 Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the City of Santa Rosa's Design Review Board for March 7th. Before we get into the agenda, I wanted to take a moment, and even though they're not here, thank a couple of our board members for serving. And they have since stepped away from the board and we have replacements to welcome. So first I'd like to thank Sabra Breyer for her service on the board. And we'll have a get-together, I'm sure, to center off with our thanks. I'd like to also acknowledge Kevin Zuko for his service on the board. And we have two new board members joining us. To my right we have Henry Wicks. Henry was appointed by Council member John Sawyer. And to my left we have Brett Kordenbrock, who was appointed by Council member Koonz. Welcome to you both. I don't know if you want to take a second and give us the 30-second elevator speech on who you are and what you do. Right there. Henry Wicks, been a resident of Santa Rosa for our 31 years now and have had Wicks architecture as my place of business for 25 years now. So I hope I'm a worthy successor to Kevin Zuko, who did a fine job and look forward to helping make some important decisions for the city as we move forward. Nice to be here. Thanks, Henry. Welcome. And Brett. Hello. Excuse me, Brett Kordenbrock. I am a, although I'm not quite 31 years, but maybe a year and a half resident of Santa Rosa. I'm a landscape architect and urban design, urban planner by training in school and education and looking forward to serving on the board and serving the community as well. Thank you. Thank you and welcome. Okay, our first item of business, item number two, are the minutes from February 7th of our regular meeting. Anybody have any comments, additions? We need a roll call. Ma'am, sorry. Karen, can we get a roll call, please? Let the record reflect, all board members are present, except Vice Chair Hedgepath. Thank you. Okay, now on to the minutes. So our draft minutes are in the agenda and attached. Any comments on the minutes? All right, hearing none, we will put those into the record. Item number three, board business. This is where I read the review of the design review board so that everyone knows what we do versus other boards and commissions. So project review, the review authority shall consider the location, design, site plan configuration and the overall effect of the proposed project upon surrounding properties and the city in general. Review shall be conducted by comparing the proposed project to the general plan in the applicable specific plan, applicable zoning code standards and requirements, consistency of the project within the city's design guidelines, architectural criteria for special areas and other applicable city requirements. That's what we do here. At this time, I would like to open the meeting for public comment on items that are not on the agenda but are on the preview, topics that are on the preview of this board. Do I have anybody who would like to make a public comment? Seeing none, I will close the public comment period and move on to statements of abstentions by board members. Any board members present that need to abstain from the item? I'll mention that board member Hedgepast's firm is making a presentation today, which is why he is absent because it's the only item on the agenda. Okay, moving along quickly, we are on to scheduled items number six. Item 6.1 is a concept design review for Boyd Street Family Apartments at 811 Boyd Street, file number PRJ19-008. And we have Kristen A to give us a staff presentation. Thank you, Chair Kinkait and members of the board. The concept item tonight is the Boyd Street Family Apartments. And you might have noticed a discrepancy between the narrative and the plans. The applicant is actually proposing 46 units instead of 47. There are going to be two stories and 100% affordable multi-family housing. Here's a proposed site plan. The project is a permitted use. It requires a minor design review with a zoning administrator. They're asking for a density bonus. They qualify for an expedited planning review and concurrent building review. The general plan land uses medium residential. It's a plan development zoning district and multi-family is a permitted use in that plan development zoning district. The applicant is proposing a density bonus that would allow 24 units per acre. And you can see in the image, it's that house with the, I guess, Pinker terracotta roof. Here's the project context. It just shows the distance between various amenities as far as transit, parks, shopping, schools, downtown, major transit centers, et cetera. So you can see it's in the southwest quadrant there. Here's a little bit of a better view of the project site. You can see the residents in the front along with a little cottage to the south. And the back looks like an old orchard. This just shows the distance between the project site and the transit center. How close it is to various points of transit as far as the freeway bus stops and the transit center. Here's a project summary that comes out of the plan set. It shows the unit mix. It's designated by color. So two bedrooms are kind of a salmon. Three bedrooms are mixed there throughout the project site. Here's a rendering of the proposed building, another rendering. Here are the projects proposed finishes and colors. We have an image of a light fixture and the railing. And the applicant has prepared a little bit more detail plans to present. So if you don't have any questions for me, the applicant would like to present their PowerPoint. Thank you, Chris Sine. Questions for staff? We'll start with you, Eric. How many bicycle stalls or bicycle parking is there? And where is that located? I couldn't locate it. Or I can withdraw the question away until the applicant does their presentation. So if you can just make a note to address that, that would be great. Any other questions, Eric? Henry, questions for staff? Yeah, a quick one. Is cover parking exempt in this particular low-income