Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Chair, we're all set for seven. Just testing audio.

Good evening. Let's call to order the Planning Commission meeting of July 27th at 7 p.m. The city does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. Sunnyvale prides itself on the rich diversity of our residents. We are committed to creating a culture of belonging where members of our diverse community feel included, safe, and respected. This planning commission is considered a limited public forum, which means the commission can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by the commission for consent calendar, or public hearing items. Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within the Commission's authority, generally referred to as within the Commission's subject matter jurisdiction. If a speaker's comments are not related to an agenda item, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of a disagreement with the content of their speech. Location and online meeting details are available on the Planning Commission agenda. Use the show captions button to view captions on Zoom. Comments on matters not on the agenda must be submitted prior to the time I call the agenda item for oral communications. Comments on agenda items must be submitted prior to the time I close the public hearing on the agenda item. Speakers are requested to keep their comments to the time period set for public comments for the agenda item, which will be strictly enforced. Guidelines are posted on the city's website and on the planning commission meeting agenda. Please stand if you were able and join me in the salute to the flag. RECORDING OFFICER, MAY WE PLEASE HAVE THE ROLL CALL?

COMMISSIONER SCHUYLER? PRESENT. COMMISSIONER FUGONI?

PRESENT.

Vice Chair Davis.

Present.

Commissioner Pine. Present. Commissioner Iglesias.

Present.

Chair Cerrone.

Present.

We have six commissioners present. Commissioner Segura's absence is excused.

Okay, oral communications. This is now the public's opportunity to address the commission on topics not listed on today's agenda. This section is limited to 15 minutes and may be extended or continued after the public hearings or general business section of the meeting. Individuals may only speak once during oral communications. This Planning Commission meeting is a limited public forum, and the Commission can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within the Commission's authority, which is known as the Commission subject matter jurisdiction. If a speaker's comments are outside the commission's subject matter jurisdiction, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. This allows the commission to conduct its business in a reasonably efficient manner and protects the rights of other speakers. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of disagreement with the content of their speech. Please submit a card to the recording officer. Raise your digital hand now or dial star 9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. So I have one card and And if anyone else wishes to speak in oral communication, submit a card. So we have Richard P. Is there a button I need to push?

You can start talking as soon as you'd like.

Fine. Hello Sunnyvale Planning Commissioners. I'm Richard Perronto, a 35-year Sunnyvale resident, here today in my personal capacity. I'm here regarding the air pollution and harmful health impact caused by exhaust from diesel or natural gas electric power generation for AI data centers. You may be soon asked to approve projects for Sunnyvale that include or use this type of electric power, and I'm asking you to reject those projects. I'm asking you to recommend to the City Council, Sunnyvale City Council, that they enact city ordinances and laws that explicitly prohibit within the city limits of Sunnyvale, these AI data center projects powered by natural gas or diesel generators running mostly full-time onsite or another local site. This recommended prohibition would also include prohibiting temporary use of full-time carbon fuel based power generation while waiting in queue for local power service to be provided. Please recommend these new ordinances or laws require data centers to use only green non-polluting electric power transmitted directly from the source or that is available from the local power service provider. Reasonable non-polluting approaches exist by a very efficient High voltage DC power lines to bring green renewable power from other locations, like the Central Valley, where large generating capacity already exists or is currently being installed. Use of high voltage DC power lines and their DC interfaces prevent compatibility problems from synchronization or other issues with the existing AC power grid. further dc power lines and their interfaces are inherently dc interface compatible with large fire safe lithium iron phosphate dc power baggage battery storage systems i hope you will take urgent action on my recommendation to bring this to the attention of the city council thank you thank you i have a question for staff if uh

If we wanted to have a presentation on this subject or some other subject, how do we agendize that?

It's a good question. I probably can figure it out. Just let me know what you guys would like to hear, and we can see if we can find somebody that can do a presentation on it.

And do we have a mechanism where we can... make a recommendation to council on something that, you know, that we just choose to make a recommendation on?

I think you probably just need to talk to the council members independently. I mean, the other process would be the strategic, what do we call it now? The old study issue process. So that would, you know, take place at the end of the year, which is coming up, so.

