Welcome to the Walnut Creek Design Review Commission for Wednesday, September 2nd.
If there is anyone in the audience that wishes to address the Commission as a member of the
public, please fill out a speaker's card and when invited by the Commission Secretary,
please state your name clearly and where you live and whom you represent and make sure
you're speaking into the microphone.
I think that's good enough.
So I guess we can call roll.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Commissioner Newsom?
Here.
Commissioner Prose?
Here.
Vice Chair Riley?
Here.
Chair Basting?
Here.
And Commissioner Case is absent tonight.
She did inform staff prior to this meeting.
Thank you.
So are there any items on the consent calendar?
Nothing on the consent calendar today.
All right, so next up is public communications.
I don't see anyone in the audience from the public
unless either of you guys are.
Okay.
Were there any ex parte communications between commissioners?
Is this, last week?
No?
Okay.
So now we will move on to the public hearing.
Good evening, design review commissioners.
My name is Jessica Gonzalez, senior planner,
and tonight I will be presenting
the Master Sign Program Amendment sign exception
and sign height requests for the property
at 1500 Mount Diablo Boulevard.
Getting started with the location,
the site is an existing three-story building
located at the corner of North Main Street
and Mount Diablo Boulevard.
The three-story building is occupied by various restaurants
and surrounded by other commercial and retail uses
within the downtown area.
Just some context on the site.
I've included some photos of the building on this screen
showing the building facade along North Main
and the building facade along Mount Diablo Boulevard.
Some additional photos showing the facade
along Commercial Lane and the interior side of the building.
Getting into the Master Sign Program Amendment before you,
the property has an existing master sign program
that was approved in 2015.
The proposed Master Sign Program Amendment packet
before you tonight does preserve portions
of that existing plan and incorporates new plan sheets
to accommodate new signage.
As proposed, the amendment package does require
a sign exception and a sign height allowance request.
So the overall goals for the master sign program
amendment package is to remove an unused,
previously approved 60 square foot mural sign,
allow for additional sign size for four ground floor signs,
redistribute the allowed sign area, again,
after the removal of the mural sign,
add three new signs for a newly created ground floor tenant
space where the old Vineyard Vines location was,
and to add a secondary sign for the existing third floor
rooftop restaurant business.
And so the amended MSP does remove
the previously approved mural sign as mentioned.
And so while the amendment does include
the updated allocation of sign area for the building,
the proposed total sign area does exceed
the allowance by 40 square feet.
And so a sign exception is required.
Just getting into the new proposed signs.
So the four new signs are shown on the building elevations
circled in green, a green circle.
These are the elevations for North Main Street
and Mount Diablo.
As you can see, one wall sign is for the existing
rooftop third floor tenant space,
and the other signs are for the first floor tenant space.
And so since the rooftop proposed wall sign
is above 25 feet, it does require a sign height request.
So here is the sign layout for the existing master sign program just to get an understanding
of how many signs.
The existing sign program allows for 19 signs including wall signs, banner signs, blade
signs, and again the one mural sign.
Here is the proposed amendment sign layout.
Again, the three or the four proposed signs are circled in green.
And so in order to approve the requested sign exception to allow the additional sign area,
the DRC must make the findings shown on the screen.
As noted in the report, staff believes those findings can be made as the request only represents
an additional 40 square feet.
And the signs generally match the size and scale of the already approved master sign
program.
And then lastly regarding the height increase request, the required findings are also shown
on the screen.
And so again, staff believes these findings can be made as the rooftop sign is well designed
and is directly adjacent to the tenant space.
And so with that, staff does recommend that the DRC move to determine that the project
is exempt from CEQA and to adopt the draft resolution granting the master sign program
amendment, sign exceptions and height increase request. I'm available for any
questions. The applicant, Sudha Zlami, is also available with a
presentation and the property owner, Brian Harihara, is also available for
questions. Thank you. Do we have any questions of staff at the moment? Okay,
great. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Brian Harihara, BH Development, owner and
developer of this project. At a high level when we this was a city owned
property if you remember over it's been there 10 years so this was probably 12
or 13 years ago it was an RFP process request for proposals that we competed
with and we told the city at the time that this is truly a gateway site and
our intent was number one to create a building that was in keeping with the
traditional downtown, the older area of downtown.
