So Tess, I'd like to call the meeting to order with a roll call, please commissioner Conway Here Nelson Here Gordon Here Maxwell Here CD Miller Here all Hamas Yeah or Kennedy Here great. Thanks everybody. So are there any statements of disqualification? On agenda items this evening hearing none. We'll move on to our public hearing We don't need to do oral communications because it's a special meeting So I'd like to open the public hearing on item number one, which is 113 and 119 Lincoln Street Tim you want to give us a staff presentation Sure. Good evening Everybody good evening chair Kennedy a members of the planning commission My name is Tim mayor senior planner with the city this evening's first agenda item is Review of the proposed development of the downtown library affordable housing project located at 113 119 Lincoln Street So I'd like to confirm that my PowerPoint presentation is visible Okay, great. Thank you so much Okay So requested is approval of several project entitlements including a non-residential demolition authorization permit The special use permit a design permit and a lot line adjustment The proposed project includes demolition of the existing surface Parking lot and structures in construction of the library mixed use affordable housing project So as proposed the project would include a new approximately 273 thousand 194 square foot eight story building and commencing a three-story approximately 38,069 square foot city library a three-story parking garage with 243 parking spaces Five-story a hundred percent affordable housing component with a hundred and twenty four residential units a three-story of roughly 9,598 square foot commercial tenant space one story 1,231 square foot childcare facility with adjoining 674 square foot outdoor play area and New landscaping and associated site improvements such as an expansion of the existing sidewalk continuation of a non-street bicycle lane and placement of planters landscaping in city street trees This evening the planning commissioners is requested to make a recommendation to the city council regarding the requested entitlements Please note that the role of the planning commission this evening is not to make a decision regarding the appeal of the heritage tree Removal permit associated with the project, which will be heard at the city council at an upcoming hearing I'd like to take a few minutes to introduce city staff who have played a role in review and design of the proposed project The city's economic development department holds the lead role in spearheading the design of the project for consistency with city council directors Bonnie Lipscomb is the executive director of the economic development department and Brian Borghuno is the development manager and project manager for the project Golan Wilburn is the director of Santa Cruz Public Libraries and has played the lead role in library design As mentioned earlier, my name is Tim Mayer and the point of contact for applications related to a project entitlement Department of Public Works staff include Nathan Nguyen director of public works Matt Starkey transportation manager and Claire Galaguay is the transportation planner The owner's representative and representative Griffin structures is Tom Oddenstein project executive Representative the applicant and the lead contact for the affordable housing developer is And developing partner is mr. Jim Rendler principal and vice president of for the future housing Dixie boss is director of real estate development with Eden housing, which is the affordable housing partner and the project architects for the overall building Including the corn shell commercial tenant space and childcare facility include Frank Daxter and Jesse skidmore of 10 over architects And the library master architect is Abe Jason with Jason architecture Showing on this slide is the project site bordered in red the subject site is an approximately 66,921 square foot or 1.54 acre roughly rectangular area Consisting of two adjacent lots located in the city's central business zone district or CBD zone district As seen here the site is bounded by a Lincoln Street to the north Cedar Street to the west Cathcart Street to the south and an alley to the east neighboring land uses include commercial buildings to the north south and east a Calvary Episcopal Church to the west Along with commercial establishments along with Pacific Avenue in front street as mentioned the project site is composed of two adjacent parcels with total of approximately 66,921 square feet or 1.54 acre site Composed of the two adjacent parcels one of the two parcels of the parcel address 113 Lincoln Street is considered substandard for the dimensions and size of the lots required in the central business district And it's proposed to be combined with the larger of the two lots, which is address 119 Lincoln Street The entire project site lies within the central business district Which is its zoning designation the southwest corner of the project site is included in the city's bloodplain overlay district The project site has a general plan designation of RBC or regional visitor commercial which directs the overarching vision of the project site and Includes regulations including among others a maximum floor area ratio of 5.0 by virtue of its location with this the city's some downtown area The site is located within the area of the central business district governed by the city's downtown plan Which contains regulations related to land use and building design including building height among other standards The site is located primarily in the Cedar Street Village corridor sub area of the downtown plan It's shown here on the right hand side of the screen of the four distinct sub areas at the downtown plan land area The site is located primarily in the city Cedar Street Village corridor like I mentioned With an approximately 10 foot wide swath of the easterly portion of this project site Located within the Pacific Avenue retail district sub area of the downtown plan However, for the purpose of project evaluation the project design was assessed relative to its consistency with the criteria of the Cedar Street Village corridor Which it primarily lies This slide provides a pictorial representation of the existing site including the existing Commercial building shown here at the top in this kind of rectangular area at 113 Lincoln Street and the parking lot and the existing Designated as cities parking lot number four, which is addressed 119 Lincoln Street, which occupies basically the rest of the project area Both the commercial building at 113 Lincoln Street and the parking lot at 119 Lincoln Street are proposed to be demolished To accommodate the downtown library affordable housing project Shown here as a view of the existing lot is seen from the corner of Cedar Street and Cathcart Street at the southwest corner of the project site The existing city surface parking lot again called lot number four can be seen here Along with the condition of the existing streets and sidewalks and the prominent commercial building and surrounding retail That can be also seen on this slide This slide presents a view of the project site is seen from its northwest corner at the intersection of Cedar Street and Lincoln Street The existing total fitness building at 113 Lincoln Street is visible here Again visible in this slide is a view of the concrete block commercial building located at 113 Lincoln Street Which is currently occupied by total fitness a body fitness studio The adjacent alley and public right away additionally appear here Again a view of the existing Conditions of the site appear here from the vantage point at this time of its southeasterly corner looking west The foreground here shows the existing driveway entry and commercial building While the background provides context of the existing site, which is presently used for surface parking owned and managed by the city This slide shows the site as seen from Cathcart Street including the existing midweek level of activity on site And this slide depicts a photo that was taken just a couple of days ago Another view of a very recent photo Included appears here and is visible the lot sits mostly vacant during the day midweek This slide shows existing conditions this time from Cedar Street City Street trees can be visible or can be seen here under current conditions the bike parking lane along Cedar Street Does not quite continue all the way along the front edge Along Cedar as shown the termination around the point of this vehicle This slide illustrates the conditions of the project site Including the building of 113 Lincoln Street and adjacent on-street parking again Disproviding context of the existing conditions The slide here again returns to a view of the lot from Lincoln Street at the southeast corner of the lot A lot sits again mostly empty and existing and new development are visible beyond a Cedar Street to the east of the project site Excuse me to the west of the project site Just a brief background of the history of the site the original development of 113 Lincoln Street occurred approximately 80 years ago City records show that the existing reinforced concrete commercial building was constructed in 1941 The building was subsequently converted to a health clinic in 1980 and an addition of an interior second story took place in 2013 issuance of a demolition permit and building permit for ten minute permit Facilitated the adaptive reuse of the building as a health fitness studio on that same year The adjacent parcel at address 119 Lincoln Street was formerly occupied by a commercial building constructed in 1940 for Safeway stores incorporated The existing parcel of course is a city-owned surface parking lot number four of the city's downtown parking district Efforts leading to proposed redevelopment of the subject site began over a decade ago in 2012 the Santa Cruz public libraries System initiated a comprehensive facilities master planning process Which culminated in preparation of the library facilities master plan in 2014 later in June of 2016 passage of county-wide measure s Supplied funding to upgrade modernized construct and expand library facilities throughout the county including those within city limits On January 25th of 2018 the city's downtown library advisory committee Which was formed as an advisory body to the city council adopted the recommendation of the downtown branch library Informally recommend an inclusion of the new downtown library in a quote joint use Project with a parking garage on the city-owned property in Cedar Street and quote and identify the project site as a quote ideal location and quote for a new library facility in 2019 the city council voted a direct formation of the downtown library subcommittee as a subgroup of the city council again responsible for evaluating project alternatives in collaboration with library staff and city residents in May of 2019 to June of 2020 The downtown library subcommittee engaged the community including both key stakeholder groups and the broader public and Solicited residents feedback regarding the potential for formation of a new library facility including potential for placement within a mixed-use development format On June 23rd of 2020 the city council Proceeded with the development of a mixed-use library project including a new modern library Affordable housing component of minimally 50 units in a parking facility with up to 400 parking stalls at parking lot number four located at 119 Lincoln Street On December 4th of 2021 the city council accepted the updated concept design Presented by the project team and like library master architect following a series of community workshops and further directed to move forward with the schematic design On May 10th of 2022 library master architect and project team presented the city council update illustrating the schematic design and presenting commute community feedback received from additional community meetings regarding the plans Prepared and detailed the anticipated budget for construction of the project is proposed. So as you can see through this slide There's been an extensive period of public comment involvement related to the design of the project stretching back now over 10 years As I mentioned earlier many opportunities for public feedback have been included in development of the project from 2019 to 2020 The library master architect engaged in a months-long community outreach process to solicit input Regarding aspects of a conceptual library of value to the community Including a diversity of community stakeholders and resident demographics Feedback was compiled and informed design of the facility following the architects development of conceptual plans The city and project design team again engaged the community through a series of workshops over a period of months Regarding preliminary project design including the library's exterior facades site and roof plans preliminary interior configuration and other aspects of the project Those engagement efforts resulted in modification of the proposed design to increase the number of affordable housing units to as many as 125 and to conceptualize a new library Oriented towards Cedar Street and enclosing approximately 40,000 square feet of program programmable space With 35,000 square feet of indoor area and 5,000 square feet of exterior terrace or deck Connecting the library's interior to the building's rooftop Coordination among members of the community project architect and city staff produce a preliminary design Featuring five stories of affordable housing placed above three stories of parking with a parking stall count reduced from 400 To 310 stalls to accommodate a greater number of affordable housing units The schematic project designs were then presented to the city council and the council reviewed and approved the schematic design At a meeting on December 14th of 2021. So again, just reiterating the extensive public outreach process involved with this project So fast-forwarding kind of the more recent times Subsequent to all of the previously mentioned activity a pre-application for the proposed project was submitted in September of 2022 In accordance with the city's community outreach policy for planning projects a community engagement meeting was held on September 21st From 6 to 7 30 p.m At the meeting the applicant including staff of the city's economic development department Affordable housing developer and project architects delivered a presentation providing an overview of the scope of the project and design of the project and Responded to questions during and follow the prep following the presentation Approximately 66 members of the community attended including various city officials Participants questions varied Centering primarily on aspects of the project related to availability of plans and project reports Programming design of the library the number of residential units and the nature of the residential units and structured parking Anticipated street and sidewalk improvements credit of the residential units the city's regional housing needs allocation arena numbers consistency of the proposal to the general plan and zoning designations And state density bonus law availability of parking impacts associated with parking demand and so on Finally on November 8th of 2022 a formal application was submitted related to the proposed project The formal application for the project generally reflects the design as previously submitted in the pre-application The project includes an eight-story building with a new three-story library having approximately 38,000 square feet of Interior area featuring two floors double height to with elevated ceilings and three thousand two hundred forty square foot uncover rooftop terrace the hundred twenty four unit housing development would include a mix of unit types