just let me know when to go.
Go.
Okay.
Well, welcome to this special meeting
of the Design Review Commission, October 22nd, 2025.
May we do a roll call, please?
Thank you, Chair.
Commissioner Case?
Here.
Commissioner Riley?
Here.
Chair Newsom?
I am here.
Vice Chair Basting is on vacation
and she has phoned in her absence
many weeks ago but we have a quorum.
Great.
Okay.
So moving on to the consent calendar.
It looks like we have one item on the consent calendar which is the adoption of the 2026
council or commission and council calendar.
Any discussion about that?
Okay.
So should we just take a roll call vote then?
Do I make a motion to adopt it?
How about that?
Yes.
make the motion to adopt it. I'll second. Okay, Commissioner Case. Yes. Commissioner Riley. Yes. Chair Newsom. Yes. Motion
carries. Okay, and I don't believe there's any other items to pull on to the
consent calendar so we'll just move on to public communications. This portion of
public communications is for items not on the agenda. Under the Brown Act
Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications but may
respond briefly to statements made or questions posed, request clarification or refer items
to staff. Do we have any public communication beyond what's going to be in the public hearing?
No cards? Okay. We'll move on. So before we go to the public hearing, let's have a disclosure
of ex parte communication. Has anybody contacted either of you regarding the public hearing?
No, no, no, right. So we're gonna move on to the public hearing and I believe
there's one item and it's the Porsche dealership and it looks like staff has
a presentation so let's go ahead. Good evening commissioners Simmergill
senior planner with the city. We are here tonight to gather design review
Commission's feedback on the proposed Porsche dealership and service center
that will be located at the corner of Second Avenue and North Main Street. The
applicant Steven Scanlon, along with his team, is here tonight as am I to answer
any questions that you may have after the presentation. And just to quickly
orient you with the site, it does consist of three parcels that will be merged for
project construction and the site is zoned service commercial which does
allow automobile dealerships that are permitted by right and a design review
is required for the construction of a new building. The existing buildings on
site will be demolished for project construction and the surrounding area
consists primarily of commercial and retail uses and there are residential
uses to the west along Second Ave that leads to Barton Court. And here's just a
closer look at the buildings on site.
And here's some site photographs.
As you know, the Massays Bar and Grill
is fronting North Main and several other smaller
buildings.
And here's the building at the corner of Second Ave
in North Main.
And there's some more buildings tucked away
in the back of the site.
So moving on into the project request tonight
is the demolition of all of the existing buildings
on all three parcels.
And that will be to construct
the new three-level auto dealership
that will offer vehicle sales and service.
The site modifications include frontage improvements,
which is new sidewalks or replacement
of the existing sidewalk on North Main
and new public walkways within the building.
and the project also proposes tree removals,
new landscaping, as well as new signage.
So tonight the Design Review Commission's role
is to provide, it's a study session,
so really just to provide that initial feedback
on the building design as well as the signage
and the other associated entitlements
and provide a recommendation to the Planning Commission.
So the Planning Commission could then consider the design review, the signage,
and the tree removals, as well as the Planning Commission will then review that
and make a recommendation to council for the proposed plan development rezone,
which that both of these hearings will be scheduled at a later time.
And here is the existing condition of the site.
There is access that's provided from both North Maine and 2nd Ave.
Here's the proposed layout.
Access will be provided along a 26 feet wide drive aisle
that leads from both 2nd Ave and North Main.
And I wanted to point out
that the building has been a setback
to maintain a setback along all property lines,
but I wanted to focus on the rear,
which is the west property line,
as that is the closest to residential properties.
The building is set approximately 30 feet,
if not more, from that property.
And here's just a closer look at the building access.
The main entry which leads into that showroom
is along the corner of North Main and Second Ave.
And then if a customer's pulling up on Second Avenue,
then they can go into that customer,
the service customer arrival area
and drop their vehicles there for repairs.
And the remaining accesses are all for employees only.
So customer access is only through that main entry
into the showroom or for their vehicles
to be dropped off for service.
And to the bottom left, you see that rooftop parking.
There's a ramp that leads up to the rooftop parking.
And that is again for inventory vehicle parking only
and employee access only.
And the same goes for the service shops access
as well as the parts delivery.
And then on North Main, as you access from North Main,
there's a lower level garage entry
into the partial basement, again, for employee use only.
And that stores the inventory vehicles.
Here's just a closer look at that floor plan.
The partial basement is located beneath the main showroom
in the vehicle repair area.
There are 87 vehicles that could be stored there
for inventory, as well as employee parking, if needed,
and other support functions such as bicycle parking,
park storage, and car washes.
And here is the main first floor,
which is broken up into three areas,
the customer showroom and the service shop,
which has 22 service bays,
as well as associated support spaces such as offices.
there's restrooms and elevators and stairs
that lead up to the other floor.
And then here is the second floor, again,
a partial open-air roof design.
There is a secondary showroom with customer amenities,
as well as more office space, as well as 76 inventory spaces,
again, for inventory parking only.
So now moving on into the request tonight
for the plan development rezone is the project is requesting this to make minor deviations
to the city's development standards related to floor area ratio and building height.
I did want to point out that as part of this PD, it is required in the muni code that the
PD complies with the regulations and provisions of the general plan or any other specific
plan so the it does provide them that flexibility to make minor deviations but
the project the dealership is meeting the intent of the zone which is the
service commercial zone that allows auto sales and services and the service
commercial zone allows a point three FAR that is permitted for the site floor
area ratio and here I have taken that language straight out of the Walnut Creek municipal
code which really defines what floor area ratio is and the existing definition does
have very limited things that could be excluded which kind of really talks to garages or circulation
spaces so the PD tonight is asking for flexibility to exclude additional accessory areas or support
spaces that are not customer occupied or customer oriented.
And the proposed PD will then redefine FAR, excluding these following areas.
The PD will also calculate, when calculating FAR, will use the gross lot area to calculate
the FAR on site.
Again, a little different from the way our current muni code reads.
And here is just a layout of all three floors.
And there's the FAR legend, which basically the peach area that you see is the area that's
included into the FAR, which is, again, the customer-facing spaces or for the use of customers,
which is to repair or service their vehicles.
So the service base are being included as well as the showroom areas.
And all of the excluded areas are in pink.
they are listed on this slide,
but it's primarily parking spaces
or mechanical rooms or storage areas.
