Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04.29.99 Minutes CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO SPECIAL MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES CITY HALL CONFERNECE ROOM 400 GRAND A VENUE APRIL 29, 1999 CALL TO ORDER / PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 'E.A.PEl. The meeting was called to order at 7: 15p.m. ROLL CALL / CHAIRPERSON COMMENTS MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairperson Honan, Commissioner Baldocchi, Commissioner Meloni, Commissioner Romero and Commissioner Teglia MEMBERS ABSENT: Commissioner D' Angelo, Vice Chairman Sim ALSO PRESENT: Planning Division: Jim Harnish, Chief Planner Steve Carlson, Senior Planner Mike Lappen, Consultant Planner Adam Lindgren Norma Fragoso Rich Johnson City Attorney: ECD: Building\Fire Prevention: 1. Chestnut Creek Senior Housing Bridge Housing, Applicant Cal Water Svc., Owner NW corner Chestnut Ave. & Mission Rd. Study Session on proposed 40-unit senior citizens housing development on a one-acre site. Chief Planner Harnish stated that this particular project is on a fast track because of the HUD funding issues. He expressed that this meeting was organized to answer any questions prior to the upcoming Planning Commission meeting set for May 6,1999. Susy Kalkin presented the staff report. Norma Fragoso introduced the development team for the Bridge Housing Corporation noting that Bridge also developed the Magnolia Senior Housing Plaza. Lydia Tan introduced the project, stating that it was very refreshing to work with a staff that was so helpful & diligent in working with the applicant. She also stated that they are four months into the project and need a quick response because they want to apply for HUD 202, funds which is due at the end of May. Paul Barnhart Project Architect presented the site plan, summarized issues from the design review board meeting. He explained that this project would be a courtyard design due to the numerous easements that constrains \ \MULDER\ISHADD\Fi1e Cabinet\01d PC\ working\rninutes\1999\042999 .doc 1 of 10 Page the site. He described the exterior pallet noting the eclectic Mission design, picking up the theme from its location on Mission Road. He stressed that pedestrian access was very important as providing a sense of security. The Design Review Board suggested minor modifications to the interior courtyard and which has been modified as a result. He went on to discuss the trash issue. He explained that they will have a debris box that will remain indoors and would not be visible. He also explained that since they would not need a trash enclosure they would be able to pick up one more parking space. The DRB also commented on maximizing solar access to the courtyard; he went on to explain that there would be a horseshoe of three story buildings along Mission Road. They would like it to be 40 units and have chosen to stack them up at the North end so that the main southwest frontage would be two stories for solar access Nick: {Landscape Architect} stated that the Design Review Board suggested changing the courtyard to have flexibility to move around in, and create some other places within the courtyard to sit in as well. He said that the courtyard has a small fountain as well as three little seating areas with Mexican tiles. There would be areas with hedges, roses and perennial flowers. He also explained that another issue that concerned the DRB was the entry, so they expanded the entry area and provided raised planters and some seating area. They are some existing trees in the area and they will be keeping three of them. In addition they have filled the area with evergreen trees. He explained that the wind and the easement are impediments to landscape design in this site. We can't plant trees in the easements so you will see shrubs. Public Hearin2 Closed Chairperson Honan asked about the front area that has the awnings and whether it would be sheltered from the crosswinds. Nick (Landscape Architect) stated that the prevailing winds are going the other direction and the larger shrubs because of the easements would block any exposure. Commissioner Meloni was concerned about Chestnut traffic. Senior Planner Kalkin noted that the Engineering and the Police department have talked about it for quite some time. They have concluded that this intersection was not that bad since it is a Housing Project for the seniors. Commissioner Meloni concerned about the heavy traffic in and out of the area thru Chestnut, he stated that there . would be some problems. He also had a question about the height of the building along Mission Road Bridge Housing Staff answered that the ridge height was about 24 to 25 feet. Senior Planner Kalkin added that because the site is in a flood plane the ridge will have to be raised 2 to 3 feet. Commissioner Teglia asked staff whether this site and the site across the street were vacant because of Cal Water needed it to recharge their aquifer. He also noted that Cal Water is