 All right board members, we're going to be starting soon if you can turn on your cameras, make sure you're all here. Thank you. No, we can hear you. Good. So let me turn things on. Stay as is. Um, I think the chair can case going to call the meeting to order here in a moment. Okay, great. I'll mute. Okay. I think we're ready. Great. I'd like to call to order the city of Santa Rosa design review board and cultural heritage board special meeting, which was noticed in the gen dies for today, September 16 2020 at 5pm. Before we get into the agenda proper, I'm going to acknowledge why we are here in this format. Due to the provisions of the governor's executive orders in dash 25 dash 20 and in dash 29 dash 20, which suspend certain requirements of the brown act. In the order of the health officer of the county of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the designer view board and cultural heritage board members will be participating via zoom webinar. So that's why we're here in this format. Of course we still offer the same opportunities for public involvement in this meeting. Members of the public can join us via zoom. They can also join us via teleconference. And they were given opportunities for public comment prior to the meeting, both via email and the voice recorded message. And any of those that were not received in time to distribute to the board will be memorialized in the record this evening. If they were part of public comment that was already reviewed by the board, they're already a public record. There will be two additional times for public comment this evening. Item number four is general comment for the boards under their purview, which we will read for the design review board and cultural heritage board respectively. And on items 6.1, which is our only agendized items tonight as a concept design review, we will still open for public comment on that particular item when it is heard. So with that, may I have a roll call please. Let the record reflect that for cultural heritage board, all board members are present except for vice chair fennel and board member Garrett. And for design review board, all board members are present except for board member Sharon. And I do believe that we are anticipating both board members Sharon joining the designer view board and board member fennel designing or joining cultural heritage board later this evening. So we will announce them when they join. Okay, before we move on, I am going to rearrange the meeting a little bit. Before we move on to approval of the minutes, then I'm going to move item number eight up ahead of item number three so we'll hear department reports, which will allow us to run a more efficient meeting so your department reports before we report business. So, item number two approval of the minutes we have before you draft minutes from our August 19 2020 joint meeting of the CHB and DRB. Are there any comments clarifications or changes needing to be made to those minutes. I do not see anybody raising their hand or making an affirmative action towards making changes so we'll go ahead and memorialize those into the record. So as mentioned, we will move on to item number eight department reports. So department reports. Mr. Rose, are you giving those department reports. I'm going to step in this is Susie Murray and I'm going to kick them off and Bill's going to take over after me. The first order of business. I'd like to announce that the mayor has appointed a new board chair to the cultural heritage board. So I'd like y'all to join me in welcoming and congratulating Brian user for taking on that role. Thank you very much, Brian. And second order of business is that I have I received an inquiry as to the timing of bring the downtown station area plan update back to the board. And so I'm going to punt to you guys. We need to get responses for all of our October dates. I just want to point out that when we send out those, those queries will confirm as soon as we possibly can, but we need need need to hear from you. And so if you can just over the next few weeks, if you can check your email, your city email accounts daily, it would be very, very much appreciated. And and let us know if you're available on those dates, if things change, let us know as soon as possible as well. Or again. And that I'm going to hand it off to Mr. Rebels. Great. Thank you, Susie and good evening everybody. Thank you for joining us tonight and congratulations, Brian and thank you for your willingness to serve as chair. We really do appreciate that. Just one quick item I wanted to go over some staffing changes and some of these you might already be aware of. So I'm going to be David, you and left the city. And so we've made some changes. Claire Hartman, who was the deputy director of planning is now the interim assistant city manager so she's taking over David's role. That then created some openings in the planning department so I have moved into Claire's former position so I'm the interim deputy director of planning. And then that created an opening for my position and Andrew triple has moved into that role. And then Andrew's role became open. So Adam Ross who will be presenting here in a few minutes is the interim senior planner. And for the time being that's the extent of our changes. In the next meeting we might have more so I just wanted to let everyone know if you see a different title of lower names that's kind of what's happening and these are it's a six month assignment so we will update you as we go forward so it's the only updates I have. So with that chair can Kate I'll give it back to you. Thank you to this Murray and this arose for those updates. Do you have any quick questions or clarifications on those announcements. Okay, and we will move on to board business. This is where we differentiate ourselves from other boards or commissions within the city read our statement of purpose. So for the design review board this would be zoning code chapter 20 dash 52. 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. Any 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, ie city policy statements and development plans. That's the purview of the design review board. At this time I'll turn it over to chair user who will read the cultural heritage board statement of purpose for the cultural heritage board. The cultural heritage board shall consider the following matters standards guidelines and criteria to the extent applicable in determining whether to grant or deny a permit, whether the purpose proposed change is consistent or incompatible with the architectural building, whether the proposed change is compatible with any adjacent or nearby landmark structures or preservation district structures, whether the colors, textures, materials, illustrations, decorative features and details proposed are consistent with the period and or are compatible with adjacent structures. Whether proposed changes destroys or adversely affects an important architectural feature or features. The secretary and interior standards for rehabilitation and guidelines for rehabilitating historic buildings. Such other matters criterion standards as may be adopted by resolution of the cultural heritage board. Thank you chair user. And now we are on to item number four. This is general public comment period. These will be on topics that are germane to these two boards, as you just heard, under their purviews and each public comment, each speaker will be given three minutes. We will check in with staff to see if we have either email or voicemail public comments in the general public comment arena. So with that, I will open public comment, and we will take speakers by way of zoom or telecom for his first chair concave this is the house nobody has raised in their hands at this time. And it appears that we do not have anybody falling. Okay. So are there any general public comment emails or voicemails that we just somebody raised their hand and then lowered it. We got a La Lani Clark. This Clark, are you there. Yes, I am. Can you hear me. We can hear you loud and clear. So you have three minutes to floor is all yours. I mean, is this is this about the cornerstone development on this one's West six. This is just the general public comment. So we will have general public comment now that we will have statements of abstention by board members, and then we'll move on to that scheduled item. So, that's what I'm reading for so. Okay, yep. So when that comes about, we will open public comment for that item, after we see both the city presentation and the applicant presentation so that you can get the full flavor of the project. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. No one else is raising their hand. Okay. We will go ahead and close the general public comment period. Item number five statements of abstention by board members, or any board members on the designer you board that need to abstain. Yes, this is board member Corden Brock. I'm sorry. I need to abstain from this item to direct involvement in the design team. Great. Sorry to see you go congratulations on the direct involvement in the design team. Any other DRV members needing to abstain. How about cultural heritage board members any of those members needed to abstain. Okay. Thank you. Board member Corden Brock. Our scheduled items. Item number six. In particular, item number 6.1 is a concept design review item for the smart village residential development phase one at 34 West 6th street file number. Thank you. Thank you chair kind of in chair musher and members of both the cultural heritage board and designer view board. I'm going to share my screen here. Pretty quickly. Bear with me. Okay. Can you see that? Yes, we can. Is it just, it's just the that screen share correct. Oops. I'm Adam Ross in terms senior planner working on this concept portion of the project. The item before you is the smart site village residential development phase one of that located at 34 West six and two fourth streets. So a bit about the project as it relates to the housing housing action plan and the regional housing news assessment. The total units is 110 units that comprise that's comprised of studio one and two bedrooms. 99 units are market rate that's 3.8% of the market rate goal under the RHNA and HAP. And 11 units which is point four percent of the goal are for income qualified. Right now it's stated that there will be for low income low income income qualified residents. Here's an area of view of the project location. So just for reference you have a third street on the bottom in this area here and then six street up top. And then the smart rail site is along the edge of it and it's there are two parcels between the project site and the Prince Memorial Greenway. Here's a little bit closer of an image. There are no existing structures on this on the site currently. The general plan land use designation is transit village mixed use which is which is defined as well integrated which is defined as a well integrated mix of higher intensity residential office and commercial uses. The development is designed and oriented to create a central note of activity at and and or near transit facility with a minimum density of 40 units per acre. So this is the zoning is TVMA TVMA TVM SA H. So that's the base zoning is transit village mixed use that implements that general plan that was just discussed. It's for areas within approximately a quarter mile of a transit facility such as this one the the smart site the downtown smart rail site. It's a mix of hire. It's meant for a mix of higher density residential office and commercial uses. Development is designed and oriented to create a central note of activity at or near the transit facility. And some of those requirements will be kind of highlighted in this brief staff presentation as well. And so the historic combining district on the site is the railroad square preservation district to the north you out north you have the West End preservation district. And the railroad square preservation district has its character defining defining elements outlined in the zoning code. Some of the essential project characteristics again transit village village mixed use. So there's no lot size requirements minimum or maximum lot size requirement 40 units per acre minimum rather than maximum. That's a minimum setbacks. This 80% requires that 80% of the building be at the property line for the front. That's part of the requirement to create you know just activity generating developments in the transit area. No cider rear setbacks up to 100% lock coverage under the current zoning you have five stories for the property north of 3rd Street which is this which would associate with this site and a minimum of two stories for new