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PC 05-29-01CITY OF CUPERTINO 10300 Torte Avenue Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) '77%3308 APPROVED MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION HELD ON MAY 29, 2001 SALUTE TO THE FLAG ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Staffpresent: Auerbach, Chen, Corr, Patnoe, Chairperson Kwok Steve Piasecki, Community Development Director; Ciddy Wordelk City Planner; Colin Jung, Senior Planner; Eileen Murray, 'Assistant City Attorney APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the April 9, 2001, regular Planning Commission meeting MOTION: SECOND: VOTE: Com. Corr moved to approve the minutes of the April 9, 2001 Planning Commission meeting as presented Com. Patnoe Passed 5-0-0 WRITTEN COM~M~UN~CATIONS: None ORAL COMMUNICATION: None POSTPONEMENTS/REMOVAL FROM CALENDAR: Application No.: Applicant: Location: 04-DIR-01 George K. Yamaoka (Portal Plaza) 19625 Stevens Creek Boulevard Director's referral of a request for removal of four ash trees on Perimeter Road near Stevens Creek Boulevard. MOTION: SECOND: VOTE: Com. Patnoe moved to remove Application No. 04-DIR-01 from the calendar as requested by applicant Com. Corr Passed 5-0-0 CONSENT CALENDAR: Application Nos.: Applicant: Location: 14-EXC-98, 1-V-98 Tom McNair 22261 McClellan Road Planning Commission Minutes 2 May 29, 2001 Request to extend a hillside exception and variance for an approved approximately 3,102 square foot residence that expires on May 3, 2001 Planning Commission decision final unless appealed MOTION: SECOND: VOTE: Com. Corr moved to approve Consent Calendar Applications 14-EXC-98 and 1-V-98 Com. Auerbach Passed 5-0-0 PUBLIC HEARING Application No. 04-DIR-01 was removed from the calendar. OLD BUSINESS: None NEW BUSINESS: None REPORT OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION: Environmental Review Committee: Chair Kwok reported on the May 9th and May 23rd. ERC meetings. He reported that discussion items included the Five Year Capital hnprovement Program, including the skate park, San Tomas Aquino Saratoga Creek Trails, teen center, Civic Center improvements, the Mary Avenue bicycle footbridge; use permit for a 56 unit townhome development; and various negative declarations. Housing Committee: Com. Patnoe reported that discussions were held regarding affordable housing, below market rate housing, and that questions were answered by CCS staff as well. Also discussed was next month's meeting on the housing element with the Planning Commission when the Housing Committee will join the Planning Commission to begin discussions about the housing element and the General Plan. Mayor's Breakfast: Com. Auerbach reported the Telecom group was very active, is responsible for the studio for public access which is an award winning program for the city; and is looking at various antenna farm locations. He said there was money available for locating antenna farms on schools. He also reported that Part 2 of the internet access will be held on June 15th. An update on increased library book circulation was provided; and city arts projects were discussed including markers for entry into the city, which the mayor is reportedly interested in. Com. Auerbach also reported that the Four Seasons sundial artwork was approved and would take approximately two years for completion. He noted that it was felt the total contractual process for getting artwork was bogged down, and they are looking at ways to streamline the process. The mayor expressed interest in more public art such as a mural at Quinlan Center done by children. He added that affordable housing and the future of the sports center on Stelling Road were also topics of discussion. Apparently Parks and Recreation have rejected a housing component as part of that development. Com. Corr said that Parks and Rec discussed the sports center at great length at their last meeting and received concerns from the people living in the condominiums. He said that although he would like to see more housing, he felt moving it into the sports center as well would backfire on the city. Planning Commission Minutes 3 May 29, 2001 Other: Chair Kwok reported on the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Kimpton Hotel development that he and Com. Chen attended. The construction of the hotel portion has begun and sometime in July they will have another goundbreaking ceremony for the apartment portion. REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: Mr. Piasecki discussed the staff handouts relative to a newspaper article on mall anchors, and the status of development activity for approximately 25 projects. He said it was posted on the website and is updated every two months, illustrating what is being proposed and what is under construction in the city. Com. Corr reported that of the 178 new units in Oak Valley, 18 are designated as BMR, as of this point, 16 of those units have actually closed escrow, with the other two close behind. Relative to the Santa Barbara Grill, he briefly reviewed their plans, and noted that they had a housing component planned and were reevaluating the mix of land use types, and possibly scaling it back some and possibly scaling back or removing the restaurant~ increasing the housing, reducing the office. He reported that the Planning Commission would see it as a use permit application when it is finalized. Mr. Piasecki reported that Andronico's was Ilo longer going to be part of the Oaks Shopping Center and would likely seek other tenants to build out the concept which had been approved. In response to Com. Patnoe's question about the possibility of the theater remaining in the center, Mr. Piasecki explained that the Center had a two year approval from the time first submitted, leaving