Commissioner quok
Commissioner ward here
Commissioner clop is currently absent, but she's on our way
Commissioner Reiser here Commissioner Nathan here vice chair Anderson here and chair strongman is absent
On to item two is a consent calendar. There's a one item consisting of three sets of minutes
Anybody wish to take the minutes off the consent calendar?
Not anyone in the public no
Okay, 10 9
Almost here. Okay. Let it be noted that the
Commissioner clock has arrived. That's the wrong jacket to wear if you're sneaking in
In a motion to approve the consent calendar
I'd like to move that we approve the minutes that are listed in item two a place second
Call the roll
Commissioner Kwok. Yes
Commissioner Ward. Yes, Commissioner clock. Yes, Commissioner Reiser. Yes
Commissioner Nathan. Yes
Vice chair vice chair Anderson. Yes, and chair strongman is absent motion passes
item number three is public communications. This is if you wish to speak on a matter that is
within the jurisdiction of the planning commission but not on tonight's agenda.
This would be the time to speak. Is there anyone who wishes to speak on the public comment? Seeing none,
there's no one online. Very good. I'll ask the commissioners, is there any ex parte
communications on any of the matters on the agenda tonight.
Alright, none.
We'll move on to the first public hearing is Chaudhry New Single-Family Residence.
This item is intended to be continued to a date uncertain and will be
re-noticed at that time.
Is there anybody who would like to speak on this matter or will not be
acted on tonight seeing none we ride along we went on to item 4b the ileo restaurant review of the
administrative use permit and we have a staff report for that i will note that uh we did receive
more information from ileo tonight good evening commissioners my name is simmer gill associate
planner with the city. We are here tonight to review the current administrative use permit
in regards to the alcohol component of the business, Elia, that's located at 1520 Locus Street.
The applicant representing the project, Guy Houston, is also here tonight to go over their
business operating plan after my presentation. And just to quickly orient you with the site,
Elia restaurant is located in the downtown core area of Walnut Creek. It is located between two other
eating and drinking establishments Limon and Vanessa's Bistro
the surrounding area consists of a mix of commercial uses and
there is a mixed use multi-family development located directly across the street and
Just to quickly go over some background for the prior AUP approvals
the former restaurant La Conte Grill that occupied the space at 1520 Locust
was granted a administrative use permit
which was approved to allow the sale service and consumption of alcohol till 11 p.m.
7 days a week under a type 7 alcohol license that allowed beer wine and distilled spirits and
The most recent approval was for Elia approved to operate under the existing AUP
It was a continuation of the previously approved use
because there was no substantial alterations to the mode or character of the previous restaurant,
Low-Contagrill, which was previously occupying this space.
Elia was approved for the sale, service, and consumption of alcohol till 11 p.m., 7 days a week.
And this was approved through a zoning compliance letter since there were no substantial changes.
And Elia has been operating in Walnut Creek since October 24th of 2022,
And from that time till June 13th of 2023,
Elia was operating under a Type 47 ABC license,
serving alcohol, however, without an AUP or city approval.
And in this time, the Walnut Creek Police Department
did find Elia serving alcohol and operating without an AUP.
Elia was advised to obtain city approval
to serve alcohol at their establishment.
And following that, Elia did submit for an AUP ZCL,
Requesting the sale service and consumption of alcohol that was submitted on April 12th of 2023
and it was approved for them to start the
operations of allowing alcohol on June 13th of 2023 and
that condition is condition number four in attachment three of your agenda packet tonight and
here is a quick look at the floor plan of Ellia restaurant and
It also includes the outdoor patio dining area that seats about
20 customers and
There is a second floor mezzanine area. This area is
specifically caters for private events or parties so not for the general public and
Here I will call upon lieutenant Slater with Walnut Creek Police Department to go over the summary of events for Elia
Good evening commissioners. I'm lieutenant Slater from the police department. I'd like to cover this slide with you real quick
If you do some quick math, you'll see that it says 42 cat events
That were recorded with our police department cat as computer-aided dispatch
it's just an electronic log of anything that police personnel would respond to and we have 42 events associated with Elia from the date of
January 23 to present
Of those 42 events, it's not going to equal the events that are broken down because I wanted to explain what what those conduct
Topics were for the other calls for service
We said that a total of 10 police reports were taken, but of those 10
They could be something as simple as someone reported that their purse was stolen from the establishment. So it would not pertain to the AUP
Four of those police reports though were alcohol related a disturbance or AP violation in directly
So, that is why a police report was taken for further documentation.
Of the 42 events, we did have 13 compliance checks.
You could also call that a security check, a bar check of the establishment, just like
our officers do routinely every weekend.
And the 13 times that they went out of those 42, we did find out that they were doing violations
of the AUP, basically serving alcohol and being open with all of the stuff that we were
just discussing after the hours of 11 PM.
The 10 times that we went out, we're
happy to report that there were no issues.
And that was documented saying that they were closing on time.
There was no sales or consumption.
And that was good on their part.
And then we had 12 calls for service total
that had absolutely no relevance to the AUP.
Example was an officer made a traffic stop
outside of the business.
And that's the address that they used when they called dispatch.
So they just said, oh, it was in front of Elia.
was not actually making a traffic stop
with vehicles inside of the establishment.
So it would have, again, no relevance.
Doing the math, when we talk about the violations of the AUP,
as just previously mentioned,
the business was open without an AUP
since October of 2022.
So we had been monitoring the business
ever since we got calls for service advising that,
hey, this place is in operation without the proper paperwork.
So we notified the city from the police department aspect
seeing the after hours establishments going on and we just started taking
note of what we were seeing that if AUP had been done with 11 o'clock closure
then we the business shouldn't have been open but we saw that they had multiple
times that they were open up late at night and that equaled 17 times that we
went out there did a check and found them in violation of what would have
been an AUP. 13 of the violations did occur after the hours of 11 p.m. and what
What we've noticed is that when we have calls for service, we have limited police resources
out at night.
And so we'd like to point out that the hours for service matter to the police department
quite a bit.
And when we have calls for service, and they tend to be sub-significant after 11 p.m. or
even midnight, and we have limited resources to respond to multiple emergencies at once,
happy to report that we have not had a lot of issues at ELLIA overall in terms of a massive
of police response or major fights,
but we did have one significant fight
that was of a woman that was overly intoxicated
and she went to jail after causing a disturbance
and even breaking two planters in front of the business.
There was another call that we didn't wanna say
was AUP related, but it shows the concern
that a propensity of violence can happen anywhere
where a woman got into an argument
with another patron in the bar,
picked up a glass and threw it at someone's face.
that's very serious to the offense,
but it wouldn't say technically AUP related
other than they had been drinking,
but they were not charged
with any type of alcohol-related offense,
but they were arrested for obviously assaulting
someone else, and that would be considered
a felony or aggravated assault.
So from the police department standpoint,
we've been monitoring this.
We have some concerns with everything
that we've been observing since we wanna make sure
that everyone has a safe environment downtown,
and we wanna make sure that if everyone's following
the rules, we're not going to have things that escalate to other businesses that we've
had downtown, like I can throw out the old name of Krogan's.
We're trying to avoid something like that, and I'll be available later if you have any
questions.
Thank you.
Any questions?
Okay, back to the presentation.
So based on all of the violations that have been occurring at Elia, the city did send
a notice of violation, which was basically a warning letter to the business owner notifying
them and informing Elliott to comply with the AUP.
It should also be noted that as part of this letter, it stated that failure to comply with
the AUP would be subject to the enforcement provisions in the municipal code and also
warned that continued operation and violation of their AUP could result in modification
or revocation of the AUP.
And following the issuance of this first letter, the business owner did meet in person with
Captain Hibbs and Lieutenant Slater of Walnut Creek PD
on July 2nd, to discuss the conditions of this AUP.
And both officers made explicitly clear
that Ellia's alcohol sales service and consumption
must end at 11 p.m.