We had recently completed the Sasa Building,
which was an old 100-year-old brick building.
So we utilized a 100-year-old reclaimed brick
from an industrial building in Stockton for all the brick.
And frankly, kind of went a little crazy with,
I'm a want to be designer architect.
So had fun with a living wall, a living roof, a corten steel.
There's no stucco on the building.
And a lot of landscaping, which you can see.
And I'll bring up why that's important.
The other goal that we told the city
was that if we were smart, we would just
put a two-story retail building here.
But we really wanted to create a building that
would draw traffic across Mount Diablo Boulevard
and create a buzz of activity in that, again, important
North the downtown traditional downtown corner.
So we put a retail retailer on the corner,
being Inured Vines, and then three restaurants
on three floors.
And I think we've been very fortunate
that the restaurants have been very successful
and the way retail has changed,
Vineyard Vines ended up closing the building.
And we ended up with the retail being
the weakest piece of the project.
And I think what in looking at the building,
we did so much design-wise that their signage almost,
I would say disappeared, but it kind of does.
I feel a little bit bad because originally
I didn't want their pink whale on the building,
and so they did not.
And I think it was, as we relook at the building,
Signage for the retail is really important.
The second component is that we are demising the space
into two spaces.
And so as Jessica described, we're
trying to provide signage for both of those tenants.
And the vertical blade sign at the corner
was just to do something unique to give them more visibility.
So a lot of it, though, is just that there's
There's so much going on visually with the building, which was our intent, but I never
thought that that would take away from the retail presence of the building.
So we're trying to counteract that and provide them more visibility.
Thank you.
Any questions for me?
Q So the Vineyard Vinespace is being separated into two tennis spaces.
R.P.
Correct.
Putting in a gelato operator from Brazil and a milk tea operator from China, like the Starbucks
of China on the corner.
Nice.
So fun tidbit.
Within walking, doesn't sell my house.
Yes.
Thank you.
Anybody else have any questions?
No?
Good evening.
My name is Siddharth Aslami with Design Art.
Thank you all for your time to preview this project.
Before we go through the boring science stuff,
I just wanted to kind of, when I heard these new tenets,
It was kind of exciting for me to kind of see who they are
and what they do, and I did a quick little research.
So Cha Ji, and I, correct me if I'm wrong,
if anybody knows more about this,
but I did some quick research,
it's basically the word cha means tea and the Ji.
It refers to a female role in traditional Chinese opera.
And this is how they started their branding.
This place is started in South China.
It's in a city called Yunnan.
And ever since this is the place,
I guess they grow the most amazing tea.
And that's where this whole brand has originated from there.
And it's quite fascinating that they started this in 2017.
And right now, they have over 6,000 stores
all over the world.
And interestingly, they started in Southern California.
And I guess it sounds like the Walnut Creek
is going to be their second store in Northern California,
which is exciting.
And same thing with Bociu Dilate,
which I kind of find a very interesting name for that.
In Italian, it means kiss of milk.
Yeah, it was kind of interesting.
And they also, they originated in 2011, Brazil.
And I guess, again, we're probably
the third store here in Northern California.
And they globally have over 200 stores.
So I just thought we'd kind of get to know these people
before we start talking about their signs.
So this is a very brief description of the changes.
Because I know when we were looking
at the original sign program, and a lot of signs are showing.
So I just thought I did a quick before and after.
So this is how the original master sign program
was approved back in 2015.
And there is an after if you do it.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, and this is the after.
Basically, those four spots that I've highlighted in there,
those are basically the changes.
And the space is basically divided
between these two tenets, obviously the Chaji and Dilat and Bocce Dilaté, so
let me go back to the first slide first. I'm sorry, did I mess this up?
Thank you. And so the the blade sign that we see on the very, let me see, I
have a copy of this thing because I can't truly read that thing. So on the east elevation we have
that blade sign j which is for Chagi and then we added that new rooftop sign b2 which is also a
new sign and this is basically balance out the existing sign that's already on the south elevation.
