The one public hearing we have tonight the Taiwanese American Culture Center
of East Bay Design Review and Conditional Use Permits. I'm sorry it's not
doesn't have a number. Does anybody have any Ex parte communications to disclose?
All right then I'll ask for a staff report. Great thank you commissioners if
it's okay I'm gonna present from my desk here today thank you. Good evening
everybody we are here to consider the Taiwanese American Culture Center that
will be located at 1755 Sunnyvale Avenue the applicant tonight is requesting a
design review and a few conditional use permits for the proposal the applicant
Cyril Chung who is also the architect of this project along with their team is
here tonight as am I to answer any questions that you may have after the
presentation.
Just to orient you with the site, this area is zoned single-family residential.
There are three parcels that will be merged as there are 50 existing parking stalls on
site and there is an existing church facility as well as some detached, like a social hall
as well as an office building, all for the uses of the church facility.
the merger, all the parking stalls will be shared among all users of the site.
And the surrounding area consists primarily of single-family homes.
Here are photographs and an aerial image of the existing site.
As you can see here, the East Bay Formation United Methodist Church that will remain as
part of this project, the pastor's home in the back of the site, and there is an existing
Social Hall building which will also remain and then the building that you see fronting Sunnyvale next to the church
Which I have identified with the arrows will be
Demolished as part of this project and the new community center will be located in this place
so as mentioned earlier the 3,000 square foot office building that's fronting Sunnyvale will be demolished for
construction of the 4,500 square foot one-story community center
building which will offer Taiwanese cultural classes for adults, an after-school program for K through 8 students, as well as
memorialize or legalize an existing church that's been operating on site.
The project also includes widening of the existing driveway,
relocation of existing ADA stalls, and new public walkways, and
new landscaping and trees, as well as new signage.
And just to go into the
Business operating plan the Taiwanese American Culture Center will operate from 9 a.m. To noon Monday through Fridays
The activities include cultural enrichment and language
classes or other such classes that are tailored for adults and seniors and
The after-school program will be tailored for K through 8 students operates from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
There is a pickup and drop-off area that will occur by the parking stalls nearest to the courtyard
board and I will show this in the upcoming slides.
The activities offered again are language and dance classes, arts and crafts and other
group activities.
The maximum number of students or the cap on this would be 33 students.
The applicant is anticipating 20 students and 4 teachers.
And the existing church operates only on Sundays.
Also tonight the planning commission will be considering several conditional use permits,
the cultural institution use, which defines the community culture center, the after school
program as well as legalizing the existing religious assembly use, and the design review
for the community center building to basically essentially the site layout and the building
design as well as the new landscaping.
And the proposed signage and the existing parking onsite does comply, therefore no amendments
or modifications are required for that.
And just to go over design review commission's comments, the design review commission did
review this project at the May 7th study session hearing and overall did like and appreciate
the project, however had some further comments to really enhance the landscaping plan, increasing
the tree size to 24 inch box, provide more site lighting details, use hardscape landscape
details to really create a connectivity between the buildings on site, as well as an acoustic
study for the HVAC and mitigations of any potential noise impacts from that HVAC equipment.
Also to consider a taller fence or wall to conceal the proposed equipment and to enhance
the blank wall along the street facing elevation with either a design element such as transom
windows or enhance the landscape plan or incorporate some sort of public art feature that would
celebrate the culture, the Taiwanese culture.
And here you see a look at the existing site layout as well as the proposed.
closer look essentially as you can see the overall site will remain the same.
The site will still continue to access from the existing driveway on Sunnyvale.
The change is essentially in the blue where the driveway will be widened to
comply with current code requirements as well as new five foot wide walkways
that are leading from the sidewalk to the new building along both the west
and the east sides of the site. And then there's a new courtyard space around the
community center and the existing social hall building, it will all be finished with permeable
pavers that will essentially tie into the new walkways.
Moving on into the parking, as mentioned earlier, there are a total of 50 parking stalls on
site.
The anticipated parking for all uses required on site is listed on this slide.
And as mentioned earlier, the church community center and the afterschool program are operating
at separate times, so there will be no overlap in the hours of operation, and that of course
would not result in any parking demand on site.
And here's the floor plan, which does feature double entry doors that open into a central
lobby providing access to that large library auditorium space and classrooms.
And to the left of the entrance is the layout which includes offices, storage areas, and
restrooms, and I wanted to highlight the mechanical equipment and trash enclosure that's located
in that fenced off area along the east corner of the site. It is highlighted blue on this
exhibit. And Design Review Commission did request an acoustic assessment to verify that
if the noise generated from this equipment would result in any impacts. So an acoustic
assessment is include as attachment six of your packet tonight and it did
conclude that the equipment noise levels will not exceed the 65 DBA threshold
which is the acceptable noise or applicable in the residential area and I
also wanted to point out the Design Review Commission also stated that in
order to conceal this trash enclosure area as well as the equipment I believe
The equipment is five, five feet tall, five or six feet tall.
So the applicant is proposing a seven-foot tall stucco wall,
as well as a metal gate to conceal that from view.
And moving on to the building elevations.
This is the north building elevation
that's going to face Sunnyvale Avenue, which is street facing.
The North elevation initially had a 45 foot tall blank,
45 foot wide blank wall, and I'm sorry,
I should have provided an existing and proposed.
