one, two, captions test. One, two, captions test. One, two, captions test. One, two.
Welcome to the July 9th Planning Commission Meeting. Will the Secretary
please take the roll? Commissioner Anderson? Here. Commissioner Moran is
absent. Let us know ahead of time. Commissioner Cown? Here. Commissioner
Strongman? Here. Commissioner Kwok? Here. Vice Chair Clough? Here. And Chair Needing?
here. Thank you. Do we have anything on the consent calendar? Okay there are two
opportunities for the public to provide comment the first is for each item on
the agenda when the agenda comes up or right now which is a comment that
is within the purview but not on an item on the agenda which we only have one
tonight so are there any public comments on items not on the agenda? Seeing a lot
shaking hands. Okay perfect. So now I'd like to go with item number four, oh
pardon me, any ex parte communication. Also lots of the head shaking. So with
that let's move on to item number four which is the public hearing. We have one
item which is project YCD architecture conditional use permit application
number Y-2661 located at 1402 at Newell Avenue. And it sounds like we also have a presentation
from staff as well. Thank you. Good evening planning commissioners.
My name is Jessica Gonzales, senior planner, and tonight I will be presenting the conditional
use permit for YC plus D. Getting started with the project location, the project site
an existing single-story building located at 1402 Newell Avenue. The site is zoned central retail.
I have included a portion of our zoning map on the screen showing the project site. As you can
see the area is surrounded by a mix of zoning districts including Broadway Plaza, pedestrian
retail, central retail, and office commercial. And so as such the surrounding uses for the site
include various offices, commercial and retail uses.
Just some more project context, I've included some photos of the building on
this screen. The photo on the left side shows the
building side facing Newell Avenue. The photo on the right side shows the
proposed project location and tenant space.
So some understanding on the application, YC plus D
is an architectural firm that proposes to occupy one
of the three existing tenant spaces at the building a conditional use permit is required
to allow office use on the ground floor in the central retail zoning district as such
they have applied for a CUP some details on the proposed use the proposed use is a professional
office with administrative task office work and occasional in-person meetings proposed
hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. closed on the
weekends. The tenant space is roughly 1,000 square feet and they do anticipate
having approximately eight employees. I've included the existing floor plan
for the entire building on this screen. So here again is the existing floor plan
with the proposed tenant space highlighted. The proposed tenant space
This was previously occupied by a medical office.
So here's the proposed floor plan showing the changes that will be made.
Interior work for the office includes really just breaking up the tenant space to provide
for small conference rooms and work areas.
Aside from the interior tenant improvements shown on the screen and parking re-striping,
no other exterior changes were proposed.
Moving into parking, as I mentioned, the previous tenant use was medical office and that had
a parking requirement of six spaces for that unit space size.
The proposed professional office use would only require four spaces.
As such, the change in use reduces the overall required parking for the site from 17 spaces
to 15.
And so under our parking ordinance, required parking is only triggered when the change
of use increases the required parking by 10 percent or more.
As such, no parking is required because the change of use actually reduces the required
parking.
Nevertheless, 21 parking spaces are available for the building through the 10 spaces on
the parking lot and some additional off-site parking agreements.
So in order to approve the conditional use permit, the planning commission must make
the standard findings shown on the screen.
As noted in the staff report, staff believes the findings can be made.
As I mentioned, there is no additional required parking and there were no health or safety
concerns identified.
Additionally, in order to allow office in the central retail zone, the planning commission
must make two additional findings which are shown on this screen.
One is that the site is not suitable for retail use, and the other is that the proposed use
is compatible with the area.
As noted in the report, the main building entryways do not face new, making the building
sub-optimal for retail use based on lack of visibility.
Additionally, the site is surrounded by existing offices and the office commercial zone, making
office a compatible use with the area.
For those reasons, staff does recommend that the planning commission move to adopt the
draft resolution approving the conditional use permit under application Y26061, allowing
YC-plus-D to occupy 1402 Newell.
That does conclude my presentation.
I'm available for any questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Does anyone have any questions for staff?
Thank you very presentation
Curious do the other two medical offices on the building
Obtain a cup when they moved in
So I did some research on this site. Unfortunately was not able to find any old conditional use permits
It looks like the construction day I believe was in the 1950s
So I believe you know, I'm not sure when those uses were established
but they could be legal nonconforming uses.
OK, follow up question.
Do we know if there is ever any retail in this building?
Not that I'm aware of.
OK, thank you.
Any other questions?
How long has that front medical, what used to be medical,
been vacant for?
We'd have to defer to the applicant for that.
Sorry.
No, that's fine.
Any more questions before I open up the public hearing?
Oh, yes.
Just interested about the South Newell area specific plan.
I wonder how many other little plans we have tucked away,
but clearly this complies with that,
but is this something we need to update at some point?
Yeah, I think not to sound like a broken record,
but as we enter deeper into our general plan update,
this is absolutely something that our team can look at.
and if we want to craft policies that re-examine
our specific plans.
Thank you.
Seeing no more, thank you so much for that presentation.
I'd like to now open up the public hearing
if you mentioned the applicant is here.
