Welcome to the June 4th Design Review Commission meeting.
Can we do a roll call?
Thank you, Chair Newsom, Commissioner Case.
Here.
Commissioner Riley.
Here.
Vice Chair Basting.
Here.
And Chair Newsom.
Still here.
We have a quorum.
All right, so consent calendar.
Do we have any items on the consent calendar?
We do not.
And seeing none that the secretary would suggest
to recommend moving to consent.
Okay, so let's move on.
Public communications.
This portion of the meeting is reserved
for comment on items not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, commission cannot act
on items raised during the public communications
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed, request clarification
or refer item to staff.
Do we have any comment cards
for public communication, not one items to the agenda.
Okay, so that's fine.
So let's move on.
So, ex parte communication.
So has anybody on this commission had any contact
with the applicants?
No.
No.
No.
In either of the items, okay.
Nope.
Okay.
All right, so now we're gonna move on
to the public hearing and to the study sessions.
So this opens the public hearing.
And I guess the first project I have here
is the Taco Bell at Rossmore.
So does staff have a presentation for us?
Staff does.
Okay.
Thank you, Chair.
My name's Chip Griffin.
I'm the Principal Planner,
Chair of the Design Review Commission.
I'm pinch-hitting for Gerardo tonight
as he has a graduation in his family.
So, tonight we're having a study session
for a new Taco Bell drive-through at 1960 Tites Valley,
Tites Valley Boulevard,
which is right within the Rossmore Shopping Center.
Let's see, there it is.
A little description here in some context.
You can see here's the shopping center in blue.
So that shows the entirety of the shopping center.
I believe it's north,
It's properly oriented north to the top,
east to the right, west to the left,
and south to the bottom.
Down here where the star is,
is where the Taco Bell building would go.
And you can see in this drawing here with that being the star,
the Taco Bell site is actually a little bit larger than that.
So what it would include is a new 14 or approximately
1,500 square foot building, have a drive-through.
It has a dual lane drive-thru.
The inside lane is for mobile order,
and the outside lane, I believe, is for order in line.
Not online, but in line, on site.
It's traditional.
And the drive-thru would work kind of like this,
and then out, and then through any of these
several entrances and exits in the shopping center.
The project would also include a little outdoor space, landscaping, lighting, there's a couple
of tree removals, and we'll get to that a little bit later.
The pad itself was studied or contemplated in PD 2189, and it was studied in the CEQO
document for that, as well as a drive-through restaurant.
A little more context, general plan land use designation is general retail, again, zoning,
it's a plan development, the existing site is the shopping center, it has all kinds of
typical shopping center uses in there, it's about 12.5 acres in total, and it's surrounded
over here by, down here by Rossmore, over to the north offices and such, there is a
a single family residential plan development up here,
and mostly to the right of the project area
is medical office and the like.
And down to the bottom right would be Tice Valley Park,
or Tice Valley Recreation.
The layout, we just talked about it a little bit.
So the internal access is from Rossmoor Parkway.
There's an access point here and an access point here.
This one is largely used by the Chevron in this area,
and Chevron itself has three points of ingress egress
right there, and then two along Rosmore Parkway.
This will likely be the main entrance into the restaurant,
but there's also a large parking field here,
which could be something before or after shopping
or using other tenants in the shopping center.
Let's take a look at this site layout a little bit more, a little bit closer, so just looking
at it a little bit closer.
The site currently is mostly parking spaces, so there's going to be some parking spaces.
I think there's an analysis of that in the staff report, how many are lost and how many
are ... there's a net loss.
And then these would be repaved and repainted as parking spaces.
There is an access point here, which the shopping center is contractually obliged to keep.
That was one of the things that we had discussed with them.
So it's a little bit odd, but that has to stay and it has to remain a lane with an out
there.
So the primary way to get into this site is right through here, and you've either made
your call or you work for a delivery service or you are just there to talk to the guy inside,
make your order, drive through, get your stuff and leave.
There's a window here for, I would assume, taking money and then a pickup window here.
Oh, and by the way, Chris Sizz is here with representing Taco Bell and will have no presentation
but just a short discussion and be there to answer questions.
So if I didn't get any of this right,
I'm sure that you will let me know.
So that's how the site works.
Building layout, you can see it's pretty much rectangular.
It's about 1,500 feet.
There's an entrance here, and I believe
there's an entrance back here, but I
think that's just for service.
The only area for customers, excluding the restroom here,
is just really right here.
It's very small, so it's really oriented towards the drive
through, through the take out, hence the use permit.
So I think there's only about two, four, six, eight, nine,
maybe 10 seats inside, and then there's a few more outside
on a patio area there.
Entitlements for this thing, like we said,
this takes a design review, CUP for the take out
and drive-through and tree removal so we're gonna have a study session tonight
based on your recommendation we'll go to the Planning Commission for their
consideration at a later date the design of the building 27 feet it has metal
canopies there is the outdoor dining as I mentioned earlier these three I believe
three hardy products one is a horizontal lap style siting and the other two are
panels. The panels are shown here. You can see there's a black panel and then
there's the purple panel. There's signs, wall signs. There is a sign package,
but the biggest signs are these wall signs, and there's three of them. Then
there's also directional signage and that kind of thing. The towers have a
stucco finish, and that's a black stucco. And then lighting includes walls, or these
drop lights here and there's some cut sheets I think in the staff report and
I think we're going to take a look at those later in this presentation as well
and you can see how these canities are the metal metal canopies with the chain
chainstays here we are lighting and signage so here's the three signs I
think the signs are sized to where they're compliant there's here's the
sconces they're kind of these drop lights here those would be the ones on
the on the sides of the building there is what we saw they showed them with an
illumination effect and then there's these LED wall lights which are located
like over the door here and I think there's a couple of locations landscape
plan so the existing the existing trees are shown here in green and red and the
proposed are shown here in blue there are 18 trees on site five of them will
remain 13 of the trees are for removal 11 of which were approved by the city
arborist three were not and I believe I think those are London plain trees are
sycamore trees which they would we replace they would replace two of those
and I think that's changed I think they're going to replace yeah they're
gonna add three I think they added one two of those are London plain and one of
them as a Brisbane box. There are other, of course, there's other landscaping and C3 applications
on the site, and I think those show up better on your plans than they would on a slide here.
Sequel wise, the project itself would be exempt under 15303, but there is also a mitigated
negative deck declaration adopted by City Council in 2020 for the for the PD
and that's its notice of determination number there were no there were no
mitigations necessary for to build out that pad summary requests staff has the
design review commission to provide input and make recommendations on site
design architecture colors materials landscape lighting and the two tree
removals are there any questions of staff if not Chris will come up and make
a presentation I have a question in the arborist report it indicates there's 18
trees but in the staff report it says 13 and so can you just clarify the
discrepancies. Well I take a look at that list that's you I didn't see it so okay
but my bet is is that those trees aren't actually 9 inches they're probably not
actual trees okay that's typically the case and then the other question I had
and I should expand on that when when I say they're not trees they're not trees
trees as defined by the city's tree preservation on private property ordinance, which defines
a tree as a plant with a nine inch at diameter breast height.
Okay.
But doesn't make that, it's not treated as a tree on private property.
I see, so a lot of the trees that are listed as being removed aren't actually classified
as trees and that's why there's that discrepancy in numbers.
typically the okay and then just again where the two sycamores I think I'm
clear on where they were that are being suggested being removed but could we
just see that again I believe those are right here those are the trees with the
yellow stay they might appear as street trees perfect okay that's where my only
staff questions anyone else I mean chip does this is this subject to the city
design standards at all or is that design standards the design standards
don't apply here but the design standards design standard yes it does
okay all right thanks so without any more questions do we go to public comment
Right, we want to introduce the app right you might have questions of okay go ahead himself
Thanks, chip good evening commissioners. My name is Chris says I'm with diversified restaurant group for the Taco Bell franchisee that has been
in contract to lease this property a ground lease from the
what was
Ross Moore Center shopping center that's recently sold to another group called the sterling organization
But diverse our restaurant group has been identifying sites within Walnut Creek. We've been looking at this location for the last couple of years
We operate three hundred and thirty seven and Taco Bell's across the country
Roughly half of them in the state of California
roughly half of that within the Bay Area
we have quite a few locations around the
East Bay, Tri-Valley neighborhoods. This particular location is, as you can tell, a little more modern
unlike some of the other stuff in town and
was really
the evolution of the Taco Bell
prototype and the Taco Bell standards. This site in particular, and I've been doing this for
15 years, was one of the more challenging sites and
Chip mentioned it, but there is a tenant protected area that you can roughly see around the outside of the dashed line
and there's also a 10-foot central sand utility easement
that runs diagonally through it,
and you can see it in the aerial.
