Welcome to the May 7th Design Review Commission meeting.
Can we have a roll call, please?
Thank you, Chair.
Commissioner Case?
Here.
Commissioner Riley?
Here.
Vice-chair Basting?
Here.
Chair Newsom?
Here.
We have a quorum.
Great.
So, item number two in the agenda is the consent calendar.
Are there any items on the consent calendar?
staff would recommend moving no items to consent. Then I think we should move on.
Public communications. This portion of me reserved for comments. Items not on the
agenda under the Brown Act. The Commission cannot act on items raised
during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made or
questions posed request clarification or refer item to the staff. Do we have any
public communications. Any cards turned in? No. Okay. Moving right along. Okay, so now
before we get into the public hearing, we need to have a disclosure of Ex parte communications.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for the planning commissioners, not the planning
commissioners, the design review commissioners to disclose any communications, including site
visits that they have on current agenda items or conflict of interest regarding
current agenda items. Anybody have any conflict of has anybody had
communications or any conflicts? No. Very good, nor do I. So let's move on. Okay so
we're gonna move on to the public hearing. Looks like we have one item on
the public hearing which is the Taiwanese Community Center and after
program? Does staff have a presentation? Looks like you do. Good evening
commissioners. My name is Simmer Gill, Senior Planner with the City. We are here
tonight to consider the design review for the Taiwanese Cultural Center that
will be located at 1755 Sunnyvale Avenue. The applicant and architect along with
his team are here. Sorry, old Chong, and I apologize I don't know everybody else's
names but Cyril Chong is the applicant and architect and he is here tonight as
am I to answer any questions that you may have after this presentation. And
just to quickly orient you with the site, it is zoned R8 single-family
residential. The surrounding area does consist primarily of single-family homes.
However, there is an existing church on this one parcel. There are three parcels
are being merged and there's 50 parking stalls on site. After the merger, all of
the existing use, which is the church as well as the proposed uses, will use the
same parking under a shared parking agreement. And moving on, this is a photo
of the existing buildings on site. As I mentioned earlier, there's the East Bay
United Methodist Church that does operate at this site on Sundays and there
is an existing building right adjacent to it which will be demolished for
proposed construction of the new Taiwanese Community Center that will be
located in that exact location fronting Sunnyvale. And right behind it you see the
existing social hall which will remain and all the way to the back is the
pastures home. This is a old aerial image so currently on site this was
demolished as the home is being rebuilt under new construction however in the
same location and then to the far left is just a grassy open space area and so
so the project consists of a construction of a 4,500 square foot
one-story community center. It will offer Taiwanese cultural classes for adults
and will also operate a after-school program
for kindergarten through eighth grade students.
There are some minor modifications to the existing site
that will include widening of the existing driveway
into the site, relocation of existing ADA parking stalls,
and also new public walkways that will tie in
from Sunnyvale and wrap around the new community center,
as well as tie into the social hall
right behind the community center.
And the project also includes new landscaping and trees.
So to quickly go over the business operating plan,
the Taiwanese Cultural Center will operate
from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Fridays.
Some of the activities include cultural enrichment
and language classes, painting, flower arrangement,
and other such classes that are tailored
for adults and seniors.
The afterschool program will operate from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Fridays.
There is a pickup and drop off area that will occur by the parking stalls that's nearest to the
courtyard space and near the entrance of the new community center that's facing to the south.
And the activities offered are arts and craft, language and dance classes, and other group activities.
And based on the business operating plan,
the maximum cap of students will be 33.
And they are anticipating 20 students and 40 teachers daily
between the two classrooms.
I believe they're gonna break it up
between 10 to 12 students per class.
And the existing church will continue to operate
on Sundays only.
So tonight, the DRC is tasked at providing general feedback
on the design of the community center building,
the overall site layout, the building design
and color material palette, as well as the landscape plan.
And that input will be presented to the Planning Commission
for their consideration and hopefully approval
of the project.
And that also includes the conditional use permits.
So again, just any comments on the conditional use permits
that are required for this project.
There are three that would be required.
One for the cultural institution use,
which is for the community center.
The second one is to operate the after-school program.
And the third is essentially to legalize
an existing religious assembly use,
as the church was built in 1938.
However, it was incorporated into the city in 1963.
So there's no record found in the city
for any use permits that it's operating with.
And here is the existing and proposed site layout.
As you can see, the overall site does essentially
remain the same, and the access to the site
will continue from the existing driveway on Sunnyvale.
The area that I've highlighted blue
is where the changes to the site will occur.
The driveway will be widened to comply with current code
requirements, and then the five-foot-wide walkways
that would connect from Sunnyvale,
leading to the new building and the courtyard space,
is proposed both on the west and east sides of the site.
And then the courtyard space will wrap around
both the community center and the existing south hall,
and will be finished with permeable pavers
and tie into the walkways.
And just to quickly go over the parking,
there are a total of 50 parking stalls on site.
My apologies, there was a typo in the staff report.
I believe I said 52, two parking stalls are
for the pastures home.
So I miscounted 50 total
and this 50 does include the ADA stalls as well.
And again, the city's traffic administrator
who was the under our city's muni code
would make the determination if parking is required
or adequate for the cultural institution use did confirm
that the existing parking onsite is sufficient
given that the church would be operating only on Sundays,
so there would be no overlap with operations
of the community center.
And again, as you can see here,
even the after-school program and the community center,
it's at separate times, it's during the same days,
but separate timings, 9 to noon, I believe,
for the community center.
And then 2 to 4 is for the school.
And so basically, since they're operating at separate times,
that does ensure that there will be no overlap or any parking
demand on site.
And here is the floor plan that features double doors that
open up into a central lobby that then provides access
to a larger auditorium library space
and into these two classrooms.