The owner did assure the officers
that he would not continue to violate the AUP.
And this conversation was documented
as part of this letter that I've included here.
This was a letter that a police department
did hand deliver to Elia after that incident.
Despite July 2nd conversation with Walnut Creek PD
on July 5th, Walnut Creek documented yet another incident
of sales and consumption of alcohol occurring after 11 p.m.
So on July 18th of 2024, the city did send the second letter
informing the business owner they were again found
violate the AUP due to the service and consumption of alcohol beyond the
11 p.m. cutoff time for this business. Therefore action is being taken and the
purpose of this meeting is tonight to look into LEA's business operating plan
and AUP. So tonight the city is requesting the Planning Commission to
review the operation of LEA for conformance with the administrative use
permit, take public testimony and make findings that LEA's operating
violation of the AUP. And also modify Ellia's AUP by reducing the alcohol
sale service and consumption hours. And Ellia, I also wanted to mention that
Ellia and city staff have been in communication, communication since the
issuance of the first warning letter, and an updated business operating plan was
also submitted. I believe you have a copy of that business plan as part of your
agenda packet tonight. It basically showed some modifications to the sound
system to reduce noise, training to staff to monitor the noise complaints that are
coming in, and changes to Ellia's overall marketing strategy and policy
updates regarding alcohol hours, basically alerting the patrons in the bar
area and also on the menu that there will be no service or consumption beyond
11 p.m. And Ellia did as part of these conversations suggest that a conditional
use permit would be more appropriate for their business as that would allow them
to serve alcohol past 11 p.m. The city's response to that is just per city's
practice it is to ensure success with the compliance of the AUP before
expanding the business hours or sorry the alcohol hours through a conditional
use permit and as part of the city and Walnut Creek PD efforts to manage the
oversaturation of alcohol establishments in the downtown core area.
And the city will monitor the business to verify compliance of the AUP conditions before
considering a conditional use permit to serve alcohol past 11 p.m.
As so tonight, the Planning Commission may modify or revoke the permit or entitlement
upon making one or more of the findings.
The two relevant findings that apply to the violations of Nadia's AUP are highlighted
red on this slide.
And Nadia again is subject to this finding as they repeatedly violated the conditions
of the AUP by serving and consuming alcohol beyond the permitted hours.
And despite warnings and the more recent violations have occurred very closely to each other.
And the second finding is that because of the repeated violations of the municipal regulations
and ongoing operational issues.
They do pose a threat to the safety and welfare
of the surrounding community.
And there is also a concern of drain
on limited police resources.
And I believe Lieutenant Slater did want to expand on that
or did you want to wait for question and answer?
Okay, perfect.
Thanks. So with that, staff does recommend
that the planning commission review the operation of LEA
for conformance with the conditions outlined in the AUP, take further public testimony,
make findings that ELIA is operating in violation of the conditions of its AUP, and modify ELIA's
AUP to bring them in conformance by requiring ELIA to seize sales and service of alcohol
at 9 p.m. daily and seize consumption of alcohol at 9 30 p.m. 7 days a week.
And after six months from the modification of this AUP, staff will reevaluate LEA's
operation to determine whether or not there have been any additional violations of any
other conditions of the AUP.
And at that time, staff will either reinstate the original hours of sales service and consumption
back to 11 p.m., however, if that's determined, the LEA hasn't committed any additional violations.
Or maintain the modified hours of 9 p.m. for sales and service of alcohol and 9.30 for
the consumption of alcohol if determined ELLA has committed other violations of the AUP.
These recommendations modifying the AUP for ELLA are also included in the draft resolution
that's included as attachment one of your packet.
I also wanted to include that this standard language was accidentally omitted from the
draft resolution.
So staff does recommend adding this language back into the resolution after you make your
decision on tonight's action you take tonight and with that I do conclude my
presentation but I will be happy to answer any questions and the tenant
Slater is also available to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you for that
report there was a lot of different agencies you're working with together to
put that together and we really appreciate that. I did have a question
I see the business plan is and and then the modifications to the business plan have been presented to us for our consideration
But I didn't see any sort of safety or security plan and I know in the past when we've had a lot of
interaction with the police department
some businesses have provided that test and I wondered if that was available or it doesn't exist or
As long as I didn't want to make sure I missed something
Yeah
all of the data or information that was provided is included in the
agenda packet and the additional information provided by the
Applicants team has also been provided a copies and papers. So no additional security plans were submitted. Great. Thanks for confirming that
Mr. Riser, I have a couple questions for lieutenants later if I may and clarifications
On the on the report that I'm looking at the report called synopsis of related events and there's clearly a lot of items listed on it
And one, you already made clear what the CAD demarcation means.
Can you, a lot of them say service to citizen, can you explain what that means?
Anything that we do is considered a service, it's a catch-all category.
We are trying to get a little bit better with our drop-down screens, so it'll be more specific
about a welfare check versus a service, which is very ambiguous, with literally called a
security check to a bar check. We're trying to make sure that the officers use the same
one, so it's consistent. That was very time-consuming for this group, particularly for me to go through
each one of those to make sure that it was applicable to the AUP or not. A lot of those
Those were mentioned to be like checks, as would say, it would just say up service, but
that was an officer going in there, checking in with the staff, and either they've noticed
a violation of the AEP or they did not.
Those were the catch-all notes, also recorded on their body worn camera whenever they talked
to anyone.
And so we did a lot of those reviews and that was it.
Got it.
That makes sense.
Okay.
So the report states that from January 1st, 2023, to present, there have been 42 calls
And we kind of broke, you already kind of broke that down
and took away, it kind of broke down to just a few
that seem substantive, if you will.
How does that compare to other restaurant bars in downtown?
So I had a feeling this question was gonna come up,
but it's hard for me to get that data
with every single establishment.
I can tell you that, how it generally works
with the downtown bars and restaurants,
calls for significant excuse me the calls actually increase for the police
department the later it gets as the business is let out that happens to be
where people there in Texan toxications levels arise people tend to loiter then
we have we have concerns of DUIs you know driving under the influence
situations we have a propensity of occasionally people will fight because
they didn't finish whatever started within the bar establishment they were
frequenting and so we have to deal with that and a lot of our resources have
specifically been spent this summer between the establishments of Fuego
which is on the south side of Locust Street and Dan's which is on the north
side of Locust Street basically at that intersection because they are open the
latest and so it just happens to be that Ellie is right in the middle and if
they're we're getting stuff that's in the middle branches out when they're
done, if people don't go home, we send to see people go to the other establishments
because some people don't want to go home early anymore. I guess that's
something people do in their 20s. I think I can remember that. But I can
tell you that without hard data, I can just tell you that the calls for service
do increase at some of those establishments and because we have less
resources available at that time compared to during the day, it's a
concern for the police department. But we don't have an abundance of calls at
any one particular establishment at this time that I can without looking up data
but I can tell you that when we go out on our weekend patrols we went for the
downtown activity we frequent all of the bars randomly to check to make sure that
everyone is in compliance people are not over capacity people are not over serving
alcohol and that people are mindful that we're out there so that they'll take a
good choices and make good choices to drive home safely.
Great.
That's helpful.
Thank you.
I was also—I've been on the commission a few years now and this is not our first kind
of rodeo with regard to reviewing such cases.
Coincidentally or not, a year ago this month we looked at Spontonic and did something.
So I was just kind of—I was going to kind of go back and say as a result of the decision
that was made there and what kind of restricting the alcohol
and what not, what kind of changes did you see there?
Actually, there was a significant change.
The calls for service at Spuntonic Lounge
were reduced dramatically.
We rarely got a call there at all anymore.
And that just, which is what we wanted
was to have no more calls for service,
no more acts of violence.
And I just, after being in this job for 24 years,
I can tell you that what my mom told me was very true.
good things don't happen after midnight.
That's right.