development. Parking is one space per unit in this in this zoning. Within the downtown station area specific plan the current one you have and 20 bark 20 bicycle spaces are required as well how that relates how the project relates to those. You have phase one is 2.3 acres of a five point acre site. You have 47 units per acre which implements the minimum density or more than the minimum density 80% is at the property line and again no required setbacks for a rear or side. It's less than 100% lock coverage with the height limit of six stories. There are 75 vehicle spaces proposed with 110 bicycle spaces also proposed. That's six stories under the current code if they have concessions that would be that can be achieved by the development under the inclusionary housing ordinance or concessions should they go for a density bonus they could ask for that additional height as part of a concession for their development. Under the proposed downtown station area specific plan six stories would be in compliance with the allowed height under the new code. I'm sorry under the new plan and the land use analysis and entitlements so you have required entitlements for transit village mixed use ground floor residential requires a minor conditional use permit that would be by the reviewed by the zoning administrator concept review as we have here today with both the CHB I believe the DRB is optional a major landmark alteration permit because of its size and greater than 5000 square feet in a preservation district and then for the preliminary designer view we'll have another joint meeting with both boards CHB and DRB and then where consensus would be made and then final designer view goes to the designer view board. A little bit more about regulations affecting this section 20-10.050e it essentially means that if they submitted next week and we had a complete application prior to the adoption of the new downtown station area specific plan they can elect to go by the current code or the updated code and it would kind of be up to them and as long as it's in writing stating that and then section 21-02.110 is kind of goes over some of the affordable housing incentives and the inclusionary housing ordinance there is also the the density bonus which is ministerial and in state that allows for concessions and incentives that could also come into play in this project. With that that is the end of staff's presentation I know that the applicant team has a pretty thorough presentation to go over more of the intricate details of the project but should you have any questions for me now or later I'm open to them thank you. Thank you senior planner Ross much appreciated great presentation I think what we'll do because I think it may provide some clarity is we'll hear from the applicant presentation next and then we'll take questions from staff and questions from the applicant team and we'll work public comment in there somewhere can I see a cultural heritage board member Fanel joined us welcome good evening so with that let's go ahead and tee up the applicant presentation and when the applicant is presenting if you can identify yourself and your role as a member of the applicant team that would be appreciated can you see the applicant presentation yes yep you're on page one can you hear can you hear me yep we can hear you I just want to make sure Pauline Block from Cornerstone will lead out for us I'm Peter Stanley with Archaeologics we're on the development consulting team hi there she is hi good evening thanks for having us tonight um so my name is Pauline Block and I handle the marketing and the development for Cornerstone which is the applicant for the project so we are excited tonight to share with you our concept and our vision here and let's go ahead to the next slide the agenda and so we'll quickly introduce Cornerstone so you know who we are we own the property and we will also be the developer of the site and I'll introduce you to the team we have on the call today and then we'll go ahead and move forward to the building and site design so let's jump into the next slide Cornerstone is a local property owner here in the north bay we have about 30 properties between Petaluma and Santa Rosa most of our sites are commercial office buildings industrial and r&d sites and however we do have a handful of special projects and our development sites so we really look for innovative ways to approach our buildings and our projects whether they be the commercial sites or these developments we do not consider ourselves a developer per se this is actually our first residential project and we just are really careful about every decision we want them to be meaningful and impactful in our community and our projects are all long-term investments for our company and so it's important we really see the value we're providing for Santa Rosa's future as we move forward with them and let's go ahead to the next slide and just want to quickly show you our team so even though we have a lot of property we have a really small dedicated team in our office we have five team members we do everything from our leasing to we have an in-house architect for space planning we really rely on our team of outside consultants who are knowledgeable in the fields that they work in to drill down to the details so just wanted to quickly show you our team and we have our Petaluma headquarters office and let's go to the next slide also wanted to touch on just a few of our community projects where you may have seen Cornerstone before and we own the Press Democrat building in downtown Santa Rosa on Mendocino Avenue and the first floor we donated after the 2017 fires to activate the local assistance center which housed FEMA the county and other government agencies that helped fire victims kind of navigate the process of what to do after the fires so after that we saw a huge need for a co-working space in downtown Santa Rosa they're really prevalent in other cities in San Francisco Oakland however there wasn't really a large space here in Santa Rosa so we turned it into co-op and we opened about two years ago we now have around 120 members and we work with community groups to provide meeting spaces and training centers and we have a ton of really small businesses and entrepreneurs who are able to rent space without the overhead of traditional office and we're seeing a huge shift in that now as many of you may be aware so let's go ahead next to our project in Pengrove barn 5400 is a work in progress it's an artisan maker space project that we started at if you're familiar with the old adobe lumber yard in Pengrove so basically repurposing some old barns and our vision for the property is really creating affordable artisan spaces very difficult to find in Sonoma County right now you know small spaces for artists and makers so that was really our vision here and like I said it's a work in progress but currently we have on-site feed Sonoma who aggregates small local farmer produce we have harmony farms opened their second garden supply store on site we have a soap cauldron which is an artisan skincare and soap maker as well as a few other various artists on site and this is something you'll likely see in additional projects from Cornerstone is really finding ways to support artists in our community so I think that was the last slide in that quick introduction of Cornerstone I'm going to now hand it off um oh our development team so on the call we have Ben Ridley who's with Solomon Cordweb ones out of um from our architecture team we have Peter Stanley from Archeologics and he's um focusing on a lot of the planning efforts for our projects Rick Carlisle with BKF Engineers and Christine Talbot with Rodrigo Landscape and Architecture Architecture and Planning so we can advance to the next slide and I'm going to hand it off to Peter to talk about some of the planning policy and then Ben will talk about the site design again um and the building thanks Pauline can anybody everybody hear me yes yes great um so my name is Peter Stanley I'm a principal with Archeologics um architecture and land use planning and entitlements um working with Cornerstone on a number of their projects but focused right now tonight on this project here um Adam did a good job of sort of explaining the basic context but I wanted to go through maybe add a little more flavor to that um before I hand it off to Ben to talk about um sort of the design and project approach um I'll reiterate some things just to give some more context to hope we all know this site it's a 5.4 acre site in downtown Santa Rosa it's currently vacant um has been for a number of years there have been a number of development projects that have come forward that have never advanced um and we're very excited now to be um taking this first phase of the project forward and what we would call a proof of concept to show that this kind of development is not only needed but welcomed in Santa Rosa um this the site itself has been identified by city planning documents as a priority development site as well as a priority development area and targeted by city council and tier one goals um to increase housing in the downtown um for density higher density and infill housing so that is uh sort of the base of our approach to it um the zoning as Adam has said is tvm under the current plan um which has a minimum of 40 units per acre we're going to exceed that in phase one um but we're also providing 10 percent of affordable housing which that would that would make us eligible under the state density bonus law for concessions but it also makes us eligible under the housing allocation plan in the inclusion house inclusionary housing ordinance for the city of Santa Rosa for incentives to provide more affordable housing within projects in development sites in downtown in terms of the parking as ben will go over some of that in his proposal but uh adam did also as well um we're working with a fantastic nonprofit out of the east bay called transform and they do what's called green trip certification and what that is is it's an effort to reduce vehicle miles travel reduce parking requirements reduce the use and need um of of more cars and implementing development strategies that allows to do that so is adam pointed out in his presentation we're emphasizing more bikes than cars although we are certainly doing about 0.75 parking spaces per unit but we're also going to implement a car share program which transform as they move through this uh process with us and as we bring the project forward to you in the future we'll show you data that these kinds of programs connect the need and use of cars and vehicles and sort of infill to do projects like this um so i that gives you sort of an overall context of it i do want to hand it off to ben rigley from solemn cordwell bends to start going through the design approach now thank you very much pizza can can everybody hear me loud and clear okay great thank you scott um yes my name is ben rigley i'm with solemn cordwell bends architects we're based in san francisco and i'm here to talk a bit more about the site approach and the design for phase one of the smart site so uh jumping right in on your screen here you can see the the site and the building itself outlined there in orange on the north edge of the site along the sixth street corridor um the sites bounded by the railroad square district the western historic districts and the historic canary site as a very important edge um along the west side of the site i understand the canary projects is recently approved and you know you'll see in the site planning we're really thinking that as an important edge to our site uh also important on the site you see those yellow arrows that cross fourth and fifth street those are the sight lines from fourth street and from fifth street through towards the creek it's important that any massing approach that we take is going to respect that visual access through the site you can see we've indicated the solar access and the prevailing winds which are for important clues as to how we're going to plan the entire site relative to trying to you know minimize the impacts of harmful uh environmental effects and then the the transit is a key component on the site as well we have the new smart station obviously we have a a byte network which we're becoming going to become an integral part of and also a connecting street internal to the site as part of the entire build out that will connect sixth street through to third street and if you go to the next site uh slide please you can see here you know a more detailed plan of the entire smart site now we're here only really to talk about phase one today but as an approach and working with the the owner's team it was important for