CCMIN071905 - Laserfiche WebLink

Reverend Ron Culmer, Director, St. Clare's Episcopal Church, requested Council to deny the appeal and approve the master expansion plan to allow the expansion of the existing church facility in three phases, and to approve the design review for Phase I construction requiring future design review by the Planning Commission for Phases II and III. He believed that St. Clare's had communicated with its neighbors and held various meetings, two meetings with Planning staff hosted at St. Clare's on December 2004 and January 18, 2005. Before these meetings, St. Clare's hosted an informal meeting with an additional meeting held by the Valley Trails Homeowners Association at Harvest Park in February 2005, which he and Mr. Willmore attended. At this meeting, he and Mr. Willmore were subjected to personal insults and it was only after this meeting, that St. Clare's declined to hold further meetings. He believed the process worked and believed St. Clare's has gone above and beyond what was necessary. St. Clare's has made changes to accommodate its neighbors, which changes are costly and costs are incurred when the plans continue to be delayed. He believed St. Clare's had been misrepresented, as there are neighbors who have not heard its side of the story. St. Clare's has made every attempt to accommodate its neighbors but at some point the design of the facility must be the Church's. St. Clare's goal is not only good will but to participate more fully in the life of the Tri-Valley community. He pointed out that the changes are reflective of a healthy church and it wants to make a difference in Pleasanton. Tim Mattheis, project amhitect, stated there were two primary reasons why the organization is where it is and why St. Clare's cannot accommodate a series of buildings strung from the south part of the site to the north, as the functional needs criteria of the Church's program would not be met. In designing chumhes, the goal is to create socialization spaces that all of the functional needs from the worship spaces to the classroom spaces and multi- purpose spaces allow for people to come together and congregate. The courtyard space was the original community space where people would congregate which was a concession as part of the negotiation with and a response to the neighborhoods' concerns about the entrance at National Park Road. This caused a need to link all of the cimulation between the parking internally which then pushed the sanctuary space down and necessitated the reconfiguration of the space. It is important to note that the space in the center where the courtyard area was to be is now the lobby space of the congregation and from that space, the main entrance and circulation flow comes from the parking lots into the lobby area which is at the hub between the worship space, the fellowship spaces, the classroom spaces, and other activity spaces. On Sunday morning, the lobby area is the heart of where the congregation comes together for fellowship moving to and from spaces. He pointed out that the land St. Clare owns is not adequate enough space to accommodate the remainder of the buildings or the worship space. From St. Clare's standpoint, it is infeasible to move linearly across the site in terms of the building organization. In terms of planning principles, the largest buildings are attempted to be located towards the center of the properties and away from residential areas. In this case, the largest building is the worship center, which is in the center of the property and visibility to Hopyard Road is crucial for St. Clare's programs. In response to several inquires by Ms. Hosterman, Reverend Culmer said St. Clare's is ready to proceed with Phase I. It is anticipated that St. Clare's would break ground in March 2006. He noted that financially, St. Clare's is not ready to proceed with Phases II and Ill at this time. He pointed out that St. Clare's views the expansion of the Chumh as a 25-year process. Mr. Sullivan appreciated St. Clare's willingness to reach out to the community and conduct meetings and gather feedback, lie noted that a different type of meeting would be a collaborative working session where people who may have different opinions work together to try and arrive at a common solution or a solution that can be lived with. After listening to the appellants, he did not believe they were satisfied with the process that has occurred thus far. If a facilitated process could be established with the goal of addressing all of the issues and Pleasanton City Council 10 07/19/05 Minutes