So we didn't have a lot of room left to locate Taco Bell,
and we feel good about this location,
maximizing the drive-through location.
The drive-through stack itself is accommodating
up to, I think, 15 cars.
Our study says, based off of our busiest locations
within this part of the Bay Area that we won't exceed any more than eight cars on our stack,
and Taco Bell itself is one of the fastest QSRs in the industry, and there's been quite
a change here in how the QSR industry serves the customers with the digital forward and
the mobile orders and the deliveries.
So as Chip showed, there is a small dining room.
We do anticipate most of the customers still coming through, the drive through, but the
dining room itself is proportionate to what we expect as the customer base.
Those are what I think are the unique characteristics here.
Obviously I'll be here to answer any of the questions and if there's anything else now.
I have a question.
I've been to the shopping center a lot, and I've never seen the parking lot very impacted.
Is that something that you guys have any concerns about taking away some parking, is that it's going to impact the shopping center and the ability to park?
We've been working closely with staff on that particular item for quite some time. They did a great job of sort of guiding us.
The site itself, the 12.3 acres, has about 530 parking stalls, which is currently over parked by the normal code.
so I think the net loss is approximately in the high 20s so based off of our
experience as well this part of the shopping center is very rarely used
there is a lot of there's a lot of traffic that potentially overflows from
the crumbles Starbucks but that's really small areas in times of the day our lease
allows for cross parking and cross access throughout the whole shopping
center as well. So I think while we may only have 15 shown you know it's more
than adequate to serve this type of use. Yeah I agree and the reason I'm asking
because I wonder is there a way to reevaluate the site plan to take away
parking instead of trees? Yeah again I think that it's challenged to lay this
out we don't have a lot of operation and a lot of a lot of ways to do it but
But the two constraints are the drive aisle to the left of our site, plan left, right,
that we want to maintain.
We have the 10-foot utility easement that we can't cross.
And then we have the tenant protected area that is controlled by Safeway, which in the
plans itself, it shows it a little bit better, but it is essentially beyond that dashed line
to the top, plan top, and plan left.
So there's honestly nowhere else to put the building without blocking that cross-access
drive which is not allowed. Okay and if somebody were, I realize that it's
primarily drive-through, but if somebody were to arrive by car and park and want
to walk in, are they the only way they can get to the front is from the cross
walk where you've stopped to pick up your food or the corner right near
Chevron, right? There's another crosswalk that crosses in front of the
drive-through lane. There's a couple parking stalls over there, that's our
And then, yeah, then there's the crosswalk that's to the bottom left of that.
Is there a crosswalk there?
It looks like there is.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
And we're actually improving the access to Tice Valley all the way in front of that site.
And there's going to be a little retaining wall.
It's going to be upgraded with a decorative wall and some landscaping.
So that's going to continue.
Right now, that doesn't exist.
Okay.
So the sidewalk to connect back to Rossmoor Parkway.
Isn't that Tice Valley right there?
Or no, I'm sorry, Ross, you're right, you're right.
Okay. Yes.
Okay, and I realize Chip kind of explained this,
but that weird stop sign thing, that's so odd.
It has to stay because that's part of an agreement
with Safeway.
Yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate, I agree with you.
But those five stalls are protected.
And we can't touch the five stalls.
So if you put a curb and you just put it right at that
property line or what we'll call the tenant control area,
that doesn't allow the use of those three stalls anymore.
So then they would lose the use of those three stalls.
They would physically exist,
but you wouldn't be able to use them.
Okay, thank you.
I have a question. Sure.
So I read through the report regarding the flow
and the for the drive-through.
Is there a plan if there are more cars
or if the cars start to back up,
do you have contingencies in place for that?
Yeah, absolutely.
You've probably seen it in maybe the in and outs
for the Chick-fil-A's, but there's an iPad
that you can go out and they can go address the customers
to move them through quicker.
It's called the bellhop that we can use
that will get cars through faster and get the orders in.
If there's a backup for some reason,
Again, we're not one of those users,
we're not a Chick-fil-A, we're not an In-N-Out,
we don't do those sales,
but if there's for some reason a backup,
we'll direct people to park and bring the food out to them.
The building.
So is this like a standard Taco Bell design or less?
I mean, I think the more modern design
is more neutral colors, it's the grays
and the whites and the blacks with just a pop of color.
That tower element itself is more trying to highlight
the building letters, the negative white on the black
is something that we've identified
in much of our development as just a really prominent sign.
So I mean, I think that if there's some discussion there,
we're happy to entertain that,
but this building is not a prototype.
It does have more than the standard finishes.
we typically try to build all ephus if we can.
Here, this is a combination of multiple hardies
with a scored ephus.
It's hard to tell, but there's gonna be a reveal
in the tower of a dark anodized bronze
that's a pretty nice looking detail.
It's pretty slick when you get up close.
Okay, and then the signage, is it all backlit?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's all internally illuminated.
Each letter is individually mounted as a channel letter.
There's no race way.
And then the bell itself is one piece.
It's a, yeah, again, it's a very clean look.
This particular building was recently built in,
for the first time in Barry and Tracy.
Yeah. Off of International in the 205.
So this will be the second time we do something similar.
Okay.
And there's other color schemes that you guys have, right?
That Taco Bell has, or?
This is the color scheme for this type of building.
Okay, thanks.
So with that done, public comment?
Public comment time?
I have two cards.
Great.
Shall I?
Go ahead.
Steve Shavinsky.
My name is Steve Shavinsky.
I'm away from Linda's here.
We live in 1915 Devil View Place.
So they mentioned a single family residential
behind the Safeway, so that's where we live.
we walk down to the Safeway quite often
to that shopping center for use.
Here to express some concerns about, excuse me,
the plan and the design and the effect on traffic.
As you know, and I haven't seen any traffic projections.
I know there were some for other facilities here
that you got, that you own,
but I think anyone that goes to that shopping center
and we lived there for 15 years,
will testify the fact that the traffic has gotten increasingly more busy as they've added
the barbecue shop, the crumble, the over-shop, the Starbucks, which also has a drive-through.
And with the savers that's now across the street, there's often overflow parking that
now spills over to the Safeway parking lot, particularly on the weekends when people are
running across the street. That's a whole other safety issue, but there's definitely
some parking issues with regard to the impact of the of the savers mart across the street.
If anyone knows anything about the Rossmore demographics I will tell you that most of the
people that are pulling into that shopping center are quite old and sometimes a little bit sketchy
on their driving ability. I've had multiple you know close calls just coming in and out of that
center and adding something of this complexity is really going to freak out I think many of the
residents of Rossmore and probably definitely increase the chance for
accidents. I think that's you can pretty much bet on that. The volume that I
mentioned, as I said, the drive-through volume I think is a concern.
The design is does not fit in with the renovations that they the people at the
the previous owners of the shopping center recently did over the last few
years through COVID and this thing is just going to stick out like a sore
It's just, you know, it's an ugly, I'm sure that it's the new design and the new standard
of your brand, but I mean, it's going to be a pretty unsightly, I think, addition to the
neighborhood.
And finally, something that wasn't referenced here was I saw in the plans that they would
like to stay open until 2 a.m. and I mean, that's just out of the question.
Everything in that shopping center is closed by 10 o'clock and the thought of people driving
over there two o'clock in the morning, I just can't imagine the clientele that's going to
be pulling in there at one thirty or two o'clock in the morning after a party in Corona Creek.
So that's going to be another concern and a safety issue as well.
I would just like to know if there are any other restaurants in relatively residential
neighborhoods outside of the Cindy Center that are open until two o'clock in the morning.
Thank you.
anything else sir Karen Bates and I have a picture on my phone of how this
Taco Bell is gonna be right in line from my deck and it's a little upsetting oh
and I did want to clarify that the two sycamores have been there the whole 25
years and they're more than nine inches. They're huge. It would be nice if they
could stay and shield that ugly tower. So parts of my neighborhood have seen
light pollution, traffic, trash, and crime really increase over this 25 years and
especially since they remodeled the shopping center with all of the extra
traffic and we already have a lot of people coming from Pittsburgh area who
work at the manor care across the street from my house. And they sit in their cars
and smoke pot and I think those are the ones that would be going to the Taco Bell
probably and trash everywhere it's not good. The signage for Taco Bell is too
high and my family will be able to see the fluorescent purple bell right from
in my living room.
I hope one of the three sides of the sign
do not face the neighborhood.