I believe the applicant has a presentation,
so I'm hoping they show the changes.
But per DRT's comment, the wall has been revised
to add two new window openings,
as well as a 33 foot wide public art mural.
The mural does use mountain imagery
to reflect Taiwanese cultural identity.
However, after discussion with the public arts manager,
the public arts manager did point out
that they would like to see an art piece that
can live beyond the scope of the project.
Hopefully, this project continues to flourish.
But if there were a new tenant to move
into this building in the future,
the image should be something that's neutral.
And mountains, I believe, kind of fit well
with any type of use. So again, this is a very preliminary design. So this will work
with the public arts manager to finalize this design further.
And here is the south elevation. This is the front entrance facing the internal parking
lot. It consists of a glass storefront, windows with a sloped roof. The exterior facade consists
of gray and white stucco and this was intentionally placed on the entrance of the building was
intentionally placed to be on the south side to really maintain a low profile from the
neighbouring residences.
And here is the west elevation that's facing the existing building and east elevation that's
facing the closest residential property.
The R8 zone requires a five foot side yard setback.
applicant has provided a 15-foot setback from this building to the property line along the east
giving the sensitivity closer to a residential property and there is a requirement in the Walnut
Creek unique code that does require that when there's a non-residential use which is classified
as a commercial or community use in this in this instance that a eight-foot tall masonry wall is
required. The applicant tonight is requesting a waiver and I believe that
addendum has been provided to you today. The applicant is essentially asking for
the waiver as they're indicating that it is a low noise generating use compared
to some more active commercial uses such as a fitness center or restaurant that
would be located to next to residential properties and that's probably really
really the intent of the muni code as well, that when there's a commercial use of budding
residential uses to kind of buffer that noise or that type of activity, but in this case
we see that's given that the hours of operation are until 5 p.m., the latest at 5 p.m. shouldn't
be a concern, and staff has also, staff supports the request, and we have in the past also
allowed these type of approvals, but of course it's under the discretion of the planning
commission, but the code does say this requirement may be waived or the height reduced if the
commission makes the finding that such eight-foot fence or wall is not necessary for the protection
of such adjoining properties.
And here are some renderings really showing the way this new community center will fit
within the context of the site.
Here's a closer look.
Again, to the right, on the top is to right is the church.
And I believe they incorporated a crosswalk,
so there's a little more connectivity.
Some more renderings, again, how it relates
to the existing neighborhood.
And now moving on to the landscaping plan.
The applicant is proposing two new 24-inch box olive trees.
Or I believe there's three tree species
that they've provided in their landscape pallet.
So of any of those trees, if there's a preference
by the commission, you can state so.
But the reason for the change was
because the designer re-commission
said to up the size of the trees from a 15-gallon to 24-inch box
and change the species.
And again, I think the applicant could go into more detail
on that.
And there are three existing trees on site that will remain.
One is the street-facing Diodor cedar tree
That's right in the front, facing Sunnyvale.
And this project does comply with the city requirements
and does qualify for a class 32 CEQA exemption
as it is an in-fill development.
And the project was designed to meet the city's design
standards.
The project also meets the zoning standards,
such as floor area ratio, building height setbacks,
and parking standards.
And the attachment one draft resolution
that's been included as part of the packet
really outlines or addresses all of the findings
that are required to approve the three conditional use
permits tonight.
And if needed, I could elaborate,
but I'm just going to move on for now.
So tonight, staff does recommend that the Planning Commission
adopt the draft resolution determining the project is
exempt from CEQA, as well as approving the conditional use
permits and design review for the proposed community center.
And with that, I do conclude my presentation,
but I am happy to answer any questions.
Let me start.
Do the conditions on the conditional use permits,
do they restrict the hours to the hours listed,
or is it just some flexibility with that?
There's a little flexibility.
And again, this is case by case, but the reason
we added that it needs to comply to Exhibit B, which
is the business operating plan.
And if they make minor adjustments or changes,
we can call it substantially compliant
and allow them to make those changes.
However, we've seen in the past, sometimes
if we don't add that condition, we've
had businesses really change the operating hours,
increase the student count, or go from K through A
through high school students.
like a really a change you know our alteration that could impact what we're
approving tonight so in that case they would have to come back before this
Commission for our modification but if this minor changes and that's why the
conditions there the applicant could reach out to us if there's minor
adjustments which we can approve administratively otherwise they would
have to come back to this Commission for changes.
Commissioner Kwok. So I just wanted to clarify in the staff report it did
mention one of the design elements was the lighting preferences between the two
styles. Could you speak a little bit more to that please? Yes, I think I have that slide so if you see
candidate one is the upper slide at the top and candidate two they gave two
options as the bottom one. The difference is this candidate one is really what
complies with the city's design guidelines,
which really, because it minimizes glare and light spill
and also provides a soft illumination
versus the other one, it kind of spreads out further.
So that's what we've stated in the report.
There's not really a conditional use, sorry,
a condition of approval,
but there is a condition of approval that says
that the lighting should be pointed downwards.
And based on what they've given us in these images,
I believe candidate one really meets that requirement.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Strongman.
The applicant has requested the variance on the fence.
If we should grant that,
where do we work that into our resolution?