qualifying project? I'm not certain, but I think we can review that now and get back to you later in the deliberations. Drew, questions for staff? I noticed the discrepancy on kind of the project naming. Was it one name and then changed? Because I think on the staff memo, it says Dutton Flats. And then it says Boyd Street Family Apartments. I want to make sure that we're talking about the same project, just in case. Yeah, the project is Boyd Street Family Apartments. Okay, because the reason I'm asking is on the staff memo. It says Dutton Flats is located .7, da, da, da. So there's, it looks like maybe some text. Yeah, apologies. That looks like a typo. Yeah, okay. Just wanted to double check. I figured Dutton Flats was another project. I remember seeing that. I was like, wait a second. I feel like, that was my question. So everything else, I guess, would apply the .7 miles and all that. Correct, okay. Just the wrong name. Brett, any questions for staff? I don't believe so at this time. Wait for the design presentation as well. Thanks. Adam, questions for staff? Sam, I look forward to the longer presentation. And I have no questions for staff. So let's. Sorry, Erica. Okay, so Drew's got another question. Sorry, you mentioned the density bonus. What was the density bonus? The regular density allowed for this project site is 18 dwelling units per acre, and they're requesting 24 dwelling units per acre. Thank you very much. That's what I wanted to know, the original density. Thanks. And just to clarify the parking requirement, so I'll just read it straight from the zoning code, multi-family affordable housing project, studio in one bedroom unit, one space per unit, two or more bedrooms, two spaces per unit. There's no reference to covered parking. Thank you, Bill. Any other questions for staff? Seeing none, I'd like to invite the applicant up to the table for your presentation. In this policy, okay. All right, so. Okay, so I'll just forward. Okay. Yes. Okay. I'm Ingrid Anderson, and I'm presenting the owner, Dan Coe, and Chris Dart, the president, on behalf of Hedgepath Architects, we're the architects. I wanted to first answer the question about the bicycle parking. Using the city's algorithm, 12 bicycle parking spaces would be required on site, and we are proposing four to six short-term spaces in front of the community center. But the owner has requested that we design into the project one space, one bicycle storage area per apartment, because he would like to encourage the use of mass transit and alternative means of transportation. The project, however, is not under parked by much. 88 spaces are required by code, and we've provided 78. Also, I just wanted to move through the drawings to show you that we've augmented the design set significantly. So this is the new layout for the project's formal spring point. And the colors are the gold color would be used on the accent pieces around the windows that are panel siding. They sort of pop out from the surface of the lap siding, which is the cladding around the majority of that simple volume of the apartment building. And that color is dry sage. It's a sort of grayish green. And then the columns and the balcony structure are a combination of steel tube columns that are painted the same rusty red color. And the fascia also at the fascia around the sun control device at the upper story is painted at that same rusty red color. And the balcony guard rail would be a metal mesh structure. We're also proposing wood slats to screen the side walls of the balconies, the semi-private open spaces, just to give the residents a little privacy from each other when they're out there. In the center, you see the two wedge-shaped exterior light fixtures that we're proposing. And at the bottom right, the deck section, and how those pieces all relate together. The White House by Stephen Hall was a pretty significant place to start as a formal spring point. So moving on, this is the Community Center building with a wrap-around porch facing the parking area and also facing the green and the apartment building behind. The main space of the Community Center is proposed to be flexible so that it can be used as a meeting room and a fitness room when need be. There's a community laundry in this building as well. And this porch, which faces Boyd Street, is a collection area for mail and also has the entry to the leasing office. I mean, the window to the leasing office, the entry to the leasing office is on the inside. See, that's the apartment building behind. And that is a view from the parking area going into the community room. The bicycle, short-term bicycle parking would be in front of this colonnade. And these are the elevations showing the building height. And we haven't finalized the colors yet, but we're thinking perhaps the same gray-green on the siding at the majority of this building. But then in the colonnade itself, the gold color that we had shown you previously and then again the reddish columns. The roof is composition sink shingle and the windows are black vinyl. And we don't have a landscape architect as of yet, but the project will be low water, low summer water use or no water in the summer types of planting with a community growing garden, which is behind on the south side of the property. There are, there's also a basketball court proposed at the Hammerhead turnaround that is required for emergency vehicles. It's a health court. And the green between the community center and the apartment building itself will be a children's play area. The building is designed with because it is affordable housing and has a, is constrained by a, by its budget. We try to create or enhance the social interaction potential in the, by enhancing or raising the status of the corridor itself from just a servant space to an actual architectural space. So it's punctuated by skylights and light wells that create sort of a corridor courtyard and bring some transparency through the building that corridor, the exit corridor