including Five-story residential component with thirteen studio units forty eight one bedroom units thirty two two bedroom units 31 three bedroom units all ranging in size from three hundred forty four to nine hundred fifty seven square feet The development also includes a three-story approximately 9,598 square foot commercial tenant space designed to accommodate a range of tenant types as well as a one-story approximately 1,231 square foot childcare facility The project would include at greats structured parking with 243 parking stalls This building excuse me this slide shows a proposed site plan as can be seen here Pardon this can be seen here the building envelope would occupy nearly in the entirety of the project site in order to accommodate Project goals as directed by the city council and it and therefore necessitates Maximum efficiency of space utilization of the site The project includes frontage improvements along Cathcart Street Cedar Street and Lincoln Street for city standards including curb gutters expanded sidewalks The proposed sidewalks will be built 10 to 12 feet wide consistent with the downtown plan specifications which require a minimum width of 10 feet along Cedar Street, but encourages wider sidewalks in east-west streets to encourage pedestrian use The width of the sidewalk varies due to improvements in street curvatures But in general provides a 12 foot wide sidewalk along Cedar Street and Lincoln Street and again a 10 foot wide sidewalk along Cathcart Street The project also includes for loading and unloading parking spaces along Cedar Street in this area over here and a five on-street parking spaces along Lincoln Street and A bus stop shown over here would be provided on Cedar Street just north of its intersection with Cathcart Street over here So here is the existing proposed bus stop location Stop of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District have reviewed the proposed location and have expressed support for the bus stop as is proposed This slide shows the ground floor the building is designed the library's footprint would occupy 17,914 square feet as shown in orange here And the commercial childcare space is shown in yellow The first floor of commercial space is shown in red Visible here and the ground floor the parking garage is shown in gray The project's second level appears here the ground floor of the library includes a double-heighted ceiling So it's shown as open to below in the slide the commercial tenant space again appears in red and occupies on the second floor as Presented in this layout in the second story and the second level of the parking is additionally shown This slide shows the third level of the building which again largely echoes the layout of the two levels below The commercial tenant space on the third floor occupies a larger share of the building at this level This slide depicts the buildings fourth floor the new green roof is aligned to the building's primary frontage here on Cedar Street Including landscaping to soften the appearance of the building and blur the hard edge of the building's cap along Cedar Street The cover mezzanine provides access to the uncovered rooftop terrace shown over here as the library patio The first level of the residential units can additionally be seen here shown in pale and darker blue And again a mix of unit types including studio one two and three better units along with rooftop Residential amenities such as community patio a taut lot and landscape usable open space appear Faded kind of in gray. So community patio taut lot landscaping kind of me entering pathway here The project's fifth and sixth floors identical in layout are shown in this on this slide and Significant offsets in planes accommodate units of various sizes and again add articulation for visual interest of the building The building seventh and eight floors are shown here again occupied by residential units The building's elevation is viewed from Cedar Street appears on this slide a Consistent with the design standards at the Cedar Street Village corridor and as specified in the downtown plan The building provides ground-level treatment with primary accesses along Cedar Street Accentuating the building's points of entry the main library entrance is shown here and provides again Transparency at ground level to allow visibility to the building's interior creating a sense of activity and vitality and incorporates plentiful glazing So the entirety of the second and third levels here are all glass Now the building incorporates offset planes formed by various projections and curved recesses and a regular arrangement of windows And the residential building component is set back significantly shown kind of transparent here in the background From Cedar Street and physically separated from the library the commercial tenant space and the childcare components to facilitate ready access While maintaining privacy and separation from those public components This slide illustrates the south elevation of the building or its view from Cathcart Street a Step-back facades with trim at cap accents break up the building's mass and provide an element for horizontal emphasis And a color scheme of muted orange beige and gray applied to the exterior wall surfaces Create a subtle contrast to the surrounding building While ensuring visual harmony with the appearance of the existing site and the surrounding land uses This the building's north elevation appears here visible from Lincoln Street Provisions of the downtown plan the parking structure facade serves as a compatible visual extension the first levels of the library building And avoids placement of any sloping or elevation adjacent to public streets So the parking facility has been set back from the ground floor commercial uses and is directed by the design criteria of the Cedar Street village corridor Although the lower levels of the library facade show long continuous strips of glass on the use for patterns and regular Fenestration pattern Gritted network avoids a monotonous presentation and openings have been thoughtfully integrated with the garage and residential buildings to appear as well Proportion windows rather than a long continuous stretches of glass Decorative screen and trellis elements are additionally incorporated and provide variation in interest to the facade As promoted by the downtown plan the proposed parking structure as shown below here Would play an important role in providing parking facilities for surrounding land uses Along with Pacific Avenue and just running downtown destinations At the easterly half of the site on the five-story residential component rises above the parking garage is visible on the bottom here and again Incorporates concrete base and three-tone integral stucco with metal trim exterior And again the consistency with the Cedar Street village corridors at the downtown plan are presented throughout the design As proposed the project includes a three-story structure parking facility as I mentioned earlier with a capacity for 243 parking stalls As stated in the downtown plan Parking facilities are required to step down to 35 feet adjacent to the street, which is accorded Provided with a 33-foot height has incorporated in the project design Pedestrian access to the residences would occur from Cathcart Street And Lincoln Street and pedestrian access to the parking garage would occur adjacent to the vehicular entries over this portion of the slide And along the buildings south there south south elevation Excuse me as well as the project's north side over here At the approximate midpoint of its Lincoln Street frontage into the commercial tenant space from Cathcart Street So all points of pedestrian access Emergency vehicle access and service access would occur through the one-way alley kind of in the back of a lot over here Proceeding north from Cathcart Street To Lincoln Street and along with the city's excuse me the site's easterly property line The lights just went out here as proposed the parking garage entry Would be recessed as shown here kind of visible and an open-air design with support pillars would provide exiting vehicles with clear lines of sight In both directions and provide adequate site distances for both oncoming vehicles and pedestrians for exiting vehicles Early considerations of the design for the parking capacity Aim to achieve project objectives as directed by the city council and led staff to Consider design proposals with parking capacity for up to 400 parking stalls Pulling review of the site plan by the police and fire department and through iterative architectural revisions The overall parking capacity has been reduced to its present supply of 243 stalls As a public parking facility with access by a range of vehicle types anticipated 116 of the 243 stalls are standard size stalls with dimensions of 8 and a half by 19 feet 15 stalls are reserved for electric vehicles Eight are accessible stalls and 117 are compact stalls for a total of 48 percent of the Project parking capacity the proposed configuration is intended to maximize total capacity While integrating larger standard size stalls as possible for a sufficient number to minimize congestion and delays Additionally bicycle parking capacity of a total of 240 258 excuse me Bike parking spaces are strategically placed throughout the site. I'm including both lockable storage throughout the perimeter of the project as well as Non-lock storage This project is required to have a total of 129 class 1 bike parking spaces 124 for residential use and 5 for commercial use the project excuse me The project is required I have a total of 68 class 2 bike parking spaces 31 for residential and 37 for commercial use and Submitted plans provide 140 class 1 bike parking spaces and 118 class 2 bike parking spaces are exceeding the minimum number of bike parking spaces required Per the city's municipal code and a library loading space is additionally provided over here Due to the site's location within the city's downtown parking district the parking requirement is determined pursuant to Resolution NS 29 858 which establishes a parking ratio of one parking space for every 400 square feet of gross floor area for all new commercial use is except for medical and dental offices As as I mentioned earlier 243 total parking stalls are provided for the project and Address helping to address the deficit of 448 stalls which would regardless of the provision of 243 stalls here continue to remain for the downtown parking district due to the Penning and foreseeable projects associated with downtown development Related to state density bonus law State density bonus law exempts the residential component of the project from provision of parking due to its level of affordability In a location within a half a mile of a major transit stop The project as I mentioned earlier would provide 243 total parking stall stalls Attempting to address the ongoing deficit of downtown parking Which would remain at 448 stalls to address the States of need for affordable housing the state of California as a background adopted its state density bonus law in 1979 to encourage the provision of subsidized dwelling units by offering to developers a combination of benefits and incentives a State density bonus law allows for any residential project located within a half mile of a major transit stop to request exemptions from maximum density controls A qualifying project may receive waivers for variation from standards Which would have the effect of otherwise Physically precluding development of the number of units is allowable per density bonus law and allows for four incentives or concessions And it's not required to include vehicular parking for residential units For this project that the base density plans incorporate two stories of underground parking A position below the portion of the building including the library commercial tenant space childcare facility and residential units However, due to the elevated costs associated with two stories of subterranean construction of parking The underground parking Concept is not a feasible option for the project When the parking is placed at surface level As allowable per density bonus law is requested incentive concession The parking structures height of approximately 33 feet would remain less than 35 feet as identified in the downtown plan for parking garages However, the overall building height Including the 100% of affordable housing units would exceed the 50 foot maximum height identified in the downtown plan Again, therefore requiring the request for a variation to the building height as an incentive concession Uh, the easterly component of the project Incorporates residential units above the public parking placement of parking above grade as requested Due to identifiable and actual cost reductions of the project Elevates the height of the residential portion of the project to 84 feet again Beyond the maximum height threshold of 50 feet identified in the city's downtown plan The applicant again has requested approval of a density bonus waiver To allow for the additional height in addition to the incentive concession for proposed placement of the parking garage at grade Due to the project's affordability levels and location within a half mile of a major transit stop The project remains exempt from maximum density controls With 124 residential units proposed the project exhibits an far of 4.60 under the maximum far threshold of 5.0 Allowable about the general plan In the designation of rvc on land within the city's downtown plan area Without the requested waiver the proposed development would be physically precluded from redevelopment Excuse me of development of the number of residential units allowable for consistency with state law And the city's general plan in which residential density is indirectly regulated by f ar As mentioned the project provides a 100 affordable housing Uh residential component of 124 units Exclusive of the manager's units consistent with the city regulations which require a minimum 20 affordable housing rate For the project a geotechnical evaluation Due to june 2nd of 2022 was prepared by cornerstone earth group and it indicates that the construction of the proposed project supported by shallow foundations overlining Ground improvement to mitigate potential for liquefaction remains feasible from a geotechnical standpoint And provides that the final project design addresses the concerns that had been raised in that report The geotechnical investigation Provides was provided to the building division Which has expressed no concern related to the analysis In addition cultural resources or archaeological evaluation was conducted Results of onsite archaeological surveys including ground and surface subsurface assessments Identified no cultural resources at the subject site, which would render the project site or as contents of significance Of requiring protection under the california environmental quality act the standard conditions of approval protect archaeological resources on the site Additionally a transportation impact study or tis a trip generation analysis Was prepared and provides an assessment of the potential impacts of the proposed project traffic and circulation Of the project and its neighboring area That transportation impact study Demonstrates the occurrence of anticipated impacts of the project inherent to any new development But the project would generate additional vehicular trips to the project site surrounding neighborhood. However Noticeable impacts of the city's transportation system associated with those additional vehicular trips would remain low Despite the scale of the project And aside from minor impacts related to level of service Which no longer serves as a legally defensible metric for measurement of environmental impact related to transportation No other