And additional classrooms could be created
with these retractable space.
I believe that architect could go more into that detail,
but it's primarily two classrooms that are permanent.
And to the left of the lobby is,
to the left of the entrance is basically storage areas,
offices, and restrooms.
And over here, the mechanical equipment and trash
will be located within a fenced off area
along this east corner of the site.
And here's a rendering that shows that fence
and that it would tie into the perimeter fence along here.
So here is the north elevation facing the street.
The building does have a modern innovative design
and consists of variations in a building height and material.
It also includes clear story windows and a sloped roof.
And the exterior facade consists of gray and white stucco.
Roofing material is a combination
of standing C metal roof and PVC.
And here is the south elevation, which
is the front entrance of the community center.
It features a glass door front system with folding doors.
And the yellow, cedar, glulam columns
frame the entrance, which will enhance this overall building
elevation.
And the building height does range from 16 to 24 feet.
It does provide nice articulation to the building.
And the flat and lower portion of the roof
is located along the east side of the,
which is the closest to the residential properties.
And the main entrance was also intentionally placed
to face the south elevation,
which is the interior space of the site,
to maintain a low profile from neighboring residences.
And here is the west elevation
that'll face the existing church.
And here you can see in relation to how the building
will be in relation to the existing social hall building.
And here is the east building elevation
that'll face the adjacent residential property.
Typically in residential neighborhoods,
a five-foot minimum side yard setback is required.
They are providing, the building will be 15 feet away
from the fence line along the east property line.
And the building is also set back 40 feet
where 20 feet is required along the front from Sunnyvale.
And here are just some renderings
essentially showing how this building
will fit into the context of the existing site.
Here you see the church, existing church,
and this is the, again, facing south,
the entrance of the new building, the clear story windows,
and over here you see the south hall, the, sorry,
social hall that is, again,
there'll be a courtyard here that will connect
and a walkway that would connect to the social hall.
And here is just some more renderings
and then an aerial view incorporating
the new community center basically
just to give some site context,
how it fits into the surrounding neighborhood
with the adjacent residential property shown here.
And moving on to the landscape plan,
The applicant is proposing four new 15-gallon trees.
There will be a mix of redbud, strawberry, and guava trees,
and also proposing five-gallon shrubs,
grasses, and ground cover
that will be scattered throughout the site.
There are several existing trees, such as the theater,
that is right here, that's along the front of the site,
which will be preserved.
And there's several other trees in the back of the site
that will also be preserved, enhancing the site's visual appeal.
Staff does support the proposed landscape plan.
However, it does request DRC's input on the overall plan.
And the overall design and site does meet the intent of the city's design standards.
However, there are some design standards that were not addressed as part of the plans.
Please note that any of these standards that can be waived by the highest approving body
which would be the Planning Commission in this case, if they do find that this standard
is not necessary, but I did want to highlight them for your review.
So the first one is the pedestrian circulation, basically a change in materials or texture,
the pedestrian route that does connect the new community center to the existing church
It doesn't indicate a material change, so we're not sure if it meets that standard.
The next one is regarding blank walls.
The standard requires that along sidewalks or pedestrian walks,
blank walls along the ground floor shall not exceed 30 feet in length.
The building plans show that there's a 45-foot long blank wall that's facing Sunnyvale,
which is the north elevation of the building.
So staff does recommend that additional design elements be
incorporated to break up the wall
and to overall just enhance the street facing elevation
beyond what they show on the plans
which is just some landscaping.
And then the other two design standards listed here
are regarding lighting.
One is the pedestrian scale lighting along the walkways
and then the other is just making sure all outdoor lighting
is designed and directed downwards and shielded
So it doesn't spill on to the adjacent properties.
So again, the project plans didn't provide any details.
A lighting plan would be required to determine compliance
with this requirement.
And the next one is the landscape screening.
It says that when you're utilizing landscaping
for screening purposes, the landscaping
should at least have one 24-inch box-sized tree that
should be planted.
The landscaping that's being proposed, it appears as using the tree along the north
elevation to screen the blank wall, however, it's only 15 gallons in size so we would
recommend, staff would recommend a minimum of 24 inch box size be required.
So tonight staff would like DRC to comment on the design, the architecture, color, materials,
landscape and confirm compliance with the city's design standards and also
provide input on any of these standards. And with that again staffs are
recommending the design review commission to review the site design,
the building architecture, the landscape plan, as well as provide a positive
recommendation to the planning commission regarding the site and
building design as well as any input on the three conditional use permits. And
that is all I have for my presentation but I would like to note for the record
that we did receive one public comment which has been incorporated as part of
the agenda packet. I've also spoken to that the neighbor who has submitted the
public comment so I believe I addressed all of his concerns but if happy to
answer elaborate if you have any other questions on that and the applicants
team also has a presentation for you tonight. Thanks and yeah I'm happy to
answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Where is that public comment?
Should be in the at the back. Back, okay. All the way at the end. It should be
incorporated. Yeah there were most so I could just quickly recap but the
questions were basically just regarding is the parking sufficient? If there's
special events how will the parking if there's overflow parking do they have a
plan in action to address that so mostly traffic related questions okay right
thank you what's next of the Nexus is yeah there's some additional materials
when I could is anybody interested in seeing the glue lamp I can see it from
here and you that was featured in the front in the entrance you can see it on
those yeah does does the applicant have any presentation any any questions of
staff first okay my name is Dan Cole I was the
the founder and President of the TACCEB.
Let me just briefly describe the background,
the whole theme.
I came from Taiwan.
I hope everybody know about Taiwan, right?
I came to this country 62 years ago for graduate school.
12 years ago, I moved to East Bay.