us to think about the entire site and not just what we'll build as part of this first phase that it but that it's also part of a bigger vision and you can see here a series of uh connecting um internal roadways and more pedestrianized bike friendly access points there is a fire truck access needing to be considered particularly between phase one and phase two immediately which is on the as we see in this drawing what uh sixth street is on the left hand side of the the slide so phase one is running page north south on the left side of the slide and you can see as part of phase one we're also uh intending to activate that fire access line between phase one and phase two with um you know a certain amount of public amenity there'd be a play areas picnic areas and a pool which would be shared between the residents um and um potentially with the public um there's other significant open spaces that are envisaged as part of the entire site build out notably the great lawn area you can see indicated at that fourth street access across the site if you go to the next slide please um as in phase one we're you know we're building out a portion of the site we're building out a portion of the row that connects sixth and third street there will be street parking within that street which will meet the parking requirements of this building there is no parking inside the building itself also connecting that multi-use trail where it crosses the tracks to the north down to fourth street to complete the connection there and again you can see in a little more detail the fire access line that we're referring to is the mew is a very sort of active public space that sits on the south edge of phase one and next slide please a little bit more zoomed in to help you get get a bit more idea of some of the finishes and the you know the amenities that will be provided not just to the building but back to the community as part of the project and importantly here as well you start to see the edge of the building on the ground floor and how we'll be creating a series of stoops the residential units that sits on the ground floor to soften the building as it as it meets the the street and the sidewalk next slide please this is a diagram of the ground floor so you start to see how the units get configured and you'll also see in this how the amenity spaces are considered the building will have small fitness room in a amenity community space which will open both to the swimming pool and to the open space on the other side of it and the again this is concept design that is a concept we understand there's there's elements of access and the way that that will have to be controlled and run will be determined this is the that is the concept for it at this point that large arrow on sixth street indicates the major entrance for the residents of the building there's a secondary pink arrow on the left side of the slide which shows where the public could potentially access those amenities the swimming pool and the other associated facilities and then that dashed red line along the bottom indicates the extent of phase one in the north south direction before we proceed into phase two next slide please this is just taking you up through the building this would be a typical floor it is a six-story building this will be essentially floors two through six showing you a a mixture of ones twos and studio units the mix is currently there's about 10 studios 37 one beds 45 two beds and 18 what we're calling family units and if you actually just jump two slides ahead please I don't think there's any to dwell on that one yes thank you so the idea with the family units is the all of these units are smaller in character and and area so this is this two bedroom on the left is a 925 square foot two bedroom unit within the building you can see there's a number of two bedroom units and the two different configurations on the right we refer to them as family units where we lose a bathroom and we simplify the kitchen in favor of providing more flexible space that could accommodate a number of different and family arrangements or roommate configurations just taking that same square footage and allowing a more flexible living arrangement within it in fact let's just go back one slide again sorry I just want to talk about these briefly again it's important that you understand the kind of size that we are talking about for the units sub 600 square foot one bedroom units in a couple of different configurations that we are investigating for the building a more traditional one on the far right and then a more flexible one in the middle and then some smaller studio spaces which will actually range from this 380 square feet up to probably 450 square feet as the planning really gets developed okay if you go forward two slides and now to talk about the architecture I think it's important for us to talk a little bit about and how we have seen the site how we've come to understand it and importantly how we understand this relationship to a complex series of edges we have the railroad square historic districts in the west end historic districts and we have the cannery site so you can see little snippets of those parts of the adjacent site on that lower row and then a series of slides that indicate or images that indicate material approaches I think for us the relationship to the cannery in the lower left left hand side of this image is perhaps the strongest and perhaps where we're pulling the most influence and that is a brick building we are not proposing a brick building we are proposing a masonry building but we want to build something a little more residential in character than you know obviously industrial however we do acknowledge the linear nature of our building has a relationship and scale to the linear nature of those cannery buildings and how we approach the windows the fenestration on our buildings will be you know more punched and more similar in scale to the cannery also in that in that image you can see a loading dock on the the remnants of the cannery building there and we've sort of drawn an analogy between that loading dock and its construction and the way that we might provide stoops along the ground floor of our building on both 6th street and on the internal street and taking that industrial character and and some of these industrial materials you'll see here that start to speak to elements of the railroad and elements of the cannery and also elements of the adjacent neighborhoods we've started to envisage an architectural character that builds in a lot of these elements so if you please go to the next slide you can see a view here looking from the railroad square district across towards phase one in the background you can just about see the low rise of the cannery building that's the 6th street theater and and you can see on the ground floor a series of stoops that are starting to create those continuous canopy elements reminiscent of the loading docks and pull in some of that more industrial materiality some of the wood some of the dark metal some of the rusted metal and then taking some of that character and rather than leaving it entirely white on the upper floors taking some of those industrial materials and using them to warm up and add scale and residential character to the building above you also see balconies on the corner here facing railroad square and on the far end balconies facing towards the internal street as you as we thought about this building we didn't see it as having you know a front and a back or you know one end more important than another the building has to equally address both neighborhoods so if you go to the next slide you can see an image here looking along 6th street and where we see the entrance to the building on the on the ground floor there at the corner and really the entrance into the site itself and to that internal street you also start to see that continuous residential stoop that runs along 6th street we've kept the same materiality around the entire building we didn't want to change it you know per elevation this wants to be a coherent approach particularly as we might think about how we could roll this out across multiple phases we want this to be a very clear and simple architectural language but is it it is important on 6th street that we acknowledge the scale of the western neighborhood so what you'll see here is a little more residential character the building is modulated based on the residential modules it has more of what you might call a town homesthetic so it starts to take the linear language of the building and reduce its scale as it starts to address the more residential neighborhoods to the north and if you go to the final slide please you'll see what we think is a good indication of the kind of character that we see this building having as you walk along 6th street as you connect the railroad square district through to the west west end historic district so you can see there the activity on the street created through the stoop that sense of the scale being mitigated as you move from that six-story building into the lower buildings and the adjacent neighborhoods and also a strong sense of the materiality that relates to the industrial character of some of the existing buildings around the site and I think that concludes the architectural presentation so I'll hand it back to Peter who is going to field questions. Thanks Ben so that is our presentation and we wanted to give the boards plenty of opportunity to ask questions most certainly we have Christine Talbot from Quadriga here she's the landscape partner and obviously Ben and Pauline if there's any questions about cornerstones vision for this property as well as Rick Carlyle from BKF if anybody has technical questions everybody loves a good civil conversation so I will turn it back over to you chair Kincaid. Thank you Mr. Stanley and we do like civil conversations so I think before we jump into questions for staff and the applicant we'll go ahead and take public comment that way if there's any public questions we can incorporate those into our questions so let's go ahead and open up public comment for item 6.1. Chair Kincaid I'm sorry if I may just interrupt for a second during my presentation I failed to just we received three public correspondence today in support of the project I just wanted to mention that you've received everything up until today so far but so for the Burbank housing has voiced their support for the project for the smart site and more or less basically all of the things you've heard today from the applicant as to why they support it location affordable element and design in a transit oriented as a transit oriented development and then generation housing sent a letter of support as well for the for the very same reasons location scale and density and design and then one more from Esteban Promise I hope I pronounced that correctly gave a support of the project as well and indicated you know that he commuted to his work in Santa Rafael via smart site and would welcome this sort of downtown development and the only portion of that was of that support where they thought the project was lacking a little bit was a jointly developed parking structure for the smart site and this and this project that that includes the three comments received today I just wanted to make sure that the boards were able to hear that thank you planner Ross and I think you verbalized Burbank housing as the one support but I believe it was the cream belt alliance and I was I missing one or we actually have four green belt alliance did provide some a letter of support for the project as well okay so we have a Burbank housing one that I'm not sure that I yeah that one came in today okay so it wasn't provided because it was entered into the you know the public record now great thank you for the clarification um okay so with that we will go ahead and open up public comment for item 6.1 okay share concave we have first up share ennis and share I've unneeded you there can you hear me yeah we can hear you share welcome this evening and you'll have three minutes so the floor is yours okay my name is share ennis I have lived in the west end neighborhood for oh long long time longer than some of you've been alive first I want to state that I support this project I think we need housing and vertical is the best use of space um one point of clarification I'm a little confused about the size of the project on the documentation it says 2.36 and then a little while ago one of the speakers said five point something acres so clarification on that at some point please in reviewing the submittal I was a bit confused by the cover sheet which appears to be a photo photo of the inside of the old cannery