significant Transportation related effects resulting from the proposed project were identified Through the trip generation study and associated impact study Additionally a noise impact study or acoustic analysis was prepared by consultant solter incorporated And evaluated the project's potential for generation of unwanted sound and the likelihood for compliance Of the project with standards of the city's general plan and municipal code and conditions of approval Have been incorporated in the project for compliance with noise study standards Additionally an historic evaluation Was prepared dated march 14th to 2022 by city approved historian set bergs dean of past consultants lc And that study showed that the existing building on site Appears ineligible for listing on any registers including the california register for historic resources or the national register or the city of santa cruz historic building survey Finally, uh, civil environmental assessments were prepared by consultant weber haze and associates Including um existing soil contamination testing. Uh, the project uh site was um Found to have existing soil contamination However, it will be required to comply with all requirements of the county environmental health and safety department related to voluntary cleanup And condition of approval have been added to this effect In analyzing any proposed project, uh, the city may Consider whether existing environmental documents contain an adequate analysis of potential environmental impact associated with the proposed project An earlier analysis may be used when it can be demonstrated that one or more effects have been adequately analyzed in an earlier eir Or negative declaration per state sq guidelines If a previous analysis is used in evaluation of the potential impacts Of the proposed project may be conducted through preparation of an initial study checklist An environmental checklist for determination of sqa exemption has been prepared by the city's consultant to deck For the project in accordance with the procedures directed to the california environmental quality act The memorandum states of the city's um, which an additional memorandum was just prepared states of the city's general plan 2030 environmental impact report has addressed adequately the potential impacts associated with the project We're all required categories of impacts and the project therefore necessitates no further environmental review pursuant to public resources code section 21083.3 for likely consequences associated with the project associated with environmental impact Um through the evaluation site specific impacts have been analyzed and determined to be less than significant Due to substantial mitigation from general plan policies zoning regulations and or development standards They're uniformly applied to development projects throughout the city for all categories of impacts Therefore pursuant to public resources code section 21083.3 and state sq guidelines No further environmental analysis are required under sqa And as detailed in the prepared evaluation the project qualifies for the statutory exemption found in sq Guidelines section 21083.3 and a notice of exemption has therefore been prepared As mentioned several entitlements have been requested for the project is listed on this slide The proposed project requires approval of a non residential demolition authorization permit a use permit a design permit and a lot line adjustment Staff have made findings to support the proposed project Please note the suggested additions to the recommended conditions of approval have been made and I can present those a little bit later after the presentation Staff recommends that the planning commission acknowledge the environmental determination staff additionally recommends that the commission recommend to the city council approval of a non residential demolition authorization permit Use permit design permit and lot line adjustment based upon the findings included in the conditions of approval attached to staff report And as with additions as noted, I'll actually briefly share the additional conditions of approval So this hopefully visible here is a word document There are some suggested conditions of approval that were added recently to the project and So this is basically the idea being that To ensure consistency of the project as submitted for building permit It was suggested that condition of approval will be added allowing for staff to have the ability to coordinate with a a subcommittee of the planning commission that would Confer to review any sort of design changes and ensure that those design changes were acceptable to the planning commission And this again is a bit tough to to read probably but that's essentially what this bottom condition shows Additionally the other conditions of approval were added to the project and Let me see if I can go ahead and scroll through here One of those conditions was a proposed addition of electric vehicle parking spaces to account for a total of 25 total parking spaces And allow for the other parking spaces in the project to be prepared for electric vehicle ready stalls and I think Commissioner Kennedy, I don't know if the procedure is allowed for would you like to add on to that at all? Uh, not at all. I can explain these in more detail in a little bit to the other commissioners I appreciate you going through them at first time And then I wonder if you can just email this to everybody or test scan, you know Just so they can read it on their own screens now that we're in session Oh, yeah And if you email it to me, I can Do my thing and post it online so that the public can see it Thanks for your patience everybody. We're adding in a draft until about 5 30 tonight So I just want to make sure the the right one gets out to everybody including the public Okay, so I'm sorry. I'll just kind of Retract slightly. I guess so we'll actually share a cleaner version of those and um, I uh Commissioner Kennedy if you wanted to propose those conditions of approval. So they're, um Yeah, anything from the right party. I have a point of order because those are As the motion been made for those conditions No, because we haven't got to that part of the meeting yet. So right, right Yeah, so we would present those when we got to that part of the meeting. Is that correct after we hear from the public? Yeah, that's a good point Cindy. Let's finish that again presentation and then I can roll those out Okay, apologies for any confusion there. I just wanted to um, uh, clarify that the conditions of approval recommended by staff were Suggested to be modified to include additional conditions um, so uh going back to um, this slide here Let's jump through it quickly and hopefully Okay, so hopefully that slide is visible um So as I mentioned earlier, um, I don't see it yet. Oh, okay. Sorry Is the slide visible? Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, so um As I mentioned earlier, uh, staff have made the findings to support the proposed project And um, as I mentioned as well some additional conditions of approval have been raised as possible items of consideration Uh, staff recommends that the planning commission acknowledge the environmental determination And staff additionally recommends that the commission recommend to the city council approval of the non-residential demolition authorization permit Use permit design permit and lot line adjustment Um based on the findings included and condition of approval attached to the staff report with the corrections and additions as will be later presented And in terms of uh next steps a city council hearing is tentatively scheduled for march the 14th of 2023 At which time the city council may render a final decision regarding the project entitlements And uh staff of the uh and the applicant are available to answer questions. Thank you very much for your time and this concludes your staff's presentation. Thank you Uh, great tim. Thank you. Do commissioners have questions now? I would suggest we go ahead with the applicant and ask questions after but If anything is burning, let me know It's in here good. I see your hand up All right, let's hear from the applicant then Tim, which one? Thanks, uh chair, Kennedy. Um, I believe that that was the the applicant's presentation. We're we're presenting on on behalf of the city Okay, so you know additional Brain Borgoona is um the representative for the the project. So if you wanted to add anything now it'd be the time brine Yeah, thank you, sam. I just wanted to chime in and let the commissioners know that we do have the full project team available But in this case, you know, we have a development partner And the city is also acting as an a co-applicant in some ways for this project because it's a city sponsored project So that is the only presentation we had prepared was was through tim's presentation Um, so we have the full team here to assist in answer any questions to provide any additional information To all of the commissioners at this time Great. Thank you, brine Good. So we'll turn back to the commissioners for questions. Uh, I don't want to keep everyone for a long time But um, I was thinking today how important this project is for our downtown I was here in 1989 when the earthquake hit and I remember like as a 13 year old Standing on that street and being like, oh my gosh So I want to encourage all of you commissioners to ask all your questions get it all out The reason we're up here Even at this late date is to help this project with our local advice. So Let's take our time and all suggestions welcome Anybody want to start with questions Cindy Yeah, thank you to staff for that really thorough presentation and thank you to Getting all the materials up and allowing us to go through a big stack of stuff. It's been a long time coming I have just a set of questions. I'm going to try to run through them really quick and And this is an effort just to have full transparency to have all the information out in front of the public So we have realistic expectations as we're going forward with this project Um, so I I apologize if I missed it. I'm not sure who this is for but what is the level of affordability of the 124 units it are What income level um, is it a mix or is it a single income level of import affordability for those units? I can start with the answer to that question. It's a mix. Um, there's uh, A table that's been prepared. Uh, that could be I guess probably presented. I think that's um, A uh, the numbers have been basically solidified Brian feel free to chime in if uh, there's been any revision to what was, uh, Uh, sent um earlier No, I don't believe there's been any revision and to give a more direct answer to commissioner dawson Right now we're we're targeting for extremely low income 19 units very low income 59 units and low income 45 units and those are all based on um, each cd terminology definitions of affordability Thank you so much for that clarification. That's really helpful Just sure the public is that table in the staff report and I somehow missed it And if it is can we get a page number just for folks or is it not in the staff report? I will find where it's cited. I believe it's cited in the sequa documentation at some point I will find that number and try to get that um made available as quickly as possible. Okay. That's that that's great Thank you. Um, that's very helpful. Um, I'll keep it going here. I don't want to take up too much time um, so The city currently does not own 113 Lincoln, um, there is a part in staff report on page nine that talks about we're in active negotiations If I had a little odd that we would be issuing a demolition permit for a building that we don't own on a piece of property we don't own so, um, I was just wondering if staff could talk about that step process Or that and if we're have all our legal basis covers to Um issue a demolition permit for a building we don't own Brian, would you like to address that question? Yeah, I think I can I'd be happy to thank you for that question again commissioner Essentially we have an authorization owners authorization Form signed by the current property owners that that authorizes jim remler and for the future housing to secure all entitlements associated with the project at this point Right, that's very helpful. I just wanted to make sure all our Keys were crossed and eyes were dotted. Okay. So, uh, one more, uh, so on the child care facility and the It's got very little outdoor space, right? So it's got 674 square foot of outdoor space And the staff report says 70 square foot is required Does we talk to the regulating authority and we're going to be asking for a reduction In the amount of outdoor space per child The current space to standard would be about nine kids And we want to half the amount of space per child So we can set 17 kids in the facility. Is there any opportunity to bump? Um back into the the library garbage area and potentially lose some parking so we can get more outdoor space for kids in this child care facility Is that something that is is is we can explore at this point or are we past that point? Brian, would you like to address that question? Yeah, I think uh for that one I'd probably like to bring in jim remler From for the future housing and and maybe allow him as a developer and then maybe call upon his design team to answer it Because it's more of a design specific question about accommodating additional space So if jim could be brought in to start off that conversation, that would be great Hello commissioners. Uh, can you hear me? Oh, great. Um jim remler and vice president for the future housing Thank you all for Your commitment on the commission and um, appreciate the the question I think I'll let our design team speak a little more to it But I I think the short answer is we're absolutely open. We understand the need But we have some limitations with you know, trying to design the project and and make that actually functional outdoor space will also Creating an active corner for that, you know commercial space. So We have some competing goals. We tried to create as large of a child care center as we can and unfortunately There are some limitations. I I don't think it's as simple as being able to to do what was suggested But we're definitely, you know open to exploring and I think the challenge is just we have done a lot of that and um frank if if you could Potentially speak. I don't know if frank um Is able to unmute as well Yeah, I mean it's it certainly would require losing probably Six maybe five or six parking spaces if I'm just eyeballing the plan To basically provide the library With a garbage and support area and be able to move the daycare center back to the East I guess towards the garage Um, I don't want to hold up the whole thing. I just want to throw it out there as a Possibility and maybe we can discuss more. I want to give the public their time, but um, Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead. We can hear you. Hi. Yeah, Frank. Thanks for your project architect. Um, so yeah, we as Jim alluded, we we've looked at that quite a bit. Um, some of the parameters that yeah We're dealing with as you noted is the the library service corridor, which access is off of um, cathcart um And and keeping the commercial corner large enough to really keep viable tenants face is really our biggest concern And um and not really Feeling that the daycare can occupy that corner quite the presence that we would want in terms of transparency on a busy corner like that Transparency or with daycare is being intentionally a little bit more inwardly focused and then obviously the security needs for the outdoor play area um The other kind of challenge that we run up against is as you can imagine, we have quite a bit of structural And uh and fire separation related between parking and all the commercial uses