So why are we doing this?
I did want to point out that older dealerships
consisted of detached single-story buildings
that are spread across larger lots
with separate areas for all different operations.
And I provided a photo below to the left
of the existing dealership that's further south
on North Main Street.
That's currently there now.
And as you can see, all of the different functions
are broken up or into separate areas.
And the repair shop has expanded across the street,
where I said the extra shop space,
because the existing site is maxed out.
There's no room left for the necessary operations
of the business.
So the modern dealership design has shifted,
because it's become more multi-level
and it integrates all of the operations
into one single building.
Where a large portion of those areas
are service related areas
and not really customer occupiable space.
But because it's within the building,
it then becomes floor area per our current definition
in the muni code.
And so again, our code is a bit dated.
built for single-story service style parking dealerships as you see below and several other
ones in Walnut Creek. So the PD tonight is requested so it could provide that flexibility
to exclude only the support areas from the FAR really to distinguish between what's functional
space, what's accessory space versus customer space. And the approach does meet the 0.3 FAR
intent and the PD will also reflect that customer facing space and recognize
today's vertical design for dealerships which does consolidate everything into
one building. And the second request for is the for the deviation to building
height. The maximum height allowed is 30 feet on this site. As mentioned earlier
there is a bit of a slope on this site. The grades range from 124 feet to
135. The highest slope that you see occurs on the southwest corner, which is at 135 feet,
and the steep slope does drive the height variation. And if you see on that photo, too,
the masses site is around 124 feet. So there's a bit of a higher slope on this end near second
So the current code measures height from the lowest grade, so it is reading taller on that
second avenue site because of that reason, but the mass is unchanged.
And here is the proposed PD, which will define base elevation as the highest existing grade
on site.
And this exhibit here does depict that where we would take that measurement, which is 135
feet.
And then we would measure uniformly to the top to meet that 30-foot cap that still applies.
So it's going to extend up to 165 feet to the top of the parapet.
And this approach does allow a fair measurement on a slope site.
So we're not adding any additional height to this project.
And a similar approach has been used, applied for three other projects in Walnut Creek that
had similarly slope sites as well.
So the PD is essentially redefining or defining the base elevation as the highest existing
grade on site to really better represent the building's actual perceived height around
the adjoining properties.
And here are the building elevations.
This is the elevation facing North Main Street.
And listed here are the materials that are proposed.
We also have the actual material board,
should you want to have a closer look.
However, it does consist of a mix
of black, gray, ribbed metal panels, silver metal panels,
as well as a white aluminum panel
that'll be applied vertically
next to the showroom entrance doors.
And dark gray stucco will also be applied
to the rear and side elevations.
And here is the elevation that's facing Second Avenue.
and what you see at the bottom the rendering is really is taken from that west corner angle because here you see the ramp in
relation to the
the service center building side of the elevation
this is the
building facade facing the canal and
Here is the west rear facade that'll be facing
the residential or towards Barton court and
And here are some renderings. This view is from the corner of North Bain and 2nd Avenue where you see the primary showroom entrance doors and this rendering also depicts the proposed landscaping along both frontages as well as the street trees.
Here's North Bain.
As part of this project, the applicant is requesting to remove a total of 21 trees. 17 of these trees have been approved by the city arborist as they were
of poor health and because of the species, the City Arbus was able to apply that approval.
There are four highly protected trees which I have bubbled here in green.
There are three valley oaks and one blue oak, I believe, that's the closest to the North
Main, the green circle that you see along North Main is the blue oak.
And these are being removed as part of this project, but will require the Planning Commission
to consider their removal as part of the design review.
And if removed, the applicant will be required to pay into the trees, into the city's tree
fund the tree value, the valuation of all of these trees combined, which will then be
used to plant highly protected trees elsewhere in the city.
And here is the on to the north and west what you see are the 14 off-site neighboring trees.
All of those will be protected in place during construction.
I also wanted to point out the towards the north which is the upper portion where by
the canal I bubbled that in blue because that initially that tree was being removed.
I believe it was a black walnut.
I believe it's a black walnut but it was being removed but the applicant is going to protect
that as part of this project. And that is why it went from 13 and my staff
report says 13 off-site tree that's the 14th tree. And here is the landscaping
plan. 12th Street trees are proposed that range in size from 24 to 36 inch box and
a mix of species. 7 on-site 15 gallon trees are also proposed as well as 5
gallon shrubs and a mix of 5 gallon shrubs and ground cover will be spread
across the site. And what you see here is the proposed steel fence that will be
installed along the North property line and returned to the West corner property
line and then the yellow highlighted portion is the proposed eight foot tall
split face CMU wall that will be installed. Now moving on into the signage,
the applicant is proposing two wall signs, two identical wall signs and they
measure 91 square feet. However, the one that's facing North Main Street is on a
backer panel because of the ribbed metal system of the building facade. There's
not a flat surface so they're using the panel to create a flat surface. And the
other one is identical without the backer panel facing North Main Street,
sorry, Second Avenue. And the total sign area with the two monument signs
included will be 274 square feet. The sign exception is required because in the city
sign ordinance, 200 square feet is allowed for any commercial single tenant in a building.
And here is a look at the primary monument sign. It's 24 square feet in size, well below
what is allowed for auto dealers in the sign ordinance,
which you could have up to a maximum of 74 square feet
for purpose of identification and visibility,
but they're proposing a 24 square foot sign.
And 14 square foot service sign,
this essentially acts as way finding
because it's gonna be located further
into the project site closer to the repair area.
And now moving into the parking,
49 surface parking stalls are provided,
primarily for customers and vehicle display.
And then in the basement, there's additional stalls,
I believe 87 and 76 on the roof.
Again, these are for inventory or employee parking only.
The surface parking is dedicated for customer parking.
But I also wanted to, for the record,
point out that under Assembly Bill AB 2097,
This project is within a portion, so the way the bill reads is even a portion of the project
site is within that half-mile radius from, in this case, the Pleasant Hill Barge Station.
It qualifies to be reviewed under AB 2097, which exempts the parking requirement.
However, in this case, the applicant is providing parking, so I just wanted to point that out.
This project does meet the City's design review standards and guidelines.
A completed design checklist has been provided to you by the applicant, showing compliance.
There's one guideline and one standard that hasn't been met.
One is that our guideline requires that display parking be covered or integrated with a building
element if it's fronting a street.
