present Commissioner Ward is absent Commissioner clop Commissioner Reiser here
Commissioner Neiting here Vice Chair Anderson here chair strongman here thank
you I'm moving on to item number two the consent calendar we do have one item on
the consent calendar the adoption of the minutes of April 11th 2024 do we have
somebody would like to discuss it or make a motion to accept it move
acceptance of the minutes of April 11th 2024 second please call the roll
Commissioner Kwok yes Commissioner Ward is absent Commissioner Klopp approve
Commissioner Reiser yes Commissioner Nating yes vice chair Anderson yes chair
strongman yes motion passes thank you and moving on to public communications
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comments on items not on the agenda
Under the Brown Act the Commission cannot act on items raised during the public communications
We may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed
Request clarification or refer the item to staff
Do we have any public?
communications
Seeing none, we will close public communications and move on to public hearing and our first
hearing is residential and mixed use objective development standards and
updates to the design review process application
zoning text amendment and the location is citywide
start with staff
Well, good evening chair strongman and members of the commission ben schuster again with community development
We're bringing tonight proposed amendments to the city's zoning ordinance to implement objective development standards
an updated design review process and associated administrative cleanup items.
So if you recall back on March 28, we were here before you about a month ago and we kind
of gave you a comprehensive overview of how we were working to implement state law and
then council's direction as well.
So tonight is going to be much more succinct and it's just going to consist of a quick
recap of kind of the overall project,
recommend actions for the commission to take tonight,
and then some next steps.
So why are we doing all this work?
We're responding to kind of a slate
of recent state housing legislation
that has outlined streamline
residential permitting processes,
and then the use, or rather the requirement
of objective standards for such projects.
In addition, the city recently adopted a new and state certified housing element which outlines
a number of programs and policies for streamlined residential approvals. And then finally city
council for the last four years has had an economic development priority regarding permit
streamlining. So in response to these guiding parameters, we've done a number of different
things, we've gone ahead and overhauled our design review process, we've updated our very
outdated 1996 design review guidelines, and we've more generally transitioned to using
objectively written standards.
So as I mentioned, we were here about a month ago on March 28th, and we did a number of
things at that time.
We presented to you the residential and mixed use design review standards and guidelines
booklet we also gave you an overview of the new and updated development
standards that are proposed in the zoning ordinance and then we also shared
with you the design review process changes as well as the associated code
cleanups. So at that time on March 28th no action was taken by the Planning
Commission because no action was required this was just for informational
purposes only, the updated or new development standards that we presented, the planning
commission recommended no change, and then the same with the updates to the design review
entitlement process.
There were no changes recommended by the planning commission.
And overall, if the commission remembers, basically the direction to staff was, keep
moving forward and to implement these changes.
And so that's exactly what we've done.
And so all those changes are included as Exhibit A to attachment one of your packets.
So we are recommending a couple of different things tonight.
So one is that the Commission move to determine the project is exempt from the California
Environmental Quality Act, CEQA.
And then two would be to adopt a resolution which would recommend the City Council adopt
and ordinance, amending the zoning ordinance
to implement three things.
That would be, again, the new or changed
development standards that are now written objectively.
That would be the new design review process
that we've gone ahead and made changes to
based on council direction for streamlining.
And then the last point being changes
based around administrative alignment.
If you recall that, it was changing
the planning manager references
to community development director.
So just to give you a sense of again,
the overall picture of things and where we're at.
On May 21st, we will be going to the city council
to do two things.
One would be to ask the council to adopt a resolution
to adopt the design review standards and guidelines.
And then it would also be to do a first reading
of the ordinance that's in your packets to adopt the,
the suite of zoning ordinance amendments.
In addition to those amendments that are in your packets,
there are amendments to another nine sections
of the municipal code that we are proposing.
Those are not brought to the planning commission tonight
because they are outside the planning commission's purview,
but all the edits are kind of related to the same thing
that we've been talking about.
we would go back to the council on June 4th
for a second reading of the ordinance.
And then the ordinance would go into effect
30 days after on the 4th of July.
And so sometime in June,
we would likely come back to this body
for some training on that new process.
And then the last kind of next step
is sometime later in the summer,
we will be coming back to the various bodies,
including this one, to introduce the non-residential side of things, so that's the non-residential
design review standards and guidelines booklet.
And then there's a number of remaining zoning code amendments, again, related to objective
standards for non-residential projects.
And so with that, I just want to make one administrative note before I close.
We did receive two public comment letters earlier today.
We did respond to those in a memo.
So that's included in your packet, or not in your packet, it was left, I believe, on
the dais for all of you to read.
So please feel free to take a few minutes to work through that if you haven't already.
And so with that, I'll end my presentation, and we have a number of us available for questions.
Thank you.
Thank you for your presentation.
I'll start with questions for staff.
Commissioner Anderson.
Thank you.
I just wanted to revisit a couple of questions I had.
was prompted by the CalHDF letter.
Some of those things refer to items
which are under the discretionary design review
heading, and basically saying that what you have there
is not objective enough.
So could you give us a quick review
of what aspects of a design review
are objective which are discretionary and and how those two are interpreted you know to the extent
that they might have to follow their requirements for objective standards. Yeah sure that's a great
question and I think if I'm lucky I have a this slide tada. So yeah to your point a couple different
things what we're proposing under this new design review framework is kind of three separate buckets
of design review so ministerial objective and then discretionary which was commented
on in the letter.