Right, right. All right, thank you.

um if there are no more uh speakers in the room do we have any remote speakers yes we do we have two hands raised uh hon jane will have the floor to speak first dear sunnyville planning commission

My name is Ahan Jain. I'm a student at Lindbergh High School in the Fremont Union High School District. I'm also a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Furthermore, I'm someone who's extremely sensitive to air pollution after growing up in one of the worst polluted countries in the world, India. And I really wanted to echo Mr. Paranto's comments. I wanted to discuss the air pollution and harmful health impacts caused by exhaust from diesel or natural gas electric power generation for AI data centers. I'm asking you to reject these projects and to recommend to the city council that they enact city ordinances and laws that explicitly prohibit these types of data centers within the city limits of Sunnyville. The recommended prohibition would include prohibiting temporary use of full time carbon fuel based power generation while waiting in queue for local power service to be provided. Please recommend these new ordinances or laws that require data centers to use only green, non polluting electric power transmitted directly from the source or that is available from local power service providers. Research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that in Luton, Virginia, where data centers are being built, there is an estimated cost of $99 million in annual health damages from associated air pollution due to data centers. We don't want to see this happen in Sunnyvale. Data centers are also major water consumers. A single data center's water consumption can range from 300,000 to 5 million gallons of water that could have been easily used for consumer purposes. Instead, this water overconsumption will only increase utility costs and pollution for city residents here in Sunnyvale. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Kelly Liu.

Hello, Sunnyvale planning commissioners.

My name is Kelly and I'm a rising high school senior co-founder of Conserve, which is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing sustainability and environmental science researcher at MIT and the University of Maryland. As demand for AI infrastructure grows, I'm here to express my concern about proposals that would allow AI data centers to rely on diesel or natural gas generators for power generation. I'm asking you to recommend to the Sunnyvale City Council that they enact city ordinances and laws that explicitly prohibit within the city limits of Sunnyvale these AI data center projects powered by natural gas or diesel generators. This recommended prohibition would include prohibiting temporary use of full time carbon fuel based power generation while waiting in queue for local power service to be provided. Across the country, some data center developers are proposing to bypass grid constraints by operating fleets of natural gas turbines or diesel generators for months or years while waiting utility connections. In some cases, these generators become primary sources of electricity, which results in significantly increased emissions and air pollution that results in asthma and various other health issues such as cardiovascular diseases. This is particularly concerning because Sunnyvale has invested significant effort into improving air quality and reducing emissions. Allowing these data centers reliant on fossil fuels to continue to develop would directly hinder these efforts. I urge you all to recommend new ordinances or laws to require data centers to use only green and non-polluting electric power transmitted directly from the source or that is available from the local power service provider. As Mr. Parenteau has already mentioned, there are in fact reasonable and non-polluting alternatives that you could consider. Efficient high voltage DC power lines can bring renewable energy from other locations like the Central Valley where large generation capacity already exists or is currently being installed. Use of high voltage DC power lines and their DC interfaces prevent electric grid problems from synchronization or other issues with existing AC power infrastructure. Further, DC power lines and interfaces are inherently compatible with large fire-safe lithium iron phosphate battery storage systems, also with DC interfaces. I hope that you'll take action on my recommendation, and thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, and Chair, we have no further hands raised.

Vice Chair, did you have a question?

Yes, just a quick thing for staff. First of all, my understanding is that most of the data center demand is actually in there. neighboring city of Santa Clara because they have their own utility and correspondingly much lower rates for electricity. Aside from that, do we have any projects in the pipeline for large data centers?

We have one in the pipeline, one data center, but it's on Ross between 237 and 101. There was an office building originally there, but they're going to do a data center instead. And that's being processed right now.

Okay, thank you.

All right, I will go ahead and close the oral communication. Now I will go ahead and open public comment on consent calendar items. Please submit a speaker card to the recording officer. Raise your digital hand now or dial star nine on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Does anyone... in the room want to speak on the consent calendar item before we hear from remote speakers recording officer do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on this item no we did not chair all right i will close the public comment and will now ask for a motion from my colleagues um commissioner inglesias move the commission uh meeting notes as submitted commissioner pine second all right seeing no uh discussion can we uh take a vote

The motion passes with six yeses and Commissioner Segura absent.

Okay. Moving to our next item. Item two. This is 26-0689, proposed project related application on a 0.26 acre site, special development permit to construct four townhomes and associated site improvements and maintain the existing single family home, a heritage resource, and tentative map to create five residential lots and one common lot. Um, is there a staff presentation?