in the library And uh and trying to keep a simplicity of structure for cost effectiveness But also, um, just how parking garages lay out in a very simple grid pattern and so, um as Jim alluded to we definitely Can look at if there's ways to increase Some of that play area, but we just have a really a limited of frontage to work with without cutting into kind of library support and office space Really as you see the the egress stare there on the plan kind of to the left of the play area and such so Um, but yeah, I I think as we as we jump back into the design and start refining it into our next phase design development Um, we definitely will be looking at that and how to maximize that Okay, great. Um last one, um and we can move along. Um, so, uh I have some experience. Uh, kind of remediating, uh Top toxic, um work areas I I worked for state parks and was um the environmental scientists on site for a big uh revamp of a silamar down in Monterey and that site has been in use since 1913 So there there was uh different issues with buildings of the soils and etc And so I'm just wondering if somebody could speak to kind of any additional costs um that we think are going to be um added to the project that aren't where we're already planned for um with um the toxic soil that we've already know about and also are are are there Are we planning for potential remediation for the demolition of um the total fit 113 building? Um since that's an 80 year old building and it's likely there's going to be some associated with that I'm just curious about how it may affect the timeline Um, just so we kind of have realistic expectations and budget as well and whether all that's kind of figured in or is that something we're going to have to fund Yeah, uh, Jim remler. I can speak to that. You know, it's this is fairly typical with what We're seeing, um, you know, we're under construction with the civic station south project currently and um, we pretty much Just factor in in any area that has sensitivities that you're pretty much doing a vapor barrier system these days. It's um And you know, there's generally um going to be You know associated remediation on any structures that are demolished that are you know pre 78 and that's also factored in so I we're pretty up to speed and we've worked with this consultant extensively on you know multiple projects and Santa Cruz and we have a fairly good Handle on on what those anticipated costs are and they're built in Okay, thank you so much. I very really appreciate everybody answering my questions and I'll uh kick it back to the chair Thanks, zindi. Those are good questions. Uh anyone else want to ask some questions? Timoree Hi, thank you. Um, Timoree and I've got a few questions here related mostly architecturally um, I am curious if the design team can talk about um the strategy for mitigating the sun and solar gain and glare on the west facade just to explain a little bit about um How they worked through that and and educated us a little bit on there on on that I can start and then uh, I believe a the library architect is also on the call and I'll have him chime in. Um, the general strategy with all of the west facing library facade glass is a is a glass type called fritted glass Which basically greatly reduces the uh, the solar heat gain coefficient through that glass There's different levels of fritting and uh, again, I'll let Abe kind of dig into more detail if he'd like But um, basically the of what Tim alluded to in the presentation is the density of the fritting allows for increased transparency, especially down closer to the street and uh to allow Visibility and such and then as we get higher up, uh, it's denser And uh, and so that's the primary way Um, they'll also be solar control within or on the other side of the glass to prevent glare And and direct gain, but as you all were probably aware the heat needs to be stopped before it passes through the glass and such um, so That's the primary treatment on that for the residential The uh, the window size as you saw are punched openings We do have the the uh, we will have I guess direct gain in the residential windows because those those will be clear But they are of a smaller size And uh, and many of them have a small amount of operability and or the ventilation within the units to to deal with any heat that's gained through that but So that's that's the kind of the the the big overview Let's see if Abe wants to chime in at all with any additional information on the library where we have the most west facing glass Yeah, thank you frank and thank you commissioners You know frank had a couple key points in regards to Kind of the solar exposure First of all, uh, you know, this is a library. So we do want to design an open and transparent building Um, it's important that there's a visual connection You know between the street and the building it's a public building in nature And you know transparency is kind of philosophically important as well as uh, you know, just sort of technically important the um The other kind of element of a project like this is we only have a couple facades to work with to bring daylight in And in this case one of the longest facade of the property is the west facade So it is important that we incorporate glazing on that facade for daylight this is a lead building and then it's a also or aiming to be a zero net energy building If we can sort of budget for the photovoltaic panels. So it has to be really energy efficient A big part of energy efficiency is reducing use from Lighting and not Artificial lighting. So we get that through this glazing in the building The other element that's important is The way the glazing is tiered allows for natural ventilation. We have kind of a stack effect in the building and we're actually going to have a automated windows that Are connected to a temperature sensor outside when there's it's a temperate day, which you have often in Santa Cruz there's going to be Windows that automatically open along the base of the second floor And then windows that also automatically open along the top of the claire story Allowing hot air to kind of move through ventilate the building going to save up the top and it's actually going to significantly reduce You know hvac requirement Zero net energy goals Um, and then you know as as reg noted, we have a frit pattern. Um, so in addition to high performance glass We have frit That'll be just going to cut down on both heat gate and glare And then there is going to be a time of day when that sun is low and at an acute angle And we'll drop the shades which will be automated as well at that time Great. Thank you Appreciate that thoughtfulness Okay, so My next question has to do mostly with the commercial space for spaces I Understand that the programming is currently, you know, the goal is to have total fitness Take that space and it's currently designed as a three-story Commercial space But I also read and know that the programming is supposed to Stand the test of time because that's what we as architects and designers would like to do and so um curious about the This sort of I guess the single use occupancy as it's designed now versus down the road if there Needed to be multi-dependence in that space And if you could explain a little bit, um, about how you see that, um Karen, you know, like changing over time From a design perspective Jim or Brian, do you want to start or would you like me to? Uh, Frank, I think you can go into how we're looking at that space being flexible in a lot of ways For a variety of techniques, and I think it would be appropriate for you to speak to that Okay. Yeah, so the submitted design which um, as tim alluded to we prepared towards the end of last year Definitely shows a more of a single use commercial vertically connected space um, but we have um met with and spoke with potential tenant such as total and and looked at how we could break that space up if need be in the future or if uh, that tenant wanted less space and so some of those ideas include, um, rotating the stair and elevator to allow for um, basically a commercial Vertical lobby or or access on on different levels so that if the ground floor was for instance a corner coffee shop and didn't need access to those stairs and elevators that the tenants above would have access And uh, and that would also allow technically for the second and third floor to be separated tenants as well so And then yeah, we also have looked in that we can from an egress standpoint have a second means of egress That is separated by floor or or allows for Egress from each of the floors down So it has been a consideration especially because of the kind of visibility of that corner space and and What type of tenant would basically benefit from that most and giving the city? as as kind of the landlord of that type of redeveloped space or or trying to fill those spaces with the the best and optimal use Um, so it has been considered so yeah Okay, I was just going to add to that that the um You know, we we understand how important it is. It's been very clear that really maintaining you know The two-story height and really trying not to change that elevation. I think it it has been intentionally um flexible in the design to Accommodate and I think it's very likely that it could be a standalone tenant in that corner space Right. Um, I think I just would um, you know, I think it would be on the Benefit the city to have a really clear roadmap on how that modification Would happen easily if it were to be the case and with that In in looking at these the the drawings as it currently stands I don't see specific mechanical exhaust venting or grease trap Mentioned in there and so I know the other commissioners are like wow second meeting and she sounds like a broken record but But you know in the in You know in the goal of having this be a long-term flexible space I would like to recommend that the proper chase and and venting and grease trap be Identified so that it can have a copy shop as you mentioned you can know right now It's might be a total fitness um, so That's that part. Um, I I don't know if you have anything to say about that Yeah, I can I mean we are committed to you know, this is really a partnership with the city and we absolutely want to um that those items that you mentioned are items that Well, it might not be on the at this stage because we're not really into design development um They are things that would pretty much be standard that we would be thinking about as course of pre-planning to get Allow the city the widest range of flexibility for that space. Yeah, so is there a great Yeah, and um I I I'd like to assume that that was the case but Unfortunately, but sometimes we we come across a lot of projects where that isn't where that isn't the case and so I just like to To mention it. So thanks. Um, and then lastly, um I would like to just Bring up the alley as a potential opportunity and concern I know that You know the alleys are really important and and they serve a great purpose. They can also be a nuisance and Um, and so I guess I would just like to um I guess have us consider that that that there's an opportunity to activate that space permitted pedestrian and and um bike access and I know planning and mentioned that that that was being considered. I just really would like to Make sure that it can be a focus. Um Because um, I think there's an opportunity there to activate that space for good and mitigate potentially any unwanted things if we don't address it. Um as part of the whole You know human scale Factor that this that that is being considered on the street fronts. So Um I believe that's all For me, uh, thanks commissioner gordon brand and see your hand is up Yes, thank you commissioner kennedy. I just wanted to uh one for the Affordability levels in the large packet that we have on page 208 There's a description of the affordable levels that I just described a moment ago And then second speak to uh commissioner gordon's concerns about the alley activation Um, I think they can win could also speak to that alleyway a little bit further But I think this alley is going to be a little bit unique in the sense that there's some primary business access there already Um, that that is their main point of ingress and ingress. So there is going to be heavier pedestrian traffic than typical alleyways Um, and then with that in mind, we are also thinking in terms of like how can we Uh, ensure lighting security those types of features are are predominant Um, and then on a general level economic development is looking at, you know, alley activation programs for all of downtown across all the alleyways So I don't I don't think this one's going to pose any unique concerns And if anything might lend itself to a more pedestrian friendly Access corridor to begin with and I said anything wanted to add to that. I think I'd be happy to hear from him as well Yeah, thank you. Yeah, Nathan one director of public works and Appreciate the comment there commissioner and gordon. We definitely want to keep um access flows for bike and pedestrian access Will be clear access in the downtown core. So we definitely are planning on maintaining that. Um, and then as we go towards Building plans that we'll definitely be looking at it more closely As ryan mentioned lighting or maybe some other striping, you know, there's some treatments that we can tell Due to enhance that area But it is a main entrance to one of the buildings and there is sort of a sign that needs to happen with regards to a garbage collections and fire access, etc So, um, we definitely want to make it a space and open inviting space as well Thank you Great. Thank you I had some concerns as well about the there's a stormwater planter in the alley now It just looked like that'll be worked out later in design, but it's a really valid concern Um, good any other questions from commissioners? Uh, commissioner kennedy just to speak briefly to the stormwater Yeah, we'll definitely be working that out as the design progress The big challenge as you can imagine is we're surrounded obviously on all sides And so to get roof drainage to go to an incompletely different frontage So we'll have to figure out something creative that allows us to to deal with a large quantity of waters on that On that east elevation, but yeah, so but just wanted to speak to that since I know you're concerned about it But yeah, we definitely are looking at every space we can find to deal with stormwater with the tight site So yeah, thanks. Thank you. I understand that the state regulations are really rough in that area and that alternatives are really expensive So, um, this is a good example of just bringing something to your attention We don't need a condition of approval, but I hope it's valuable to give that input Um, commissioner conway Yeah, thank you. Um, I'll have some more comments, but um, my question at this point is um regarding bike parking and types of bike parking There's some been some discussion about whether or not there's um bike parking that are larger for some of the um, you know, alternative shaped bikes um, and I'm wondering if there's a way to, um Incorporate those in or if you've anticipated that And then also some of the locations of bike parking I thought there were some good points made about where it really belongs and To make sure that it's located in places that really make it Very easy and in fact much easier to ride bike than to get there any other way Thank you Brian word Claire Thank you commissioner. Can you I'll kick it off and then I'll probably hand it over to Claire the locally or transportation planner But I just want to say from the onset like our goal is ambitious on the bike parking And I think like we still have refinement to tweak the variety of uses that we want to accommodate And one thing that was provided to us more recently