building on the adjacent parcel and once I confirmed that this was actually the smart site I hope the use of this photo would foreshadow a use of similar materials in this project reading through the design concept review on page six I was encouraged the photo labeled continuous stoops in this page uses materials that would be a great addition to the area sadly I'm not a fan of the exterior elevations as presented in any of the renderings the building looks generic it could be on any street in any city it looks monolithic and I don't see anything that not that to me nods to the railroad square or west end historic district as referenced in the design concept narrative on page six or the external materials palette on page 11 so I kind of wonder am I missing something I'm not looking for a building that pretends to be old but I do want to see materials that reference the historic nature of area particularly on west sixth street facing west end since this is phase one of a multi-phase project I think it's critical to get the exterior right I think it would be fantastic if there was a nod to the old Santa Rosa woolen mill that once stood on this site in one of the phases of the project I would prefer to see a five-story building or if six stories as proposed I'd like to see more affordable units in the mix I would also like to see a parking structure that supports this project and the smart train and for the record again I do support this project that's it thank you very much for your uh succinct comments and your participation this evening and we have those questions answered for you when we can take it back to the boards any other public comments yes next up we have Peter rumble and I have on you to do Peter thank you I appreciate the opportunity to comment and you should have a letter of support as well from the center of the metro chamber instead of going through the points in that letter I'd like to voice our strong support for an additional reason from what you heard the reasons for support from other organizations and that is our economic development and our employers in our community have been asking for this type of housing both as a recruitment tool but also as a way to keep their workforce intact and in our community without this kind of housing we are putting our economic future in greater jeopardy and our future period in jeopardy as our youth see no opportunity for them here both in terms of housing as well as employment so this type of housing I want to commend cornerstone to the mountaintops for taking the first step forward on this project a project that's been needed for so long and I really encourage you to move the project forward as expeditiously as possible so thank you very much for the opportunity and kudos to cornerstone and the entire team thanks thank you mr rumble let's appreciate it okay next up we have Luke lindenbush and Luke I've unmuted you thank you very much my name is Luke lindenbush I'm a project and policy coordinator with generation housing and we submitted a letter of endorsement for this project so I just want to elaborate a little bit on why generation housing has decided to endorse this project it's a transit oriented walkable development which is the greatest impact that we can make with land used to reach our climate goals and residents in this neighborhood would have the opportunity to live without a car and really live every day life that's based on walkability and other forms of transportation in the downtown core 10 percent of units would be affordable to low income families which meets and exceeds the inclusionary zoning requirements and the design is sensitive to neighboring historic districts in the architectural heritage of santa rosa with design elements that recall the canary that once stood on the site moreover the project is lined with the city of santa rosa's vision for an integrated downtown area and it advances the community develop goals of the downtown station area specific plan update and I also served for the last 18 months before joining generation housing on the downtown station area specific plan update and the overwhelming feedback from members of the community was that this was one of a handful of sites where members of the community in santa rosa see tremendous opportunity to have the type of infill development that we want to see in our housing in santa rosa and if this project goes through it would be among the earliest major residential developments downtown and has tremendous potential to spur future vibrant growth downtown so we think that design review board and the cultural heritage board for reviewing this and cornerstone for bringing it forward and all of the partners on this project so thank you very much and once again generation housing lends its enthusiastic support for this project great thank you very much for your comments okay next we have leilani leilani clark and leilani i've been muted you all right hello thank you um so um my name is leilani clark um i live at 45 west sixth street um with my husband jack law and our seven-year-old daughter gabriella we've lived in the house for eight years we purchased it in 2012 and we are the little greenhouse that's basically caddy corner from what would be the lobby of the new development we're directly next to chops team club and across the street from sixth street playhouse so as you can tell from our location this project will impact our life and basically everything about our life for the next few years significantly we support the development we are very excited to see this happening we love that it's six stories we support infill development it's the perfect spot in san rosa to do this we support a walkable transit oriented development i love what i'm hearing from the um the uh the team um we do not want a parking garage we would be the most impacted by the uh excessive emissions from a an additional parking garage us along with all the teens that use the teen center we do not want our child in a neighborhood with a total focus on cars one reason we move there is because it's walkable we love to ride our bikes as much as possible we'd love to see more of that we love the pool please keep the pool and please give us a key um and let's see what else oh i like the simplicity of the design you know i'm going to be looking out at that building you know every single day it's very visible from our front windows it's we're going to be looking at it and uh i like the simplicity of it please don't make it busy please don't you know add a bunch of bells and whistles but also make it you know um uh we like the wide pedestrian sidewalks the trees um the stoops might be problematic depend we have some stoop issue uh that we'd be happy to talk about in our neighborhood of people hanging out on stoop especially the one across the street from our house for like hours at a time but uh as i finish up my time i just want to say there's not really anything i've heard that i don't like about this um so we're very much in support we have some demands that we've sent to um andrew triple in terms of like construction noise and um um slow like slowing down the street because we're going to be right at the crossing of those the new street and six streets i'm running out of breath because i'm trying to talk so fast um but that we can cover later i just want to offer to cornerstone please don't leave us out of this conversation as where we live at 45 west six we're very much impacted by this development so thank you all for your time today thank you miss Clark appreciate your uh involvement in the project and public comments okay now we have zoe uh seagull and zoe i fun muted you everyone uh my name is zoe seagull and i am the director of climate resilience at bean belt alliance bean belt alliance is an environmental nonprofit that promotes climate smart housing to make our communities safer and more inclusive um i believe you mentioned we submitted a letter in support of this project but building on that i just wanted to let you all know that green belt alliance is extremely proud to endorse this project it will help the city of san erosa make significant progress towards their regional housing needs assessment goals and also provide much needed housing for those who live and work in the area which will reduce commute times and greenhouse gas emissions we're at a critical turning point in the climate crisis and we need to act now to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and build resilient communities to be resilient in the face of climate change starts with better identifying climate related risks to our communities the built environment and natural systems and taking an educated holistic and equitable view on how to address them projects like this really exemplify everything that green belt alliance is pushing for as it relates to these things creating higher density living enhances the quality of life and this project is a huge step to show how projects can survive and thrive with less parking beyond simply leveraging existing transportation and infrastructure this project will feature many sustainable features aimed at energy and water savings reduction of local heat island effect and providing healthy indoor air quality and we all know how important air quality is these days every city in the bay area must play their part to increase the housing stock to make sure the local workforce can afford to live close to job schools and services improving the social fabric of our communities and reducing the climate damaging greenhouse gas emissions produced by driving I would like to commend cornerstone for this great development and encourage the city of Santa Rosa to expeditiously approve this sustainable equitable development thank you thank you miss Segal uh chair concave I don't see any other raised hands we do have one voicemail comment that was left for us okay why don't we go ahead and play that voicemail and and I do see one other raised hand if that's okay I can do that after the voicemail if you like sure let's go ahead and get the voicemail on the record good afternoon this is Cynthia Murray CEO of north bay leadership council I am calling to comment on item six on tomorrow's agenda for design review board and cultural heritage board the north bay leaders leadership council supports the smart village residential development phase one project this infill project is a great catalyst to getting the railroad square area to fully realize its potential as a transit oriental community that links to the downtown and west end this project will implement division of the city staff and provide much needed housing and create new jobs while increasing the economic fatality of the city of Santa Rosa north bay leadership council urges your approval of this project and looks forward to seeing this first phase get under construction it's exactly the kind of project that will help the city of Santa Rosa meet the needs of its residents today and tomorrow thank you so much now we have Karen Schneider would like to speak and Karen I've unmuted you thank you I'll keep it very brief I just wanted to hear me okay I'm a resident of the west end we started here as tenants and then we became a and then we bought a house and very excited about this project has my enthusiastic support we need more housing in Santa Rosa and we also need more transit friendly housing and I just want to underscore what chair and it said about the low-income units and additional parking we really need to help make smart viable and to do that we we really have to pay attention to the last mile problem smart has and this is a great way to help address it thank you very much thank you miss Schneider for your comments and chair concave we have another one we have Stephanie M and Stephanie I've unmuted you Stephanie are you there with us okay there we go can you hear me yeah let's take a minute and go ahead and reset your clock so your three minutes has been reset great thank you so I live about one street out of the west end I'm a homeowner I've moved here about eight and a half years ago and I've been looking at you know these empty lots in the area full of weeds and garbage and seeing various things proposed and shot down I really am in total support of this I think it would be a positive addition to the neighborhood I know people are very concerned about the parking but I agree I do not want to see a parking structure attached to this and you know I think encouraging people to use other modes of transit and to walk is a process it doesn't happen overnight and as long as we can continue to build things that encourage people to use their cars we're going to have that happen so you know this is just a start in that direction and you know perhaps