 Let's let's get started. Okay, I Will call the meeting of the Capitola Planning Commission to order Before we start Just some some comments here For the 10th straight month, we are conducting this meeting By zoom not physically open to the public Limited staff are present in the council chambers and planning commission is participating Remotely by a video call zoom Members of the Planning Commission can use the reaction choice and zoom to indicate they would like to speak and learn to raising a hand As always this meeting is cable cast live on charter communications cable TV channel 8 And is being recorded to be rebroadcast on the following Wednesday at 8 a.m And on Saturday following the quick rebroadcast at 1 p.m On charter channel 71 and Comcast channel 25 meetings can also be viewed live from the city's website and with the zoom meeting link also available on our website our Technician tonight is no well Public comment can be emailed or called into the Planning Commission that should be on your screen right now Members of the public may submit public comment once for each item by email or phone call You may not submit more than one email or call or item the call and instructions are on On your screen, so I'll leave it at that you will have up to three minutes to speak If you're watching the meeting by a zoom you think the participant option to raise your hand and make a comment when Unmuted by our moderator To email comments identify the item you wish to comment on in your email subject line email comments will be accepted Starting now up until I announce or the chairman announces the public comment for that item is closed Each email comment will be read aloud for up to three minutes or displayed on the screen emails and calls Outside of the comment period outlined will not be included in the record So with that we will now have a roll call Commissioner Ruth there commissioner will here Commissioner Christensen Commissioner Christensen. Are you with us? Not yet? Commissioner to be Westman here and in the chair is here did I hear from commissioner Christensen? Not yet Okay, well The next time I see the next item is the pledge of allegiance So we will begin I pledge allegiance Agency The next item is the swearing-in of our new commissioner It's going to handle that is our I'm here And the commissioner is here, but we need it need her to be sworn in Is our development director going to do that? I am going to have the honor of doing that this evening Commissioner Westman if you can raise your hand right hand and Repeat after me. I Susan West Westman Hi Susan Westman do solemnly swear or affirm You solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of California and the Constitution of the state of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States sorry I didn't hear that to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California and that I take this obligation freely and that I take this obligation freely and without reservation yeah without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion any minimal reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter discharge the duties on which I'm about to enter thank you congratulations thank you very good and welcome back publicly Commissioner Westman thank you that is the same pledge without the California part that our former president is being impeached on you should be aware of that okay the next item of business is a nomination of a new chair and vice chair do we have any nominations I'm happy with business as usual I nominate Ed Newman no no no no I I really appreciate that but I think I can make a nomination can I not as chair anyone or I can if you want Ed yes please I nominate Mick Ruth and I will second that do we have a nomination well I guess we can take them one at a time any other nominations if not we'll have a roll call though Commissioner will approve Mr. Ruth my mission to Westman hi in the chair to no longer be it's affirmatively so we have any nominations for vice chair part of me chair nominate Commissioner well we have a second I'll second it any other nominations hearing none we'll have a roll call Commissioner Ruth hi mr. Westman hi mission of wealth hi and I vote aye so congratulations to both of you and I will now turn the meeting over to our new chair Ruth thank you mr. Newman I just also like to welcome Susan back for those of you in the community that don't know Susan she's been the community development director the city manager and a former planning commissioner she brings a wealth of experience to the commission so Susan welcome back thank you for the kind word okay so that brings us down on our agenda to commission appointments tonight we have an appointment for the art and cultural commission has anyone thrown their hat in the ring for that particular position or is there anyone who would like to serve in that capacity chair Ruth I'd like to bring to your attention that Commissioner Christensen is now on is on the zoom and participating I'm sorry Kate I couldn't hear that real well I want to bring to your attention that Commissioner Christensen is on the zoom and participating okay so then we will like to nominate Commissioner Christensen for that position okay let me remind everybody when you do make a motion make a second we do have a new clerk tonight and that's in the bath and she's not familiar with everyone so if you could just state your name please when you do make a motion or a second so she can get that in the record correctly so we have a motion by Commissioner Wilk and a second by Commissioner Westman to to appoint Commissioner Christensen to the art and cultural commission we have the roll call please let's see Commissioner Newman yes Commissioner Westman