And then lastly, isn't there some ad hoc,
I remember in the past here,
and there's some ad hoc committee
where the restaurant owners and bar owners and whatnot,
and the police get together once a month,
and I don't think Spuntonic even at the time
was involved in that committee.
Is that the case here?
I can speak to that.
They do meet approximately once a month.
We have our Walnut Creek Downtown representative
here in the audience.
And I can tell you that Elia has been represented very well
at all of these meetings for the last several months.
Great, okay.
Very good, thank you so much.
Any other questions, staff?
I just, Lieutenant, if you have a moment,
I'm just, of the, I think it was 13 substantive violations,
our reports, how many of those occurred
on Friday or Saturday?
All of those were on a Friday or Saturday.
Okay, thank you.
Other questions, okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome
That's the applicant to make the presentation. I'm sorry 10 or 15 minutes
Yeah, 15 minutes if you would
Doesn't have to be that long
Mr. Vice Chair and members of the Commission. My name is Guy Houston
I'm here this evening representing Ellia restaurant and owner Fatih Ullas who is here with his team as well
I might add that Elia has a sister restaurant in Pleasanton and is opening another Elia
soon in San Carlos.
I want to thank Ms. Gill in the planning department who has clarified questions that we had regarding
the police reports and kind of going over and drilling down what's really going on
at 1520 Locust Street.
One quick comment I'd like to make is I have no idea what you were referring to as far
bars, that other establishment. But at no time, we are not a bar. We are a restaurant
that has a bar. And so there is no time that we're ever serving alcohol where there's not
food service in place. And so we're very proud of the food that we have and I think
a lot of people really like it. But we appreciate the clarifications from the police reports.
It was quite alarming on our side to see, you know, dozens over 40 and then kind of
how it got broken down to where, you know, there are, there are four violations and there's
nothing good about that.
And so we stand here today to try to work through that.
Elliot understands the seriousness and nature of these infractions and has redoubled its
efforts to comply with all aspects of its AUP.
It is regrettable, it has come to this, but ultimately they believe that this will make
them a better restaurant, and serving the community in the future.
They have instituted some changes that may seem small, but that's actually quite significant,
the operational changes that has made it easier for them to comply.
I've summarized these changes on that, I gave you a big, big packet, most of it is just
for reference, but on the cover, they have made changes on site, they, formally they
had the restaurant was had a seating their last seating was at 1030 and so
they've rolled that back down to 10 p.m. to enable more time. The signage and
marketing maybe not surprising but a lot of the pushback they've had regarding
this 11 p.m. policy is from their customers and so educating them and
really making sure that they know is important. So previously there was no
notification of alcohol policy at the bar or on any of the menus. Now we have
signage at the bar we also have signage in the employee room to make sure that
you know we notify our employees that this is very important. The online menus
that we and then the printed menus that we have all state the 11 p.m. policy at
this time. In the past we had as we approached 11 p.m. when there was the
DJ the DJ would be the one that would announce to the patrons that this time
is up. And so now it has been professionalized. So now the manager and the onsite staff is
the one that goes and makes sure that people know and collection of any alcohol that's
still outstanding. Another area I think is important is how they market themselves in
their social media, their Instagram account. There was an emphasis on alcohol for their
Instagram accounts it's fun and they do a great job in food and beverage but we
are committed now to making sure that all reels that go on Instagram have
food and alcohol or it has to include food. Monitoring of the DJs the DJs that
are there making sure that you know they present a the proper image and the
proper messaging and so so Ellia is monitoring what their social media and
and how it reflects on Ellia.
And then it was talked about a little bit,
but really nothing's changed about the noise.
You keep monitoring the noise and the acoustic levels
and make sure that you're in compliance before
and currently that we're not exceeding the maximum levels
prescribed by the city.
So this has already helped.
It's made it easier for staff to enforce this
because it's on the menus and people know it coming in.
We feel that ultimately Ellia needs to apply
for CUP, but I know that that is some time in the future.
We have to prove ourselves, and I believe that they will.
The staff recommendation for the penalty,
I believe was made prior to the clarification
of the police synopsis of related events and their narrative.
The two-hour rollback and six-month time period
is quite severe.
We would like to propose respectfully
that we meet halfway on this penalty phase.
Cutting two hours to 9 p.m. would mean alcohol service
would have to end at 8.30 p.m. to ensure compliance.
This would really make it difficult
to even turn tables once,
and if you know anything about restaurants,
turning tables is what it's all about.
In this scenario, it would be in effect
a $250,000 fine over the six months.
We propose that we are cut back to 10 p.m. for three months.
This would enable Elliot to show
that they are in compliance with the rules.
We will be able to then resume, if everything is,
as it should be, resume to our original AUP
in time for December and the holidays.
Elliot has already booked for the holiday season.
It would be an incredible penalty to endure for six months.
So three months would get us right before Thanksgiving,
and then they would not be having to cancel bookings
that they already have at their restaurant.
Cutting back one hour for three months
means we would stop serving alcohol at 9 30 p.m. in order to finish up drinks by
10 p.m. still a big financial penalty but not nearly as severe as the two hours.
We appreciate the city's position and we will also be more diligent in the
future with permits and processes and for permits and our licensing now and in
the future. If we had understood these processes a little bit better we likely
would not have been here in this situation. One additional point and
and request. So much in this whole process has been focusing as it should the violations
regarding alcohol. Our business plan that we originally submitted to the city indicates
that we close at 11 p.m. on weekends. From our perspective, from Elliot's perspective,
that meant that the latest that they're open for food and to take orders is 11 p.m. for
food. The patrons can still eat the food when it's prepared. We are a restaurant first and
And we want the ability for guests to enjoy their meal.
To clarify this practice, we would like to amend our hours of operation for food to midnight
so that people can enjoy their meal and get out there in an orderly manner.
This would allow guests to linger, enjoy music, and allow staff to clean up before they lock
the doors up.
We respectfully ask that you support our request for this modified solution.
A bit of good news in your packet at the end.
at the end, Elia was featured this week nationally on the Travel Channel where they talked about
Elia and also Walnut Creek and the Eat Local Walnut Creek program. So a little bit of good
news is always helpful. I am here for answering questions, but we also obviously have our
Elia representatives, our general manager, Mr. Bakir Akas, and Mr. Ulas here to answer
any questions that you might have about our proposal and how we intend to follow all aspects
of the AUP?
I'll start the questions actually, I have one, a couple for you.
Just to be clear, the request for midnight, that would be on Fridays and Saturdays?
Yes.
Okay.
And.
Through the Chair, if I may, just comment on that.
So the consideration for the Commission tonight is strictly related to the AUP and alcohol
service hours, unrelated to the overall business hours.
And the proposed, actually that's a question for the staff.
Questions for the applicants?
Commissioner Reiser.
I just have a quick question probably for management.
Sure.
Vick here?
Just like more of a curiosity than anything,
I guess you got to state your name for the record.
Yeah, my name is Vicki Rakosz, I'm the general manager
at the idea of Honors Creek.
Great.
Thanks for being here.
Is from a technology perspective,
can your point of sale system be programmed
not to allow alcohol to be ordered after certain hours?
I mean, I know that's it for like happy hour and whatnot.
And I mean, it would just make sense
that you can't even punch it in or can't,
I know it's not gonna like be the be all end all,
but it might be just something to consider for.
It will be manageable so we can arrange our POS system
that there is no sale after 11,
which is already, we don't have a sale after 11,
after we receive the violations is just the problem is taking the glass out of the hand
of the guests.
So that is the main issue that we don't already serve after 11 p.m.
Got it.
Okay.
That's it for me.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Commissioner Ward.
I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of insight into how these July violations
occurred because it seems to me it's very serious to have a scary letter from the city
in the police department and then have an actual in-person conversation and have yet
another violation occur only days after that.
So I wonder what kind of lapse in your protocols allowed that to happen and how you've changed
that.
Sure.