Yes. Um, good evening commissioners. My name is Margaret Netto, senior planner. This is a residential project at 434 Crescent Avenue. Here's a little bit of overview. The project proposes redeveloping the 0.26 acre residential parcel. The existing historical home will be retained and four new townhomes will be constructed along with associated site improvements. A special development permit is required for the development of multifamily projects in the R3PD zoning district. A tentative map is also required for the creation of five residential lots and one common lot. On July 1st, 2026, a resource alteration permit was approved by the Historic Preservation Commission to modify the existing historic resource with the development of four three-story townhomes in the rear and the retention of the historic single family home in the front. The planning Commission planning Commission meeting the July 13 2026 planning Commission meeting was continued to tonight when it came to light that the public that required public noticing was not fully completed. The code requires on site notice board newspaper ad and mail notices me on site notice board was not posted prior to the meeting the notice board has been on site place within the 10 day noticing requirement. Here's the neighborhood context. The project site is located between Sunnyvale, Saratoga Avenue and Manette Drive. Surrounding land uses consist of multifamily and single family homes. Here's the site plan access to the site is provided, we have a 24 foot wide ingress egress easement each town home includes a two car garage. parking for the historic home is located between the historic resource, I mean the historic residents at the end the new town homes. Additionally, to to guest parking spaces are provided at the rear of the driveway the project meets the park the parking requirements. The project site is zoned R3 medium density residential and proposes 19 dwelling units per acre. The surrounding area was originally developed as part of the Easter Gable subdivision, which was historically characterized by narrow deep parcels of approximately one acre in size. These lots typically featured bungalow style homes at the front of the property with poultry buildings and agricultural uses located at the rear. Here's the existing home. The existing residence was constructed in 1930 as a Craftman style bungalow. A building permit for the historic structure was approved on a like for like basis with the coordinates with the secretary of interior standards for the treatment of historic properties. The single story residence is situated on the Northern portion of the lot in front Crescent Avenue. The project. The applicant proposes relocating one protected tree from the rear of the lot to the front of the property. The project complies with the citywide design objective standards. No deviations are requested. This is the front elevation from Crescent Avenue, and you can see the proposed townhomes in the back. Here's the west elevation. You can see in the little red box the existing single-story family home will be located there. Here are some aerial elevations of the project. And the neighborhood impact. The site will no longer provide appearance as a poultry farm. The historic home will be retained The proposed townhome buildings will be similar height and density surrounding multifamily developments. There'll be a significant separation and landscaping will be maintained around that as heritage resource to preserve integrity. Hold on. I need to cut my shit. A study session was held with the Planning Commission on March 9, 2026. Overall, the Planning Commission was supportive of the project, noting that the applicant addressed neighborhood concerns and the project does not request any deviations from the development standards. I'm actually missing a slide, but I did want to go over the community outreach. A neighborhood community outreach meeting was held on January 8, 2026, during which four members of the public expressed concern regarding building height, privacy, and construction noise. In response to this feedback, the project was revised to reduce the overall building height from 33 feet 5 inches to approximately 31 feet. Additional design modifications included recessed balconies, offset window placement were incorporated to minimize direct views into the adjacent properties and reduce potential privacy impacts. A petition was received from the neighboring residents today concerning building height and neighborhood compatibility, privacy, access to sunlight, construction impacts, traffic, tree removal, drainage, and property values. these concerns are substantially similar to those raised during the neighborhood outreach meeting and have been evaluated as part of the city's review of the project the project complies with all the development standards no deviations have been requested proposed three-story building complies with the maximum height and density standards for the site achieving approximately 80 percent of the maximum allowable density in addition the site the project satisfies the solar access and shading requirements with respect to neighborhood compatibility three-story residential development already exists within the surrounding area and the proposed building height is consistent with with the development permitted by the the zoning regulations The project has been reviewed for compliance with the city's tree preservation requirements. One existing tree will be retained and relocated to the front yard of the historic residence while all the other tree removals and replacement plantings comply with the city's tree preservation ordinance. Staff recommends alternative one to find the project exempt from CEQA under class 32 infill exemption and approve the site development permit and tentative map with recommended findings in attachment three and recommended conditions of approval in attachment four. That concludes my staff report. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for the presentation. I will now ask for questions from my colleagues. Commissioner Pine.

Thank you. Thank you, staff, for the presentation. These questions are mostly for the benefit of members of the public. I'm pretty sure I know the answers to them. So this already went through the Heritage Preservation Commission, and am I correct in noting that uh they made the findings relating to the that this doesn't have a negative impact on the historic nature of the property our decision tonight is focused on the is is focused on the the findings for the special development permit the tentative map and conditions of approval that is correct Thank you. And also since we had the continuance two weeks ago, can staff confirm whether or not it would be possible to have any additional public hearings on this item after tonight?

No, there is a five meeting maximum and this will be the fifth meeting.