When I first came here, I saw that our generation,
we considered we are the first generation to the United States.
The church was bought by Taiwanese 45 years ago.
So those people, including myself, many of them,
one by one, go to heaven called by God.
So I look at the situation.
I see the whole community, East Bay Taiwanese Association
coming down, coming down.
I couldn't stand that.
I couldn't stand that.
So two years later, I become the president
of the EBT, East Bay Taiwanese Association.
I call upon my fellow Taiwanese Americans to live here.
Don't ask what the community can do for you,
but ask what you can do for the community.
you know these centers, I changed the country
to the JFK country.
So that calling really make a lot of people moved.
So the year end, the annual meeting,
the whole church, who are the people?
I counted 198 people.
That's the most people attending our EVTA association.
So from there on, I participated in a lot of things,
and also thought about how to revitalize
entire community. One thing I thought about, the church building, this building
was 95 years old and I need more people, younger generation, to carry the heritage.
But for quite a while, couldn't find, but until 2020, we have a young pastor. He
was only 46 years old. No, no. To me, almost half the age. Anyway, just very
important because of Chascua. So I present my mission statement to him,
ask him to see I want to develop the community center, the cultural center, to
revitalize the entire community. He studied for a while, women's data, he's still
or whatever, but I say, all right.
Anyway, by the year November,
he finally said, yes, let's go.
So I gave the 12 people and present my mission statement.
All right, today, this is a bike run.
I'm using this occasion to just read my mission statement.
My whole life, everything I do have to have a mission statement.
The reason for that, I need the whole team to consent
to agree with that mission.
otherwise you cannot do it yourself.
So here is simply just to create
a vibrant Taiwanese American culture
for the support and maintain Taiwanese heritage,
this heritage including our culture, our value,
our democratic system to share this Taiwanese heritage
with wider community around the center.
Our goal is to go the three goal to create an active,
permanent community center for permanent home,
for permanent home for East Bay Taiwanese-American
to foster relationship with the surrounding community.
We are not just going to take care of ourselves.
We want to foster our relationship
with the surrounding community
and educate people about Taiwan and USA.
shield the principle of the democracy and freedom.
Thirdly, we want to foster the opportunity
for the former San United Methodist Church.
For the East Bay community to continue
to grow and generate for the generation to come.
So I'm just mention to you,
this is our mission, our goal,
And for the detail, you can ask our architect later.
Thank you so much.
Was there anything else on the other side?
Was there an architect's presentation?
Yeah.
Good evening, commissioners.
My name is Siru Chang.
I am the architect for this project.
Thank you, Ms. Kiu, for giving you all
the basic understanding of what your project about.
And thank you, Dr. Koh, for giving
his very passionate statement and mission statement
about this project.
This project is very important to this group
of Taiwanese immigrants.
And I am very honored to have worked with them
over the past one and a half years.
So since Miskill has given you basically
the basic understanding the technical information,
so what I'm gonna spend the rest of my time
is to kind of go through some of the design logic
and hopefully we'll get your endorsement tonight.
So as you have seen this sketch, so I'm not going to repeat this.
You have seen what the site is about, the surrounding context.
And I think Dr. Koh has given a very passionate mission statement of him.
So I'm not going to repeat most of this.
But as you can see on the left, it's a diagram that actually we tried, we used in our internal
meetings is basically a free panel comics.
So we start with a very small tree with all these little children listening to the elderly
gentlemen. And as these children grow up, they share their knowledge with the peers.
And finally, when the children become the elderly, he or she is passing the knowledge
to the next generation. And this, I think this is a very important mission statement
that Dr. Koh feels very passionate about. And we try to achieve this in this community
center. So as you can see here, some of the site photos, and that shows the building that
that we are going to demolish.
The building simply is not sufficient for the space
that we need to we need to utilize.
And this is the existing Google Earth
image of the existing sites and the image.
And this is what we've proposed that you have seen
in Miskills information.
So roughly, in terms of site plan, I think, Miskills,
you have given a good context of how
we plan to do on the site.
Architecturally speaking, what we are trying to achieve,
because we understand this building's gonna be situated
in the middle of the residential neighborhood,
we want to be respectful to the scale
and to the style of the surroundings.
So one of the challenge is how to incorporate
this respect into the building design.
And in this case, the first major decision
that we want to make is to put the entrance
on the south side, away from the street.
So basically, the north side will be kept as the quiet side.
And then the south side will be what we call the active side.
So as you can see, the entry plaza
is located at the southwest corner of the site,
basically just right off the parking lot
in between the social hall, the existing social hall,
the church, and the proposed building.
And this is where the main entrance would be.
And then there will be another courtyard
in between the social hall and the proposed cultural center
in order to create an outdoor living space.
Just to walk you through the basics of spatial design,
it is actually a very simple building.
As you enter the lobby to the left
is the administration office with the reception window
to take care of any information or business.
And then to the north, that is the office for the pastor.
And then restroom storage, the most important space
is the one to the right,
which is the auditorium library exhibition space,
and then two permanent classrooms,
a smaller classrooms room.
And the auditorium, when you don't need all those spaces,
could be partitioned off with folded partitions
to create two additional temporary classrooms,
just in case we need them.
So as I mentioned before, the north side is the quiet side.
So, in terms of the design,
so what we try to adopt is we try to use simple massing
because the building is right in the middle
of a residential neighborhood
and it's also right next to the church.
So, we want to create a architectural vocabulary
that relates both to the church
as well as to the general neighborhood.
So, what you see here is basically three masses.
One is this white masses
that sloped towards Sunnyvale Avenue
And the next to it is a taller rectangular mass in gray.
And then behind them is a triangular massing,
which houses the auditorium.
