all right hello everyone we're live on zoom now and everything all right cool
all right guys we are going to start now welcome to the May 14th 2026 zoning
adjustment board meeting good to be back thank you vice chair young for doing the
last meeting all right we are going to kick it off first just with the public
advisory this meeting will be conducted in a hybrid model with both in-person
and virtual participation. The teleconference will be recorded as any ZAB meetings recorded
and all other rules of procedure and decorum will apply for ZAB members conducted by teleconference
or video conference. Virtual participation. To access the meeting remotely, join from
a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device. Please use the URL which is linked in your
agenda. If you do not wish for your name to appear on the screen, then use the drop-down
menu and click on rename to rename yourself to be anonymous to request to
speak use the raised hand icon by rolling over the bottom of the screen
to join by phone dial the number on your agenda and enter the webinar idea ID
which is also on your agenda if you wish to comment during the public comment
portion of the agenda press star 9 and wait to be recognized by chair public
testimony guidelines to speak at a public hearing please submit a speaker
card to planning staff prior to the start of the meeting this meeting will be
conducted in accordance with the Brown Act government code section 54953. Any member
of the public may attend this meeting. The chair may limit the number of speakers and
the length of time allowed to each speaker. So if you are in person, right now is the
time to go fill out a speaker comment card which is in the back over here. It's a yellow
card. Please give that to lovely staff up here. And if you are online, I will let you
know when to raise your hand. That will be in the beginning. I will let you know and
we will call on you after any in-person guidelines.
First, we will start with full call
and Ex parte communications.
All right, thank you.
Commissioner Capitelli.
Or Chairperson Gaffney.
Present, no ex parte.
Commissioner Nash.
Present, no ex parte.
Commissioner Kramer.
Present, no ex parte.
Commissioner Allen.
Present, no ex parte.
Vice Chairperson Young.
Present, no ex parte.
Commissioner Sanderson.
present no ex parte, sorry, present no ex parte.
All right, wonderful.
Welcome everyone and welcome to our substitutes.
We're all happy to have you today.
I'll do the land acknowledgement statement first
and then we'll get right into it.
The commission recognizes that the community we live in
was built on the territory of the Hiu-Chun,
the ancestral and unceded land
of the Chiu-Chien speaking Ohlone people,
the ancestors and descendants
of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County.
This land was and continues to be of great importance
the Ohlone tribes and descendants of the Verona band. As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge
and honor the original habits of Berkeley, the documented 5,000 year history of a vibrant
community in the West Berkeley shell mound and the Ohlone people who continue to reside in East Bay.
We recognize that Berkeley's residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation
of this unseated stolen land since the cities of Berkeley's incorporation in 1878. As stewards of
the law regulating the city of Berkeley, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of the land
And also recognize the Ohlone people are present members
of Berkeley and other East Bay communities today.
The city of Berkeley will continue to build relationships
with the Rojan tribe and create meaningful actions
that uphold the intentions of the land acknowledgement.
All right, we will get into public comments
on non-agenda items and any informational items.
To go over the agenda real quick,
everything is currently on the consent calendar.
We have items A, B, and C,
which are just some housekeeping items.
The two items for projects are 1101 University Avenue
and 1522 Josephine Street.
So if you have anything to comment on about those,
this is not the time.
Now it's time for anything not about that.
I do not believe we have anyone in person.
I'm going to go online.
Now is your time to raise your hand.
If you have anything, a non agenda.
I'm not seeing anyone currently.
Give it one more second.
All right, we are going to move on then to our consent calendar.
So let me go over the consent calendar.
I said everything today is currently on the consent calendar.
The first item, so we have item number A,
which is the meeting minutes from March 12th, 2026.
I believe it sounded like last meeting,
there was a correction on that,
so that's on today's agenda.
Remember, you can indeed on the commission vote for something,
even if you were not here,
meeting minutes if you were not here.
We obviously have a lot of substitutes today,
so we might need to, you know.
All right, item number B,
meeting minutes for April 9th, 2026, last time's meeting.
I'll leave of absence for me on the design review commission
for next May or May 28th, and then the two use permits,
which are for 1101 University Avenue,
as well as 1522 Josephine Street.
The one thing I wanna bring attention to on Josephine Street
is that it is only the use permit for the demolition
that we are looking at.
So that is something a little more unique about that one.
Just the demolition.
Once again, they're all on consent.
First, I want to open up to commission.
If they have anything they want to say about any of those,
this will not be your last opportunity.
I will go to the public next.
Doesn't look like we have anyone on the commission.
Doesn't look like we have any one person.
So I'm gonna move right along to online.
So we have Kelly.
I'm going to allow, nope, someone else
is gonna allow you to talk.
I do not have the capability to allow Kelly to talk.
All right, Kelly, you should be good to go.
Okay, thank you.
Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Okay, good.
I'm on my iPad, I'm having trouble with my computer.
Okay, thank you for clarifying the one on Josephine
is just for demolition.
And I've been looking through the documents here,
But my understanding from middle housing is that
unless your house like burned down or fell down
in an earthquake that anything that was replaced
had to have more units than,
more dwelling units than what was demolished.
So that's my only comment.
I mean, if they're able to tear down their house
and build just one house in place,
I'm sure that will make a lot of people happy.
But that wasn't my understanding.
Okay, that was it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kelly.
That is a very good question,
which we will let staff answer.
Yeah, that is a good question.
So they did meet the minimum density for this project
with a single family residence.
So they are permitted to have
a single family residence by right.
