Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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hey. [Music] [Music] The one public hearing we have tonight, the Taiwanese American Culture Center of East Bay, design review and conditional use permits.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's not doesn't have a number. Does anybody have any exparte communications to disclose? Okay. Thank you. All right, then I will ask for a staff report.

Great. Uh, thank you, commissioners. If it's okay, I'm going to present from my desk here today. Thank you. Um, good evening everybody. Uh, we are here uh to consider the Taiwanese American Culture Center uh that will be located at 1755 uh Sunnyvale Avenue. Um the applicant tonight is requesting a design review and uh a few conditional use permits for the proposal. Uh the applicant Syr Chung who is also the architect of this project along with their team is here tonight as am I to answer any questions that you may have after the presentation. Just to orient you with the site uh this area is uh zoned single family residential. There are three parcels uh that will be merged. Um as there are 50 existing parking stalls on site and there is an existing church uh facility as well as some detached um like a social hall as well as office building all for the uses of the church facility. Um after the merger all the parking stalls will be shared among uh all users of the site and the surrounding area consists primarily of single family homes. Here are uh photographs and a aerial image of the existing site. Um as you can see here, the East Bay Formation United Methodist Church um that will um remain as part of this project. the pastor's home in the back of the site and uh there is an existing uh social hall building which will also remain and then the building that you see fronting Sunnyville next to the church um which I have identified with the arrows uh will be um demolished as part of this project and the new community center will be located in this place. Uh so as mentioned earlier, the 30,000 square foot office building that's

fronting Sunnyville will be demolished for construction of the 4,500 square foot one-story community center uh building uh which will offer Taiwanese uh cultural classes for adults and afterchool program for K through 8 students as well as memorialize or legalize an existing uh church that's been operating on site. The project also includes uh widening of the existing driveway, relocation of existing ADA stalls and new public walkways and uh new landscaping and trees as well as new signage. And just to go into the uh business operating plan, the Taiwanese American uh culture center will operate from 9:00 a.m. to noon Monday through Fridays. The activities include cultural enrichment and language uh classes or other such classes uh that are tailored for adults and seniors. And the afterchool program will be tailored for K through 8 students operates from 2 to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Uh there is a pickup and drop off area that will occur by the parking stalls nearest to the courtyard. And I will show this in um the upcoming slides. The activities offered um again are language and dance classes, arts and crafts and other group activities. Um the maximum number of students or the cap on this would be 33 students. Uh the applicant is anticipating 20 students and four teachers and the existing church um operates only on Sundays. So tonight, uh the planning commission will be considering uh several conditional use permits. Um the c cultural institution use uh which defines the uh the community culture center uh the afterchool program as well as legalizing the existing existing religious assembly use and the design

review for the community center building. uh to basically essentially the site layout and the building design as well as the new landscaping and uh the proposed signage and the um existing parking on site um does comply. Um therefore no amendments or modifications are required for that. And uh just to go over design review commission's comments, uh the design review commission did review this project um at the May 7th um study session hearing and um overall did uh like and appreciate the project. However, had some further comments to really uh enhance the landscaping plan, increasing the tree size to 24inch box. Uh provide uh more sight lighting details. uh use hardscape landscape details to really create a connectivity between uh the buildings on site as well as a acoustic study for the HVAC um and mitigations of any potential noise impacts from that um HVAC equipment. Also to consider a taller fence or wall to conceal the proposed equipment and um to enhance the blank wall along the street facing elevation with either a design element such as transom windows or uh enhance the landscape plan or incorporate some sort of public art feature that would celebrate the the culture the Taiwanese culture. And here you see a look at the existing uh site uh layout as well as the proposed. Um here's a closer look. Uh essentially, as you can see, the overall site will remain the same. Um the site will still continue to access from the existing driveway on Sunnyvil. Uh the change is essentially in the blue where the driveway will be widened to comply with current code requirements as well as new 5- foot wide walkways that are

leading from the sidewalk to the new building along both the west and the east sides of the site. And then there's a new courtyard space around the community center and the existing social hall building. It will all be finished with permeable pavers that will essentially tie into the um the new walkways. Um moving on into the parking, as mentioned earlier, there are a total of 50 parking stalls on site. The anticipated parking uh for all uses required on site is listed on this slide. Um and as mentioned earlier, uh the church community center and the afterchool program are operating at separate times. So there will be no overlap in the um hours of operation or and that of course would not result in any uh parking demand on site. And here's the floor plan um which does feature double entry doors that open into a central lobby uh providing access to that large library auditorium space and classrooms. And to the left of the entrance is the layout which includes offices, storage areas, and restrooms. And the I wanted to highlight the mechanical equipment and trash enclosure that's located in that fenced off area along the east corner of the site. It is highlighted blue on this exhibit. And uh design review commission did request a acoustic assessment uh to verify that if the noise generated from this equipment um would result in any impacts. So an acoustic assessment is um included attachment six of your packet tonight. And um it did conclude that the equipment um noise levels will not exceed the 65 dBA threshold which is um the acceptable noise or applicable in the residential area. And I also wanted to point out the