Yes, and they do have a presentation that I'll pull up.
Okay, fabulous.
It's, I think, I believe you have 15 minutes.
We're getting there.
Yay!
If you could instate your name, thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Hello, everyone.
Is it on?
Oh, yes.
Oh, it is.
OK.
And then this is advanced.
OK.
Thank you to everyone here, the commission.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to you,
give you some context about who we are
and what we do as an architectural practice.
I'm here representing YC Plus D.
I am Yan Chen.
I'm the owner and one of the principal architects
with the practice.
And here with me is Dara Doragi who is my partner
and also a principal architect with the firm.
We have been in practice for about nine years now
here in Walnut Creek.
We work in a diverse range of projects,
ranging from the very small to very large ground-up
construction.
Currently, we are primarily working in education sector.
We do a lot of projects all along California,
up and down California with projects in Shasta, Lake
County, Sacramento, and here in the East Bay as well,
and then down in Bakersfield in Los Angeles County.
So we do projects over California.
So as you can see here, this is a sample
of the types of projects that we've been working on recently.
And I'm going to move on to the next slide.
What you see here is our current office.
And when I started the practice in 2017,
I was a solo practitioner, started the business
within my home office.
So that was 2017.
In 2021, Dara joined the practice.
And in 2023, we moved downtown to industrious workspace,
working space where we have currently two suites that we occupy.
And as you can see here, our day-to-day operations involve, you know, working designing and collaborating
with each other, our consultants and clients and meet with consultants and clients through
virtual meetings, and occasionally we do host some meetings in-house, but very infrequently.
And as you can see here, we're in two offices, we're kind of bursting at the seams.
And so earlier this year, late last year, we decided to look for commercial office opportunities
in the downtown area.
We do enjoy being in downtown Walnut Creek and we live in Walnut Creek.
We want to have our establish our business here and we like the downtown vibrancy of
the downtown and the opportunity to allow our younger staff coming from other areas
of the Bay and a little bit beyond, to take advantage of being in a vibrant downtown environment
for their day-to-day, you know, in their day-to-day life.
We do, we are mostly in office.
We do not, you know, work off-site frequently, just because of the nature of our work.
We do a lot of collaboration on large projects as a team,
and so it behooves us to come together as a team in person.
So this is an opportunity for us to find a space
to give us a little wiggle room,
and also allow us the opportunity to grow the business
as we move ahead.
So, again, really appreciate Jessica's presentation and recommendation and with that I'll take
any questions you may have.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
Any questions for Commissioner Kwok?
All right.
Thank you so much for the presentation, it's very informative and I can tell you put a
lot of love into the plans especially since it looks like you designed it yourself.
Yes.
so how exciting um i give me a second so i think you mentioned you're currently in downtown
yes yes we're in um industria's co-working space which is on the second floor of um
um above lulu lemon and um i mean it's yeah broadway plaza basically yeah yeah
and uh what do you like about the place that you're that you're looking at
We, again, we like being downtown, you know, the proximity to all the amenities and shops,
you know, giving our sort of team members and ourselves the opportunity to walk around,
you know, during the day when we need to take some fresh air breaks and really just, you
know, take advantage of being in close proximity to all the shops and restaurants and really
just the vibrancy of the downtown environment. And I think that's a really big plus for us
to draw talents from over the Bay Area and beyond. And we live in Walnut Creek. We're
about 15 minutes commute, depending on the traffic on Ignacio. And we tell when we interview
younger staff member, candidates to join us, we really encourage them to look at Walnut
Creek as you know a place to to come and you know grow and yeah so so we like we
like being downtown and yeah it's a central location for us to so what he
said it's very close to all different amenities across the main draw any other
questions? Andrew, no, you're fine. Sorry, I need to put my glasses on. I just want
to say, I was glad you showed the current space. I was looking at your
design for the new space thinking it was actually pretty tight, but then I
realized, looking at a tighter space, now, was that, you know, my first job in an
architectural office was 1970 and my last one was I think 1976. So I didn't, I
I couldn't figure out where you're going to put all these giant drawing ports.
And I noticed there weren't any.
Times have changed, and probably we're in the digital age now.
Yeah.
It's been a good plan.
Yeah.
I just had a super quick question when I was reading about the parking.
Are you leasing spots at Broadway Plaza?
Yes, yes.
So currently, that's our parking arrangement for all the employees.
And it is one of the perks that we provide.
And we do want to continue that, even
after we move to the new space.
Got it.
So do you have, so if I read the staff report,
you have Broadway Plaza adjacent to, and then
the lot next door, which is the same owner.
So you have multiple places to park.
For Broadway Plaza, yes.
So it's Broadway Plaza and across the street,
close to an Apple store.
Yeah, yes, yeah, we do have two lots.
Yeah, so there's multiple places for your employees
or frankly, civil engineers to MEPS to come over.
Okay, nothing, thank you so much.
You're welcome, thank you.
And then are there doing any cards for public speakers?
Nope, I have nothing.
Perfect, thank you.
So you do not need to come back up to talk
because we do not have any public speakers.
So with that, I would like to close the public hearing
and bring it back to the commission
for any conversation, considerations, questions.