I know it's kind of over the height limit in 25 feet,
but we just thought we kind of balance each other out
and be kind of on the same level.
And then, basically, charges, wall signs,
are basically similar to the existing master sign program
in terms of their location.
But we're adding two new signs for Bocce de Latte, which
is the sign type e3 and k.
And I believe that this the programs
or in the master sign program, I'm
here to answer any technical related question.
The sign program itself was the individual tenant.
They were designed by their own sign vendor or design
consultant.
So we incorporated that into the master sign program.
So if you have any technical detail,
I'll do my best to explain what the intent is.
So I have a question about the new B2 rooftop sign,
and the ties, I guess the B1, I know the B1 rooftop sign
was approved under the previous application.
And if there's a request for the second rooftop sign,
was there any consideration giving
to relocating these signs to the building corner?
Where it meets North Main and Mount Diablo.
This particular sign is actually facing North Main
and we feel like they need some kind of presence
on North Main side.
There was a, but I'm not quite clear exactly
what just spot you're referring to
what other location you're recommending.
Yeah, so in this photo, in the lower left photo,
the left-hand side above the good of windows,
you know, was that location considered
for signage, as opposed to, yeah, yeah.
So on the corner core 10 tower.
Yeah, one of the biggest challenges always,
and you probably heard the term,
but stack signage in a multi mixed use environment,
it gets really challenging.
So we located the rooftop at that north corner
because it's not competing with below,
that's actually a stairwell exit stair.
And if we put it above the corner,
And then you get the challenge of the retailer, it's the retailer saying, well, we don't want
their signage on top of ours.
It's confusing.
So we really, it's a really prominent tower.
So we just felt that by keeping that conflict was a cleaner way of doing it, and then in
rooftop doesn't currently have any signage on Main Street, North Main Street.
So we thought that was a better location for it.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Any other questions?
Brian bailed me out.
Do we want to move to commissioner comments?
Do we have any comments?
I mean, since we're making comments,
I know first we just met with these guys before.
And I think, to me, this is a very interesting piece
of architecture.
And when you create a piece of architecture like this,
it comes with its challenges.
And I think we're seeing them here.
These guys have innovated a bit
and have had to adapt to the market a lot.
And I feel like this type of architecture,
to have these tenants work together,
you actually need these signs.
And I was just in Telferonico yesterday,
you know, ago, I'm always,
we're always going to these places.
And I think, and I am a student of these things,
being an architect, I think, generally I support
everything that's said here and I understand how it works.
So that's all I got.
I'll add, I can obviously understand the,
as well as support, let me just wanna do some comments,
you know, the complexity of this building.
I have Bravo Bryan for wanting to step up
and play designer and make something more powerful to you.
And it does provide its challenges.
I do struggle a little bit with, you know,
again, basically a comment about kind of setting precedent.
And I know the previous master sign program allowed
for the sign that's based on the Mount Debebbe Boulevard.
And so with that precedent being set,
I'm not compelled to have any objections
to this sign on this elevation on North Main Street zone?
No, my only comment is I think
that it's probably gonna be really successful
having these two new restaurants in the bottom
and I'm excited to see that, so excellent.
Me too, I echo that.
I also really like that you are consistent
with the rooftop signs on the brick.
It's sort of branding
And it flows nicely for me and I love this building I always have so thank you Brian for building it
That's those are my comments
okay, shall we
take a motion to
Accept staffs recommendation for
So you make the motion and second and then I'll do the roll call yeah, I'll make the motion I
Make the motion to to approve as staff recommended I'd second that
Great Commissioner Newsom
Yes, Commissioner Prose. Yes, Vice Chair Riley. Yes and chair passing. Yes. Okay
Motion passes approved passes
Great. Thank you. Thank you
Are there any other?
considerations that the Commission should be
aware of. I don't have anything. Okay. Do any commissioner members have any announcements?
Okay. Staff has not an announcement, just a reminder, so we do have two items on the September
16th DRC hearing and both are new construction residential care facilities and we are hoping to
have a quorum that night. So that is all I have. Thank you. All right. Thank you. With this we are
adjourned.