The first violation we have received, we have been informed, there was an alcohol consumption
after 11, the police were regularly coming and checking with the operation during operation
time and they were just asking, is there any service? So we were taking all the bartenders
out of the bar and there was no sale. However, people were still holding their glasses. We
are trying to collect them and then we received the violation letter from Mr. Chip Griffin.
So this is after like 10, 13 days later, I have received the violation letter. I was
is not aware that we had an in violation.
After that, I just reached out to planning department
asking, we had an application from last year
regarding to extended hours, so we ask,
however, we apply as AUP instead of CUP.
Because I work in the restaurant overall six years
with the Lucanta Barangirl, and my operation are
that time till 11, nothing changed during that time.
However, when we got the Elia Walnut Creek,
the business plan was pretty much similar.
Still we were serving till 11.
And second violation was about 11.05.
But I already talked with Mr. Slater and Captain Hips.
What can I do to make it better?
And I want to be example business.
So what are the actions I need to take?
So it was the 4th of July weekend.
Mr. Slater came to business, asked me, how was it the Friday?
It was a very slow night.
On the 5th, we had reservations till 10.30,
which we couldn't cancel already, and reservation was late.
So they just came 11.05.
They saw the glasses, which we were already
trying to take the glasses away from the guests.
They just told us, this is another violation.
There is no sale on July 5th about the alcohol.
It's just like we tried to take the glasses,
but it's not always easy, and I inform all the stuff,
we printed the menus, and after that,
we receive the second violation.
Okay, thank you for that.
I appreciate that.
I do have a question about the business plan
and your training and security systems
that you have in place.
You know, I noticed the business plan
focuses a lot on the dress code and noise,
and then there's kind of a line
about mitigating risk to safety,
but we've seen some pretty serious incidents occurring here
and I'm wondering do you have a written staff policy
or training with regard to over serving drink tampering
issues that we're hearing about bartenders assisting women
who are in danger or actually anybody in danger
or being harassed by dates or just other patrons
or general security staff protocols for all of that
because I know we've all been to different establishments
It's pretty clear that there are policies with regard to that in place and I didn't see anything in the written materials
With any of that and I wonder what you're doing with regard to that
Yeah, we do have a at the door. We do have a security person that checks everyone's IDs
And if there is any miscommunication with guests with each other or any of my employees comes and tells me hey
I think there is a problem going on. We have every Friday Saturday security person is at the door 9 to
midnight every night. And all of my servers and bartenders are certified to serve how
many alcohol, how many glasses of alcohol they can serve. They are all certified and
we have it also in our policy stating that's how we should approach the guests if they
are intoxicated and I'm the in charge person if there is anything going on. I'm the first
person contacts with the guest and explain the situation and take them out safely if
if necessary, we need to call police.
We call police officers as well.
All of my staff is aware of our safety protocols.
Great, thank you very much for clarifying that.
I appreciate that.
I think that's all I have, thanks.
Let me just ask, I can imagine that the bell rings
and you just go around saying, give me a glass,
you've just taken two sips of your wine.
It's been there a half hour,
but you've still only taken two sips.
Is there some procedure you have for five minutes,
10 minutes, 15 minutes beforehand,
making an announcement or going around table to table,
however you wanna do it,
saying, you know, 15 minutes,
we gotta collect the glasses and we hope they're empty.
Yeah, we do announce that already,
and each server is now, we used to not to do that,
but now each service,
each person coming to restaurant,
they know already 1030 is the last time
that they can get their drink.
And my server is also informing.
If you are coming for a dining with your family at 10, 10, 15,
we will inform you verbally.
And on the menu is written already.
On the menu, it says like, no alcohol consumption at 11.
However, we still say that to our guests.
And we will be able to take your glasses at latest, 10, 45.
You need to give your glasses, because the more time
we give them, they are just like trying to extend.
I'm not done.
Give me a few more minutes.
We have also some rude comments from the guests to our staff.
So I have been dealing with that a lot.
So we just take it to 10.30.
Last drinks can be served so that they give enough time
for the guests till 11.
So half an hour is a pretty good enough time
to finish up at rank.
And if you are informed, I think lately we
did not have any issue over a month.
We did not have any issue.
and officers later also came and asked if it was working.
So so far everything is working pretty good.
We don't have any other violations.
We don't have sale after 11, and current hours are 10.30
is the last table seating.
So however we take it to 10, so that it gives us more time
to serve consistently.
I was just saying, these changes on the menus
have said this has happened in the last two to three weeks.
Yeah, it wasn't in place in.
Very good, thank you very much.
I'm sorry, Commissioner Clark.
Yes, so one question I have for you is I noticed
that the pictures here, they seem to be in bright daylight.
But you know, 11 p.m. is a very different time of hour
to be doing service, and so what is the lighting
in the restaurant or at the bar, maybe 10-11, 9-10-11?
It's bright.
It's bright?
It's visible from everywhere, it's bright.
So we do have LED lights surrounding the bar.
It might be a daylight, but still in the evening
we have right POS system where the screen is,
so where we charge everyone's card.
So that notice is located right next to it.
And then the second notice is when you go to a restaurant,
you have to pass there when you go to a restaurant.
It is right next to it.
And also each menu on the drinks,
where you order your drinks, it's stated in all pages.
and also on the, wherever you want to order,
you will see that notice.
Okay, so then I think it's pretty fair to say
the customers would be able to clearly see the notices.
Yeah. Okay.
And we just, lately I don't have any problem
taking the glasses.
The thing is, I'm just like, I inform you,
unfortunately, I need to follow with the city policies.
These are the policies I need to follow.
Please respect that.
And they are like, oh, okay,
we don't want you to get in trouble, so.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Thank you very much.
My pleasure, thank you.
I have a question for staff.
The applicant is asking for three months
rather than six months.
Maybe this is for all the tenants later.
What was your thinking and asking for six months?
Is that really, is that a period that you found
is sufficient and necessary to establish a pattern.
After talking this over with planning,
and this is why the recommendation with us
is a united front between the city
and the police department.
The six months is something that I believe
that we are familiar with when we do,
if there is ever an AUP or a CUP violation
that is brought forth to the commission.
Thankfully, that does not happen often,
but when it does, it's a serious note
because we are trying to keep everything
to this best interest for the businesses
to maintain what they need to do
and then keep everything safe
so we can have a lively and vibrant downtown.
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions from staff?
Lieutenant, while you're up there, sorry.
I happen to think that the Goldilocks option
of like not just right in between or whatever,
considering what was said tonight
in terms of the changes
that have already been implemented since
and what they've found out since, et cetera,
might seem like a reasonable halfway point.
Is that an adequate amount of time
to evaluate for the police department?
We are able to do all of our statistical analysis
that needs to be done.
I've been actually the weekend watch commander
all summer long, so I'm pretty in tune
with what's going on.
I can say that Elia has been doing their best,
especially recently to make sure
that with these changes that were documented,
if you guys give them three months,
we will have all of the information that you need
at that time to answer your questions,
to see if they've been in compliance.
Okay, very good.
Appreciate that, thanks.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
All right, I'll bring it back to the,
oh, public comment.
Anyone in the member of the public
would like to comment on this matter?
Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the commission
and open it for discussion.
I would like to start.
I don't mind starting, sure.
Obviously, I've been vocal here with the questions
and whatnot.
I've been to Aaliyah a few times.
I happen to like the restaurant.
It's clearly not a bar operating,
masquerading as a restaurant.
It's a good restaurant.
It's a great contribution to Walnut Creek.
as we've learned as a commission with other cases
that were before us that I mentioned before,
there's a tipping point, going from vibrant to violent,
don't wanna say there's any violence or anything,
but going from vibrant to violent
is a very fine line, that tipping point.
And so I do wanna be cognizant of what that is
and we've always taken the recommendations
of the police department quite seriously
in terms of the resources expended, et cetera.
But that being said,
I, for one, I'm of the opinion that the, as I mentioned,
the Goldilocks option of maybe just splitting the,
splitting right down the middle might be,
sounds reasonable to me in terms of the 930 time
to announce it in 10 o'clock to glasses are pulled.