In this case, it is fronting North Main.
I believe 13 display parking spaces that but it won't be covered because that's part of the Porsche branding
they they do have the covered showroom inside that has more vehicles and
The other one is a standard which requires for any new building parking needs to be at the site or rear or within a structure
The parking the customer parking is on the surface level
located along the primary frontage, but
Both of these would need to be waived by the planning commissions part of their consideration, but I believe the second one
Really makes sense because under the building code
Accessibility requirements ADA accessible stalls should be located as close as possible to the entrance of the building
So if this was at the back or rear they would have to come all the way around to the front to access the showroom
and
so staff tonight is requesting DRC to comment on the proposed building design as well as confirm compliance with the city's design standards and
Staff's recommendation
again is to really get
Have the DRC review and comment on the following topics that are listed here as well as provide a positive
recommendation to the Planning Commission to move this project forward and
That is all I have for my presentation
I believe the applicants team also has a presentation for you tonight and for the record the city did receive two letters
From neighboring properties related to this project
And I believe a copy of those letters have been provided to you as well as additional copies have been placed in the back for
the public. Thank you
Any questions for me?
Not so much for you, but maybe for the applicant
The applicant will come up for his presentation
Yeah, I assume the applicant has a presentation
So let's go ahead good
Go ahead and don't introduce yourself. Of course, you know the root. You know the drill. I'm learning it
Good evening. Thank you for having us here. I'm Steven Scanlon
I represent a Porsche walnut Creek as the applicant and I have with me
James Spence and our from camping camp to also answer any questions that you might have
I want to hit some high points in the new urban dealership vernacular.
This building is sort of a prototype.
In similar fashion, it's sort of a prototype in that we've integrated everything into the
building.
Things that would normally be outside the building out in the footprint have been now
brought into the building.
It's enclosed.
We've shifted all that external program to the internal.
Also, the new dealerships, the demand for inventory is much less.
So we are able to shrink the footprint and provide a vertical inventory as opposed to
having it out on seven acres, which was the old style dealership.
We've brought, as I think Simmer mentioned, we've brought three buildings into one where
the current dealership is located in three different parcels.
This dealership, it's designed to the poor standards, and it's really designed around
the new sales and customer experience in the automotive world.
Most customers come and are 70 percent complete on their transaction before they actually
get to the dealership, and then when they come to the dealership, it's usually about
closing and maybe a test drive.
And the actual service process, unlike the sales process, is much more valet and porter-oriented.
So people come in, drop off their car, go to the waiting room, or grab a rental car.
And then the staff moves the cars around internally.
One of the nice things about this dealership is that everything is computerized.
So when you bring your car in, it comes in, it's quickly assessed, it's all by appointment,
there's no queuing, there's no vertical,
there's no stacking out in the street.
Everything is inside the building.
It won't even be in the parking lot.
What we like about, what we think is impactful,
we will be reducing traffic on the street.
The dealership where it's currently located
on those three building sites is now being consolidated
and all of that movement will be internalized.
So we won't be having vehicle traffic on Main Street
for that matter second. The dealership's being relocated, so what's already in
Walnut Creek for traffic generated by Porsche is just moving a quarter mile
away. We don't believe we're adding any traffic to it. In fact, we think we'll be
reducing it because of the internal capture. Because there'll be less
traffic, we expect that the air quality will be improved and there'll be
less emissions. Everything is put in all of the-all of the emissions inside the building
are captured and filtered, so we won't be dumping that out into the-into the environment.
The building is fully enclosed, and it has STC-rated assembly, so there will be very
little noise, if any, out into the-out into the public, and we're particularly respectful
of the adjacent residential neighbors, so we built a sound wall to help further mitigate
that and where the dealership is located it's above the residential and then the
sound wall steps up from there. So the acoustic footprint should be
significantly reduced if there's any at all. We've also moved the circulation
between second the majority of the circulations between second and the
building and North Main in the building and most of the service circulation is
is north of the building.
We don't, we have very little circulation on the west side.
It's only for moving cars in and out
and that's all done by the employees.
All the lights are shielded and all of the sign
and lighting are operated in fixed hours.
So it comes on in the morning, it goes off at night.
So there'll be very little light spill
into the adjacent residential community.
water, we've already completed the storm water hydromodification and filtration design and we're
compliant so we won't be dumping into the street. We go directly into storm. Those are sort of the
high points and now James I'll let you kind of walk through the operations. Good evening everyone,
my name is James Spence, I'm with Ginsler. I'm one of the architects on this project.
I'd like to start by thanking the Commission for carving out the special session for us tonight.
I know it's not your regularly scheduled night so we do appreciate your time and fair warning
I will probably end up pronouncing it Porsche which I know makes me sound like that friend
that just got back from the road abroad trip and pronounces things the weird way but it's
I'm gonna blame it on having to work with automotive dealers that much so just apologizing
for that ahead of time. Simmer and Steven have already done a great job kind of walking you
through the overview of our project.
I just wanted to run everybody else through more
of the operations side, how the client is going
to be running the business, as well as what the customer
journey looks like through that, and then a few more specifics
as far as the design is concerned.
So we have our site plan here.
What I wanted to start with was kind of an overview we do.
This is Porsche's new Gen 5 design.
So it's a couple of steps up from the current dealership
that is a quarter mile down the road.
Like Steven said, we are effectively
integrating and centralizing all of their program,
three buildings worth currently, of program
into this one central building.
It's going to be a three level building
with multiple operations, mainly servicing the showroom,
sales, and then the service, the shop. So the existing topography does grade down
when you go north on the site, so our design, our building design is kind of
reflecting that, which is why we have those three levels, the third of which,
the lower level, which is kind of what we call the deem the basement. Most of that
that will be covered on the west, south, and east sides.
It will start to reveal itself on the north side of the site.
It's fully revealed on the north side,
but most of it will be subterranean.
And then as far as the rest of the program is concerned,
we are, like I said, taking a lot of that operation
and moving it inside.
So we're helping to mitigate a lot of the noise
that is generated from those types of programs.
So traditionally on a automotive site,
you might see an exterior car wash.
You might see detail bays that are covered with a canopy.
You might see an external, or sorry,
an exterior oil and compressor storage
with just a lean-to covering it.
All of those are going to be enveloped into our project,
which will eliminate any kind of noise transmission
around the site and around the neighborhood.