There are other houses too that would see it.
Then there is the traffic issue.
This is an area of elderly people
who sometimes drive on the wrong side of the road.
My own car has been crashed into twice over the years
in or near the Safeway parking lot.
Almost always when I leave home
and round the corner onto Rossmore Parkway,
there will be a car making a left-hand turn
into the parking lot.
This is the one where they'd be going into the Taco Bell.
And the cars are usually blocking the road,
because two people think they can go, but they can't,
and so they just block the road.
Sometimes elderly people drive into the exit lanes
or exit through the entrance lanes,
and I believe even with signage,
they will often drive into the wrong lane.
Adding to the traffic chaos are ambulances and paramedics
that daily drive down Rossmore Parkway
to the manor care or the assisted living facility
behind the manor care.
You've also got people in wheelchairs.
Time's up, just wrap it up.
Okay, people cross their wheelchairs too, very slowly.
Okay, and I think the Taco Bell is really super ugly.
If they could change the colors, that would be great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Just the two.
Just the two.
Hello, my name is Anne Hatanaka
and I live in 1982, seen in court.
I'm one of the 52 houses that reside behind the Ross Moore
Safeway Shopping Center.
The couple of questions I had, and I
think you might have, Mr. Chairperson, talked about it,
but is the signage compliance, it
seems to be a little above board,
and not fitting in with the ambiance or the architecture
of the shopping center.
The other question I have is with regard
to the store hours, which I don't know if anybody else could
speak to it.
But the store hours seem to be a little bit more liberal
than we're used to in our neighborhood.
Please understand that our neighborhood
is a quaint little burg.
And we would like to try to maintain that ambiance.
It's not a urban, downtown Walnut Creek area.
We live there because of the surroundings,
what it has to offer, the trails, and the nature.
And the other question I have is with respect
to the exhaust system, will there be air pollution
that we will be smelling, basically, of the food
preparation?
We live right up the hill.
My colleagues and my neighbors will also
be experiencing any of those air pollution and even
the light pollution that we might have at night.
So please take that into consideration.
It sounds like it's a fait accompli.
It's already been agreed to because some sort of exemptions
that we were unable to make any comment to.
So I'm hoping that you will keep our best interests in hand.
we're a vocal minority to maybe other communities
because we're so small.
So I think the reason why you all are sitting in these chairs
is because we put our confidence in you and had you elected
and are sitting here and listening to us.
So that's what I have to say.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Bettina Uno?
Hi.
My name is Bettina, no.
I've been living in the neighborhood
right behind the Safeway for 33 years.
I live at 1984 Soon in Court.
And I'm next door neighbors with Anne.
And I had a few questions.
I wanted to know when this Taco Bell was approved
since last night was the first time I heard of it.
Does anyone know?
It's not approved.
Oh. That's why we're here.
All right because it sounded like it was a deal because goes from here and we're here our lane is designed
So those five things will be looking on tonight and then and after at some point later would go to the Planning Commission
Okay, we'll approve it or not. Okay. All right. Good to know
Alright, so I have the same concerns as my fellow neighbors here about the traffic
There's only one way in and out of our neighborhood. I'm not I'm not sure if you're aware of that
It's up Rossmore Parkway and then it curves left into old oak. So
There are often our times
Elderly people have a lot of accidents. They drive up the wrong side of the street on the specially in the mornings and in the
Afternoons during like commute hours and so I just can imagine
the traffic stalling going into the Taco Bell since that seems to be
The same driveway they're using to get into safely and there's a backup or accident
Anyone from our neighborhood cannot get out of our neighborhood. We're just stuck. So that's another thing to consider
I'm also concerned about the small business El Jordan a it's this
cute small Mexican restaurant in
The Rossmer shopping center, and if you open a Taco Bell right there
I feel bad because I feel we should support independent small businesses instead of large chains
Okay, and another thing is I do think the building looks ugly the plan and
Just does not fit our neighborhood, and I'm concerned about the light pollution noise pollution and attracting the wrong
Crowd because right now we now have a lot of homeless people coming in at nighttime and sleeping on benches
in the neighborhoods front front hall, so
Gotta wrap it up. Okay. So all right. Well, thank you very much
And I I hope you come and visit or if or if you I'm assuming you don't live in our neighborhood
But you really should come out to our neighborhood and see that it is really this little haven of
Houses that we all love and that's why we moved to this neighborhood because it was quiet and thank you. Okay. Thank you
T McDonald
Yes. Hi. My name is Terry McDonald. I've been a resident there right behind the Safeway
We are single-family homes for about 35 40 homes. I've been there since 1997
Just a couple things as far as the trees two of the London pine trees are in fact protected
There is a major issue if you want to pull up the mapping a few years ago
Someone drove out from the shopping center hit a neighbor's car the car of the other person caught on fire
The exit from the Chevron station out people do not look to the left
I have two small children that are school-age. I have neighbors that have children
We go to the Tice Valley Park. It is extremely dangerous
Rossmer's retirement community, but there is younger families out there as well. It is something that's not conducive
We already have the issue with the Starbucks with regards to
People making u-turns happen to drive by we've had a lot of close calls
My neighbor's car was totaled. She has got Covid otherwise she would be here this evening
People ignore having the right-of-way and the road that's coming from the exit from the parking lot
There is a Kidney Center and again that hasn't even been open long but that's got a separate egress.
Also too we'd like to know if there was any type of petition or anything because we again were just kind of notified yesterday with regards to this.
Also too the issue of the smell, the 2 a.m. closure, I don't know if any of you have been out there but 9.30, 10 o'clock that shopping center is completely dead.
We've had our issues of crime, we've had issues of a lot of car accidents and everything
in the shopping center.
We do have a good population that are the seniors from Ross Moore.
Question for the person for Taco Bell.
What happened to the Taco Bell in Moraga?
It's now an abandoned building and nothing's been done.
So do we have any more cards?
I have no more cards.
OK, so end of the public comment.
So do we want to, applicant, would you
like to come up and answer any of these questions?
You have 10 minutes for rebuttal.
All right, thanks, team.
Appreciate everybody's comments.
A couple of things I noted here about the hours.
The dining room is scheduled to currently close at midnight.
The drive-through is all that would be open till 2.
And if there's nobody coming, we're going to close early.
We're just asking here today that those are the hours
that we're conditioned to as nothing later than.
If we close early, we'll close early
because that's what the neighborhood's telling us.
I heard something about trash.
Just a note that the closing checklist for our team
is to walk the entire property and pick up all the trash.
Not all QSR businesses do that.
We do that.
The exhaust system concerns about food preparation.
Taco Bell doesn't actually cook any food here.
We just reheat for a sous vide system.
So by that method of the reheat for the sous vide,
there's minimal orders, odors, so there won't be any smells.
And then the HVAC system itself does have filters on it.
And the other one I want to talk about
What was the light pollution is that the existing shopping center itself is actually pretty
bright and our shopping center photometric design based off of what we're putting in
is actually reducing some of the light.
We have a couple more lights that we're spreading around, but the numbers that I'm seeing in
some parts of the shopping center are actually going down a little bit.
I think those are the main ones that I had
off the cuff here that I wrote down,
unless there's anything else that commissioners had.
Could you clarify the sides of the tower
that the logo's on?
The sides?
The sides, sorry, the orientation of the illuminated logo.
Yes, the bottom left, east elevation
faces Rossmore Parkway,
and the bottom right, south elevation faces Tice Valley.
So both of the signs are on the same tower, if you will, which
faces the bottom right, which is the primary view angle for
those that are driving northbound on Rossmore and
westbound on Tice Valley and still visible to those eastbound
on Tice Valley.
And what's the ultimate height of the illumination?
Well, the total tower is at 27.
So those signs are roughly 23, 22.
Is there any other clarity we needed in the applicant?
You don't, I thought you guys were making fries now.
You don't fry anything?
They're frozen.
OK.
So they're, yeah, I mean, they're.
So you don't like have a deep fryer?
There is a deep fryer, right.
But they're frozen cooked fries.
So we're just crisping them up.
OK.
Okay, that was my question.
I haven't tried them yet, I have to try them.
Chicken nuggets are also the same way.
Yeah, okay.
And then staff, isn't there across the street,
that's where they're building the big
senior housing complex?
Isn't it, didn't we look at something?
Across,
Bring up the map.
Rossmoor Parkway?
Across what's right?
Is that Rossmoor Parkway?
So like to the right there, isn't it?
To the right across the street from the store,
where the star is, there is, that's 1200 Rossmore.
There's a general plan amendment for that bank building
to make it more of a community commercial type zoning.
