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Draft Minutes 12-18-09CITY OF CUPERTINO 10300 Torre Avenue Cupertino, CA 95014 CITY OF CUPERTINO PLANNING COMMISSION DRAFT MINUTES 6:45 P.M. December 8, 2009 TUESDAY CUPERTINO COMMUNITY HALL The regular Planning Commission meeting of December 8, 2009, was called to order at 6:45 p.m. in the Cupertino Community Hall, 10350 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California, by Chairperson Lisa Giefer. SALUTE TO THE FLAG ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Chairperson: Lisa Giefer Vice Chairperson: Paul Brophy Commissioner: Winnie Lee Commissioner: David Kaneda Commissioners absent: Commissioner: Marty Miller Staff present: Community Development Director: Aarti Shrivastava Senior Planner: Aki Honda Snelling APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the November 24, 2009 Planning Commission Meeting: Motion: Motion by Vice Chair Brophy, second by Com. Lee, and carried 4-0-0, Com. Miller absent; to approve the November 24, 2009 Planning Commission minutes as presented. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS: None POSTPONEMENTS/REMOVAL FROM CALENDAR: 2. U-2009-07, ASA-2009-07, TM-2009-05, Terry Brown (D&B Legacy, LLC) 10216 Pasadena Avenue Use Permit and Architectural & Site approval to construct two, two-story, single-family residences with two new detached granny units in a Planned Development district; Tentative Map to subdivide a .29 acre parcel into two 6,200 square foot parcels. Applicant's request to postpone to January 12, 2010 Planning Commission decision final unless appealed Motion: Motion by Vice Chair Brophy, second by Com. Kaneda, and unanimously carried 4-0-0, Com. Miller absent; to postpone Application U-2009-07, ASA-2009-07, TM-2009-05, to the January 12, 2010 Planning Commission meeting. Cupertino Planning Commission 2 December 8, 2009 ORAL COMMUNICATIONS: None CONSENT CALENDAR: None PUBLIC HEARING: 1. M-2009-08 Modification to a previously approved Use Permit (25-U-83) to Kevin Pasquinelli allow the operation of a Mandarin Immersion Grammar school. (West Valley Presbyterian Planning Commission decision final unless appealed. Church) 6191 Bollinger Rd. Aki Honda Snelling, Senior Planner, presented the staff report: • Reviewed the application by West Valley Presbyterian Church on behalf of Mandarin Academy to establish a Chinese Mandarin immersion grammar school at the church for up to 49 students. The church is asking the establishment of the school to replace the discontinued senior nutrition program that served meals to 50 seniors daily Monday through Friday. • Mandarin Academy is an independent private school that plans to lease classrooms from the church; the school would also have ancillary uses of the gym, playground, lunchroom, computer room and library at the church. • She reviewed the school composition, school curriculum, school schedule/activities, drop- off/pick up, noise considerations, and building and fire department review. Relative to noise considerations, anoise study was not required because there is sufficient distance from the adjacent residences along Miller Avenue to the actual classroom buildings that the school will use. The playground is also a far distance from the nearest residences. • Staff recommends that the Planning Commission approve the modification to the Use Permit in accordance with the model resolution. • Staff answered questions regarding the application. Kevin Pasquinelli, West Valley Presbyterian Church and Director of Mandarin Academy: • Said that as the demographics of Cupertino continue to change and continues to be more of Asian heritage, the church is continually looking for ways to reach out to the community and the school is an opportunity to do so. With those changing demographics and major trends, Mandarin Immersion Schools have started to come about in California, particularly Northern California. The school is based on strong academics, Mandarin immersion as well as character study and character enrichment. He explained the school program for teaching Mandarin. • Because the school is located on a busy corner, he said they were conscious of the concerns of operating the school, and have put together the parking pick up/drop off plan as well as looking at the different legal requirements. The private schools are not highly regulated and are different from child care facilities; he clarified that they were not operating a child care facility, but operating a K-5 school. There is a legal exception to operate after school care for the school which brings it outside the purview of the pre-kindergarten care; it is unregulated if conducted for the students of the school. • He addressed previous questions from the Commissioners: Shared parking with Cupertino School District (CUSD) will continue. What presently occurs on Sunday mornings is the church maxes out their parking lot and uses the Hyde parking lot for overflow. When CUSD has events and sporting events, they park in the church lot. Limit of 49 students: He said he was not sure they could handle more students; there are some statutes that might trigger some building codes that start at 50 students in the buildings. He said they were using the existing facilities, not building new ones. Cupertino Planning Commission 3 December 8, 2009 Drop off/pick up - He said valid concerns were brought up; it is not atwo-way parking street; referring to the site plan, he said they could change it so that the traffic would go counter-clockwise. The plan is modeled after Campbell Christian Schools plan; where they do drop off and pick up and as the cars go through, the staff assists the children getting out of the cars and the parents drive forward. The parents can park and walk the children also; the key thing is that no child is going unescorted across the parking lot or going unescorted off toward the street. It would not have been as advantageous to have parking on the far side by Hyde; since they were worried about congestion there. Aarti 5hrivastava, City Planner: • Noted that the parking layout may need to be changed to accommodate a different way of entering and the striping might have to be worked out differently. They are discussing it with the applicant to see what is possible. Possible options for drop off and pick up of students were discussed. Com Lee: • Expressed concern about the condition of the two trees along the brick wall, and asked applicant to address that