residents need to think about parking permits that type of thing I also totally like the vertical use that someone mentioned because our land is just way too valuable to be building out we need to build up and you know the six stories you know it seems reasonable um I love that the cannery is made out of bricks and I'd love to see something in brick but we live in California so I appreciate you know trying to meet the materials to the best of that you know what we can and what's available so I am in total support I really want to see something happen here the sooner the better and I think it's going to really give our downtown a jump start um you know I've I've just looked at this many places in Santa Rosa it's having so much potential and um that's it just wanted to really express my support thank you okay chair concave I don't see any other raised hands at this point chair concave you're on you okay um do we have any other email documents that we need to bring into the record nothing I'm aware of okay then we will go ahead and close public comment and bring it back to the two boards um let's go ahead and start out with questions for staff um we'll start out with the design review board and I'll take it by a way I can see you so uh board member wicks questions for staff no questions for staff from board member wicks board member weigel questions for staff I don't have any questions for staff but I did want to mention something um I have another meeting I have to get to at 645 and I meant to email uh bill early about it and I forgot until uh fairly recently so I just wanted to mention that so I don't I don't know if that matters for us I don't think we'll drop a low quorum but I just wanted to make sure okay if staff can look at that I think we may drop a quorum so I don't know what that means but uh let's go with uh vice chair hedge beth for questions of staff no questions and I have no questions for staff so I'll go ahead and hand it over to chair muser and why don't you take it through your board for questions for staff okay thank you Scott um any questions for staff from the cultural heritage board members not seeing any questions so back to you Scott great um then with no questions for staff why don't we go ahead and take questions for the applicant and again starting with the designer review board board member wicks questions for the applicant yes um if we could pull up slide uh 17 or yeah 17 out of your presentation pat first I apologize can you uh just tell me to stop when I get there stop this one one back that one on on the on well two questions in regards to this rendering the the lower level materials appears to be a a different material than the white stucco above it I'd like a clarification on that and the second question is the balcony on the right hand side uh at the top I don't see one below it but I do see one dropping down on the next level so I see one on level six and level three just like clarifications on those two items on that slide take those two sure yes I'll um I'll start with the uh the balconies on the right hand side and you know I would just like to say that again this is a sort of this drawing is conceptual in nature and as we continue to evolve this we'll look at these balcony locations and that is to say that those two in particular um we do not anticipate them being on the project in the future we we want to keep the ones on the south but I would anticipate we're going to remove those ones that you see on the rendering on the right and then as it relates to the materials on the base of the building um in our x well there's two things in our experience we want to move to a more robust material on the ground floor for you know obvious reasons of um you know graffiti and and vandalism and just trying to create a more robust character when we're in contact with you know the general public so we would anticipate there that we would go to some sort of a porcelain tile whereas above that we would be looking at using a cement plaster stucco system we would also anticipate changing the color down on the ground floor as well to that sort of more darker color and the other materials in there as you look at the as you move around the building and look at the entrances to the units you can see those yellow doors which indicate the front doors to some of the units we are looking at introducing some accidents with some wood and within those canopy elements some dark metal that dark metal would be very sort of industrial ruggeding character the wood would also pull from some of the you know wooden elements that we would see in the cannery structures and I have answers your questions yeah the the the amenity building appears to go back to that stucco color in the background is that the intent again I think it's on the I think that is on the design right now all right yeah all right can we can we skip forward one one slide perfect so I and again I apologize I know this is a concept in a very well-developed concept package so thank you for that but I see the stucco coming all the way down to the ground level on this elevation on the on the north side and if the intent is to change that material I I like it I also like this elevation with the darker at the top if you flip back and forth on with my mouse like I was doing earlier I I'd like this elevation solution better than the the south side of the building but my yeah exactly so you can see the top is is dark it it creates a cap element to that to that top which I think is a wonderful elegant solution but I was and I'm getting off topic I'm just asking questions now and I'll give you my comments later but while we're on this elevation I count seven stories on the right hand side and a balcony at the at the very top of it I was wondering if you could speak to what that seventh story is about is it a is it a loft higher space for that one particular unit or it's yes it's conceptualized as a as a slightly higher living room in that one corner unit also marking you know below that if you remember the plan there is a public entrance into some of those shared facilities there so it would help to delineate where the entrance might be but it's not an additional story on that corner okay just the volume space for that that that corner unit and to signify the corner correct last question on the overall project I assume that the mixed use component is coming in phase two or phase three of the project well yes the the mixed use as it relates to this building if there is a mixed use it's how the how some of those amenity spaces might be made available to the public but in true you know in the true mixed use it would as we develop the subsequent phases we would look at introducing more retail spaces particularly surrounding the plaza you know and those are you know there's going to be a lot of study done that is going to delineate the size and character of those things and we're just not there yet but yes the short answer is we would be looking at the more mixed use pieces as the late in the later phases of the development okay great thank you and Henry I would I would sort of piggyback on what Ben said in the sense that I think we're all starting to reevaluate what retail and commercial means in the future and I we certainly in Paul ain at cornerstone can certainly talk about where they see the sort of quote unquote retail spaces what does that really mean in a sort of a future post pandemic you know more online shopping you know what does that mean in terms of that so those are all things that we are evaluating and we'll come back to you with much more detail of what that means great yeah maybe the maybe the art studio concept that you cornerstone's done in the other developments but exactly bring it back to us later but I just was curious where the to comply with the zoning code what where the mixed use component was going to enter into this project okay let's see there's a member of the public that had a question or clarification on the acreage of the property and the acreage of this phase one development Peter can you take that one yeah so it's the the 5.4 acre entire project site it's all phases the 2.3 acres is the portion of which we are addressing in phase one at this point um so that's the difference in the two numbers that sort of show up great thank you for that clarification um board member wangle questions for the applicant i have none Henry uh did them all great vice chair hedge pass questions for the applicant yeah just quick i think um this one would be for Peter perhaps um because it's over five acres there's an infill exemption i think it's 1584 and typically with when the city went through the whole process of reclocking the land use you can take the general plan blend it in and and avoid years of internal studies i don't know if it's carbon one or other parties you work with but since it it's going to go in phases but collectively with the 5.4 acres um i'm understanding there's an internal mechanism where the city is working with you and the applicants to create closure on um the environmental report studies that allow you to do so yeah good catch warren and absolutely we are talking with andrew and adam about um it is a phase project um we are coming in under the old plan on this but we're going to do the new plan with um subsequent phases so we're sort of sitting on the cusp of a lot of different policy um changes that have happened both in local level and we'll be reviewing all of that as we move through but thanks for bringing that up thank you yeah i understand and other jurisdictions because of the fresh new general plan activity that um lafko and and sequa have become more soft edged about these things that's i understand through precedent that's what's going on yeah so good hopes there and i have uh no questions for the applicant at this time so i'll go ahead and hand it over to chair muser to take it through the cultural heritage board for questions of the applicant and thank you scott um board member mckew any questions for the applicant i'm sorry uh no questions okay no questions thank you uh board member member peronica no questions for the applicant at this time we'll have comments related thank you uh board member debaker yes thank you can you hear me yes okay great thank you i do have some questions for let's let's start with the second page view with the rendering of the sixth street opposite the sheet index the rendering of the sixth street elevations okay coming up not the one i intended it was the one that was the street view there we go uh just a deep just a detail on it um uh again uh i've noticed this on several the drawings and uh i'm wondering the the sun aspect on these um is this in fact the sun coming from the north to be able to get these shadow lines and not the shadow that's the first question um i i will uh hold my hands up and say yes there's a bit of license on these in terms of getting the software we use to you know illuminate the um these elevations but um we did we will anticipate some uh late afternoons on on this elevation it might not be this exact angle but there will be some late afternoons so all right the the concern is it says we're looking at the interface with the historic district and you have the one district across the street from this and uh the concern with that uh next question is what while we're looking at this one uh this is the opposite end of the building but can you talk a little bit specifically how this interfaces with the sixth street playhouse in materials heights and exterior treatments um so the sixth street playhouse is the the old belmonti cannery if i'm not mistaken which is just on the other side of the uh on the other side of the entrance drive and i think you know it's that's a that's a single story structure we are a six story structure so you know the elements that we looked at on that to try and help uh you know i think mediate between the two scales two things one was we tried to introduce some profile into the roof line similar to the similar to the profile gables on the end of the sixth street playhouse and the second thing as i mentioned earlier was trying to bring some warmth into the materiality of the ground floor here as many people have have pointed out there is no brick in this building we uh we we wanted a more modern and a more sort of uh clean residential um aesthetic to the building but we did want to bring some warmth relative to that ground floor and through some of those more industrial materials to help relate to those cannery buildings thank you can can you state specifically what materials you're utilizing from the railroad square district or from the adjacent west end district uh in what we're seeing here because i'm having some difficulty so as