And then the building just to the adjacent to it,
the design review commission a few years back
had approved design for a RCFE there.
That has since been expired.
Okay, all right. Yeah, so it's not happening. Okay. Thank you
Nobody else had questions. Okay. All right, then Commissioner comments
You want to go ahead
Close it closing the public hearing
By the way, just want to say one thing. So appreciate the questions that you guys gave we're not
Really here to answer those but I think you might pick them up in the comments. So, thank you
Okay so study session we get to just give our opinion on things so I I hear
that there is the limitation because of those stalls for Safeway but I just want
to express concern for that lane that would like wildly confuse me. I think
that the I understand it's a challenging site plan I I wish there was a way to I
mean I feel like there's an entire parking lot there I'd almost be more
comfortable having queuing going into the parking lot as opposed to having
two lanes and taking out trees that would just be like my preference then I
think it may soften the impact of the architecture to the adjacent
developments and neighbors and I that's it those are my comments. I second the
idea that we that if it could be considered that more parking spaces are
used and it's not pushed out into removing trees. I think removing those
two trees would really it would be nice if it was avoided and as well as the
idea of those existing trees are large as the comments said and can provide
some screening. It seems I've been in this this parking lot before. I've had
all sorts of issues with the Starbucks queuing line as someone who goes to
to Starbucks and it backing up and causing a lot of congestion even though
there's a lot of room. So I understand that there was a plan that was gone over,
there was a study that was made but I really think looking at that overflow
and really thinking about okay what if it's a maximum amount of overflow
especially if it's late at night or something like that. So I don't really
support the taking out of the trees and I would like to see the traffic better
addressed in that area. Go ahead. I third those comments. I agree that the site is
constricted and especially with easement that makes it difficult for you but as
they said that and as some of the public comments stated the parking lot itself
itself is not that well used. It's not ever full to the point that it's, yeah. So taking
some of that space to direct the traffic so that the trees that are on the street, those
big Sycamore London Plains, don't have to be removed would alleviate some of the concerns
of the neighbors because it would screen some of the light and the visibility.
On the other hand, the way that the tower is oriented towards the Chevron, those of
you who live behind Safeway aren't probably going to see those big bells lit up at night.
So I appreciate that mitigation on behalf of the franchisee, but I agree that the London
Plains are protected and they should be protected.
Thanks.
So I agree with everything you guys said.
I mean, I think my comments would be about the building
and the architect.
So I think, and just adding a bit about traffic,
I ride my bike through here all the time
and people driving down the street,
it's kind of crazy to the point where I don't even want
to drive my bike down that street anymore
because it's a tough place to be
And for whatever reason, there's a fair amount
of bad judgment.
I just say that.
So I think when you go to the Planning Commission, which
I think you will, I think you're going
to have to do a better job of addressing that.
I'd say the building, and I appreciate the fact.
I know that location Moraga has closed.
There was one in Walnut Creek.
There's actually another one in Alamo that recently closed.
And I know how challenging it is to have a business
and have visibility.
This thing just stands out.
It really, you just need to turn down the volume.
I don't, I mean, this is an elevated pad.
I don't know that you need those towers.
They are, it's gonna visibly impact the neighbors.
You ought to consider different signage.
You gotta make sure it's facing the expressway,
not people's houses.
I think you could do a more sensitive solution.
I think the towers don't need to be there.
I don't like the black.
It's like the whole thing, the whole building is like,
when you have a building like this,
the whole building is assigned, it's all identity.
And this neighborhood has an identity.
So it needs to be, the whole thing needs to be
just toned down.
I think you'll still have plenty of visibility there.
you have a it'll be a great location if the easements the challenge can you can
the easement be moved what would what would that cost what is in what's in
that easement I have no idea but sometimes I can free things up I've
done that before yeah I mean I think the exhaust system is gonna come up again so
you know I'd say address that when you go to the Planning Commission I'm done
anything else well there is that question so the sign being lowered and
using a different color scheme that could be something that could be
addressed correctly that's what I think I would make those recommendations that's
very clear thank you I've listed some of the I think what the real issues are
that the applicant could address to take comments and before we get into that it
Is there a positive recommendation?
Do we wanna take a vote?
You can just do a show of hands.
Positive pending some of the suggestions that we've made.
Well, let's go through those first.
I have more trees, less parking.
And in the same vein, take a look and see if you can
do something to save the two sycamores.
Are we all on board with this?
And the other would be reconsider the tower,
architecturally, reconsider the tower,
reconsider the color scheme, and reconsider the signage.
And all of that is so that it fits more appropriately
into the neighborhood, correct?
The comments about the artwork.
Right, yeah.
Yeah, okay.
I still feel like I would turn in to this property
further down Rossmore Parkway and turn left onto that road
and then be like, ah, I have to turn right.
And now I have to leave the part.
You know what, this lane is like,
I just feel like, is so funky.
The opening?
Yeah, like, and it's right turn only.
So if I've pulled in there, you know what I mean?
It's just like, oh my god, how do I get to the drive-through?
And now I'm having to go back onto Rossmore.
I just feel like that would be.
It's weird as it is.
It's funky.
I go in there once more.
It is already a little misleading,
but this just feels like, I have concerns.
And I realized that's not a constraint that's easy to control,
but it's just really unusual and unpredictable.
And I feel like that concerns me as far as site planning goes.
I'm going to come in there and be like, oh, no.
I'm meant to go to the drive-thru,
but I'm back in the parking lot.
So how would we concentrate that into a comment?
Well, I was going to make this a similar comment
on the other side,
which is that just about every drive-through
that's in a shopping center is like that.
I mean, just trying to pull into it in and out
or anything along, yeah, it's just nuts, like you said.
But I don't know how,
because people are coming from all over.
Yeah. Yeah.
I almost like, I don't know the solution
and I hate when I do this,
but I almost like wonder if you'd parked there,
sorry, if you'd parked opposite of the exit for the drive through and then
there was queuing, you're, you're trapped, right? So what if we bail on all that
parking and it allows you to like scoot everything over and then maybe that
funky road doesn't connect to the drive-through. Maybe we say like we
encourage the applicant to talk to Safeway the neighbors to improve the
overall flow is it something like that maybe or like it sounded to me like they
had some sort of a lease stipulation that's in in a document and there might
not be that much flexibility in that but they could conceivably do an amendment
they could talk to they could talk to Safeway I mean that's been those things
that's been done. It's been done. I just feel like the concern for losing parking should be
minimized and the priority of obvious intuitive circulation should be prioritized. Yeah, because
this I mean it's a big parking lot and in this aerial it's 20% full and when I've been there
it's not full so I'm recommending that we be more lenient on reducing parking and give more space
for making this function. Although the easement still an issue. Okay so that
recommendation might be or comment might be to concentrate, prioritize,
more concern, prioritize, less concern to parking and prioritize. Intuitive
circulation patterns. Yeah. Okay. Let's use that word. Okay. Do we get do we get
three on that? Yeah. All right. I think that's it then. I actually like the
building and I like the colors just in a different place. I don't like the colors
on the building.
I think the deal is if you need signage, it is a sign.
The whole building, as you said, is branding.
And I get branding.
I used to do stuff like that.
So I appreciate that as far as the design goes.
But it's not on a freeway exit.
It's not somewhere where you're going
to need that level of branding so that people can say,
oh, I got to go there.
because this is a destination.
Anybody that's looking for a Taco Bell is Googling it,
and oh, that one's there, oh, that's new,
that's cool, I'm going there.
It's a different access, a different way of getting to it.
I mean, and reinforcing that,
this is not a neighborhood where people travel
if they're not living there.
It's not, people don't go into Walnut Creek this way,
it's not a freeway exit, so you gotta know it's there.
And once you know it's there, you know.
We'll try again, Chip, or?
Yeah, sure.
OK, so a lot of them are the same.
More trees, less parking.
And that could work into that prioritization statement
that was more clarified, right?
Make an effort to save the sycamore
so there's not necessarily a positive recommendation
on the tree removal, is what I'm looking at.
Correct.
OK.
Reconsider the tower, reconsider the color scheme
to be more in the neighborhood compatible with the
neighborhood, excuse me, and the signage as well is that it
might be a little bit much for the area that it's in.
If there's any chance to design around or design around the
Safeway preserved opening, either pushing something or in
concert with moving less parking and more circulation.
Talked to Safeway again.
OK, and then and then that that would be it.
So there would be a positive recommendation
to the Planning Commission for the use permits
and the design review with these comments.
But no support for the tree removal. Correct.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, let's make sure we realize that all the trees that meet the definition of tree
are protected.