issue. She noted that the fence was also broken apart and asked if that was a concern of the applicant. Kevin Pasquinelli: • He said that the church was not too concerned if the students take shortcuts, but would not want it to occur unsupervised, and would not advocate the practice; however it would be difficult to completely prevent it without building a higher fence. He noted there was a gate located at the north end. • He explained the requirement for private schools relative to the ratio of credentialed teachers as part of the faculty body. Some Education Code sections mention that private schools are not regulated, licensed or accredited; the school annually completes an affidavit and the Ed Code also requires that non-credentialed teachers are fingerprinted and a search of criminal records is required. There is no requirement for a ratio of credentialed/non-credentialed teachers; the parents are informed that the teaching staff is not all credentialed. • Said that the senior nutrition program was partially federally funded with many strings attached and they were faced with a lot of overhead in terms of managing it, and it became a problem for them. He said he did not know all the details, but suspected some of it was because they were putting strings on free speech and freedom of religion questions. • Said the afternoon program would also focus on immersion as well, but would be a continuation of the existing school, but more enrichment oriented, focused on more art, crafts, music. Mandarin will be spoken as much as possible in the afternoon programs as well. Chair Giefer opened the public hearing. Jennifer Griffin, Rancho Rinconada resident: • Said she was pleased that the drop off/pick up of the children would occur on Miller Avenue because with the three schools in that area, the traffic along Bollinger was very heavy at certain times of the day. The heavily utilized shopping center with Safeway is directly across the street in San Jose, and there are currently traffic barriers in the middle of Bollinger adjacent to Hyde to prevent the Hyde students from crossing the road and going into the center. Currently some parents of Hyde students pick up their children in the parking lot at Safeway. There has also been an ongoing battle to keep fast food restaurants out of the shopping center because of the concern of the students crossing the busy street to get to the fast food restaurants. Cupertino Planning Commission 4 December 8, 2009 • She said she was curious about the reciprocal parking arrangements if any of the parents of the children of the church would ever park in the Hyde parking lot and walk children over to the church facility. Chair Giefer closed the public hearing. Vice Chair Brophy: • Said he supported the application. Com. Kaneda: • Said he supported the application. Said his children were in the Cupertino Mandarin Immersion Program, and he has seen it grow from no waiting list six years ago to the present long waiting list, which indicates the obvious demand in the community for the program. Com. Lee: • Suggested that the applicant work with staff as the parking lot may need to be restriped for adequate queuing or no stacking of the cars, to eliminate the backup on Bollinger or Miller. • Said she was still concerned about the fence; there is one way to enter and some students don't want to walk all the way to the north side, thus the hole in the fence. She questioned if there was a shared playground agreement as the middle school students from Hyde like to use the playground also. Also on the to-do list, perhaps make the fence taller to prevent the students from hopping the fence. Chair Giefer: • Said she supported the application; it is an appropriate use for the land. • She recommended adding conditions for ayear-round program; that the parking lot needs to be reconsidered; the traffic pattern needs to be reconsidered, and that the applicant should work with staff on that. • She commented that once the playground at the church is more in use and supervised, there will be less Hyde students there because it will be off limits. It is presently a green field for them after school while they are waiting around with friends and a place to play for awhile, but once it is in use and part of an accredited program with supervision, it will likely go away. Aarti Shrivastava: • Relative to the two trees mentioned by Com. Lee, she said that staff would determine if there are any deficiencies in the landscape plan and make recommendations. The two trees could be added as a condition. • Said the fence issue could remain as a comment and not be a part of the conditions. Chair Giefer: • Said the applicant could investigate the fence issue and remedy it as necessary to ensure the safety of the children. • Three additional items to add to the model resolution are landscape according to landscape plan; work with staff on parking pattern work and year round program. Motion: Motion by Com. Kaneda, second by Com. Lee, and carried 4-0-0, Com. Miller absent; to approve the modification to the Use Permit M-2009-08 with the modifications that the applicant work with staff to develop a parking plan acceptable to staff; that the two deficient trees are replaced if necessary; and that ayear-round program be added. Cupertino Planning Commission 5 December 8, 2009 Planning Commission decision final unless appealed within 10 business days. OLD BUSINESS: None NEW BUSINESS: None REPORT OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION Environmental Review Committee: No meeting. Housing Commission: No meeting. Mayor's Monthly Meeting With Commissioners: Meeting cancelled. Economic Development Committee: Com. Miller attended. No report. REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: Aarti Shrivastava reported: • Sterling and Barnhart Park rezoning as well as Apple rezoning were approved by Council. First reading has been completed; second reading scheduled for December 15`h • Sign Ordinance will go into effect at the end of the year. • The Manager of Cupertino Square has returned; staff has not yet met with the owners. Chair Giefer: • Suggested that the Cupertino Square Manager provide an update to the Planning Commission at his convenience. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned to the next regular Planning Commission meeting scheduled for January 12, 2010. at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully Submitted: Elizabeth Ellis, Recording Secretary