Yes.
I totally support the project,
but I would like to chime my co-commissioners
that we do need to rethink these zonings
and special districts
because all they need is a building permit.
It's been medical probably since the 50s,
or offices since the 50s, the way we're
trying to force retail into 1,000 square feet.
But the only retail that would work there
is a pot shop, which is not legal in the city of Walla
Creek.
Thank you, Commissioner Strongman.
Commissioner Anderson yes it seems like you know the reason for the CUP is you
know is it really you know not suitable for retail and you know it's okay to
have office there on the first floor and I've worked about two blocks away from
here for two decades and I'm not sure I even knew there was a building there so
I don't really think is good for retail yeah it's just thought yeah that's the
into it so I'd like to make a motion yes for approval of Walnut Creek planning
Commission resolution oops for a conditional use permit application
number y 26061 professional business office why C and D architecture on 1402
New Avenue circuit let's take the role all right Commissioner Anderson yes
Commissioner Cown? Yes. Commissioner Strongman? Yes. Commissioner Kwok? Yes. Vice chair
claw? Yes. And chair Needing? Yes. I just had one little side comment. I don't think
it's generally well known what they're referring to when they say
industrious. So I don't think people know that in Broadway Plaza there's a
second floor live work space that's very flexible. Like if you have meetings you
You can have a membership there,
you can have office space.
It's a very interesting concept
and I don't think it's very well known,
but that's why they know already this area
and they have parking already in Broadway Plaza
because they're upstairs there.
But it's a cool space, really cool space.
Well, the one thing I would like to say is that
this commission is especially gracious and thankful
for local businesses.
So I just the fact that you live and work in this city.
So we thank you for continuing to choose Walnut Creek
and you're sending all of your amazing
and talented employees to the retail,
which we worked really hard on,
which is Broadway Plaza, which we're very, very proud of.
So I just wanna thank you for that and commend you for that.
Okay, any commission, thank you.
Any commission considerations?
I think you, did you attend something?
Yes, well I don't know whether it's a report
or a consideration.
But, yes, I attended the Transpac meeting this morning
as the Planning Commission representative for Walnut Creek
and my mic is not on.
Thank you.
I attended the Transpac meeting this morning
and it was actually a very instructional meeting
sort of foundationally for me to understand
how the CCTA executive director was there
and to understand how CCTA was founded
based on a tax measure that was passed in 1988,
which was measure C,
and then subsequently replaced by measure J in 2004.
And measure that has oversight of all the funding
and give CCTA its authority to be sort of the orchestra
leader of all the multiple planning, excuse me,
transportation organizations and systems within the county.
So that tax measure expires, Measure J expires in 2034.
So CCTA is in the process of doing public information
gathering, et cetera, to set the plan for the next iteration.
So it will involve significant personal outreach by them
as an organization, public outreach,
things in the news, et cetera,
to ask about transportation issues
and transportation planning.
There are surveys that are up on the CCTA website
for any person to give input.
And their goal is to have that plan developed by 2028
so that it can be then formatted
into a legislative packet
that would go to the voters to replace then Measure J
in that next iteration.
So just wanna put that on everyone's radar
that that's gonna be a really important thing for us
all to support, given what we hear about transportation
in our community and the concerns
and what the next 25 years is gonna look like
with changes in technology, work patterns,
traffic patterns, building patterns, et cetera.
So that is my report.
Any other reports before I bring it to the staff?
I forgot to ask you, do you have any considerations?
Oh, I'm so sorry.
So I just wanted to say thank you to staff and the city
for hosting the joint commission meeting
for the Walnut Creek 2050,
because similar to CCTA's plan for the future,
our general plan update is really crucial
and having not just the planning commission,
but all of our commissions together,
I thought was very helpful
to hear everyone's different perspectives
and also to understand what the plan is going forward
for all the different community input that's needed.
So I just wanted to say thank you for that.
Any other commission considerations
or commission members to have reports announcements?
I will chime in for announcements.
I'll piggyback off of that thank you.
So thank you for your thank you.
I do want to just highlight for you all
that on July 21st we will also be doing a study session
with the city council on the general plan update.
And then in case anyone is interested,
all throughout August to September,
we're gonna have a bunch
of different community pop-up activities.
So off the top of my head,
I know we're at the Locust Street Festival.
We will be at, I think Broadway Plaza has something called
Once Upon a Time Fair Festival.
I'm sorry I'm still learning the ropes here.
And then we'll also be at the Shadelands Farmer's Market.
So a couple different dates
throughout those next two months.
And of course we have a wonderful website.
If anyone wants to check it out
or if you know anyone in the city is,
or the community is reaching out to you,
please refer them to walnutcreek2050.com or .org.
Either one will get you there.
And so lots of good information there
and you'll have more opportunities to provide some input.
And then my last thing for you all is just to let you know,
we don't have any items for the July 23rd meeting.
There will be a more formal cancellation,
but I, because I have that information now,
just wanted to give you the heads up.
But in August, we do have trending projects
for both meetings.
And that's all I've got.
Perfect.
Thank you.
And we will adjourn at 6.27 PM.
Thank you.