce massing. The design includes recessed walls, varied roof lines, and horizontal articulation through the use of different building materials. The units will be a mix of one and two bedrooms ranging in size

from 590 to 915 square ft as shown on the table. The 16 affordable units are floating units which will not be tied to any particular unit. The residential highdensity zoning on the property allows for 20 dwelling units per acre and on the 1.97 acre parcel, this equals to 40 units. Per the density bonus law with a 50% density bonus for lowincome units and a stacked 50% density bonus for moderate income units, the developer is proposing to build 80 units. 24% of the base density or 10 units is required to be low income low income units. The developer agrees to provide an additional 15% of base density or six units for moderate income units. This qualifies the project for the additional 40 units with 16 affordable units. The applicant is requesting the following three concessions and six waivers. The first concession requested is to reduce the required privacy wall height at the southern property line from 8 to 6 feet per the Kota Fig specific plan. Uh please note a 6ft wall currently exists at the southern property line. Two concessions are requested to forgo two optional standards for residential developments. In analyzing the project, the applicant team determined that they could feasibly attain the five standards from the Semi Valley Municipal Code presented on screen. This concludes the requested concessions. And as mentioned, the applicant is requesting six waivers. The first of these waivers is to wave the wave out of the Kodafix specific plan requirement that restricts structures exceeding one story in height within 150

ft of the southern property line. The 150 foot distance is shown in blue. The applicant proposes to construct threetory buildings within uh 20 ft of the southern property line. Those buildings are shown in yellow and the 20 foot required setback is outlined in yellow for reference. The second request is to wave the specific plan requirement for a 50-foot buffer uh at the southern property line which includes a 25- ft landscaped area and no structures on the remaining 25 ft of that buffer. The image on the left shows a required 50-ft buffer outlining the required landscaping area in yellow. The applicant proposes a three-story structure within this buffer shown in red on the right and a 20 foot landscaped area along the southern property line shown in green. The third waiver request is to reduce the required front yard setback from 38 ft to 20 ft at the north property line. The required front setback is shown in blue and the requested in red. The fourth waiver request is to increase the required walking distance between units and parking spaces from 200 to 260 ft. The fifth waiver is to request a lines of 18 by8 ft compact parking spaces. 13 compact parking spaces are requested highlighted in blue on screen. The project only requires 94 spaces and 108 spaces are provided. Therefore, there is a surplus of 14 spaces and the compact spaces should not impact required spaces. The sixth and final waiver is to reduce the required landscape island width in the parking lot from 7 ft. The

actual width will be determined by Edison when a transformer is placed during construction. And this concludes our presentation on the housing portion. And now we'll move forward with the proposed cup modification to the existing Lighthouse Bible Church. The church is proposing a new 5588 square foot sanctuary building along Cochran Street along with landscaping and parking modifications. The sanctuary building will add an assembly area for the existing religious institution as well as an outdoor courtyard. The development will include approximately 27,000 square ft of new and old landscaping. The modification also changes the church's boundaries to allow for the creation of the second lot. The proposed project meets the required parking standards with parking added to the southern portion of the lot. The proposed building is a pre-fabricated steel structure and it will be modified with stucco cement and stone sightings in brown, beige, and gray tones. Articulation is added to the facade with the use of different materials and a central popout. The facade along Cochran Street will also incorporate landscape planters and a faux trellis. On screen are the side elevations facing the neighbors to the east and west. Both projects are categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, SQA, pursuant to SQA guidelines 15332 for infill development. Staff recommends that the planning commission approve the modification of the conditional use permit for the existing religious facility site and recommend to the city council approval of the plan development permit and

tenative parcel map for the new apartment complex development. This concludes staff's presentation and we're available for questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions of staff? Commissioner Dawson, just to clarify, nothing is going to be done or changed with the uh parsonage. That's correct. Okay. I have a question. Uh did the traffic study include um the uh development that was recently approved right next door? like imaginary predict what would include right next door if that makes sense. Good evening commissioners. Yes. Uh the ex uh excuse me the cumulative analysis that we have all traffic studies complete includes development elsewhere in the city or actually considers full buildout of the highest and best use of every site. So if a site is zoned for 40 units per per acre, we assume that in the city's traffic model. So in effect, yes, the development of the adjacent site would have been considered as part of the cumulative analysis which would be further on in the traffic study. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? We will open the public testimony portion of the hearing. Can I have the applicant? I'm sorry I get the name. Mark Petite and Keith Ma