There's a short list of trees that are highly protected.
These are not one of them.
Do we want to change anything?
No.
Okay.
All right.
So we're done.
Done and done.
So next up, we have the Toyota dealership.
Is this a public hearing?
So the staff have a presentation for the Toyota Walnut Creek.
Good evening commissioners. My name is Simmer Gill, senior planner with the city.
We are here tonight to consider the design review for the proposed
Toyota of Walnut Creek dealership that will be located at 2150 North Broadway
and 1275 Pine Street. The applicant representing this project, Steven
Scanlon is here tonight as well as Rick Ferreira who is the principal with Gensler.
And I'm I think there's a third party I don't recall the name but we do have
their team available here as well as myself to answer any questions that you
may have after this presentation. And just to give you some background the
development of a new Toyota dealership was envisioned in May of 2024 in City
Council's action that included creation of a new mixed use special overlay district,
amendments to the North Downtown specific plan and general plan, and a development agreement
that identifies development of Toyota Walnut Creek dealership as a critical first step
in advancing the Council priorities for economic development and downtown vitality by supporting
the growth of the automobile industry.
Just to orient you with the site the image to the left shows the existing dealership as well as the proposed location
The new site the site where the proposed dealership is located consists of two parcels
Combined it totals two acres. These will be merged for project construction
creating a L shaped configuration and
The general plan and zone is auto sales service custom manufacturing which does allow auto sales and service by right a
design review is required for the new construction as this is considered a major project and
the existing uses on the two parcels
It one is a auto detailing shop. That's on Pine Street parcel and then a vacant structure on the Broadway
parcel and the surrounding area does consist of retail office and
mostly auto sale and service uses
And as mentioned earlier the site which is both of these two parcels are located within the north downtown specific plan
and within two overlay districts and
These two overlay districts are the makers row and the mixed use special district
the parcel fronting Pine Street is under the makers row and the parcel fronting North Broadway is under the mixed use special district and
The project does meet the intent of both of these districts as the project is encouraging the redevelopment and efficient use of land for
intensifying auto sale and service uses within the mixed use special district as well as providing development
That will activate the streetscape, which is a required feature in the makers row district
And here are some site photographs that were also provided as part of the agenda
packet tonight but this is basically looking north on Broadway and also
looking inward into the site on North Broadway that shows the existing
building that will be demolished for proposed construction. And here's another
visual this is looking inward into the site on North Broadway which is the
larger parcel. And here you're looking, standing across the street and looking into the site
1275 Pine Street. Again, there's an existing structure on this parcel fronting Pine Street,
which will also be demolished. And here's another visual basically looking both ways on Pine.
So yes, so the project consists of demolition of the existing buildings on both parcels
to construct the new two-story auto dealership that will offer both vehicle sales and services.
The first floor consists primarily of the showroom, the service area, the outdoor lounge,
the customer parking, and area for vehicle delivery. And the second floor does consist
of vehicle service center with 47 service bays, offices, park storage, and additional parking.
Then the rooftop is used primarily for staff vehicle parking and equipment storage,
as well as for inventory parking.
The applicant is proposing a total of 290 parking stalls,
of those 127 is for the inventory vehicle storage.
The site modifications include new pedestrian walkways,
near entrances along both street frontages,
as well as installation of new 8-foot wide sidewalk along North Broadway and a 5-foot wide sidewalk on Pine Street.
And the project is also proposing new landscaping that consists of six new 36-inch box trees.
And also new building identification signage is proposed.
Tonight, the Design Review Commission is
tasked at reviewing the overall design review,
which consists of the site layout,
the building design, the color material palette,
the landscape plans,
the building signage, as well as the tree removals.
The recommendation or the comments that you do provide will
then be forwarded over to
the Planning Commission for their review and
consideration of, or approval, hopefully approval
of the design review.
And here is the existing layout
and as well as the proposed,
which shows you the side-by-side changes.
As mentioned earlier, both of the existing buildings
on the two parcels will be demolished.
And here you see the overall layout,
which again is that L-shaped configuration.
And this shows the entry and exit into the showroom.
side of the building and on pine is the auto repair and parts and again this
shows the entry and exit and this one basically shows the this one shows the
installation of those sidewalk as well as the walkways the pedestrian walkways
I'll connect to the building entrance on both frontages and here is a more
detailed floor plan that, again, shows that the sales and showroom and the customer entry
and exit into the parking area on North Broadway as well as the service and repair entrance
on Pine Street.
And I believe there's more detail that I will leave for the applicants team to go into,
walk you through more of the operational and more details of the floor plan.
And here is the second floor plan that shows again that park storage area, the service
base, as well as the offices, and the back of house, and additional parking, their short
term parking for in-service vehicles, as well as EV charging stations.
And this is the roof deck, which consists of the inventory vehicle parking storage,
as well as for the employee parking.
And all of the equipment is also stored on the roof.
And the primary building materials on this building consist of silver metal ACM panels
with a red accent horizontal band that will run across the middle of the building.
And the showroom, this is the Broadway facade that we'll be facing North Broadway.
The primary entrance to the showroom features a projecting glass entry portal.
It is illuminated, however, details weren't provided in this submittal as far as the illumination
method or really just trying to figure out will it have a soft glow or how will the illumination
be controlled.
So, again, I believe the applicants team does have a presentation tonight and they could
go more into that.
And gray colored stone veneers also proposed along both street facing elevations.
And this is the facade along Pine Street, and it features, let's see, this is, sorry,
I just went back.
So these are the site elevations.
The east elevation is the back of the dealership, and the south elevation will be visible, partially
visible from North Broadway.
this is the
Elevation that
Staff did suggest in order to break up the plain facade especially on this elevation
Since as visible from North Broadway that a nether material could be incorporated
And that's also a design standard in the city's design review guidelines and standards
and I've been working with the applicant and I believe they will be addressing that and
Here is the north Broadway facade it does have a overall very modern design
Architectural elements such as vertical and horizontal reveal lines to add depth and visual interest to the building
There are large glass storefronts
Storefront windows that showcase the showroom and create a strong street presence and the window system is framed with silver
Painted aluminum and the gray colored stone veneer is vertically placed
both above and below the second floor outdoor deck,
breaking up the metal panels and adding texture
to this elevation.
And the Pine Street facade features two areas
with stone veneer accents that extend outwards,
creating visual interest.
And between these areas is that outdoor recessed area.
See if I could, right here is the recessed area,
allowing these elements really to stand out.
And the design also incorporates varied materials,
changes in building massing, and transparent storefront
glazing that will enhance the building's overall appeal.
And this project also includes some tree removals.
There are a total of six trees that
were evaluated in the arborist report.
Five of these trees will be removed.
The live oak that identified as tree number one
to the northwest corner was supported by the city arborist.
It is actually an undersized tree,
so that could be removed without any further approvals.
The other four remaining trees,
the palms numbers 2-4 and number 6,
do require Planning Commission approval for
the removal of these trees as they were in fair to good condition.
There will be work within the drip line of
a pear tree identified as number five that's to the south southwest corner of the site.
And the applicant is as part of this project is also providing new landscaping which includes
five maple trees and one hybrid oak 36 they're all 36 inch trees and the hybrid oak tree
will be located I bubbled it or circled it in that green to the southwest corner on
near Broadway, and the remaining trees are maple, and five-gallon shrubs and ground covers
also proposed and spread across the site.
The project also includes building identification signage, two 86-square-foot Toyota logo trademark
signs are proposed.
One will be located on the primary entrance on the entry portal wall along North Broadway,
And the second one is on the corner wall along that south elevation that will be seen from
North Broadway.
And then one 19 square foot non-illuminated sign that's going to read Walnut Creek will
be mounted on the entry portal above the entry doors of the showroom.
And a 22 square foot illuminated blade sign mounted on the wall along Pine Street Facade
is shown here.
And two non-illuminated signs reading service reception and express maintenance will be
be installed above the entrance canopy into the service center.
While we're reviewing the plans,
there weren't enough details provided on the signage as far as illumination or mounting methods.
But I do believe the applicant's team has updated their plan set,
and as part of their presentation they'll go over the signage.
As mentioned earlier, this project is subject to
the city's design review standards and guidelines.
There are several standards or guidelines that were clearly depicted on the plans.
One such being is the transformer along Pine Street is visible and it shall be screened
from view.
The plans do show that vines will be planted, but there was no details on the screening
of that, the screening material.
And then the other one is, as mentioned earlier, the variation in colors along those two side
facades, the south and east facade, to break up the monotony, so either incorporate another
color or some sort of design element to break up the blank facade.