is an exterior but covered exit corridor. And let's see, I think that's about it. Yeah. Right. Okay. That's all. Do you have any questions? Thank you very much for the presentation. Before I bring it to the board for questions, I did want to open up this item for public comment. Are there members of the public wishing to comment on this specific item? Chris, you want to head up to the upper microphone? Hi, my name is Chris Grable. I live at 524 Goodman. And this development is about 300 feet, I would say, from my backyard fence. So in light of that, I'd like to say yes in my backyard. I think it's a great project. It's got really good design elements. It's got really good design elements. And I love the affordability. It's actually the second all affordable development, you know, within the quarter mile of my house. The other one being the urban flats. And I support both of them. And I think we need a whole lot more. And I wish there were two more stories. And I can't say enough about just how beautiful the design is. And location is great. It's transit-oriented. Yeah. When is it going to be built? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Chris. I appreciate the EMB comments. Thank you. Do I see any other members of the public that would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will close the public comment period on this item and bring it back to the board for questions to the applicant. Let's try and make this first round questions and then we'll get into comments thereafter. Eric. Thank you. Can you elaborate on any of the perimeter fencing that's planned, especially, you know, do you join any neighbors, et cetera? Well, at the time of the pre-app, Christine had mentioned that we would need a good neighbor fence on the south and north property boundary lines. Because those lines are budding single-family dwellings. So the picture on the left in the middle sort of of the horizontal board fence is a detail we've used. And when plywood is placed behind it, it can function as both a sound fence and a visual privacy barrier. I also show native California wildlife promoting vine up on the upper register of plants, California grape, which can be grown on that fence to provide seasonal color and encourage a bird habitat. But on the rear, facing the smart line, to address noise on those last two units, it can also be used as a building assembly that would protect that unit instead of some sort of sound fence. Does that answer your question? Okay. Yes. So on a good neighbor fence, it would be six feet high? Six feet high, yes. And if eight feet is required, we would do that, but we would need structural design. So. Okay. So on the other side, we would need a good neighbor fence. So. So it would be wood slats on the interior side of the project and then plywood on the in the middle. We could sandwich the plywood between aesthetically pleasing base on each side. Thank you. So. Henry, questions for the applicant? Yes. On your sheet A1 and A2, the north side of the parking lot, looks like it's continuous parking. Yes. That conflicts with the landscape plan, which has the figures in it. Right. Yes. It was a last minute requirement. The task credit allocation committee, which is the source of some of these funds, requires a teenage, teen oriented sport court on the site. And that seemed to be a good place to put it in the emergency vehicle hammerhead turnaround. And so that we thought to mitigate that we would have the fence and the planting in front of it. Okay. I think I'm actually referring to the if we could get the landscape plan. Yeah, sure. So. I know what you mean. It's the three fingers that are planted on the north side. Yeah, they're typically ten feet. Every ten parking spaces are so. Every five. And it looks like there's spaced about eight or nine. Yes. And they show on the landscape plan and then on the site plans, A1 and 2, they don't show it all. Right. So here's A1 and A2. This is A1 and A2 and they don't show here for the reason that you're planning on eliminating those tree wells. Yes. I would like to propose that we eliminate those trees in order to give this development the amenity of a play area for teens. And otherwise, I don't have sufficient space to provide a half court basketball area in the rear of the site. Okay. And then my other question is did you consider adding a third staircase? If you go to the floor plan on the ground floor and A2 would be a good example. Both staircases are located on the opposite side of the buildings from the parking lot. And that's fine. And I don't mean to sound insensitive to an affordable housing project and adding something to it. And certainly my comment about the covered parking came from a standpoint of an architect who has a lot of money on it. And I'm not suggesting that we add a third staircase in the middle that was adjacent to the parking lot would make it easier for access. Yes. Care groceries up to the second floor. We've definitely considered that. And I'm not suggesting that we add a third staircase in the middle that was adjacent to the parking lot but we've definitely considered that. And as we develop the plans that make him back into play. Thank you. Overall, a nice look in front. Thank you. Questions for the applicant Drew? I'll start with Drew and then I'll work my way back. I actually don't have a question for the applicant. I have a question for staff. And that kind of got queued up. Okay. Fire away. Okay. Bill and Chris. I was looking through that this project is not too far away from the downtown station area specific plan. In fact, it's like almost right on the edge of it pretty much. And I was digging through the what are the parking reduction requirements in the station area specific plan? Just out of care. I couldn't find them because I couldn't find the parking reduction. I was looking at the parking reduction requirements in the right spot because I'm trying to quickly find it. Was the question what are the reductions? Well. The numbers of