Matias. Good evening. Uh my name is Mark Pettit and I'm the project architect for the project on behalf of Lighthouse Bible Church. Uh first we'd like to thank uh staff for all their hard work especially Zerooi uh who helped us guide us through the process. So uh we're very uh thankful for that. Uh we've been working on this project for about 3 years in different uh forms and finally came to this uh design. Um, obviously the reason why we're doing this project is so that Lighthouse uh can sell the property and create money then to build their church project. So that's the the reason for this project. Um, so as mentioned previously, uh, we're splitting the church more or less in half. So we'll have about a 2 acre parcel for the apartment project out of the 5.3 acres. Um the remaining of course would be for the um for the church and the project will have 16 affordable units, 10 lowinccome, six moderate and those are proportionally spread throughout the project. So they're not all onebedrooms. They're a mix of one and two bedrooms both for the low and for the moderate. Um uh as mentioned our buildings are have twotory elements and predominantly three stories. We have significant articulation and variation both in materials and the heights and follow the requirements of the city of semi valley. The uh property has uh will be removing some of the trees to make way for a more improved parking lot that is ADA uh uh appropriate, adding additional ADA handicap parking spaces not only for the

church property but also for the apartment. Uh in doing so, we have added quite a bit of additional trees. And because of uh creating or or trying to make up the value of the trees that are going to be removed, we're incorporating larger trees into the property. Even with that, we'll probably have um have to uh uh come up with uh money for the variance, the difference in the the tree value. But the intent is that we were going we are going to be providing trees um and especially along the south border of the property as a screen between our property and the neighboring property. Uh as also mentioned by staff who did a very good job. Um the parsonage will remain and we've taken some of the cues from the parsonage in dealing with the apartment building. Uh, one of the important things that we looked at is how can we screen the cars. So, as you're looking from Cochran, the cars are in garages or they're down quite a ways and kind of tucked in behind the wall. So, uh, you'll just see cars coming and going out of the drive. Um, we also have a series of trash uh enclosures that are on the apartment project and new trash enclosure that's on the church uh parcel. Uh, and that meets all the new requirements with the three bins and the recycling organic waste. Um, I won't go into uh any of the concessions or waiverss. We worked hard to minimize the number that we uh have um uh were requesting and we tried to

keep it to as minimal as possible. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about the the uh church project and important is to have a meeting area, a congregation area. Uh, so we've created that on the south part of the new building as it interfaces with the existing church. And so it's connected by a plaza as you can see in some of the exhibits. And it ties into an existing area of the church. So, it's connected um to the existing building uh by the plaza and by the sidewalks. Um the church property as well as the um apartment project also will have electric vehicle charging stations and uh all of the you know typical energy conservation green building technologies that are required. The apartment project has uh a fair amount of amenities. Uh each building, two buildings will have its own fitness center, its own community room, lounge, kitchen area. It will have a barbecue uh deck, and also a fire pit um area up on the third floor. In addition to that, there's a lounge area on the ground floor. And uh we'll be using a Amazonike um package center that will be there'll be two of those, one for each building. And that'll be important. um uh options such as heat and cold for those uh package centers are available and we think that that would be something that would be appropriate for the project. Each building also has its own gurnie sized elevator uh that meets the fire department requirements.