in the last few months is there is now a spec sheet on the bike walker is that Our current provider downtown provides a cargo bike walker that they didn't previously provide And so we're going to look to incorporate that into the system as well as bike share You know when that comes back online this summer That's that's another feature that I think we want to make sure is it is very present at this location And I'll let Claire kind of take it from there Thanks, Brian. Yeah, Claire globally transportation planner at the city um Commissioner Conway, I I think you might be referring to the comments in the letter from rick hyman And I think there was a lot of good that was included there Some of the things that I appreciate about the design are that all three frontages now include class two bike parking So anyone the traveling to The daycare anyone that's traveling to the residential entrance or any of the businesses that front either lincoln or cedar or cathart there Have options for that quick walk-up bike parking. I think that's a major improvement over some preliminary designs and those Class two bike parking spaces do accommodate a wide variety of sizes and styles of bikes, which is very nice The bike room the class one bike parking that's designed for residents Has some opportunities to be able to further expand for alternatively sized bikes That's not currently part of our requirements in our code It's something that we're working towards and you'll actually see that on the 14th that your planning commission meeting 14th of march But as Brian said, we are also working towards with our bike locker vendor bike link. They have just released a Cargo size bike locker and we have a hundred thousand dollars line item did next year's Budget in order to install more of those in the downtown and this is one of the locations we'd be looking at Um, the delay there's a supply chain on delay on those So we did just update some of our downtown bike lockers, but those we wouldn't have been able to get until around may so we went ahead with regular lockers so Um, all that is to say, I think the mix of bike parking that's included in this project is Very appropriate. I think there's opportunities to further improve bike parking downtown as a whole Um, but I think that it's very very appropriate for this size and scale of the project And then clear while you're there. I think the nearest bike share is in front of del mar. Am I remembering that right? The nearest currently permitted right there It is right at the del mar. Um as part we also plug if you go to city of sienna cruise comm slash bike share We are accepting recommendations for additional bike share locations. We are planning to Permit about 150 additional docks within the city There's also a map on that website of existing permitted bike share stations and any bike share questions Feel free to ask. We're really excited and we are launching in june Great the more the merrier in my opinion on that front Thanks for your questions truly Anyone else want to chime in? All right, everybody's looking happy. I've asked about a million questions of staff by email. So I only have one left Um So I get it that the red you can't require Automobile parking for the residents and that they would be in the downtown parking district So would they have to pay market rate to park in a garage that's touching their own building? This is claire globally again. I'm happy to take that one. Um, yes This parking would be unbundled from the unit So any parking that a resident wanted to consume? They would need to purchase that parking either by paying the daily rate the hourly rate Or obtaining a monthly parking permit. We are anticipating that there will be monthly permits available in this structure We're modeling that as part of our financial model as part of when it comes online So that would be an option. But yes Anyone that uses this public supply of parking would need to pay for for the use of that space Are there reduced rates for affordability levels or is it just Something that we are exploring for fiscal year 25 26 and beyond the technology that we have for our parking access and revenue control system Right now doesn't allow us to do that. But it is something that we are considering how we could roll out in the future Thank you That's it makes feelings about that. That's wonderful to have unbundled parking But I've just worried about where people are going to park in this middle time. Well, we still have cars Um, getting into comments. So Sean, I see your hand Okay, yep. Can you hear me? Yeah All right, I also have shared the same concern uh chair kennedy and I was wondering I know in the past Um, thanks again everybody for the presentation beautiful building looking forward to it. Um, I Was wondering we've talked about it in the past. I know when we did the south of laurel Uh plan we've talked about, um, offering bus passes to residents Um, as a possible offsetting Because we're not going to be offering that they don't have bundled parking. I'm wondering if we've thought about it Or if that's a possibility of offering, uh, bus passes Uh, to residents as a possible offset For the lack of parking option. Um, just as afford as an affordability aspect I'll take that one again. Claire globally We have two options one all people who are employed as part of this project Are eligible to utilize our free transit passes for all downtown employees as part of our go Santa Cruz program Not only do we provide transit passes. We also provide free bike locker cards We will be rolling out discounts on bike share membership We offer rebates or vouchers on e-bike purchases Monthly education encouragement free helmets free lights carpool incentives and a whole host of other transportation benefits That's part one if you're an employee Part two if you're a resident, um, the objective standards that we recently updated also updated chapter 10.46 of the Santa Cruz municipal code Which requires that residential buildings of 20 units or more Enter into a contract to Santa Cruz metro to provide unlimited local transit passes for all residents So that is part of our part of our code that we have sweet And that is limited this it applies to this project. It's also within half mile of major transit stops citywide So short of literally paying people to ride their bikes. We're pretty much doing everything else. I like that Oh, we pay people. Um, we can be done Oh, we also do that. Okay. Yes I'm out of game with my info. Okay Great Jim or brian, whichever wants to go first. I see both your hands I'll let Jim go first and then I just wanted to kind of tie together some things that Claire pointed out I'll be brief. I just want to mention. We're we're also working on obtaining some funding that would allow us to help subsidize, you know, pay for the Transit passes for residents as well. So, um, it's definitely on the the Um, agenda to to really try to provide those residents with free transit passes Just wanted to add that Thank you, Jim, and then I just wanted to add that, you know, currently the way the parking program works for permits It is exclusive to residents and employees downtown So it's not it's not like anyone can buy a permit for a parking facility Um, and I think that we'll continue to look at expansion of programs as more affordable housing comes online Especially with like the adjacent project across the street Which is in providing parking on site for their residents So I think that's going to be a continued conversation on how we manage The pipeline projects and the new housing that's coming online In the parking district as a whole Great. Thank you for that All right, any other commissioner questions or should we open the public hearing? Good. I don't see any other hands. I missed the 3d room because I can gauge how many people are here Um, clerk, what do you think we got maybe 30 people that are not staff online? Oh, I'm sorry. Um, yes, I would say probably 30 35 the hands are starting to raise up now and Um, this would be a good time to remind everyone that there's a delay Um between if people watching on television We might want to give them a second between Yeah, so I'll just sit back and give you a second between each thing to let the delay catch up I see 8 9 10 at 10. I'm going to limit public comment to two minutes And before we begin to public comment, I wanted to remind everyone again That the tree issue will be held at the council meeting and we're here to just look at the building tonight so, um Let's go ahead and get started. Um Yeah, please be as succinct as you can and if someone has already said what you said There's no real value in repeating it again All that being said, thank you for coming. We welcome your comments and uh, let's get started with the first attendee Okay, and I just wanted to remind the public that um, our timer function doesn't work really well with where our System set up so you'll hear me say time when your two minutes is up Good evening commissioners. My name is Kalisha Webster. I'm the senior housing advocate at housing choices A non-profit service provider helping people with development on other disabilities To find and retain affordable housing throughout Santa Cruz county I'm calling the support redevelopment of the sites at 113 and 118 Lincoln street until vibrant new mixed use development Including a library and affordable housing situated near transit in downtown Me the perfect location for development a walkable, likable and more sustainable community And by including deeply affordable housing The project will be able to serve some of the city's most vulnerable and special needs populations Even housing and for the future housing's proposal This is a critical need for housing. I mean the city of Santa Cruz is residents with developmental disabilities The city is currently home to nearly 300 folks with developmental disabilities Only a third of whom have been able to transition to living independently with supportive services Instead most adults with developmental disabilities are living at home with aging parents Due to the lack of deeply affordable housing available in the city For this vulnerable population many of whom are on fixed incomes from disability benefits Or working part-time and low wage jobs remaining in the family home puts them at high risk of displacement or homelessness When parents are no longer able to provide the housing and support that they require By collaborating with housing choices who provide on-site supportive services The 11 households living in the home set aside for people with developmental disabilities The developer's proposal addresses the housing needs of an average population by making them federal By meeting federal and state priorities providing inclusive housing opportunities To disabled members of the community and helps to meet the city's legal mandates to affirmatively further fair housing We look forward to seeing the project move through the development process and help to see the housing potential to site maximize In order to create a more inclusive and sustainable Santa Cruz. Thank you Thank you All right, I'm on the line. Yes, you are Oh, thank you. Hey, my name's Ian McCray. I'm the owner. Who was Ivan grill? A two-to-one cat car street um Want to shout out to my my mom a retired librarian of the city of Santa Cruz They're for 30 years. I have two questions. One is um, is there a way to look up our potential for um shadow on house cart street And how that might affect our our businesses there of loop below And and who is um my second question is is there any provisions made in terms of low income housing for employees in the district of specifically thinking of Some of my employees um, it might be um There are family, you know families and have an opportunity to take advantage of um low income housing in the city of Santa Cruz Even the cost of street from where they happen to work and um, I think that's it. Thank you Thanks for your comments We'll gather up all the questions and then answer them at the end of the public comment But thanks for your questions Hello, my name is Dennis Hagen. I am a retired librarian I worked for over 30 years for the California State Library in Sacramento and was involved in a number of new construction projects Uh for libraries as well as library renovations and historic buildings This is an important countywide project It's gone through a number of iterations with lots of public input It's a such a unique opportunity to provide both a community asset and housing in the core of Santa Cruz And I urge you urge you urge you to uh continue to support this project and help move it forward. Thank you Hi I wanted to um, I'm a resident of Santa Cruz and I have a son with uh developmental disabilities I'm really excited about this project and making Santa Cruz housing more inclusive um I wanted to say that I wanted to make sure that it's known that uh people with developmental disabilities don't necessarily just need Small studio. Um, sometimes they need to have caregivers that live with them Sometimes they're married and they have families. Um, and so I just wanted to make to ask After the public comment section if someone could speak to the mix of Housing options that are going to be available for people with developmental disabilities And to say that I'm really excited about having a new library and more inclusive housing downtown Because it's desperately needed for people with developmental disabilities with limited income Thank you for zoom host you're on the line um Hi, this is matt ferrell. I am speaking today for uh downtown forward I'd like to Thank all the folks that have worked so hard on bringing this project forward I think uh, it's clear that with The vote uh last november that were 59 of uh The voters in that election rejected a proposal to not allow a library Um On this site, uh It's clear what the will of uh Our residents is and secondly, I would like to say that I would encourage the Commission to approve this project and move it quickly to council Because until this project has entitlements uh The affordable housing Developers will not be able to move forward and seek grant funding And those funds are competitive and the sooner we can get those But more likely is our chance to move forward with this project the same thing applies to the uh downtown library project Part of this project if they have entitlements When they are competing for state Library grants they rank higher higher because they are considered More shovel ready So the rest of the items and concerns Uh, we had we outlined in our letter to the planning commission Thank you for your time and consideration Hi, this is linda marin from uh citizens climate la vie santa cruz and also the coalition saves some trees And I appreciate what you said commissioner kennedy that we're not discussing trees tonight and i'm glad we're not Um on the one hand, but I also Can't help but say something about trees that are resonant with many of the things that have been said tonight And first of all, I've learned a lot from the commissioners question So thank you all the commissioners who um, you know provided good questions um what I want to say though about trees is um as we are in this climate crisis and we are needing to do everything we can to create um environments that Help to mitigate emissions trees are absolutely essential and this project Um cuts every single tree down on that lot and there are two trees at least Um that the arborist has deemed You know worthy of being saved that could be saved So we are asking the city council to consider asking the architect to Who I think now is right there frank um And I'm hoping that um the architect is able to give the same kind of response that he gave to commissioner dawson With regard to the child care space Um reconsideration it sounds like it would be a big