design review commission also stated that in order to conceal this trash enclosure area as well as the equipment, I believe the equipment is five five feet tall, five or six feet tall. So, the um applicant is proposing a 7 foot tall um stuckle wall as well as a metal gate to conceal that from view. And moving on to the uh building elevations, this is the north building elevation that's going to face uh Sunny Veil Avenue, which is street facing. Um the north elevation initially had a uh 45 foot tall blank 45 foot wide blank wall and I'm sorry I should have provided an existing and proposed. Um I believe the applicant has a presentation so I'm hoping they show the the changes. Um but per DRC's comment uh the wall has been revised to add two new window openings as well as a 33 foot wide uh public art mural. Uh the mural does um use mountain imagery to reflect Taiwanese cultural identity. Um however um after discussion with the public arts manager, the uh public arts manager did point out that they would like to see a art piece that's um that can live beyond the scope of the project if this hopefully this project continues to flourish. But if you know there were a new tenant to move into this building in the future should have something that has the image should be something that's neutral and mountains I believe uh kind of fit well with any type of use. So the again this is a very uh preliminary design. So um this will be um the um it'll it'll the public they'll work with the public arts manager to finalize this design further. And here is the uh south elevation. And this is the front entrance facing the internal parking lot. Um it consists of

a glass uh storefront windows with a sloped roof. Uh the exterior facade consists of gray and white stucco. And um the this was intentionally placed on the entrance of the building was intentionally placed to be on the south side to really maintain a low profile from the neighboring residences. And here is the west elevation that's facing the existing building. And um east elevation that's facing the closest residential property. Um the R8 zone requires a 5-ft sideyard setback. The applicant has uh provided a 15t setback from this building to the property line along the east. Um giving the sensitivity closer to a residential property. Um, and there is a requirement in the Walnut Creek uh, MUN code that does require that when there's a non uh, residential use uh, which is classified as a commercial or community use in this in this instance um, that a 8-ft tall masonry wall is required. The applicant uh, tonight is requesting a waiver and I believe that addendum has been provided to you today. Uh the applicant um is essentially asking for the waiver as they're indicating that it is a low low noise generating use compared to some more active commercial uses such as a fitness center or restaurant that would be located to next to residential properties. Um and that's probably really the intent of the MUN code as well that when there's a commercial use a budding residential uses to kind of um buffer that noise or that type of activity. But in this case, we we see that's given that the hours of operation are till 5:00 pm. Uh the latest at 5:00 pm shouldn't be a concern. And staff has also um staff

supports the uh request and we have um in the past also allowed these type of approvals, but of course it's under the discretion of the planning commission. Um but the code does say this requirement may be waved or the height uh reduced if the commission makes the finding that that such 8-foot uh fence or wall is not necessary for the protection of such adjoining properties. And here are some renderings uh really showing the way um this uh this new community center will um fit within the context of the site. Here's a closer look. Um again to the right on the top is to right is the church and um I believe they incorporated a crosswalk so there's a little more connectivity some more renderings again how it relates to the existing neighborhood. And now moving on to the landscaping plan. Um the applicant is proposing two new 24inch uh box olive trees or I believe there's three tree species that they've uh provided in their landscape pallet. So of any of those trees, if there's a preference by the commission, you can state so. But um the reason for the change was because the design review commission said to um up the size of the trees from a 15 gallon to 24inch box and change the species. And again, I think the applicant could go into more detail on that. And there are three existing trees on site that will remain. One is uh the street facing diodar cedar tree that's right in the front uh facing Sunnyville. And uh this project does comply with the city requirements and does qualify for a class 32 squa um exemption as it is a infill development and uh the project was designed to meet the city's uh design standards.

The project also meets the zoning standards such as floor area ratio, building height setbacks and parking standards. And um the attachment one draft resolution that's been included as part of the packet really um outlines or addresses all of the findings that are required to approve the three conditional use permits tonight. And if needed I could elaborate, but I'm just going to move on for now. Um so tonight, uh staff does recommend that the planning commission adopt the draft resolution determining the project is exempt from SQA as well as approving the conditional use permits. uh and design review for the proposed community center. And with that, I do conclude my presentation, but I am happy to answer any questions.

Well, let me start. The um uh does the do the conditions on the conditional use permits, do they restrict the hours to the hours listed or is it just um there's some flexibility with that?

There's a little flexibility. Um and again this is case by case but the reason we added that it needs to comply to exhibit B which is the business operating plan and if it's if they make minor adjustments or changes we can call it substantially compliant and allow them to make those changes. However, we've seen in the past sometimes if we don't add that condition, we've had businesses really change the operating hours, increase the student count, or um go from K through 8 through high school students. So, like a really a a change, you know, or alteration that could impact what we're approving tonight. So, um in that case, they would have to come back before this commission for a modification. But if it's minor changes um and that's why the conditions there the applicant could reach out to us if there's minor adjustments which we can approve um administratively otherwise it would have to come back to this commission for changes

questions commissioner. So um I just wanted to clarify in the staff report it did mention um one of the design elements was the lighting preferences between the two

styles. Could you speak a little bit more to that please? Yes, I think I have that a slide. So, if you see candidate one is the upper slide at the top. Um, and candidate two, they gave two options is the bottom one. The difference is as this candidate one is really what complies with the city's design guidelines, which really uh because it minimizes glare and light spill and also provides a soft illumination versus the other one, it kind of spreads out spreads out further. So, um, so that's what we've stated in the report. There's not really a conditional use, uh, sorry, a condition of approval, but, um, there is a condition of approval that says that the lighting should be pointed downwards. And based on what they've given us in these images, uh, I believe candidate one really meets that requirement.