selling this land but yet are imposing these easements. CDBG Coordinator Norma Fragoso stated that the easements currently exist and CalWater needs to maintain the well. The agreement is that Bridge work around the easements, and that should not pose a problem either for the agency or the developer. Commissioner Teglia asked whether the pump house could be relocated to allow access onto Mission Road. He stated that he likes the project but the ingress and egress onto Chestnut is unacceptable and he thinks that there will \ \MULDER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\01d PC\working\minutes\1999\042999.doc 2 of 10 Page be neighborhood opposition. He stated that Chestnut has become extremely congested. He asked if the Water Company could have some consideration in regards to the driveway location. H&CD Manager Norma Fragoso stated that staff noted that there is a median island on Mission Road which would prevent left turns in and out of the site. Commissioner Teglia asked if it would be possible to cut the island and give this project full access on Mission. He stated that he did not have a problem with the right turn but the disaster would be the ingress and egress on Chestnut. He explained that this was his only concern on the project and that he would look to the experts to tell him if he was wrong or supply him with a better solution. Chief Planner Harnish stated that in the future the intersection at Commercial and Chestnut may be signalized and that would help traffic. He stated that since this is a senior project peak traffic will be a minimal. He stated that he would take comments and concerns back to Engineering and have them respond in a written report on the various traffic concerns. Commissioner Teglia added he would also request some information from Cal Water as to whether it was possible to relocate or eliminate the pump house. Chairperson Honan asked if the elevator would be large enough for wheelchairs. Bridge Housing Staff answered yes, as well as gurneys. Commissioner Meloni asked if this project had only one to two bedrooms. Bridge Housing Staff responded that the HUD 202 program only allows one bedroom. If Bridge they were to receive the Tax Credit financing then two bedroom units can be added. Norma Fragoso commented that she would like to see larger units but the cost of developing the units are too expensive to build. The advantage of the HUD 202 grant is that the Agency would receive $2.5 million dollars. Chairperson Honan asked about the parking lot lighting. Bridge Housing Staff answered that the lights will meet city standards and will be rectangular fixtures on 18-foot poles. Chairperson Honan asked if they were going to be lit to standard or above standard lighting levels. Bridge Housing Staff answered that they would be lit to standard, and also lights were added to the buildings Norma Fragoso stated that construction would begin around summer of next year if they can meet the application deadlines for this funding cycle. 2. Oak Farms Ltd. Standard Building, Applicant SE corner Grand Ave. & Oak Study session on a potential housing project on a 2.5+ acre parcel located in the R-2-H Medium Density Residential Zone District. \ \MULDER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\Old PC\ working\minutes\ 1999\042999 .doc 3 of 10 Page Chief Planner Harnish stated that there is no application yet, that what will be shown is only preliminary and that this is a very broad base discussion. Bob Kent, Standard Building Company stated that Standard thought at this location there might be an opportunity to meet one of the desires that the City Council had been talking about, and that is to provide some housing that starts in the $300 thousand range. He explained that the housing that has been recently developed has been in the $500,000 to $600,000 bracket. He stated to achieve a lower sales price you have to go with a higher density unit. He stated that there will always be trade offs, whether it is the street, or parking, or landscaping or setbacks or a combination, it is something that has to be worked out between the applicant and the city. He presented a conceptual layout of 25 foot wide lots on a cuI de sac. Each home contains a two car garage and standard driveway aprons. The guest parking would be in the cuI de sac, with a total of 22 parking spaces. Standard is also looking into acquiring an adjacent lot which faces Chestnut. That configuration is the same with the exception that there would be a thru street to Chestnut. Chairperson Honan asked if they were going towards high $300,000. Bob Kent answered that they would be 4 bedrooms, 3 bath units with approx. 