parking reduction allowable within the station area specific plan. Conceivably could be 100%. So the station area plan has it gives direction to look at a number of options, creative options. So I'm not going to go into that. I'm going to go into that completely. We don't see that typically. But the idea is that because you're in proximity to the train station and other pedestrian facilities that you can have much lower parking. So I guess my question comes from this. So. Actually, that's more of a comment. So I'll hold it. But thank you. Thank you, Drew. I was curious how. I was curious how stormwater is being conveyed. Being utilized. Highlighted. For this development. In particular, there's some larger areas of that are oriented towards community gardens and open space. So. I didn't see much. So my question is how is stormwater being dealt with with this development? I don't know. I don't know. The project doesn't have a civil engineer on it yet right now. But we will be looking into that. And I do see the south side of the property being an area where we can deal with some of those issues. And we could use permeable parking and the parking lot as well. But I don't know. I don't know. So there's a comment about covered parking and kind of, you know, if the parking area is to be, you know, I'm not sure on materials, but if it is asphalt, it's a very hot, very dark surface. And I know you don't have a civil engineer involved quite yet. But if there isn't, it's not a covered parking requirement necessarily. But I think that's another comment. I don't know. But I think that's one of the most important pages to the project as a whole. If that's a low albedo kind of paving material that is also conducive to some of the stormwater management and things like that. So I think that's something that's, could be considered, I guess. So I'm not sure if it's that well-made or not well-made or otherwise too. So they might consider some carport elements if they were support for additional solar panels. A lot of it just depends on the funding and the budget. I wanted to also add that it's not just 100% affordable, but full 12 units that we're going to be able to do. We're going to be able to do things that have been homeless. And those families will be supported by a nonprofit reach for home who are partnering with Danco. And I did know this in the project narrative that there is the intent, as it were, to use gray water recycling, water conserving fixtures, and all of that. So we're going to be able to use gray water for the owner of the property and the way they've developed affordable housing in other parts of California. Questions for the applicant? Sure. Thank you. We definitely needed housing in a part of town that needs it. I think this is a great start for that. Thank you. Thank you. The fact that you don't have a civil and you don't have a landscape architect and being a landscape architect, I was drawn to the planting areas and looking at the exterior and the circulation and the use of the space outdoors. One question I had was for the covered exterior corridors. That area. Do you think it would be structural or if that could be kind of opened up or punched out at all? We could look into that. Another reason that I made them, that we designed them to be a little wider is that the owner would like us to build in reasonably good-sized storage areas outside every unit because larger families are living there. I think it would be a good idea to have a family development. It's addressing a certain part of the population that we don't have housing for. And also because they wanted storage lockers for bicycles close to the buildings. Definitely, we were thinking in making these courtyard corridors that they would be well-lit. I think planted potentially in envisioning them as you've got your community center, you've got your community open space, you've got that sport court. You could even add in the areas where you have the skylights. That's three potential other gathering areas. With site furniture. Opened up entirely. I see. And you have a lot of things that you can do to make sure that you have a lot of space. You can even punch shade along the corridors. I'll get into another question about the aspect. There's not a lot around there. That's a lot of sunlight. You can see definitely having some of the coverings there. So thinking of trellises, we need to have space above to hold photovoltaic panels. So we'll balance all of those issues as we develop the plan. Sure. I encourage opening that up a little bit. Not just tearing off the roof of everything, but having some spaces where it makes it a little more open rather than a closed mall corridor. So that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work. That was done intentionally. Definitely. That adds to ventilation and it's open. And envisioning kids running back and forth through there. When you talk about storage lockers, were you envisioning that in the corridor area? Probably in the corridor area because the owner has had to put them into four or five areas where you could have your bicycles closed by. Of course I know this is all dependent upon being 100% self-sufficient and a budget. I think there's room to consider all of those suggestions as we move forward. Kind of lighten it up and provide more of that space for the families. You've done a really good job of having it be for families and kids. Increasing that. And so related to that brought up the heat island effect and storm water. I would encourage you guys to look at the community center and the community open space and seeing the landscape and all of these things that we're talking about. I would encourage you to look at the community center and see if it's self-sufficient and dial into the programming aspect of it. Have the site and the building be an educational opportunity for the families that are there. Actually tying that community center. Rather than having the building on the site and having it on the site. I would