Okay. Thank you. Mr. Strongman, um, the applicant has requested the variance on the fence. uh if we should grant that, how where do we work that into our resolution? So, it'll be we could strike out the condition um of the condition number three and we can have it to read the applicant may construct a 7 foot tall wood fence um along the east property line in lie of the required 8 foot um tall wall. Uh we could just add that as a condition. There's no really specific I mean we can we could modify their uh we can modify and the commission can adopt the resolution as okay. Yeah.

Thank you. And second question is it appears from the drawings that the improved landscaping does not extend to the church nor through the new lighting to the church. Is that the way it is or could we have that extended to the that is what's being proposed. Uh but again the applicant will come up and have a presentation so maybe we can Okay, I'll wait. Save that question for them. Okay, thank you. Thank you. No questions. Questions of staff? All right. I I have a quick question. I I don't know if it's better served by the applicant, but in the uh attachment for the business plan,

I I know we're not looking at it right now, but the the drop off section, I'm just curious about the flow. I stole it from you. Uh the it kind of looks like you drive in, you drop off, and then there's no roundabout necessarily, but you if if I'm driving, I have to go through what looks like the parking lot and then kind of jog back around, right? Like um for instance, Heather Farm, right? The new building, there's a you just drive off, drop your kid off, and you're on your way. But we look like we're driving through the parking lot. And I just want to clarify that that's

correct. So during my conversation with the applicant, it was my understanding that they would park the vehicles and then walk the children to the um area, but I see what you're saying. There's like this squared off red area that's showing a drop off zone. So I will have the applicant really elaborate that. Sounds good. Thank you. Get ready. Uh, the only other thing I had that wasn't already covered was that I noticed um a note about seeking city guidance about the outdoor play area on the grass. I was wondering if you had any um responses to that.

Yeah, it's not a requirement. It was just a question that was raised by city staff that if there's kids there, they want to get out of the community center and go outside, is there a place that you can have them? So, they have a grassy area in the back and I believe is it enclosed? There's a section of it that's enclosed. Yeah, there's a fence around it. So, that that would probably be sufficient. Right. Nothing further than I will open the public hearing and the applicant has 10 minutes to present. Commissioner, good evening. My name is Daniel Cole. I'm the one start the whole thing four years ago. Four years ago. So I thank you for all the city commissioner consider our project. This has been very very tough job for me. I have to raise every penny of it. No given any fund fund any foundation anything. But we believe that uh we'll do something for the purpose of this mission.

Please speak into the mic. Thank you.

So when I start this whole thing, I want our vision is this. We want to create a permanent home for East Bay Taiwanese American. We have a swim mission. We want to transport pass on Taiwanese culture heritage which including our value our democracy system for the generation to come. Not only that, we want to translate transport this heritage mission to the surrounding American community. Number three, we want to use this building to foster opportunity for the United Methodist Church of Taiwan who have been there almost 50 years ago. 50 years ago. So because of this mission, I gather people November 15, 2021. So this is my mission, my our mission, our teamwork and I'm really hope the commission would grant us permission to build this building. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Well, good evening commissioners. My name is Sir Chong. I am the architect of the Taiwanese American Culture Center of East Bay. Um it's my honor to stand in front of you today to present this very exciting project for our community uh and hopefully for Walnut Creek as well. Um so Dr. Cole has been an inspiration and a very important person in this process. Um he has gone through some of the goals um that he wants we want to achieve in front of you. there is a sizable Taiwanese community here in the East Bay and unfortunately there's no a place that they could call their permanent home. Um so we want to build something for them that could last for the next 40 50 years for the older generation as well as for the younger generation to enjoy. So um I'm not going to go through the technical aspects since Mr. Gil has covered most of them. I'm going to give you some background of how we come up with the concept today. Um Dr. Cole has gone through some of his goals. So I'm not going to repeat this. Um I'm going to jump straight to here. So the building itself is is very simple, right? Basically there is the main auditorium or library uh which could be partitioned off to create two additional classroom and then there are two permanent classrooms. Um there is an administration office and then there is also an office for the pastor. Uh just one thing I want to clarify is that this project is not being funded by the church. uh the church and our organization organization are actually two different entities. Uh we have very very good relationships. Uh a lot of the members basically they they they they affiliate with the church and the church basically uh come to an agreement with our organization to use the land uh to build this community center. And that is to answer your question. One of the question why how comes the landscape does not extend over to the church side

is that our site is actually limited to this eastern portion and um there is no indication from the church whether they want to improve the site as well. So the most we could do is try to improve our site as much as possible um and then the church could decide later on whether they want to do something uh to improve the site as well. So hopefully that answer your question. um aesthetics. We understand our building is in the middle of the res residential neighborhood. So aside from uh trying to create a distinct style, uh we want to blend in well and be respectful respectful to the peacefulness, the quietness um and the building scale of the neighborhood. Uh we also know that our building is right next to the church. uh even though it's not associated with it necessarily, we want to create a building form that uh share a similar pallet scale and building form as well. And of course lastly is is um where do we draw our inspiration and the and the next few slides will show you uh we want to draw inspirations from the Taiwanese geography as well as from our local California geography because this building is called Taiwanese American Cultural Center, right? We want to find something that could uh create that link between the two different cultures. Um so the overall strategy of the building is to divide the building into the street side, the north side and then the interior side. We believe that is important again because it is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We want to be respectful. We don't want to create a scene or too loud um that the neighbors could complain. So the inspiration that we got is mountains and forest. As you can see that the just the position between the north and then the south elevation. And I'm going to explain this a little bit more. Mountains forest. Why? Uh well on the on on the upper left hand side you see