we as we've looked into the west end historic district i think we you know we saw i mean this is a very it's a very uh there's a there's a how would you put it there's a there's a such a huge variety of materiality and um and and color in the buildings of the west end historic district as we looked at the deterg while on there on the on that lower lower row we started to see you know a couple of the elements of the you know a couple of historic structures from that district which we felt you know we're important and so you know having a lighter building uh would relate in some way to that in terms of the railroad square district i mean you know we've we talked about the we have talked about more sort of robust paving pattern and perhaps pulling more from you know the railway materials themselves there's the dark metal you see in that upper row and the and the the railway sleepers referenced in the wood um but not specifically from the the buildings or structures in the railroad square district it was perhaps more a nod to the railroad materials those industrial materials rather than try and build a piece of every single neighborhood into the buildings it was to try and pull something you know of the industrial character um you know from the railroads and the canneries and then a little bit of the residential character from the um west end district can you explain to me how the current facades are industrial real quick uh board member debaucher can i interrupt as chair kinkade so uh we just uncovered a bit of a challenge for design review board this evening is that uh board member weigel needs to excuse himself at 645 and so what i'd like to propose is that we bring it back to the drb for comments and then we uh when we lose our quorum uh chv can continue on with questions and then comments and unfortunately we won't be able to hear each other's except we won't be able to hear yours um but at least we can get the applicant through the drb portion is that acceptable that sounds awesome okay so let's go ahead and scott yeah uh you know i i i thought i thought they mentioned that adam would be joining us if that's the case i can pay a lot of this other meeting um so don't worry about that mark just can continue on i'll i'll pay a lot of my 645 it's fine okay fair enough uh thanks for the flexibility and my apologies for the interruption uh board member debaucher look for questions all right well thank you very much and i i appreciate i would certainly have uh done what we needed to do there so all right uh getting back to the question then um looking at the facade can we look at one of the facades and can you explain to me um how this is industrial sure well if if we just go back one slide before we look at this facade again um i'll talk a little bit about the industrial materials on the canary buildings that we that we saw and we observed as important and the you know the the series of metal pertinences loading docks canopies and the wood supports and and struts that make up the parts of that um you know and the and actually i think another part of the canary buildings it was important was was the scale of the windows and the way that those um horizontal or rather those uh window bays um are expressed as a sort of scaling element in that lower left hand image so if you say the industrial materials we're going to talk about are going to be the wood um that's used at the canary buildings if we're going to talk about the dark metal that we see in the railway ties um and in some of those metal cladding panels um and there's you know a certain amount of that you know there's a sort of core 10 element that rusted metal in the upper left hand corner now if you go forward a slide you can see the fence that goes around the uh play area would have that rusted metal element in it that would bring that kind of industrial character right to the ground floor where the people are walking alongside it we would take some of those wood elements and build them into the um the stoops and the canopies either the decks themselves or the soffits of those canopies and the supports and then those dark metals and dark metal materials would start to describe the edges of those canopies and some of those slots that go up between the major likeable and volumes here and those industrial materials the dark metal the wood um would would also start to uh appear in the balconies and those elements that go up the building and actually the way those balconies would get built in a project like this they wouldn't be uh extensions of any floor slab element they would be more uh clipped onto the building so the very sort of character of them and the way that they're made is um a little more in uh industrial in nature than is perhaps indicated in this rendering and so you know again this is conceptual uh design but we would want to play up those elements of the building as the industrial elements without reverting to a you know an overt expression of of taking the brick and applying it to our building okay one final question i believe um that we can hold the rest for comments later uh can we get the view of the completed project site plan with all the elements in place there we go um we have a really uh great opportunity uh with the cannery facade to the south of the property or to the west of the property the structure that shown there seems to be angled more relationship to the railroad than to the cannery but the space that would be generated between the cannery of a building that might be parallel to it um might have some real opportunities for restaurants and other sorts of things was any consideration done to maintain a uh grid to the cannery which has a stronger relationship than the railroad tracks uh yes there was um consideration given to that in fact we looked at a number of different ways of looking at that um southernmost building what we found was that the um the space itself that great lawn area as indicated here um was the kind of key to unlocking a very vibrant public space here and by angling the building parallel to the to the railway tracks the way that it's shown in this plan it allowed um greater sun access into that space and made it a more inhabitable space and actually i think you know uh what what we see we don't see the road as being you know this is not a highly trafficked road this is a pretty sort of gently uh moving slow road in this space so really this is a you know a large open space with the cannery as one edge and the other those other two buildings forming the other two edges but yeah we looked at we looked at it parallel to the cannery and parallel to the tracks it made for better urban uh space planning to to make it more parallel to the tracks since i activate that space all right that concludes my question so hold the rest for comments okay uh vice chair fennel any questions for the applicant no i don't have any at this time okay i just have a just a couple of just real quick ones um i'm wondering if you already have or are planning to have um some form of an organized forum with both the west end neighborhood and the railroad square uh community so that you can you know present your plans and also receive feedback from them well we we did our own um outreach to west end and the railroad square organization already not the official neighborhood but we have reached out to them and pauline maybe you can elaborate a little on sort of the feedback we're getting from them and then also we are continuing to have a conversation with both okay i just would like to suggest that as this is an ongoing process and it will probably change in time i think it'd be really important if you had you know some formal uh process to keep them advised i i just think in the long run it would help out it sounds like there's a lot of support uh in the neighborhood and uh i think they they'd love to hear from you on a some form of a semi-regular basis that's all i have that's that's a good suggestion thank you okay i think that concludes questions from both boards so we'll go ahead and move on to the comment period board member wicks we'll start with you just a few based on the answers to the questions i had i i would encourage the the robust materials be carried around to that north elevation as you develop um the drawings to bring back to us at preliminary level um it suggests that um if it's fits in the budget or is a is a possibility to explore a roof deck of some sort to create an amenity or or alternatively the amenity area maybe it has a a go-to additional outdoor space for the tenants in the building also like you to bring back what what you're planning on doing with the temporary parking i noticed that it in the last bit of go-arounds of questions the temporary parking as the future phases get developed it it goes away and just just show us a good justification on the on the parking and where that got relocated love the project look forward to seeing it come back at preliminary level thank you board member wicks board member weigel comments thanks scott um yeah first and foremost this is a great uh concept package um gave it a lot gave me a lot to look at so i appreciate it um i really appreciate the the height i think you know that's the way you get density and uh you know if seven stories works great um but i think um from some of the comments we heard from the public i would think uh you know it would be smart i'd be wise to include a sun study in the preliminary design review package to just to inform not only us but also the public in terms of what kind of shadows maybe cut cast across the street or to the six-story playhouse or whatever um so because i i know we've had questions on projects in the past about that that'd be really helpful um i uh the materiality comment from the public i i thought was interesting um i actually really like uh the palette that you've kind of got going on um there's a modern sleekness to it but then i think you know i'm i'm kind of seeing core 10 steel potentially as some of those darker panels maybe or um and then integrating with the wood and then i think there's a an elegance to all of that um for the the bottom the ground floor i i wonder if porcelain tile is really the best solution in terms of like large format tile there's some problems with that in terms of people whacking into it and cracking it and just some other stuff like that uh so i wonder if there's a stone item or a panelized system that may work i mean conceptually from what you're displaying it kind of feels like a panelized system me and uh so i think um that that might be the way to go on the ground floor or or introducing the stone to kind of tie into railroad square a little bit i think brick is maybe a pipe dream you know because of california and earthquakes it's not the southeast of the united states right um i do like the the kind of the in and out pushing from the stucco to the dark and and i think i agree with henry that that that south side needs a little bit bit more of it because you kind of have it on three sides and then it's kind of not on the fourth side um and then my my last comments would be on the the site the the ground floor really and i think you might answer this in in the next phases of development but but for me um i'm not a huge fan of uh ground floor residential um i i think people don't if they're living in a private building they generally don't like it for security concerns i think you know we heard from uh soup stoop sitters uh are a possibility um so i'm wondering if uh you know maybe live work units that are that are maybe two stories might be kind of something to explore um office space uh daycare uh of bodega or small grocery market you know things like that i think that you might flush out as you start to explore the site a little bit more and where you're providing the various amenities for the entire project site because i know if you're going to try to encourage um not commuting uh everything has to be here right uh no car means everything has to be here and that includes everything uh maybe a a small clinic maybe there's a police substation i don't know but we've seen a lot of those uh in various projects that i've i've worked on or seen in the past in other cities uh have those elements kind of tied into them um i think uh that ground floor needs needs some some rethinking in how that that operates and potentially with how it integrates and interacts with what's going on with the residential across the street the sixth street playhouse which has the you know dance center and uh there's a black box theater and i think there's an art art gallery if memory serves so how that all kind of interconnects and leaves together um and then finally uh i'm gonna i'm gonna i think it's in the staff