We know that we are directly up against the neighborhood
on our west side of the property line.
We want to be able to respect their,
you know, be respectful neighbors
and try and mitigate as much noise as possible.
So we are kind of taking all of that program moving inside.
As far as the customer journey is concerned,
there are two approaches to the project
that the customers have.
There's one where they drive their own car into park
and enter the sales building.
that's the one main entry to the south east side
of the building that Simmer pointed out earlier.
They can park on-site, we have ample on-site parking
kind of along the south and east sides of the site.
And then they enter through that main showroom entrance.
Or they can bring their car in to get serviced,
they would pull into the service drive,
either pull on off of North Main Street
and work their way around the site,
or they could pull onto Second Avenue
and then into the service drive.
Like Steven said, most of these are made by appointment
and the porters there are very quick to grab the cars
once they're parked in the service drive
and pull them either directly into the shop
or they'll pull them out of the service drive
and onto the roof or down to the lower level basement.
So there will be very little queuing.
Most of the time it will extend maybe to the covered part
of the service drive, but it will never go out
into the kind of the fire lane area that you see there.
So the turnover is very quick.
That is something that they are very focused on
as far as the Fletcher Jones team is concerned.
So those are the two customer journey points
and how they interact with the site.
We have tried our best to kind of separate
the employee kind of circulation around the site
from the customers, so while the customers might be using,
say, the south and the east sides of the site,
the customers are all going to be using
the inventory and service vehicles around the west
and the north sides of the site.
So they will be taking the vehicles from the service drive
either directly into the shop or, like I said,
out and onto the parking deck on the third level
or underneath the building into the basement.
They will be doing all of that
through the entry points we have.
We only have one entry point into the shop that's on the west side of the building.
And then we have the other entry into the shop, which is interior.
It's actually going to be from our service drive.
So all of the – that one's going to be enclosed, and there won't be any exterior
exposure to the shop there.
And then another thing I wanted to touch on was the parts and vehicle delivery.
So they will have – sorry, vehicles delivered to the site on the large trucks.
Those trucks will park on the north side of the site of the building, at which point they
will unload the cars.
So this will be away from the customer interaction, customer circulation, and then same to do
with the parts.
So the one area we have on the north side of the building will be our parts delivery
where they will receive all the parts, typically after hours, and then the truck will pull
off the site onto North Main.
We also do have a trash enclosure in that same corner.
You can see a striped loading zone there.
so that's where we'll have our trash picked up.
And then in that same corner,
we do have our enclosed oil and compressor room.
They will have trucks that will come
and park in that same area
to unload all of the waste oil
and take that off of the site.
So we've tried to centralize all of that operation
in the same area of the site.
So another part of the site
that I did wanna focus on real quick
is the sound wall on the west side of our property.
So like I said, we want to be very aware
and respect to the neighbors that we have on the west side.
We do have an eight foot wall CMU wall
that's going to be painted the Porsche black
that you see the ramps been painted
as the sides of the ramp has been painted as well.
So the diagrams we have on the left side of the page there
are kind of showing the relationship of that sound wall
with the building as well as the neighboring sites
to the left, to the west of us.
You'll notice that those sites do grade just like ours do.
So towards the south of the site,
we have about an eight to 10 foot difference
between the neighboring site and ours,
at which point that eight foot wall would then start.
And then as you work your way north,
that eight to 10 feet becomes four,
becomes two, becomes zero.
So it starts to level out,
but we still will have that eight foot wall
blocking any kind of sound transmission
that might be coming from our site.
And then the diagram up top
just kind of shows a quick elevation sketch.
The red would be the elevation of that wall
as it steps down the site as it grades down.
And then the rendering is just an extra shot
showing the relationship.
It's got the wall off there to the left
and showing kind of that drive down
and the relationship to the building on the right.
Couple of slides showing our photometrics. So we are working with our lighting engineers to make sure that there is zero lighting spill
We want to make sure we have zero foot candles at our west and north property lines. We will be implementing
shielding
observing dark sky we will be
Having like Steven said timers on our lights so that they are shut off at the right moments to respect
the lighting regulations and
These are just showing photometrics on the street with the new lights being added.
The thing to point out on this page is a lighting pole design that we're modifying for this
project.
It's the picture you can see there in the bottom right corner.
This is something we've implemented on other jobs with parking roof decks.
We just want to make sure that these lights are directed towards the parking, not towards
anything else and away from the property lines.
These are the lighting poles that we'll be implementing here on our parking roof deck
as well.
We'll have some wall packs on the building side, which is on the south side of the parking
deck, but around the rest of the perimeter on those parapets, we will have these shorter
kind of light poles that are directed directly towards the inventory.
This is showing the FAR calculations in the regions that Simmer touched on earlier following
that FAR 0.30.
the parking designations is something else
we wanted to touch on, so making sure
that we have ample parking for our customers
on the surface lot, and then obviously enough parking
for the employees, both on the surface lot
and in the basement level.
So just to walk you through the floor plans real quick,
just to give you a brief overview of the program,
so this is our lower level, the basement.
We have one main point of entry into this basement
that's on the top right corner.
There is a small two foot ramp
that goes down into the lower level.
The vehicles will be brought down that way.
They have employees that can walk down that way as well.
We have parking mostly for inventory down here.
We do also have a few extra program elements.
We have four car washing stalls in the bottom left corner.
Just northeast of that, we have two detail bays.
And then just to the right of that, we have a photo booth.
So like I said, we're moving a lot of our program interior
that would typically be exterior
and most of that's going to be underground.
The rest of the program up in the top right corner
is going to be parts receiving,
which will be loaded onto a parts lift
and taken up to the main floor.
And then we have our oil and compressor room,
fuel electric panel rooms as well.
And then we are gonna have an elevator
that does come down to this level,
as well as an egress stair that you can see
next to the car wash stalls as well.
And this is where we'll also have our bicycle parking.
This is our main floor.
So we have our two story open atrium showroom
there to the bottom left corner.
This is where most of the sales will occur.
We have a kind of, we have two different cafe areas,
One on the first floor, one on the second.
We'll have restrooms on both floors as well.
And then we have our service drive,
where our customers will pull their cars in.
The cars will be ported into the shop afterwards.
And the customers can walk directly
into the service advisor area.
They can then walk through the merchandising
area into the cafe.
We also have what we call an owner's collection room.
It's the new car delivery.