encourage you to look at the community center and see if you have a site person on board to really flesh out how this rather than just housing on site. I see what you mean. I think a good move going forward would be to move the community garden closer to the community building because we envision a lot of meals on site, processes, heat, rainwater, everything. It's a great opportunity, especially you're trying to be 100% self-sufficient. You're getting photovoltaics. Have that not just be hidden up top, but have it actually be referenced somewhere, it's visible. That's related somewhat potentially to opening up that roof area, tying it into the community center. There's a lot of really cool opportunities that I could see in the community center. I think it's a great opportunity to look at the community center. It's a great opportunity to look at the community center, which seems like you're in that direction. I think we started when we saw the corridor as an opportunity because apartment buildings can have corridors, they need them to get access, but we turned the corridor into an opportunity for social interaction. I think that would be a good opportunity to return to the community. You have some natives on there a lot of mix of them. I didn't necessarily want to tie myself to natives, but as a landscape architect it's definitely low summer water. That's something I would encourage you to focus in on that, I know it's an opportunity it's not just you know going for what is bulletproof in there have it be part of the the community center the gardens the areas there an educational opportunity you know so right really really having all those aspects be part of it and also again going to the exposure there thinking about the the larger plants you've got that the friendship fences as well to to buffer the the you know the flat plane area the sounds the winds and the sunlight that's coming in there too you've got I don't necessarily see over the play area or the sport court and near the community center any coverings awnings things like that you know shade is a really important thing to think about you're gonna have kids little kids you know you know having a place where you know parents could take their toddlers out to in a shaded area and then thinking about maybe larger trees again echoing potentially that the trellis is in the corridors and taking that language to the outs outside as well provide some shade some protection you know you want to mix so okay thank you thank you thank you Adam so my couple of questions are I was kind of trying to figure out how deep the pop-outs were the panel cladding versus how far out the decking sticks out just to kind of get an idea of and then we've got right the building stepping back so gonna take us through that a little bit right we're showing I believe it's a dimension is it six or seven feet from the patio down below five and a half okay five and a half feet at the lower patio and looks like it's a little farther out on the upper patio so that would be probably six and a half feet sort of seven feet at the second floor and that's just because we wanted the columns to read as in being in front and I'm being sort of a very lightweight customer kind of a screen effect on the front of the building and then your pop-outs that are the accent oh those are those about half no those are there or less there maybe not even a foot I would say yeah right it's just to give some repetitive elements decorative elements and color on the front and then I see the renderings and of the solar panels behind the pyramid there and there's gonna be you know competition to open up for light and also for mechanical units and also for fire department emergency access quickly up there on the roof yeah I would just make the comment slash question of have you thought about how all these things conflict and where to place the mechanical units so that they're not prevalent to the beat yeah well we're well aware of all of those very important parts that we have to accommodate and we will we'll do it and from a height limit standpoint are you at maximum height no we're actually well below it yeah yeah I think by about 10 feet 9 or 10 feet yeah it's a two-story building so right pop the parapet if you needed to hide some stuff a little better right okay let's let's move on to comments and as we move into comments even though there's a concept design review it is a housing project and and so it is going to the zoning administrator for minor design review and we want to give as much input to the zoning administrator as we can so in that regard if we can kind of make our comments succinct and then as we finish up we'll kind of round out to see which ones are most important that we want to send to the zoning administrator so Eric we'll start with you comments please I appreciate greatly appreciate the fact that we're trying our hardest collectively to build affordable housing here in Santa Rosa and it's so it's great to see these projects coming coming forward the only comment I have is I agree in regards to adding a third stairwell in the front I definitely think that's necessary because I think the two that we have or it is not sufficient for flow and ease and access for many reasons so I you know definitely encourage having that third stairway and I appreciate those comments I think that was right on point and I'll leave the rest to my fellow board members thanks Eric Henry I've wanted to add to for consideration to to pass on and that would be to try to find some means of getting an additional parking reduction not at the expense of losing a unit or a bedroom or any of that but to somehow gain back at least the six fingers that you've got in that parking area to the north right hopefully there's an avenue to to get that parking reduction approved and move forward that the only other comment I have is more of a personal comment and I drove by the site and I thought it was sad that this new development is going in and the bus on the bus