yes Commissioner Wilkes yes and Commissioner Christensen are you there yet yes I am and so it's your turn to vote oh yes okay so the motion carries unanimously oh the chair votes aye also okay that brings us down to oral communications and the first item under oral communications are additions and relations to the agenda do we have any Katie I am unaware of any new new public comment that has come in I'm going to look to Sean Sasanto and ask him are there any additional materials that were received on either application this afternoon I'm sorry could you repeat that were there any additional materials received for either of the planning items for this evening's meeting no in public thank you no additions or deletions okay and so now's the time for public comments that are for any item or any anything that's not currently on the agenda and so we'll give you the public a minute or two to contact the Planning Commission for any items not on the agenda at this time I'm not seeing any public comment received in our emails okay and we'll move on commission comments any comments from members of the Planning Commission I had a question this mission only this is for the staff the property that's next to the freeway is sometimes referred to as the Grimes property has that had a change of use because it seems to be completely full of automobiles with maybe is being used by the car dealerships I'm not sure yes the Grimes property has been given conditional use permits over the years it's actually been the extensions have gone through City Council because automobile storage is not a it's a use that's not listed within that zone so therefore it originally got a recommendation from Planning Commission and then approval by City Council for years you couldn't see it because prior there was the mobile home display in front but now that the mobile home display is gone it's more noticeable that there's cars there they actually just submitted a new application to extend that permit for I believe a year-by-year permit or is that the permit it's it's a temporary permit I think it's due to expire this March so we did just receive a request for an extension there thank you so that that will return to the City Council any other comments from any commissioners it's the Commissioner welcome I have a comment so I also would personally like to welcome Commissioner Westman it's an honor to serve with a colleague that has such a distinguished resume so looking forward to that thank you okay thank you commissioner well any other commission comments and hearing none we'll go to staff comments any comments from the staff Katie yes I have a few comments first I'd like to introduce our new Deputy City Clerk Edna Bassa Edna comes to us with lots of experience in both owning a successful small business as well as practicing law her background and law decree degree will serve her well in the deputy clerk position and her extensive customer service experience make her a pleasure to work with so I'd like to welcome Edna and she'll from here on out be working with the Planning Commission and taking minutes and can do your roll call votes and it's a pleasure to have her here with the City so welcome Edna thank you Katie welcome Edna and I do have other updates I thought I would share some updates with you now rather than at the end of the meeting knowing that several members need to recuse themselves from items I wanted to report that the City Council extended the outdoor dining through May 31st or directed staff during the last City Council meeting so we're working to putting together the documents in order to extend outdoor dining till May 31st that'll provide the businesses with more clarity in order to make decisions with their businesses and how they want to operate also the we received more money for the through the CARES Act through HCD $330,000 in which the City Council is going to be discussing how to allocate those funds at the hearing next week previously in the first round of CARES Act money they put money towards food distribution as well as rental assistance during the earlier discussions they were hoping to use round two towards economic development and small business grants to possibly cover rental expenses and utilities so we'll be having a public hearing next week followed by a resolution at the following meeting depending on how the City Council decides to direct staff to utilize that money I also wanted to bring up to date on 401 Capitola Avenue across from City Hall they have removed the items that were out of compliance and now they've brought in the they've followed their building permit and have build the screening as as approved they've they've let us know that instead of boba tea they'll be selling kombucha which is okay under that to go permit and the last update is that we have still been in continued discussions with PG&E about the tree on Cherry Avenue at this point I have no we do not have a complete application it's pending an arborist report and so I'll be keeping you up to date on that and one other thing is there was an article in the newspaper about these great new food trucks that are at the mall and businesses are allowed to have food trucks up to four times a year with an administrative permit but if they're content if they're a long-term food food truck program they need to come into City Hall and get a conditional use permit so the manager of the mall felt awful that he didn't realize they needed a permit and today we worked with them to resolve that so that's something you'll be seeing at your next Planning Commission meeting and they want to bring that into compliance and are holding off on allowing them to operate further until they have their permits so those are the