So this is where the customers will end up
after purchasing their car.
They'll be walked through kind of the bells and whistles
of all their car, how to operate everything.
They'll take that vehicle,
they'll drive out the overhead door
and they will turn on to Second Avenue
towards the intersection as they drive off
with their new vehicle.
So that's kind of that process there.
And then turning up to the shop,
We have a total of 22 stalls in this shop.
And then north of that,
we just have all of the program support for the shop.
So it's gonna be parts, bins, tools,
things of that nature.
And then of course, restrooms and break rooms
for the techs that will be working in that shop.
I think it's important to mention, like I said before,
we only have one exterior entry into this shop.
It's the one there on the left side.
So that is facing the west side,
but it is a high speed overhead door.
it's a Rytech, so those things are up and down
in a matter of seconds.
So when the car's driving it out,
there might be a little bit of sound that comes through,
but for the most part,
it's going to be shut for most of the day.
We are implementing the ample STC ratings for these walls
so that all of the tools and everything happening
within the shop is dampened as much as possible
so that nothing will be kind of escaping the shop there.
as far as sound is concerned.
And then we do have our stairs wrapped around our elevator.
That's the same elevator that goes down to the basement
floor.
You can take that same elevator up to the mezzanine level
or the second floor, level two.
This is additional showroom space, additional sales.
We do have a kind of intermediate certified pre-owned
showroom, which is where you can see those six
darker vehicles there in that box.
So that's gonna be kind of interior showroom
for customers to kind of walk around more cars
without having to actually step outside just yet.
And then of course, to the north of that,
we have our parking roof deck.
Like I said, we'll be lighting that
with those specifically designed poles.
We will have our HVAC units on this roof deck as well
that will be servicing the shop.
those will be adequately screened
with the same ribbed metal panel
that we have on our sample board there,
so that all of that will be adequately screened.
We also have a gate, a security gate, on the west side,
just at the top of the ramp,
so that will be for security purposes.
It'll also be for screening purposes as well,
just to screen any of the cars that you might be able to see
when you're driving along Second Avenue.
just a few pages touching on our signage,
so we do have two wall signs.
Yeah, yeah, so I'll go quickly through these, monuments,
and then the elevations just touching on the materiality,
the finishes, so we have the Porsche silver metal panel
that's going to be wrapping the main showroom building,
and then we have our Porsche gray,
which is a kind of a very dark gray ribbed metal panel
that's going to wrap around the shop area.
So that's going to be on part of the east side.
Most of the, well, part of the north side,
the other part is going to be a stucco
that's painted black to match.
And then that ribbed panel will also wrap its way
around to the west side.
Any other exposed kind of precast will have that same stucco
that's painted that Porsche black.
and then there will be a little bit of white accent
metal panel that's shown right next to the main entry door
to the showroom.
And then, to touch one more time on the fencing,
it is a Design Master Forte product,
so it provides a little bit of screening,
also anti-theft measures for climbing the fence,
but also kind of more of an elevated design
for that fencing there to the north side of the site.
And then to wrap it up, just a few renderings.
So starting from the top left corner,
we have the shot from second and main.
So this is the main shot of the building,
showing the showroom and the entry there.
To the right, we wrap ourselves around
to the North Main side.
We have a shot of the shop there.
We will have glazing that goes into the shop.
And then the bottom left corner,
we have our monument sign in front of the shop
on North Main.
And then the bottom right corner just showing the ramp shot
from North Second Avenue.
So I believe that's all I have.
Thank you for your time.
Thanks.
Do we have commissioner questions?
I had a question.
There was a comment in the comments
that we received that requested that there be a right-hand only
turn on Second Avenue.
Is that programming that could be considered?
I believe it is.
So, just to clear up. No right turn. No right turn. I was guessing. I think they want to turn it off, right?
Everyone come this way. Yes. No, the opposite of that. I think that's totally, we can approach
that with our wayfinding signage that we'll have on site. So, we can certainly add the no right turn
or left turn only, whichever garbage the city would approve of. Okay. And then my other question was,
because there are some significant mature trees being taken out and I realize there are
limitations of the site but is there any opportunity to put in like one more significant
trees somewhere it's just a question. So we do have I mean I might um we we will be putting
the street trees in along North Main and Second Avenue as far as a more significant tree,
would we be looking at placing those in that area?
I know that we want to be respectful of the kind of frontage there.
So I think there might be an opportunity in the northeast corner, I believe, is where
we'll have, I think, the most flexibility there.
one of the problems of the tree type and we understand the significance, but like the city
standard, the trees are not listed for street trees in the city because of all the damage they do.
They're highly destructive to the hardscape foundations and all of that underground utilities.
So what we'd like to do is provide a fund and move them someplace where it's appropriate
and they can be retained. But I'm afraid that if we put them on the dealership,
will run into the same thing in you know five to ten years where they're
starting to destroy things and we run into the same impacts that we're trying
to avoid. Okay. Okay. Those are my questions. I had two questions. One was
very similar to Commissioner Case regarding the traffic flow on Second
Avenue respecting that left turn only request that the neighbors have made and
just if you could do a little bit of clarification on what you see that
that entrance being used for,
I think that it would help the people in general
kind of understand what you see that as the main purpose.
The South entrance of Second Street, yeah.
Correct, so I personally believe that the,
well the intent really will be,
that will be more of an exit for the cars coming out
of the service drive and pulling into Second Avenue
and towards the intersection.
So whether they're pulling their car out
after it's been serviced of the service drive,
or if they're pulling their car out of the new vehicle delivery
space that I was touching on earlier,
the shortest drive is to the Second Avenue curb cut.
So they will, I think, instinctually go there
and then turn towards the intersection to leave.
So I think while the main point of entry for the customers
will be on North Main Street, we've
view Second Avenue as more of a secondary entry point just because there's not really
any signage there. We have the monument sign on North Main closer to that curb cut there
directing the customers to pull in. So the curb cut on Second Avenue will serve more
so as a point of vehicle egress out of the site and towards North Main and away from
the building. Thank you. And the other thing that I was hoping you could give a little
more detail on are the hours that the lights will be on? I know that there's you
talked a little bit about the shielding and the dark sky but if you could just if
you know for the record when those those lights will be on. I can't tell you
specifically what those hours will be. I know that the the client is very open to
you know the city's needs and and if there are certain hours that we do need
to follow, we can certainly integrate those standards
for those timers.