stops on Boyd and and Spastopol road very close to public transit very walkable distance but the sidewalks aren't contiguous there's some gaps in it yeah and I wish there was an avenue that not at your at the burden of this this project but we could somehow work as a city to link this project to public transit so that's it thank you Henry drew comments so yeah Henry hit kind of on my thoughts regarding the parking I think this is the type of project that because of its proximity but the fact that it's outside of kind of a zoning district it's I think it's it needs another layer another eyeball from staff to kind of see a creative way about how to park park the site a little bit better regarding the parking right now just briefly the way it's shown in the landscape plan shows about one orchard style or landscape finger per every nine spaces in the design guidelines it's one for every five spaces so keep that in mind we have approved some parking as of late that was seven or eight spaces but there was some tree cover and some other things that kind of made up for it so it's kind of a combination of kind of those fingers and also maybe some like larger trees within the fingers and some adjacent coverage and whatnot so there were some creative ways that I think applicants have attacked that issue to provide kind of to meet the spirit of the design guidelines while actually not implicitly meeting that one every five spaces kind of thing for parking I did notice one other thing in the plan set it's a question so on the community building you have the janitor's closet I think mislabeled in and I think the women's in the men's room are incorrectly labeled and they need to be flipped is that correct it is because in the beginning I had the portico facing the street and I changed my mind was it forgotten to put the labels okay so the labels are wrong but the floor plan is yeah get that corrected just to help staff out I think it's correct on one of on the actual planet itself yeah and she yeah right there too is incorrect yeah so very wrong this one the laundry is in the right place and yeah the male room and everything is in the right place it's in the right place just labeling that's that quick question okay where was I sorry sorry in regards to the parking interestingly enough the tax allocation guidelines suggest one space per unit and if I went down to one and a half spaces per unit I could bring all the orchard parking back to about one per every seven spaces so I can try that and then as far as the my comments on the design it's I understand it's a affordable housing project but I think I think you guys could inject some character into the project as an example the by no means I'm saying the housing project just immediately to the north is the best that Santa Rosa has to offer but what's nice about the housing development to the north right off Sebastopol Road Sebastopol Road God I cannot my tongue is stuck today is that there's a variation in textual quality between the buildings and massing and I think while there is kind of foresight of design happening here it's kind of at a cursory level and so it's funny I don't see this building as kind of one giant mass at least the way that you've presented it to me it feels almost like little vignettes and so I wonder if you could inject more color within the kind of the pushing and pulling that's happening in the facades and and so you know this this element that's pushed out here is you know red and this element that's pushed in here is yellow or something like that I feel like the just making it all dry sage it just kind of is one big kind of pale green baby poop blob a little bit and there's not a lot of character to that baby poop blob whereas if there was some more color as you're pushing and pulling that might add interest to the project and that's an easy I'm not asking you to change material I'm just asking you to paint it a different color because I think you know from an affordability standpoint fiber cement is aside from stucco fiber cements the best bang for your buck in terms of the options available finishes you know cover a large amounts of square footage quickly so I think you need to look at the color in more depth and then something else I think this is a note for staff I don't see anything about I'm not comfortable I'm not come if this were a preliminary approval here I would not be comfortable with your fence design or your trash enclosure or some of the other kind of missing elements that are normally present on a preliminary plan set so you those need to find their way into whatever goes back to the zoning administrator I think Chris and I knows the list but I would keep an eye on that particularly lighting and some other things because of the nature of where this property is and it's adjacency to the other residential properties I think you know a light study with how you're gonna light the property is important and then I think the last comment is I hate to say this but you probably need covered parking from a zoning standpoint but that may be something that I don't know actually we have a fair amount of discussion on parking as an affordable project I mentioned earlier that in a stationary plan with a parking study you could reduce the parking conceivably down to zero actually as an affordable project the project is eligible for concessions to the zoning right yeah that's what I was thinking about exactly so that could be one mechanism to reduce the parking enough to get the fingers in or any other elements that the applicant team or the board desires same thing with the covered parking too I don't think it's a requirement but as we go back through the code and look more closely if it is then that could be a concession as well yeah I think I think that's a great comment Bill it's kind of what I was thinking is let's find a way to fine-tune those elements that make it seem to work a little bit better from an overall grand site plan scheme I think those are all my comments