PC 042716 - Laserfiche WebLink

Commissioner Nagler: I'm actually going to ask staff to be more detailed about some of the conversations they are having with the applicant about architecture, density, and I would really like to have a detailed conversation about the traffic impacts if you could this evening. I'm sorry if that's not appropriate, but that's what 1 was trying to do. Chair Ritter: Okay, I thought you were just starting off with number 1. Commissioner Nagler: No, I'm saying, in order to answer number 1, 1 think we need to talk about some of the details. Hagen: We had this discussion in the numbering of the questions, perhaps we need to answer number 1 last. I think the other questions that you have are all wrapped up in the other discussion points and obviously in order to determine whether you would be supportive of the overall project and General Plan Amendment, we need to figure out whether you could be supportive of the traffic, the design and so forth. We can kind of push this general question off to the conclusion if you want to start at question number 2. Commissioner Allen: I'm fine with that but I still do think that we should know about traffic. I mean, that's just part of the normal concern. Chair Ritter: Let's just do the traffic now because that's a general question we're all going to ask. Commissioner Allen: Especially trips. Chair Ritter: Okay, before we go there, Commissioner O'Connor? Commissioner O'Connor: One thing that came up a couple of times is that I'm hearing back in 2012 when we were trying to analyze the various properties around town to make our RHNA numbers and zone for 30 to the acre, this property came out very highly rated. Why didn't we select it? Hagen: Ultimately it went through the Housing Element Task Force that had a typical assessment of yes and no questions. They were things like, is it close to major transit? This was yes, off of Stanley Boulevard. Is it in walking distance from downtown or other major thoroughfares? This would be yes. So a lot of those straight - forward questions they answered very highly, but then the task force was tasked with then taking those generic question ratings and then put together with public input, and would this high density development be compatible if this location was in Downtown? The ones that we ultimately picked were more designated toward our transit - oriented development sites; the ones that were closer to BART or areas closer to the freeway; the Vintage site just down the street that didn't have residential directly across the street. So I think a lot of those played in, but it did score very highly on the actual rating score sheet. When it came to the actual task force in the end in deciding which of the 9 sites out of 17 would be chosen this was not one of them. Commissioner Allen: Would it be okay if I added one item because I was very involved in almost every one of those meetings? I think this was either next on the list or right after that to be eligible. One of the other critical factors in deciding was the balance across the City was important in selecting spots and the spot that was selected which is almost right next door to this is the Auf de Maur property across from McDonalds.... PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 27, 2016 Page 16 of 43