Thank you. So just as a note to members of the public, We're making the decision. We have to make a decision tonight. There's no scenario where we could have a continuance where we ask the developer to come back and do something else. We can't continue this item passed tonight. We actually have to make a call tonight. So just for benefit of members of the public, this is the last hearing on this item. Thank you.

Okay. My share Davis.

Thank you for the presentation. Just a couple of largely for the public. clarifications right in the recommended findings that states that there are three story buildings in the neighborhood. Do you know where those are exactly because I know that the two adjoining properties right are not three stories and fine.

there's one for the down on Crescent but I'll have to look up the address it was recently approved with three-story buildings on Crescent yeah it was approved with 18 townhomes on it so it's on the same side of the block I just don't have the address okay okay um I I thought there was but I I don't have reason to go down that street very often so um and then also um

So it's a special development permit, right? So we have to be able to make one of, one or both of of two findings right that it complies with the general plan the loot and so on or that it uh generally conforms with the the look and feel of the neighborhood correct that's correct okay so that's the sunny vale level of approval we have to be able to make at least one of those findings but this also intersects with state law right and commissioner pine i think it's sb 330 where we're limited to five meetings but that law also makes it so that we can only deny if there is, I think the language is something like an objective safety or health hazard that would come with approval. Is that correct? And maybe this is more for city attorney. Welcome. It's the first time I've seen you. good evening commissioners my name is susan yoon from the city attorney's office that's correct vice chair okay um so just to to be clear for the public right we can only the limits of our discretion is we can only deny this if we can find that there is a health or safety hazard that would come with this development state law does not allow us to deny it so in essence the the state has overruled our discretion in this case. And for the public's benefit, the Planning Commission is what's called a quasi-judicial board. And so we are beholden to the law. If the law does not grant us discretion, we have to go with the law essentially, right? It's not our opinion. It's just an interpretation of the law. City Council has different rules, but that's what the Planning Commission is. Those are all my questions. Thank you.

So we now, we allocate 10 minutes to the applicant at the beginning of the public hearing to address the Planning Commission. along with five minutes at the end of the public hearing. Is there an applicant presentation?

We don't have a presentation today. We just want to answer any questions and show that we comply with everything. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing on this specific item. Please submit a speaker card to the recording officer. Raise your digital hand now or dial star nine on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Okay, so I have a few speaker cards here. So first, Julia Gorski.

Hello. good evening everyone um so i wanted to talk about this development um this is the house that i grew up in i've been there for 30 years um this is the the house my parents bought and the one they were hoping to be their forever retired home uh the the neighborhood does have some three-story development houses there but they're not next to residential houses this is like a retirement community this would be smack in the middle of residential houses Now imagine that there's now a three-story house next to a two-story house. Now the windows that my parents used to drink coffee next to, they're both retired. Now natural light is not going to be there. Talk about mental health, you're talking about health, physical health. Now we have to put window coverings to not have the windows looking directly. The height difference that was mentioned, that does not address it. If you look at it, the windows will be looking directly into the home. So that has huge impact on their mental, physical health. They're now again retired. They won't have an option. They're spending all their time at home, and this has a huge impact. This is a residential area with like lower houses. If this was a two story house, no problem, right? But it's three story house next to a two story house. Privacy concerns, sunlight is going away. This is this is huge impact to health and well-being. And there is no president like that on Crescent Avenue where other residential houses have that. So my parents can't you know, this they wanted to be in this home forever. they don't want to move away from the neighborhood this has been 30 plus years this would be a huge impact to them and you know this is something they cry about every day um so I haven't written much down. This is more like an ask. I understand that there's compliance with zoning regulations, but there must be an impact that can be assessed in terms of shadow, in terms of health privacy. None of that has been shared or measured next to that house. I don't understand how a decision can be made without that information. That's all. Thank you.

Can I ask you a quick question? Where is this house relative to this?

Right, we would be right next to it. Next to it? So their house is right next to the new development.

East side or west side?

To the right, law truck terrace.

East side. Okay. So the house right on Crescent, is that what you're saying?

Yeah, it's right off Crescent, yeah.

Okay. All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Next, is it Lanissa Gorski?

Good evening, everybody.