Mount Diablo which is right in the middle of or next to Walnut Creek. And then in Taiwan it is a very mountainous uh island nation. There are lots of mountains. Um so this particular uh photo is called Alishan is one of the most uh famous tourist attraction in in Taiwan. So we thought there are some parallels between what we have here and what is in Taiwan. And then the slides at the bottom uh show obviously the old uh redwood forest that we have in California as well as similar forest I mean not redwood but cedars um in Taiwan. So we thought we could use this as an inspiration to create the building form and the overall aesthetics of the building. So, as you can see on the north side, basically uh it is supposed to be a little bit more rugged and more solid uh with punch windows that will fit well into this residential neighborhood, quieter and more subdued tone. Uh the scale, the walls have been scaled down to fit the neighborhood versus the south side which is warmer um uh more transparent, more active and and more welcoming. And uh we use uh timber lumbers uh columns on this side to kind of it's a suggest suggestive of you know the tall trees that we could find in California as well as in Taiwan. Um so that's kind of the inspiration and and we hope that that this distinction could basically uh show our respect to the neighborhood that we want to blend in. we want to be a good neighbor and also give this building a its own kind of distinctive uh style. Um so as you can see again these are the uh just the position of the north and the south elevation. I apologize I don't have the um the elevation before where we don't have this mural. So as part of the public arts requirement as well as to break up the long 45t long facade uh we propose doing a mural. We are going to

set up a special arts committee uh within our organization in the process of uh uh soliciting artists to do this. So what you see here is basically just a very preliminary uh concept. uh we are still exploring what we could uh do on on this particular uh wall and then this is just a interior shot of the uh auditorium and um I'm not going to spend too much details on this. These are some of the things that we have addressed that we hear from the design uh review committee. Um, I will let you ask a question if uh if anyone is particularly concerned about any of these, but we believe our documents have addressed all of this. Breaking up the north wall, uh the plant species, the acoustical concern, uh the drop off area. Uh by the way, the drop off, yes, it it works exactly like you mentioned. Uh you probably have to draw someone, go to the street and come back. Uh and it is done because uh uh we are very constrained in terms of parking lot there. Basically, there's not much room for us to expand uh the parking lots without reducing the parking spaces. So, this is the pro compromise that we are uh taking right now. And hopefully that would uh work with you. And um we create a crosswalk. We have siteings on both sides. So, is it it creates a little bit of visual connection between the church and our building. As mentioned, the the two buildings basically operate independently. Um but we do think that such a little bit of gesture could help create a visual connection between the two buildings. And then uh on the east side uh regarding the fans, there's actually an existing probably a 12ft tall uh hatches in in pretty good condition. And um that's why in the original submitter, we did not propose uh doing a fence there. We believe that the hatches itself uh not only does it look fairly

pretty, it it actually does serve the function of providing privacy to both sides of um properties. Um so that kind of concludes my presentation. Uh I want to show you an animation. It's just a sing one minute clip. So it's going to be real fast. Um do we have audio? Yes.

Okay. Close your heart. [Music] Thank you. That concludes our presentation today and I hope that we could earn your endorsement tonight. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Questions for the applicant. Oh. Um, can I take an opportunity to introduce we have Carrie uh and then Genie Vice President Nice to meet you. This is I want to pass on to her. Actually, Kelly, why don't you introduce us?

Hi. Nice to meet Hi everyone. Nice to meet you. My name is Kelly and it's a blessing to be part of this uh project and to me as a first generation Taiwanese American, I would like to take this opportunity hopefully to grant your permission to have this project um um approval for us to build because it is a it is an honor to be part of this community. And then we hope once we ground it in this place and we're going to invite all different culture to enjoy um Taiwanese American and for us it's a it's a win-win situation and then I'm just happy that I have this opportunity to be part of it. Thank you.

Genie is the um construction manager.

Hi. Uh my name is Jeannie Wong. Um I'm the construction project manager and I'm second generation Taiwanese. So my parents are from Taiwan. I was born in the US and um I'll be working very closely with uh all subsequent coordination for design and uh pre-construction permits everything that's needed so we can build a very beautiful and successful project here. I'd like to introduce Kathy Ry. Come up. Hi, I'm Kathy Ry. I'm a registered professional engineer and also certified lead accredited professional. So, we want to create something and build something that Walnut Creek, the city, can point to and say, "Hey, this is how we want to maintain climate ordinance." Because I did go through your ordinances. I'm looking to um in the DD phase use um engineered wood um cross laminitate cross laminated timber and mass timber which is not only engineered wood it's more dimensionally stable but it's also more sustainable because it basically takes younger trees but it also creates really clean beautiful surfaces and um those are the types of sustainability components that I plan to I'm also a licensed general contractor so with this integrated process, we would also like to explore um putting in more sustainable features. So, welcome feedback anytime. Um and thank you for listen. Yeah, I'm also a second generation Taiwanese American. Um I am a third generation builder. My grandfather, his brothers, and his cousins built some of the wealthiest parts of Taipei. So, I am invoking my inner grandpa. Thank you for welcoming us.

