PC 081215 - Laserfiche WebLink

have an opportunity to treat this a little bit like a Work Session with the Planning Commission in the context of a public hearing so they can have a little bit more of a dialogue with the Commission. Ms. Hardy stated that she would like to start by addressing a couple of the points. She stated that when they first looked at planning this site out with the 80,000- square -foot Master Plan for the campus, the preschool and the academy school were a component of that Plan. She displayed the Plan and pointed to the preschool to the right and to the east, noting that the building closest to Busch Road has already been constructed along with the second wing, which connects those two buildings and would be part of the academy school. She indicated that when they first looked at planning this site, they had to take into consideration the location of that preschool and that academy, and then work with Montessori West, the operator of the school and several other facilities in the Bay Area, along with the congregation, to arrive at a site plan that gave them the circulation and parking that the school operator needed to make this a successful operation. She noted that the operator was very, very keen on making certain there was sufficient parking on the site, given the proposed adjoining residential project, because if they had parking problems, they were going to have enrollment problems. Ms. Hardy stated that Ponderosa addressed the site layout from that perspective, working around the commitment made to the Church and to the preschool. She noted that staff has now indicated that their preference is for a more coherent site plan. She stated that this is an integrated site because it promotes walkability, and as Pastor Barris had mentioned earlier, there will be a lot of people from a large residential area in the Ironwood and neighboring communities, such as the Mohr -Martin area, who will walk rather than drive their children to this preschool via the Iron Horse Trail. She added that they are already waiting to enroll so that they can have their children attend this preschool in the fall. Ms. Hardy stated that from a site plan perspective, Ponderosa thought it was logical to extend the existing Cornerstone Court along the north side of the property and then have those two streets terminate with a cul -de -sac on one end and a hammerhead at the other. She indicated that they did not want to have any street connections that went into the Ironwood property because that would not be supported by that community. Ms. Hardy stated that the City makes the provision for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) to allow flexibility and site design when a parcel is constrained or has an interesting configuration, as in the case with this site. She indicated that these uses adjoining each other are complementary; the project also has that walkability factor that promotes a lot of interaction amongst future residents and gives opportunities for people to gather and get access to the Iron Horse Trail and other trails in the area. Ms. Hardy then addressed the staff's issue about having recreational passive areas incorporated in the site. She stated that they had a very good conversation with staff about amenities when they first started having this discussion, and that is where they came up with the notion of providing an informal seating area along the Iron Horse Trail. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, August 12, 2015 Page 6 of 34