challenge and yet maybe something's possible um, I just want to uh Hope and and urge all of you commissioners when it comes to Uh considering the trees In the next I am assuming the next meeting perhaps Um, or after the city council has heard the appeal that that you will also advocate for um Including trees in that design because um, we really need them And I think it would be really healing and good for the city to still be able to have Some of those beautiful trees that we are all um that we identify with and I'm really Thank you. Thank you. Um, my name is isiah berth. I am a student at uc santa cruz And I'm calling to urge the planning commission to expedite this project Um as quickly as possible Um as has been pointed out Uh, this uh library project received the mandate of the voters And it is absolutely essential that we uh Create a dense walkable um livable downtown core. Um, uh I The environmental impacts of um Cutting down a tree or two are not visible compared to Cost of sprawl and cutting down to the green belt. Um And specifically with regards to uh biking, um I would be interested first I would This is just a design thing. I dislike the wave racks. They they really don't it's spiking aesthetically pleasing. They don't really provide um as many uh spaces for bikes as They pretend to and also as an e-bike user. I'm interested in the possibility of outlets um being uh placed near bike racks so that people could charge their um devices but overall Um, I think that the planning commission should expedite this project as quickly as possible and thank you Thank you Hello, can you hear me? Thank you commissioners Thank you for your time and consideration Any of us who's attempted to absorb the 1600 plus pages of the agenda packet has gotten some sense of how complicated and consequential this project is It's the most expensive and largest mixed use project ever considered by Santa Cruz near number of serious concerns about a project of such size and expense but for tonight I'm only bringing up one of them There is an intrinsic important contradiction in the staff's report On the one hand, the staff report says this project would need both a waiver and a concession Utilizing the state density bonus law in order to be permitted legally precisely because The plan is out of compliance with the downtown plan Uh, specifically it's not in compliance with the downtown plan standards for the cedar street village sub area This sub area is composed of mostly one to two story buildings It's meant to have a human scale and a village quality And it allows a maximum of 50 foot height Where this project Is proposed to go and this proposed project is at eight stories and goes to 84 feet height At the same time this staff report claims that this project qualifies for sequa Exemption and for that qualification The project has to be in compliance with the general plan and downtown plan. However That staff report demonstrates that the project is in fact substantially out of compliance So since I think your task tonight is to review this project In relation to our city's laws and any significant issues that there may be to be addressed Please recommend that either the project fails to qualify for a sequa exemption and will in fact require A project or that the project will have to actually conform to the downtown plan To qualify for the sequa exemption. Thanks so much Good evening. Can you hear me? Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we talk about the environment And I believe that nothing can be worse than 10,000 cars going over 17 Every day back and forth And that's why I support this project. Hopefully I work in construction And hopefully I can attain a job there And be hired locally And since it's a public work job, I would love to see more policing of the Of the misclassification of workers because I was working in a job in gear boy and it was a public works and We had labors Doing carpenter work Which in return the ratio was five labors to three carpenters When it should have been five to three five carpenters to three labors Because of the misclassification of work. So I would love to see the policing of of The actual classification of the workers. I would love that This is taxpayer money It should be policed and used correctly And also Hold the developers accountable for that Because if if we don't require that we have uh, I don't know. I want to say we need uh More just more policing I would appreciate it We need responsible contractors and developers to do public works jobs Because it's tax money And when things the workers get misclassified it's actually tax fraud So please be alerted that I don't know if you guys knew that or not But I would appreciate it if you guys keep it in mind. Good night Thanks Good evening commissioners, uh, brian mechel on behalf of santa cruzimbi. I just wanted to call in and support of this project We've been big fans of it After the years of community input it's transitioned into a project that now includes housing and a beautiful library Uh, recently we had the defeat of measure o showing the voters are in favor of this project moving forward and getting the affordable housing built with over 12,000 people on the housing authority list It's undeniable that we need more affordable housing In santa cruz and this is a perfect project for it. It's in downtown. It's near the metro center These are people who will not have to commute long distances to work anymore Uh, they'll live in a very walkable area right next to transit with free transit passes, which is fantastic Uh, so we are completely in favor of you moving this project forward getting at the city council So I can get entitlements and we can just keep moving it forward and get it built. Thank you Ah, yes, uh, good evening planning commissioners I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today My name is renay bayez and I am a field representative for carpenter's local for uh, 505 And i'm here today to speak about three simple things which will benefit the gray city of santa cruz And I believe these three things should also be basic labor standards One is the use of apprenticeship programs two is health care for workers and their families and number three is local hire You see projects that invest in apprenticeships health care local hire are the best deal for construction workers and the community This allows workers and their families to live in the communities that they work in This also means those wages that are earned will be reinvested back into the local community as they spend their earnings And to be upfront The majority of the projects being built in the area do not have any labor requirements and be could be considered A crime scene just by how much these workers are being exploited and robbed of their wages and benefits But projects like this have the ability to change lives for those who live right here in this community So my question is this being that this is a public work projects Are with prevailing wage will this project utilize apprenticeships? Will carpenters from local 505 here in this community have the chance to work on this project? Why wouldn't we have local hire? Right? I believe Public work projects should have labor standards in place that generate opportunities for residents in the area But what is this city doing to prevent and protect these workers from being exploited by non-responsible developers And non-responsible contractors at the hire. I'd like you guys to please consider the need for labor standards when planning And developing the future in one of the most influential cities in the state of california What are we doing? Thank you Hi, this is Oops having to mute my This is jorian wilkins. I'm with the downtown association of santa cruz. We are We work with over 600 businesses in the downtown district Who overwhelmingly are in favor of this library our board of directors has unanimously voted to support this library and we are Calling today for her g to be the same Um, because we really want the vibrancy that this family attraction, um, that this library would be To our community it would make a huge difference to the vibrancy of our our downtown and continue to um Either kind of place we all want to come to I don't know if anyone's been to the new libraries That have already been built all over the city, but they are real Um places that you can see people are using they're like free offices, they are Used every hour of the day and they have gorgeous views and we would love to have a place like that downtown So downtown can continue to be as vibrant as the other areas of our community Um, we also care a lot the small businesses in downtown about housing for our employees And everyone knows that as a challenge and having more housing For our employees downtown is is a huge goal for for our businesses as well. So thank you so much all of you Each and every individual I know it's a service to be a commissioner and we appreciate the time that each of you puts into this and Hopefully we cannot have a better community because of all of your work. Thank you Hi, my name is Kersha Durham. I'm a local environmentalist. I've lived in Santa Cruz since 1981 So I sent a letter and I'm just going to highlight some point Cities great cities beautiful cities around the world are eliminating parking in their city centers Some have limited park have eliminated parking as much as 70 000 spaces Why? Well, Michael Krodansky. He's a global research manager for the Institute of Development and Transportation He says a huge reason to reduce parking is that nobody's drawn to a city because of great parking We have to repair the damage that we've done by creating more parking and decimating our cities and highlighting parking So i'm asking you to please reduce the parking and the commercial space of this building In order to keep heritage trees The beauties the green attractive areas that everyone is drawn to about Santa Cruz and keep it in our city center Um, you've already seen that we have huge empty spaces and stores COVID and the convenience of online shopping mean that people Are not so it's just ridiculous to add more commercial space when we can't fill. What is there already? Save the area for green space for nature Also, Jay Crawford, one of the leading voices in livable cities. He says today's housing crisis stems from a lack of land Once we get rid of cars and parking the housing crisis will be solved immediately So your own city staff report required half of the parking that you're proposing right now So I think it's egregious to put in 243 spaces when they said you can require it to keep it the regulation at 122 spaces.  We're talking about reducing the heat island That buildings like this Create we're also talking about the city debt We're in a huge amount of debt and if you reduce the parking and you reduce the commercial space The cost of this project is going to be reduced drastically So I'm asking you please replace The parking with green spaces with trees with beauty This is the reason why students from all over are drawn to the white tourists come here They don't want to cement block a huge amount of parking No one is drawn to cities great cities are not attracted to their parking. Can you wrap up your thoughts? Thank you Hello, can you hear me? My name is john hall and I appreciate the work of you commissioners You have a an immense job with this project because it's an immense project I want to associate myself with underscoring the importance Of the question of whether there is compliance with the downtown plan and with The industry corridor aspect of the downtown plan that it would justify a sequel exemption By my reading of everything that is in the staff report on the one hand They say they're in compliance and on the other hand they say here's where we're out of compliance Is that where we have the waivers that will cover The kinds of issues that we need to address by being out of compliance That kind of contradiction cannot go forward It it seems to me that the duty of of the Planning commission is to examine the entitlements proposal for completeness and the accuracy and conformity with law and in that instance The plan the project plan is not conforming The other issue that I would point to and this is you know, I'm a textualist I get it that the tree issue is being appealed And therefore is not part of what you're considering here But you are considering making findings that relate to the trees and It seems to me proper for you to exclude those findings that are relevant to heritage trees Because they are indeed being appealed I among other people who supported measure o recognized that measure o was defeated On the other hand Four out of ten voters in Santa Cruz were willing to vote against the project And for solving the problems of affordable housing in a different way We think public space is important. We think trees are important And we hope that the project can be modified to accommodate more of the Some of the heritage trees, but at any rate it should not be in your findings anything Concerning conformity with heritage trees As part of your findings as the planning commission in my view. Thanks very much for your time and your efforts Good evening. My name is Elaine Johnson, executive director of housing Santa Cruz County Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly this evening I'm sharing the support of housing Santa Cruz County that we urge you to support the downtown library and affordable housing project As you know Santa Cruz desperately needs affordable housing and is facing extreme pressure due to the lack of it The proposed project is critical to the health and well-being of the community in so many ways This project will continue this city's commitment to providing housing that is affordable to meet local needs This is a well-designed project in a vibrant and accessible location I urge the planning commission To support the advancement of this much needed project the library And there's the nursery affordable housing all of it. Thank you so very much. Bye. Bye Hi, uh, good evening, uh commissioners. Uh, my name is Juan Garcia. I'm the program manager for housing choices As you know, my uh, colleague a collegiate, um, spoke up a couple minutes ago So, uh, I'm calling I'm actually calling for use of support of the development of the future housing for eating housing for the 124 apartments with the 11 set aside units for uh, people development abilities This site is ideally situated near the transit and downtown making it a perfect location for development of Rockable by global and more sustainable community We strongly support the planning commission Recommendation that the space can be used for the affordable housing developer Who can use the space to develop more affordable housing and deeper levels of affordable ability then uh, what would be achieved under the um housing ordinance. This is especially important for need the housing needs of uh, Santa Cruz county special needs with the, um, clean with those with the problem with disabilities Who will require deeply affordable, uh, rent, spare with the coin need support services funded by the standard regional center By having affordable housing available for the special needs population They will be provided with support service to live in the community And having an onsite resident coin eaters part of what we do in housing choices to check with them Regularly to contact the circle support added an additional safety net for our clients We hope to see the city commits in creating Housing opportunities which increase housing accessibility for clients with development disabilities So that we can remain in the community where they can live and work. Thank you for your time Thanks for your comments. I'll give it just like an awkward pause to see if anyone else wants to raise their