2,000 sf, priced at $385,000 or $395,000. Chief Planner Harnish noted that this area on the General Plan is designated for medium or highdensity residential use. Commissioner Baldocchi asked what would happen to the old farm house and whether the Historical Preservation Commission has been consulted. Bob Kent stated that the building is around 100 years old, and it would be a tremendous amount of work to restore it for historical value. Chief Planner Harnish added this is not a listed structure but that the Historic Preservation Commission will be contacted. Chairperson Honan asked if this would be a PUD and would there be any association dues. Bob Kent answered that it would be a PUD but under the original submittal there would be no association dues. Commissioner Teglia asked if we did not have a PUD and just went with regular zoning what type of project would be looking at. Bob Kent responded that due to the land costs would most likely see apartment buildings Commissioner Teglia asked if anyone would be interested in building homes similar to those in the area, full size lots, 4 bedroom homes? Bob Kent stated that value of the land would preclude this. Commissioner Teglia asked if the value of the land is predicated upon what can be built on it. He had a concern that this was not exactly one of our high end areas of town. He stated that he was not particularly comfortable with the high density, which he would rather see it goes as low as possible for this area considering the current conditions. \\MULDER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\Old PC\working\rninutes\1999\042999 .doc 4 of 10 Page Commissioner Baldocchi stated that she would prefer to see a quality project with some character. Chairperson Honan stated that she also would like to see single family homes with larger lots. She stated that in reality the land has become too scarce and the land we do have she would like to see a quality developer develop a nice project. She stated that the common person cannot pay $500,000 for a house and she would like to see a lower price. She also stated that since South City is an industrial city and we are common working people she would like to see a quality home for $350,000. Commissioner Romero stated that this particular area may be appropriate for a higher density single family home, he suggested possibly eliminating the backyards & designing a project hat will be higher density, that would be attached, and include driveways so that people can park. He also stated that these could be be single family homes on a less expensive scale of $400,000 to $500,000. Bob Mantegami, Standard Builders Company explained that with the configuration of this land that they tried the motorcourt townhome concept and it is not deep enough nor wide enough to get 4 or 6 units around the courtyard. Commissioner Romero suggested increasing the height by stacking the units and creating common open spaces where people could come out of their homes and congregate. Bob Kent noted that such a project would include an association fee. Before you spend one dollar on landscaping you spend around $9,000 on insurance, it would probably run around $100.00 in monthly association fees. Commissioner Baldocchi asked if Standard had inquired about acquiring the county land across the street. Bob Kent stated that there has been no desire to sell. Chairperson Honan asked if the City approved this project, would they be assured that every unit would be below $400,000 Bob Kent stated that Standard uses union contractors and as long as they did not have large increases in wages and large increases in material costs there would be no problems. Commissioner Teglia stated that he did not like the attached housing concept nor would he like to see apartments. Commissioner's Teglia and Meloni discussed the idea of mixing some attached and some detached units or some narrow & some wider lots. Oak Farm Staff answered create wider lots for $430,000 to $440,000. Commissioner Teglia did not think the Commission should concern itself so much with sales prices. He cited Heather Heights as an example of a small lot project and compared with other larger lots projects he didn't see a correlation between lot size and house prices. The way things have been going we should plan a better project and let the market do its thing. He suggested investigating zero lot lines on one side to maximize the setback on the other side. He further questioned whether 35-foot lots could be provided. Bob Kent stated that 35-foot lots would not be possible. They suggested designing 30-foot lots, with 31/2 foot side yards, which would provide a parking space for every two units on the street. Commissioner Honan stated that she just wants something that people can afford. \ \MULDER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\Old PC\working\minutes\1999\042999.doc 5 of 10 Page Chief Planner Harnish stated that the next item that was going to be discussed was the general plan and that one of the issues that we must struggle with providing enough housing units for the projected population in this city. He stated that this has been a controversial issue that has been discussed over the course of the project. He added that from a planning perspective. This area is one of the few areas left in the city that we can really look at genuinely developing