So our typical units uh we have one bedroom and one bedroom with a al cove we call that an for an office space. A lot of people are working from home now so we have a a design for that also. And then our two bedrooms the units are slightly bigger than we do typically. Um and we have a a variety of sizes as mentioned by staff. All the units have in-unit laundry. Um, they're open plan spaces. They have either a balcony or a patio. And, uh, we're really kind of into the technology and smart home features for security and, um, uh, climate control and all of those things. Um, the building will have the buildings will have solar panels. And the one unique thing um about our apartment project is we'll have about 50% of the parking spaces with their own electrical connection that will go back to the apartments so that if anybody wanted to add uh electric vehicle charging stations they would pay for it through their own uh electric bill. So um and of course a certain percent 10% of that will be electric chargers ready to go and then 40% of that will be for future. Um continuing on with the uh green building features uh I talked a little bit about solar and the low float uh fixtures, energy star appliances, uh electric vehicle. We also will have electric bicycle charging areas um and of course everything that we need to do with Energy Star. So we believe that this project will will really be an energy efficient uh project following all the California green building codes. So um we've worked with our

client to provide an upscale uh mixed income apartment project that we think our community will be uh proud of when we're done. and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, on the uh the metering, excuse me, on the metering aspects of that that you brought up, is each of the individual units metered uh for all the utilities or are there common metered? So, California law requires each of the units to be watered for water. So, they will all have their submeter for water. that will be metered for electric. This at this point is all electric building, no gas. Okay. Sorry, I had to put myself in the queue. Oh, sorry. Um, yeah, I already saw Sorry about that. Okay, so two questions for you. Uh, the first one is is that you're asking for a waiver for the rear wall. Um, have you talked to the neighbor at all? U, I believe our civil engineer has. Okay. And so we have that existing wall and we'll be putting a fence with green on the back along with So it's just not going to be it won't be a wall wall, but it'll be screening. Correct. Correct. All right. Excellent. And um the second question I had for you had to do with storm water runoff. Um you I I'm sorry I I know it's in there and um but you're putting in a swale. Is the swale in the north side of the property or is that in the south side of the property? So, we have uh ribbon gutters that go throughout the property to take the water to underground uh uh holding areas and um also we have some areas where we do have landscape that will go in especially on the on uh the landscaped

areas along both the church building and the apartment building. Um, you had a particular location. I was No, no, because it I saw that you were collecting. It looked to me like you were there was water collection in the parking lot of the apartment complex because I'm more concerned about that than So, we we do collect the water from all the hard surfaces and those that don't drain into any landscape area will be um collected as appropriate in tanks. Um, and we'll work the final details out during the construction drawings, but I understand. But that's um there'll be a system that we'll be able to use. Uh, I I did want to mention that the playground park area um that's in back of the existing church will remain and of course that also will have some uh capacity for for water. Okay. Thank you. That's what I needed. mission. In terms of the uh the sanctuary that's being built, is that being built by the same construction company doing the apartments? I don't think so. Usually in my recent experience, they're different types of construction people since the metal we're looking at a metal frame for the church versus at this point a wood typical wood construction for the and potentially construction at the same time. I don't think so. Okay. I I think that um once the uh deal is done, I guess uh there'll probably still be some fundraising that needs to be done on behalf of the church and u some other types of processes that need to happen. Uh but I wouldn't expect that they will happen at the same time. They might be close, but I I wouldn't say that they