That's one commissioner's opinion, thanks.
Commissioner Wharton.
Hi, too, I've been a little talkative here
with regard to my questions and concerns.
You know, it's really important to us
that we both support businesses in our community
also make our downtown area a safe place for people to be, whether that's me or my 20-something
kids or whoever, whoever wants to come out and enjoy it.
I too have enjoyed the food at Elia, it's a great, great restaurant, I've had a lot
of good meals there and I will say it's a lively atmosphere at times, you know, people
do seem to be enjoying themselves but I'm very concerned that there would be a suggestion
by you know very experienced restaurant professionals that you had no idea how
this permit process worked or how the hours of operation worked you know
especially operating another restaurant in Pleasanton and you know taking over
for La Conte you know basically just stepping in to that existing business it
just is surprising to me and I just don't like the idea that it has to get
through so many steps and come to this Commission before people make substantive
changes in their operations to protect the health and safety of the community
overall, as well as patrons that are at the restaurant.
So that's what's troubling me here.
You know, I don't want to do anything to make it harder
for you to conduct your business,
because it is a popular and really great place to be.
But the rules are not arbitrary, and they're not unfair,
and they were very clear.
So that's where my concern's coming from here,
and I'm just troubled by that, although I am heartened
by the some of the changes you've made recently and they do seem to be have
some effectiveness. Commissioner Neatie. I have a question it's probably to the
applicant oh sorry I was not loud enough sometimes guys and my question is for
the food because you're saying that your food first drink second and so how much
food are you selling? Like what is, because I forgot about Spontonic, well I
didn't forget it, a year ago we had asked what are the sales that you're making,
right, with regards to, so now for foods and that's your staple I would say if it
did go to the 9, 930, do you think it would hurt your food sales? It will
definitely will hurt the entire reservation system, so in order for me to
to make the business profitable.
We give our guests.
So we work with the open table, very reputable reservation
system.
So in order for me to turn the tables twice,
lately it was hot during the summertime.
So first reservation starts at 7, 7.30.
So I make the first seating.
However, the second seating starts around 8.30, 9 PM,
so that it cools, and at 11.
So the moment we reduce the hours,
I will only be able to make one seating.
So that means we are basically cutting
the half of the revenue.
And my food to alcohol sale ratio is 64% to 36%.
Alcohol, 64% food.
So food comes first.
So you make 60% of your food sales at the 8 p.m. hour turn?
Sorry, you said you go six?
It's an hour and a half, right?
Yeah, two hours.
Two hours.
Okay.
However, the weather affects, so we can even use some days the patio.
So inside, indoor, we do have 64 seatings, so I need to be able to turn that twice, that
business can be profitable.
So there is still a strong amount of sales that is occurring at that 5, 6, 7, 7, at the
9 p.m. that is correct thank you my pleasure and we do have I want to
mention also we do have Wednesday Thursdays we do have a jazz music so we
try to build a really nice atmosphere with that music and people are seem to
be really enjoying and so we will have to cancel most likely and it will also
affect the business because we have so many regulars they are just coming to
to enjoy really high, nice quality music
because we have a talented artist as well.
And so it will definitely take out from the atmosphere
we are providing, the hospitality we are providing,
it will be definitely affected by that action.
Anyone else? Thank you.
Through the chair, if I may.
So the commission has staff's recommendation
and I am hearing some discussion of potentially differing
from what staff's recommendation has been.
The planning commission does have discretion
to make a different decision on the AUP modification,
but I would recommend if that's the direction
that the planning commission is going,
establishing based on facts,
why the planning commission is making that decision.
Staff would then have to amend the resolution,
establish additional recitals based on the facts
that the planning commission has made this evening
and would likely need to then come back
with a modified resolution to this commission.
So if that is the direction that planning commission
chooses to go, just to keep that in mind
that there will be a need to be a decision
just based on facts that are provided.
Thank you.
All right, I intend to agree with Mr. Reiser.
I think also the commission award, that there's some wiggle room here as far as, you know,
what might be the best way to approach this.
It does occur to me that, you know, since the difficult incidents seem to appear most
exclusively in the later hours on Friday and Saturday, that increasing or changing from
from 9 o'clock for sales and 9.30 for consumption to 9.30 for sales and 10 o'clock for consumption
on those, you know, other five nights is not, you know,
it's not going to change much because there isn't much to change on those nights.
And on the weekends, it would give them an extra hour of non-consumption to
to wind things down.
Also, if it's on the weekend times, perhaps the second seating was a little later, that,
you know, if there's sales can go to 930, that means that you could at least order that
first glass of wine during the second seating.
So as far as, you know, changing putting it back a half hour to 930 and 10 rather than
930, I think makes sense.
As far as six months versus three months, I think that if we were to do it three months,
it actually put some pressure on the restaurant to really enforce that right away, get some
time in there that they are acting in the way that we want to see it.
And you know, if they don't, we'll be able to act sooner to take further steps or to
allow them to go back to the original AUP.
So the three months, I think, is, at least I'm willing to consider that.
Mr. Robbie, they clearly have a, still have a stake if they're trying to go from an AUP
to a CUP, et cetera.
So they're trying to mine their P's and Q's, so to speak.
So I think that's...
I will say, since you mentioned the CUP, as the city attorney has pointed out,
we're not talking about extending hours at this point.
That would be a discussion for CUP, which, again, as you point out,
kind of depends on good behavior to that point that you want to apply for that.
So, all right, that's where I am.
Commissioner Klop.
I just want to thank everybody for the thought that they've put into this.
and I am extremely respectful of the effort
that the city staff and the police have put in
to making a recommendation and the business
for trying to step up and respond to the concerns.
I'm struggling a little bit with the seriousness
of the situation and respect
for the city staff's recommendation
and its impact on the business.
So I'm not quite sure how to find a right marriage of that,
because I think it's serious.
I think what happened is serious,
and I wanna make sure that it doesn't happen again,
and we have safe places for people to be entertained
and to eat and to enjoy in Walnut Creek.
So, I'm not quite sure about the middle road.
I just can't quite figure out how I feel about that.
Mr. Kwok.
If, you know, Commissioner Ward
wants to respond to Commissioner Bob,
I had a separate thought that I wanted to give,
but I'll let you go first if you have something to say.
I just wanted to comment with regard to the time period.
I do find that issue of perhaps giving a trial period
that allowed the holiday period to be a little more generous
is compelling from a business standpoint, certainly,
and something that we wanna,
most of the businesses are open a little later
during that time period in our downtown area,
so I do understand that's a big concern,
that I have concerns about being able to prove
the new operational standards
within a very short period of time.
I mean, it would be a like zero tolerance thing
if we were gonna do that,
like not a minute after kind of deal.
So that's something else that I'm thinking about
in terms of a compromise.
Mr. Koch.
Okay, so I just wanted to clarify,
I can't understand what the suggested times were.
So I was hearing that the weekday,
so I would define that as Monday through Thursday
because the lieutenant did say that Friday and Saturday
were the days where they had majority of their incidents
that ended up in the report.
So I would define the weekend as being Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday with respect to what hours we set.
Am I hearing that, okay, so I had the week would be nine
and nine 30 as the times that we're looking at,
Monday through Thursday and then for Friday, Saturday.
So what was proposed by staff was to cease sales
at nine o'clock and cease consumption at nine 30.
And what commissioner Reiser was suggesting
and I was agreeing was that doing a nine 30
for sales in 10 o'clock for consumption.
And it's every day, not every day.
And that would be every day.
So Sunday is also at 10 o'clock closing.
So it's not weekdays and weekends.
It's Friday and Saturday night versus the rest of the week.
And so on the 11 o'clock closing times,
consumption would still stop at 10.
I was under the impression that maybe we
were going to make a split between Friday, Saturday,
versus the rest of the week, which
I don't know if that would be more complex
to justify or make findings for,
because it seems to me like the most significant area
would be that how the hours are set for Friday and Saturday.