presentation um is 11 units enough for phase one for low-income housing um i i don't think the answer is yes i think it's no it's not enough um i mean we're seeing a crazy spike right now in the housing market in san rosa people coming up here from the city looking for more space looking for this looking for that they're they're effectively buying sonoma county residents out of single family residences and so we need to provide some more um some more low-income moderate income and very low-income housing and i think uh when you do that in a project this nature it makes it more robust and more uh more more robust and more impactful in the way that we can develop sites of this nature and and we can't just primarily rely on the market to dictate uh affordability by square footage or affordability by uh unit availability um i think that's something that is perhaps out of my previews it's a design review board member but i i think it that public health safety and welfare is is that and i think we really need to look at that um and how that works on this property uh those are my comments thanks great project thanks board member weigel vice chair hedge pass the comments for the applicant team thank you um everyone kate um well this is this is a wonderful welcomed um project i think obviously a lot of thought has gone into this is a lot of moving parts and um i just wanted to firstly comment that when a developer embarks on retaining a piece of property and looking at it in all of its phases typically tethered with that is an understanding about what is designated as market rate what is designated as affordable um there was kind of mentioned reference about uh a partner here someone who has all the t-cac the the funding mechanisms that will partner so if some capital is coming from uh a a market source a banking source uh on the market side there's a there's a note about 51 percent overall affordability which is an interesting number it's just a pinch above half and i would side that if developers um committing to long-term agreements where the even getting down and i know scott you're you're a builder you look at numbers all of these various moving parts about performance the price of lumber has doubled uh in the last two months it has to come down at some point or we won't have a future in Santa Rosa um and i think it will but i don't want to get prescribing into an each phase tethering i'm looking at the virtue um and the the dignity that the representations here about overall balance of affordability you you know you we have an 11 percent rule right now that you can uh you can provide affordability above to 11 percent and even be uh eligible for density bonuses with those concessions um some towns are up to 20 percent but i just want to make a note here that i am going to tether myself to the aspect this the commitment here is 51 percent it's really not our purview but it's it's an interesting thing and chair wiggles right in that we're having a lot of a lot of absorption particularly of the the for sale product but that's where i stand with that um i want to mention um a couple things i'm absolutely fine with the height it could could be higher um it's interesting that santa rosa is a warm town and i don't want to speak for six three we actually the ones that help revive the building we put the theater in there it's it's an evening event principally but it's so darn hot in santa rosa that shading is a wonderful thing if you walk through barcelona um we we come up with a lot of these these uh shading issues principally on on merits that they're close to single family neighborhoods and that's a trigger in the downtown i'm anticipating and in these urban areas that shadow studies have a different task at hand but if you haven't been to barcelona um obviously gaudi um had to overcome height he went one story higher on his principal apartment project there and was given consensus because it became a balcony a place of pleasure and park like memories so um i i rest my case about shadow studies um i want to talk in general about smart i love the bikes the the amount of bikes there i don't want to necessarily burden this particular uh project with food but to me that's the key it's not the retail um i know um peter you'd mentioned um retail has a kind of a new face to it there's a lot of cardboard boxes flying out of seattle for retail um at some point we're going to have to get get real about some food source in the downtown that feeds this desert um i'm going to briefly say this if you look at case studies in sarah missus go over 20 30 years there's a safe way next to the us mint and it's it's been there off broadway it's rarely used for cars because um so many people there have bikes and that level of density the richard henry dan from 1960 is one of the first really successful projects 20 stories with a safe way underneath it and not a lot of parking in san rosa we have this perception about rallying to a food store which which is decent if you have a decent bakery you're going to have a need for a 46 stall parking lot i'm not sure that's the case but i just want to open it up to staff that to really have this work and not have car hunger to have bike wonder bike joy walking joy at some point somewhere we're going to need some core um grocery i'm not sure bodega's the answer i had an office years ago right next to uh the little night street that's that's a bodega and you can find certain things there but i'll i'll close by commenting in general on the architecture i actually think that the balconies are playful i can see how they skip a floor here and there i want to give playful license to the project because it has a poetry to it i enjoy um there is a trade-off i typically am not a huge fan of dead-end corridors but after your vigorous bike ride and sweating a swimming pool any day i would change going up and down a hallway getting on the elevator and jumping in the pool because as you widen the building or x-nail out circulation for for the housing part you have these wonderful end-cap units which take full view i think it's wonderful that you've you've got a pool in the proceedings and that it's okay to have dead-end because you've you the competing virtues work so um i know there are comments in general about the building wrap i like the the heroic fresh nature of the plaster um there is a long throw brick if you talk about ceramic being a veneer there's a long throw brick it's up to 36 inches long now and i know your architect team maybe knows about this searching productions but there's there's some playful beautiful things with soft materiality i will not in any way restrict or be a recipe centered on exactly what you do i don't mind the north side being a little lighter in color i know henry had a strong comment about the north being kind of cheeky white and the south being dark and is is it going to get more rumble tumbled to the north and sixth street i'll just i'll just give license at this point to the designers that the um the freshness the poetry and the art of the project meet head on with practicality and find great virtue that's it thank you vice chair hedge pass um my comments uh i'll keep brief i i uh support all the comments made by my fellow board members thus far um and i appreciate uh vice chair hedge pass comments on providing latitude to the design team i think we see a lot of great ideas i think you can you know the presentation that was made by the applicant team um really spoke to the you know hard look that they've given even to this concept design um so i really appreciate that um i want to comment that i really like the all glazed balconies railing i think that that adds to the uh industrial feel while the glazing itself for the railing does not it allows you to see through to the kind of robust verticality of the windows of each unit and i think that works well i think we'd lose a lot if that went to some other type of material for railing systems um i always say this on projects is that you know when you get kind of two and i don't want to use the word mundane but repetitive um entries uh you all be at stoops and and you can really have an uh idea of entry uh i do like to see some sort of uniqueness brought into play uh so that people feel like they're going to their house their home and i think you can use creative things with uh industrial features uh at each stoop to kind of differentiate them and get some more artistic nature into the project i also hear loud and clear my fellow board members mentioning a relook at possibly not doing a residential the first floor so if that goes away then so does that problem of identifying each space um i think it'd be great to have photos of the neighborhood with the renderings embedded into them i think we've seen that on other projects and it's been rather helpful to kind of get a better feel for the scale and and some of the other comments that you've heard about or questions so far about how these this building plays with the neighboring properties um so with that i i think it's going to be a great project i like where it's going and i'm sure it's going to get even further developed as you work through your process so with that i will turn it over to chair muser and you can take it through comments of the uh cultural heritage board okay thank you um board member mcqueen you have any comments i do um with the exception of the first floor i just have a whole lot of problem with respect to appearance as i look at the external a materials palette i don't see much of that above the first floor and i'm concerned about that i don't think uh that the conceptual design thus far is representative of either courthouse courthouse square or the west end uh and since this building is the first of of others it kind of will set a pattern and i'm concerned about that because uh you know in 50 years it may be a contributing structure and i want it to more accurately reflect the uh the historical districts that it is adjacent to and so i'm concerned about the white stucco i just don't think and and the design overall i'm just having some difficulty with that not the design but the appearance i'm not an architect i don't understand those those things but i'm concerned about the appearance and uh if it were presented back to us uh i would not be really supportive of of the way it looks now i am certainly supportive of the project as a whole i think we absolutely need the housing i would ask though that you be more sensitive to the uh historical districts that are adjacent to it and design a structure that is more consistent with the external materials palette that you that you present and look that concludes my uh comments okay thank you uh board member gromega okay i have a few comments here first of all i think it's a very nice concept package overall and i think it will address the site nicely certainly phase one um i would say and i did pay attention i thought the public comments uh were amongst the best and most constructive i've ever heard of either my time with cultural heritage board but also all my time with the planning commission very positive very constructive and i think in particular we probably should pay attention to the neighbors as the project addresses west sixth street in particular um i think uh you have them in support now i think with a bit more greater care they'll be with you in essence through the life of the project um i would like to see um uh kind of first of all i i like john not a an architect but i would like to see a lot stronger tie to the cannery building to the old del Monteer sixth street theater somehow and the influence of this structure i tend to like and i have uh had uh full brick on a number of projects at the jc when we constructed those it's doable uh i would not make this a full brick building at all but i would like to see perhaps a brick treatment on the ground floor uh when i first read and saw the materials and talking about the creation of stoops along there my mind's eye went to the east coast and in the philadelphia and those uh row housing there uh and the use of stoops bricks so on really especially at the ground level really works so i would uh suggest the least consideration of a stronger tie and especially on my first floor um question really uh we didn't get into it and perhaps it should have but i'll make the assumption that that new road the slow moving road is a full uh city street what would that be 40 feet wide or whatever um and i would like it to be as well as on six street in particular as calm uh area uh street uh as possible uh a question to staff probably at this point and or um members who have uh been on a cultural heritage board in the past um i appreciated that um cultural heritage board member