It's my daughter. And I'm sorry, a little nervous. We came to this country in 1990 as refugees leaving the Communist Soviet Union. We came with $90 per person. We built a life here. We achieved our American dream. We bought the house. We worked hard. We lived all our life here. Now we both retired. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm her husband. We retired. Now this development is really impacting our life very much. Can you imagine that behind your fence, right behind your fence, will be this monstrous, monstrous development where people will be trying into your personal life every day. And on one side of our buildings, it's already very close, our development. If this will be built, this proposed building, we completely will be without sunlight. And our living room, in our kitchen, in addition to all this, losing this privacy. I would like you to take this to consideration. As my daughter said, it has to be some study how you impact already the residents who live here. We don't have any means to move out of this area to another city because we retired. I'm so sorry. I just want you to take the consideration this stuff and think about this. If this is the only option you have, we understand business, we understand profit. I was project... I was... a finance manager all my life. I worked very hard. I paid all my taxes. I want you to take into consideration, do you want to get rid of all retirees in this city? Just pushing us out. I'm sorry again. Thank you very much. I hope you will think about this and look at this and see how it impacts our well-being and living in this city. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. Is it Arkady Gorsky?

Good evening, planning committee. Sorry for my strong accent. You know, as my wife told, we move the first generation American. Okay, so a little bit more facts, you know, we talked about privacy. So from wall to wall, distance between to development between development and not in our building gets 27 feet. that is very close. Then we have two-story building. We have three-story wide windows, sliding doors, you know, in the first floor, and we have three windows on the second floor. Just across us is going to be about uh maybe nine nine windows which gonna look directly to us they have three story so this they have complete observation all our life our living room our bedroom our bathroom everything you know that is one point about you know privacy second point you know 27 feet separation line plus three-story building, it creates so much shade, we're not going to have completely light. So what should we do? We should just put shade so we're not going to have privacy. We're going to put shade. We're not going to have light. So we're going to sit in the dark or we're going to sit like in a movie theater that everybody is going to observe us. Then you know our backyard, it's also they have direct view in our private yard too. because from second third floor it's just above them they have balcony it's also so we're just gonna be like you know like some bugs on this glass of school you know so that is i think nobody want to to be in this place so i have Question to Planning Committee. Did the city evaluate direct view into existing neighboring homes? Did they evaluate all these facts which I just told? Other privacy measure proposed like observed glass, offset window, screening and landscaping to reduce direct view in our home. Was the shadow study was prepared?

Thank you. But I do have a question. Yes. I have been to the site. Is your house next to the historic house?

No, it's a little bit off the street. In the middle. We're just in the middle. We're just in the middle. So all these four units, which has you know we're just in the middle so they and because they so tiny and grow up you know so we cover just two units our one unit cover two units so all window from one unit all window from other unit gonna gonna direct to us so two family gonna have movie every evening

So this would be the windows that look into your house across that big driveway.

Yeah.

There, uh-huh. One more question.

We had a meeting. No, no, it's no driveway. We just parallel. It's the opposite side. There is no driveway. They just parallel to parallel. We have backyard, and they have backyard, and these two backyards separated 27 feet. I see.

I see. We had a meeting on this a couple weeks ago, and no one spoke. So.

How would we know? We know when you . In July, but we were traveling.

Point of order, I cannot believe that remarks made from the audience under the microphone are audible to members of the public listening remotely.

Yeah, I guess if you can answer that, because people watching on Zoom cannot hear. Okay. Is it because the sign went up that you knew to come to this?

Today I came because, you know, I just walked by and I see, oh, sign. so that's what and i discovered just yesterday this sign okay and that's why i came all right i didn't get any by mail any notice by email we sent a letter with all neighbor signature to city hall to to all official and i suppose we should be notified about this because our address our phone everything you know we pointed and we wrote this letter and signed this letter so the first who should know about it all right well thank you very much i i believe uh notices were sent by mail we didn't get neighbors we didn't get it nothing we would believe me that we would not lose this notice

All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I have one more card in the room. Shivani Gupta.

Hi, so I live right next to their house and I'll echo all their concerns. I'll just add one thing. We had requested the builder in January to clean up some trash that they had left while renovating. the heritage home because it was a fire hazard like this dry grass chairs and whatnot over there um it took them almost like five four five months to clean some of that up and there's still a lot of that trash so i mean that's just a fire hazard uh and a safety concern i don't know how the builder is going to uh like sort of with this kind of a work ethic if they'll continue like complying with the safety standards even during construction so that's all thank you

Alright, thank you. Are there any other speakers in the room? Alright. Oh, Commissioner Pine.

Thank you, Jared. Question for staff. The staff report says the original hearing date was noticed by sending 1863 notices to surrounding property owners and residents adjacent to the subject site. Is there any way we can basically confirm that this happened?

This neighbor also didn't receive, not just us.

This was a question to staff.

Yes, the notices were sent out.

Thank you.

Okay, recording officer, are there any remote participants?

There are not.

All right, thank you. I will... Right. So having no other public participants, the applicant now has five minutes at the end of the public hearing.