the option of trying to find somebody that will build it out as approved; in which case there would be no opportunity for the theater. The second option would be if they had to make modifications, in which case they would have to come back through the process and make those changes to the conditions. He said it was difficult to do as the building was fit to the particular site and there would not' likely be other tenants that would want the same format. He said that the City would not normally force the owner to keep tile theaters and the only instance the city intervened was when Vallco was required to keep the ice skating rink. He reported that the Town Center Project applicant held four community meetiags and received input, was addressing a number of concerns relative to density, and similar to the Santa Barbara Grill applicant, was going back and reassessing the plan and looking at options that include leaving it as is, or downsizing it in response to some of the concerns raised. He said they needed to review the economics of it and if they downsize, how far can they go and still afford to provide the amenities that the city was interested in seeing, or phase the amenities. Mr. Piasecki reported that the applicant for the Adobe Inn project planned to begin demolition in June/early July and begin construction in the summer. Mr. Piasecki reported that the Lake Biltmore Apartments applicant appealed the denial to the City Council; and was proposing to keep some of the ponds around the clubhouse. The City Core, cji upheld the appeal with the changes. Mr. Piasecki presented a report on the results of the 2000 census. It was noted that Cupertino's population increased by 10,000 and added 3,000 housing units, approximately 1~800 througb Rancho Rinconada annexation, with a net increase of 1,200 new units. The median age went from 36 to 38 from 1990; the Asian population represents 44% of the community; 24% of which is Chinese population, the largest in the Bay area. Planning Commission Minutes 4 May 29, 2001 Chair Kwok asked how the housing compared to cities such as Santa Clara. Mr. Piasecki said that he felt Cupertino was not a high growth city, with very measured amount of new growth, including the larger projects such as the Hamptons and Oak Valley. He said the city was now under an edict to provide the ABAG housing numbers, and may be growing more, but not significantly. There is an incorrect perception that the city is growing in leaps and bounds, but is not. Com. Auerbach said it was reported that California-wide was bucking the national trend of larger families and more married couples with children than the national average, where the national average was tending more toward the single households. He noted that even though the size of households in terms of the number of people is declining, the average size of homes is increasing and how are the numbers factored into the kind of housing mix in terms of apartments, townhomes, detached single family homes, and so forth. Mr. Piasecki said it would be an interesting topic for the housing element; tile Council is interested in more ownership and housing in the community, and has talked about smaller traits and a mixture of housing prices, but ownership still seems to be a push that they are interested in just so they have more people supposedly vested in the community. He said it may be more ora political choice that the city wants to make to have more of an ownership component. Mr. Piasecki reported that on the prezoning of Garden Gate, at tile last two meetings, tile Cotmcil held the first reading of the ordinance prezoning the property and set the date for the annexation hearing for Garden Gate for July 2nd. Mr. Piasecki announced that a community meeting would be held for the kickoff of the General Plan update on July 17th at the Senior Center. Focus will be on the process for the General Plan, major issues and the housing element. He said the housing element would go out ahead of everything else and would address the issue of where the adequate sites are for housing, what kind of densities will be discussed to meet the ABAG numbers and are there any other housing programs that should be advocated to help provide more affordable housing in the community. He said they hoped to schedule a study session with the Planning Commission and the I lousing Committee for July 9th. Com. Patnoe requested that at that meeting, discussion occur about what the impact would be should they not just meet ABAG numbers, but possibly increase the target housing element to go above and beyond in order to put pressure on future commissions and councils to better meet the housing needs. He said he was not necessarily advocating that, but il' information is gathered, should that be one alternative or proposal during that process? Mr. Piasecki said he hoped to provide them with some more information about the city's jobs housing imbalance and whether to exceed ABAG numbers to better balance the community, and it' a balanced community in terms of jobs housing becomes a primary goal to cut down on commuting and just provide more housing opportunities then you may well go beyond or at least identify adequate sites that go beyond where the city is at the mercy of the market fbrees. Whether it is private, for profit or non-profit developers, they have to feel comfortable coming in, the banks have to be willing to finance the projects and there has to be adequate sites so that they can come in and build projects; but if for some reason the market slows down, there may be all the adequate sites in the world, but not be able to meet those numbers. Ms. Wordell explained the early thinking on that, which was that staff is proposing to.just use the ABAG numbers for the housing element part of the General Plan because it precedes the full General Plan review. It is on a faster track, and proposed to meet the ABAG numbers at that point and when the rest of the General Plan review continues, it can be revisited, and could choose Planning Commission Minutes 5 May 20. 