 Good afternoon. Almost evening, Andy. Oh, Kimberly. How are you doing fine? Are we recording? No, we are okay. We are We're all set YouTube is going Okay, we are a little less than 10 minutes here before start time Yeah You can turn off. I've got the I've got the opening slide up I'll get the agenda up in about five more minutes Perfect. Thanks. And we have our open chat channel. Yes, we do. Okay, perfect. Thanks I'll mute and stay off. All right. Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the July 7th special meeting of the zoning administrator Today at 5 p.m. We are going to have one item on the agenda that we'll discuss before we do I like to run through a few preliminaries first. This is a remote meeting that in response to provisions of a governor's executive order Suspending certain requirements of the Brown Act. We can hold this meeting As a zoom meeting the attention here is to help avoid spread of the COVID-19 disease Members of the public can participate in this meeting virtually by logging in on the Zoom link and those of you who are in attendance have already done so either by video or you can log in and then participate by phone and I don't see that we have any members of public at this time who have called in So as we go through this meeting just like any other meeting face to face we will be going through presentation by staff and then Additional comments by the applicant and any member of the public in attendance who wishes to comment may do so In each case, I will recognize you and turn you will need to use the hand signal or a symbol on the screen and then And unmute yourself and you'll be able to comment So with that if I can ask the hearing secretary to scroll further down on the agenda So I can read the title for the first item an only item This is a public hearing and it's a minor design review for 425 Humboldt street Just generally this project's coming back for a modification. It was previously Approved for design review and the applicants are returning with some changes that do require a public hearing so with that I'll hand it off to the project planner Adam Ross Great. Thank you. Mr. zoning administrator. I'm going to I have a brief presentation to share with With you to go over on the screen. So I'm going to go ahead and set that up Okay, so Thank you. Again. Thank you, mr. zoning administrator. My name is adam Ross. I'm the project planner for The project before you the previous version and as well as the changes proposed It is the 425 Humboldt street apartments. The file number is dr 21-035 The address is 431 Humboldt street and again I am adam Ross with the planning and a economic development department The project itself This is the approved version of it. And I should say that the This is a an approval for projects pursuant Sorry an approval for Changes to a previously approved project And I'll have that zoning code written a little bit later But this is this is the original approval here as you can see on the on the map On march 24th of this year that came before you you have the A top floor Outdoor space and internal courtyard sky bridges across each tower unit parking for the residences in this area here on the first and second floors and The ground floor includes Amenities for the residents Leasing office as well as offices for additional tenants Much of that remains the same But this is the a bit of what these changes are so the original project is eight units As I said mixed use mostly residential building The new version cuts the top story to so it's seven. It's a seven story mixed use Residential building the original approval had 94 units although density is not It is not regulated under the downtown stationary specific plan. It goes by far the Which is floor area ratio And so there's 88 units presented here The breakdown is five was originally approved five studios 65 one bedroom and 24 two bedroom Now there are 14 studios 64 one bedroom and 10 two bedrooms most of that came from having to Kind of reorganize how the building, you know, all the units how they sat with the changes that were Done by the applicant Floors one and two are mixed use and floors three through eight a residential that remains the same except for Now it's floors three through seven a residential The square footage approved previously approved was 136,953 gross square feet you know Approximately the current version is plus or minus 117,432 gross square feet Uh, the court internal courtyard and roof terrace remains the same size the original approval was 86 feet tall and This one is 77 feet tall Um, and there were 71 parking spaces previously approved and 69 parking spaces with the revised version Parking is there is no minimum parking requirement for project for projects in the downtown stationary specific plan boundary So that's just kind of for reference as well But this gives you kind of the scope of of some of the changes So here's the project site. It incorporates two parcels that have I believe since been merged or is in the process of being finalized to be Um, it's technically a lot line adjustment to represent the shape of the yellow line shown On the on the image here Again, as you see Humboldt street seven street and it's between fifth and seventh street with Um Rear access off of Riley street and the main frontage off of Humboldt street So the general plan and zoning uh, both general plan and zoning is core mixed use within the downtown stationary specific plan With an far of eight the modified project is right at the midpoint. Um Which is required by the zoning code And and the use itself is allowed by right. So it was just a designer view Under pursuant to the resilient city development measures So just to rehash some of what I just said it it's a my the original approval was minor designer view After a concept designer view Uh item is taken as an item before the designer view board is done. That did happen on january 21st um, and The approval by the zea was on march 24th 2021 and Zoning code section 20-54 point zero six zero is what this