And there were no details really provided on the fencing that's proposed.
And if there is chain link fencing, it is recommended that it's not, it shouldn't be
visible from the public right of way.
And regarding lighting, again, there
was no lighting plan or details provided,
and that is required per this design standard.
And here is just, again, this information
wasn't provided about the, we want
to confirm what the height is, the ceiling
height for all of the floors.
And staff is looking for DRC to comment
on the proposed design, the architecture,
the color materials palette, and the landscaping,
as well as confirming compliance with the design standards.
And so tonight, the design review commission
will review the site design, the building architecture,
the landscape plan, and signage, and hopefully provide
a positive recommendation to the planning commission
on the site and building design.
And with that, I do conclude my presentation,
but I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thanks, any questions?
Yes.
My first question is, can you explain the Maker's Row overlay?
That's not something I know anything about.
So if you could give us a little explanation of what it is.
I could take a shot at that.
Maker's Row is one of two districts
that were created for the North Downtown specific plan.
Maker's Row is a kind of a, not necessarily light industry,
but a creative space, would allow a creative space
for people to do some light manufacturing or art,
that type of thing.
So it's, what's the word I'm trying to think of
where you would, and almost like an incubator type thing.
but with, you know, from the artsy industrial type of side.
Yeah, so it just has, it allows different uses.
I think it allows a live-work situation, I think.
That kind of thing.
It's just a little bit, it's just a nuance on the ASCM.
It allows uses that aren't allowed anywhere else in the ACM.
Anything else?
Thank you, so how about a presentation from the applicant?
I'm Stephen Scanlan, Rick Ferrara.
I represent Toyota Walnut Creek's real estate interests.
I think what we'll do is try to provide a little bit of backstory to understand how
we got to where we are with the design, and then I'll let Rick go into more detail on
exactly the nature of the design.
Our number one goal four years, five years ago, was retention of the dealership, and
approached the city about a methodology for doing that. The mandate was to
create a new mixed-use special district that responded to some
additional land uses that weren't currently offered in the
North Downtown specific plan nor in the ASCM. We wanted to retain a full-service
dealership and that meant designing something that was an integrated
facility on a smaller footprint in an urban prototype
that really Toyota doesn't have yet.
So this was kind of a little bit going over the edge.
We realized we needed more space.
And fortunately, 1275 Pine Street became available.
So we acquired it.
And that's why the dealership is built in that sort of flag
style.
We completed the lot merger for 2150 1275
about a week ago.
It's recorded, done, put to bed.
And we're advancing the design forward
and we really had to do a lot of out of the box thinking
to come up with a facility
that met the requirements of Toyota, two stories,
they don't really have that.
Rooftop parking for inventory and staff
and Rick will take you through the circulation plan,
which I think is, it's pretty impressive thought.
We wanted to honor the notion of an urban dealership.
So the materials, they're not traditional Toyota materials,
but we did get, we were met the,
we've got the initial blessing from Toyota
subject to what the final design looks like.
But we have gotten approval up to this point.
And then the, I guess the last thing was
we wanted something that was a catalyst for the neighborhood.
Part of the goal with the mixed-use special district
was to open up opportunities in the North Downtown Plan
by consolidating, revisiting the land uses,
and looking at a more urban context where uses that
traditionally don't go together actually do.
And so we spent a lot of time doing that
and coming up with that sort of formula
for the mixed-use special district.
Thank you.
Hi.
I'm Rick Ferrara with Gensler, and we
are the architectural firm that have been working tightly
with Steven and all the Toyota Walnut Creek team
for a long time on this project.
So we're excited this is finally here,
but it has been a long time coming.
So let me see here, a little orientation on the building
as I think the staff did a good job presenting it,
but the Broadway facade is the primary facade.
It is the view into the showroom.
It is where the sales customers will be coming in and parking adjacent to the showroom.
The automotive industry is in a, as many of you all probably realize, is in a bit of a
change with online sales becoming a big deal.
It really has changed over the last 20 years.
So when a sales customer comes to a dealership, generally they already know what they want.
They've already done a lot of haggling with the dealership and they're ready, they're
about 70% done with the transaction.
That allows us to schedule their time to come in, have the car ready for a test drive.
Those cars would be lined up on the south side of that driveway, depending on customer
volume, where the customer could then come in, meet with their sales assistant, take
the test drive, and then if they liked the car, it would be brought back in.
They would go in and complete the paperwork transaction.
The car would be cleaned and detailed, and then it would be delivered in those six angled
spaces that you see on the right-hand side of the showroom block. Those are
what we call new car delivery. That's where you get your orientation to
hopefully remember all the new things that are on your car. If not you could
always come back, but that customer would then depart north through the Pine
Street exit at the northeast corner of the property. In gray you'll see some of
our electric vehicle parking. We've also got our bike parking over in that part
of the project and then at the top of the plan is really the Pine Street
facade is what I'm going to call the service reception side.
So the service business comes in.
We've got three lanes plus a bypass, 24 cars total storage.
We've got 500 feet, approximately, of stacking.
So we're confident that this volume is going to more than
adequately address any queuing issues.
The dealership will have greeters to greet the customer,
and we will have porters to move the vehicles.
So the service customer comes in, they're greeted,
They're directed to a lane.
They go inside, meet with the service advisor.
As soon as that car is ready to be moved,
a porter comes and gets it and moves it upstairs.
If there's a vacant stall in our shop,
the car goes in that stall.
If not, it gets put in a parking space waiting for service.
That customer probably is gonna stay on site, not always.
Maybe they go shop in the neighborhood.
Maybe they go to work.
But by and large, most of the service work,
want to say it's repair is what we now call express service.
The cars have gotten so much more reliable and simpler.
And it's only going to continue with the electric cars
that about 70% on average at a dealership of this size
is doing express work.
So the customer can stay for that.
We've got a lounge.
That lounge has both indoor and outdoor seating.
It'll have amenities, retail, of course your normal sodas
and snacks and things.
But we have created a nice environment
for the customer to wait for their vehicle.
When the car is ready, they'll be told the valet will go get
the car, bring it down, and hand it off to the customer.
They will also depart through the northeast corner
of the property on Pine Street.
Let's see here.
I want to talk about the utility screening.
We have got updated plans from Landscape Architect.
We are going to screen all the utilities on Pine,
including the transformer.
that transformer will have a screen wall that's planted
that will at least be as tall as a transformer.
Right now, we're still trying to find out
how tall the transformer is,
but if it's six feet at six feet,
if it's eight feet, we'll do eight feet.
So we will totally screen all the utilities on that facade
and including the transformer.
I also wanna talk about a couple of times
we heard that we had equipment being stored on the roof.
We are, the roof is purely parking
and there is the normal air conditioning units,
exhaust fans, all the things you normally have
on a roof are up there.
All that equipment will be screened.
So we're not trying to use, we have inventory up there,
but we're not doing any other kind of storage on the roof.
So just wanted to clarify that.
The fencing, we have added details to our plans.
I don't believe I have a mouse here.
So we are proposing a combination of ornamental iron.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
So where we can see the fencing,
we are proposing ornamental iron.
So that would be ornamental iron right here.
And then the chain link would start approximately
at this point, this is a ramp in an elevated driving area.
So it's actually above the fence line,
but our chain link would start somewhere in here
and then go to just after where the ramp starts
to go up to the elevated parking deck.
And then we would continue with the ornamental iron.
So details have been included in the set so they are in there.
The other thing that we are looking at here
is that it's been brought to our attention.
The California building code requires
curbs any place that we've got a walking surface.
Curbs and dealerships pose a problem.
Customers get excited, they get out of their car, they trip.
And so what we're proposing here is that instead of that,
that we use bollards along this walking surface here
as well as this one and that one in the lieu of the curb.
If that's ultimately not acceptable, we'll do the curb,
but we're trying to save people from falling down.
So that is an important thing to us.
In the side yards, we've set the facades back
nominally 10 feet.
We're still working on the exact dimension,
but in those two side yards,
We've got our C3 stormwater treatment planters, if you will.
They drain both ways to the streets.
We've got an emergency exit out of this corner of the building.
We've got a footpath here to get occupants out safely
to the street.
And then we are using that 10-foot setback
to introduce as much natural air into the upper level
and into both levels into these parking areas as we can.
So let's see here.
Second floor is our 47 stall service shop.
That is an enclosed shop.
Their only doors going in are overhead door here,
here, and then two exits.
But this is an enclosed shop,
so we don't foresee any noise issues.
There are no odors being generated in here.
We're not painting, we're not doing any collision repair.