Now, as Ms. Gill has mentioned, that this white wall
is fairly long.
It's about 45 feet in width.
And that decision was actually intentional.
We took some inspiration from traditional architecture
and gardens, and it was a fairly commonly used feature,
a very long white wall with very little fenestration.
And in this case, aside from the cultural reference,
we think that it will be appropriate to create this.
Because the building is set back from the street about 40
to 50 feet, there is no that pathway directly
in front of the wall.
So when you see the wall, you'll always be 40 to 50 feet away.
And we believe that the scale actually
could use something that is fairly long, almost
like a bare minimum.
That you could provide a very clean backdrop or canvas,
if you will, for any ornamental trees and then
to the signage, the building, just to keep everything simple.
So as you can see, this field from the northwest corner,
you could see this gray mass, which behind them
will be the two classrooms.
And then behind this white wall will be the restroom.
And then you could see a hint of the auditorium at the back.
And one thing that I want to point out
is that, as I mentioned before, we
tried to relate to the church in terms of architecture.
So what we're trying to do is, as you could see this slope,
it kind of roughly slopes towards the spire of the church.
And this horizontal wall, actually,
I think it provides a very good juxtaposition.
As you can see, it goes east-west versus the church
spire that goes vertically in the z-axis.
And potentially, the main body of the church
goes in another direction.
So I think the three masses actually
forms a pretty good partnership in terms of visual composition.
And when you flip to the other side,
this is the south side, which is the more active side.
This will be the focal point of all the activities
and connections.
So on this side, the treatment is very different.
We have an abundance of window wall and storefront
to bring in as much natural light as possible.
Some of these openings could be opened
when the weather is nice to allow natural ventilation
and direct connection to the courtyard.
And the addition of wood columns in this case
bringing a sense of warmth and welcome to the facility.
So in terms of materials, I have some samples here.
Basically, the overall, the general color palette
is very simple, it's made up of white, dark gray,
and a light wood color.
So the light wood color, obviously,
would go onto the glue lamps on the self-signed exterior,
and then it would extend interior to the inside as well.
the medium gray applies to the metal roof.
She like, okay, I'll be that.
The medium gray will apply to the metal roof
and then the light and dark gray stucco
would applies to these two different masses
that face the north side.
And have some samples that you could pass around.
So just some exterior and interior shots for you.
As you come into the lobby, this is the reception.
the left, and then you could see a little bit of the auditorium when you look towards
the other side, and here's some interior shot from the auditorium looking out towards the
courtyard. As you can see in this case, we have some permanent bookshelves on the north
side of the wall projection screen, so it could be adapted to different kinds of activities.
And if you would indulge me, I would like to show you a 40 seconds clip of a quick walk
through of the building. Thank you Ms. Gil. Great. So I hope so that's that's all
I have for you so I welcome all your comments and I hope that tonight after
what you have heard from Dr. Koh and my presentation we could earn your
endorsement of this project. Thank you so much. Thanks, hang on we'll see if you
have any questions. So any questions? I do have a question. Is there any way you
but you could tell us how this building
or even its integration into the church site
helps to celebrate the Taiwanese culture.
Excuse me.
So I did mention there's some architectural elements
or forms that we took inspiration
from traditional architecture.
Now the church itself, I mean,
because the religious part is, I mean,
obviously it's not directly connected
to the traditional architecture.
So what we are trying to achieve here
is basically use the massing of the new building,
use the different shapes, for example,
how the roof apex points towards the spine of the church.
Hopefully, it will create a positive space
in between the two buildings that the viewers could relate
to that says, OK, these two look kind of related
in one way or the other.
Did I answer your question?
Yeah, also the back area that has like the six foot
wood fence closest to the neighbor.
What happens in that area?
Are we allowed to flip food?
So inside that is the surface yard.
So the biggest piece of equipment is the HVAC equipment
there because at maximum capacity,
the auditorium could house about 230 people.
So the HVAC system has to be designed to accommodate
that many people.
So as you can see, at the north side of the surface yard,
on the north side of the surface yard,
we have the HVAC equipment.
And then on the south side is reserved for basically
an area for garbage, as well as potentially catering spaces.
Occasionally, maybe twice or three times a year,
they might host a banquet inside this space.
So that space right now is reserved for catering service,
as well as any back of the house activities
that they don't want to be put in the building
for right now.
Okay.
I noticed in the arborist report
that there's a mulberry tree that they recommended remove
because it wasn't gonna survive construction.
It's already dead.
It's already dead.
But it looks like it's on the plans.
Okay, so maybe just, you know, consistency on that.
It also mentioned that there's an evergreen pair
that's gonna remain and it shows up
on the plans to remain as well,
but the arborist report recommends clearing
the contained area that it's in right now.
Is that considered to be a part of the project?
It's outside of the...
I think you're talking about that tree
that is being shown on the south side, right?
The location of that tree currently is outside the scope
of this particular project, but since, as you can see,
that we are extending the area
or the UV capable parking space,
and the tree is relating to that.
So my anticipation is that that area could be incorporated
into the final design of the project.
Mm-hmm, okay.
That's it.
Those are my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
I have a couple questions.
So there are several items that aren't meeting design guidelines
for the City of Walnut Creek.
And one of them is the pedestrian crossing
that your driveway.
Are you going to identify that with a different type
of material or some sort of method for drivers
to know that there might be people in front of them
on a regular basis?
Yes.
As you can see in the plan, we did indicate a crosswalk.
Now, of course, the materials was not indicated
because it was early in our design stage.
But it was always the intention that basically we
will create bumps at both ends of the crosswalk
and probably along the entire crosswalk
to alert both the pedestrians and the drivers as well.
those details would come during the next stage.