Good evening. I'm Gordon Wong, architect. And I'm Kevin Yu, deposit web. Yeah, we've been addressing that exact issue since the January workshop meeting. I do recognize some of the faces there. Just to be clear, their adjacent structure is 24 and a half feet tall. We have reduced our side of the project, which is adjacent to theirs, to 31. And then from there, we've also mansard the roof, which drops down to about 28 and a half. difference in height i'm sorry there there's this 27 so our difference in height is roughly about 27 about five four and a half feet and the windows that we're talking about we're in are they're inset um with a balcony and that balcony has a um a 42 inch uh uh opaque uh guard rail so you can't see through it so we're trying to do everything we can to reduce any impact to their lot we even did a daylight study um there's only one incident which is the winter solstice at 3 p.m that barely touches their property everything else is the daylight's not affected so we've been checking the slope of the roof the mansard what we can to lower the fascia board to not impact any direct residences. We did do a neighborhood study. We found seven adjacent units are three stories and we are comparable in height, almost identical. I feel we've done what we could do to address the matter in a way that is really tasteful to the neighborhood. We're really hoping that when people see this bill, they can see the thought that was put into it, the landscaping, how we tied it together. We're trying to retain the historical quality of the project of what is pre-existing and to what we are doing to today's time that also shows the characteristics of the historical project in the front. uh we've been we've been putting a lot of detail into that whether it's a siding the windows uh roof treatment um my team uh from all the way from ground up to structural have focused on all those details with historical consult to make sure that we are responsibly tying this project in together with a reasonable height a reasonable density and a reasonable contribution to the housing in sunnyvale thank you thank you

We may have some questions from my colleagues.

Yeah, thank you. A couple questions. First of all, the solar study, this is the one that is in our packet as a G-Golf 008 as the solar shading analysis reference. Just for everybody's reference.

Oh, you're asking about the daylight plane study?

I just want to be clear to everybody.

Yeah, G008 has a daylight study, correct.

I just want to be clear for everybody in the room that this is what we've, at least I know that's what I've been looking at. I just want to be clear because I know there was some question about whether there was solar shading analysis. So I just wanted to call everyone's attention to that. Second, there was a comment from a member of the public regarding concerns about the current upkeep of the property. Kurt, do you have any comment on that?

Yeah, I can understand that the client would be very frustrated because that's one of those situations people illegally dump trash. And it's been a lot of maintenance. It's a lot of remediation. it's just hard to keep up when people do that. It's not nobody's intent. Yeah, but as construction goes, we do have a construction manager, we have a construction team. We would like to put a fence up to prevent any of that trash until people move in.

Thank you.

Do we have any other questions from commissioners? I have a question. Well, one is, uh a comment that uh it would be held this was great information that you just gave us about the height of the surrounding buildings it would be helpful if that would show up and this project and others in the drawings so we could but we have provided those in the drawing there's a cross section showing those exact Heights so it's on G zero G002 at the bottom of the page has the Heights and you can see it's noted there

So on the far left on lower track terrace, you can see it noted on there, the heights. And you can see also we've showed the slope of the mansard roof where it drops down the fascia board, where it's adjacent.

Okay. Also, I want to make a note that the elevation of the townhouse, this is before the reduction.

Okay, and so the balconies are on the second floor of your building?

That's correct. Yeah. And the current document says 33, the actual reduction is 31. Right. So we are even closer to so when they see that they'll realize, we've noted the height, it's not showing accurately on this document. It's actually lower.

Yeah, I understand.

And that was reaction to our January workshop with them.

And the third story windows, is there any frosted glass or any mitigation there?

Yeah. The third story is inset and it's offset so that it's further in the building. And it shows on A200 on the elevations.

Richard Pineda?

Yeah, sorry to pop my hand up again, but I'm looking at the, I'm now looking even closer at the date stamps on these and I see that the solar study on G008 is also December 23rd, 2025. So, am I correct in saying that the solar impact would actually likely be be less than what we see on the g008 solar study given the height reduction that's correct there's almost no impact at all like it would never even reach out it wouldn't even reach yeah it's thank you i would say that to staff i it would be helpful in the future to make sure that when our plan sets do reflect things like height revisions and such, because the solar, because for this project we're making, one of the findings we're going to be making is is related to saying this meets the solar guidelines. And for something like this, I can basically say this is a bigger project and at a shorter height, then it would obviously have less solar impact. But we definitely have had projects before where the revisions would not be the kind where I could just kind of assume that. it would be helpful if we're not getting, I guess, stale plant sets. Thank you.