the community center would be kind of subject to the same color commentary as the rest of the building there's not really anything in here with regard to to that building in a sense of what are its colors what it I mean it's kind of it looks like it's maybe blue and gray on this one rendering here that doesn't look exactly right so I would I would look at that because the buildings are not you know the floor plan layouts are nice the everything seems to be jiving and working it just I feel like it needs a little bit more cohesiveness to its design hey that's it right comments not to be the dead horse but on the parking side of thing your proximity to the you know this the smart smart trail as well there's it doesn't look like there's direct access off the property however you know 250 feet north or south you're onto the trail plus coupled with the fact that there's is such a robust amount of at least proposed bicycle storage you know I think that again I can you know there's some concessions that can happen with the parking and things like that to make this instead of feel like a kind of a runway feel a little bit more can you have a little bit more inviting especially as units are looking out onto that driveway as you've got a label labeled the I was curious about just the frontage along Boyd I know that there's there is some comments about connecting you know circulation and things like that as well as maybe the streetscape improvements to the north it looks like there's you know Fortford tree wells and ample you know kind of sidewalk widths there can that be continued down through I know there are couple additional properties kind of in the in that stretch so just something to kind of think about moving moving forward and then I was in terms of the the kind of the architecture and in kind of the flatness that it kind of has or feels feels like there's also the additional kind of height that might be able to kind of break up that massing as well throughout the throughout the building itself let's see and then worded and then another comment would just be to look at existing trees and if there are any heritage trees that need to be protected or and how that impacts you know again impacts the design that's something like you know we've got some amazing trees around here I know that it wasn't orchard out at a point but it'd be great to see you know if there are any that can be saved and that should be saved how can they be better incorporated into either the community space or the site plan in general and then again I think back to the some of the things that Adam had brought up about you know stormwater management and education and all of that and kind of the thinking about the adjacencies with the community building and how those spaces kind of function it's something to I think you know that definitely needs some consideration as you know the units the units aren't massive but they're I think they're appropriately sized however there is you know again being in this kind of climate there is this need for outdoor you know entertaining and and community that is you know very highlighted very well with the amount of open space that you do have and I also I think further some of the precedents or character images for the play areas I was kind of excited to see a good variety for various yes for various ages as well that's very important in terms of kind of the developmental stages of children you know you want to make sure that there are appropriate places to play for all ages you know zero to 85 95 as well especially when you kind of talked about that you talked about a little a little bit about these being family apartments is that they're probably also multi-generational family apartments as well so I think that's that's important to consider moving forward as well that's all I have at the moment thank you thank you Brett Adam comments sure I feel like I should open up with mentioning parking everyone else but definitely a comment is to I like your idea of even reducing the parking and if you can get those things back in like you're I know you're just thinking about that right here and that's it's great to see cool again emphasizing those sustainability features there's a questions and comments about massing breaking up the buildings a little bit you know you've got again those covered walkways and the covered areas between this could actually open up the buildings a little bit more think about emphasizing circulation and the openness and then also I really urge you to look at your site as an asset and really you put a lot of energy into the into the buildings and then and how you're actually gonna construct this which is great but then yeah next step think about how it fits in so tying in all the sustainability things the educational opportunities the community what I was saying about you know different ages I also in likes that you put in some fun precedent photos as well too taking that to the next step of looking at site context of you've got smart right there maybe it's you're bringing that you know referencing for little kids you know I have a five-year-old little kids love trains so referencing that a little bit and kind of bring it into your community space the maybe that is informing somehow you've got a lot of transportation around there you've got the past uses of the site look at historical context you know what's there and then big one is to it's a pretty exposed site mitigate exposure really thinking about larger trees larger structures for shade you know awnings nothing terribly heavy but to break up the the heat islands and what's happening with the water again and I think that wraps up my list thank you thank you thanks I kind of made my comments and my questions but I just put on my little note here to be mindful and screening the rooftop whether it's mechanical solar fire apparatus even if it means raising the building heights a little bit I don't think it'll take much if there's some things make their way close to an