This is purely automotive servicing, okay?
So no noxious noises, or no noxious odors in noise
should be a minimum. We've got our roof deck here so these are we've
consolidated the RTU's exhaust fans things like that best we can and they
are going to be screened. We have an elevator here that goes down to the
showroom where customers that do want to come and do a little bit of window
shopping if you will can be taken up by their salesperson and walked around here.
If they find a car they like a porter, a valet will drive it downstairs.
This ramp is purely going to be porters and employees driving on.
The customer never drives up to the second level or the roof and that is a safety issue
at the dealership.
The dealership right now and we have provided photometrics.
The plan is that the roof will be illuminated by pictures that will be 12 foot off the surface
of the deck.
That's a 9-foot pole on a 3-foot bollard.
If we need to do lower, we're amenable.
There was no standard, so that was the number
that we started with thinking it was 12 feet is a lot better
than the normal 25.
So we've been trying to be sensitive about that,
but we're open to your input there.
Elevation-wise, do this.
So these renderings have been updated and provided
to the city, but we have got four finished materials
on the front facade.
The silver ACM, the red band, and the white portal,
which is this glass, is Toyota national image prototype.
We have negotiated with Toyota.
This is not the first elevation we showed them.
This is the one that they said, that's better.
The first one was not appreciated.
But we are introducing a material.
It was really important to us that we don't do
just slick, slick, slick.
We want to introduce some texture, some shadow,
And so, you know, we've worked to develop this,
very much not traditional.
Stephen's correct.
Toyota does not have a standard for urban dealerships.
I've been working with them for over 20 years.
These projects come up very rarely.
This is probably the third one I've seen.
And the other one is in downtown New York City,
and the other one's in downtown Chicago.
So these projects do pose a bit of a challenge to us,
but we have been working long and hard to overcome this.
So materiality, four finishes on here,
not counting the glass.
We've got the silver ACM, the red stripe.
If we want to count the white glass, that's fine.
I'm not going to count the vision glass.
The masonry, which we provided examples of the materiality
on the sample board, we have not finalized this material.
We really would like to be able to finalize the colors using
live, large-scale mock-ups on the property so we can see them.
And we're happy to talk about how that final approval happens.
Same, same facade straight on and here.
I will, we have also added a sheet to our presentation
which has been submitted to staff on the portal itself.
The glass is a proprietary diffusing glass.
It does not emit, it does not cast light.
It simply glows softly and evenly.
We have been implementing this portal for 20 years.
It has been built extensively across the United States.
There are plenty of examples of them.
One of the challenges we have in showing the portal at night
is that a camera will overly amplify the light coming out
of it, and it looks harsh.
It is not.
I would encourage you, if there's concern,
you want to see one of these live and in person,
we can get you a couple of dealerships close to Walnut
Creek for your consideration.
I will tell you from personal experience
in my hometown, where the city manager said not no,
but once they saw the one in the community just north of them,
they called us and said, light it up.
So truthfully, it does all cause us concern.
It is not a concern and we've got data to prove that.
So Pine Street, so we had a lot more latitude here on Pine.
We wanted to do something that really broke this thing up
and didn't look like a car dealership.
So we've got a much more extensive use
of the non Toyota materials, this masonry,
on both these elements here.
We've got the balcony on the service lounge
with the landscaping there.
You can see the screening on the, whoops.
Sorry about that, on the transformer.
So we've got the landscaping beefed up.
The double-lane service drive, that's
getting us our queuing to go into service reception.
And there's your straight on view.
So terrace, balcony for the offices,
and then the exit lanes here coming out of Pine Street
at the northeast corner.
Material, pallet, board, information.
And you can see the examples of the masonry here.
But again, we'd really like to do a deep dive on what
that material actually is.
Elevations have been provided.
We've got, oh, I keep trying to zoom.
I apologize.
Signage information has been provided.
There's the fence information, the color.
We haven't picked a color for the fence.
I don't really have a preconceived notion.
It can be black, it can be green,
it can be whatever color ultimately is decided on.
But this gives you basically a breakdown
of where the materiality is placed.
The gray colors coming across is awfully dark.
We are not intending for it to be that dark.
The material samples, this is more of a medium gray.
And then we've worked on a number of technical issues here
on the ramps and slopes to make sure
that we're providing, that we're meeting
the design criteria of the city.
So we feel confident that we have met everything
that's been posed, happy to talk about any more of it.
But that is it briefly and quickly.
So I know there's questions.
The comments from the city mentioned
looking for more information about the south
and the east facades, because they were feeling blank.
Is there a way you could describe
how that might be addressed?
Yes, OK.
So this is the south facade.
So what we've done is we've wrapped the ACM
around the corner.
We have got the masonry going around the corner here.
And I'm sorry I cannot zoom in on this system.
But so we've got that.
The adjacent building starts right here.
And we know it's not going to be there forever, but just to give you an idea of how much facade
we can see.
So we've got a little bit of the painted wall peeking out.
We've got one window.
And then on this side facade, which we have three finished materials on, we've got the
ACM here and then the painted block and the concrete base, that same concrete base is
right there on the Pine Street side.
So we're certainly amenable to looking at some more colors here.
We've got grillege on the garage, security screens, and louvers.
Those can certainly carry a color as well.
Okay.
Then my other question, less specific to the design details, but the North Downtown specific
plan calls for the maker's row and for the mixed use option.
to me doesn't include any of that. Do you feel as though that's intentional or
it's this is making a pillar and something's gonna fill in around it? Is
that... So, and this was a use question about the use on the makers row space.
Yeah. Well, as we were searching for a solution to keep this dealership in
Walnut Creek, which is important to all of us, when that parcel came available, that
really helped us solve this. So to be able to put what we would think of as a traditional
Makers Row type space really wasn't an option to us. I mean, we'd love to have some vacant
space to do something, but we just know this is a very tight site. So we do hope that this
causes or accelerates the transition of the neighborhood. We would love nothing
more than that corner to come in and be your next hearing. So you know we do hope
this is the first of several projects in the neighborhood. Yeah I I really had
envisioned it being kind of more pedestrian activated. Do you think there
is a scenario and you can tell me if I'm out of my mind where there's adjustments
to the the sidewalk so that there can be a little more buffer between where a pedestrian would be
and where the cars are moving like a parkway strip or something. I do see their street trees
just figured I'd ask. Yeah let me try this is counterintuitive sorry um you want to say something.
Yeah I was just going to say that that while we can't we can't embrace the
So the Makers Row is an overlay.
The ASCM is the base district.
This is an ASCM.
We realize it's Makers Row, and there's
an aspirational intent to do some kind of a craft,
live-work situation.
What we did do on Pine Street was completely,
this is way outside the box for Toyota.
So we added the decks, we added the landscaping,
we pushed it back, and we tried to create more of a presence
on the street.
So when customers come in and are waiting for service,
There's actually an outdoor area that we're trying to engage more and provide more.
And then the same thing with the staff above.
And that was sort of our, our, uh, homage to the maker's role.
Yeah. I mean, I think that helps.
I do too. I do too.
Those are my questions. Thank you. Um,
so my questions are sort of along the same lines.
I guess my first question is on that same Pine Street facade,
the word was activate that was used in the staff presentation.
And I'm wondering how this will activate the street in that.
So is it that same lounge area or?
I think it's a common.
In my opinion, I'm not the architect.
But my opinion was it was the lounge area, the balcony area,
and the landscaping and softening
that whole ground plane.
And then we elevated the materials
to give it more of a pedestrian context.
It's not big and right on the street.
We pulled it back and set it back.
So hopefully, there'll be people out on the veranda balcony.
The service lounge?
The service lounge, yeah.
There'll be people outside.
And they'll be outdoor seating.
And there'll be food and beverage supply.
So it'll have more of a coffee shop feel.
Yeah, too.
We'll have good Wi-Fi.
So along those same lines, as far as I can tell,
there's no access to the sidewalk from that patio?
Oh, from the patio?
No.
No.
We really want to control that environment.
So if people come in, it's almost on the interior,
that's really almost a back door.
So the orientation of the service reception
is from the service drive.
OK.
Because I feel like that would act if we really
are wanting to activate the street, activate the access,
it would be.
I guessed that it was probably trying
to make sure that you're controlling the environment.
but it would for, again, for a flow feeling,
for a sense of invigorating the street, those types of things.
There's not a reason we couldn't put a set of steps going up
there.
Well, just ADA.
Well, we have an accessible route.
We have an accessible route.
Right.
But they'd have to take a little bit more of a trip.
And then my only other question is on the landscape plan
and the choice, the tree choice on the landscape plan.