Commissioner Needy.
I also, I agree with my fellow commissioners
about nobody wants to harm a good business in Walnut Creek.
That's not what we're here for.
I hope you can see that we're all struggling.
The part that I, the food is fantastic,
I've only been twice because it's hard for me
to get out with very young children,
so I just don't go out.
The one thing I would say is what's concerning me
is that in the reports, I'm seeing females
that are overly intoxicated.
And so one thing, I know we're still going back and forth
on the 930 and 10, I would like to see something
in your business plan about having some sort of protocol
about not over-serving, because you're about food first.
Your food is amazing.
That's, for me as a female, sort of young,
I would like to see that, right, of,
because the issue is that people are very smart.
And I remember in my college days
that when you knew it was last called
because they would shut down, you order three of the same drink.
I mean, right?
You chug it.
So I would like to say, I don't want people saying,
you know what, we can manipulate the system, and not you,
of course.
It would be folks that are coming here potentially
that could break this, that could break that rule
and then just be, then all you're doing
is moving the level of intoxication earlier,
which is totally what we're trying to not fix.
The last thing any of us want is three months from now
when the holidays are occurring for the police department
to come and say, they're just drunk earlier, right?
Then they need to eat more food.
But that's personally what I would like to see,
as I'm thinking is, if we do do this 9.30,
cease sales and then the 10 p.m. cease consumption,
I would like to see something where
this is how we're training people
to not over-serve the alcohol.
Because I didn't see that.
I had a question for the applicant.
I don't know if there was a question.
It's close.
May I clarify on this?
Yes, please.
The ABC states and requires for us, all the bartenders,
to carry a license.
So that is a training program that we did not submit that.
But it is required for all the restaurants and bars.
So I have been bar manager long period of time.
I have been bartender.
So I have also the experience.
And all my employees, they are very well aware
of if one person is coming, they can only get one drink.
You can't really get four or five drinks
if there is no party next to you.
So you are only allowed to get one drink,
and you cannot get another drink before you
finished another drink.
You can order it, but we will not serve you
before you finish your drink.
And there is a time period.
So every hour, you can consume one drink.
So it comes to when you are coming to the restaurant
with bottle of wine at 9 PM.
and if you are two people, you can drink two glass of wine
in two hours of time.
So that is stated and it is documented
and I can share that certificate of who serves at the bar.
Whoever serves alcohol, they all certified
and took that training.
It is mandatory by the state.
Any other discussions?
If I could briefly, the only thing I would have to add
on this is that the police, the planning department,
you all, you have our attention before I would imagine it's 10 59. There's the
sweep for glasses. That's not happening anymore. I mean, there's an effort, you
know, you gotta have time for staff to do their job. And so this isn't going to
be, you know, this is, this is their business, the very successful business
and they want to survive here and be positive in Walnut Creek for a long, long
time. And so they're not going to be just under the wire any longer because
frankly I think that's how they got in trouble in some of these cases so it's
gonna be taken seriously at more time has already been taken in order to make
sure that they're complying and that wasn't happening several months ago
thank you I wish to propose a motion or further discussion
Commissioner Ward I'd like to move that we approve the resolution as drafted but
modify the hours of sales and consumption to 9.30 for sales ending and consumption ending
at 10 and that we changed the six month kind of probationary period to three months.
And if I could just ask the commission as I previously mentioned the as the recommendation
has been set by staff there would have to be additional factual findings to support
this the change in in hours and the reduced amount of time so if I could
ask the commissioners to provide the the basis for the change that they're
recommending based on on facts provided absolutely so I think that we can make
those changes based on the testimony that we've received that there have been
substantive changes on the operational procedures of the restaurant and that
that the managers of that establishment are now clear
about the rules that they're supposed to follow
and have indicated that they have procedures in place
to make sure that those rules are followed.
Would that be sufficient for findings to support the change?
And while I can't go specifically point by point,
I think some new data was brought to light tonight
where the breakdown was where there was a lot of,
seen 42 points that kind of filtered out
to 4 or 6 or whatnot might add to that as well.
I'll add one more, which is that the change in the time, at least, would allow the five
days of the week that's now open past 10 to operate more efficiently, and that's the time
when even with the current situation, there has not been any issues.
Could you clarify?
the five days a week have opened past 10. What, what did you? The restaurant is open until 10
on Sunday through Thursday and those days are the test of money, the 10th of later are not days when
any of these events have happened. It's always been Friday or Saturday. So there's no need to
reduce the hours for Sunday through Thursday because there hasn't been an issue on those days.
So they've been operating effectively then and could continue to operate on the similar
situation.
Can I just- I do have a clarifying question, maybe.
Okay.
So we have a resolution that's like being done here.
Can I please clarify something?
Sure.
The business operating hours to remain open to sell non-alcoholic drinks or food is not
a violation and they could remain open even with this change.
they could remain open until 11 p.m.
That's not related to the alcohol component.
They just can't serve or consume alcohol past 11.
Right.
And the hours of operation just for the food is not,
any increase is not on the agenda at this time.
So we're only looking at the alcohol.
Okay, so we kinda had a committee resolution here.
Is that, has it been,
are you clear on what we're trying to do?
So, we have some feedback from the Planning Commission
and as I noted before, the staff would need to come back,
be able to draft additional recitals for the resolution
and come back to the Planning Commission
with an amended resolution
with the commission's recommended hour change.
So, the motion would be to direct staff
to update the draft resolution.
one thing that we would request that you add this piece
of the language that staff had suggested.
And then we can also transition some of these findings
into the specific findings for number two and four
as appropriate.
Okay, so if we can so modify that resolution,
that's the resolution I'm making, so there it is.
Is there a second?
seconder. The second was Commissioner Reiser. Thank you. If I may clarify, the motion this
evening would be just to direct staff to come back with the resolution. The
resolution itself would not be approved this evening. I mean you're telling us we
can't do it so that that's the resolution. If I may, I don't know why it
can't be done this evening. If you come back and you notice the meeting and it's
going to be in two or three more weeks then the 90 days is in the middle of
December and the holiday is over. So I don't know why the resolution is a very
good one you're just inserting different hours and the findings can go in the
record in the minutes and so just doing the math it would get us into the middle
of December and that it was was not one of my initial goals with this is that if
we do a good job make sure that the police department is happy with us then
in the holidays are, which is one of the biggest times
for restaurant sales in the country, we'd be in business.
I understand, thank you.
Staff proposes that we take a recess
and maybe consider crafting the findings.
The words out of my mouth.
If that's something that the commission would like
to consider.
I agree.
The concurrence of the commission will take 18 minutes.
I'd never prefer that, but.
Recess.
Great, thank you.
Thank you.
All right, we're back in session
and we'll hear from the assistant city attorney.
Thank you, through the chair.
Thank you for your patience
as we worked on these findings.
So we have additional findings,
additional information to include in the resolution.
And I will read out in its entirety.
If you would like me to repeat anything, just let me know.
So in section two of findings of the resolution
at the very bottom, a statement would be added
to the resolution that would address both findings
that would stay as follows.
At the August 22, 2024 Planning Commission public hearing,
the LEA business owners provided additional information
regarding operational changes and clarity
on their updated business plan
that was created subsequent to the July 18th, 2024
notice of public hearing.
The ELA business owners also provided evidence of successful implementation of those changes
since the notice of violation and notice of public hearing was issued on July 18, 2024.
Walnut Creek Police Department also provided additional clarity that with regards to the
42 calls of service, 17 total were related to alcohol-related incidents.