All right. If I didn't do it already, I will close the public hearing and now ask for a motion for my colleagues. For discussion, yes.

Vice Chair Davis. I just had one more question for staff. So I was looking at the land use and transportation element of the general plan, the LUT, which we updated in 2024. And it shows it as this has been zoned for this zoning level. I think it's R3, medium density, right? That was not new zoning in 2024. The zoning has been there for quite some time, if my understanding is correct.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. I know how hard it is to find. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how far back, but we're looking at many, many years that it's been zoned for medium density zoning. Okay. So it was set to medium density at some point before 2024. We can say that conclusively. Yes, you can safely say that. Yeah, I suspect that it was probably zoned for that on the previous version. You know, we're looking at decades is my guess for that. That's my question for staff. I saw someone else's hand up if they wanted to make a motion.

I was going to ask this to the chair. I was actually planning on asking the exact same question that Commissioner Davis, that Vice Chair Davis asked.

OK. Can we get a motion? OK. Vice Chair?

Sure. Let me pull up the terminology so I get this correct. My motion is to follow staff's recommendation. Let me scroll down here. which is alternative one, find the project exempt from CEQA under the class 32 infill exemption and improve the special development permit and tentative map with the recommended findings in attachment three and recommended conditions of approval in attachment four. And that's my motion.

Do we have a second? Commissioner Pine. Second.

Okay. To my motion, I know it's rough when new development of, let's call it an underutilized parcel that you neighbor. comes in and so on. In fact, it was a 1,000-foot well right behind my house was just approved that will pull water out, and I won't actually get that water. That's my back neighbor. I was recused from the whole item. This was just before the planning commission and the city council. This is part of living in a city. you only have rights on the property that you own, right? And the city sets rules and regulations. The state does as well. And property owners have the right to do what they want with that property as long as it follows the rules. This is, Not to get scholarly, but there are centuries of precedent for that. Our whole legal system is based upon that. I found this particular developer to be one of the nicest and most responsive developers who's ever come here before us, to be honest. They started with a project that was completely compliant with all of the rules. They've asked for no exceptions, no deviations, no waivers. That is very, very uncommon nowadays. When people want to develop properties nowadays, they ask for all kinds of exceptions for the rules. They ask us to bend the rules, to change them. They use state law that requires us to set aside our rules. This development is asking for nothing like that. We've had some process hiccups here and there that they've had to wait for hearings, and they've done this patiently. And then when they had the outreach meeting in January, they modified the design based entirely on neighbors' feedback to enhance the privacy of the neighbors. It just doesn't get any better than that. I understand you have an underutilized lot, which also comes with risks for the city and so on because main controlling access into an under utilized lot or a vacant lot where someone's not living is very difficult and as they spoke trash gets dumped people use it as a dumping ground i had the good fortune to be born in this country my mother was not And I can just tell you, that's just America. If there is vacant land somewhere, Americans will put trash there. That is just one of our lesser characteristics. I feel for the neighbors, right? It's rough having new development coming in. But there is nothing, even if I didn't support this project, because we need housing like nobody's business in the city. Even if I didn't support it, there is nothing legal I could do to deny it. But having said that, this is a good project. It's taking an underutilized lot. It's bringing in new housing. It is housing that's built for families. It's like everything that we asked for. It is preserving a historical resource. I'm personally getting used to the idea that something built in 1930 is considered really old now. I guess it shows my age. So, you know, while I feel for the neighbors, I wholeheartedly support this project and I'd like to see it get built as quickly as possible. And my expectation is that new neighbors in the neighborhood will prove to be more benefit than some of the shadows in the winter equinox. So I encourage my fellow commissioners to vote yes on the motion. Thank you. Commissioner Pine. Thank you.

Yeah, on this project, I'm able to make the required CEQA exemption finding. I'm able to make the findings for the special development permanent hand of map with the recommended findings and attachment through an recommended conditions for approval and attachment for. I live in a fairly small apartment that when I moved in was, had a one-story building in the neighboring lot and i think like a giant like backyard or something i know and some years ago it was redeveloped into a set of three-story townhouses so i am sympathetic to the i am honestly sympathetic to the privacy concerns to the just kind of it like honestly i probably do get a bit less sunlight now than i did when i moved in and i can sometimes hear the neighbors and i'm not i'm not unsympathetic to those issues that being said we This from a city perspective, my rent still keeps going up. I can even only imagine how much more it would be going up if we hadn't redeveloped a lot of those properties around me. From just a legal perspective, again, this has been zoned for R3 for a while. I don't know the exact time. I know it predates my service on the commission, which goes back to 2021. this and this project has no deviations and is fully compliant with with everything in our municipal code everything in state law and i don't and i do not think it would make any sense as a matter of public policy to to deny a project that is fully compliant with all of our laws all of our codes all of our policies i one of my philosophies on this commission has always been, if you play by the rules, we should be approving your project. And this project 100% plays by the rules. That being said, I would encourage, I would just encourage anybody, frankly, There's a great new My Sunnyvale that you can go to on the city website. There's a new app for it. If there are things that are not playing by the rules, like they've mentioned garbage dumping, but just anything that's not any neighborhood preservation, impacts anything that's not playing 100 by the rules please report it to the city because that's something the city needs to know about so it can take appropriate action but I again what I have in front of me once we've got noticing squared away is 100 compliant with every with ex with all city policies and so I strongly urge a yes foot on this motion thank you commissioner thank you