Father, my alltime friend. That's right. From Pittsburgh. So, yes, he I have a face to keep up here. My questions, Commissioner K.

First of all, I just want to say congratulations for all that you've accomplished so far. I mean, that's a tremendous amount of work, fundraising, community building, planning. Um, I was I was um looking at the materials that we received and um some of the the videos that were shown um of the community events that you have held. Um it's just a beautiful thing that you have done all of this here in Walnut Creek um for the community. So, thank you for that.

Yes. Um, and I want to say I'm the design is just so beautiful. Um, I love the the mountains and the trees and the the natural light coming in. Um, so I guess my questions would be um, two things I think just from one thing that was just said around sustainability. Um, I know there's like lead certifications and things like that. I don't know if that's something that you're you're seeking with this building. um as far as sustainability. Um and then my other question is just more around the program, how you came to determine um you know that this would be an afterchool program for elementary school kids and um sort of which schools are they coming from? Do you already have a partnership with um local elementary schools that these kids would come from? What we want to do is the after after school program actually offer this from uh uh 12 to 5 Monday through Friday and Saturday we want to open the center to the grown up offer so-called Taiwan center which will teach the adult mentoring Taiwan and Taiwan history this open to that's a Saturday of course Sunday is for church use the know Sunday school and church going so there is no overlap at all another thing I want to mention this because this is what I recommend my daughter my team member the daughter they are second generation here they say that would not only want to serve Tanese American you want to serve American people very strongly

She said we will have to offer field trip to the American school theoretically invite them to learn Taiwan. This is my second generation suggestion. I feel so good about the whole thing in my mission statement. Anyway, I was moved by my daughter second generation suggestion. Thank you. And um I'd also like to add I mean it's so be beautiful at you know the a vision but and there's there's actually a lot of potential for other things. There's a there are you know a lot of different there are some activities that don't have a home including like a Taiwan youth uh summer camp. So I don't know if if it's possible we can expand programming, you know, as as it's feasible for different ages, different um activities, maybe different outings and especially field trips for for schools to come to the center, but also for for people in the community to go visit Taiwan or to to learn about Taiwan or to come, you know, celebrate with us. Thank you.

Any other questions? Yes, I I uh also am um excited about the building and gratified to see the work that's gone into planning for it. I had a specific question about um entitlement to build. So, for example, I have experience working with a church that gave land to develop affordable housing. What is the relationship that gives you the authority to build on your site with the church? Is there a lease, a partnership agreement? I mean,

to answer your question, we will uh draft a lease and then sign with UNCC. So, that will guarantee us 40 or 50 uh usage of that building. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Good. Thank you. also renewable regardless what happens and you'll be here to make sure it's renewed. We have to take care of our cost. Yeah. Right. Right.

Another thing I really want to say something about this my vision from this from the day one I want to have this building completely off by solar panel solar energy. I don't want I want to minimize the f cost you know f cost right

so that in the future building when the operation building there's hardly any f cost be 100% offer by soda panel we also want to install storage so that uh you know in evening we don't have the solar soda energy so we want to generate the fish from the energy storage we also want to use hip pump So it will be very very modernized and for this again not only for the future uh operation but also really good for the environment. We don't have any nature guest. Thank you Commissioner Quark.

So um I have a question about the lighting options that we're looking at. Do you have a preference between the two options that were in the presentation? It were up to you. Are you talking about the site lighting? The the the lighting that would unite the Yes. the sighting. The uh the lighting. Um we I actually I don't have a particular preference. I think either one would work well with the building. Um we're looking for something that is relatively simple in design and I believe these both of these uh would work. So we're not necessarily in favor of one or the other. Uh it I mean we looking forward to your uh recommendation. Go ahead. All right. Thank you.

I'm also part of the international dark sky movement where um there have been numerous studies to um highlight how we want to limit the lighting at nighttime because it affects wildlife, it affects the plants and we want to be as kind as possible. So, if we can choose the downward-facing one with Sarah's permission and the board's permission, um that's what I would try to nudge it towards in terms of um being kind to nature, being kind to the sky. Um because city lights travel hundreds of miles and that is part of the mo movement. We are trying to minimize it. I

just want to confirm that's candidate one listed on this plan. Yeah. Thank you. vice chair. Um just to confirm because I sorry beautiful presentation um to you also everybody everybody

it takes a lot um what I was going to ask was for I wanted to quickly discuss the waiver. Um so in lie of a solid masonry the idea is to do woodch.

Okay. Um and shorter um in lie of eight it's seven feet tall. Yes. Can I correct? Yeah. The reason it's for the seven feet is because that's under the code. Um, seven feet is allowed by right. If it's any taller than seven feet for a wood fence, the way our code reads, it requires a minor use permit to get taller fences. I know. I know.

But since I mean we're before the commission, I mean, you can make a call. Um the thing that um usually when f fences are done for privacy reasons but also um speaking of um sound attenuation I looked at the equipment. The equipment with the pad goes no higher than six. So it's far below the eight and the seven. because I did want I I noticed I mean that must have been a big deal for the for the DRC to require that. Um and then the last question I was going to ask is um normally when we're doing um when I do site lighting I usually have a phototric design to kind of see the min max and the average because I completely agree with you. The first thing that came to my mind was you have safety. There's there's different regulations, right, of building lighting versus lighting in parking lots, right? But you also don't want to disturb the neighbors. So, um, it was there and is there an understanding of the placement of the lights and then the leeching out of the

I'm hoping to have that. Yeah, because because Walnut Creek does does have lighting standards, right, for different foot candles, right? Somewhere. Yeah, Ryan, you correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the photometric studies. Yeah. For anything on the ex, not on site, but in the public, there's nothing on site required. Okay. Not even for safety from the building department.