higher density homes, ones that can fit into the character of the area and are located in proximity to the BART station. Commissioner Romero stated that he would be supportive of a higher density project and the attached homes concept but feels that it needs to be done in a creative way. Bob Kent stated that they had the best architects and have spent $1000's of dollars on preliminary plans trying to get it to work. He stated that because of the lot the configuration it was very hard. Commissioner Meloni stated that he would like to see the guest parking area converted to a courtyard and more green space. Commissioner Teglia stated that there is little information given to make a decision and that maybe ruling out condominiums is not a bad idea. Chairperson Honan stated that bigger homes, as well as bigger lots would produce a higher price. Commissioner Baldocchi stated that she would like a quality project that has character and would like to see the developer work closely with the county. Commissioner Meloni stated that more can be done to improve the elevations. Commissioner Romero stated that he is in favor of attached housing. Chairperson Honan stated that she was not 100% percent in favor of attached homes, she wants to see affordable housing and other styles of attached housing. She noted that two commissioners were absent and that two commissioners were for detached housing. She would like to see drawings of different attached housing styles. Recess called at 9:00pm Meeting called to order at 9:10pm 3. General Plan City of South San Francisco,Owner/ Applicant Study session on the General Plan. Michael Lappen gave his presentation on the General Plan Rajeev Bhatia presented the General Plan Themes Chief Planner Harnish stated that this is just a piece of what the whole plan is going to be. He stated that once the whole document is together that there would have to be more than one study session to walk through all the principles. Commissioner Teglia commented that many points have been brought up in past discussions and he wanted to know if these issues have been addressed. \ \MULDER\ISHAD D\File Cabinet\01d PC\working\minutes\1999\042999.doc 6 of 10 Page Chief Planner Harnish explained that one new area discussion is Lindenville which had previously been omitted from discussion for further study. Rajeev Bhatia stated that there are specific corridors and there are three specific areas within the Lindenville area, the Zellerbach site, within that area we are looking for higher intensity. Another area is the South Spruce Area, which already has some new office development and residential uses. Commissioner Romero stated that he thought that one of our goals was to try to get some residential developments close to a Bart Station and that we should consider housing near the San Bruno BART Station. Rajeev Bhatia stated the problem is that there is a noise contour due to over flights from the airport that goes into that area. That precludes any housing development within the 65 CNEL. Chief Planner Harnish explained that there is a standard universal land use policy that states you do not put residential uses in areas of higher than 65 CNEL. He stated that we have approached the General Plan process to identify the areas within the 65 CNEL & identify those areas as unusable for housing. Commissioner Romero stated that it seemed very inconsistent with what we were just talking about previously trying to develop residential near the BART station. He commented that eliminating the potential for any type of residential development in that particular area would be losing an opportunity to take advantage of the San Bruno BART station. Chief Planner Harnish stated that there are two ways to take advantage of the transit station like BART. A transit oriented development can be either where you live or where you work. The second idea is that there would be more intensification of employment base near the BART so that people would use BART to get to work. Chief Planner Harnish explained that another option is to add residential uses within the portions of Lindenville located outside the 65 CNEL area. This had been proposed earlier but we had backed off of this idea because of opposition from the commission, the council, as well as the general public. Commissioner Romero commented that commercial and office space are appropriate in the East of 101 area; this area should be used for some residential or mixed-use residential, office and commercial. Commissioner Teglia stated that a good idea was a connection between Linden and Tanforan which would give some connection downtown given the Tanforan area, which is retail, he suggested to consider that this area for maybe mixed office and retail since it is a high traffic area. Commissioner Meloni asked whether in the 65 CNEL area, does the airport commission say that you can not build. Rajeev Bhatia stated that it is not an airport issue. Sound planning principles hold that whether the noise is stemming from a