So it will be, we could strike out the condition number three
and we can have it to read the applicant
may construct a seven foot tall wood fence
along the east property line in lieu
of the required eight foot tall wall.
We could just add that as a condition.
There's no really specific.
I mean, we could modify their.
We could modify and the condition
can adopt the resolution as well.
OK.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And second question is, it appears from the drawings
that the improved landscaping does not
extend to the church nor to the new lighting to the church.
Is that the way it is, or can we have that extended to the?
That is what's being proposed,
but again, the applicant will come up
and have a presentation,
so maybe we can save that question for them.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
No questions.
Questions of staff?
All right.
I have a quick question.
I'm sorry.
I don't know if it's better served by the applicant,
but in the attachment four business plan,
I know we're not looking at it right now,
but the drop-off section, I'm just curious about the flow.
I stole it from you.
It kind of looks like you drive in, you drop off,
and then there's no roundabout necessarily,
but if I'm driving, I have to go through
what looks like the parking lot
and then kind of jog back around, right?
Like, for instance, Heather Farm, right?
the new building, you just drive off,
drop your kid off and you're on your way,
but we look like we're driving through the parking lot,
and I just want to clarify that that's.
Correct, so during my conversation with the applicant,
it was my understanding that they would park the vehicles
and then walk the children to the area,
but I see what you're saying,
there's like this squared off red area
that's showing a drop-off zone,
so I will have the applicant really elaborate that.
Sounds good, thank you.
Get ready.
The only other thing I had that wasn't already covered was that I noticed a note about seeking
city guidance about the outdoor play area on the grass.
I was wondering if you had any response to that.
Yeah, it's not a requirement.
It was just a question that was raised by city staff that if there's kids there, they
want to get out of the community center and go outside.
Is there a place that you can have them?
So they have a grassy area in the back.
I believe if it enclosed, there's a section of it that's enclosed.
Yeah, there's a fence around it so that would probably be sufficient.
I think further than I will open the public hearing and the applicant has 10 minutes to present.
Commissioner, good evening.
My name is Daniel Cole.
I'm the one who started the whole thing four years ago, four years ago.
So thank you for all the city commissioners
consider our project.
It's been very, very tough job for me.
I have to raise every penny away.
Not giving any fund from any foundation, anything.
But we feel that we'll do something
for the purpose of this mission.
Please keep it to the mic, thank you.
So when I start this whole thing,
I want our vision is we want to create a permanent home for East Bay Taiwanese-American.
We have a swimming machine.
We want to transport pass-on Taiwanese culture heritage, which including our value, our democratic
system for the generation to come.
We want to translate – transport this heritage mission to the surrounding American community.
Number three, we want to use this building to foster opportunity for the United States
Association of Taiwan, who have been there almost 50 years ago, 50 years ago.
So because of this mission, I gave the paper November 15, 2021.
So this is my mission, our mission, our teamwork, and I really hope the commission would grant
us permission to build this building.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Good evening, commissioners.
My name is Cyril Chong.
I am the architect of the Taiwanese American Culture Center of U.S. Bay.
It is my honor to stand in front of you today
to present this very exciting project for our community,
and hopefully for Walnut Creek as well.
So Dr. Koh has been an inspiration
and a very important person in this process.
He has gone through some of the goals
that we want to achieve in front of you.
There is a sizable Taiwanese community here in the East Bay,
and unfortunately, there is no place
that they could call their permanent home.
So we want to build something for them
that could last for the next 40, 50 years
for the older generation,
as well as for the younger generation to enjoy.
So I'm not gonna go through the technical aspects
since Mr. Gill has covered most of them.
I'm gonna give you some background
of how we come up with the concept today.
Dr. Cole has gone through some of his goals.
So I'm not gonna repeat this.
I'm gonna jump straight to here.
So the building itself is very simple, right?
basically there is the main auditorium or library
which could be partitioned off
to create two additional classroom
and then there are two permanent classrooms.
There is an administration office
and then there is also an office for the pastor.
Just one thing I want to clarify
is that this project is not being funded by the church.
The church and our organization
are actually two different entities.
We have very good relationships.
A lot of members basically, they affiliate with the church
and the church basically come to an agreement
with our organization to use the land
to build the community center.
And that is to answer your question, one of the question,
how comes the landscape does not extend over
to the church side?
Is that our site is actually limited to this eastern portion
and there is no indication from the church
whether they want to improve the site as well.
So the most we could do is try to improve our site
as much as possible.
And then the church could decide later on
whether they want to do something
to improve the site as well.
So hopefully that will answer your question.
Aesthetics, we understand our building
is in the middle of the residential neighborhood.
So aside from trying to create a distinct style,
we want to blend in well and be respectful
to the peacefulness, the quietness,
and the building scale of the neighborhood.
We also know that our building is right next to the church,
even though it's not associated with it necessarily.
We want to create a building form
that share a similar palette, scale,
and building form as well.
And of course, lastly, is where do we draw our inspiration?
and the next few slides will show you.
We want to draw inspirations from the Taiwanese geography
as well as from our local California geography
because this building is called
Taiwanese American Cultural Center, right?
We want to find something that could create the link
between the two different cultures.
So the overall strategy of the building
is to divide the building into the three side,
the north side, and then the interior side.
We believe that is important, again,
because it is in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
We want to be respectful.
We don't want to create a scene or too loud
that the neighbors could complain.