This information served to clarify that not all 42 calls were related to alcohol-related
incidents and help distinguish between incidents that served as AUP violations versus incidents
that did not. This additional information provided at the August 22, 2024 hearing showed
the Planning Commission that the LEA business owners are taking accountability to address
past violations and action to prevent any future AUP violations. Accordingly, the Planning
Commission makes findings to modify staff's original recommendation to 930 p.m. and cease
sales of service of alcohol sorry to 930 p.m. to cease sales and service of alcohol and 10 p.m.
to cease alcohol consumption with a three-month probationary period to allow Elia to come into
compliance. Section three is decision. The language would be amended in the first primary
paragraph that would change the statement of modifying the AUP by requiring ELA to see
sales and service of alcohol at 930 p.m. and cease consumption of alcohol at 10 p.m. seven
days a week, and after three months from the date of the AEP's modification, staff would
review in accordance with this resolution.
The additional change that would be implemented
as on your screen would be adding in a section
between section three and section four
to add in a statement of stating each portion
of this resolution is severable.
Should any portion of this resolution be adjudged
to be invalid and unenforceable by a body
of competent jurisdiction as you see in front of you.
Yes.
Are there any questions of the statements
that were just made or anything to change or add?
Just to make sure that on that first primary paragraph
of section three toward the very end,
there's another reference to nine and 930,
it would be 930 and 10, there's two references.
That's correct, anywhere that it references nine or 930,
we will change it to 930 to 10.
I'll ask the maker of the motion
You will accept those changes. I'll accept those changes. Thank you
Second all right any further discussion
Commissioner quok. Yes
Commissioner Ward. Yes
Commissioner clock. Yes, Commissioner Reiser. Yes, Commissioner nating. Yes, Vice Chair, Anderson
Yes, and chair strongman is absent motion passes. Thank you
Thank you gentlemen
Moving on. Item 4C is to be continued. Is there anyone here for item 4C?
I think you're the only member of the public left. Very good.
In that case, the concurrence of the Commission and Bourbon Highway Project 4C will be re-noticed
and continue to date on certain.
All right, item 4D, we have an eager staff member ready to go, whenever you are ready.
Chair and members of the Commission, Ben Schuster with Community Development.
Here to talk to you tonight, really this is about a kind of a celebration in our Design
Review Standards and Guidelines update project which has been ongoing for the last five or
so years.
we're going to be taking a look at the adoption draft of the non-residential design review
standards and guidelines document, to answer any questions, receive any comments you might
have on that, and then to also bring forth to the Commission for recommendation to Council
a number of associated zoning code amendments related to that effort. I want to note you did
receive at the dais a public comment that was given to our community development director
prior to tonight's meeting. We'll touch on that a little bit later in the presentation.
And I also have with me tonight Alessandra Lundin with Raymond Associates, and she'll
be giving that high-level walkthrough of the non-residential book a little bit later.
So I think it's kind of easiest to think of this work in kind of these six distinct pieces.
This is kind of the totality of what we're going to be taking forth to the council on
September 17th, about a month from now.
The commission is not acting on all pieces tonight, but because of how interrelated everything
is, we felt it best to at least kind of give everyone the full picture so you have a sense
of how the code amendments relate to everything else.
So moving into our design review standards and guidelines, again, as a refresher, this
was an effort to comprehensively update our 1996 design review guidelines started about
five years ago, and the initial impetus was in response to state housing law, which required
the use of objective standards for residential projects. However, the council at that time
also took the opportunity to direct staff to update standards for our commercial developments
as well. And so what that translated into was these two documents, a residential and
residential mixed use document, and then a non-residential document. So the residential
document was adopted by the council about two months ago, and this commission saw that
not too long ago as well. Staff is proposing very minor amendments. We'll touch on that
a little bit later.
And then the main piece here is the non-residential adoption
draft, very similar look and feel to the residential book.
So as you went through it, it should feel very familiar.
And a lot of the standards are actually
the same as they are in the residential book,
because that book also encompassed mixed use standards.
And just to remind the commission,
with the non-residential book,
the city is retaining most of its discretion
that it has today for our non-residential,
mainly commercial projects here in the city.
And so the Design Review Commission,
this body, and the Community Development Director,
will all kind of have a lot more discretion
on those projects than we will for residential projects.
Kind of wanted to say a big thank you
to the city working group who worked very diligently
on this effort for the past five or so years.
This was a group comprised of city staff
from a number of different departments
in planning, building, engineering, economic development,
as well as two members of the Design Review Commission.
And so again, just a big thank you to all their time
and it really informed the process
and we think it made quite a bit of a better product.
brief look at where we are remaining schedule.
This timeline only goes back two years,
but you can see with the black arrow there on your screen,
that's where we are right now.
And then after that,
there's essentially just one more meeting at council,
and then this project will wrap up.
And so with that, I'm gonna turn it over again to Alessandra.
She's gonna give you a high-level walkthrough
of the non-residential book.
All right, good evening, commissioners.
As Ben mentioned, I'm gonna go through, briefly,
summarize the content of the non-residential
design standards and guidelines.
So here you see kind of the high-level project objectives.
Of course, similar to the residential book,
they are to promote quality architecture,
site planning, and landscaping in the city.
We wanted to, again, provide a very clear set
of design criteria for applicants.
create a user-friendly document with lots of diagrams and images,
modernize for current best practices. We also have focused on gaps in the 1996
guidelines, so we filled those in. Some topics included,
newly included, are outdoor dining. And then you'll see that
the non-residential standards and guidelines specifically address
a couple of special uses, and those are auto sales and rental,
auto service stations and with or without convenience markets,
drive-through restaurants, and shopping centers.
So on this slide, you'll see kind of the high level table
of contents for the document.
Again, it's very similar to the residential book.
The high level chapters or topics are an intro.
There's a site planning chapter, architecture and building
design, parking, walls and fences, lighting,
and then a chapter on those special uses
I just talked about.
And again, I'm just gonna briefly go through
some of those, you know, what's covered
under each of those key topic areas.
So the site design chapter covers
access and circulation standards,
such as creating smaller blocks and new connections,
minimizing curb cuts and driveways,
and creating pedestrian pathways that connect sidewalks
to building frontages, outdoor spaces, bike parking,
transit streets, and parking areas.
Within services and utilities,
we have standards for locating services utilities
and equipment to the rear and side of buildings
and screening them from public view.
And then we have a number of landscaping standards.
They focus on minimum size and spacing.
There's some limitations on turf and stormwater management.
Within building design, these standards really focus on portions of the building
that are visible from the street, the public realm, and outdoor spaces.
So they include orienting buildings and entries towards the street and outdoor spaces,
mediating the scale, massing, and bulk of buildings, and enhancing the pedestrian
experience through building modulation and articulation.
And then creating inviting and well-designed and usable ground floor retail spaces through
standards that address, you know, transparency, retail depth and height, entries and awnings,
and outdoor dining, among others.
And then lastly, we encourage a variety of materials and colors that really add visual
interest to buildings.
Additional topics covered in the book include parking, so locating parking to the rear inside
of buildings, creating pedestrian routes through parking areas, and screening surface and structured
parking from public view. And then within lighting, a lot of the standards focus on
creating pedestrian-scale lighting and reducing light trespass. And now I'm going to talk
a little bit more about that last chapter of the document. So it covers a couple of
special uses that really require some special design consideration. While updating the special
use standards and guidelines, it really became apparent that some of these design standards
already overlapped with standards that were in the zoning code or they kind of more appropriately
belonged there because they were more development standards than design standards.
And Ben is going to cover some of those code amendments for these special uses later in
the presentation.
So this slide highlights some of the standards and guidelines specific to shopping centers.
We have building design and articulation standards.
We have required publicly accessible private outdoor space.
There are standards on pedestrian pathways, so design dimensions and materials.
We have limitations on curb cuts and driveways, and then street and corner activation.
And then a couple of auto uses.
We cover auto sales and leasing, so auto dealerships and auto service stations.
So the 1996 standards and guidelines were updated and improved to really add clarity
and address best practices and recent development trends such as encouraging pedestrian-oriented
urban auto showrooms and limiting outdoor vehicle display areas along the street frontage.