Okay, and then also there were comments from staff
about the blank walls and the requirement in the city
that they should not exceed 30 feet.
Did you have a solution with some other design elements
that could go there?
Because right now you only have one tree planned for that.
Correct.
As I mentioned before, that was an intentional decision
to create that long blank wall as a juxtaposition
to the form of the church and to provide
a proper scale when the building is built from the street.
Now, we could certainly take into consideration
if that is a requirement.
However, our take is that we do not
want to overly complicate that sign of the facade.
And we believe that the white wall just being juxtaposed
with the gray form to its left, and then the triangular
apex at the back, actually forms a pretty good composition.
And it is not our intention right now
to throw in additional elements onto the blank wall
other than the sign that says the Taiwanese American
Culture Center.
However, we certainly will take the recommendation
if that is your suggestion.
Well, additionally, the tree that you have specified
for that location is not the required size.
So I'd start there,
and then I'd probably add a couple more trees
if you're not planning on breaking up.
I understand sort of the design element.
We have a lot of that
in traditional California Spanish architecture
with a long white wall.
So I get the concept.
It's just normally it's broken up with something green
and living so that it's not so fortressy looking.
And then I had the same comment about the side
that faces the neighbors where your side yard
and your HVAC and everything will be.
But it sounds to me like that might be,
there's a buffer there of all that equipment
so I'm not sure how fortressy looking
that's gonna look to the neighbors
with all that stuff in between.
That would be my, that is a kind of a question
that I have in my head.
We're kind of sensitive to how things fit
within their environment,
and how the neighbors are treated,
and how they have to live with whatever's right up next
to them that they have to look at.
So my other main question was relative to the lighting,
There's a lot of landscape expanse, a lot of walkways,
and I would be concerned attending an event there
if there wasn't the specified pedestrian style lighting
that the city requires.
Those are my questions.
Do you have a plan for that too
that you haven't gotten to yet in this set?
Yes, yes, I mean, I totally agree.
We understand the requirements of the landscape lighting.
When we submit this plan,
I mean, the landscape portion lacks
behind the architectural portion a little bit.
Right now, it is more of a preliminary concept design.
Now, what we plan to do is before the set of plans
go to the planning commission, we
would like to incorporate the conceptual design
of landscape lighting and potentially develop
the landscape design further.
For example, like what you suggest,
putting more trees in front of that white wall.
What you see in today's submission
from the landscape standpoint
is our preliminary concept plan, if you will.
Okay, so you're going to be adding lighting
at some point? Yes.
Okay, got it.
Thank you so much.
Go ahead.
Hi, I have a question regarding the choice
of trees that were made,
particularly the maple and the dogwood,
is there a particular reason that those trees were chosen?
So I wish I could answer that question.
In this particular project,
we work with a landscape designer.
And just for this closure, moving forward,
we will be switching to a different landscape designer.
So our understanding is that the current concept
or the choice to selections of trees and all the plants
are preliminary for preliminary review process.
And our goal is basically to develop those
in much further detail
before the planning commission meeting.
So I, unfortunately, I do not know well enough
about the tree species to answer your question,
but we will take your comment very seriously
into consideration and we will pass that
to our landscape designer, and he would continue
to develop that front.
OK, because as well, the size going in
is not sufficient for the structure, of course,
of that size.
And just being aware, I saw that it's
fine for the water requirements required by the state.
But there's also the heat of the air here in Walnut Creek.
And I think being very aware of certain leaves
and certain positions and that the trees will be successful.
And so using a maple or a dogwood,
it's just something you really need
to be careful with because of the summer heat.
Really, OK.
Thank you for letting me know because I'm just
planting a dogwood in my backyard.
It's helpful information.
Yeah, that's mine.
Okay, here I go.
I'm your architect.
I like the building.
Okay?
So I think let's first look at the site plan.
The detailed one with the HVAC.
I'm asking a question.
The comments come at the end.
Okay, so, okay, so looking at the HVAC unit,
do we know how tall that unit is?
That unit is about between six to seven feet tall.
OK.
So how tall is the fence?
Right now we are proposing a six foot tall fence.
But I actually went to the site today.
And I do notice that the boundary between our property
and the neighbors is actually more like nine to 10 feet.
It's taller than what we thought.
So we could potentially increase the height of the fence
so it covers the entire top of the HVAC unit,
if that is what your concern is about.
That is the question, and you've answered it.
But here's part two, what type of equipment is that?
Is it a VRF system?
Is there ductwork on it?
Well, it is a RTE roof, which would traditionally
be used in RTE rooftop force air units.
So the ductwork coming out of the unit
would not come out from the top.
It would come out to the side.
And so what it does is that there
will be two ducts coming out, supply and return.
They would come out from the south side of the unit,
maybe at the waist level.
And then you will enter the building.
As you can see, on the east side of the building,
along grid line one.
I hope you can see there's some area
that we have reserved for hiding the folding positions.
And to the north of that, it will be a chase space.
So the duct will basically enter the chase space
at that elevation.
Now, the elevation hasn't been specified.
It could either be at waist level or at seven or eight feet.
You will go into the building, and then you will turn up,
and then you will follow the slope auditorium.
And then you basically will be feeding air
on both sides of the auditorium along east-west.
That's how I do it too.
But it's going to be a comment, so preview.
OK, so I don't care how you do it.
but we'll talk about that later,
but it just has to be concealed.
Yes.
You could also pop the building out,
do something fun that way, it'd be fine.
Okay, so the unit, it's,
have you done a noise study on the unit?
We are working on that with the MDP engineers,
so we have brought up that concern,
whether that unit could be noisy.
Now, he needs to investigate with the vendor
on the performance of the unit.