So the inspiration that we got is mountains and forests.
As you can see, just the position between the north
and then the south elevation.
And I'm gonna explain this a little bit more.
Mountains and forests, why?
Well, on the upper left-hand side you see Mount Diablo,
which is right in the middle of next to Wallace Creek.
And then in Taiwan, it is a very mountainous island nation.
There are a lot of mountains.
So this particular photo is called Arishan,
is one of the most famous tourist extraction in Taiwan.
So we thought there are some parallels
between what we have here and what is in Taiwan.
And then the slides at the bottom
show obviously the old redwood forest
that we have in California, as well as similar forest,
I mean, not redwood, but cedars in Taiwan.
So we thought we could use these as an inspiration
to create the building form
and the overall aesthetics of the building.
So as you can see on the north side,
basically it is supposed to be a little bit more rugged
and more solid with punch windows
that will fit well into this residential neighborhood,
quieter and more subdued tone.
The scales, the walls have been scaled down
to fit the neighborhood versus the south side,
which is warmer, more transparent, more active,
and more welcoming.
And we use timber lumber columns on this side to kind of...
It's a suggestive of the tall trees
that we could find in California as well as in Taiwan.
So that's kind of the inspiration,
and we hope that this distinction could basically
show our respect to the neighborhood
that we want to blend in, we want to be a good neighbor,
and also give this building its own distinctive style.
So as you can see, again, these are just the position
of the north and the south elevation.
I apologize, I don't have the elevation before
where we don't have this mural.
So as part of the public art requirements,
as well as to break up the long 45 feet long facade,
we propose doing a mural.
We are going to set up a special arts committee
within our organization in the process
of soliciting artists to do this.
So what you see here is basically
just a very preliminary concept.
We are still exploring what we could do
on this particular wall.
And then this is just an interior shot of the auditorium.
And I'm not gonna spend too much details on this.
These are some of the things that we have addressed
that we hear from the design reveal committee.
I would like to ask a question
if anyone is particularly concerned about any of these,
but we believe our documents have addressed all of this,
breaking up the North wall, the plant species,
the acoustical concern, the drop-off area.
By the way, the drop-off area, yes,
it works exactly like you mentioned.
You probably have to draw someone,
go to the street, and come back.
And it is done because we are very constrained
in terms of parking lot.
Basically there is not much room for us
to expand the parking lot
without reducing the parking spaces.
So this is the compromise that we are taking right now.
And hopefully that would work with you.
And we create a crosswalk.
We have satellite things on both sides.
So it creates a little bit of visual connection
between the church and our building.
As mentioned, the two buildings basically operate independently.
But we do think that such little bit of gesture
could help create a visual connection
between the two buildings.
And then on the east side, regarding the fence,
there is actually an existing, probably a 12 foot tall,
hatches in pretty good condition.
And that's why in the original submittal,
we did not propose doing a fence there.
We believe that the hatches itself,
not only does it look fairly pretty,
it actually does serve the function of providing privacy
to both sides of properties.
So that kind of concludes my presentation.
I want to show you an animation.
It's just a one minute clip, so it's gonna be real fast.
Do we have audio?
Okay, thank you.
That concludes our presentation today
and I hope that we could earn your endorsement tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Questions for the applicant?
Can I take a brief introduction?
We have Kelly and then Jeannie.
Vice President.
Vice President.
Hi, nice to meet you.
Hi, everyone.
Nice to meet you.
My name is Kelly, and it's a blessing to be part of this project.
And to me as a first generation Taiwanese American, I would like to take this opportunity
hopefully to grant your permission to have this project approval for us to build because
it is an honor to be part of this community.
And then we hope once we ground it in this place and we're going to invite all different
culture to enjoy Taiwanese-American.
And for us, it's a win-win situation.
And then I'm just happy that I have this opportunity
to be part of it.
Thank you.
Hi.
My name is Jeanie Wong.
I'm the construction project manager and I'm
second-generation Taiwanese.
So my parents are from Taiwan.
I was born in the U.S.
And I'll be working very closely with all subsequent
coordination for design and pre-construction, permits,
everything that's needed so we can build a very beautiful
and successful project here.
I'd like to introduce Cathy Rye.
Come.
Hi, I'm Cathy Rye.
I'm a registered professional engineer and also certified
lead accredited professional.
So we want to create something and build
something that Walnut Creek, the city, can point to and say,
hey, this is how we want to maintain climate ordinance.
Because I did go through your ordinances.
I'm looking to, in the DD phase, use engineered wood,
cross-laminated timber and mass timber, which is not only
engineered wood.
It's more dimensionally stable, but it's also more sustainable.
Because it basically takes younger trees,
but it also creates really clean, beautiful surfaces.
And those are the types of sustainability components
that I plan to.
I'm also a licensed general contractor.
So with this integrated process, we
would also like to explore putting
in more sustainable features.
So welcome feedback anytime.
And thank you for listening.
Oh, I'm also a second generation Taiwanese-American.
I am a third generation builder.
My grandfather, his brothers, and his cousins
built some of the wealthiest parts of Taipei.
So I am invoking my inter-grandpa.
Thank you for welcoming us.
My father is great.
That's right.
From Pittsburgh.
So yes, I have a face to keep up here.
Questions.
Richard Kound.
