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of the buildings and the need to enhance the pedestrian-orientation of the mixed-use building, reducing the massing of the detached single-family homes, the use of building materials to better reflect the architectural character of Downtown (i.e., reducing the amount of metal siding), and on-site parking requirements for a mixed-use building (i.e., meeting the parking standards for office/retail and apartments). On April 8, 2016, the applicant submitted revised plans and associated documentation addressing some of the previous comments in order to hold a Work Session with the Planning Commission. Planning Commission Work Sessions for major downtown/City-wide projects are required prior to requesting a formal recommendation by the Planning Commission to the City Council on project approval. A Planning Commission Work Session was held for the project on May 25, 2016. The Commission provided staff and the applicant with direction on the project land use consistency, parking, and design as detailed in the Work Session section below. In response to that direction, the applicant revised the project plans to include potential office space within the first-floors of the three, detached single-family homes. The current proposal is now before the Planning Commission for review and recommendation to the City Council, which will review and take final action on the applications. WORK SESSION The discussion at the May 25, 2016 Planning Commission Work Session focused on demolishing the structures, land use consistency, Specific Plan and General Plan amendments, parking, and design of the proposed project at. A summary of that discussion broken down into primary discussion topics is below. The applicant's responses to the Planning Commission's comments are discussed in the appropriate topical sections of this report. Historic Resources Historic Resources Policy No. 3 of the Downtown Specific Plan prohibits the demolition of any residential building in a commercial or office zoning district found to be a historic resource unless the building is determined to be unsafe or dangerous, and if no other reasonable means of rehabilitation or relocation can be achieved. The historic resource evaluation (Exhibit D) determined the existing house and accessory structure with carport are not considered historic resources and could be demolished. The Commission was not opposed to demolishing the existing home and accessory structure because the structures are not considered historic resources. Land Use Consistency The General Plan land use designation of this site is "Retail, Highway, Service Commercial; Business and Professional Offices" and the Downtown Specific Plan land use designation is "Office." The majority of the project (in terms of overall interior square footage) comprises detached, for-sale single-family residential uses; however, the Commission was not opposed to finding the project consistent with its respective land use designations given the presence of ground-floor commercial space oriented towards Old Bernal Avenue, and the potential of the project to generate more activity on the periphery of Downtown. However, the Planning Commission expressed support to modify the project to add ground-floor commercial space into the residential building proposed in the southwest corner of the site (Residence 1), and re- designing this ground-floor space to look more like a commercial space (e.g., introducing more transparency and a separate entrance allowing access into the commercial space). The PUD-118, 4791 Augustine Street Planning Commission Page 2 of 25