But I have actually thought about that.
If noise could potentially become an issue,
what we could do is we could put up a sun barrier
to the east of the surface yard with CMU block.
I thought there was a fence on the east side of the property,
but however, when I went there,
all I noticed is just hedges.
So for safety reason,
I think we need to pull up something
along that east side anyway.
And then a CMU wall potentially would be a good candidate
block the site. I agree. I mean, just to protect the institution, right? I mean, there's residential
right there. You're going to want to do something. So that's, we're not going to tell you how
to get there, other than you need to do a study and you need to mitigate it, and that
we support that well-being, concrete, we're being, if it has to be, and it being tall
enough to cut off the noise. So there's some comments in there with my questions. Okay,
So solar, so this being California in a commercial building, you've got to plan for it.
Yes?
And where's, let's take a look at the roof plan when you get the building permit, it
needs to be on there.
Right.
We actually have quite a lot of discussion on solar panels.
Now the reason why they're not put in here is, I mean, Dr. Cole basically wants to fundraise
for the solar panels, but we have talked about the possibility of locating the solar panels
on the flat roof side, basically what the two white areas that you see on the roof,
those potential could be good candidate.
We will probably refrain from putting solar panels on the sloped roof.
we think it could basically induce detrimental effect
on the visual aspect of the building.
So we have reserved the two flat roof area
for future solar panel installation.
It is not in the current plan,
mostly because of budget's reason that.
You're probably gonna have to do it.
I do commercial public buildings,
so you're probably gonna have to do it.
So my comment's just gonna be,
if they're solar panels, they go on the flat roofs,
just like you said, okay.
So, let's talk about drop off.
Let's look at the site plan one more time.
So, school kids afternoon,
where are they going to be dropped off?
How's that gonna work?
Can a Latte committee member answer this question?
Yeah.
Tracy?
Hi, I'm Tracy. Last name's Wynn. Tracy Wynn. So in this picture, we designed to put the drop-off and pickup area next to the EV parking spots.
So you see the EV parking spots.
You could point them out.
So the parking stop under those EV, those are a couple EV parking spots over there.
Oh, you have EV parking, oh, I see.
EV parking over there.
So next to it, next to those EV parking stops
are pickup and drop off area.
Right, I mean, I think, I mean, I'm not going to tell you guys
how to do it, but I'd say one of my comments
is going to be, I mean, if you have,
I think you said 30 students, then you're
going to have to think about how that works.
So I'm just going to make a comment that really,
you probably should have your operational plan amended a bit to say how
people because all these kids are gonna come at once so I'm gonna say that I
don't know that it won't work but it's something you have to deal with thanks
yeah okay I'm gonna have the same comments about the blank wall same the
same the same question thank you questions comments I get so confused
been a long day I mean would you would you consider on that blank wall looking
at those restrooms kind of it's kind of funky but could you put some obscure
glass or off to the side to kind of break technically meet the requirement
I mean, they're always room to put some, you know, opaque glass and they could actually
bring in a little bit of natural light to the restroom as well.
We could certainly consider that, I mean, as long as they don't have overly complicated
the facade, which is our intent.
I mean, I don't, I totally supportive of the overall design.
I just, we have this new requirement, it's a new requirement, kind of hard to start waving
it.
requirement. Kind of hard to start waving it. Let's see what else. In that same note, I mean,
could a window be high and long, like a long clear story window at the top of that wall?
Or is that going to be structurally? I mean, it's up to you. You want to do it? Yeah. I think...
Yeah, point's ticking. Other things are just like, I mean, so like the long walls that you have,
the long white wall, the other wall. You know, you're gonna need to have control
joints in there. I think you recognize that. Yes, I'll be a comment. I think
everything else is just a comment. So, that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you.
So, I think we're gonna move on to public comment, right? So, do we have any public
comment. Has anybody turned in a speaker card? Okay, none. So none heard. Let's
move on to Commissioner comments. We're closing the public hearing first.
Commissioner comments. So go ahead. Okay, so I appreciate your explanation of how
the new building will relate to the existing church, but I gotta say I don't
see it. They feel very distinct to me and I wonder if there's an opportunity to
maybe use the crosswalk or the planting or maybe consider a drop-off area that
integrates the entry plaza to make it feel like one unified campus. Like you
intend for somebody who's visiting to really matriculate between those
buildings and feel like it's one big space that's open to everyone and how
you address that you know that's my opinion. I do feel like the the long wall
I hear your thought process behind it but I even notice in the inspiration
picture that you shared like there's a cut out in the wall and there are some
boulders at the base and there are a few smaller trees so I do want to uphold
that design standard that I think there needs to be something visual to break up
just a really long strong wall. I do think the architecture is cool. The only thing I'm struggling
with is just how it relates to the neighborhood and the existing church. And so I think maybe it's
some of the details that can help scale it down and make it feel a little more appropriate in this
residential area. And in that same vein, the wood fence that returns to the neighbors also feels a
little unrelated you know so we've got this kind of grand stucco building and
then it has kind of a good neighbor fence it just feels like that could use
a little more thought I also wanted to recommend if you haven't already having
a conversation with those neighbors because we've seen in the past that that
does a lot of good they just want to understand typically what's going on and
what it might mean to them like are they gonna lose their hedges you did
acknowledge that there is some refinement that needs to happen on the
landscape plan, so I hear you.
But just some of the things I want to make sure
that we're able to see.
So it calls out permeable pavers.
I just wanted to know the extent
of where those happen on the plans.
It shows like this hexagon shape
and on the rendering they're long and linear.
So just kind of like cleaning that up
so we really get an understanding of what it looks like.
I think it would be cool if there is an opportunity
to follow the recommendation of the arborist
to keep that pair and break.