Okay. I could have sworn the building official required that, but I agree with you that you don't want to have something so egregious that it then it affects the neighbors, but you still want something to be so that you're you're safe. and having designed developments, residential developments, there there's like a beautiful balance where you can almost also use the lighting to to calculate your foot candles even for the lighting off the building itself. Um, so that was kind of my my two cents for that was sorry that was my questions. Okay, thank you.

Anything else, Commissioner Moran? Uh, thank you. I I really really like the design of the building and the thought that went into it. Uh I didn't see the philosophy of the front-facing mountains and the the back facing forest and I thought that was um really interesting and I appreciate that. Um my question is kind of regarding the the general the community which you hope to serve. Uh, and I know that there's like a I'm looking at the sample day-to-day operations and specifically uh I'm interested in the afterchool type programming. What is the do you guys see a have you done any studies about the demand or the community which you might serve? And I'm I'm I'm kind of leading the witness here because what I think is you have is a a brand new beautiful building. And I would encourage you to um think about the larger community that you could serve, right? There's there's different STEM classes and um uh Mandarin classes and so forth, but you know, there it's I I wouldn't think and I I assume that you're not limited to just the Taiwanese community in the East Bay, but just the broader community, you know, in the East Bay, right, with people who might be interested in sending their kids to an afterchool class for STEM, right? they may not speak Mandarin or maybe they're interested in speaking Mandarin. Uh, and this is just less of a question than a comment, but if anybody wants to get up and and speak to this, but I'm I am curious about um the broader Taiwanese community in the East Bay and how you guys see yourselves serving them. And I would also just encourage you to to think, you know, with with bigger goals because you'll have uh a nice new building that you can bring in people whether they

speak Mandarin or Taiwanese. You know, you've got you're in a residential area, people can send their kids right down the street for after school program. So, um if anyone wants to speak to that, that's great. But, um that would just be my thought. Thank you. Thank you for coming. As you know, I really start the whole thing. But I've been through I've been starting from one zero to nothing for four corporation in Taiwan. So it's very important to maintain the cash flow you know maintain the know I don't hopefully anybody get this building don't have to go out to raise money all the time this is my experience I look at my my credential anyway one of the thing we want to offer after school is this because my grandchildren I have so many grandchildren they all went through this after school program one of the thing they done is that learned robotics, learn some computer programming and they had to pay some fee for that. So our intention beside teaching language so on you can collect the money for for teaching for growing up for teaching Taiwanese actually Taiwan government offer that kind of assistant but for the general after school program would like to offer something that useful right now. I mean my my grandchildren just went through that from sixth grader all the way to the uh high school. They all went through this kind of program. They had to pay something to learn those things. So we intend to offer that kind of class. We have four classroom to answer your question. I I want to make sure that maintain know income and

cost balance. Okay. Thank you for the great feedback. We actually run four uh four workshop last year and it's about robotics and then um it was quickly filled up but we set a limited to 25 kids only because we don't want to disturb the neighbors because it's a lot of traffic. And then I observed that the parents they did park and then they walked the kids to the class. So that's a good sign. And then um we could we but the thing is we could not offer too many of this because the building itself is kind of old. So hopefully with this new building being built, we can even offer more to the local community. Yes, we do realize there's a commercial uh residential area and then we are there to help not just Taiwanese American but to all the residential um residents who live around that area. Thank you.

And as somebody who is involved with a number of other lead projects um and also the general contractor, we are open to working with certain people such as board members. We're lucky that we have a talent of board members that have experience in demolition. We could do it mindfully so we divert from landfill. We have a landscaper so we could think about bio swelles so that it actually makes flood control happy. It makes the water board happy. We plan to make a lot of agencies happy and still stay within budget. So, we're just trying to be mindful to have these conversations as early as possible with that scurve, you know, before hockey sticks up and then it gets expensive. So, it's just important to have a lot of these conversations up front. Um, we also, um, I got permission from the board to welcome university students to be part of this process and if they want to even present to you, it's also an experience for them in a realworld project. So that's another extension of the education component that goes beyond Walnut Creek. It's any university student that wants to come participate and be part of the research on what some of the best solutions and best practices are for being part of the climate change sustainability and environmental stewards.

Thank you. Um I just wanted to clarify details. So, um, my understanding now is the cultural center is currently an existing organization without a permanent building or are they meeting in the existing building that's going to be demolished?

I wasn't sure if I got that detail. Well, this particular organization was formed specifically for this new construction. So informally there has always been a group of Taiwanese uh who are organizing these classes and whatnot but they never have a permanent home. They basically they are borrowing the space of the church which is um the social hall building right next to uh right next to this building. Uh did I answer your question? Yes. Yes. So the organization itself was was founded specifically for the construction and the design of this uh new building. All right. Thank you, Mr. Glopp.