updates for this evening thank you question this is Commissioner will anybody else having trouble hearing Katie yeah someone someone's tapping on a keyboard which doesn't help but you're very muffled oh yeah I'm having a very difficult time here either okay you know and I'm I wonder if it's our setup but can you hear me better now yes is that less muffled yes would you like me to restate the updates or no I could hear you it was very difficult okay I'll try to speak closer to the mic thank you okay are there any questions for staff regarding the comments here again that brings us to the consent calendar or I'm sorry the approval of minutes is it a planning Commission minutes from the meeting of December 3rd are there any additions or corrections to the minutes by any Commissioner I will move approval this is Commissioner Newman Mr. Wilson second okay we have a motion in a second and then are you calling the roll call oh yes I'm not working okay I'll call the roll call Commissioner Newman yes Commissioner Wilkes yes Commissioner Christensen yes Commissioner Westman Commissioner Westman you may have to unmute yourself I've seen okay and Commissioner Ruth both I okay that brings us now to the consent calendar all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the planning Commission to be routine and will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below there will be no separate discussion on these items prior to the time the planning Commission votes on the action unless members of the public or the planning Commission requests specific items to be discussed for separate review items pulled for separate discussion will be considered in the order listed on the agenda does anyone on the Commission want to pull this item for discussion Mr. Chairman Commissioner will or Commissioner Newman I need to recuse myself from this item as well as the public hearing item 4630 Capitol Road in both cases it's due to having property within the 500 foot limit so those the only two items on the agenda so I will be just watching this and it will be no longer part of the meeting if that's okay okay thank you Commissioner just make sure will I also have to recuse myself from the consent item only due to proximity okay so that will be Commissioner Christensen Westman and myself voting on this item are we getting any contact on this item from the public Katie hello we have one can you hear me we have one zoom we've got three zoom attendees none of them have their hand up at this time let me now we have a hand up so would you like to we do a public comment on this first item for 114 a Stockton go ahead shall we give a brief overview of the application and then we'll take public comment do we have the member of the public going to make a comment or is it an email they want to make a comment so typically when we have a member of the public who would like to make a comment we can we can provide a quick staff presentation or overview of the application and then go to public hearing okay and pull it off consent chair members of the planning Commission Sean you can add my five thanks the option is proposing to construct a new residential list for an existing mixed use structure okay the 114 a Stockton Avenue within the central village zoning district the proposed development complies with all the development standards of the zoning district next slide a lot is located on Stockton Avenue the central village neighborhood surrounded by lots with one and two-story commercial and mixed use structures 114 a Stockton is a mixed use building with the bandra swimwear retail store on the first story and existing residents the second story there's a mural of capital on the side of the structure as shown here next slide please the proposed site plan the proposed residential list is located behind the structure not visible from the street and it's shown in the blue oval here next slide please these are the proposed floor plan for just the stairway and lift area the applicants proposing a new residential list as a rear of the structure adjacent to the existing external stairs to provide greater accessibility to the upstairs residential unit as a mention for the lifts not visible from the street nor the side to building where the parking is accessed next slide please so this is the existing Southwest and Northwest elevations next slide please and then here the proposed elevations with the lift the small shed roof and then a little bridge over to the base of the lift next slide please so with that staff recommends plenty of questions approved the project based on the conditions approval and findings thank you Matt so now that brings us to the public comments Katie is the is the do we have a member of the public wanting to participate yes I'm trying to unmute them I'm going to promote them to a panelist so they can let's see if I can unmute the member of the public if you could unmute you're able to speak now regarding this application I'm going to promote them to a panelist so that they can make public comment the member of the public waiting you know they're they're muted and now unable to speak and I don't have the ability to unmute them so the member of the public them a few more a few more seconds to figure it out maybe they're waiting to be unmuted because that's what the screen so I pressed allow to talk and it looks like they're still muted I'm going to ask them to unmute okay well I think we may have to move on here we go so the way in which to make public comment would either be through through unmuting you can press your space bar to unmute if you hold down the space bar we'll be able to hear you now their mute is still on so I apologize okay okay I think we're going to have to proceed are there any