It's in like a tiny little thing
that it was probably put in 50 years ago, right?
So give it a little bit of space if we want to keep it.
I don't love Paris, so that's my opinion.
The crosswalk I support somehow making it feel
like a campus and yes, a dress lighting design.
That would be a really cool way to emphasize that white wall
and maybe it's up lights on a tree or something.
I think if there was a way to more overtly celebrate
the Taiwanese culture, that would be really cool.
when you're presenting and I was kind of like,
ooh, I'm gonna get some cool tidbits, right?
So I think that would be really fun, just as a way,
yeah, like something to help celebrate it,
because I actually don't know that much
and I would love that,
and I think that would feel really special and unique.
And I don't know what that would be,
but I'm curious to see how that could come forward.
And then,
that's it.
Sorry, I just had to make sure I got through everything.
That's it, thank you.
I don't have nearly as much in following.
I do like your idea of sort of identifying
what makes this place special.
Again, don't know what that is.
I think it's really wonderful
that it's coming to our community and I love that.
So I think really kind of getting it out there
with the current architecture and the current configuration,
it does almost disappear.
So if there are a way that it could not quite disappear
so much and then again I know that this is a preliminary landscape plan but just being
sensitive to what plants are going in there and as far as that front I saw on here that
there's a red bud and I think that having a row of red buds along that white wall would
be really beautiful and totally appropriate and so thinking about things like that as
you work through the landscape plan would be helpful. I echo both of their
comments and you already heard my questions. I would like like it to see
some cultural identity too. I'd like to see that it would be really cool it's
kind of in my neighborhood so not sort of I'm on that side of the freeway but
and I also like your architecture I just we do have these rules so breaking
those long walls up would be great. And I'm thankful you're keeping the cedar
tree. I have one in my backyard and they're my favorite. Oh that one, yeah, but
the big one in front is still there. Right, okay. Well I have another one if
you guys would like a donation of a 20-foot tall cedar in a big pot.
All right, anyway, thank you. Okay, here we go. So I had a question for you guys on
the landscape side. So with the mulberry gone, does it make sense to condition
more landscaping be done around that area? Well, I also, I mean I hear that the
landscape plan needs to be developed, but I wondered if there, I'm looking at the
landscape plan. There are these three little shrubbies that happen between the
driveway in the courtyard and I kind of circled it on my plan because I couldn't
help myself. I wonder if like the connection goes there and the plaza
like becomes I don't know so maybe there is an opportunity for more landscape but
we're also making that connection between the two buildings a little more
apparent so then maybe you're cutting in I don't know I got ideas I got ideas so
yes I think making sure that courtyard feels like a landscaped place of like
respite but where you can also gather would be really cool. To answer you as
well Phil I think yes. It's a really big, as far as like square footage and
building to non-built areas, you've got a lot of non-built areas which is
great but it also gives you an opportunity to really sort of amp up the
landscaping and really make it feel more like soften the space and as Casey was
saying, create a connection between this building
that looks very different, which is the existing church,
and the new building, which is fun, and modern, and great.
But bringing those together is really important.
OK.
All right.
Got something there?
OK.
So first off, I agree with everything they said.
I think probably the biggest thing is the blank wall.
and you've seen that there are a lot of tools
that we're throwing out there that you could use.
Another one to think about is identity, right?
So you have the signage there.
There's a fabulous opportunity there for public art,
even if it's very subtle, right?
But like, like, like Casey was saying,
I mean, tying it all together.
I mean, you could almost look at that whole front as,
I wouldn't say it's all signage
because we have signed standards as well, right?
But graphics.
You could do this wonderful graphical wall that basically
talks about the importance of the Taiwanese community,
something abstract, and you could light it so you could
see what's going on.
And the landscaping, too, would help.
I mean, you're looking now at the landscaping
like it's two-dimensional.
And really, if you thought about composing it again,
you could compose against the wall.
I believe the solution should be architectural,
because that's what I am.
And I think it's the same time I really like what the design is.
But you could do something very subtle, I think,
and it would really help bridge that identity between the two.
So just something.
Landscape, identity, identity that is not signed.
The signage is probably appropriately sized,
but something like that, right?
It also reminded me when you said that,
that I was excited on the first page when I read,
Taiwanese ceramic tiles will be erected
as an acknowledgement to the Taiwanese culture,
and I was like, where are those?
Where did those, where did those go?
So I'd love to see that too, wherever that is.
So they were intentionally taken out
because I believe the applicants team was concerned
that might not be taken well.
So it's good to know.
Yeah, I mean, at the same time, I mean, I support you identifying yourself, right?
And I know where you're coming from.
It's just the nature of our, you know, I think it's just the world that we're in, right?
But I think I support what you're trying to do.
And so what better way to do it than have some kind of a subtle thing that says it encouraged,
It doesn't have to say, this is exactly what it is,
but it can actually draw people in, what is this?
I'm interested and have them come in,
which is probably important.
It's tricky, yeah, I know, but I know.
It resonated with me how you showed
the picture of the elderly teaching it to the children.
Because I was actually thinking about my kids
when I was thinking about this space.
And they would love just seeing a different culture.
There are a lot of cool modern buildings,
like the library and stuff, but they would be very interested
and seeing like what's different, what's like there,
at least my kids, I can't speak for an entire generation,
but they're curious.
And so I think spaces that feel welcoming,
but also give them information is something they seek.
So I would lead into that.
But again, that's my personal experience.
It is a cultural center.