I uh wanted to go back to the fence uh waiver and just say for me personally, 7 foot seems like a reasonable uh uh accommodation, but I wanted to ask a question about the comment that was made about wood or uh greenery. um the the existing hedge. My experience hedges get thin, die, don't always provide the kind of uh noise and uh privacy that we want. So I would recommend that it be both uh a wood fence and the hedge to keep keep the hedge. But yeah, so that would be my thinking. This question the H again uh I hope commissioner can visit outside right now there are such a beautiful green h about 8 nt so beautiful and between our building and next door for 70 ft that head is so beautiful how come we want to Another wooden h just to me it's completely not not really it's just please where is that see the h what we have it's very tall tree so for this issue I really please asking you anybody question but go to visit us this very tall very beautiful and there so so much distance between two building.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Look, look. So tall. 9 ft and all the way to Sunnyville Avenue. The beauty of the hedge is there. Thank you. Else,

Commissioner Pound. Um, I just had another question come to mind when you're talking about the existing social hall and and when I did go and walk the site, I saw the social hall and then like the sort of like playground area and then the grass, right? Um, so is that going to be part of your usage or is that only for the church um the social hall as well as the outdoor uh play area? Yes. It's going to be uh for everyone who goes to this area. So for everyone to use the social hall. Thank you.

All right. Very good. Then I will uh open the public hearing to uh

Sorry. Can I make a comment, please? I have a a rendering in here not related to this project, but it's next door. Uh this is a new I believe I mentioned this in my staff report as well that there will be a new proposed uh development next door to the east uh the fence in question location. Um as you can see they're going to put the drive aisle closest to this community center and the house the eight new houses will be set on the opposite side. Uh but keeping the hedge uh just like Commissioner Klopp mentioned one it doesn't really classify as a as a buffer right I mean it's great it looks beautiful but once this develop it would it would be great if it could stay but with this new development coming that's not going to stay. So we're going to need something solid to really create that separation between the two uses.

Yeah. Thank you. Um if anybody in the public would like to speak on this matter um welcome to do so. The building is eight unit as I understand right. So total square foot it must be more than maybe 100 20,000 square foot. Our building is only 4500 square foot. So if we want to any any H and any S maybe we can join together spend money why I have to spend money for this that's great and I did mention to the architect that he could reach out to the developer

not sure if that happened bigger than us yes okay very good anybody in the public would like to speak on this matter um can come forward and you have two minutes. I don't see a large crowd glamoring to do so. So, uh, with that, I will close the public hearing and bring it back for discussion. Planning Commission. Commissioner Quark.

All right. I'm very happy to see this presentation. I think it's a it'll be a great um addition to the city and to the fabric of the city as well as the social um the benefits to the community. um both the Taiwanese community and the American community. Um as for the fence, I do like the seven foot wooden option. I think we can go with that. And for the lighting, I would prefer uh the first option.

Commissioner CL and before before we make a motion, I actually wanted to say there was staff there was a staff oversight. Uh there are some standard conditions of approval for the engineering department. My fellow colleague Ryan Cook brought that to my attention and he has a copy of those conditions, but we would need to incorporate that into this as we're adopting this um resolution tonight. Do you know what those are? I mean, yes, we have to tell the engineer.

Thank you. And I apologize. That was staff's oversight. No, it's this looks Yeah. Okay. I think probably the important part is that it's it's standard conditions, engineering conditions of approval. there about permits, title reports, sidewalk damage. Yeah, maybe just give the engineer.

Yeah, you be you be the expert.

Do my job. Um erosion control, which is important. Um engineers cost assessment, which is always needed. Um especially since I saw that there was some site off-site improvements required. So, normally you need a um a bond or something when you're doing work in the in the public ride ofway. Um drainage fee, which that's very normal. Um photo Oh, there it is. Phototric study. Um power poles, utility structures, gradient drainage, and storm water. So, uh essentially requiring overland release. This is very standard for C3. Okay. So, hydro modification for post project storm water peak flow soils report post construction um C again C3 sorry to make sure the water's clean. I'm saying C3 like because everybody knows that um storm water treatment facilities, traffic control plan, which is great especially during the construction. um parking layout, tree removals, tree protection zones, trash enclosures, um separate permitting. Perfect. for any other um additional agency that's required such as the sewer district, East Bay MUD um for water, contraosta, PG& and then work hours to not disturb the neighbors which is very very important. Um th those are the main that's the gist of it.

And just to be clear again these are standard conditions that go on any project like this. Okay. Added to the resolution is correct. But before we do that if I can um I just in talking with Sim I understand that she's talked about these conditions with the applicant um and they're aware. Thank you for bringing it. So I just I just wanted to see if the applicant um H has any comments or if you understand or if you would like some time to review them.

Now, unless I'm mistaken, I I believe some of these um things that you mentioned will be part of the requirements for the site development permit which we assume will basically come after the entitlement. Uh that is our basically that is on our agenda. The basically what we're planning to do is to develop the site development permit application as well as the building permit application together after we obtain our entitlement. Um, okay. So, you're I'm aware of the you're aware of with the conditions. Okay. Thank you.

So, I'm sorry. The engineering conditions in the draft resolution starting with number 12 through number 22. Is this is what you're talking about in addition to those items on the resolution?