First of all, I just want to say congratulations for all
that you've accomplished so far.
I mean, that's a tremendous amount of work,
fundraising, community building, planning.
I was looking at the materials that we received
and some of the videos that were shown
of the community events that you have held.
It's just a beautiful thing that you have done all of this
here in Walnut Creek for the community.
So thank you for that.
And I want to say the design is just so beautiful.
I love the mountains, and the trees,
and the natural light coming in.
So I guess my questions would be two things, I think,
just from one thing that was just said around sustainability.
I know there's LEED certifications and things
like that.
I don't know if that's something you're seeking
with this building as far as sustainability.
And then my other question is just more around the program,
how you came to determine that this would be
an after school program for elementary school kids
and sort of which schools are they coming from?
Do you already have a partnership with
local elementary schools that these kids would come from?
school program actually offer this from 12 to 5, Monday through Friday. And
Saturday we want to open center to the grown-up, offer so-called Taiwan Center
which will teach the adult mentoring, Taiwan, and Taiwan history. It's open to
That's a Saturday.
Of course, Sunday is for church use, Sunday school
and church going.
So there is no overlap at all.
Another thing I want to mention is
because this is what I recommend my daughter,
my team member, the daughter, they are second generation.
This is that we not only want to serve Taiwanese-Americans,
you want to serve American people very strongly.
that we had to offer for your trip to the American school,
theoretically, advise them to learn Taiwan.
This is my second generation suggestion.
I feel so good about the whole thing.
I enhanced my mission, I was moved
by my daughter, second generation suggestion.
And I'd also like to add, I mean, it's so beautiful,
beautiful as you know the vision but and there's there's actually a lot of
potential for other things there's a there were you know a lot of different
there are some activities that don't have a home including like a Taiwan
youth summer camp so I don't know if it's possible we can expand programming
you know as as it's feasible for different ages different activities
maybe different outings especially field trips for for schools to come to the
Center, but also for people in the community to go visit
Taiwan or to learn about Taiwan or to come celebrate with us.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Yes, I also am excited about the building
and gratified to see the work that's
gone into planning for it.
I had a specific question about entitlement to build.
So for example, I have experience
working with a church that gave plan
to develop affordable housing.
What is the relationship that gives you the authority
to build on your site with the church?
Is there a lease, a partnership agreement?
I mean...
To answer your question, we will draft a lease
and then sign with UNC.
So that will guarantee us 40 or 50 usage of that building.
Yes.
Yeah.
Good, thank you.
and you'll be here to make sure it's reached new nature.
Right, right.
Another thing I really want to say is something about this.
My vision from the day one, I want to have this beauty completely
by solar panel, solar energy.
I don't want, I want to minimize the fixed cost, you know, fixed cost, right?
So that in the future building, when the operation building,
there's hardly any fish cost 100% offered by sort of panel we also want to
install storage so that you know evening we don't have a soda soda energy so we
want to generate a thirsty farm the energy storage we also want to use hip
pump so it would be very very modernized and for this again not only for the
feature operation but also really good for the environment. We don't have any
nature guess. Thank you. Commissioner Clark. So I have a question about the
lighting options that we're looking at. Do you have a preference between the two
options that were in the presentation? We're up to you. You talk about the
site lighting? The lighting that would unite the yes the lighting. I
actually I don't have a particular preference I think either one would work
well with the building. We are looking for something that is relatively simple
in design and I believe these both of these would work. So we are not
necessarily in favor of one or the other. I mean we are looking forward to your
recommendation all right thank you I'm also part of the international dark
sky movement where there have been numerous studies to highlight how we
want to limit the lighting at nighttime because it affects wildlife it affects
the plants and we want to be as kind as possible so if we can choose the
downward-facing one with Sarah's permission and the board's permission
That's what I would try to nudge it towards in terms of being kind of nature, being kind to the sky,
because city lights travel hundreds of miles and that is part of the movement we are trying to minimize it.
I just want to confirm that candidate one listed on this plan. Thank you.
The vice chair just to confirm because I'm sorry beautiful presentation to you
also everybody everybody it takes a lot and what I was gonna ask was for I
wanted to quickly discuss the waiver so in lieu of a solid masonry the idea is
to do wood okay and shorter in lieu of eight it's seven feet tall yes can I
correct yeah the reef then it's for the seven feet is because that's under the
code seven feet is allowed by right if it's any taller than seven feet for a
wood fence the way our code reads it requires a minor use permit to get to
their fences. I know, I know. But since I mean we're before the Commission, I mean
you can make a call. The thing that usually when fences are done for
privacy reasons, but also speaking of sound attenuation, I looked at the
equipment. The equipment with the pad goes no higher than six. So it's far
below the eight and the seven so I did want I noticed I mean that must have
been a big deal for the for the DRC to require that and then the last question
I was gonna ask is normally when we're doing when I do sight lighting I usually
have a photometric design to kind of see the min max and the average because I
completely agree with you. The first thing that came to my mind was you have
safety. There's different regulations, right, of building lighting
versus lighting and parking lots, right? But you also don't want to disturb the
neighbors. So is there an understanding of the placement of the lights
and then the leeching out of the yeah because because Walnut Creek does does
does have lighting standards right for different foot candles.