So a little bit of your culture would be.
something like the public art or some you get it yeah that would be really
cool okay great okay so you kind of brought up the banquet two or three
times a year okay can't can't can't really have a dialogue right now I mean
otherwise have to open it up can't can't do it because it's it's against the
rules but but I'll make I'll make I'll say this comment if you have events like
that you need to consult with the Health Department that's the comment because
you need to make sure the event washing and other things okay that's the comment
that's a that's as deep as it has to go you know I've helped out parishes like
this. I know exactly what it is. We're recommending, I'm recommending that the
noise study be done for the unit and that you have you look at the wall
between you and the neighbor and that it be appropriately appropriate height and
that you work that out with the neighbor as Commissioner Case said because what
But you don't want to just have this 9-foot wall there and not have it softened somehow.
A comment about the solar.
The solar should be on the flat roofs.
Operational plan.
A little more detail about how the drop-off is done so that it works.
I'm not going to tell you how.
The lighting, well, our standards are to have the lighting be shielded, so you're going
to meet that. Details, details, details. The stucco panels should have appropriate control
joints designed and planned. This is a kind of random comment. Make sure on the glassy
side of the building that those operable walls actually don't conflict with the glue lamps.
Make sure you seal those glulams in their exterior grade so that they don't delaminate
and better detailing on the fence.
You got the expansion of the landscape plan, right?
I've compiled some of the comments and we should probably reach consensus on these.
We have consensus, okay.
I've loosely grouped them together so I'll try to stay on point here but I might go sideways.
So first of all was landscaping.
was maybe enhance the ornamental garden to be an ornamental garden with more
ornamental trees. That might help the wall issue. Make those trees 24 inch
box and revisit the use of maple and dogwood. And then there's also enhance
landscape and enhance the landscape plan, further develop the landscape plan and
and look at creating for the hardscape,
look at creating connections between the church
and the new building and all the buildings
with different pavements and hardscapes
or some type of pavement.
Can we just say use the landscape design
to create connectivity between the buildings?
Because it doesn't have to be hardscapes.
So hardscape and softscape.
Yeah.
Okay, great, and that was my finishing comment there.
And also consider landscape further
landscaping the area around the mulberry tree. Those are my landscape
comments. Does everybody, can we reach consensus on all of those comments or
some of those comments or anything that anybody doesn't like? No?
No, there is nothing I don't like. That was a double negative. I'm sorry.
I'm seeing three heads nodding yes. Okay, that's all I need. Okay, let's see.
around the HVAC area, you know, we do allow seven-foot tall fences,
so we might require a seven-foot tall fence, and also the use of a cedar
or a redwood, solid wood fence should be revisited to Casey's point?
Yes.
Okay.
I would like that.
Tied into the acoustic comment, because once they're doing that,
they might want to just wrap it?
Yes, and also that also includes a noise study
and any mitigations recommend those mitigations
to the planning commission.
Yes.
The noise study is specifically for the HVAC system.
Yes, HVAC only.
Okay, where are my other B's?
I think that's it.
C's, in regards to the building,
let's see, show control joints,
That's probably a good comment.
To visit the code to see if it's going to be needs to need to be solar equipped or at
least solar ready.
But that would be a code issue.
And if they're going to put them on there they need to go on the flat roofs.
Right, as proposed or as stated.
Right.
And also, let's see, the wall, the wall, the wall, the wall,
consider potentially transom windows or the like,
or some type of architectural enhancement
to address the design guideline.
It's actually a design standard.
I don't know that I desperately need to be architectural.
You know what I mean?
Like if there were boulders and trees,
that might be enough for me.
But I do wanna uphold the standard.
So, if that then conflicts with the standard, then never mind.
Remember, the Design Review Commission has the ability
to recommend waiving the standard to the Planning Commission.
And the Planning Commission can waive a standard
if you make the, you know, if you feel it's unnecessary.
Can we conditionally waive it?
I think we should uphold it.
Because none of us loved the large blank wall.
We wanted something else to happen.
We just didn't know what it was.
If it's done through landscaping,
we can just do it through landscaping.
So that would still uphold the standard, right?
OK, so the only change I wanted in what you mentioned
was just that it doesn't have to be a window or something.
It could be, but it doesn't have to be.
Or public art.
I really like this sort of work.
And then there's also the public art aspect
to take a look at what your public art requirements are
going to be and consider doing it on site
and potentially to help that issue.
Yes.
So the 30 foot, the 40 foot wall is broken up with some form of either art, landscaping
or combination thereof, or architectural, any of those options, but it needs to be addressed.
But do something, not do something, not nothing.
Okay, got it.
Also, further enhance the landscape plan with lighting, all lighting should be downward
shielded or meet the design standards.
and the last one was to recommend neighborhood outreach.
Yeah, okay, all right.
Can I add?
You got all that?
One more thing here.
So on the glue lamps, I love the idea.
Make sure exterior glue is used
and that they're held up off the ground
a little bit so they don't rot out.
Is that a code?
Not really, no, they're not gonna pick it up
building. It's basically something, it's basically, basically experience what it is.
Turn gray and split, got it. Okay. Okay, do I get, is there consensus on that, on
those items? Okay, great. Okay, that could be a wrap. So we're done. Oh, sure. Thank
you for coming. Thank you. Excited for you guys. So now we're, with that done,
We're going to move on to commissioner considerations, so commission consideration.
So this is for items that are not publicly noticed, but we're formal staff presentation,
question and answer period, public input, or discussion among those commissioners helpful.
Do you guys have anything?
No.
Staff?
I have none.
No.
Okay.
We do have a few items coming up.
Thank you.
We're still conducting a meeting here, though.
Yes.
Give us a minute.
Give us a minute here.
We're almost done.
We're trying to get out of here.
Okay.
Commissioner and member and staff reports our announcements.
No announcements?
No.
Nothing.
Okay.
Adjourn.
Adjourn.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
Thank you.