approval falls under which is changes to an approved residential project So here's the site plan that remains the same Again, here's just for reference. This was part of the approved project that remains the same the parking is uh Essentially the same I think there was a loss of two parking units and I could The applicant team can verify that if if need be And um, so here's a the third floor plan Most of these changes shown here are the internal layouts Which is not really something that is subject to design review itself So this is mostly for reference. Also that the internal courtyard is pretty much unchanged Well, it is unchanged Again that same thing goes here you have Internal layouts, which is not really subject to designer view. There were some changes to the patios Provided north of the sky bridge As part of this project which is in the project description But those are minor architectural details Here's the roof plan So here is the approved elevations from march 24th As you can see here pay attention here on the side It's kind of like a the railing type here and you you have this eighth story here and the sky bridge here Here's the frontage facing humboldt street And then here's the proposed elevation So it is it's that different type of material on the On the patios the sky bridge changed a little bit that is internal. So it's not really seen from outside of the project and the patios Here on this side as well and then we have Sorry, I'm just going back and forth So just again seven stories still maintains that kind of butterfly roof and then here Still maintains that top floor residential area And some of the window treatments As you can see on the residential units have changed Very slightly And then here is the south elevation which faces down towards fifth street And then this is the west elevation facing riley street as approved. These are the approved versions Here the modified versions Again the same type of changes have occurred here To that to to these elevations as they did the other elevations there is some Removal of these Fixtures which I believe laid over The actual siding and those were those were labeled as optional cv photovoltaic solar panels on the original approval If you know if they could make it happen These are shown without them that doesn't preclude them from being Incorporated In the future Again, not much has changed on the first level. I think That's essentially I think I've covered most of what it is here And I'll let the applicant design team kind of Go over any more of this As needed So here's the approved elevations the court. These are the internal courtyard elevations as they face each other And these right here represent the sky the sky tunnels the sky bridges that go connect each each tower On each floor So some of the there's some made some Some changes in this area here on this court yard east elevation And now they've kind of opened it up a little bit for with patios shown here In the same Type of treatment is done carried over on the west elevation as well So the materials remain Unchanged where we're in use And see these were optional pv panels. This is part of the original permit approval a designer view approval Back in march 20 On march 24th of this year Some of the changes on this it's less of an open air type balcony In these kinds of areas And then here's the landscape plan This is the this is included in the updated package, but i'm sorry. This is Yes, but it's Unchanged And with that the recommendation is that from the planning and economic development department is that the zoning administrator proved the modifications to the 4 25 humble street apartments An approved residential project with the vandal town station area planned boundary Pursuant to section 20-54 point zero six zero of the zoning code And i'm available for any questions in the applicant team. They don't have a powerpoint presentation, but we can reference What i've provided here Should we need it you're muted andy brilliant start there i'll have to do that over again, so If i need to if i'm going to summarize adam i would i would summarize to say minor modifications to the exterior balconies Rather than open railing it's enclosed Minor modifications not expansion or reduction in the windows or glazing Uh approved elevation materials In colors remain the same with the exception of the solar panels on the south elevation Uh, do the solar panels stay as an option on the roof and does that matter in terms of design review here? It doesn't matter in terms of design review. It's obviously encouraged Um, and they could they could come back with that at any point in time. Sure future yeah, um Whatever worth i was i thought it was kind of cool how the panels were on that south elevation, but But otherwise, uh, and of course the reduction of the uh number of stories from eight to seven or yeah But that upper balcony Or terrace on the south east elevation remains or corner and The roof form that sort of butterfly roof remains Parking reduction by two So looks like it's the character and quality of the building is Substantially the same as what was approved. So that's my understanding Um, does the applicant team have any comments you want to add to mr. Ross's uh A presentation. It's oh, please raise your hand You see no takers. Oh mr Rob robertson or robinson excuse me so uh, so Yes, my name is rob Robinson and I am the president of igh partners Which is a sponsor for this whole thing tom robertson? uh, and I are partners and Are excited about this project. Um, I'd like to start by just thanking everybody for putting us on a fast track to get this modification and You know, this literally is just we were sliced out as a story and We had hoped to Have another story and we were going to use Mass timber which allows you to go one story higher than you know, the traditional five over two structure And it just ended up being a much too complex for the site We didn't have enough experience within our overall team and then our main supplier went bankrupt Yeah for the clt