comments questions for staff on this item very none is there a motion to approve I move to approve okay we have a motion to approve is there a second I'll second it okay so we have a motion in a second to approve the application of one one for a Stockton Avenue roll call miss Christensen commissioner Westman I and commissioner roof both I so the motion carries and the application is approved and that brings us to public hearings our first public hearing tonight is 4630 capitol a road and I will have to recuse myself from this one because I live with the 500 feet so I will turn this item over to commissioner Wilk thank you chairman chairman roof I have never chaired this before so we are now on 4630 capitol road and the status is I guess first we'll ask for staff report thank you vice chair Wilk and good evening commissioners the item before you is an appeal of an administrative denial of a tree removal permit to remove a theater tree near an existing single-family residence in the commercial residential zoning district this evening staff will describe the tree removal application process and present the appeal and we don't agree that many appeals and next the appellate will give will be given the opportunity to speak and answer any planning commissioned questions the chair will then open the public portion of this hearing and that will be followed by planning commission discussion and decision most tree removal permits are reviewed and approved at the staff level indicated by the track on the left they begin typically with a preliminary review of public work staff who can improve the removal of a non heritage tree only if the findings for removal contained within section 1212 180 are made if findings cannot be made the application is transferred to planning staff for further review the city may require the applicant to pay for an arbor support under the under contract of the city for that tree the community community development director will then make a determination based on those findings and recommendations as noted in the staff report the pre application was submitted with an arbor support which was reviewed as a part of this staff level review the city received an appeal on December 2nd 2020 for this the treaty proposed for removal is a ddr cedar located in the front yard of 46 30 capitol road approximately 25 feet from the public right away the tree is four feet in diameter and estimated to be 80 feet tall with the significant canopy spread over the subject property and the adjacent property of 46 10 capitol road the tree is not a heritage tree and it is also not located in an environmentally sensitive habitat area in 2005 the tree experienced a series of branch failures as shown on the right in 2017 the tree experienced further branch failure as seen in the two photos on the left the failures cause damage to a boundary fence and a neighboring vehicle for either the community development director or planning commission to approve the removal of a non-heritage tree the same review process supplies at least one finding for removal must be made and must there must be no feasible alternatives to that removal the findings which include the health of the tree safety considerations and property damage are shown here they will be addressed individually in the following slides first criterion considers the health or condition of the tree with respect to infestation or danger of falling public work staff and the arborist considered the tree to be in good health and growth and that the failure risk of the tree was very low based on the assessment staff could not make findings of removal from the health or conditions of this tree the second consideration is safety the arborist provided a detailed recommendations that would significantly reduce risk of limb failure based on the ability to mitigate future risk of branch failure through proper maintenance staff could not make a finding of removal for safety considerations the third consideration for removal is for situations where a tree has caused or has the potential to cause unreasonable property damage and or interference with existing utility services the cedar tree has caused property damage in the past however the recommendation recommended mitigation measures identified in the arborist report have not been taken based on the ability to mitigate future risk of branch failure through the maintenance staff could not make a finding of removal for a tree that has caused or have potential to cause unreasonable property damage the fourth consideration is that all possible and feasible alternatives to removal have been evaluated including but not limited to under grounding of utilities selective root cutting trimming and relocation the finding this finding must be made in conjunction with one of the previous findings for removal based on the alternative described in the arborist report staff could not make a finding that no feasible alternatives exist and therefore deny the permit with that staff recommends the planning commission deny the appeal and uphold the staff now of a tree removal application and also approve the pruning and cabling measures established in the arborist report for 4630 capitol road thank you sean are there any questions uh by the commissioners of staff no i'll wait and hear from the public first um okay do we have an applicant um who wants to speak on this we do i will allow mark and at the next step mark vincent you you should be able to speak now to the commission i believe my mic is unneeded now we can hear you great good evening to all members of the planning commission thanks for giving me some consideration here i like i like the picture there that will be if i think this is what it is there i just wanted