hand on the delay If there's any more comments from the public now's the time Laura, I see your hand Thank you. Um, I want to support what kershia Doreham was saying and what john hall was saying um There is less need for parking and I totally support all your efforts Um in providing affordable housing But I think there's some key issues that I'd like to speak to Um someone spoke about the guidelines for the cedar street quarter which are being ignored And those invested in this plan are selling it is what is best for santa cruz The truth is renovation and preservation of already existing buildings are less costly to The city which is currently running a large deficit I also like to bring attention to the fact that most people have A library in the in their back pocket. So having an extensive large library Is not as uh relevant is just renovating what we already have It is a beautiful thing But it is I think an over stretch where people are not really interested In sitting around a mezzanine with a grand piano I think more people come to santa cruz to see the birds and the beautiful Um trees and nature skate I think there's some dangers in the project in that in that there are some real needs For affordable housing and I'd like to see that Being addressed more. There are also the exacerbation of the traffic congestion Put extra strain on our natural resources, especially our water supply Even with the rain the current infrastructure only captured about five percent of the rainfall Now this is an oversight and I'd like to see preparedness be more Uh a prior priority for the city We've experienced a lot of fires storms and earthquake the trauma from the pandemic All which we require us to recognize Are limits and we should build a community to scale With more visionary and forward thinking ideas less parking Yes, affordable housing and more nature. Thank you Thank you. I see one more call in and I think this will be the last uh comment Yeah, that's a better Um Revisit your consultant study of Nelson my guard from 2019 that found there is A surplus of parking in downtown santa cruz and there is not a parking problem And I don't know why you want to build more parking when You paid for a study the city paid for a study to investigate this and found there was no parking so please believe You know the the experts you Do parking we do not need it. We're in such a housing crisis um Don't put parking where you could build housing so maybe Just don't build a parking garage and encourage more congestion cars If housing is really needed and that's the point That everybody's pushing through Then build housing don't build housing for garage for cars and garages. Thank you Thank you. All right. So I just said that would be the last comment and now I have two more hands So I'm going to change my mind. We'll have two more comments. Keep it quick, please And then that will be the final answer done Hello Yep, we can hear you Uh, yes, uh Good evening, uh members of the commission. My name is Juan Barbosa and um, I From carpenter's local 505 in aptos I represent the hardworking Carpenters in santa cruz county. I am here tonight in support of the of the downtown library project Um, I believe uh, one of the gentlemen here tonight Speaking in favor of renais already spoke about, um Things like local hire in an apprenticeship program So i'm not going to talk about that anymore. I just want to say that I support the project and uh, our members would love to Uh, work in their own backyard Uh, you know, a lot of them are tired of driving over the hill to santa clara county or farther So, um, I urge you to move this project forward because it's price like this one that Will allow many of our carpenters to make a good living and continue a career with good wages and benefits Thank you for your time and have a good night Thank you So I have nine one one six is our last comment Thank you very much for taking the time to hear from all of us and to look into this project I appreciate the work that all of the presenters and commissioners have done for this meeting and for the project generally Uh, I am sure the city staff are more knowledgeable than I am So my understanding is that the parking Might exceed what is necessary for the building alone, but it is necessary to maintain just the existing level of parking downtown Uh, and separate from whether or not it's required. I do want to encourage everybody to consider that People should not have to choose between keeping our cars and having housing We do need parking spaces for our cars if we're going to live somewhere. I'm a student and worker here in santa careers It is so hard to find housing and projects like this are a great opportunity To take a step in the right direction with respect to housing justice So I just want to voice my appreciation for all of the work that everyone has put into this project Thank you All right. Thank you as as always. I appreciate our community's uh Comments the amount of energy everybody's put into responding to this project So thank you each and every one For making the time to tell us what you think So I'll close the public hearing now And then I kind of gathered up a list of seven Items that I think uh, I we should have staff respond to Maybe I'll just read those off and then uh, tim if you agree you could lead the show Sure, uh, I think it'd be pretty easy to show the Shadow study on cat part. That's in the plans A gentleman had a question about that. That's to the south. So it should be a happy shadow study Um, there's a question about low income employees in the district from that same gentleman at hula's across the street And it was I think if they can park in the garage across the way Um, we've been through it a million times. But can we say once more how many new trees are being planted with the project? Um Total recap but yeah downtown parking district. Are we adding parking spots or not? We've been through this a lot, but it doesn't hurt to say it one more time um I uh architect could answer Frank if you don't mind kind of how this building steps down To address the village height at cedar and any other design features that meet the requirements of that plan Um, wanted to ask the owner jim if this like prevailing wage is required I appreciate the unions, but I know that prevailing wage labor can be costly as well But just identify what's required already if anything And then uh flash that unit mix to show off the different numbers of apartments um along with kind of a follow on about Are they designated for people with design uh developmental disabilities or not? Um, I have two children myself. So I feel the three bedroom need in the community um Anyone else did I miss any commissioners did that pretty much get the highlights for you? Yeah, I would just add really quick. It if if staff could just once again clarify to the community how State law supersedes some of our local area plans Because that's something that we're going to see A lot and if you could just you know, we don't have to go on and on about it But just one more time kind of talk talk us all through how how that works and how State law supersedes a lot of these local plans. We're kind of used to Sure. Thank you for that. Um, I think uh Sabrina if you're on the line if you can maybe speak to The hierarchy of legislation at the state level versus a city municipal good Hopefully everyone can hear me. Good evening chair kennedy and commissioners. I'm sabrina teller. I'm a partner with remy moose manly I'm outside uh sequel counsel to the city on this and other projects So you did hear the comments, uh expressing some confusion about the determination that the project is exempt Under an exemption that requires consistency with plans And at the same time the project is requesting a waiver and concessions from certain requirements Of the zoning and plans and so the way this works is You know first you take the base project And that's the number of units that are allowed by the ordinary zoning And the plan and then the city is required to grant A certain number or percentage of bonus units Because of the affordable component of the base project But if restrictions and standards In the overlying planning and zoning Would prohibit that number of base and bonus units from being constructed on the site such as height restrictions Uh, for example, then the city is required also By the the density bonus law to grant waivers and concessions Uh to to allow that project to be constructed In other words, if it would present if it would prevent the project from being built At the density plus That's required by law Then you're also required to grant waivers to the things that impede that number of units to be built um And so this was dealt with in a case uh several years ago called walmer versus city of berkeley Where this very issue was presented um The infill exemption that is applicable to this site one of the couple of exemptions that's applicable to this site Requires consistency with applicable Plans policies and zoning In that case held that the mandatory mechanism in the state density bonus law renders those impeding restrictions Inapplicable to the project and therefore there is no actual Inconsistency and the exemption Determination is therefore correct and so for purposes of the consistency determination under sequa That the sequa exemption that's being claimed Those height restrictions are not applicable essentially So if you have any more questions on that i'm happy to answer it, but Thank you. That was helpful Great. Thanks so much. I'm sabrina and I think uh chair kennedy you had asked about The presentation of the shadow study for the project so I can go ahead and Share my screen here So Hopefully this is visible. Um, so this is uh There's a couple of plant sheets that um show shadows Oh, okay, i'm sorry Okay, no worries How um, okay, is that visible? Yeah, looks good. Okay, perfect. Okay Excellent, uh, so this is the uh, the the shadow study that was prepared for the project and of course the winter solstice at nine in the morning is the most extreme Casting of shadows and so the the green here shows the impacts associated with worst case Casting of shadows at the um the point of the year at which they would be longest And um, so this is the shortest day of the year and so you can see that throughout the day There are shadows cast but they primarily fall onto adjacent public rights away. There's small parts of The building here that will be potentially impacted to some degree by the shadows Um, and throughout the day. This is again is is the most extreme case in the shortest day of the year There are generally not um extreme Uh Impacts there are some to the adjacent building here to the east along pacific avenue and Another plan sheet shows this is the the least impactful day of the year summer solstice and again throughout the day So you can see that here. There's really no impact at all. And so for most points of the year there would be impacts between summer solstice and winter solstice and uh You know, all things considered The the height of the building in the location. That's um downtown, you know adjacent to other buildings that are High tall and so on. Um, close to one another The the impacts are not um particularly high I hope that answers the question Yeah, that's great. Can you just point to who lives while that's still up? I can see it but a lot of people are just used to looking at plans as me That looks like the sun will literally never touch real is Yeah, I mean the shadow. Excuse me, right. Yeah, this is uh, let me try to zoom in here a little bit um see Sorry, okay Is that better? So yeah, that looks good. Okay, great Yeah, again, this is worst case scenario shortest day of the year longest shadows that exist Okay And then I'd imagine that any employees could buy into the district parking Right, uh, brian, would you like to or claire? Perhaps you can respond to that question Yeah, and and my understanding of the question wasn't around parking the priority for housing And I I might ask Jim to speak to the housing allocation Because I believe that it would be intent of that question Yeah, thanks, brian. We're uh, we're absolutely Committed to to being a local preference To the extent that we are not violating any fair housing laws So what we've done on past projects is a tiered approach is what? Through our legal counsel in conjunction with, you know, city council Uh, so it's essentially like a city-wide for, you know, residents city-wide for employment county-wide for resident county-wide for employment and you have to be very Careful not to exclude any segments to the population that um, so But we are committed to that and um, we've done that in the past I'm happy to address The uh, prevailing wage question as well if you would like, um This project will be great. Okay, great. Um, this project absolutely will be subject to prevailing wage Most affordable projects are and um, you know, we are very familiar with that. It is extremely Uh, rigid in terms of, you know, we hire consultants to audit Uh, to ensure that there is proper wage payment. That is Um, I'm not familiar with the projects that were cited, but I can tell you that we have a vested interest and and haven't real Uh, financial stake, um to ensure that that is followed. We're certifying that we are doing that And we have been audited and we we take it very seriously and we do weekly with the payroll To ensure that that does not happen. So, um, I wanted to make sure that that was clear It would be prevailing wage. We absolutely Try to reach out to as many local contractors um, this type of project is a No type three construction. It is a very, um Uh, you know specific You know type of construction and so In the Santa Cruz market, we really, you know, try to find as much In terms of local subcontractors. We're very active with reaching out In in addition to the unions, I mean my partner Who's contractor he he was a, um union carpenter himself You know, has taught unions, um, you know in Carpenters union and whatnot. And so we absolutely Reach out and try to employ union label wherever possible. We have another project several You know union subs and and we would expect the same here to Really encourage as much competitiveness and and skilled trades as we can I'm happy to Any other questions, thanks that covered it for me So I had one more touch on trees parking spots and unit mix remaining We can discuss the tree related questions. So, um, I think uh to answer most succinctly the proposed, uh Project would would necessitate the removal of all the trees on site, none of them being heritage trees All would be replaced at a minimum one-to-one ratio and in addition to that there has been expressed a, um Desire to identify sites located off site To additionally accommodate, um up to A total number of 12 Trees for replacement. So the idea would be that all trees removed would be replaced Um at a greater rate than than removed and additionally, um, of course, it's not the role of the commission tonight to Make a decision on related to the appeal of the heritage tree removal permit. However, it is notable that the landscape plans prepared for the project do include extensive new, um Uh foliage that would assist with, um offsetting the loss of any mature trees And I think that probably answers it. But if there's additional questions or Um information that would desire, I'd be happy to address those Yeah, that's good. And it's clearly described in the arborist report and the plans So how about that unit mix I love to see that one because we have two bedrooms and three bedrooms. Yay Okay, I gotta go If you like I can share and I think that the idea was to to show the total number of units of different sizes, correct Okay, so yeah, I'll go ahead and share the project data, um I think that's actually in the power