Unfortunately, I'm not very aware
of if they have a regular hours where they switch on and off
versus their operating hours.
I have a question for staff.
So we don't have an operational plan or conditional use
permit that's part of this application, not required here.
auto sales and service is permitted by right. Okay. It's a designer. Right. You said that. Okay.
All right. Yeah, I mean, I think the one of the things going back to these comments is,
is, I mean, both comments that we've seen, and I assume we're going to hear in a few minutes,
is basically barring test drives along Second Avenue, like bar like limiting traffic. Is that
something Portia would be willing to agree to?
As in, so are we talking about directing the cars North Main and not having the
test drives? On second yeah. On second. My understanding is that second is is a bit
of a dead end if you turn into the neighborhood, correct? So not really, sorry?
It's not. It continues. It continues. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I misunderstood. I am sorry.
So when you turn on the second avenue, you're turning into a neighborhood. Typically test
drives aren't going through neighborhoods. They typically like to bring them on to more
main avenues. So it's not a Porsche requirement per se that they need to take their test drives
into certain types of areas, so if we have a stipulation that says these cars
and any test drives out of the Porsche dealership need to go directly onto
North Main Street and head north or south, that's completely agreeable. We
just, I think logically it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to take the cars
into the neighborhood. That's typically not how they operate those.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. So then thanks for that explanation. I think you actually, you've
actually answered a lot of questions. I mean, I think it maybe what I'd like to do is look
at that west elevation a bit and it really, we've talked a lot about the experience. I
want to talk about maybe what the neighbor's experience is. So we have, and you have some
sections that show the relationship of the of the neighbor's land to to the
property I mean it's it looks like it's how much uphill do we think it from from
the neighbors so depends on which part of the site you're on when you're on
the northern part of the site you're pretty much your level for the most part
if as you come down as you come south on the site it goes from about zero to
to about eight or nine feet towards the south side
of the West property line.
So, I mean, we've talked a lot about sound,
but like visibility cut off from the building,
the wall, to a certain extent,
will block most of what you see of that building, right?
Correct.
The plan wouldn't allow the addition of trees,
it just isn't enough room.
And that's one of the challenges with allowing a higher FAR is you just get higher density.
But I mean, you guys are well set back.
So I think not much you can do.
I mean, you talked a bit about noise spill.
Are you looking also at mitigating noise from the rooftop equipment, leading onto the neighbors?
Is there a good distance?
So, that was part of the reason we placed the rooftop unit on the east side of the parking
deck away from the residential area.
It will be screened well enough with the metal panel, so that should mitigate noise coming
from that rooftop unit, and it should be as far as we can place it from the west property
line to help with that.
Okay and then I mean second Street is a little it's a narrow Street
There aren't a lot of improved it does this project do any improvements to the on the public realm on the second Street. Yes, we will be
adding a sidewalk to Second Avenue
There will be landscaping improvements along that as along with that as well. Is it getting any wider is
Second Avenue getting any wider there's all of this. I don't
there are two requested dedications,
one on North Main for 50 foot half width
and one on second half for a 30 foot half width.
Okay, all right.
I just wanted to make one comment too about the site thing.
If you look at that section,
the site wall ends up being about,
in the steeper section towards the Southwest,
it ends up being somewhere in the neighborhood
of 16 to 17 feet.
If you're standing there and you're looking up,
your sight line likely shoots over the building.
And then above that, you're gonna have the canopy across it.
So it's pretty, I walked it myself.
It's pretty screened.
Yeah, I get it.
Any other questions, follow-up questions?
Okay, so then we're gonna open it up to public comment.
I see we have a couple of cards.
If there are people, you need to turn in a speaker card
to speak.
haven't get going and we'll get started with the few people we have.
I have two cards here of Tammy Kerr. Please introduce yourself and you have
two minutes. Hi my name is Tammy Kerr I work for Eco Performance Builders and
we are at 1511 Second Avenue so I guess my you know our concerns are basically
just traffic we're kind of on the corner it looks to me kind of where our
warehouse is situated is kind of across where one of the driveways on Second
Avenue is going to be and we're home performance contractors so we've got
some box trucks we get lots of deliveries all day long so you know UPS
FedEx Amazon some from Big Johnstone lots of big trucks we've got a couple
box trucks so you know we see how crazy the traffic is on Second Avenue and it
is a narrow street so I think that's part of it we have lots of people that
walk their dogs in front of our office, kids riding bikes and families and you
know I walk on that street pretty much every day on my lunch hour so you know
the traffic is a concern for us. My other question just you know as I was
seeing this coming about is just how is that gonna affect our business too even
just during construction because you know we've got box trucks that are we've
got to get our deliveries out to our projects and having things come in we've
got at least eight people that work in our office and you know just kind of
thinking about the logistics and the day-to-day and how that that's going to
affect our business. You know this looks it looks beautiful but I think it's just
mainly just a traffic and you know how is that going to be on such a such a
side kind of a narrow street with a lot of residential people and then us trying
to do our business. So that's just just a concern that we have and just you know
question we like to raise. So thank you. Next person. We've got Jessica Clark.
Hello this is gonna be probably a little bit of a repeat of the letter but my
name is Jessica Clark. I'm a long-term and actively involved Walnut Creek
resident and Larky Park neighbor and homeowner off Second Avenue. I've spoken
in front of this Commission before regarding my serious concerns as a
neighbor with the other proposed developments at this site from the
previous owner developers who had purposely allowed this site to fall into
to disrepair but this time I am here generally in favor of this proposal with
a few specific requests for your serious attention and consideration. Second
Avenue starting directly behind the proposed dealership is a family-friendly
residential neighborhood and an extremely narrow 25 mile per hour speed
limit street where pedestrians and bikes primarily families and children
including my own share the narrow undivided roadway with vehicles
traveling in both directions as there are almost no usable sidewalks along
Second Avenue and I don't think they're gonna put sidewalks into the neighborhood.
for this project to walk pets, access the numerous schools, pools, parks, etcetera
within the neighborhood as such and out of consideration for the
neighborhood residents safety on behalf of myself my children and my neighbors
I respectfully and emphatically request the following reasonable conditions be
explicitly incorporated as part of the dealership's approval explicitly in
writing prohibit all test drives from both sales and service on Second Avenue
into the residential neighborhood
as part of the conditions for approval.