You know Ryan you correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the photo
metrics studies yeah for anything on the not on site but in the public right on
site required okay not even for safety from the building department okay I
I could have sworn the building official required that,
but I agree with you that you don't wanna have
something so egregious that it then affects the neighbors,
but you still want something to be so that you're safe.
And having design developments, residential developments,
there's like a beautiful balance where you can almost
also use the lighting to calculate your foot candles,
even for the lighting off the building itself.
So that was kind of my, my two cents for the,
that was sorry, sorry, that was my questions.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Let me show them around.
Thank you.
I really, really liked the design of the building
and the thought that went into it.
I didn't see the philosophy of the front facing mountains
and the back facing forest.
And I thought that was really interesting and I appreciate that.
My question is kind of regarding the general, the community which you hope to serve.
And I know that there's like a, I'm looking at the sample day-to-day operations and specifically
I'm interested in the after-school type programming.
is that you guys see it have you done any studies about the demand or the
community which you might serve and I'm I'm kind of leading the witness here
because what I think is you have is a brand new beautiful building and I would
encourage you to think about the larger community that you could serve right
there's there's different stem classes and Mandarin classes and so forth but
But I wouldn't think, and I assume that you're not limited
to just the Taiwanese community in the East Bay,
but just a broader community in the East Bay, right?
With people who might be interested
in sending their kids to an after school class for STEM.
They may not speak Mandarin,
or maybe they're interested in speaking Mandarin.
And this is just less of a question than a comment,
but if anybody wants to get up and speak to this,
But I am curious about the broader Taiwanese community
in the East Bay and how you guys see yourselves serving them.
And I would also just encourage you to think with bigger goals.
Because you'll have a nice new building
that you can bring in people, whether they speak Mandarin
or Taiwanese.
You've got your in a residential area.
People can send their kids right down the street
for the afterschool program.
If anyone wants to speak to that, that's great,
but that would just be my thought.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming.
As you know, I really start the whole thing,
but I've been through, I've been starting
from 1.0 to nothing for full cooperation in Taiwan.
So it's very important to maintain the cash flow,
you know, maintain the, you know,
I don't, hopefully anybody in this building
don't have to go out to raise money all the time.
This is my experience, I'm looking at my credentials.
Anyway, one of the thing we want to offer after school
is this, because my grandchildren,
I have so many grandchildren,
they all went through this after school program.
One of the things they done is they learned robotics,
then some computer programming,
and they had to pay some fee for that.
So, our intention besides teaching language,
so you can collect money for teaching,
for growing up, for teaching Taiwanese.
Actually, Taiwan government offer that kind of assistance.
But, for the general after school program,
we'd like to offer something that useful right now.
I mean, my grandchildren just went through that
from sixth grader all the way to the high school.
they all went through this kind of program,
they had to pay something to learn those things.
So we intend to offer that kind of cost.
We have four classrooms to answer your question.
I want to make sure that it maintains
the income and the cost balance, okay.
Thank you for the great feedback.
We actually ran for workshop last year,
and it's about robotics.
And then it was quickly filled up,
but we set a limit to 25 kids only
because we don't want to disturb the neighbors
because it's a lot of traffic.
And then I observed that the parents, they did park
and then they walk the kids to the class.
So that's a good sign.
And then we could,
but the thing is we could not offer too many of this
because the building itself is kind of old.
So hopefully with this new building being built,
we can even offer more to the local community.
Yes, we do realize there's a commercial residential area
and then we are there to help,
not just Taiwanese American,
but to all the residential residents
who live around that area.
Thank you.
And as somebody who is involved
with a number of other LEED projects
and also the general contractor,
we are open to working with certain people,
such as board members.
We're lucky that we have a talent of board members
that have experience in demolition.
We could do it mindfully so we divert from landfill.
We have a landscaper so we could think about bioswales
so that it actually makes flood control happy.
It makes the water board happy.
We plan to make a lot of agencies happy
and still stay within budget.
So we're just trying to be mindful
to have these conversations as early as possible
with that S curve, you know, before hockey sticks up
then it gets expensive so it's just important to have a lot of these conversations up front.
We also I got permission from the board to welcome university students to be part of this process
and if they want to even present to you it's also an experience for them in a real world project so
that's another extension of the education component that goes beyond Walnut Creek.
It's any university student that wants to come participate and be part of the research
on what some of the best solutions and best practices are for being part of the climate
change sustainability and environmental stewards.
I just wanted to clarify a detail, so my understanding now is the Cultural Center is currently an
existing organization without a permanent building, or are they meeting in the existing
building that's going to be demolished?
I wasn't sure if I got that detail.
Well, this particular organization was formed specifically for this new construction.
So informally, there has always been a group of Taiwanese who are organizing these classes
and whatnot, but they never have a permanent home, basically they are borrowing the space
of the church, which is the social hall building right next to this building.
Did I answer your question?
Yes.
Yes.
organization itself was found specifically
for the construction and the design of this new building.
All right, thank you.
Commissioner Clark.
I wanted to go back to the fence waiver
and just say from me personally,
seven foot seems like a reasonable accommodation,
but I wanted to ask a question about the comment
that was made about wood or greenery.
the existing hedge. My experience hedges get thin die, don't always provide the
kind of noise and privacy that we want so I would recommend that it be both a
wood fence and the hedge to keep the hedge but yeah so that would be my
thinking. This question of the hedge, again I hope Commissioner can visit our
side right now they are such a beautiful green hedge about eight, nine feet long so beautifully
and between our building and next door for 70 feet. That hedge is so beautiful how come we want
to build another wooden hedge just to me it's completely not not really it's just
And please, please, visit us.