I don't know, I don't think there's someone here
from Camp that can answer for that
or if you guys did the selection, but.
No, Camp, yeah, Camp did, our landscape architect, Camp.
So I guess I would, my question is why the choice of Maple,
but since they're not here, there's, yeah.
I don't have any questions, just comments.
My question is like, first of all,
densification I get, it's good.
And so is this dealership going to be fully contained
on this location?
Or I know around this area, the parking for dealerships
is all over the place, but is it the intent here?
This dealership has been designed to be self-contained.
The existing dealership has got time on the lease,
so it won't be shut down until that lease expires.
But this is designed to be self-contained.
And this is, so this is, I didn't realize it initially,
but it's not on the footprint of the existing dealership.
No.
It's across the street, right?
That's even harder.
It's one lot removed.
One lot removed.
Yeah.
Just one more.
Okay.
We have a continuous operation covenant
in the development agreement.
So we couldn't actually take down the existing dealership
and build a new dealership
and fulfill that continuous operation.
So we had to find an alternate site.
Thank you.
so do we have any public comment seeing none I've received none so we're gonna
move on to Commissioner comments close the public hearing I'll close in the
public hearing sorry Commissioner comments
we go the opposite direction than we did the first hearing well I'll go last okay
first of all I think this is probably one of the most creative site uses and
plans that I've seen and I used to do urban infill mixed use housing projects
and put a grocery store in the base of a San Francisco development myself. So I
appreciate the creativity of the way that you've accommodated all of these
uses on the site and kept your parking internal. I have a different opinion on
that the makers I you know you're having a retail use and the the service on that
side having used service and dealerships in Walnut Creek and walked out
of them like people will do and gone to get coffee myself actually walked down
to Target one time I see that as being more of an active use on that service
because the people coming for sales are coming to look at cars and stay in. The
people in the service side are going to be waiting for their car so they're
going to be finding other things to do or they're going to be using that outside
patio and I believe that you would have a security issue if you had just random
people coming into your service lounge and in using it and taking things and
that might be an issue for your customers. So I appreciate that. I
appreciate that issue that you that you would have with that. So other than that
I think it looks clean. It is branded. It's the Toyota colors. It's the way
that as you said you need it to look and I appreciate the different
building materials and the way that you've incorporated them differently on
both sides and on the back sides and just have that same comment as my
colleagues that those the two sides you know you they can't look like a fortress
they have to have something that breaks it up so that it fits within the city
and the flavor of the city but otherwise I like it so my only comment would be to
look at the the maples and maybe select trees that were lower water or more appropriate to this
specific climate. I agree that it's a really pretty building and it would be nice to have in our
community. So I appreciate the design of this. I had envisioned so much more of like Funk Zone
in Santa Barbara so I was kind of surprised when I saw this which is why I asked the question about
the makers row because that had been my vision and I recognize that this is
meeting the zoning requirements and I think what you guys have done with the
building is lovely it just wasn't quite what I had pictured but I do think this
could be the first real improvement in that area that will encourage other
things to come around and I think that the layout and everything you guys have
is great I just have this existential battle that I'm like unless you are a
toyota customer it's not you know creating like a community benefit but
that's not your problem so those are my thoughts thank you I think all those
comments were great I think I don't know if you're here for the last one but you
know we looked at that Taco Bell and I mean the whole thing is branded there's
a real difference between branding and identity and I feel like this design
really balances it really provides the brand but it also and the identity but
it also actually is a is a good neighbor I I'm familiar with the Toyota
dealerships this is this is a lot different than that it's not all one
material you've tried to break it up I do appreciate the comments that staff
came up with and so probably we want to walk through those and decide whether we
want to include this I mean in terms of color I think I think I think I would
there's not a lot said about the the stone veneer but I think it's something
that I would just encourage to be brought back to staff and I would hope
it would provide some slightly different color and feel you know so it doesn't
come off I understand it I mean I understand it's gonna be a different
texture and so forth but we don't want the stone to read a little bit
differently. Other than that I think I think you guys have done a really good
job, so thank you. Did we want to go through the staff comments or the staff
recommendations and decide whether we want to adopt them or not? They gave us
the details on screening that those are all going to be screened. They talked a
little bit about the south and east facades being somewhat blank although I
I kind of heard that it's louvers and stuff for parking
and it does seem more like back of house,
so that wasn't a giant concern for me,
but you guys can say otherwise.
It said there is gonna be more info on fencing,
so I'm hoping that that's kind of sorted.
They talked to us about the chain link
versus the decorative wrought iron.
Sight lighting, we didn't really hear that much about
and ceiling height.
Those were the other two that weren't addressed.
I mean, I'd say that ceiling height doesn't bother me.
I know it, you know, and when we were developing the standards,
I know there was concern about making it high enough.
I think it's probably high enough.
The variation I think, you know, I kind of talked about,
I think the way I would address that would just be to say
that when the stone veneer is picked,
bring it back to staff for approval.
I think we're hoping that it's not monochromatic.
That's what I'd say.
I mean, sight lighting?
Is the sight lighting the glowing glass?
Am I understanding that correctly?
There were two things.
So he brought up, which I didn't even pick up on,
that the glass part is backlit.
Right.
And then the roof lighting.
The roof lighting.
They've done full photometrics.
I mean, I'd say, is that down lighting?
Is it?
Sorry.
I just wanted to add that, yeah.
So the design guidelines talks about building-mounted lighting
or any landscape lighting.
There were just no details provided.
But since the submittal that we're looking at as part
of the agenda packet has been revised by the applicant,
so that's currently under review.
So I believe a lot of these I've spoken to the applicant.
A lot of these design standards have already been addressed.
Great.
Yeah.
I mean, I'd say of what we can see from the lighting,
you don't see a lot on building lighting
that would be of concern.
I think the lighting on the roof
could possibly be of concern
because I think what we're trying to do here
is we're trying to actually have mixed use
and residential built in.
And we don't have a lot of control
over these residential towers going in.
They're gonna be taller
and you're gonna see right onto that roof maybe, I think.
So I think for me, I would say that
you have to be very careful with that lighting on the roof
that it be down light, light the ground,
and that it be as low as possible.
And no, you just follow night sky recommendations for that.
So we're trying to keep people safe as they walk around,
but we're not trying to highlight vehicles, right?
So something to that effect.
Is that OK?
I mean, I think, beyond that, I mean,
I think you could see here.
So along Pine Street there, there
is lighting under canopy there, which
is not going to be in danger of lighting the night sky.
I think it's probably OK.
I think you're going to want to watch the lumens so that they're
not like lighthouses.
But I think they'll probably do a good job there.
That's all I have.
Anybody else?
Want to try to take on?
I think what I heard was a positive recommendation
all the way across.
Maybe take a look at some various colors on the stone
to address potential monochromatic.
Yeah, something like that.
And also to address, take another look
at the roof lighting.
Follow dark sky, maybe shorter, make
sure they are shielded downward.
Yeah.
Did I miss anything?
Yep.
Point of clarification.
You're not suggesting a color in the stone.
You're just suggesting that there be some contrast.
Is that correct?
Yeah, I think there should be contrast.
And I think there is contrast.
I just think it doesn't really show very much
in these renderings.
And I mean, I think, for me, the issue is just,
particularly in the long face, the long faces, I mean,
it has to be, when people are walking down the street,
you want some variety for them, for the most part.
Do we got consensus on the maple?
Casey, what do you think on the maples?
I mean, I see those as street trees a lot.
They typically maples can take more water,
but I've seen this one doesn't.
So I don't have a strong opinion.
It's not similar to what they're showing
and they're rendering,
so it won't look like what they're showing.
So maybe it is more appropriate with the built,
Because a lot of times I feel like renderings expose what you want to touch and feel right.
So maybe it isn't a columnar tree, it's something a little fuller, creating more of an experience
for the pedestrian.
So yes, I support it.
Sorry.
I had to really think that one out loud.
You had also the red and the leaf with the red on the Toyota.
I mean, if we're just talking about design of those two.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, we'll look at potentially a native species or a less water requirement.
And non-columner.
No on non not glumner to balance the all of the
Okay, I think we got it clear so I think
Done with that. So what's what's next?
Thank you
Moving on
so
Commission considerations
This is right. I'm still on the agenda
Do we have any commissioner considerations?
Okay, moving on.
Do we have any commission member
or staff reports, announcements?
Nothing, nothing gigantic,
just that there will be some items coming up
on the June 18th meeting.
Do we, will we have a quorum then?
Great. Yeah.
Okay.
That's it for staff.
Adjourned.