point. Let me quickly jump back to that Sorry about the delay. I have it queued up While you're pulling up the plans, I can just I'll just describe the 124 unit mix so that you can Like get that taken care of but there's 31 three bedrooms 31 two bedrooms 48 one bedrooms 13 studios and one two bedroom manager's unit and those are identified Um, there is a matrix of the breakdown of of those um on the plan set that was provided in the packet Okay, and hopefully that my screen is uh visible as well That shows that yeah, thanks for putting that up Um And Then how are the units for developmentally disabled allocated Brian? Is that known at this point or be figured out later? if um Brian I'll let Jim speak to yeah I'll let Jim speak to that aspect of things sounds good. Yeah, um, appreciate the question We've uh, this is not our first project working with um developmentally disabled And so we we absolutely try to provide units at different unit types and for example water street. We have Mix of units and you know the civic station south as well Has a range so that's something we would really work with Uh housing choices to try to come up with you know, where the the need is and Put units at those But it most likely would be a range But it hasn't been determined exactly at this point Thank you Good. Well, I think that's all the questions unless anyone has anything else they want to Have answered. I don't see anything About Claire. I see your hand. Yeah, um Chair can maybe you'd asked one question about the parking supply in the overall parking That's right. Yeah, this is just to confirm that with this project. There is a net loss of overall parking in the district. It's currently modeled at a Net loss of 245 spaces district wide Thank you All right, so well now we'll bring this back to you the commission for discussion um Our meeting's ended 11 unless we extend them And can everybody give me like a thumbs up thumbs down on if you'd like a bathroom break because we could do a short recess Um, so thumbs up would be yes bathroom break or thumbs down would be no quick ball. All right. Let's finish it off then I really look forward to seeing you all in three dimensions next meeting without this delay. That's going to really help. Um So I would encourage everybody to um Go ahead and tell us what you think about the project if you want to add anything if you want to find it tune anything This would be the time I brought forward a few minor revisions and two big conditions So we can do those at the end and tim. I trust you'll have the non red line version ready Thanks. All right, mike you're first Well, I was just going to suggest that we hear the conditions of approval first, but if you want to do them last No problem Uh, I'd be happy to do them first Well, to just point of order. I think we need a motion to approve the staff recommendations and the conditions And and then we would need to make a modification to those conditions Is I think that's good I can tell you've been a practice chair, and I'm new to the seat. Thank you again Uh, does anyone have a motion on this project? Chair commissioner conway I can't hear you No, you're you're muted Sorry about that I was flipping screens a little bit too fast and I will have more comments after we get a motion on the floor Um, but I would like to move that the planning commission recommend to the city council Acknowledgement of the environmental determination Approval of the non-residential demolition authorization permit The special use permit the design permit and a lot line adjustment To demolish the existing surface parking lot and structures and construct the library affordable housing project Based on the findings listed below and possibly as amended and conditions of approval listed in exhibit a of the staff report dated february 15th 2023 I'll second Uh, move by conway seconded by cd miller Thank you both. Um, so I'll throw those conditions out at first if that's fine with everybody. I just didn't want to go first because of being chair So tim, do you want to bring those up? There are three kind of fine-tuning minor ones And um, so maybe we'll look at those first So start down there on commission 34 This is a condition that Exempts mechanical equipment, etc from the height limit State law means that uh says that solar panels can exceed this already But I wanted to add these words that bifacial solar panels are specifically exempted from this condition Bifacial solar panel collects solar energy from both sides And so some of the big buildings i'm working on In my daily work doing this work Want to go higher with a trellis to get enough pv production up there And particularly if there's a mechanical screen already it doesn't cost very much more to do that sometimes So this is not a requirement. It's already state law, but I wanted to put it in there Just to let this project know that that might be something they can explore Again, the state energy code requires so much pv for this type of building solar panels That it's literally really hard to get enough on the roof. So this would give them a slight incentive to do that It's kind of a soft one. It's not a big deal Um Any questions comments from me on that one? Okay, number 50 is just tidying up a typo. There's kind of like three conditions or Yeah, um, cindy had a Has her hand up. Oh, I didn't notice that cindy Yeah, I just uh I just would really appreciate Seeing a red line because i'm very confused about what we're adding and what we're not like what are new and What are just going to be additions to the existing conditions? So is there a red line version of this we can look at? The red line contains like all mine back and forth. So no and um I don't know if you blow up blow up number 34 So this would be adding the words by official solar panels are specifically exempted to that condition Okay, yeah, if you could just say that as you're going through that would just be really helpful Yeah, totally add these words to number 34. That's totally exactly me Yeah Okay, adding those words for 34 Number 50 is an existing condition that is unchanged It just kind of three conditions got mushed together there So staff agreed to separate them out for clarity And then what's my third one there tim? I think it's over on the right Oh, there's two more actually 52. We talked about this earlier bikes of different. This is the um A bike storage condition And if everyone likes it I'd love to add these words that say bikes of different sizes and charging of e-bikes She'll be considered in the design. It's pretty soft. It's happening already But we want our bike rooms to be awesome Number 57 is just again a small ad of that language It lists out all these different like operations and maintenance manuals that are required for various purposes And the cal green green code Also requires that both the residents and the maintenance staff are given a specific manual On how to keep the green features of the building running So I just thought we'd list that out along with everything else and staff happily agreed All right, any everybody. All right with those minor ones. Let me know if you have questions. Want to talk more? Um good. So the two kind of big new conditions I was working on um The first one's a big deal uh as chair I'm allowed to create an ad hoc committee of the planning commission And so I want to hear from you if you think this is a good idea or not My concern is that because this is a civic project That we have a bit more oversight of like streetscapes and finishes Then we normally do we've done this four years ago Um, so the basic idea is to appoint uh ad hoc committee of a few volunteers from the commission And then staff could call them in If any changes to materials are proposed between now and building permits submittal or after that And on previous uh commissions, we've had architects and talented people on the commission And it was actually a help to the developer and staff to kind of circle back to a subcommittee Without obviously having to go all the way back through the planning commission for something So these were the words that I hammered out with staff uh to establish that subcommittee and I'd be asking for volunteers and interest and uh I'd like to hear what the other commissioners think if you think this is a good idea too much too little Pete I I guess um, so thank you for bringing it up. And I I I'm trying to make sure the words Um jive with what I think the intent is um, are you really looking for kind of a sounding board to for um changes that might evolve as the Um project gets closer to drawings Um, so it doesn't need to go all the way back through approvals It's really meant to be a sounding board for revisions Um, or what is that what you intend? So we're not we're not adding a layer. We're not um We're not, you know forcing additional review We just are are trying to be a place to um Make sure that the uh You know as the final evolution of the project moves forward um that there is um discussion by um this subcommittee And is that is that what you're talking about? Yes, and Tim look at this now. We had already struck those last few sentences. So just to read those I believe on our last version So Julie to respond to you yes the like referred back to the planning commission words I would think that nobody would want to do that So I was kind of thinking this would give an incentive to the little subcommittee to work things out with staff and owner In no case do I want this project to come back all the way through the process? And um, I really trust the design team and I trust staff to do this But there's these are this is a big important building and I just want everything to look really good and us to Go into it with eyes wide open with what we're getting And it's the nature of the process that that changes I agree with that and I and I think especially if the if the developers are in favor of this further discussion If if they would find that helpful Um, I can see how it could be. I am concerned that um this would make it appear That an approval is in any way conditional because I'm concerned that that's going to be a Cloud on an application for financing. I want to make sure that that is that that's clear That that the approval, um, you know when it's granted by the city council isn't mushy Yeah Cindy I see your hand and then maybe we'll just add that's the app how they feel about this too Yeah, I mean I I hear the intent, but but I just feel that it it's adding Too much ambiguity and kind of a new part to a process where you know, we've had this very extensive public process Very clear that it's a very central project There's a lot of eyes on this the design team is well aware of that the project has changed significantly based on feedback It's a really high quality Being built to the higher standards You know we're taking in all the requirements and I just feel like it's it's too much and we don't really need that There's just a lot of eyes on this project there has been and there will be and I just I just don't think We need to add another layer to it Okay Uh, can we hear from the applicant? What do you think of this idea? Well, I I definitely understand the um Appreciate the the concern But I I definitely would echo uh commissioner Conway's comments, and I think she's very in tune with Uh, the challenges and just the potential uh in terms of what the funding source may look like I think that to the Anytime we're deviating from what the established You know because currently if we were to to propose something that was not in line planning with check conformance Um with the entitlement if there was a major design modification it would go back through the channels It's more of a prescribed It's not a kind of specific and I not just the agencies were applying for funding but also When the investors and the lenders that are potentially, you know, we're working with That's that's my only concern. I I get the intention and I don't know how Um, we could provide you the assurance other than We understand how you know critical this project is and I think this is going to be um Uh Something where you know through the the I'll call them the the established metric of of what that process would be I think um You know, maybe it could be something that was kind of unofficial. I I sure would welcome the um The uh feedback and I agree that you know the project has made better through Uh the participation. I feel like this this project has morphed so much from where we started to such a You know a better project now, but um, I I am concerned about layering something that would Dba from the traditional process to be candid okay So Anyone else have thoughts or comments on this one? I would say that I appreciate that the sentiment to um, I think we're on the same page, you know about Our concerns, you know with a project of this scale But um, I also would like to believe that You know Everybody knows that You know, I'm a resource. We're a resource and that is is equally as important. So if we have a Kind of a friendly agreement that That we're all in this together then um, you know, I feel good about that So but thank you for bringing it to the table Well, thanks, uh mark Yeah, thanks chair Kennedy my sense, I I agree somewhat with Commissioner Dawson on this. I I'm a little concerned about adding another layer to a process. That's process intensive um, I'm a little concerned about the um as The owner of owners rep mr. Reynolds pointed out that, you know, it's you can add complications to a process Uh with unforeseen circumstances, I'm a little concerned about the word highest possible quality Um a streetscape and finish of these these are all kind of loaded words that can be misinterpreted or subject to Interpretation and argument and you know, um My my sense is that staff is fully capable of, you know, making the kinds of judgments needed um, and yeah, and as Commissioner Gordon pointed out, there's there's plenty of you know resource available in the community and everyone's aware of it So I think this is an unnecessary Condition, but I do appreciate the intent. Pete you're uh, okay, you do it the best way possible. So I appreciate that about you Sounds good So let's withdraw this condition. I hear you. I don't want to create any sort of loophole And uh, mr. Rindler, if you want to invite us to a meeting to touch samples and check in, uh, please do But we won't require you to do it I I would be happy to that Cool, cool, uh, and we all know, you know, we're all going to see the building too I understand value engineering But you know, there have been several projects that came out really disappointing compared to what we saw At at the commission. So I'll just state that And we'll withdraw this commission Tim. Thanks again for putting the work in there and I see Samantha's hand I thank you chair Kennedy. Um You know given the importance of this project and I'm hearing the discussion here around this first condition um, and some of the challenges that it brings but um, you know, given the importance of the project and the design also one option might be that we could, um Evaluate any changes that are proposed to the exterior design of the building when it comes in at the building permit stage And then bring that back to the commission just as an informational item Um, and then you could see what was being proposed and any commissioners You know, maybe able to reach out to us individually with any concerns that they have That sounds great. Let's do that. Let's see anyone objects Well, we'll drop that one. Thank you all for listening to the idea So this is the last new condition I'd like to approve um My general concern here is that apartment dwellers who have electric vehicles are allowed The opportunity to charge overnight Like people who have single family homes are So I work this language out with staff and everybo