Also, post it no right turns.
Signage for vehicles exiting the proposed
Second Avenue driveway to help reinforce the above condition.
And we have had test drives for mother dealerships.
In the past, we've notified the PD and it's been cut back,
but a dealership right there seems more lenient to that.
Additionally, I respect the commission's expertise
and design and know you will do your due diligence
to ensure this major project that will be longstanding
as the gateway to our neighborhood
is and remains aesthetically pleasing and appropriate.
I'm kind of concerned with that fence up at the top.
The one down further down North Main
has kind of a very unfinished look at the top.
So just give a special consideration in that.
And just abundant and highly aesthetic landscaping.
Thank you.
It would be Pam as a mid...
Patty?
I'm sorry, Patty, yes, correct, sorry.
Hi, I'm Patty Mitchell.
I'm a homeowner and resident of Larky neighborhood.
I have also stood before this commission
as part of Larky Park Neighbors United.
We're a group who had opposed initially the in and out
as well as the Amy's drive-through.
I support everything that Jessica has brought to the table
in terms of limiting the access in and out of the neighborhood
and it being a gateway to our neighborhood.
That said, I'm pleased to be here
to support this project.
That corner is awful, it looks terrible,
it has looked terrible for years.
There's been fires there,
there's been unhoused individuals
that have spent time there,
and this dealership, I think, is a real asset
to our neighborhood, and I appreciate everything
that was brought up today by the developer and the architect
about their considerations for it being
within a neighborhood, but also the footprint
that they're putting out there
for both the design and the landscaping,
and very much appreciate the fact that there will be,
while we don't have a sidewalk
all the way down Second Avenue,
having that sidewalk there in the front
and around the side is a great improvement.
If they would like to go ahead and continue that further,
we'd really love that and appreciate that.
but we're here not to inhibit any development,
and we're very, very pleased that this project
is taking place at this location versus a drive-through.
Thank you.
Steve Signarelli.
Thank you very much for leaving this open
for our public comment.
We really do appreciate it.
As noted by others, we are actually welcoming this project
because prior efforts have been haphazard
and honestly distasteful for the community.
That being said, I'm going to read a letter
from my wife who's not able to be here tonight,
and I will quote it.
My name is Natalie Signarelli.
I live at 15 Vartan Court,
directly behind the proposed Porsche dealership site.
While I'm not necessarily opposed to the project,
I hope we can work collaboratively
to ensure it is developed responsibly
and safely for nearby residents.
I do have a few initial comments and questions.
Number one, demolition and air quality.
Given that many families on our street,
including young children and elderly residents,
I would like assurances that all proper precautions
will be taken during demolition
to minimize release of toxic chemicals,
dust, or other airborne hazards.
Clear communication with nearby residents
regarding demolition timelines
and safety measures would be appreciated.
Building height and grading.
grading of the property is uneven. She notes, I would like clarification on how the proposed
30-foot building height will appear from adjacent homes. I think we've seen some clarification
with the documentation provided. A visual rendering or elevation map would help neighbors
understand the real impact. I have major concerns because I've spoken to the original neighbors
that have lived there and they noted they used to have a view of Mount Diablo that is long gone with
the current buildings. We'd like it restored. With lighting and light
pollution, concerned about the light pollution particularly off hours since
they're securing their products, we need 10 o'clock lights out. It's a
neighborhood. People need to sleep. And we appreciate that the comments be
considered. I have a few other really critical considerations. The canal trail
adjacency, any type of spill off, and also pedestrians coming and going with the dealership
traffic.
We just need to make sure everyone's kept safe.
Thank you for your time.
Thanks.
The last card I have is Lana Georgieva.
Hello everyone.
Well I've never done this before, but I'm here because I will be the immediate neighbor
with the proposed project.
So I'm 24 garden courts, so I'm right there.
So I also have concerns about the demolition,
because currently, the building right now,
it's two feet away from us.
So I'm not sure how are you going to seal that,
because there will be a lot of crawly polys,
crow crutches, rats, dust, asbestos, everything.
And again, we have young children.
We have elderly.
And we have people with very severe medical conditions.
So we want to know how that's going to be addressed.
Also, with the height of the building,
I want to know, in terms of sunlight and privacy,
how that's going to affect us.
Also, traffic with our cul-de-sac, currently a lot of cars make U-turns.
For some reason, they get lost, whatever, they make a U-turn, so I think with that,
there'll be more traffic on the cul-de-sac and that's going to be an issue because we
have eight children just on that cul-de-sac that play all the time, so we want to make
sure that they're going to be safe. Also, pedestrians, there's a lot of children because
Contra Costa Christian School is very close by, so a lot of, well, a lot of people walk
on Second Avenue, so safety is also an issue. Light pollution, also, I want to know because
I think you mentioned, you know, like light poles.
And so my concern is, one of the concerns, obviously,
is like the third floor of your parking lot
with the light poles.
So with that, how is, how that's gonna affect,
yes, our lights and privacy?
Because we're like right there,
so if it's like 30-piece setback,
so this is the difference, so this is my house,
This is gonna be the tall building.
So my question is, everybody's gonna look at our backyard.
And also you mentioned the wall that you'll be building
will be eight foot and then going down
to four to two to nothing.
So I just wanna like more clarification
on how that's gonna affect us,
which house gets how much,
how thick is gonna be the building,
Basically like safety, privacy, and noise.
With the car deliveries, if you have like,
you mentioned the car deliveries will be after office hours.
So how that's going to affect us, how noisy that's
going to be for us, the immediate neighbors.
Trash pickups, because trash pickups are very, very loud.
And noise in general with the, as mentioned,
car washes, compressor devices, tools,
and if the shop is going to be on our side
or somewhere else.
So yeah, thank you very much, guys.
One more card, Eric.
Is it Eric Datum?
Yeah.
How's it going?
My name is Eric Payton.
I didn't plan on talking today, but I figured I would.
I am part owners of Mass A Sports Bar
with my sister, Melissa Barrett.
We sat here technically, it'd be five years, 228 days ago,
sitting here to buy one third of the property,
and this city denied the project,
which was devastating to the longevity of my family,
my life, and everything.
And at the end of the day,
there's nothing personal in this, it's just business.
I've met this gentleman, Steven, before,
three, four years ago, he's been respectful.
I've talked to the new owner of the property,
Pledger's Own Junior, I have a cell phone number,
which is unfathomable about this.