See the hedge, what do we have?
It's very tall, very tree.
So, for this issue, I'd really please asking you
any part of the question about what to visit us.
This very tall, very beautiful,
and there's so much distance between two buildings.
Oh yeah, yeah, look, look, so tall.
Nine feet, and all the way to Sunnyvale Avenue.
the beauty of the hedge is there.
Commissioner Count.
I just had another question come to mind
when you're talking about the existing social hall.
And when I did go and walk the site,
I saw the social hall, and then the playground area,
and then the grass, right?
So is that going to be part of your usage,
or is that only for the church, the social hall,
as well as the outdoor play area.
It's going to be for everyone who goes to this area,
so for everyone to use the social hall.
All right, then I will open the public hearing to.
Sorry, can I make a comment, please?
I have a rendering in here,
not related to this project, but it's next door.
This is a new, I believe I mentioned this
in my staff report as well,
that there'll be a new proposed development
next door to the east, the Benson question location.
As you can see, they're going to put the drive aisle closest
to this community center.
And the house, the new houses will be set on the opposite
side.
But keeping the hedge, just like Commissioner Klopp mentioned,
one, it doesn't really classify as a buffer, right?
I mean, it's great.
It looks beautiful.
But once it's developed, it would be great if it could stay.
But with this new development coming,
that's not going to stay.
So we're going to need something solid
to really create that separation between the two uses.
If anybody in the public would like to speak on this matter,
welcome to do so.
The square foot must be more than maybe 100,000 square foot.
All buildings only 40,000 square foot.
So, if we want any hate and anything, maybe we can join together, spend the money.
Why I have to spend money for that?
That's great.
And I did mention to the architect that he could reach out to the developer.
Not sure if that happened.
Yeah.
Yes.
Very good.
So, anybody in the public would like to speak on this matter, come forward and have two
minutes.
I don't see a large crowd clamoring to do so.
So with that, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to our discussion.
Planning Commission.
Commissioner Quarke.
All right.
I'm very happy to see this presentation.
I think it's a, it'll be a great addition to the city and to the fabric of the city
as well as the social, the benefits to the community, both the Taiwanese community and
the American community.
As for the fence, I do like the seven foot wooden option.
I think we can go with that.
And for the lighting, I would prefer the first option.
Commissioner Clark.
And before we make a motion, I actually
wanted to say there was a staff oversight.
There are some standard conditions of approval
for the engineering department.
My fellow colleague, Ryan Cook, brought that to my attention.
And he has a copy of those conditions,
but we would need to incorporate that into this
as we're adopting this resolution tonight.
Do you know what those are?
I mean.
Yes, we have.
You gotta tell the engineer.
Thank you.
And I apologize, that was staff's oversight.
I think probably the important part
is it's standard conditions.
Engineering conditions of approval.
They're about permits, title reports, sidewalk damage.
Yeah, maybe just give a little summary.
The engineer.
You'd be the expert.
Do my job.
Erosion control, which is important.
Engineers cost assessment, which is always needed,
especially since I saw that there was some off-site
improvements required.
So normally, you need a bond or something
when you're doing work in the public right of way.
Drainage fee, which does very normal photo.
There is photometric study, power poles, utility structures,
grading drainage in stormwater.
So essentially requiring overland release.
This is very standard for C3, so hydromodification
for post-project stormwater peak flows, soils report,
post-construction, again, C3.
Sorry, to make sure the water is clean.
I'm saying C3 like as everybody knows that.
storm water treatment facilities, traffic control plan,
which is great, especially during the construction,
parking layout, tree removals, tree protection zones,
trash enclosures, separate permitting.
Perfect.
For any other additional agency that's required,
such as the Sewer District, East Bay MUD,
for water, Contra Costa, PG&E,
and then work hours to not disturb the neighbors,
which is very, very important.
Those are the main, that's the gist of it.
Just to be clear again, these are standard conditions
that go on for any project like this, okay.
In fact, I can.
And they would be added to the resolution.
Before we do that, if I can,
in talking with Simra, I understand that she's talked
about these conditions with the applicant,
they're aware.
So I just wanted to see if the applicant has any comments or if you understand or if you
would like some time to review them.
Unless I'm mistaken, I believe some of these things that you mentioned will be part of
the requirements for the site development permit which we assume will basically come
after the entitlement.
That is basically that is on our agenda.
what we're planning to do is to develop the site development permits application as well as the building permit application together after we obtain our
entitlements
So I'm sorry the engineering conditions in the draft resolution starting with number 12
Through number 22 is this is what you're talking about in addition to those items on the resolution
I'll have Ryan Cook come up and explain that.
So I should probably come up a little sooner.
Ryan Cook, senior engineer with the city.
So the conditions that are in the draft resolution,
now there's like four of them.
They're very basic, and I'm not exactly sure
where the overlook was in those.
They are basically duplicated within the revised conditions
that we just provided.
And as Commissioner Knighting had pointed out,
It's all pretty standard stuff.