Um, I think I, I mean, I not think I I'll be supporting the project, uh, all the reasons, all my fellow commissioners said, but I want to comment on, uh, for the neighbor who the perception when we have, uh, when the building is coming up and you see it in the drawing, it's three story, of course it's scary. But what the changes they have made can change your privacy situations. Because I know that even just changing a window like two feet inside, they cannot view in your property so there is like so subtle differences they have made which you don't see it on the plan or they can put a little plant there the tree and suddenly it will obscure the view so i think um yes it is a little bit different but definitely they have made some measures they have done which would And that is the bedroom side, which they are, so the whole day they are going to be on the other side of the, most of their daytime will be in the other side of the building, which is in the center. So I think it is fearful, but I think they've done enough measures to reduce the privacy and the direct view to the buildings on the backside of the lot. Anyway, so that's why I'll be supporting the project. Thank you.

And I'll just comment that I will also be supporting the motion. As mentioned there, we don't have a legal basis to reject it, even if we wanted to. I am sensitive to the privacy issues. This comes up frequently and I live in a house that has the back wall is all glass and so I'm definitely familiar with these concerns but all of these projects were originally these long lots with poultry building with a house in front and poultry buildings and back have pretty much all been redeveloped with mostly with townhomes or some sort of multifamily development. And this is one of the last ones to be developed. And Everything that's been done here is just according to our basic procedures and ordinances and so on. So I will also be supporting this. And seeing no other comments, recording officer, can you take a vote?

The motion passes with six yeses and Commissioner Segura absent.

All right. Thank you. And staff, what is the fate of this project?

The Planning Commission decision is final. This was the fifth hearing. There can't be any other public hearings.

All right. Thank you. Uh, congratulations to the, uh, developers. So the next portion of the, uh, agenda is for oral oral reports and announcements by commissioners and staff to, uh, share information. Do commissioners have any non-agenda items or comments? I have a question for staff. It seems like for various reasons we continue to have people showing up who didn't know about projects. um if if we wanted to let's say uh put up signs for the study uh for study issue for the study session uh of course in addition to the final uh meeting uh what would be involved in doing that is it are we is this a state law is this a convention we do in the planning department what

No, it's all part of the noticing policy adopted by the city council. So we don't do a posting for planning commission study sessions. And just to clarify, originally the intent for the planning commission study sessions was really just to get planning commission input, not the public's. And that's what the community meeting is supposed to be for. And so that's why it's kind of crept, I think, over the years where the public provides a comment here too, but that was originally the intent. But we do send out the, actually the planning commission study session is just a legal ad, but they do get the community notice, or sorry, the community meeting. That's a mail notice to occupants and owners.

Because usually the second meeting is the final meeting. So, and that's where they get the noticing. For the formal hearing, right?

For the public. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We get it then and for the community meeting.

We get it twice. You're saying there's a separate community meeting different from the study session?

Yes, there's a community meeting before the study session.

I see. OK. But how do they find out about that?

Mail notice, occupants and owners.

OK. I don't know why, but we always have a lot of people who claim they never got the notice. I throw a lot of my mail away too.

Sometimes we do check addresses and notices did go out to people. We all get a lot of mail.

All right.

Vice Chair Davis, I'd just say that I don't know that it would ever make it above the line, but at some point we should probably revisit the noticing policy. Some things have changed, especially like around the scope of the Planning Commission as There's just a lot less discretion than there used to be. There's no more armchair architecture from the dais. But at the same time, with all the things we have to consider, I don't know that that ever makes it above the line. So thank you.

All right. Planning Officer, do you have any non-agenda items or comments?

I do not.

All right, then I will adjourn the meeting at 8.11, and I want to thank everyone for your participation in tonight's meeting.