would be at the same time. Commissioner Kennedy. Yes. Go ahead. Yeah. Just just a follow- on question with the privacy of the uh the south lots back there. Um is uh is the the three-story building have windows that face those lots? We do. Uh we have a few windows. Um there are uh uh four units, five units that uh end on the building and I believe those are kitchen windows and so we've modified that to minimize the number of windows on that side and the trees are placed as much as they can to kind of be in line with those windows. Okay. So just kitchen area windows then. I I believe that's it. I believe that's it. Couldn't tell. Oh, thank you. How How does the parking Oh, I'm sorry. Are you How does the parking get assigned, especially covered parking? It's just uh we haven't gotten to that detail yet, but they're all assigned parking spaces. They're going to get like charged more for that. I'm just the architect, not the developer, so I don't know how he's going to do that, but it's possible. Okay. Thank you. I think uh there was a further answer to a question. Madam chair, commissioners, uh thank you for the opportunity to be on this side of the the das here. I'm a member of uh Lighthouse Bible Church and um I'm helping to represent our pastor and elders and I do have an elder here with a card I made him fill out. What's your name? I'm sorry. So, the one thing I skipped, Brent Seamer, city resident and member of Lighthouse Bible Church. Um, the church plans are are definitely visionary at

this point. Uh, seeing that the property would be given away, we wanted to make sure there was enough space to be able to build the sanctuary would be large enough. This is probably the the largest that the congregation would want to be. And uh we're still in the process of growing the current space within the big buildings which actually was a a school at one time would be converted to classrooms which would support a larger congregation at that time. So this would be the only me meeting space at this time. So this gives us the layout that we would need to be able to know we can grow in the future. So if you have any other questions about the church building or our operation, I can answer those. Yeah. Real real quick. So the the use of of the forwardmost metal building, how do you envision the use of that in the future? So at this point uh the uh elders have looked at different construction methods trying to find one that could be more budget contest to start with a steel frame building with materials that have a stuckle sort of appearance to it and then you start adding in all the ways coating and all the other decor decorations. So that's the meant to get us the biggest volume because it would be a huge open space inside would be a steel frame uh building that we would be utilizing and then change it so it doesn't look like a steel frame building. I think more to the point how how do you envision the church using that big open space? I mean I I've got a 50 by 80 building and it has cars and stuff in it. So the way it's oriented would be is there would be a stage to the the east side of the building as far as large space seating for about 350. So as the church grew grows right now we could never fit that much into the current spot. We get large enough we'd be moving in with a couple hundred and then grow to about 350. So that's how we'd use the space.

Any any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber wishing to be heard on this matter? Sorry. Oh, thank you, Kenneth. Um, I'm sorry. I'm I'm going to butcher your last name. Rush Rushing. Would you like to be heard? Oh, it it's it was also Thank you. Thank you. Are there any comments from staff regarding any statements made during the public hearing? No comments. No comments. Would the applicant I guess the applicant already would the applicant like to respond to any of the comments, but we had no comments. I'm I'm just following the script. If there is no further questions, we will close the public testimony portion of the hearing. Are there any comments or questions from members of the planning commission? Commissioner Toulson, you know, I I love the I love the project. Obviously, the concept is uh to help out the church and uh having the um residential aspect on the east side is good so that you're not infringing upon neighboring. You've got a school next door. Um I like the uh articulation of the of the buildings. Um the tree border is is significantly impa I think necessary for the southern

residents and I like to start you know it's a good project uh it's a lot of uh waiverss um some that I'm not excited about but it's the rules we have and u that's it for me commissioner rice going um yeah So, I with the um church project, everything looks great. I'm I think I think the steel frame building is is the smartest thing you could do. Gives you that great big open space in the middle. I think that's fantastic. That's just fantastic. Um the apartment I little concerned about the the the back part of the property, but you know, since you're doing what you can to raise the height, you're putting trees back there where you're where you can. Um I like that. I do like the fact that it has balconies. I think that that's fantastic. Um and I agree with Commissioner Tullson. I I like the articulation on the building. That's very nice. And I like the use of the Hardy board on the top part of the building. That that really looks good. Not a fan of the gray, but I'm nobody should be taking design advice from me when it comes to color. So, um, that's about it. I'm I like a number of things about about that project. I I wish there was a little more space in the back, but um that's the only real hangup I have with it. So, Commissioner Kennedy, yeah, I I concurred. My only concern was the privacy of the uh the residential lots there in the back. I think the rest of the project uh fits well and and I hope you get some parishioners that uh actually live there. So I have another concern. Uh we talked about when we talked about the project right next door, we talked about maybe considering the right-hand turn only for the traffic. And now that we have two