There's nothing really specific to this project
that's out of the ordinary,
mostly all related to our current permitting,
strong water compliance,
and other standard engineering requirements, so.
Okay, so this would be replacing that,
or in addition to the engineering conditions section.
I don't know if you want to pull that up on the screen
of the draft.
You could either replace it or just amend it too,
because it's a little bit of duplication,
but there's nothing conflicting with it.
Some of them are the same as what she mentioned.
Yeah, nothing conflicting though.
Okay.
So Claire, you might need to help us word the resolution.
Yeah.
So those can be incorporated into the resolution
to the extent that they'll duplicate each other.
Any other discussion or a motion?
Go ahead.
Hopefully I get it right with the addition.
I propose to adopt the conditional use permit
and design reapplication number Y24-077
with additional engineering conditions that...
That's the fence, exactly.
Oh!
The fence and the lighting.
Pardon me.
And the fences on that.
And option one of the lighting
and the seven foot fence in lieu of the eight foot fence.
Okay, so my, so just to add to that.
So my recommendation is on the lighting condition
where it says it faces downwards.
Yes.
To specify that it's the number one design
that is presented tonight.
And to specify that it says the downward lighting.
Second.
Resolution with all of that.
I'm talking, yeah.
question on the motion you the fence is going to be seven foot and wood wood not
in lieu of masonry okay do I repeat it you guys know that right and second
question are we not supposed to approve the church as well as a CUP because it
was nonconforming that's correct that's one of the conditional use permits before
tonight right the resolution yeah it's in the s already in there yeah okay thank you
we're all in there for the discussion on the motion okay so the motion did
include adopting the draft resolution and exempt from CEQA and the three
conditional use permit with the modified conditions with the fence of a tall wood
and the lighting facing downwards but design number one as presented today
Thank you.
All right.
Everybody understands what I've got going here.
I'd ask for the roll.
Yes.
Vice Chair Neill.
Yes.
Commissioner Kwok.
Yes.
Commissioner Moran.
Yes.
Commissioner Cownd.
Yes.
Commissioner Strongman.
Yes.
Commissioner Kwok.
Yes.
And Chair Anderson.
Yes.
Thank you.
Motion passes.
7-0.
Thank you all very much.
This is a marvelous presentation.
Obviously, a lot of work went into getting this far,
but also in presenting it to us so that we
can understand it.
I also appreciate your response to design review,
that you took their suggestions and worked out
a good solution to each of them.
This is where we get a project of this size that
doesn't have a lot more questions with it.
So excellent job.
and look forward to seeing it go up.
I'm not sure I officially closed the public hearing,
so we'll do that now.
And we're on to item five, commission or considerations?
Or commission considerations.
All right.
So this past Monday, I had a second working group
with a sign ordinance update.
And so we heard from the contractor
about what had happened since we met in January.
So a survey went out to the business community
asking what were the needs regarding the sign,
existing sign ordinance and what they would like to see
in terms of modernizing it
and adapting it to the current needs
of the business community.
There were 23 responses to this survey
and of those 23 responses, 17 were businesses
and six were commercial property owners.
A lot of the common themes and the results of the survey,
the feedback from the business community,
were looking at the visibility and location of signs
for the businesses, looking at the A-frame signs,
so I call these standards boards,
these are ones I typically see on the ground
that are put out in front of businesses,
looking at the size and the dimensions
and the designs of the signs,
and also looking at the process improvements
for the applicants when they're applying for the signs.
So the contractor has heard our feedback
and is going back to drafting an ordinance.
And so I will have an update for you next time
we come back together.
Thank you very much.
Good.
Commissioner Klop.
So the Contra Costa Transpac group met.
that's the subgroup of contour cost of transportation authority
that looks at our geographic area.
The two items on the agenda this week's meetings
were trying to figure out how to expand the class pass or bus
rider program for students beyond the current limited two
to three month thing into a more expanded program.
it runs into barriers that are sort of intergroup agency coordination and funding.
So there's a lot of ideas and frustration about the opportunity to expand it.
So there's still tilting at windmills to do that.
The second thing was a report out on the Contra Costa Transportation Agency plans for measure
J in the next five to seven years measures J is a tax sales tax thing, fund that is getting
towards the last sort of third of its life and the projects that are underway with current
funding in our central jurisdiction are the I-680, State Route 4 interchange.
work on the carpool lanes on I-680 and a lot of the BART parking access
improvement gates etc have been funded by that as well so that's what's on the
docket on that at some point I heard that they were going to some proposed a
change to the on ramp of going north on guess it was Lawrence Avenue way and
and that make it a parade so that the people exiting
to treat and Gary would be not impacting each other.
It could be that's a project that isn't flagging
in my memory right now, but it's not a Measure J project.
Okay.
So I'll keep a year out for that one.
Thank you.
Okay.
Any other staff reports or commission reports?
Melton?
I'll just say for the record that we have a planning commission meeting on October 9th that we have two items that night
so we have the zoning code amendment for the residential care facilities and
retro junkie design review
Application and then since we are nearing the holiday season
We only have one meeting in November and December. So we're hoping we have a quorum because we have items on both
agendas. Thank you
Thank you. And with that I will
Call for adjourned.
Yes.
Oh, yeah, that was right at the beginning.
Oh, sorry.
Do it differently.
Agencies do it differently.