And so under ministerial and objective design review the city has really quite limited discretion
on projects.
These are limited to certain residential projects mandated by state various state housing laws.
And so our updates to the Design Review article are written in this way to meet the intent
of state law.
So the findings that need to be made are objectively written.
There is no discretion.
There is, under discretionary design review, as the name implies, there is discretion allowed
by the city.
And these are for projects which fall outside of state law.
And that comes kind of in two flavors.
So that's either non-residential projects.
So all commercial projects is, you know, discretionary today.
Anything that triggers design review, it'll be discretionary tomorrow.
The other bucket of projects would be any residential projects or residential mixed
use projects that don't meet one or at least one of the objective criteria.
So any project that either they can't or they want to propose something else that is not
one of our objective review criteria, then they would fall into the discretionary review
pathway.
And at that point, again, this commission would have that discretion.
Thank you.
That's helpful.
The other thing I wanted to ask is, I was skeptical last year when we talked about this,
know about objective design review because that sounded like an oxymoron to me and so
I was pleased when I saw the approach you had taken of looking providing a set of objective
standards but not just one you know more than one so you could kind of choose and that gives
you the flexibility you can choose which objective standards you apply and I was wondering if
that is something that other cities have,
it's an approach that they've taken,
or this idea has been run by whatever state agency,
it's HCD or whoever is in charge of enforcing the statutes
to see if this is a workable approach.
Great question, and maybe I'll let
our Assistant Community Development Director answer that one.
Yeah, so Objective Design Standards has been something
that a lot of agencies have been working on
over the past decade, usually that there
is some sort of flexibility because design is such
a complicated thing to do.
And so our consultants was very helpful in terms
of determining what we thought was appropriate in terms
of providing that flexibility, while staying
within a numerical number.
So by giving a range of saying between 1 and 5,
for example, it's still objective.
And it still gives the applicant the choice
to choose what number they wanted, what they wanted design while still meeting that objective
standard.
Yeah, so it's not a hard, it has to be 10 feet away or whatever.
It could be 5 to 10 feet away.
And that way it's still objective.
We can still just check things off, but it still provides some flexibility.
So the second part of the question is, has this approach been used by other cities and
Or has it been kind of passed by the state to see if they have, they accept that it applies
to the ordinance?
Yes.
I believe so.
I do recall seeing it in some of the other standards, but Janine can probably talk to
this issue a little bit more.
Hi, Janine Cavalli, senior planner.
And yes, we've consulted with Ramy and Associates to assist with the objective design standards
piece of this and they've assisted a number of cities including San Francisco
and have adopted objective design standards using that approach where you
know another approach in addition to the one just mentioned was where you say
there's five criteria five different ways you can meet this criteria pick two
of the five pick three of the five so that was a fairly common approach that
other cities have used. Great, thank you. Someone else? No more questions? Okay I
do have a couple minor questions. Does this, if assuming the City Council passes
this and becomes law, does it impact particularly what we've done up with the
North Downtown overlay at all and how? So let me ask a clarifying question. When
you mentioned the North Downtown overlay, are you speaking of the specific plan
document that was adopted. Okay so Toyota because that in that situation is a
little bit different since they have a development agreement. The development
agreement vests the standards that are in effect at the time that the agreement
becomes effective and so to the extent that there are any new standards objective
design standards are that are you know adopted after that effective date would
not apply to them. As for the new process the new design review process the city
can still adopt such processes and the development has language regarding the
applicability of that new process as long so it would apply but as long as it
doesn't conflict with the invested development rights under that agreement.
Thank you and related question from time to time we have a project come back
looking for an extension of time how would that be these new regulations
impact that decision.
So the extension would go back to whatever body made the approval.
So for most design review, that will now be the planning commission.
And so the extension requests would go back to this body.
They wouldn't have to change their project at all?
If I'm understanding correctly, no.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I'll try.
There's different types of extensions and different levels.
Some are done by staff, some are done by Plan Commission or DRC.
And so typically when there's an extension request, there aren't a whole lot of changes.
I mean there might be some minor changes that staff could approve and or the Plan Commission
or DRC could approve.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions of staff?
Therefore I will open up a public hearing on this.
Is there any member of the public present who would like to make a comment?
this item on the agenda. Seeing none we will close public comments and bring it
back to the Commission for comments and possible motions and just for
clarification do we have to have two different motions one for CEQA and the
second for the actual process. You do not as you adopt the resolution that
includes the CEQA findings and the recommendation. Okay so do we have any
discussion or a motion move to approve the objective development standards for
residential and mixed use development projects updates of the design review
process and duties of the community development director recommendation to
city councils that we're approving adopt the resolution to do that right adopt
that resolution I so move second please call the roll
Commissioner Kwok? Yes. Commissioner Ward is absent. Commissioner Kwok? Yes.
Commissioner Reiser? Yes. Commissioner Nating? Yes. Vice Chair Anderson? Yes. Chair
Strongman? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be on to item 5. Commission
considerations. Do we have any considerations? None from staff. Thank you. And to item 6,
commission member and staff reports or announcements. Your gala.
The Trinity Center of Walnut Creek will be proud to celebrate its annual fundraiser gala
on May 9th at the Ruth Bancroft Garden and all interested are welcome to attend. Thank you.
And with that we will be adjourned.