road, railroad, airport or anything like that, we do not place housing in a 65CNEL area. Commissioner Meloni asked whether the noise could be mitigated. Rajeev Bhatia answered that it is extremely hard to mitigate that level of noise for residential use. He stated that that is why we allow hotels in these areas so that you keep windows shut. Chief Planner Harnish stated that from a planning perspective you try to avoid putting noise sensitive uses such as residences\hospitals\schools within the 65 CNEL. \ \MULD ER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\01d PC\ working\rninutes\1999\042999 .doc 7 of 10 Page Chairperson Honan asked if we were to look at mixed use for this area would we be working in conjunction with Tanforan. Rajeev Bhatia stated at the Tanforan site there will be a new hotel and some office buildings. There maybe offices or corporations that may be interested in locating close to the BART station. Commissioner Romero commented that he would like to see mixed uses. Commissioner Teglia stated that residential development has certain costs. If you place residential in there you have to support it, whereas retail will help support the rest of the town. One of the things we have argued about is how do we find housing for 20,000 more people. He stated that we are going from the top down and thought maybe looking at the bottom. He states that we have a certain infrastructure and so much park space. We can definitely maximize things in certain places, but we must remember that enhancement of community character should be the overriding concern. Rajeev Bhatia explained that the housing element has a five year horizon & the general plan has a 20 year horizon. The General Plan is looking at adding 12,000 people. Commissioner Baldocchi questioned whether our service or biotech industries will increase more. Since the service industry does not pay well we may need more affordable housing. Commissioner Teglia stated that at some point growth slows down a little, how do we get to a balance of maintaining the character of our town, we can only build so much out there unless you start building skyscrapers and start building straight up. He also stated that the same thing happens with residential you end up being urban instead of suburban and at some point you reach this critical mass. He stated that he could not see South City becoming skyscrapers and urban and so at some point we would have to balance out. Rajeev Bhatia answered that he did not think that South San Francisco would become skyscrapers. He stated that there are specific areas where you do have high rise buildings. He also stated that the area looked at is the commercial district east of 101 and mid-rises. Commissioner Teglia stated that there is one concept that has been brought up in a couple of meetings in the past, in regards to placing some kind of language to give us some leverage in maintaining our low-density areas. One of the issues was the number of bedrooms, right now we have developments coming into those areas that have 5 to 6 bedrooms which gives us no flexibility. That is a problem because you can add on in some of those areas up to 6 bedrooms. We have some non-residential uses that we can't control due to state preemtions. Rajeev Bhatia asked the commissioners how they would like the General Plan to be presented. Chairperson Honan stated we all want to see it but I do not believe we should see it piece by piece Commissioner Teglia stated he would like to hear the opinion of the public. Chairperson Honan stated she would like the public's input also but would like to see it first. Commissioner Baldocchi stated she wants to know if it is going to be provided chapter by chapter. Rajeev Bhatia stated that it will presented as a whole document. Chairperson Honan asked how soon is this document going to be completed. \ \MUW ER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\01d PC\working\minutes\1999\042999 .doc 8 of 10 Page Rajeev Bhatia stated that we do not want to release this to the public until the draft EIR is ready. Commissioner Romero stated would like to know when the public will be looking at this. ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS 4. Items from Staff: Assistant City Attorney Lindgren gave to the commission a memo drafted for the city attorney that responds to the question by a commissioner regarding the rules and the bylaws of the planning commission and whether or not the meetings could be tape recorded. 5. Items from Commission: None 6. Items from the Public: None 7. Adjourn Motion Honan/Second Te2lia to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 p.m. ~~~~fZr Secretary to the Planning Commission City of South San Francisco ~ dIth 'Honan, Chairperson Planning Commission City of South San Francisco Next Meeting: Regular Meeting of May 06, 1999, Municipal Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive, South San Francisco, CA. \ \MULD ER\ISHADD\File Cabinet\Old PC\ working\minutes\ 1999\042999 .doc 9 of 10 Page