and so And it was costly so Our solution was let's just pick one story out Everything else remains the same really the footprint The amenity package will be similar and it's literally just one story Gone and and so we feel like we're staying within the window That we already have moved under excellent Yeah, I'm sorry you're uh, you're viral and bankrupt But uh, this seems like a very, um minimal in terms of a change in terms of overall design adjustment that you've made um Is there anyone in the public unless there's another member of the team I see on tamasi has his right hand raised on Oh, I just one last thing just to clarify. It was one of our suppliers none of our finance. Oh, sorry. Yeah um, the supplier himself that that produced the Mass timber and I think that they were impacted by you know, coven and super high wood prices and Just didn't get behind it. So it really has nothing to do with our ability to move forward other than um, we we The combination of factors made it better for us to remove a story Thank you for the clarification Okay This is don tamasi. Should I proceed? I'm with tlcd architecture the architect for the project. Yeah, and that's a player with kateros That was a real got punched to the clt industry Um, so yeah, everything that's been said so far is accurate really we're kind of taking out a middle floor um the only architectural changes of any Significance and they're pretty minor at that are on the internal court getting rid of the pop out You know bay windows if you will they're replacing them with balconies and some minor interior changes um, the the change in the balcony design the different railings that's actually kind of a semi-transparent metal mesh and the refinements to the window units are basically Um had nothing to do with cost cutting It was about project evolution when we came to the design review board the first time it was a We were at the completion of schematic design And now we've got a few more months into the project and we're at the end of design development so a lot of things got got resolved and Refined and so forth as we had a chance to work more closely with engineers on the sky bridges and so forth and and look at better products so Yeah, that's basically it If anything the project has less impacts in terms of shadows and traffic reduction and so forth But uh, I think that that will conclude my presentation Thank you Any other members of the project team that wish to comment? Seeing none. Uh, let's move on to the public hearing portion. Is there any member of the public president that wishes to comment? And so please raise your hand All right seeing none. I'll close the public hearing All right, well Adam, thank you for bringing this forward uh The project of this scale is not in common for them to be revised as design gets refined after entitlements granted and I think What is proposed here is in substantial compliance with the originally approved minor design review It's I'm very pleased that The the the scale reduction uh removed one of the The the intermediary floors and retained that awesome top floor with the Terrace and the and the roof feature. I think that Kind of distinguishes the building and it's great that you're protecting that or preserving that going forward um I really have no other comment. Um, I think uh the presentation on the differences between the Previously approved and what is proposed as modification was clear And and demonstrated that this is um in the spirit of what was originally approved. So with that um I I will approve the resolution which I've read With a modification everything about the resolution was perfect except adam. I think we need to um either replace or modify or add to In the recitals those whereas statements the action of the zoning administrator on when was that March 24th um, yes it um, I think um The sequel findings that you made there are all fine, but it's possibly that That that one uh, whereas I don't have the resolution in front of me unfortunately, but I'm sorry. I have it in front of me Yeah, uh, it just simply needs to be uh Retooled to just memorialize the fact that the zoning administrator approved proposed project Essentially as proposed and I think at that time we did talk about uh suggested work on that West elevation to at all possible Incorporate some sort of greening. I'll call it Of that elevation. I realized there was a narrow sidewalk There but I continue on you know to Verbally encourage that the applicant team take a look at that as it moves forward should the infrastructure and street cross-section requirements those could be fulfilled in some way and then also Do something to soften that? Edge to the street that public frontage there Was that a long rally street? Yeah Yeah, that west elevation um, and again, that's a A suggestion not a condition of approval An encouragement and just to be clear. I think I know exactly what you're saying um On the start of the second page of the resolution The first whereas states on march 24th, 2021 the zoning administrator found the approved project statutory exempt from sequa pursuant to section 15182 and government code section 65457 and and that's project Pursuant to the downtown stationary specific plan what it needs to say right before that is whereas on march 24th The zoning administrator approved the project. Is that right? Right? Yeah That just kind of keeps the record intact in one place Yes, but the conditions flow as they did previously Into this resolution and And we can move forward the next step So with that Project approved with the modified recitals of the resolution of the appeal period should any matter or concern Or issue Need to be appealed by Either the applicant or a member of the public in presence. They can do so by the end of the business day July 19 And if you do wish to appeal, please contact the project planner and and make for arrangements to do so um again, thank you all for bringing this matter forward and I now Close the public hearing of the zoning administrator of July 7th. Thank you