edge that you just pop it up a little bit so I think what I'm going to do here is kind of summarize what I've heard I'm sure I've missed something so please if you feel strongly about something remind me but here's kind of my list of notes and being that it's concept design review I'm just gonna use the word consider for everything consider a third stairwell at the north side of the buildings consider additional parking reduction to gain back orchard style parking but not at the jeopardy of units and I think that goes to include the heat massing of just the whatever that pavement ends up being the screening be mindful of screening rooftop units mechanical solar fire apparatus even if you need to raise the parapet a bit consider a contextual color and height elements to better accentuate foresighted architecture on all buildings consider using stormwater management and landscape areas as education as an educational feature for the residents and their guests consider multi generational activity areas consider opening up the building to allow more natural flow sunlight breeze etc. use the neighborhood amenities potentially to activate the site smart train other areas in the neighborhood that are of interest break up the heat island of the asphalt and then continue on with your energy efficient and water reuse mantra I'm designing the project did I miss anything you want to add anything sounds like you and your team and the owner are amenable to exploring these things excellent I really appreciate the presentation we really want to see this get built so congratulations and moving a step further to achieving that goal right thank you thank you for your comments yeah staff do you have any questions in regard to the comments that were made great all right moving on to item number seven board member reports there any board members that have board member reports to make see none we'll move on to item number eight department reports bill just want to do also welcome our new board members thank you very much what we've done in the past is we typically get together as a board after one of our meetings we will say goodbye to our departing members give a proper welcome to our new members so I think we be on the look at we'll probably put some dates out after one of our upcoming meetings and try to schedule a time where we can do that so that's the only report that I have at this point so welcome aboard and bill if I might can you take it just a minute and describe to the board with these situations in which we're just seeing a concept design review package and then the process of what the package looks like that goes to the zoning administrator I think that might be helpful and kind of harnessing our context when we look at the next project concept that will not come back for preliminary and final here at this board surely so the this new this is a new process so in the past all of the multifamily projects would be coming to you those greater than well multifamily for preliminary and final design review with the newly enacted measures these projects are coming for concept only and then they go up to the zoning administrator so the idea is that the packages we're bringing forward we're trying our best from a staff perspective to make them look more like a preliminary design package so I think tonight you're seeing a little more detail than perhaps concepts in the past would have and we're continually refining that and what we expect in the packages to come to you what will then go forward to the zoning administrator will be a full design package but it's going to incorporate your changes or the suggested changes that we see as a result of our staff having ongoing conversations with the applicants so that's kind of the process going forward is would you say the package that finds its way to the zoning administrator is much like what we would see in preliminary or is it even further to almost the final design review package I would say the goal is to try to have them be more of like a final design review and have even that be what you see at concept as I've said this is a bit of an evolution it's new for us but I think the idea being that since it doesn't come back to the board we want to make sure the board gets a real honest look at what this broad these projects are that said we're also trying to expedite processing so we're we're we're working through some of these issues thank you chair concave I've got a question as well for bill yes you may ask so I think with the the new folks I think this has been on my mind a little bit and so just so maybe they understand this too and I don't think we've had this happen yet but with this expedited review staff always has the option to elevate a project back to the board for a wide variety of reasons one being you know public interest another being the scope of the project being too large perhaps for the zoning ministry handle can you explain that to our new board members a little bit yeah so actually any project that the review authority is a lower level of review or a lower review authority like the zoning administrator staff has the ability to elevate that and those are the reasons typically that we would do that if there is a lot of neighborhood interest or it's a complex design where staff feels that it would benefit from a seven member board versus one staff member taking action on that so we can certainly do that we haven't had it yet I can say that from a staff perspective we've greatly appreciated the board's interaction and as we go forward on these few projects that we've had already come to you for concept review and then go to the zoning administrator and I can also let you know that that's been the same feedback that we've heard from the applicants as well they've appreciated the process that compressed review is also and also the comments that they've received from the board good all right with that thank you to staff and thank you to our public audience and my fellow board members we are adjourned