2001 to say they want to bump it up now but that is notthe proposal. In any case, as the full General Plan plays itself out through the rest of the year and into next spring, it is possible to amend the General Plan again. Com. Patnoe referred to the chart listing the office space, and questioned, if they are going to attempt to have a community where people can live in and work in the same commuuity, is now the time to try to extend their target so that when some of the office projects are approved, they are not hurting themselves on the streets and neighborhoods? Mr. Piasecki said they would have to go back and reassess the job numbers in Cupertino, which he said were about 35,000; Cupertino is out of balance with more jobs than working persons living in the community, 1.5 to I which is significant and would require a favoritism to housing to offset that. He said it would be interesting in the General Plan to add more office than is currently permitted by the Plan; ABAG has projected the city's growth and said it would need to provide 2,700 units. There are about 350 or 400 of those that are in the pipeline one way'or another and rounded off are 2,300 units. He said if you presume then that is the target number, the difficult part is ABAG has projected that to 2010 and that may not correspond with the total and may have to be reassessed. He said they needed to be cautious about housing balance numbers if they are going to add any more. He said they want people to offset any additions with housing; therefbre would probably be looking at mixed use developments. Chair Kwok said he was concerned with the BMR, and affordable housing in Cupertino and said it is presently 10%; and asked if there was a joint meeting with the Housing Com~nittee, is there a possibility it could increase. Mr. Piasecki said it was one of the items on the table, and questioned where it is taken from: 10 to 12, or 10 to 15, where to go with that and doing it in a way that is sensitive to the costs that it engenders, because it costs a lot to provide those units. Com. Auerbach asked if there was any news on how the General Plan is going to be orchestrated in terms of whether it is going to be the City Council, or the joint City Cotmcil/Planning Commission or subcommittee thereof. Mr. Piasecki said that the Council has provided direction to staff on the outer limits of what to look at for the parameters for the Plan; they are definitely interested in an update to the Plan and not interested in reworking everything. Much of the Plan is technical with the need to update the information, the Council said that if you are going to look at an outside parameter, look at 5% growth over the next 20 years. He said it was a very limited amount of growth in a community like Cupertino, and would have to serve a community purpose, such as whether it helps frame streets, is attractive development, is mixed use development, helps encourage walking and makes the community more ora new urbanist type of format. Mr. Piasecki said they are very particular about what the new growth will look like, and that has to get articulated into the policies of the General Plan, so much of it is in various documents, but uow has to become the guiding light for the Plan, which will be fine tuning and no additional growth. Relative to the library, the Council has scheduled two budget study sessions and are focusing on the capital improvement program. They will reassess options for the library, and sports center, teen center concept, skateboard park and trails. He said the projections for the budget are to remain status quo, as there is a lag time before the downturn in the economy reaches the public sector and will not impact the city in the upcoming year. By that time, it is anticipated that the Kimpton Hotel will help with some transient occupancy tax. The concern is the capital improvement program and how to fund those programs in a timely way. Planning Commission Minutes 6 May 29, 200 [ Chair Kwok announced the June Ist Silicon Valley Workshop on states' roles in making housing more affordable, which will be held at the San Jose/Silicon Valley Conference Center. DISCUSSION OF NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS: Com. Patnoe commented ou tile article on office landlords desperate for tenants, relative to the slowdown and the economy, and questioned if the slowdown would impact some of the proposed office developments listed on the summary table compiled. Mr. Piasecki said he felt there was a vast difference in getting the entitlements and then committing to the construction; therefore in the amount of time it takes to go through the process and get the entitlements, you can go through a whole economic cycle in that same period of time. He said it would not necessarily deter them from continuing to get the entitlements and would not deter them and their investors from putting the money on the line depending where the market is. He said he felt the market in Cupertino was very strong, and relative to the slowdown in the economy, it takes a little more time to reach the public sector. Similarly, the downture in the valley takes a little longer to reach Cupertino, and other communities may start to see a lower occupancy rate in hotels and offices before it reaches Cupertino. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. to tile regular Planning Commission meeting at 6:45 p.m. on June 11, 2001. Respectfully Submitted, Recording Secretary Approvedaspresented: June25,2001