We also added and improved the landscaping, fencing and wall and screening standards for
auto sales and auto service stations really to minimize their impacts on the street frontage
and the pedestrian experience.
And then lastly, this slide highlights some of the topics and standards covered
for drive-up takeout restaurants.
These are drive-throughs, such as requiring landscaping along the perimeters
and drive-up aisles, orienting building entries towards the street rather
than parking areas, encouraging four-sided architecture, providing separate
and distinct vehicular and pedestrian circulation,
and then there's some outdoor dining design standards.
And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Ben.
So I want to go back to the auto sales slide real quick,
and then to touch upon the public comment
that we received prior to today's meeting.
So that was from a member of Gensler Architects,
their well-known architecture firm.
and the individual's comments were all focused
on this chapter, that's chapter 7.1
of the Design Review Standards and Guidelines,
that's attachment one of your packets.
And so, you know, just wanted to know the majority
of the design standards and guidelines in that chapter
actually came from the council adopted
North Downtown specific plan, which was adopted in 2019.
And I think Alessandra kind of touched on the main drive behind many of those standards,
which was to kind of limit or move away from that suburban style auto dealership into more
of an urban focused design.
With that being said, we are going to be working with the individual to consider their comments
as part of the adoption draft prior to going to council.
So moving on to the residential design standards, and again, we're not looking for the commissions,
any commission action on this tonight, but again, just for some context.
So the residential design review standards and guidelines book, we are proposing two
very small amendments to the council.
One is just to add in some clarifying language as the applicability of the document, basically
saying there are some single family homes and additions to single family homes that
don't trigger design review, and so this document would not apply to that. And then conversely,
there are some projects that do not require design review, but still have, but this document
still contains standards that we want those to comply with, such as SB 9 developments.
And then we also tweaked one standard relating to secondary and accent colors for the exterior
of buildings.
Okay.
Moving on to development standards.
So there are essentially three topic areas relating to non-residential development centers
that we tweaked.
And again, these match up very closely with the topic areas that Alessandra just covered.
So we changed the definition of a shopping center.
We added new or revised standards for the gas station use, and then also added in entire
new standards for the drive-through restaurant use.
For shopping centers, we basically just made it a little bit more flexible to accommodate
development patterns and then we're relocating this language which is
currently in our sign ordinance into the zoning code. For the gas station use
we're doing a couple things slightly increasing the canopy size removing this
berm requirement for landscaping then adding in new standards for circulation
screening and illumination. These were born out of the working groups efforts
and conversations with gas station businesses with the drive up the drive
through fast food use classification again adding in new standards relating
to the aisle design stacking queuing areas curb cuts and then also pedestrian
access and then finally we're proposing one very small tweak to residential
development standards these were recently adopted by council a few months
ago. This is the updated landscaping standard for single family and duplex zones. And basically
we've added in this clarifying language that the landscaping requirement in the front and
corner side yards excludes the driveway area. And then to kind of round things out, we are
are making some small tweaks to the design review article.
That's article 12, part four of the zoning code
in relation to what is a minor project.
And just to remind the commission,
a minor project is one approved
by the community development director.
The intent of splitting this crossed out language
at the top into three parts was essentially to clarify
that the CDD director should be able to consider
the design review application for any sized addition
to an existing single family home or duplex.
And this is in line with their approval authority
for new development where the director can approve
up to four single family homes or duplexes.
And then we would still limit the approval authority
of the director for multifamily or commercial additions
to 500 square feet or less,
after which it would be kicked to this body.
And then we also added in as a minor project,
approval of outdoor dining spaces.
Corresponding to that,
we also amended the outdoor dining ordinance
and outdoor dining policy.
Those fall outside of the commission's consideration.
but again, including that here for context.
Basically what we did was add in clarifying language
regarding design review, who does what,
adding in some findings relating to outdoor dining,
and then again, taking away the Design Review Commission's
approval authority into an advisory one.
And so tonight, the recommendation we are looking for
is for the Commission to adopt a resolution
recommending the City Council adopt an ordinance
amending the zoning ordinance to implement the following things, new and modified non-residential
standards, minor amendments to recently adopted residential standards, and then minor modifications
to the design review process and role of the design review commission.
And then briefly, next steps, again, tonight is an opportunity for the commission to ask
questions or provide any comments on the, informal comments on the non-residential book.
If there are any, we will be taking those, synthesizing those and including them in our
report to the council.
And then we're going to bring all six items that we touched on today to the council on
September 17th for consideration.
And so with that, that concludes our staff presentation and we're available for questions.
Thank you.
Questions or staff?
I've got a couple.
staff. I've got a couple. Would it be fair to say just looking at the modification,
the red line modifications that you had, would it be fair to say that most of it
is sort of cleanup work, you know, this particular aspect wasn't covered, we got
to put a line or two in there and basically just kind of tightening it all
up. I think the tightening it all up would be a fair assessment, yeah. The one
exception to that seems to be I mean you've got a whole page and a half of new
material on the gasoline based things. Was that sort of an oversight in the
first round or was there some kind of major decision that required that going
I'm kind of wondering what what's the background of that that decision to redo
that whole thing? Yeah good question so if I'm understanding you correctly you
you know, the decision to bring it forth
as part of the non-residential work
instead of the residential work a few months ago
was mainly because these are not,
these are special uses not typically associated
with the mixed use development.
And so it just kind of got bundled
into this commercial work.
Is that what you're asking or?
So it sounds like it was a decision made
to move it into the non-residential,
maybe I'm not understanding.
And I apologize, I'm not sure I'm completely following.
Are you referring to the addition of a new section
in the zoning code for drive-through restaurants,
which didn't exist before?
Look at page L7 of exhibit A, I think it is.
You know, it's just all new material.
that's the only place that occurs in the proposed changes.
Oh yes, yes.
So the city has a whole section in the zoning code
on special uses with, and each of those special uses
has specific development standards associated with them.
And interestingly, the zoning code did not have a,
or the zoning code special use section
did not have a chapter or a section
for drive-through restaurants.
But there were a lot of standards and guidelines
in the 1996 document related to drive-through restaurants.
And some of them were not strictly design standards.
They were actually development standards
that really should belong in the zoning code.
If that makes sense.
Yeah.
Okay, thanks.
And then the last question I had was in the exhibit A,
the project should be classified
either minor or major project.
And then the next time it says a project
sub-administrial design review
should always be acted on
by the community development director.
I'm just, is that, I think what that means is
there can be minor projects or major projects
which for under state law or under the local ordinance
are ministerial.
So it's, there's a division being minor or major projects,
but if they're ministerial by some other standard,
They go to the community development director.
That's correct.
And it makes more sense.
This is just an excerpt of that entire article.
And so reading the whole article,
it makes a lot more sense in the context.
You're correct.
Didn't read the whole article.
Thank you.
Questions?
OK.
Very good.
Thank you very much.
I'll call for any public comment at this point seeing no eager applicants. I will pass on to
discussion on the commission. So are we being asked to just recommend what you've given us here to
the council for their adoption? Yes, so what's on the screen here is the only formal recommendation
in tonight, but again, if there were comments
or questions on the non-residential book,
we would also entertain those.
Or you could offer a motion.
Okay, I'd like to, I would like to,
I'm looking for the draft motion here.
I would like to adopt the resolution recommended by staff
that the city council adopt an ordinance
amending the zoning ordinance to implement the changes
that you've outlined in today's presentation.
second it thank you okay any discussion on that motion just to thank you for the
incredible amount of work that you've done you get here I when you said
celebration I feel like we are at an end hopefully so great work all right
I'll call for the role commissioner clock yes commissioner Ward yes
Commissioner Klop? Yes. Commissioner Reiser? Yes. Commissioner Nating? Yes. Vice chair Anderson? Yes.
And chair Strongman is absent. Motion passes. Thank you to staff. Item 5 commission considerations. Any
reports or announcements? No reports by staff tonight. Thank you. And item 7 is
adjournment. Without objection, we're adjourned. Thank you very much.