to uh to bring up to the commission that uh my 89 year old father lives in this home and i i care for him pretty much full time with the help of a caregiver and um the history of the tree has caused extensive damage to my property into the neighbor's property and i'm just concerned with every time there's a wind event like we had the other day that i might have some sort of limb failures and over the course of time the tree has been maintained and i went so far as to request an arborist report just for some ideas and suggest some mitigations in the event that i was not allowed to remove the tree and i i think that i wanted to point out in the report that he created he says that you know the deodor feeder has a poor structural condition throughout and that really that removal is the only means available to entirely abate any hazards from limb failure so i feel that i meet some of the criteria for removal and he also in the report discusses some limitations to his mitigations in that you know the recommendations in the report for structural pruning work and cabling and installation support systems are intended just to reduce the risk of tree failure but the recommendations must never be considered guarantees against limb failure events ever occurring uh trees fall we know that and i i just want to protect the property and mostly the lives of those that are most affected by it and that's uh 4610 my neighbor who's been patient and uh and good with the incidents that have happened in the past and and with myself and my property and my father who's here and i i just ask that you please consider my appeal um and i'm open to any questions are there any questions of the applicant comes from uh staff or uh the commissioners thank you mr. Vincent are there any public comments there is we have public comment from zoom user and i've just allowed them to speak you may speak now can you hear me yes yes hi my name is don enus i live next door to this property and um i lived across the street for this property for over 40 years um i've witnessed the the wind that has caused problems for this tree and uh it totaled the truck the last time to the tune of four thousand dollars and the time before that it was actually the same vehicle got uh smashed and cost two thousand plus dollars and uh the house that i live in the gutters have had been be replaced because of the pine needles that come down but that's that's not the issue there the last time the tree failed the limb hit 20 feet from the bedroom that i was sleeping in um that was a couple of years ago i think about almost this month in february when we had that really significant wind and um um i just feel really unsafe in this house because of that tree um and um the tree if you look at it which i have every day it has very strange limbs that come out of the like 10 feet up they come straight out to the side and then they go up and these are huge limbs and that's why it's failed you can see where the limbs have broken off in the past and uh the scars where these limbs have broken off the last one stretched through the fence hit the house here totaled the truck and made it to the second vehicle and almost the next property it was within two feet of the next property um i just feel like this this tree is so dangerous um uh i can't express that enough i feel like it's a matter of time before something bad happens um i have nothing against trees it's a beautiful tree i just think it's so close to these properties it's like right in mark's front yard and it's 20 feet well actually it's five feet from from the property line it's about 20 feet from my bedroom i just feel like it it's it's it's an accident waiting to happen um that's about all i can say um i think it's a danger to life a limb that's all i gotta say i think i think it could happen and it could have happened the other day i feel like it's a matter of time and uh i hope you guys consider the danger uh that's my main concern thank you very much thank you mr enos um are there any other public comments there's no more public comments from zoom and also there are no more public comments in the in our email okay so are we ready to uh turn it to the commissioner permission for comments yes i think you can i i'm happy to like court me go first and this is my first meeting uh court need you have any comments on this or questions or i do um this is commission efficient and i i feel pretty strongly that i mean listening to the homeland i've seen different matters like this over the last couple years in my participating with the commission that trees come up that um we're not allowing to be removed and it seems to me from just looking at the staff report that i know that there weren't findings that that staff could you know pinpoint that in identified danger to um properties that you know people around there but i just every time i see those pictures of large branches falling on cars or falling within people's property i know that if it was my property i would want that tree removed it's not particularly attractive it's a large um a huge tree that's not i mean it's just seems that it's overbearing all of the adjacent property around there so i mean i know that i know that it would be a stretch to find the finding if this is a conclusion but i'm i'm open to i'm i'm wondering how other people feel because i've seen a couple of these and i just don't i'm not comfortable um denying a property owner especially with the tree that's that far into their parcel you know i just don't feel that but it's right to not let him take care of that problem and i understand mitigation and an arbus report but it's just i don't know i just don't feel that it's right that's well thank you commission of christiansen uh