The middle housing package did include a provision
where if you are demolishing a single family residence
and then constructing more units,
you don't need the use public hearing for the demo.
So it gets you out of the demo use public,
use permit public hearing.
But since they're not doing that,
that is why it's before you tonight.
So it is an easier path for more units,
but they do still meet the minimum density.
All right, that is fascinating.
And we learned something new all the time.
Yeah, commissioner Sanderson.
So I was under the impression
that before they would act on a demolition permit,
You had to have submitted the permit to replace the building.
And so they submitted the permit,
but we're not acting on it.
So it's part of the entitlement package and you do have,
I mean, the demolition has to be approved for them to,
to do that by right single family house.
But what you're actually approving is the use permit
for the demolition, but it includes,
you wouldn't be able to approve it
without a replacement unit just under state law, SB 330.
So it does include that,
but it's not under the purview of the use permit.
It's under, it's a ministerial approval.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, there is indeed a,
they have already submitted plans for the unit.
We're just not, yeah.
So we were talking about that in our staff discussion.
So that was why I wanted to bring that
because it is an interesting case
that we might obviously see more because it is possible.
Of course, does anyone,
I don't believe we have anyone else on Zoom.
It's a great listening page.
There she is.
Okay, it doesn't look like we have any more commenters.
Does anyone else have any comments on the consent calendar?
If not, I will take a motion.
I will make a motion to approve the consent calendar
as is, do I have a second?
I'll second.
All right.
All right, we have a motion and a second
to approve the consent calendar,
which includes the meeting minutes,
leave of absence one, excuse me, 1101 University Avenue
and 1522 Josephine Street.
Commissioner Capitelli.
Yes.
Chairperson Gaffney.
Yes.
Commissioner Nash.
Yes.
Commissioner Kramer.
Yes.
Commissioner Allen.
Yes.
Vice Chairperson Young.
Yes.
Commissioner Sanderson.
Yes, thank you.
All right, wonderful.
The motion passes.
So that means both of the projects on the consent calendar
will have your use permit 14 days
after the notice of decision is mailed.
It is appealable during that time.
So, all right.
Awesome, good job everyone.
Nice and quick meeting tonight.
Now we have our subcommittee reports,
which since Commissioner Thompson's not here,
I need to pull up real fast.
So while I do that, does anyone on the committee
have anything they wanted to discuss during that,
during this time?
Or the city?
No, all right, then we're gonna wait for me for one second
because we did have projects last time
and I would like to tell you about them.
They were both, I do remember,
the city of the city of the
city of the city of the city of
the city of the city of the
city of the city of the city of
the city of the city of the city.
They were both final design
review. So we have all seen them
before. I always forget to
download these before hands.
See. 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 8, kitridge
Street said this was also for a
final design review. Just see a
picture of it and I will
remember. Thank you all for
11 right now. I have it up. It's just downloading really slowly. If you have a picture of it,
you can show it to me. Oh, hold on. I need the picture of it though. I need to remember
what building it was. Yeah, there's the sets just way at the bottom. Sorry, everyone. I'll
make sure to give a really, really cool description of it, just to make sure. So anyone can pull
So, yeah, perfect. So, yeah, this is 2138 Kittredge.
Oh, thank you. Oh, goodness, so bad.
Okay. Oh, right. Oh, I think it worked.
Okay, so, yeah, this was done by Niles Bolton Associates. If I remember, I think actually the
architect was in Atlanta. So, we actually had him zoom in.
So, final design review. So, final design review is a lot of refining of
materials. That's when they bring their material board in.
I said, we really just looked at the different materials and trying to figure out exactly
who said it's a mixed use building.
There was three main materials.
It's a very similar color palette to a lot of the ones around here where they used a
cement composite kind of fake wood siding and different colors of gray to white plaster.
They did a really nice job on kind of where they broke up the masses on this one.
That was kind of the main thing they refined within this project, and said looks very similar
to a lot of the other ones, similar color palette, but it goes with the building next
to it well.
All right.
So that final design review does not actually change too much.
Let's see.
Next one.
I'm sorry, everyone. Thank you.
2449 Dwight Mike. So I get spoiled having Michael here to do these for me now that I'm chair.
There we go. Oh, no, 2449 Dwight is cool. So 2449 Dwight is actually one of the the project that they are
historical building and they are restoring the ground floor, the ground three floors.
And so that is definitely where the bulk of their money is going because restoring facades
and then completely changing the interior is not the easiest thing to do.
We did think they did a nice job at, as I said, there's four floors that are kind of
added to the top of this existing historic building.
And so it was a very interesting one to debate due to the fact it's like how to not compete
with the historic building while also making sure that the top floors are different and
distinguished.
And we talked a lot about kind of the different trims that go around the building and the
different cornices and how to not make the new cornices of the top floors compete with
the very strong cornices of the historic building.
So I would encourage everyone to go look at 2449 Dwight Way
because the whole bottom three floors
will all remain that facade.
So it'll be a really interesting project.
We also were talking about materials.
And us in the design review are going to go out on site
and be able to actually see the materials in the sunlight
and how they work with the lower bottom floors.
So that would be really nice considering
the city of Davis. And I think
it is a very special case. So
encourage everyone to look at
that building that was really
cool. And that's it. Thank you
all for your patience. I've
pulled those up. I will
remember to pull that up next
time. We're all good on
everything else. Then so I will
make a motion to adjourn the
meeting. Second. Second. All
right. We will take a roll call
commissioner Allen yes vice chairperson young yes commissioner Sanderson yes
thank you all right wonderful see you all next meeting