I think the disheartening thing of all of this,
I'm not deposing this project.
I am sad that no one up here has asked,
where's Mass A's going?
Have you talked to Mass A's?
We've been there for 31 years
as a family owned establishment.
I have a recommendation for both of you,
I wanna make this a public record,
that if we decide to,
and we've been actively looking
for another piece of property,
whether it's our goal is within two miles,
if we decide to stay in Walnut Creek,
you guys have all said
that we will be given a 2 a.m. liquor license.
We're not changing our business plan,
we've been the same thing.
So keep that in consideration
if we decide to move somewhere in Walnut Creek,
that you will take that into 100% consideration
and not be kind of, we're a newbie in town,
we've been here for 31 years,
but tonight when you go to bed,
before you go to bed, look yourself in the mirror.
None of you asked, we're a business that's been there
for 31 years and asked, where's Mass A's gonna go?
Have you talked to Mass A's?
And like I said, I'm not,
I think this is a great project for it,
I wish I was there, the gentleman that owns the property
was a gentleman beyond measures to come speak to me
man to man and talk to me.
I wish I could stay.
I said I would buy our partial again.
Unfortunately that wasn't the outcome,
but I just wanted to put that on record
that I want you guys to be able to look me in the face
in case we decide to stay in Walnut Creek
to give us that respect moving forward.
It's been that long.
We were preying on our soul that it would get approved.
It was three to two votes that it didn't go through.
It was unfortunate, but you have to do
what's the best for the city
and our goal is to be around forever.
So if the things go forward, don't say we're closing.
We will be moving somewhere, somewhere close.
So, thank you very much.
Any more cards?
Any other, I'm sorry, you were already up, right?
Yeah, that's, you've had your time.
Sorry, sorry, two minutes, two minutes.
Okay, so, then let's move on to Commissioner comments, right?
Close, oh, close the public hearing.
Any commissioner comments?
Yeah, I can kick it off.
So I appreciate the comments about noise
and demolition and all that.
I'm gonna stick to our charge on our list here.
So in terms of site design,
I appreciate that it's moving the building
as far as it can from the residences.
I think it's treating the grade well.
I don't have issue with the exceptions to the FAR
and the height or the square footage of the sign,
all of those seem reasonable to the site design for me.
The building architecture is suitable for the brand.
The landscape plan, I mentioned,
I wish there was a way we could mitigate with bigger trees,
but I understand their utility issues,
so I'm fine with that.
Same with the tree removals.
I understand the site design impacts that,
and I already spoke on the signage.
So those are my comments.
Go ahead.
I have no additional comments.
Okay, so what else do I have?
I think in terms of conditions,
I mean, I think the no right turn
is something we'd like to recommend.
In addition to that, I think it'd be beneficial
if there's something like they can do with the curb
and so forth to make it to encourage people to turn left
as opposed to just having to sign.
I think that might be helpful.
Regarding the lighting and the hours,
I mean, I think because there's no conditional use permit,
that cannot be imposed to this type of a use,
as I understand it.
So the only thing we can do is really just reinforce
what they've already offered,
which is zero light spill to adjacent properties.
I think, for me, what's particularly important
is on the west side facing the neighbors.
I mean, we need full cut off.
So sometimes you can have those type of lights
and you can still see the light source.
No light sources should be visible from the west side.
And that should mitigate the concern
because there won't be any light spilling onto the property.
I think there was discussion about air quality
and demolition.
I think regarding demolition,
I'm an architect at pull permits.
There will be set hours.
The city has set hours and they have air quality limits.
All those other things will be a condition
of the building permit, I believe.
And there's nothing,
I don't think we can impose those conditions
because they already, in a building permit,
they already exist, right?
when you get a demo permit?
They do, but we've also got some,
what have become some quasi,
typical conditional, I'm sorry.
I'm having trouble with my words.
Typical conditions.
Yeah, use your words.
With conditions of approval, sorry.
That would, that have been used in
sequel land for 20 years as far as idling.
the types of machines to use,
water for dust, dust control,
riprap at the driveways to keep mud
from going out on the street, we've got all that.
Yeah, yeah, so it's all,
you're not asking us for CEQA or recommendation on CEQA,
but I think it's all generally there, right?
Well, correct, and we're still not quite sure
what that recommendation's going to be.
likely some type of an exemption, we're not sure.
But even then, we can still impose those conditions.
Yeah.
Okay, I mean, lastly, I think, you know,
I had a comment here basically to thank the Porsche dealership
for staying in Walnut Creek,
because I know you've been here a long time.
I think we really appreciate it.
I think Massay's, I've been there.
It's a great business.
Frankly, why didn't we ask the question?
Well, I think everyone thought you owned that building
and it was your idea, so that's it coming from me.
But definitely encourage you to stay here in town.
That's all I have.
I think I've captured most of the issues here
and the recommendation from the design review.
Your speaker's not on.
It is not.
The recommendation from the design review commission
would be to support that left turn only.
That's for test drives and anybody leaving
on that second but no right turn.
Possibly to look for a physical solution
to work with the sign.
I'm not sure what that would look like
but we can take a look at it.
Is everybody onboard with that?
Yes.
The Planning Commission should be presented
with a time for lights out.
light sources should be screened as opposed to just spillover.
Correct.
Especially on the rooftop.
And then conditions for demolition which I mentioned earlier are quasi standard conditions.
I think that's all I got. Did I miss anything?
Nope.
It seemed to be that there was support for, specifically support for the deviations in
development standards for terms of height and FAR.
And there was support for the signage
and that it was, seemed to be in scale
with the development, okay, good.
Okay, so are we.
Are we voting on this?
No.
No, these are just recommendations
because the Planning Commission acts.
Correct.
Okay, then we're gonna move on
to the next item in the agenda,
which is commission considerations.
So do we have any?
Commission consider for staff, anyway.
Just to remind the chair and vice chair
that there is a meeting Friday morning with the mayor
and all the chairs of the other commissions.
Breakfast will be served.
And I believe that you received an email
with the upcoming calendar for the commission.
The vice chair won't be here.
So if anybody wants to come, come on along.
I'll be there.
Yeah.
You're right across the street.
I'm not bad, really, I'm not.
Okay.
Commission member and staff reports our announcements.
I think you just gave them, right?
I just gave them.
Okay.
Adjourned.
All right.