mark debaker requested the old resolution i think coming i forget if that was uh land or landmark alteration decision made in uh 2005 um i think obviously we need to be aware of that but my question is uh whatever happened to the water tower that i believe we years ago uh either the city and or as the cannery developers uh in essence we're required to save that and with the intent that that would be reconstructed now i realize that's not on this uh this portion of the project but i'd like not to forget that um and parking i do not want to see in that area at all a parking structure whether it's two storey or whatever i think we will like as we discussed on the current as housing project i believe that was the one um or no it was under the downtown uh and railroad uh plan the need to in essence make tradeoffs on parking and to look for other options existing uh close by for if people wanted to rent space if they needed additional parking and so and so forth to go there but no i think this area is way too congested as it is to put in additional parking structures and with that i really like the project overall and i wish you luck thank you or member debaker all right thank you uh first of all um it's a badly needed project uh i hate to see empty sites particularly in our urban area uh the center core and this is a long needed project um i do have some difficulties with it as presented today um strictly because uh all where i'm going next our preview is strictly the exterior interface of new projects as are uh inside our districts and adjacent to our districts the question is are they compatible uh do they play well with their neighbors this particular project completely bisects a portion uh divides the railroad square district into two pieces and brings in an entirely new language that doesn't relate well to any of the aspects of overstating but virtually all the aspects that are the character defining elements of that district um let's see i'll go start with what our purview is um under the section 4.7 historic districts there's only three short sentences that define what we are to evaluate new construction in historic districts as and if you'll excuse me it's just very brief of number one design new constructions of the architectural character of the neighborhood is maintained specific architectural styles are not mandated designs of new construct can also be contemporary design of the new construction must be compatible in height and proportion to the adjacent structures i have some issues with that um on this one and finally number three use of materials and designs similar to that found throughout the neighborhood um the current exterior of this building uh doesn't seem to be drawing from aligning with uh establishing baselines from uh the other architecture in that area there are attempts to grab bits and pieces of materials that are kind of like what's in there and attach them to the building and call it good and i'm not sure that gets all the way there and and uh next is the design guidelines themselves under the processing review procedures part two section one part g of the guidelines for new construction i'm not going to go into describing them but i'm going to talk about the characteristics that we're supposed to evaluate by height rhythm setbacks materials textures roof forms and architectural details and decorative features i'm encouraging the design team to go back and look at these elements we are allowed to go higher uh than the baseline for the district we are free to approve that the baseline for the district is three to four stories for railroad square the tradeoff when you go to extra height is they ask you to make all those other aspects more in keeping with the district to be more consistent with the district to allow you to get that extra height so if you're looking to go really high you need to be really compatible and i think that there's some space to go yet with that um just to wrap it up um board member uh yarratt did leave um some comments for us and first we're mostly in relationship to and i'll read it specifically both the projects should work together to coordinate the four street walkway over the creek to the creek secure the pvc easement over four street complete the pathway along the tracks all three of these should be important since the food and wine center days and it's exciting to find to see something happening that needs to enhance the district that's a paraphrasing portion of it i also appreciated um share ennis's comments that we received uh at the beginning of the presentation so the takeaways uh i would like to see when this comes back to us to have a elevation strong along six street that include the six-street playhouse that it has to relate to and show how the forms uh are being not copied not directly addressed in any way but at least horizontals and in some way relating to six street um again this bisects the historic district and introduces an entirely new language into the district i'd like to see more consideration given something that then doesn't isolate the cannery from the language of the district that occurs on the other side of the tracks um i've talked about the extra hype you're okay if there's more consistency um i think that there's some opportunities to strengthen the cultural importance of this site four street and fifth street basically end at the other side of the tracks but their visual corridor continues across the tracks to this site there are some opportunities to carry open space through the site and create visual interest for the termination of those streets whether it's raising some tall object in the middle of the path uh to do it maybe reusing that water tower but something that indicates a visual tie to draw people across the tracks to the site is is an opportunity to be lost i've mentioned already the opportunities of interfacing with the facade of the cannery building and the spaces that could be played off of along that space i don't know whether the street is being required to go through over there but there are some some definite uh uh passage type opportunities that could take place along with cannery walls um i i think that the the stronger relationship to the common interstitial spaces with the district across the street um particularly with where it's where is important and again i've already talked about the termination and carry through of the fourth three street accesses to establish a cultural and visual connections um i think that takes care of most of my comments thank you okay thank you and vice chair fennel hi i also really liked the project presentation and all of that that was sent forth i thought it was really good i i did question the first like chair innis had said earlier when you saw the first picture of the inside of the the warehouse of the brick i was excited i was thinking that there was going to be a follow-through with that into the project and i just didn't see it i think it's it's modern and like you know basically everyone's said up till now it really is missing a little bit i would love to see a little bit of brick on on that building and i don't think it needs to be you know so white and and glaring i think that it's an important project and that history will judge the decisions that we're making right now on this project and i want to you know be an old lady and be proud that that we approve this and and uh that that it still stands i would love to have it seem more like a warehouse have a more more warehouse looking than um then sleek and modern you know especially in relation to the neighboring uh the railroad tracks and the the square and all of that i think it's it's a neat project and i'm excited to see it go forward but i do think that it needs to to rough rough it up a little bit thank you okay thank you um i just have limited time i i really like the project i think it's in the right place at the right time um i do also agree with my fellow war members that um if there could be just you know a little more compatibility uh with the area um the nice thing is you're starting on a blank palette um i can't tell you how happy i am that we're not having to tear down any historic structure so that we can we can build this and so i think there's a lot of flexibility the fact that you do have a blank palette possibly through even some artistic uh associated structures with it but just something to to really really tie the area uh together a little bit more i i do also feel that the color being very white and being as tall as it is it is going to be it is going to stand out quite a bit again i'm not an architect so i don't know if that's good or bad but i'm just thinking in context with the other you know uh brick building most the other large buildings in the area are brick warehouses um and i know that there's there's a balance between livability and historic compatibility and i don't want to live in a brick warehouse i'd probably rather live in this the structure designed similarly to what you're designing so i'll leave my comments uh with that and uh again i i thank everyone for staff and the applicant for a great presentation tonight okay well i do need that chair kinkade can i can i interject for a sec this is susie yes susie please interject there was a question from board member member groeninga it's getting late um i just wanted to respond to the uh the question about the water tower there's been reference made to an approved uh project to the west of this site of the smart site at the cannery site and that project does include the resurrection of the water tower those plans are available online if y'all would like to look at them and i'm happy to forward a um link to you after the meeting thank you you bet yes thank you appreciate you uh jumping in there um so at this time i just wanted to circle back with both uh staff and the applicant team we'll start with the applicant team and just uh if you have any questions or clarifications based on any of the comments that you've heard uh this is this is ben rigley the architects i would just like to um thank everybody for all their comments i think they've there's been a lot of uh they've given us a lot to think about and i knew they would and i really appreciate um the dialogue that we've had here and uh very much uh look forward to developing the design likewise um thank you for the thank you we look forward to seeing it again does staff have any questions or clarification points of the comments that they've heard from boards this is uh planer uh ross um no i think i one of the benefits of sitting in front of the computer for the meeting is that i could type the comments fairly quickly and and not struggle trying to write them down on paper so um i will compare and contrast with the applicant team at a later date and make sure that um uh we have a cohesive um a sheet of of considerations comments and and uh concerns great thank you planner ross uh so we'll go ahead and uh say good night to the applicant team and again uh send you well wishes for uh furthering the design and the elements of this project um a lot of support for it both from the boards and our community in general and um great work on a concept design that lets us uh really get some good comments back to you and and we really look forward to seeing it move through the process and uh seeing this thing go vertical thank you so much we really appreciate everything yeah welcome first i just wanted to thank you guys so much for your valuable valuable input we're really excited to move forward with us great okay um board member reports uh so uh uh chair muser and i had our monthly um meeting with mayor schwedhelm um with all the board chairs today and and mayor schweldhelm just wanted to uh invite everybody on the boards and the community at large to take the survey um on how the city should spend the pgne funds um so the survey is out i believe it came out uh yesterday or today um i saw it online in the press democrat um as an article and i'm sure you can find links uh on the city website but uh you they want our input otherwise uh you know willy nilly so let's give them our input um any other board member reports from the drb are any board member reports from chb okay uh seeing none uh i really want to thank everybody for their time energy and effort appreciate uh board member wagel giving up his other commitment to stick around and keep our quorum so thank you very much um the flexibilities very much appreciated um i'll circle back uh for department reports to make sure that they didn't forget anything when i moved them to the front of the agenda any further department reports none from me likewise none from me either okay wonderful well we will be adjourned then good night thank you chair kk