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Commissioner Ritter said if someone comes in and purchases property, they want to know <br /> what they will get. They look at the guidelines and standards and determine the cost to deviate <br /> from those and go through a PUD and/or stick with the standards. He would like to give an <br /> investor some opportunity to revitalize a dead property and this is why he was not in favor of <br /> over-regulations in the initial process. <br /> Chair Allen referred to page A-15 which is the criteria for ground floor commercial. This is the <br /> one she was most concerned about, the townhouses behind Salt Craft and Spring Street and <br /> all of the public comments received about the visibility impact. Right now, one of the criteria is <br /> that it is designed to minimize visibility from the commercial street front. She did not know how <br /> that criteria can be vetted absent having a PUD. She thinks of all of the discussion that went <br /> on with Spring Street early on that changed that design significantly. It still did not hit the mark <br /> from the public's perspective. However, that vetting would not go on absent having a PUD. <br /> Commissioner Brown said the Spring Street example pre-dated his time on the Planning <br /> Commission, but given the current proposals, if they were to eliminate requiring a PUD as <br /> mandatory for all residential projects in the downtown based on everything else in place, the <br /> Spring Street property would not require a PUD anyway. <br /> Mr. Beaudin clarified that there were parking issues with the Spring Street project, that they <br /> cannot meet standards on site by maintaining the commercial establishment, so it fell into a <br /> PUD in that particular instance. Spring Street is the counter to that argument where there is <br /> commercial in the front and they managed to park the commercial and residential on site. In <br /> some instances, if standards cannot be met on site, they get put into a PUD process. If they <br /> can be met, then they would be in a design review process. <br /> Commissioner Brown said some of the feedback from the public is that the way it is written <br /> today, with any extension change or something else, any residential property would fallen <br /> victim to the PUD process which he thinks is expensive and burdensome. <br /> Commissioner Ritter concurred. <br /> Chair Allen said they are not talking about all residential property, but Spring Street. Assuming <br /> it came in meeting all of the other standards which, in the end it did, it could be built if there <br /> was no review. The question is how to deal with this vague area of minimizing visibility and <br /> ensuring compatibility. <br /> Mr. Beaudin responded that this is the difficulty of looking back and trying to apply the current <br /> standards. It is not possible to do it. In minimizing visibility, and it is visible from Main Street, <br /> they would have that conversation through the design review process. There would be different <br /> conversations about the residential projects that have been built in recent years based on the <br /> policy language put into the draft Downtown Specific Plan. <br /> Commissioner Ritter added that he believes technology is better and they will start seeing <br /> much better presentations about visibility, what it does and could look like. <br /> Chair Allen said in using something like that as an example she asked if it goes to the ZA who <br /> then review it and decides it could be controversial and bumps it to the Planning Commission. <br /> Planning Commission Minutes Page 16 of 27 June 26, 2019 <br />rap around the corner seems like overkill where this is an issue that can be <br /> resolved by the ZA. <br /> Planning Commission Minutes Page 6 of 27 June 26, 2019 <br />ne 26, 2019 <br />