commissioner westman did you have some comments i i did i i agree i think trees are probably one of the most difficult situations that you know the planning commissions ask to deal with um partly because um what we're going if we ask him to keep the tree then we're going to ask him to spend a significant amount of money as far as pruning the tree and doing the maintenance work that the arbor is required um on the other hand if he's going to take out the tree uh he again is going to have to spend a significant amount of money to take out the tree and um not being a tree expert myself um i do think that i have to rely on what the arbor is said in his report and that is that um the issue of the falling winds can be mitigated if the tree is properly pruned and cabled and um so it sort of went back and forth should you know the tree just go away because it's a hazard but then i say no it's not really a hazard because if the work is done on it uh that the arbor is talks about then the tree would be safe and be able to be an asset to the community when you drive down that area it is one of the larger trees that sort of stands out on capitol arose so after you know trying to give consideration to mr vinson's request and what the arbor said uh i sort i came down on the side that um if they did the work that the arbor is required the tree would be safe um you know no one's going to say uh a limb can't fall off a tree ever again because um that's just not not something anyone can guarantee but the tree is an asset to that block in that community so i would like to see them save the tree and do um the required work to make it safe okay thank you commissioner westman i i also have some comments and um so i try to use the code which is that 16 pages of tree uh ordinances in it and use that as a guide but i spent a lot of time with staff on this and we both agree that the the code is in badly need of revision for example we've got heritage trees but they don't exist because we're out of that it's prohibitive to actually create a heritage tree list we have a community tree fund but we're not allowed to spend it we have a requirement for 15 percent canopy canopy coverage as a goal but except when it's 30 percent and finally we have this two-for-one tree replacement item which is often very impractical so so i'm not as wedded to the code as as i might have been if it was a little bit if it gave me better guidance so so then where you go you go to precedent and it turns out that last year we had this almost exact same issue come up at 1649th street the large tree with falling branches on on neighbors and on homeowners property it was a safety issue the arborist says no it's salvageable if you just do it right and in that case we we voted in a split commission to save the tree because we believed our arborist says yes we'll salvage it unfortunately they well or fortunately in any case the point is that it was appealed to city council city council overturned the planning commission because they said no safety is paramount and i take that as a schooling for my for my opinion and if the safety is paramount this is just big a safety issue as the as the issue on 1649th street so i don't want to have this go to city council and have them overturn us because because of us trying to interpret interpret a very messy municipal code so i approve the notion of of of approving this appeal it is his property after all we should give him the benefit of the doubt but beyond that i think because it was stated in the in the directive report that even if you remove this tree entirely he still has 15% coverage that the condition of him replat replacing the tree with two additional trees could be either removed or replaced with just a single tree in order to get the 30 coverage so not only am i an approval of the the application for for tree removal but i would also be uh it would entertain from the modifications to the condition so with that i guess i'm ready to hear a motion i would i would move i i agree uh this is commissioner christensen um i would move i'd like to make a motion to approve this uh application with like added conditions like um chair wilk was saying that replace it with a more suitable tree of his choosing a single tree or two trees single tree um do we have a second well the the chair will second it since there's only three of us so can we have a roll uh any further comments or discussion on the uh on the on the on the meeting uh um whatever we just call this thing proposal motion motion is the term any further discussion on the motion hearing none let's call for a roll call vote can we have a a a read that of the motion from staff yes i heard the motion was to um uphold the appeal and so grant the tree removal and by commissioner christensen seconded by chair wilk and will the condition of with the condition of a replacement of one tree replacing the tree with one not two trees correct correct and would you like a roll call we have a motion in the second um let's do a roll call vote any other issues before i call for a vote no okay commissioner christensen uh i for commission commission yes for your motion yes commission sorry for the confusion i'm new at this commissioner westman no and commissioner wilk says i uh motion um the permit is approved staff recommendation is denied the motion is approved two to one margin and with that let me turn this back over to our chair thank you commissioner well um well we're just about wrapped up here we've had our director's report and are there any communications from any uh commissioner seeing none then i believe we can adjourn to our next regular scheduled meeting in february thank you commissioners the meeting is adjourned thank you thank you goodbye