projects store right next door, doortodoor technically and I pulled up the statistics or the facts of the project right next door and there's four be 11 bedroomedroom fourbedroom apartments, nine threebedroom apartments, three twobedroom and three onebedroom. So that's 26 units with 59 parking spaces right next door. And this is 80 units with 180 108 parking spaces. So that's that's almost I don't know however many residents, but the more than 200 residents for sure. And I do have that concern that that's if it maybe it's not going to cause I'm not debating. I'm not a traffic expert. Maybe it's not going to cause more traffic, but it will certainly cause, in my opinion, not being a traffic expert, cause more danger of of collision. That's my my my opinion. But we I mean I I just want uh their opinion to maybe we can introduce just right-hand turn from from that development. I I understand your concerns, but I at the same and I and Cochran is a pretty fast street. I mean, especially at that that spot. Um, it's pretty wide and I think that if there is a problem, I think that the city could do things to to mitigate that. For example, if necessary, they could slow the speed limit. Um, or maybe put in a lefthand turn lane. But at the moment, I don't see that a lefthand turn lane would be warranted for that amount of cars. I because they're not they're not all leaving at the same time and and and I understand your point, but this sounds like a lot of units between the two projects, but I think the it's not that many cars that you know at any one time. I don't we could always we could always bring the church. Yes. Yes. That that's the

exception maybe. But I mean we could bring the traffic engineer up if but I'm just putting it out there. We don't have and I I I agree that, you know, but I I I think that it's going to be okay for now at least, you know, I guess we'll see. We're not going to not approve it because of that. Correct. Correct. But but it's but we should talk about something. Yeah. Something to city council will know our concerns. Yeah. So, yes. Is is there a slower speed because it's adjacent to a school now? Um, I don't I don't see it. I didn't see it today. Any other comments? Only that uh living here in CB Valley, I make sure that uh during school uh years, I stay away from all of the schools during the time they get in and the time they get out. So, I kind of wrap myself around uh that type of uh traffic activity. And I do and I think our motor comps are going to help. So I I do agree with you guys that this is a really nice project and and I I do like the gray. That's my just my personal preference. I I do like the glue blue and the gray. I feel like it's a nice refreshing thing in see me and and I I I do like that it's right next door to two churches that are now doing something more for the community and their parishioners and maybe opening their doors for more parishioners. That's a really nice thing. and and we're going to have more affordable apartments hopefully. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. No more comments. No. May I please have a reading of the resolution? Resolution number SBPC09-2025, a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Semi

Valley recommending to the city council approval of plan development permit PDS 2024007 and a tentative parcel map TPS 2024 00005 for an 80unit apartment complex development. and a determination that the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. And resolution number SVPC10-2025, a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Seami Valley approving a conditional use permit modification CUP-S2024-000010 to construct a sanctuary building and parking and landscaping modifications for an existing religious facility and a determination that the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. Thank you. May I have a motion? I move to adopt a resolution approving CUPS 2024-000010 and adopt a resolution recommending to the city council approval of PDS2024-00007 and TP-S2024-00005. A motion was made by Commissioner Rice. May I have a second? Second. Call for the vote. The second was made by Commissioner Tulson. Call for the vote. The vote passes unanimously.

There is no appeal period for the plan uh development permit and tentative parcel map and the items will proceed to the city council with the planning commissioner's recommendation. The appeal period for the modification permit is 14 calendar days. The staff uh oral communication and reports. The staff have anything to report? Staff has nothing to report tonight. Do any commissioners have anything to report? Mobile Home or Rent Mediation Board, does staff have anything to report? We have no report tonight. Thank you. Uh tree advisory board, does staff have anything to report? We have no items tonight. Okay, this concludes the meeting of May 14th. The next scheduled meeting will be May 28th. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. That was fast.