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Mr. Huff inquired if the installation of fire sprinklers is a requirement or a matter that was open to discussion. Ms. Decker advised that this matter had been raised many times, and in an effort to amend the ordinance to require all new residential construction, the Planning Commission has conditioned projects and listened to a presentation by the Fire Marshall. As part of that process, staff presented the idea of an ordinance amendment to the City Council in its list of priority projects. The City Council did not make it a priority but gave clear direction to staff that the Planning Commission condition all new residential construction to be sprinklered. Commissioner Blank emphasized that sprinklers have been shown to save lives. In response to an inquiry by Chairperson Fox regarding whether the house designs would need to be changed to accommodate the sprinklers, Mr. Maestas confirmed that they would not. John Ribovich, 315 Rose Avenue, believed the architectural and aesthetic quality of this project would be attractive. He expressed concern that these buildings were substantially taller and that the plan suggested two-story buildings. He believed the ground-floor garage, creating a third floor, would change the character of the neighborhood. He was concerned about the trend of stripping an old house down to the studs and creating a new house on top of it. He was concerned about the scale of the project, the number of homes, the height, and what would happen to the historic building. Linda Garbarino, 733 Division Street, referred to this project as a “floodgate project” and believed the applicants picked an outstanding architect in Charles Huff. She was particularly concerned about the increase in density and traffic and believed that the current plan was too large for that area. She was concerned this project was trying to maximize a small space and was very concerned about the possibility of the three-story aspect of this project. She did not want to see a similar situation as she has seen in downtown Palo Alto with a seven-story building. She noted that the Downtown Specific Plan and EIR addressed traffic mitigations and that projects that impact the Downtown area did not move towards addressing the mitigating issues. Christine Bourg, 4512 Second Street, agreed with the previous speakers regarding the architecture design as well as the plan to keep the existing structure. She was very concerned about the streetscape and the height issue. She was concerned that the Downtown Specific Plan would be used to allow high-density zoning but not to limit the three-story building height. She was concerned that the Downtown Specific Plan encouraged higher development in the residential areas on both sides of Downtown. Jon Harvey, 3790 Smallwood Court, spoke in support of this project. He believed the quality of life in Downtown depended on a vibrant Downtown economy as well as a diversity of home types. He believed that more Downtown homeowners provided more PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES July 11, 2007 Page 16 of 27