I'll have uh Ryan Cook come up and explain that. Sorry, I should have probably come up a little sooner. Uh Ryan Cook, senior engineer with the city. So, the the conditions that are in the draft resolution now, there's like four of them. Um they're very basic and I'm not exactly sure where the overlook was in those. Uh they are basically duplicated within the revised conditions that we just provided. Um and as uh Commissioner Nighting had pointed out, it's all pretty standard stuff. Um there's nothing really specific to this project that's out of the ordinary. Uh mostly all related to our current permitting, storm water compliance, um and other standard engineering requirements. Uh so

okay. So this would be replacing the or in addition to the engineering conditions section. I don't know if you want to pull that up on the screen of the draft. You could you could either replace it or just amend it too because it's a little bit of uh duplication but there's nothing conflicting though. Okay. Okay. So Claire, you might need to help us word the resolution. So we can those can be incorporated into the resolution to the extent that they don't duplicate each other. Any other discussion or a motion? Go ahead.

Um hopefully I get it right with the addition. Um, I I propose to adopt the conditional use permanent design relic application number Y24-077 um with additional engineering conditions that and and the fence the fence and the lighting senses on that and um option one of the lighting and the seven foot fence. in lie of the 8 foot fence. Okay. So my so just to add to that so my recommendation is on the lighting condition where it says it faces downwards.

Yes. To specify that it's the number one design that is presented tonight and to specify that it says the downward lighting. Correct. Okay.

Resolution with all of that. Yes. Uh question on the motion. You the fence is going to be 7 foot and wood wood not in lie of masonry. Okay, good. Should I should I do I should I repeat it? You guys got it right. Thank you. Second question. Are we not supposed to approve the church as well as the cup because it was non-conforming? That's correct. That's one of the conditional use permits before you tonight, right? The resolution would resolution. It's in the It's already in there. Okay. Thank you. They're all in there. All right. Any further discussion on the motion?

Okay. So, the motion did include adopting the draft resolution and exempt from SQA and the three conditional use permit with the modified conditions with the fatten 7 foot tall wood and the lighting facing downwards. But design number one as presented today. Thank you. All right. Everybody understands what we got going here. Um I'd ask uh for the role. Yes. Vice Chair Neing. Yes. Uh Commissioner Klopp. Yes. Uh Commissioner Moran. Yes. Commissioner Kent. Yes. Commissioner Strongman. Yes. Commissioner Quac. Yes. And Chair Anderson. Yes.

Thank you. Motion passes. 70. Thank you all very much. This this was a a marvelous uh presentation. Um obviously a lot of work went into getting this far, but also in presenting it to us so that we could understand it. I also appreciate um your response to design review that you took their their suggestions and worked out, you know, a good solution to each of them. Um this is uh rarely we get a project of this size that doesn't have a lot more questions with it. So um excellent job and um look forward to uh seeing it go up. Thank you very much.

Not sure I officially closed the public hearing so that we'll do that now. Um and uh we're on to on item five, commissioner considerations or commission considerations.

All right. Um so this past Monday I had a second working group with a signed ordinance update and so we um heard from the contractor about what the what had happened since we met in January. So a survey went out to the business community asking what were the needs um regarding the sign existing signed ordinance and what they would like to see in terms of moderniz modernizing it and um adapting it to the current needs of the business community. There were um 23 responses to this survey and of those 23 responses 17 were businesses and six were commercial property owners. Um a lot of the common themes and the results of the survey, the feedback from the business community were um looking at the visibility and location of signs for the businesses. Um looking at the A-frame signs, so I call these sandwich boards. These are ones I typically see on the on the ground that are put out in front of businesses. looking at the size and the dimensions and the designs of the signs and also looking at the process improvements for the applicants when they're applying for the signs. Um so the contractor has heard our feedback and is going back to um drafting an ordinance and so I will have an update for you next time we come back together.

Thank you very much.

Good. Anything else, Commissioner CL? Uh so the uh contraosta transpac group uh met that's the uh subgroup of uh contraosta transportation authority that looks at our uh geographic area. The two items on the agenda uh this week's meetings were trying to figure out how to expand the class pass or bus rider program for students beyond the current sort of limited two to three month thing into a more uh expanded program. It it runs into barriers that are sort of inter group agency coordination and funding. Um so there's a lot of ideas and frustration about the opportunity to expand it. So there's still tilting at windmills to do that. Uh the second thing was a report out on the um contraont Contraosta transportation agency plans for measure J uh in the next five to seven years. Measure J is a tax sales tax um uh thing fund um that um is getting towards the last sort of third of its life. Um and the projects that are underway um with current funding in our central jurisdiction are the I680 uh state route 4 interchange. Um there's uh work on the carpool lanes on I680 and uh a lot of the BART parking access improvement gates etc have been funded by that as well. So that's what's on the docket.

Question on that. At some point I heard that they were going to some proposed a change to the on-ramp of going north on um I guess it was Lawrence Avenue way. uh and that make it a braid so that the people exiting to treat and giri would be not impacting each other. It could be that's a project that isn't flagging in my memory right now but it's not a measure J project. Okay. So I I'll keep a ear out for that one. Thank you. Okay.

Yes. Right. Um any other staff reports or commission reports? Not I'll just say for the record that um we have a um planning commission meeting on October 9th that we have two items that night. So we have the zoning code amendment for the residential care facilities and uh retrojunkie design review um application. And then since we are nearing the holiday season, uh we only have one meeting in November and December. So we're hoping we have a quorum because we have items on both uh agendas. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. And with that, I will uh call it adjourned.

I'm sorry. Yes. Oh yeah, that was right. That was right at the beginning. Oh,

sorry. Different agencies do it differently. [Music] [Music] [Music]